Departing president is going out with a bang
Fifty (50) years ago – when the median price of a US home was $32,500 – the National Association of Mortgage Brokers was launched. The landscape has changed dramatically since those early days, and so has the national trade association formed by a handful of people half a century ago that now boasts tens of thousands of members.
Mortgage Professional America spoke to Ernest Jones Jr. (pictured), the president of NAMB, about the milestone. As it happens, the half-century-mark for NAMB coincides with the end of his term as he prepares to step down Sept. 30. Jones will be succeeded by Valerie J. Saunders.
“Yes sir, a lot has changed,” Jones said in a study of understatement. “Where do you start?”
While homes are now exponentially more costly than in 1973, some metrics have improved: Back then a 30-year fixed rate mortgage was at 8.04%, with inflation at 6.16%. Today, the mortgage rate hovers at around 7% against the backdrop of inflation at around 3.18%.
Jones told MPA the group was started by industry professionals in the commercial loan space before it transitioned to represent the interest of some 45,000 members today. In its literature, NAMB boasts of an even wider outreach given its affiliation with state associations throughout the US representing the interests 993,000-plus licensed and registered mortgage loan originators and 68,000 licensed mortgage broker and mortgage lender businesses.
While much has changed since 1973, the one constant is the offerings NAMB provides in the way of advocacy, education and innovative certification programs toward ensuring high levels of professional development and service. Additionally, the association engages in active and advocacy efforts focused on national and state issues, protecting the interests of its members and borrowers alike.
Going out with a bang
Talk about going out with a bang: In his last month as president, the association is slated to gather in Las Vegas for NAMB National 2023 Sept. 8-11 for its annual conference attended by members, educators, government officials and industry partners. Concurrently, NAMB will host the International Mortgage Brokers Federation (IMBF) for the Inaugural World Summit. Mortgage professionals from across the globe will be in attendance from the US, Australia, Ireland, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Jones knows about global challenges, having ascended to the presidency on the heels of a global pandemic amid inflation and higher interest rates. He noted the annual conference had to be canceled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the market downturn, Jones said he focused heavily on ushering in educational opportunities for members – an FHA certification class with industry partner and a reverse mortgage primer with Liberty Home Mortgage.
“What I focused on is keeping our message consistent with our mission in ensuring the greatest degree of integrity among mortgage professionals,” he said. He described a ripple effect with the educational efforts as brokers and loan originators take the knowledge learned from NAMB offerings and put it in practice in their own communities. “That’s how we attract most of our members because we provide something of value they can take back to their states, their customers and so forth.”
Taking on trigger leads
On the legislative side, he oversaw efforts to fight against so-called trigger leads – a widespread practice among the three credit rating agencies. Trigger leads occur when a borrower applies for a loan - at which point a credit report is drawn, triggering an inquiry. Credit bureaus are then made aware the borrower is searching for a loan and can sell that information to various lenders – often leading to a bombardment of calls or text messages to beleaguered borrowers.
“This year, we had our legislative conference in April in DC, and we were able to get the trigger leads bill, HR 2656, introduced by Congressman Ritchie Torres out of New York,” he said. Another group representing brokers, the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts, has also joined the fight against trigger leads but expressed concern over the bill Jones referenced. In a previous interview with MPA, an AIME representative said the bill seeks to ban the practice altogether even while some leads are essential to the process.
“It wasn’t a perfect bill, and I don’t know how many bills start off as perfect,” Jones acknowledged. “We have been trying for five, seven years to get something started,” he noted. “In order to win you have to show up, and NAMB showed up and we were able to get that trigger leads bill started.
“The challenge the other organization had at the time was that the bill included everything, and there are some brokers and loan originators who use leads in order to get business. We were never advocating that it couldn’t be done; we wanted to have an option that you could opt in without having to opt out.”
Appropriate to his role at the helm of a group for residential mortgage brokers, he likened the legislative process as tending to a home: “If you build a house, then we can move the furniture,” he said. “Getting that trigger leads bill started was kind of like building a house for everyone who comes behind us to get that adjusted.”
Another milestone reached during his stint as president was a new high in terms of donations made via the association’s political action committee – some $92,000, distributed in a bipartisan manner, he said. He described how campaign donations are disbursed to political candidates likely to represent the association in protecting its interests.
In speaking about the trigger leads cause shared with AIME, he noted the contrasting demographic to NAMB’s member profile. Headed by millennial Katie Sweeney, AIME largely comprises a younger set among its membership while NAMB members tend to be more seasoned professionals in their 50s. Diversifying the membership base by luring a younger set was a bit of unfinished business for Jones, he acknowledged.
“Without gathering any data, based on my experience, I would say the average NAMB member is 50-plus,” he said. “AIME’s got a younger group of people from what I’ve seen. One of my goals I didn’t get to accomplish was I wanted to create kind of like a junior NAMB – not naming it that, but where we attract the 25 to 45 [age group].”
It’s challenging to accomplish all goals in a one-year term, but Jones said the group would be in good hands after he steps down.
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