STRATMOR’s Garth Graham Urges Lenders To Get Ahead Of Market Shift

Mortgage lenders navigating today’s unpredictable environment need more than resilience—they need strategic agility. That’s the core message from STRATMOR Group Senior Partner Garth Graham, who shares practical recommendations for staying competitive amid policy shifts, rate volatility, and shrinking margins in the mortgage advisory firm’s latest Insights Report.

Graham’s article, “Mr. Graham Goes to Washington: Navigating Policy Shifts and Profit Pressures,” draws on his recent meetings in the nation’s capital—including the MBA National Advocacy Conference and several MBA and STRATMOR Peer Group Roundtable (PGR) sessions—and reveals key actions lenders must take to adapt.

Graham advises lenders to take AI adoption seriously, noting that leading independent mortgage bankers (IMBs) are already piloting tools like Copilot and ChatGPT to enhance productivity. He recommends starting small, addressing compliance considerations early, and developing a two-track strategy that balances short-term efficiency gains with long-term innovation.

Lenders should also think of servicing as an opportunity to improve the customer experience, Graham says, noting that few lenders track borrower payoff behavior with the precision needed to improve retention and recapture. He recommends integrating servicing into the broader customer journey, breaking down silos between origination and servicing teams, and tracking NPS and borrower satisfaction.

“Profitability is still elusive for many lenders, and the temptation is to wait for rates to change or policy to stabilize. But that’s a risky bet,” says Graham. “The winners in this next cycle will be those who act now—those who test, learn, and adapt while others stay stuck.”

Readers can find Graham’s full list of recommendations by reading STRATMOR’s May Insights Report.

The report also features “Strangers No More: Flipping the Script on Borrower Retention” written by Director of Customer Experience Mike Seminari. In the article, Seminari contends that most lenders are unknowingly letting customer relationships fade after closing. “Only 18% of borrowers return to their previous lender or servicer when it’s time to originate again,” he says. “That’s not just a loyalty problem—it’s a business model inefficiency.”

Seminari urges servicers to shift from transactional communication to intentional engagement. Strategies include using AI to detect borrower intent signals, humanizing communications with personalized outreach, and bridging the gap between origination and servicing with shared data dashboards. “Servicers already own the relationship,” he notes. “The key is using technology and empathy to maintain it,” he says.