Lending Forward
I run lending operations at a Native CDFI in Anchorage, Alaska. I'm the youngest-ever AMBA President, a 2026 MBA mPact Awardee, and the creator of the Design-Build Framework — a proven system for mission-based modernization. Lending Forward covers what it actually takes to modernize community lending, build next-generation leadership, and serve the communities that most of the industry overlooks. Biweekly. From the field.
The industry built one door
ISSUE 005 Lending Forward Benjamin Reynolds - @benreynoldsmtg The industry built one door. Everyone in mortgage is worried about where the next generation is. I keep thinking we already know. They're standing outside a building that only ever built one door, and the door is commission-only sales. Look at the numbers and the panic makes sense. In MGIC's most recent originator survey, 64% of loan officers are 50 or older, and the count of licensed loan officers fell more than 40% between 2021...
What we won't sell
ISSUE 007 Lending Forward Benjamin Reynolds - @benreynoldsmtg What we won't sell There's a trade the secondary market has been quietly offering Native CDFIs for years. Most of us keep turning it down. I've started to think we're right to, and that we've been bad at explaining why. In July the Minneapolis Fed's Center for Indian Country Development published a set of interviews with Native CDFI practitioners and investors about why the secondary market mostly doesn't work for us. Perceived...
The hardest place to lend has some of the best numbers
ISSUE 006 Lending Forward Benjamin Reynolds - @benreynoldsmtg The hardest place to lend has some of the best numbers Nationally, FHA loans are delinquent right now at just under twelve percent. That's the highest it's been since 2021, and it runs close to six times the conventional delinquency rate. Alaska's own numbers don't look anything like that. Statewide portfolio delinquency is running under two and a half percent. Foreclosure activity is close to zero. Same loan type, in a lot of...
The 79 Percent
ISSUE 004 Lending Forward Benjamin Reynolds - @benreynoldsmtg The 79 Percent Twenty-one percent. That's the share of buyers in the country right now who are buying their first home — the lowest it's been since 1981, the year they started keeping track. Flip it over and it's the number I can't stop looking at. Seventy-nine percent of the market is people who already own. The door is mostly being opened by people who are already inside. I read a lot of coverage of that stat that treats it as...
The finish line that isn't one.
ISSUE 003 Lending Forward Benjamin Reynolds - @benreynoldsmtg The Finish Line That Isn't One... We throw a small party when the loan closes. Nobody throws one twelve months later, when the family is still in the house and current — and that's the number that actually tells you whether you did your job. The whole industry is built to optimize the sprint to the closing table. Pull-through rate, days-to-close, application-to-fund. I get it — those are the numbers that pay the bills, and I track...
The question I couldn't answer
ISSUE 002 Lending Forward Benjamin Reynolds - @benreynoldsmtg The Question I Couldn't Answer I got back from Bangor on Saturday Afternoon (had a flight get canceled, stayed 10 extra hours in a hotel, it was a whole thing...). I've been sitting with one question ever since. Presenting the Design-Build Framework at Oweesta's Capital Access Convening. Photo credit: Oweesta From June 2–4, I was at the Oweesta Capital Access Convening presenting the Design-Build Framework to a room of Native CDFI...
The Mortgage Industry Has a Signal Problem
ISSUE 001 Lending Forward Benjamin Reynolds - @benreynoldsmtg The Mortgage Industry has a Signal Program I spent many years as an audio engineer before I ever touched a mortgage application. In recording, there's a concept every producer learns early: the difference between signal and noise. Signal is what you came to hear. Noise is everything competing with it for the same space. The mortgage industry has a noise problem. Every week there's a new hot take about rates, a think piece on...
I run lending operations at a Native CDFI in Anchorage, Alaska. I'm the youngest-ever AMBA President, a 2026 MBA mPact Awardee, and the creator of the Design-Build Framework — a proven system for mission-based modernization. Lending Forward covers what it actually takes to modernize community lending, build next-generation leadership, and serve the communities that most of the industry overlooks. Biweekly. From the field.