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Expanding on The Financial Brand’s “Why Retail Banks Must Shift from Product Adoption to Customer Connection” 

By: James White, General Manager, Banking Industry

If there’s one phrase in banking that desperately needs rethinking, it’s “product penetration.” For years, it’s been the go-to KPI for measuring success and a stat we proudly toss around boardrooms: “Our average customer holds 2.3 products per household.” But here’s the uncomfortable truth that a recent article from the Financial Brand hits dead-on: stacking products DOES NOT EQUATE to deepening relationships. 

In fact, it’s often the opposite. Pushing for more products without understanding customer context can feel like financial speed-dating. You’re asking for long-term commitments before building foundational trust. 

What banks and credit unions really need isn’t more adoption; it’s better engagement. That’s the missing piece to the products-per-household puzzle. 

The article’s core point is that, as consumers, we don’t view ourselves as “multi-product holders;” we just want a financial partner who gets us. We want a bank or credit union that understands our current needs and long-term goals, then offers us relevant products and services. And that’s where Total Expert has been laser-focused: helping banks and credit unions move from being quota-driven product pushers to insight-driven relationship builders. 

Here’s the crux of the problem

  • Many financial organizations have CRMs that are disconnected or built for another era 
  • Data lives in silos (mortgage over here, commercial over there, and deposits somehow nowhere near either) 
  • Marketing and sales still chase “adoption” metrics instead of “relationship” metrics 

And here’s what the solution looks like

  1. Unified contact records: You need to know who your customer is, no matter where they enter your ecosystem: mortgage, credit card, branch visit, or digital app. 
  1. Journey orchestration that feels human: It’s not about a drip campaign. It’s about understanding life stages, signals of intent, and delivering relevant outreach at the right time. New baby? That’s not a “you need a checking account moment,” that’s a “how can we help your growing family?” moment. 
  1. Cross-functional intelligence: Total Expert enables every user (from marketers and platform admins to loan officers and personal bankers) to act on the same data insights and contact records—with compliance built in. 

The result? You stop chasing cross-sell opportunities and start earning trust. Once those human connections are formed, product growth becomes a natural byproduct. 

Let me put it this way: You can either keep counting the number of products per household or you can start counting the number of customers who’d never think of banking anywhere else. 

The post Expanding on The Financial Brand’s “Why Retail Banks Must Shift from Product Adoption to Customer Connection”  appeared first on Total Expert.

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Jason July 19, 2025 0 Comments

[Mortgage Marketing Radio] Why You’re Losing Repeat Business—and How to Fix It Fast

Total Expert Founder & CEO Joe Welu recently joined Geoff Zimpfer for an insightful episode of Mortgage Marketing Radio. Their conversation explored how top-performing loan officers are turning CRMs into powerful engines for retention and referrals. Joe also shared insights from high-retention lenders like Rocket Mortgage and broke down practical strategies any LO can use without needing a massive support team or a huge budget.

From the evolution of customer expectations to the growing role of AI, you’ll learn how to deliver timely, personalized engagement that keeps clients coming back. Whether you’re a loan officer, branch manager, or mortgage marketer, this episode is packed with actionable takeaways to help you thrive in a changing industry.

Watch Mortgage Marketing Radio: Why You’re Losing Repeat Business—and How to Fix It Fast

The post [Mortgage Marketing Radio] Why You’re Losing Repeat Business—and How to Fix It Fast appeared first on Total Expert.

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Jason July 16, 2025 0 Comments

Navigating New Trigger Lead Rules: The Total Expert Advantage 

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed H.R. 2808, also known as the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act (HPPA), which is designed to curb the abusive practice of “trigger leads.” The House and Senate still need to reconcile the bill before final approval (we fully expect it to pass), but the mortgage industry is already buzzing about how this might limit prospecting and lead generation strategies. 

Total Expert already gives our customers fine-grained controls to comply with this proposed legislation. The HPPA only affirms the relationship-driven strategies already proven by leading lenders—the kind Total Expert was built to enable and enhance. 

Here’s everything you need to know about this proposed legislation: 

What is the “trigger leads” ban? 

Trigger leads occur when a consumer applies for a mortgage, triggering an inquiry to a credit reporting agency (CRA), which then sells that consumer’s contact information to other lenders—often without that consumer’s knowledge or explicit consent. The lenders that purchase these trigger leads then use them for lead generation campaigns. For the consumer, this often means a barrage of unwanted calls, texts, and emails. 

HPPA would to restrict the sale and use of these trigger leads, prohibiting CRAs from selling (or otherwise “furnishing”) consumer reports related to residential mortgage transactions—with a few key exceptions. 

The larger goals are to protect consumer privacy and reduce predatory practices that undermine trust. The more immediate goal is to ensure that consumers applying for a mortgage aren’t immediately subjected to a deluge of unsolicited offers from unknown lenders that mislead borrowers and create significant confusion.  

What is permitted under the proposed law? 

As currently written, HPPA leaves room for trigger leads to be purchased and leveraged by lenders if they fit into one or more of the following categories: 

  • The lender has originated the current residential mortgage loan of the consumer to whom the consumer report relates 
  • The lender is the servicer of a current residential mortgage loan of the consumer to whom the consumer report relates 
  • The lender is an insured depository institution or credit union AND holds a current account for the consumer to whom the consumer report relates.   
  • The lender has obtained consent from the consumer and can provide documentation of such consent to a credit agency if needed. 

The common theme here is that these are all situations where the lender has either an existing business relationship with the consumer or has received explicit consent from the consumer to be monitored by the lender. 

What does HPPA mean for Total Expert customers? 

We built the Total Expert platform to help our customers make more genuine human connections and build authentic, lasting relationships. No good relationship ever started with unwanted badgering, so fully respecting consumer consent and privacy was a foundational priority from Day 1 at Total Expert. 

More to the point, we designed the Total Expert platform to balance automation with granular control—to make sure you’re talking to the right people at the right time. Our built-in safeguards already prioritize responsible engagement. These controls ensure you’re only engaging with individuals with whom you have an existing relationship, or those who have explicitly opted into communications from you. This means: 

  • You’re focusing on truly high-value opportunities. You can use Total Expert to identify and nurture leads where a foundation of trust or clear interest already exists. 
  • You’re deepening existing relationships. You can lean on Total Expert’s Customer Intelligence and journey orchestration to engage your members and customers with relevant, timely offers, rather than endlessly chasing cold leads.  
  • You’re building trust, not jeopardizing it. By respecting privacy and giving you insights and tools to engage thoughtfully, we’re helping you reinforce your brand reputation and foster trust that defines long-term loyalty. 

What’s next? 

We’re closely monitoring the status of the HPPA. We will continue to support our customers in navigating and complying with any new requirements that emerge as part of this proposed legislation. We’re committed to giving you the tools and guidance you need. 

But in a broader sense, this legislation doesn’t change the best practices we’ve always preached. And it shouldn’t change the relationship-driven strategies our customers have developed through the Total Expert platform. Instead, this is a clear signal to double down on engaging with precision, relevance, and (above all) genuine respect for your customers and members. That’s how you win customers for life! 

The post Navigating New Trigger Lead Rules: The Total Expert Advantage  appeared first on Total Expert.

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Jason July 15, 2025 0 Comments

G2 User Reviews Earn Total Expert a “2025 Summer Leader” Ranking 

Total Expert has been recognized as the Mortgage CRM Leader in G2’s 2025 Summer Report. As the tech industry’s leading resource for user-generated software reviews, earning a “Leader” ranking from G2 is a huge accolade—especially in an industry where everyone claims to have the best tools and most innovative technology. 

This is the 15th consecutive quarter that Total Expert has been recognized as the category leader, but that wouldn’t be possible without our incredible customers who use our platform every day. Your support, feedback, and passion help us continue to build the most innovative customer engagement platform in the financial services industry!

How are G2 rankings calculated? 

G2 reviews are submitted by real users with first-hand experience using the software and platforms they’re reviewing and aggregated by G2 to determine category leaders. G2 defines a Mortgage CRM as “tailored software that understands the intricacies of the mortgage industry, and its purpose is to ease the daily responsibilities of loan officers.” Products shown on G2’s Grid® for Mortgage CRM are ranked by customer satisfaction (based on user reviews) and market presence (based on market share, seller size, and social impact). 

According to G2: “The Grid® represents the democratic voice of real software users, rather than the subjective opinion of one analyst. G2 rates products from the Mortgage CRM category algorithmically based on data sourced from product reviews shared by G2 users and data aggregated from online sources and social networks.” 

G2 Grid® for Mortgage CRM Software

Being recognized as a G2 category leader is a huge deal to everyone at Total Expert. But not because we get to post about it on LinkedIn. It’s important because it tells us that what we’re doing is working, that the platform we’re building is helping people, and that all the hard work we put in is paying off. So, thank you to everyone who has submitted a review, sent us feedback, and helped us continue to create the best platform that we can!

What are G2 users saying? 

★★★★★ “The team is very client-centric and is always available to deliver amazing customer service.” – Jonathan E. |  Read review

★★★★★ “Total Expert allows us to communicate with our membership directly and strategically motivate our members towards products and services that will benefit them directly. No more generic emails to large groups. Precise communication is key.” Lesli B. | Read review

★★★★★ “The platform allows us to leverage marketing solutions without the need to involve our entire marketing dept. We are able to move when the market moves and ensure our message is relevant.” Verified User in Banking | Read review

★★★★★ “Total Expert allows us to market to all of our members belonging to our credit union as well as any potential leads our loan officers are working with. From campaigns to emails & flyers. Everything we need is at our fingertips. Not to mention the customer intelligence side of things which is a super underrated tool that helps our loan officers immensely.” Carlos J. | Read review

★★★★★ “It’s helping me bridge the gap in my communication/marketing to potential clients, particularly the ones who I have not yet been able to get in contact with. Getting and keeping them engaged helps to increase both my contact rate and conversion. This results in more pre-approvals and refinance loans.” Mac V. | Read review

Get the full, unbiased story 

The post G2 User Reviews Earn Total Expert a “2025 Summer Leader” Ranking  appeared first on Total Expert.

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Jason July 3, 2025 0 Comments

From Lone Wolves to a Unified Pack: Why Lenders Need a Shared Platform 

The mortgage industry has always prized the hustle. The most successful loan officers (LOs) are those with the motivation and self-direction to relentlessly chase leads, manage relationships, and close deals—and the ingenuity to develop their own best practices. Those qualities remain essential. But in today’s market, mortgage lenders can’t afford to treat their LOs as lone-wolf salespeople. That conventional model doesn’t just limit growth—it actively undermines it. 

Fragmentation is a real problem for lenders, and the lone wolf model isn’t making it any easier. Individual excellence isn’t enough when data is disconnected, messaging is inconsistent, and decisions get made in silos. Meanwhile, LOs can (understandably) over-rotate toward short-term wins, while the bigger opportunities—building long-term relationships and sustainable growth—get lost in the noise. 

What lenders need now is alignment, visibility, and unification. They need a way to turn one-time borrowers into lifelong customers. And that starts by getting everyone on the same page—and the same platform. 

Why lone-wolf lending fails 

When LOs are left to figure things out on their own, the result is predictable: they optimize for what they can control. They chase leads. They close loans. And they do it all with whatever tools and processes they’re most comfortable with. 

This approach is serviceable for the individual LO. But when you scale that to dozens or hundreds of LOs—each working in isolation—issues quickly emerge: 

  • No shared customer insight. Everyone’s working from their own spreadsheets, contact lists, or partial CRM views. 
  • No coordinated engagement. Borrowers get wildly different experiences depending on which LO they’re working with. 
  • No long-term strategy. Because LOs are buried in day-to-day deals, there’s no time—or incentive—to nurture relationships that might pay off months or years down the road. 

The result? Short-term gains that cause long-term stagnation. Without a coordinated strategy, you end up with isolated efforts that fail to make a lasting impact. And the moment the market shifts, lenders are left scrambling. Those once-shiny wins quickly become embarrassing monuments to short-sighted tactics. 

A seamless platform provides limitless visibility 

So, what’s the answer? The most important change is giving your team a common foundation to work from—and that comes down to choosing the right technology. Centralizing customer data and engagement on a single platform can change how your business functions at all levels: 

It unifies the customer experience. Everyone’s drawing from the same source of truth, so your borrowers get a consistent message and a more personal, relevant journey—no matter which LO they’re working with. 

  • It gives LOs insight they can actually use. A centralized view reveals not just who’s ready to do business today, but who’s showing long-term intent signals—credit checks, property listings, life events—and who’s worth nurturing over time. 
  • It boosts efficiency and productivity. Automating outreach, follow-up, and lead prioritization frees LOs to focus on what they do best: building trust, closing deals, and deepening relationships. 
  • It creates a real growth engine. With shared data and a scalable engagement strategy, you can stop scrambling and start building a system that can grow predictably and sustainably, even when the market gets choppy. 

LO adoption: where most tech implementations go wrong 

Of course, tech on its own won’t fix anything. If LOs don’t use the platform, you’re back to square one.  

This is a big hurdle in the lending world, where there’s very real inertia to change. Most LOs aren’t eager to change what’s already working for them. If a new tool or platform just feels like it will add extra work, they’ll ignore it—leaving your new solution to collect dust and your investment or time and money largely wasted. 

This is why solving the adoption problem needs to be part of your strategy from the start. And while it’s a serious issue, there are three key steps to mitigate it: 

  1. Keep it simple. Give your LOs tools and dashboards that surface what matters most—who to call, when to follow up, what’s driving intent—without forcing them to dig or overwhelming them with features and functions they won’t ever use. 
  1. Show, don’t tell. Help them connect the dots between using the platform and hitting their numbers. If it helps them close faster, follow up smarter, or get more repeat business, they’ll at least be willing to try. As the saying goes: “You can lead a horse to water…” 
  1. Support them like it matters. Training should be hands-on and tailored, not a one-time webinar. This is just as much your vendor’s responsibility as it is yours. Make sure you vet any vendor’s ability to commit to successful implementation. 

The extent to which you follow these three steps will go a long way in determining whether you see ROI on your tech investment.   

You can’t scale in infinite directions 

Every lending organization has LOs who go above and beyond; LOs who lag behind, and LOs who simply meet expectations. And lone wolves permeate all three groups; following their own roadmap, chasing any opportunity they find, and hindering the organization’s larger growth strategy. That’s why organizations structured this way find it impossible to scale.  

Now, imagine if you could have tech that elevates every LO to the same high-performing level. By aligning your entire sales organization on a single platform that helps them work more efficiently, your good LOs will continue to produce, but now your struggling and middle-of-the-road LOs can level up—allowing leaders and platform administrators to spend less time reigning in lone wolves and more time supporting the pack.  

Wolves hunt better in packs  

LOs will always be at the front line of your lending operation. But treating them like individual agents instead of coordinated players in a unified strategy is holding your business back. 

By moving to a shared platform and getting serious about adoption, you set your organization up for something far more valuable than short-term wins. You build a system that gets smarter over time and nurtures every relationship—not just the ones that close quickly. You also strengthen the resilience of your business, setting it up for growth no matter how the market moves or how your organization evolves. 

See how Total Expert makes it possible

The post From Lone Wolves to a Unified Pack: Why Lenders Need a Shared Platform  appeared first on Total Expert.

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Jason July 1, 2025 0 Comments

Scaling Success: Why Thinking Small Is Holding Mortgage Lenders Back

There’s a relentless urgency within mortgage lending. The pressure to close deals, meet quarterly targets, and adapt to fluctuating rates naturally pushes lenders to prioritize the here and now. But this focus on short-term wins too often creates—and then exacerbates—flawed approaches that ultimately hinder longer-term, bigger-picture success: siloed teams and efforts, reactive engagement, and lagging tech adoption.

By shifting their perspective toward an enterprise-level strategy that aligns teams and technologies across sales, marketing, and operations, lenders can break out of the perpetual loop of urgently chasing immediate opportunities and capture the larger and more sustainable value of building long-term strategies centered on winning customers’ lifetime loyalty.

The small-scale thinking trap

What does small-scale thinking look like for lenders in practice? Here are a few of the symptoms:

  • Siloed teams and technologies: With every team chasing its own urgent priorities, efforts can’t be aligned and optimized. Moreover, marketing, sales, and operations each work with their own tech tools and off their own source of data truth. Loan officers (LOs) aren’t capitalizing on marketing campaigns, and marketing teams can’t see LO communications with customers, so they target the wrong audience with the wrong message. No one has a centralized, confident view of the entire customer journey.
  • Reactive approaches to customer engagement: LOs looking for the quickest wins will end up chasing “hot leads”—at high cost and low conversion rates—instead of nurturing a customer-for-life strategy. At an organizational level, this creates a problematic elastic staffing model. LOs are hired and let go in response to market fluctuations rather than building a solid team working to build long-term customer relationships.
  • Lagging tech adoption: When every team and individual contributor is focused on this quarter, this month, or this week, there’s no time (and no organizational appetite) for making broad process changes—or implementing tech tools to enhance operations. The “pain of change” always looks scarier than the “pain of same.” Ironically, by failing to make long-term investments in technologies that can streamline processes and give LOs better customer insights, LOs are limited in what intelligence they have to act on today.

These common pitfalls converge in many lending organizations to drag down operational efficiency, create inconsistent customer experiences, and ultimately leave teams lacking the robust and reliable information they need to pursue their best and most profitable opportunities.

Creating an enterprise-level advantage

What does broader thinking look like? A true enterprise-level strategy starts by breaking down the silos that exist across teams and technologies, giving lenders the foundation of complete, centralized customer data that powers several unique advantages.

  • Cohesive customer experiences: Delivering consistent messaging and seamless experiences across all channels and touchpoints. Using that centralized source of customer truth to make the customer feel seen, known, and understood by delivering hyper-personalized, hyper-relevant engagements—from better marketing campaigns to right-timed outreach from LOs.
  • Data-driven decision making: Centralized customer profiles fuel better analytics, giving lenders deeper and more accurate insights into customer behavior, market trends, and operational performance. This data can then guide sales and marketing strategies, more precisely identify immediate intent signals, and more effectively engage customers to build long-term relationships.
  • Operational efficiency: A centralized customer data platform automates many of the manual tasks that LOs do every day and gives marketing teams smart automation for campaign workflows. This allows your people to do more in less time, driving productivity, reducing operational costs, and freeing up their time for the more strategic work of a customer-for-life strategy.

Technology as the foundation and catalyst

Executing an enterprise-level strategy demands fundamental process changes and relies on your people’s buy-in. But technology is both the foundational step in creating this organization-wide alignment and the catalyst in getting all teams working toward customer-for-life principles.

To break down silos, lenders need to implement a robust customer intelligence platform that makes it fast and reliable to integrate all customer data streams into a single, central hub. But that customer intelligence platform should not be just a static data warehouse. Lenders need platforms with built-in tools for acting on that centralized customer data. That means purpose-built capabilities for automating marketing campaigns, lead-nurturing journeys, and giving LOs prioritized dashboards for follow-up engagement. Best-in-class platforms go one step further, providing integrated analytics dashboards that highlight real-time performance indicators, surface high-value customer intelligence insights, and help lenders find that balance between nurturing long-term loyalty and capturing today’s best opportunities.

But how do you get buy-in to make this change?

The urgency of today makes it difficult for organizations to overcome the inertia of the status quo, and makes individual contributors resistant to change. LOs often feel overwhelmed by anything that takes their focus away from pursuing their best leads today. Here are three strategies that leading lenders have used to overcome this resistance:

  • Make it their idea: Engage loan officers in examining flawed processes and evaluating new technologies. Giving them this frontline role in change management gives them an empowering sense of leadership. It also helps ensure that the technologies you implement will fully meet the needs of your power users.
  • Show them how their jobs will get easier: Make sure LOs—and all stakeholders—see how implementing a more innovative customer intelligence platform will give them specific advantages—from enhancing day-to-day productivity, to helping them prioritize their best leads, to uncovering new markets and opportunities.
  • Ensure your vendor can provide training and support: Most tech deployments fail to reach promised value because users don’t understand how to get the most out of the tools. That’s because no technology is plug-and-play, no matter how user-friendly it appears. Your vendor partner should be able to provide on-demand training to onboard your teams, as well as ongoing support to train new staff and coach users on features and functionalities.

Let’s be blunt: The mortgage industry is brutally competitive. Every lender needs to make sure they’re delivering results in the short term—or there will be no long term. But over-rotating on immediate opportunities leads lenders into problematic patterns of reactive, disjointed customer engagement—inefficient patterns at best, and likely to fall well short of rising consumer expectations for seamless, personalized experiences.

Investing the time and effort to align your teams and target long-term customer loyalty is the only way to build a sustainable footing to survive market fluctuations and thrive when opportunities arise. And that enterprise-level strategy demands a foundational customer intelligence platform that can bring together all your customer data, give your teams a central source of truth to orchestrate efficient efforts and consistent customer experiences, and surface the actionable intelligence that guides a data-driven approach to winning customers for life.

The post Scaling Success: Why Thinking Small Is Holding Mortgage Lenders Back appeared first on Total Expert.

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Jason May 29, 2025 0 Comments

AI & Mortgage Innovation: Joe Welu on the Next Frontier in Lending

What does AI really mean for mortgage professionals? In this in-depth discussion, Joe Welu, CEO of Total Expert, breaks down the difference between true AI and automation hype. Learn how AI is optimizing customer engagement, streamlining operations, and driving efficiency in the lending industry. Don’t miss these insights from a fintech leader.

From a basement startup to an industry leader

Founded in 2012, Total Expert started as a tool for loan officers and real estate agents and has since evolved into an enterprise-level platform powering some of the industry’s top financial institutions.

“We came from a perspective of believing in the power of homeownership and wanted to build capabilities that helped mortgage lenders connect directly with consumers,” Welu said. “Today, our mission is to deliver the perfect customer journey for all financial milestones, from buying a home to leveraging home equity.”

A foundation of customer obsession

A key differentiator for Total Expert is its commitment to customer success.

“One of our core values is customer obsession,” Welu explained. “We believe that if we help our customers win and achieve real business outcomes, then we earn the right to build a company around that.”

Total Expert operates with a partnership mentality, believing that lenders don’t just receive software but ongoing value and support.

“So many tech companies deliver a solution and move on,” Welu said. “We believe in a long-term partnership, evolving alongside our customers and continuously improving to meet their needs.”

How AI is reshaping customer engagement and sales

“We’ve made substantial AI investments, and we see two major opportunities,” Welu said. “The first is predictive intelligence, helping lenders identify key financial moments that indicate when a borrower may be looking to buy, sell, or refinance. The second is AI agents, which act as virtual assistants to help loan officers manage and engage with leads.”

These AI-driven assistants can handle lead nurturing, follow-ups, and appointment setting, giving loan officers more time to focus on high-value conversations.

“We’re currently in a tight pilot program with human-like voice AI agents,” Welu revealed. “They can text, call, and respond to inquiries in real time—essentially acting as a multiplier for a lender’s sales team.”

A force multiplier for lenders

Welu believes that AI is not replacing loan officers but rather enhancing their capabilities.

“Our AI tools don’t replace the LO—they make good loan officers even better,” he said. “By eliminating repetitive tasks and improving customer engagement, we’re helping lenders scale their businesses without hiring more people.”

According to Total Expert’s early pilot data, AI-driven lead engagement is already matching or outperforming human conversion rates.

“If you take the top 20% of LOs and give them AI-driven superpowers, imagine the impact that has on productivity and revenue,” Welu said.

Differentiating via AI and customer intelligence

“AI is taking our mission of customer obsession to the next level,” he said. “By layering AI into customer intelligence and journey automation, we’re helping lenders engage borrowers at scale in ways that simply weren’t possible before.”

Beyond AI, Total Expert is refreshing its entire sales experience in 2025.

“We’re rolling out a brand-new sales experience, ensuring that every touchpoint delivers maximum value for our customers,” Welu said. “We want to be the clear market leader in this space.”

The role of customer feedback

Total Expert’s innovation is fueled by ongoing collaboration with clients.

“We’ve learned over the years that we can’t just chase one-off requests—we have to prioritize solutions that create substantial value across our entire customer base,” Welu said. “That’s why expanding our Customer Intelligence Suite and AI-driven capabilities became a top priority for us.”

What’s next for Total Expert?

As Total Expert continues its rapid AI expansion, Welu remains focused on delivering real, measurable value to the mortgage industry.

“The AI revolution isn’t coming—it’s already here,” he said. “We are in the midst of the biggest technology shift in human history, and the pace of change is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.”

By enhancing sales automation, leveraging predictive AI, and deepening customer intelligence, Total Expert is positioning itself as the ultimate technology partner for lenders in 2025 and beyond.

“We’re not just making incremental improvements—we’re reimagining what’s possible for lenders, loan officers, and borrowers,” Welu said. “And we’re just getting started.”

*This article was reposted from HousingWire.com*

The post AI & Mortgage Innovation: Joe Welu on the Next Frontier in Lending appeared first on Total Expert.

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Jason April 8, 2025 0 Comments

CU2.0 Podcast: Rates, Relationships & Resilience: Credit Union Growth in 2025

Our very own General Manager of Banking James White recently joined Utah Community Credit Union (UCCU) Vice President of Mortgage Production Zakary Short on the CU2.0 podcast, hosted by Robert McGarvey. Their conversation dove into the factors shaping the current housing landscape and the ways that credit unions can leverage modern tools like Total Expert to increase loan officer efficiency, identify members’ mortgage needs, and proactively engage them with personalized communications to help build relationships and close more loans.

On the podcast, Zakary Short shared specific examples of how UCCU is leveraging Total Expert to drive growth and uncover mortgage opportunities even in an unpredictable market.

Tune into the conversation below!

The post CU2.0 Podcast: Rates, Relationships & Resilience: Credit Union Growth in 2025 appeared first on Total Expert.

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Jason March 14, 2025 0 Comments

The Return of the Multigenerational Home and the Evolving Role of Lenders

They say trends are cyclical, and here’s one that’s back in a big way: Multigenerational housing. A longtime norm that faded through the mid-20th century is rapidly returning. And it’s reshaping the American housing market.

This demographic shift presents a unique opportunity for mortgage professionals. By understanding the diverse needs and financial situations within multigenerational households, lenders can cultivate deeper customer relationships, expand their business reach, and foster long-term loyalty.

The numbers tell the story

Census data shows the number of people living in multigenerational family households quadrupled from 1971-2021, reaching 59.7 million in March 2021. That’s roughly 18% of the U.S. population. 

This trend is even more sharply pronounced among younger Americans—the so-called “boomerang generation.” According to the Pew Research Center, a quarter of all adults ages 25 to 34 now live in a household with two or more adult generations—and RentCafe’s research estimates that 68% of Gen Z’ers over 18 still live with their parents. Even among millennials, 20% have returned home or never left.

What’s behind the rise in multi-gen housing?

This resurgence of multigenerational living isn’t simply a matter of “going back” to the past. It represents an adaptation to several converging factors:

  • Economic pressures: Skyrocketing housing costs, coupled with student loan debt and persistent inflation, have made independent living increasingly challenging, especially for young adults. Sharing expenses and pooling resources within a multigenerational household offers a much-needed financial buffer.
  • Caregiving needs: At both ends of the age spectrum, caregiving responsibilities are pushing families together. The high cost of childcare often compels new parents to seek support from relatives. Simultaneously, as the population ages, caring for elderly parents at home has become a common and often necessary arrangement.
  • Cultural shifts: While the nuclear family model has long dominated American culture, attitudes are changing. Many are recognizing the benefits of intergenerational support, connection, and shared experiences. Moreover, multigenerational living is more common and accepted in certain cultures, contributing to its overall rise as the demographics of the U.S. shift.
  • Life transitions: Beyond purely financial considerations, multigenerational living can provide a valuable support system during significant life transitions. Whether it’s recent graduates launching their careers, new parents adjusting to family life, or individuals navigating job losses or other challenges, living with family can offer stability and emotional support.

How lenders can serve the many faces of multigenerational housing

The rise of multigenerational housing presents both a challenge and an opportunity for lenders. The first task is to recognize that multi-gen housing is not a monolithic demographic but a wide range of scenarios, each with unique financial considerations:

  • Recent college graduates staying with parents: Faced with mounting student loan debt and a competitive housing market, many young adults are opting to live with their parents after graduation. This allows them to save for a down payment, improve their credit, and gain financial stability before venturing into homeownership.
  • New parents living with relatives: The high cost of childcare is a significant burden for many new parents. Living with relatives can provide much-needed support, both financially and practically. This arrangement often necessitates larger living spaces, leading to renovations, additions, or even the purchase of multi-family homes.
  • Middle-aged adults caring for aging parents: As the population ages, more families are choosing to care for their elderly parents at home. This can involve home modifications to accommodate aging in place and specialized financial planning to manage healthcare costs and long-term care needs.

Adapting engagement & offers

Lenders must tailor their communication to address the unique needs of different individuals within the broader multi-gen housing demographic. This could include creating targeted content, hosting educational workshops, or partnering with community organizations.

Moreover, the mortgage products and financing options behind this engagement need to be tailored to these individuals’ unique goals. This could include renovation loans for adapting homes to accommodate multiple generations, home equity solutions to leverage existing assets, and even reverse mortgages to help aging homeowners access funds. By embracing flexibility and creativity, lenders can cater to the unique circumstances of multigenerational families.

Building an enterprise-level strategy for multigenerational housing

The growing multigenerational housing market represents a significant opportunity that deserves more than ad hoc approaches. Lenders cannot leave this opportunity fully in the hands of individual loan officers—they need to establish an enterprise-level strategy that ensures everyone, from loan officers to underwriters to marketing teams, understands the nuances of multigenerational housing and is prepared to engage these borrowers with sensitivity and expertise.

  • Invest in training and development: Equip your team with the knowledge and skills to effectively engage with multigenerational borrowers. This includes training on different loan products, financial planning strategies, and culturally sensitive communication.
  • Build a network of partners: Connect with other professionals who serve this demographic, such as financial advisors, elder care specialists, and contractors specializing in home modifications. This creates a holistic support system for your borrowers and strengthens your position as a trusted advisor.
  • Embrace technology: Leverage technology to personalize the lending experience. This could involve online tools for financial planning, virtual consultations, or digital resources tailored to specific multigenerational scenarios.
  • Foster a customer-centric culture: Make sure your entire organization, from loan officers to underwriters, understands the importance of building relationships and providing exceptional service to multigenerational families.

By embracing these strategies, lenders can position themselves at the forefront of this evolving market, capturing a growing share and solidifying their role as essential partners in helping families achieve their homeownership dreams. More than ever, borrowers need trusted advisors who understand their unique circumstances and can offer personalized guidance. The future of lending lies in recognizing these evolving needs and adapting to meet them with flexibility, innovation, and a genuine commitment to customer service. This is a defining moment for the industry, and those who seize this opportunity will not only thrive in the years to come but also play a vital role in shaping the future of housing in America.

The post The Return of the Multigenerational Home and the Evolving Role of Lenders appeared first on Total Expert.

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Jason February 28, 2025 0 Comments

2024 in Review: Navigating the New Financial Landscape

2024 was another year of “challenges presented, challenges overcome” for lenders and loan officers. Rate limbo dominated much of the narrative throughout the year, but our customers found creative ways to keep borrowers and homeowners engaged, deepen their relationships, maximize opportunities, and deliver value at every stage of the financial journey.

Here’s a snapshot of everything we achieved together over the last 365 days!

The post 2024 in Review: Navigating the New Financial Landscape appeared first on Total Expert.

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Jason January 28, 2025 0 Comments