Association welcomed thousands of mortgage professionals to Las Vegas
National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB) leaders hailed their latest annual conference as a huge success as the four-day event wrapped up on Monday (October 21) in Las Vegas.
The conference welcomed thousands of mortgage professionals from across the US for a blend of education and networking opportunities, with high-profile keynote speakers including MBS Highway CEO Barry Habib and Forward Academy’s Neel Dhingra.
Speaking with Mortgage Professional America during the event, three high-profile NAMB executives highlighted a bright future ahead for the association.
Jim Nabors (pictured, top left), NAMB’s current president, said its “Membership Driven, Volunteer Led” motto had come to the fore during the conference, held at Caesars Palace. Volunteers – wearing football jerseys, in line with the #GoForTheWin theme – were on hand to help attendees make the most of the event. “Ultimately, the exhibitors come here for one thing: they want to develop new business,” he said.
“Everybody who’s wearing a jersey is pushing people towards, ‘What are you looking for? OK, you should be talking to this lender or this company,’ and I think that’s going to be a great advantage to us because the happier they are, the happier it makes us.”
Community remains core focus
For Kimber White (pictured, top center), who’s set to take the reins as board president in 2025, NAMB’s status as a tight-knit community was in ample evidence throughout the four days. “We’re a community to all loan originators – whether you’re retail, correspondent, or wholesale,” he told MPA. “We’re here to help the loan originator, we’re here with the community… and it’s just growing year after year.”
It’s no secret that activity in the mortgage market has dipped in recent years, with rising interest rates squeezing borrowers’ budgets and pushing many would-be homebuyers and refinancers to the sidelines.
The National Association of Mortgage Brokers has appointed Rocke Andrews as chief financial officer. While Guild Mortgage named Nora Guerra as senior vice president of community lending solutions.https://t.co/5oYIaGISit
— Mortgage Professional America Magazine (@MPAMagazineUS) October 21, 2024
That’s affected bottom lines across the industry – and Valerie Saunders (pictured, top right), recently named as chief executive strategist at NAMB, said offering registration at no cost was important for the association in that climate. “We don’t want the cost of attendance to be a barrier for somebody to attend,” she said. “We want them to get the exposure to exhibitors, to get the exposure to the information that’s being shared.
“At the end of the day, it’s about fulfilling our mission of making people better mortgage professionals. I don’t care who you work for in the lending process – the origination process is the same. The federal rules and regulations are the same. The compliance is the same. So we’re catering to a community and whatever title you hold within that community, great. But it’s all the same valuable information.”
Hopes are high that better times are on the way in 2025 – but the market isn’t quite there yet. “The whole mission is to offer resources and tools to help you grow your business but also to be mindful of your administrative expenses,” Saunders said.
“We’re just now hopefully turning the corner into a more profitable market and we still want you to be able to take advantage of as many things as possible in a cost-effective way.”
New key hires, legislative priorities top of mind
The conference marked another milestone in what’s been a busy year for NAMB, with the association announcing a variety of new partnerships and keeping its advocacy and lobbying efforts front and center.
Among its key priorities on the legislative side has been the proposed banning of the controversial practice of trigger leads, something Nabors said would hopefully see progress after the upcoming election (set to take place on November 5).
Still, past experience suggests that progress on legislative issues is often slow. “When [Congress] has time to come back to work, we’re hoping to see some victories there,” Nabors said. “But if not, we’ll immediately start developing what our push is for next year.
“When it comes to government affairs, that’s the area that I’ve spent most of my time in and nothing happens in a year. It’s a [lengthy] project – and ultimately, I don’t care who gets the credit if the result benefits our industry.”
As well as naming Saunders to her new role, NAMB has also appointed former president Rocke Andrews to another newly created position, chief financial officer.
Those moves have set the organization in good stead, White said, as NAMB continues its push to expand the market reach and reputation of mortgage brokers – another key reason for its eagerness to welcome loan originators of all stripes to its conference. “If you don’t allow every loan originator, whether it’s retail or whatever, to come over and see, they don’t know what they’re missing,” he explained.
“That’s one thing that NAMB has – they come and see this, and they see what they’re missing. They need to know there’s alternatives out there. Being a broker isn’t for everybody, being in retail isn’t for everybody, but at least take advantage of the opportunities you have available to see what’s there and then make your own informed decision.”
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