Loan officers tell me that a certain percentage of their clients pay cash for many things, or are paid cash for many services, and this wreaks havoc in underwriting. A new survey found that 42 percent of Americans make NONE of their purchases in cash in a given week, up substantially from the 24 percent who said as much in 2015. The fraction who make all or almost all of their transactions in cash is down by half, from 24 percent in 2015 to 12 percent in 2026. Overall, 46 percent of Americans are carrying cash on them all or most of the time, while 32 percent say they rarely or never have cash. This obviously conflicts with independent research conducted in New York City a little before the closing time of the bar, where zero percent of people from whom I asked for five dollars happened to be carrying any cash. For those watching the global economy, cash probably isn’t being used to buy passage in the Panama Canal, but it might be a gage of the current economic conditions. Auctions to hop the growing line at the Panama Canal are getting intense, with even more back-to-back records. One slot sold for $5.3 million recently, beating the record set three days earlier ($4.6 million). Before the Iran War, these were selling for $135,000 to $140,000. Ordinarily, there might be two or three bidders a day for those slots; at peak, there were 18 bidders. As vessels avoid the war in the Middle East, and as some fuel carriers aim instead for the Gulf of Mexico’s ports to deposit oil, the number of vessels without an appointment to transit the Panama Canal has increased from about 10 percent of queued ships to 20 percent to 25 percent.
Saturday Spotlight: Flyhomes
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Just don’t talk about rates anymore
70 percent of the homeowners in your pipeline are stuck, not gone. They have the equity to move. They just won’t touch their rate. Here’s the shift: don’t just talk about rates anymore. When the rate conversation is dead, the equity conversation is just getting started.
Flyhomes, the leading Buy Before You Sell platform in the US, lets your borrowers tap the equity in their current home to buy the next one, before they sell. That turns a stalled “someday” client into a deal you can close now. Flyhomes Buy Before You Sell DREAM Solutions give borrowers real advantages: buy with $0 down, reduce their DTI by up to 50%, and make cash-equivalent offers that close in as little as 10 days. They also become fresh talking points with your agent partners and clients.
We’re wholesale-only, so we never compete with you or your agents. Our solutions are available in all 50 states.
This September, we’re hosting two live sessions to show you exactly how. The first is September 17 at 10AM PT, 1PM ET: How to Unlock the 70% of Your Clients Already in Your Pipeline. The playbook for reopening deals with borrowers who have the equity but won’t touch their rate. We’ll show you how to move the conversation from rates to equity and turn stalled “someday” clients into deals you can close now.
The second is September 24 at 10AM PT, 1PM ET: Help Borrowers Buy with $0 Down Using Flyhomes Cross Collateral. A deep dive on Cross Collateral, the solution that lets borrowers buy their next home with $0 out of pocket by tapping the equity in their current one. We’ll walk through how it works, who it’s a fit for, and how to position it with your agent partners.
Save Your Seat (Sep 17/ Sep 24) or book a Call to see how Flyhomes can help you close more deals today.
(For more information on having your firm’s extracurricular activities, employee growth, and your charitable side featured, contact Chrisman LLC’s Anjelica Nixt.)
Mike Yu, CEO of Vesta, on technology… cost matters
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“What happens when the cost of doing work falls enough that lenders can reconsider how they organize the business in the first place? Increasingly capable lower-cost models are becoming available for the kinds of workloads that make up much of mortgage operations. For most mortgage use cases, the limiting factor is whether the organization has the right context, guardrails, traceability, and auditability around it. That changes the economics of automation: If an agent can perform meaningful portions of processing, configuration, or other operational work without requiring a human to carry every step, lenders can begin reducing the amount of excess capacity they have historically carried in anticipation of a volume increase that may or may not arrive.
“Greater efficiency does not automatically create differentiation. AI can help a lender deliver its strategy more effectively, but it does not determine what that strategy should be, which customers the company wants to serve, or why those customers should choose it over someone else. Those decisions still come down to customer acquisition, trust, advice, brand, and the particular segment of the market a lender has chosen to understand better than its competitors. What AI can change is the amount of organizational effort required to support that strategy, potentially pushing more of the back office toward commodity economics while giving companies more flexibility to pursue specialized products and harder lending problems.
“Adoption may be easier than ever because people are eager to experiment, but learning how to delegate to and manage long-running agents is a fundamentally different skill, and organizations still have to determine where human roles should shrink, where they should evolve, and what new capabilities become possible as a result. The lenders that benefit most may therefore be the ones that use AI to create enough capacity to take on the parts of mortgage lending they previously could not afford to pursue.” Thank you, Mike!
Vendor product news: third-party providers on the move
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Any lender attempting to originate a loan without the use of some outside company is in for a rude awakening. There is so much specialized knowledge out there, at economical rates, to ignore it. Let’s play some catch up and take a random look, in no particular order, at who is doing what.
By the way, Chrisman Demo Day is a free perk for all Chrisman Marketplace members. If you’re a technology or service provider and haven’t joined the Marketplace yet, reach out to Jake Perkins at info@chrismancommentary.com to learn more. The Chrisman Marketplace is a centralized hub for vendors and service providers across the industry to be viewed by lenders in a very cost-effective manner. We’re adding new providers daily, so check back often to see what’s new. To reserve your place or learn more, contact us at info@chrismancommentary.com.
BoxLi, Clearbox’s property data capture platform, and Restb.ai announced a new integration combining BoxLi’s on-site data capture capabilities with Restb.ai’s computer vision, giving mortgage lenders and appraisal management companies standardized property data and AI-driven property insights in one streamlined process.
nCino has expanded its Mortgage Point of Sale to support wholesale lending, giving mortgage lenders with both retail and wholesale operations a way to manage retail and loans submitted by third-party originators through the same POS. The launch comes as wholesale represents a significant and growing share of mortgage originations. Yet lenders operating in both channels often manage their retail and wholesale businesses through separate systems and processes, creating duplicate compliance workflows, fragmented reporting and inconsistent borrower experiences. The new TPO Experience lets lenders invite third-party originators to submit loans through the same infrastructure their own loan officers use. Brokered loans are assigned to a loan officer at the lending institution and synced to ICE Mortgage Technology’s Encompass LOS with the appropriate channel designation and third-party originator information, allowing the lender’s existing business rules for brokered loans to apply. Borrowers get a consistent experience applying, uploading documents and tracking loan status whether they work with a retail loan officer or a third-party originator: The full announcement has more details.
OptifiNow announced a new integration with RETR, a mortgage and real estate data intelligence platform. This integration gives wholesale lenders a more direct path from market intelligence to sales execution by bringing RETR’s loan officer and mortgage company data into the OptifiNow CRM environment.
LodeStar Software Solutions (LodeStar), announced that it is integrated with Dark Matter Technologies (Dark Matter®). LodeStar’s Closing Cost Calculator is now available in Empower® loan origination system (Empower), developed in conjunction with the Dark Matter Developer Platform. The Dark Matter Developer Platform enables third-party technology providers to connect their solutions to the Empower® ecosystem, expanding the capabilities available to lenders across the mortgage lifecycle.
WFG Enterprise Solutions, a division of Williston Financial Group announced that Valutrust Solutions, its national appraisal management company, is ready to accept and process appraisal orders using the Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD) 3.6 and redesigned appraisal reports. Valutrust Solutions’ staff and appraiser network have been trained and prepared to support lenders through the transition.
FirstClose™ announced that it has launched an integration with MeridianLink to bring its home equity order management capabilities directly into the MeridianLink Mortgage loan origination system (LOS). The integration extends FirstClose’s existing MeridianLink partnership to help support lenders that manage home equity originations within their mortgage division.
ATTOM announced the launch of the ATTOM Home Price Index (HPI), the newest addition to its expanding ATTOM Intelligence platform under the Valuation Analytics umbrella.
apprAIz and Restb.ai announced a new AI-powered workflow that uses Restb.ai computer vision to automatically extract property details from photos to provide appraisers UAD 3.6 insights during the inspection. This helps reduce their learning curve with UAD 3.6 and helps populate up to 90 percent of the UAD 3.6 appraisal report. The technology helps appraisers provide real time aid and reduce repetitive data entry, improve report consistency and complete appraisal reports more efficiently.
Friday Harbor, an AI pre-underwriting platform that helps loan officers assemble complete and compliant loan files in real time, announced expanded support for non-qualified mortgage (non-QM) and other non-agency lending programs, enabling lenders to evaluate a broader range of complex borrower scenarios against investor-specific guidelines before underwriting.
nCino, Inc., the platform for agentic AI banking, today announced new capabilities to let lenders connect MCP-compatible AI agents directly to the nCino Mortgage Suite via Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open-source protocol that acts as a universal plug between AI agents and external platforms.
Optimal Blue announced the general availability of Virtual Economist, the first on-demand forecasting tool for mortgage capital markets leaders powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML). Revealed in beta at the annual Optimal Blue Summit in February 2026, Virtual Economist is now available to all Optimal Blue Product, Pricing, and Eligibility (PPE) Engine and CompassEdge clients at no added cost.
Optimal Blue released its July 2026 Market Advantage mortgage data report, which found that mortgage activity softened as rising rates weighed on both purchase and refinance demand. Total rate-lock volume declined 11 percent month over month (MoM) but remained 5 percent above July 2025. Purchase lock volume fell 12 percent from June but remained 6 percent higher year over year (YoY), with purchase loans accounting for more than 81 percent of total lock volume. Refinance share ended the month at nearly 19 percent of total production.
Gershman Mortgage announced its 5-Day HELOC, a standalone home equity line of credit built for homeowners who want to put their equity to work fast, without giving up the mortgage rate they already have. According to ICE, there’s an estimated $11 trillion in home equity available to borrowers. Gershman’s 5-Day HELOC gives homeowners a fast way to access it.
Tavant announced the integration of its TOUCHLESS® AI Mortgage Automation platform with the Empower® loan origination solution (LOS) from Dark Matter.
Dark Matter® announced its latest point-of-sale (POS) release, bringing document validation powered by Aiva Intelligence to the earliest stage of the lending process. By validating borrower documents at upload instead of later in the review process, lenders can identify issues sooner, provide immediate guidance to borrowers and reduce downstream conditions and rework.
MISMO® announced an interactive workshop focused on exploring the standardization of the Tri-Party eNote Bailee Agreement. The workshop, sponsored by DocsDirect, will be held during the MISMO Fall Summit in Reston, Virginia, on August 26. Participants may attend the workshop either in person or virtually.
Covius has completed the integration of Title365’s operations, bringing their two title businesses together under a single, unified offering: Covius Settlement Services. With this integration, their clients now have access to a full range of origination, home equity, default, and capital markets title solutions all through Covius Connect’s APIs, under a single MSA.
The year is 2032 and the United States has just elected the first woman, from Alabama, as president. A few days after the election the president-elect calls her father and says,
“So, Daddy, I assume you will be coming to my inauguration?”
“I don’t think so. It’s a 16-hour drive, your mother isn’t as young as she used to be, and my arthritis is acting up again.”
“Don’t worry about it Daddy, I’ll send Air Force One to pick you up and take you home. A limousine will pick you up at your door.”
“I don’t know. Everybody will be so fancy. What would your mother wear?”
“Oh, Daddy”, replies the president-elect, “I’ll make sure she has a wonderful gown custom made by the best designer in Washington.”
“Honey,” Dad complains, “you know I can’t eat those rich foods you and your friends like to eat.”
The President-to-be responds, “Don’t worry Daddy. The entire affair is going to be handled by the best caterer in Washington. I’ll ensure your meals are salt free Daddy, I really want you to come.”
So Dad reluctantly agrees, and on January 20, 2032, the first woman from Alabama is being sworn in as President of the United States. In the front row sit the new president’s Dad and Mom. Dad leans over to the Supreme Court Justice sitting next to him and whispers, “You see that woman over there with her hand on the Bible, becoming President of the United States?”
The Justice whispers back, “Yes I do.”
Daddy says proudly, “Her brother played football for the University of Alabama.”
Visit www.ChrismanCommentary.com for more information on our industry partners, access archived commentaries, or subscribe to the Daily Mortgage News and Commentary. You can also explore the Chrisman Marketplace, a centralized hub connecting mortgage professionals with trusted vendors and solutions. If you’re interested, check out my periodic blog on the STRATMOR Group website. STRATMOR’s current blog is, “Those Monthly Payments Go Somewhere.” “Pricing That Can Help Borrowers.” The Commentary’s podcast is available on all major platforms, including Apple and Spotify.
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(Market data provided in partnership with MBS Live. For free job postings and to view candidate resumes, visit the Chrisman Job Board. This newsletter is intended for sophisticated mortgage professionals only. There are no paid endorsements by me. For the latest mortgage news, visit Mortgage News Daily. For archived commentaries, or to subscribe, go to www.ChrismanCommentary.com. Copyright 2026 Chrisman LLC. All rights reserved. Paid job & product listings do appear. This report or any portion hereof may not be reprinted, sold, or redistributed without the written consent of Rob Chrisman. The views and opinions in this newsletter are mine alone unless otherwise specifically stated herein.)