Most lost deals in a brokerage are invisible. They don’t show up in a report. Nobody flags them. They just never happen.

A buyer reaches out, an inquiry comes in, and somewhere in the first few minutes the momentum is gone. The deal didn’t fall through on price or inventory. It fell through in the gap between the inquiry landing and anyone doing something useful with it.

The conventional wisdom says tighter credit slows lending volume. The agencies proved that wrong last year.

Combined multifamily originations from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac topped $150 billion, which was up roughly 25% from 2024, but property values are still sitting 28% below their mid-2022 peak. The agencies grew because borrowers trusted the process enough to bring them additional business. With $875 billion in commercial and multifamily mortgage debt scheduled to mature this year, trust has become the most valuable thing a lender can offer.

Homeownership is one of the most powerful wealth-building tools this country offers, and my path into the mortgage lending industry is an unlikely story that I could not be prouder to tell. In 2006, I was a methamphetamine addict living in an abandoned house, likely due for demolition, in Akron, Ohio. I had burned practically every bridge available to me. The mortgage industry was not on my radar; only survival.

People can sense when unedited AI is being used as content. Let me show you what I mean. Here’s what happens when someone plugs “write about mortgage marketing trends” into one popular AI tool without a second thought: