“We’ve been waiting for years, literally almost four years now,” he said. “You guys have done amazing, that’s why you’re still here. We’re the winners, but we’ve been waiting. Sometimes people are waiting for the good times, and you keep waiting. The good times are here. The opportunity is here right now.
“Stop being the guy or gal saying, ‘I’ve got to wait for rates to get better. Rates are there. Rates are better. Stop waiting and stop messing with your mind every single day, thinking about what rates are doing. You have no control over it. We’ve got to go. Right now is the opportunity.”
Speed will win deals
One area where Ishbia challenged the broker community to improve is in the refinance market. As brokers continue to grow their share of the overall market, the percentage of refis they originate continues to lag the percentage of purchase loans.
“We’re in a refi boom,” he said. “If you’re not doing a lot of refis right now, we’ve got to work with you. Brokers are well over 40% on purchases and well below 20% on refis. That means we’re not good at that. That’s okay, let’s get better at it. I’m just going to remind you every borrower that was done from July 1, 2022 so July 1, 2025, every single one of those loans should be refinanced right now.
“They all should be refinanced. ‘Well, they’re at six and a quarter. It’s not enough savings.’ They probably had an MI. Let’s get them out of MI. They probably have some equity. But if you sit there and say, ‘Oh, well, I’ve got to wait,’ you’re going to keep waiting. And you know what happens when you keep waiting, they refi with some servicer or somebody else that’s going after them.”
