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MReport March 2020

TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.

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M R EP O RT | 11 FROM THE SOURCE READ THIS "#METOO IN THE CORPORATE WORLD: POWER, PRIVILEGE, AND THE PATH FORWARD" by Sylvia Ann Hewlett An economist, Hewlett dis- cusses the practice and power structures obstructing women in the workplace. Her latest work tackles the limitations and unintended consequences of the #MeToo movement, including male behavior's about mentoring or sponsoring junior women. Hewlett also discusses how certain patterns can narrow the pipeline to executive roles for women. SHARE THIS PICMONKEY This app allows users to edit photos for free to help business owners to have a social media presence. Owners can increase their presence on instagram or on their website and increase marketing efforts. The app is user-friendly and helps users produce professional-looking photos. The Basic Plan begins at $7.99 a month and can go up to $33.99 a month. TWEET THIS #AFFORDABLEHOUSING The rise of home prices has shown no signs of slowing down early on in 2020. CoreLogic recently reported that home price appreciation rose by an average of 3.6% for 2019. CoreLogic's Home Price Index (HPI) has increased on a year-over-year basis every month since February 2012 and has gained 63% since bottoming out in March 2011. What is being done to help alleviate rising home prices? WATCH THIS ARE LOW MORTGAGE RATES BRINGING BUYERS OUT? Mark Zandi, Chief Economist at Moody's Analytics, joined CNBC's Power Lunch to discuss if falling mortgage rates will help prospective buyers. View this video by visiting CNBC.com and searching "Mortgage Rates" to view the video. decision for you, nor should it be used that way. For example, you could put AI in front of a loan officer and that AI engine could tell the loan officer, "We think this borrower matches these loan products, and here's why." The loan officer should still have a conversation with that borrower and confirm that the conclusion is accurate and the loan is appropriate for the borrower. When we talk about digitization of the mortgage finance process, we're not talking about how there's not going to be anybody there physically interacting with customers. Digitization is the intersection of how we use third-party data, combine it with calculations, and then combine that with process change. In today's world, you have to be a multidimensional thinker as you're innovating. You can't have a project- management mindset. You have got to have a product- management mindset. I've really embraced empowerment and test-and-learn. In the early days of my career at Fannie Mae, I was very "command and control" focused. You were told that this is what you were going to build, without inviting your customers in. We teach our people to take a problem and decompose it into smaller problems, and then solve those smaller prob- lems incrementally. I think of innovation in the same way. Start small, test and learn, and be willing to fail. I don't be- lieve you can innovate without failing. If you look at major innovations in other industries, you just didn't create X. You created X because you failed three or four times, and then you got to X. We try to apply those same problem- solving techniques. Sometimes you don't know where you're headed until you actually introduce version one. I've learned that you hire good people, you let them think, and you empower them. It's been transformational how we've integrated our customers into our development process. "The customers who blended emerging tech with process innovations are the ones who are going to be able to make those pivots and realize the gains and benefits. It could be increasing efficiencies and lowering the cost of origination. It could be doing more with the same amount of staff. It starts with asking the question, 'What are you trying to solve for?'"

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