Welcome to 2024! We endured dramatic attrition in both loan consultants and real estate agents in the high rates market of 2023. The only winners were homebuilders who capitalized on low housing inventory and could subsidize the rates using buydowns or forward commitments. Arguably, 2023 was the worst year in the mortgage industry in 40 years!To profile 2024 in broad terms, it will be better interest rates, higher loan values, and the remaining loan consultants should be able to develop more new relationships in the coming year. The new challenges for the next year are dramatic increases in credit report costs and potential changes in real estate agent compensation due to litigations around buying agent commissions.If you’re a mortgage leader or loan consultant, what are the actions you need to take to win more business this year?1. Decide if you have the internal grit to go after new relationships and become more informed on products that are very relevant to your borrowers today: First-Time-Homebuyer programs, HELOC, cash-out refinances, and reverse mortgages.2. Do a serious inventory of your company platform to ensure you can deliver the technology, marketing, and programs to enable you to compete in a rapidly changing environment. If the answer is no, make the move in the first quarter to set yourself up for a much stronger second half of 2024.3. In 2023, we witnessed over 25% attrition in loan consultants, and even more in real estate agents. Use current technology to identify who remains and is actually doing the business. Focus your relationship growth strategy where it counts the most. The power of visiting agents will continue to grow, so focus on services they can get from you as their lender.4. The two new challenges this year are due to the drastic increases in credit report cost. Until we get GSE, CFPB, and HUD to push back on this cost, we will need to raise originators fees and change the amount of times we pull credit to mitigate the cost. Lenders will have a variety of approaches, but the cost to obtain a mortgage will be going up in 2024.Personally, I have a new role at loanDepot. My new position as Director of Acquisitions and Strategic Partnerships will put me squarely in front of company owners and business relationships to grow our originations. If you are a company owner or a business that wants to offer mortgage services through loanDepot, please contact me at dhanson@loandepot.com or 949-307-1295. This year is the time to double-down on the market or leverage stronger platforms to grow your business.