Buyers are accepting the reality of the market and are ready to sign, if brokers can establish trust
Amid cautious optimism in the mortgage market, there is a notable shift in customer sentiment that’s beginning to shape the year ahead.
Amorette Hernandez, a mortgage loan officer at CMS Mortgage Solutions Inc., said that clients who once waited on the sidelines hoping for a market correction are realizing that the ideal moment they anticipated isn’t coming. “They know that what they were waiting for isn't happening. They were waiting for rates to bottom out. They didn’t.”
That reckoning has become a powerful motivator. “For some of those who were waiting, the wait is over,” she said. With interest rates still high but more favorable than a year ago, buyers are returning with clarity. “We are experiencing much better rates than last year, in my personal opinion.”
For Hernandez, the strategy for re-approaching clients who may have been scared off last year is to provide context and understanding. “We almost have to tell them their story back to them. So, we kind of say, ‘Remember last February? Remember last March?’”
Showing how the landscape has shifted—and why their position is strong—builds confidence. “They can make the decision based on the same information that we gave them last year, but in essence, it is better because the rates have improved,” Hernandez said.
By pulling up a client's historical data and showing them on a screen, Hernandez gives clients a better understanding of the market. “By having all of that data… we really can view historical data of what we've done for them.”
That historical visibility helps convert uncertainty into trust, especially in volatile local markets like Arizona. “In our market, we're still seeing a lot of seller concessions still coming to the table, and when negotiated appropriately, teamwork 100% matters - the right agent, the right mortgage broker,” she said.
However, for Hernandez, maintaining trust is still crucial for business. “This is a relationship-based business,” she said. “People are magnets. People are watching us on social media. They're seeing us at events. They're seeing us making waves in their communities.”
Building visibility isn’t enough, she said - conversion only happens through trust. And trust, she said, requires consistency and community. “We live here; we live in our communities… but we do have to have that sense of responsibility for what we're doing to the communities that we're serving.”
The industry lost 30,000 loan originators recently. That kind of reduction might suggest a clearer runway for those remaining - but Hernandez doesn’t see it that way. “Just because there are 30,000 fewer doesn’t mean that I have 30,000 more guarantees,” she said.
Instead, she sees it as a mandate for better execution. “What I want to see in the industry is more passion… toward transparency, building that trust, and really building the communities.”
That mission extends into the organizations supporting brokers. Speaking at the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts (AIME) Unify event in Arizona, Hernandez was reflective about the group’s value to brokers. “I felt like I was on an island, and then all of a sudden I found people that were just like me.”
That shift from isolation to community had a profound impact. “The greater good of the community is still at the base of my love for what this community does,” she said.
The underlying theme in Hernandez’s outlook is responsibility to clients, to the data that drives them, to peers in the field, and to the communities they serve.
“At the end of the day… we really look at our responsibility for what we're doing for the next generation of co-owners,” she said.
