Practice management

License numbers for loan officers, real estate agents and settlement agents will be required on one of the new TILA-RESPA integrated disclosure forms, raising questions about whether they could trigger investigations of possible illegal marketing services agreements.

Ten years ago, marketing departments focused mainly on transactions — continuously improving campaign response rates and measuring conversions in terms of dollars generated against dollars spent. Today's marketing departments are primarily focused on listening and engagement. They work to "own" the customer. Their focus is on the user and customer experience across a variety of platforms and media and making it as smooth and intuitive as possible.So, what does the future hold for marketers in the mortgage industry? The "martech revolution" has begun ushering in a digitally-powered age where borrowers are increasingly self-directing their own unique journeys to find the right mortgage company. Companies are doing the same as they seek to align with the right product and service providers to package themselves as an amazing overall experience.This self-directing of the buyer journey is a given outcome of the Information Age. Prospective buyers and users of products and services are much less influenced by your latest marketing campaign. The buyers' journey is no longer directed by you, and now includes a complex mixture of online research (blogs, social media, etc.), peer reviews, website views and comparisons. At the end of the journey, the prospective buyer has developed a sense of trust in one or more companies and then makes a decision.To facilitate these journeys, marketers will need to leverage big data to better understand customers, predict their behaviors (like the need to buy a house) and communicate with them directly. This means marketers will increasingly collect unstructured data from the online activities of the population and then analyze it to execute targeted digital engagement strategies. For example, someone conducting online searches and sharing content about planning a wedding may well indicate the future purchase of a home — which is useful data for any mortgage lender to act upon.Here are four new critical areas of focus for marketers in the mortgage industry:

When he's not co-hosting his talk radio show or helping clients, Residential Home Funding's Marc Demetriou is studying loan program guidelines, a task he credits for helping him become one of the industry's top producing loan officers.

American Advisors Group has begun marketing a jumbo reverse mortgage loan over a year after it first planned to issue them.

Evans Bancorp in Hamburg, N.Y., has agreed to pay $825,000 to settle a lawsuit that accused the company of mortgage redlining.

Consumers don't love to hate lenders, they just often do. By checking in on consumer experiences and opinions often, lenders can stay competitive and avoid negative attention from federal regulators.

The gap between a homeowner's perceived value of their property versus an appraiser's widened in August on a monthly basis, according to Quicken Loans.

If you Google "mobile marketing" you get almost 400 million results. It's quite the buzzword. But what is mobile marketing? And why should lenders be paying attention?

The first Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index fell 0.5 points to 80.8 in August from where it would have been in July.

Mortgage companies must rethink their recruitment strategies and emphasize company culture to attract millennials, or they will become the banks they once worked to replace.

Wells Fargo has named Michael DeVito head of mortgage production, making him responsible for its retail and correspondent lending divisions.

The Hispanic Federation and New York Urban League have partnered to encourage homeownership among low-income and minority groups and to provide financial education.

Mortgage credit availability loosened in August as lenders have more jumbo loan products and added loans for borrowers with less-sterling credit, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

After his son was born with a number of serious medical conditions, Atlantic Coast Mortgage's Thad Musser has made it a personal mission to show gratitude to the hospital responsible for his treatment. Little did he know these gestures would help him bond with customers who have faced similar experiences.

Lenders must leverage a variety of tools, from Boomer parents to mobile technology to connect and engage with millennial mortgage borrowers.

The mortgage industry typically takes a conservative approach to employees promoting their personal brands. But it's time for lenders to take a lesson from the presidential hopefuls who have gained an upper hand by playing up their individual brands.

Mortgage Master's Stephen Campbell and his assistant have complementary styles and that enables them to develop unique solutions to meet client needs.

Nothing touches off an argument more than questions about whether the CFPB will allow any marketing services agreements to continue. Some mortgage lenders say no and are winding down their agreements, others insist regulators can be satisfied, and still others are just plain confused.

Many Californians who earn the median household income for their area cannot afford to buy a house where they work, the California Association of Realtors said.

Homebuyers may be missing out on a wide range of programs that can help them afford their purchases — programs their agents either don't know about or don't want to bother with.