[David] Let's get over to Allen Pollack and talk to Allen about all that's going on in technology. AI, my gosh, Allen, my brain just explodes when I start looking at what the potential is for AI.
[Allen] That would be messy.
[David] Yeah, my brain would be a mess. All right.
[Allen] Oh man, first of all, it's Thanksgiving week. Happy Thanksgiving. I was looking for some funny AI turkey stuff and there's nothing that good just yet so maybe next year, but I did find. That it's called Tech Turkey Talk, and it says on Thanksgiving, the number of how to carve a turkey searches on Google peaked 300% or higher than any other day with significant portion of those searches likely coming from people trying to figure out how to use their smart home devices to assist in the process. So, that was pretty funny and then second is a digital dinner table drama. So a staggering 25% of Turkey day arguments are reportedly sparked by someone that accidentally changed the TV channel to a football game on a smart TV, using voice commands, leaving others in that we're watching a family movie.
[David] That's pretty funny or watching the parade in New York. The Macy's parade.
[Allen] Yeah, that too. So let's chat one thing, this blew me away. It was on TikTok. I saw again on instagram. There's a police officer who says, when you go to a parking meter, or the signs that have the QR code that you can scan with your phone, he walks right up to it. She goes, don't use these and she rips off a sticker. That's a fake QR code. And what she says, do you know about this scam? There are people that are making fake QR codes as stickers. They're putting it on top of the sign that you scan when you go to park. There's for that section of 5 rows, 5 spots, let's say there's a QR sign and a code and it goes to a similar website, but it's fake and it takes your information and steals it and she went to a sign and ripped 1 off. You want to go out there folks. Don't just immediately scan the sign. Take a quick peek. I know it's only a $5 charge. More than likely or less, but still it's somebody stealing your information and you're being scammed.
[David] And once they got your card. Yeah. Yeah. Wow.
[Allen] And, I'll throw this one in there, David. I hadn't prepared it for today, so I don't remember all the details, but you may remember a long time ago. When you go to airports, bus stations, different places that you're traveling during the holiday season, don't always assume that when you plug your phone or device into a USB plug, that it is safe. It's already well known that hackers have created fake plugs that they put there that will give you power, but they're downloading all the information from your device. Probably not as common all over the airport, but they do happen. They do happen in airports and if you Google it, you will see plenty of instances where that happens. So, be aware and be safe of where you plug your device in. Yeah. All right. Really good. So David, social media branding in mortgage tech or mortgage in general, I found something very interesting. One, and we've talked about in the past, I found that there are mortgage companies and loan officers that are advertising it's really interesting. I saw one today that advertised the different types of loan programs and minimum FICO scores. So, they didn't advertise rates. They just said understand your loan programs and it said, FHA is a minimum of this FICO up to a 90 LTV and it says, what is an LTV under it? And then it said, USDA is this. They're trying to share information and educate and even if you're not selling someone on a specific deal and you're doing it in a partially conservative way because you've got to be careful on what you're sharing, but two, in an educational way, You're making it fun. You're generating content that people can adapt to. You're speaking to a different audience that is on social media. It's not a bad thing. And, here's the one that I saw David. I really like this. And how do interest rates work? And it's the loan officer. He's on the screen with a chart behind him. That's has some nice colors. He has his NMLS ID on there. He's got his own following of Instagram. And it says, here's a scenario and it says sales price, 500,000 loan amount, 490,000. And FICO is a 700,000, 700 with an FHA loan and he gives one, two, he gives seven rates on the screen. He shows what the discount points and the costs are and the question he puts on the screen is it worth to buy down my rate from five and five eights to five and he shows the breakdown. He says at the end of the day, it's $191 a month difference. That's it. Over 36 months is where you make back your 6,900 that you would have used to buy down. So he says you break even in three years, at the end of the day, these folks are educating people. There's great information and he's helping build a brand and building information that people will forward. When on this, there were like 4,000 bookmarks on his video that showed people bookmarked it. And there was a whole number. I didn't look at the number, but a people forwarded to people. Just keep in mind, your loan officers may be doing this. If you are an originator listening to this podcast, leverage the technology, leverage the different channels and the ways that people are doing it. By the way, you can use ChatGPT to make sure what you're saying is compliant. It doesn't fall within any regulatory lines. It's not discriminatory etc. You can even take pictures of your content and give it to ChatGPT. It'll automatically tell you that it knows the regulations. It is very good in that area. Don't be afraid to get out there and I'm going to get to a HousingWire article in a moment, David, but this is just too good not to share when we talk about social media branding. It doesn't always have to be like, I just said about selling your brand. We have the best rates. I'm going to read this exchange that went viral on the Internet with thousands. I'm talking like, 80,000 likes per comment. This is on TikTok. Dunkin Donuts put out a little thing that said, I've got the long legs. All I need is the daddy. And it's a picture of a donut and in the middle of the donut is a munchkin and the donut has two fingers facing each other. And it's a spider with the spider legs coming out. So, I read that again. It says all it's two Walgreens. It says, Hey, Walgreens, I've got the long legs. All I need is a daddy. And Pop Tarts jumps in and says, send me the Addy for your web and Dunkin says, chaos. Transcribed and then Jimmy John's jumps in and says, add me. And then Jimmy John's says, Dunkin Donuts, nah, Dunkin Daddy. So now they're joking on each other and now Dunkin Donuts writes back, said, Jimmy John's and pop tarts and says, you guys are poetic. And now scrub daddy jumps in and says, at me next time. And Dunkin says, scrub daddy, you can pick me up, meaning with the scrubber. And Pringles jumps in and says, hey, Mr. P is single. and Dunkin Donuts then jumps back in, and they're going back and forth. Finally Jet Blue jumps in It says, we've got the leg room for those legs, which is the spider legs from the first Dunkin Donuts post. So, these brands are going at it back and forth. There are tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of likes on these videos and for the people that saw these, I'm sure they're talking about it. This is how you elevate a brand. I'm not saying to go online and post about you needing a daddy, but Dunkin Donuts did a great job of it. But the brands are communicating together. They're joking together. Clearly their marketing departments have newer, more fresh minds. So, think about that. Think about funding to engage your audience. It's not just about, yeah, I got the best CRM. I got the best point of sale. I got the best AI. It's not always about that. Think about how to educate how to get out there. And then David, I'll just end today's session with just a touch of content that I was going to cover about this HousingWire article i'm not going to read the whole article and all the points But it was called debate on a technology's role in the mortgage industry and they basically said hey in a recent analysis questioned whether technology investments are delivering the anticipated benefits in the mortgage sector the discussion centers on the alignment between technological solutions, business strategies, and emphasizing the need for careful implementation, right? These we talk about these things all the time. David you made a comment earlier about people holding on spending money. David. You said people are hiring. I think everybody's right to be honest with you. I've been talking to some companies about. The mini AI company I mentioned and people want to jump on board cost is an issue. However, you know what the HousingWire article linked to in that question that debate on technology's role a concise. They basically said at the end of the day, misaligned expectations. Too many tools are promising too many transformational things and they're over complicated, meaning they didn't think through the user persona of the people they're building it for. I'm going to pause with that. I don't need to read the rest of the article. It's a great article. Go read it. We can put it in the show notes, but there is an issue, right? There's a lot of things that are being sold, we're overselling in press releases, world class, best in breed, AI driven, we gotta slow down folks, we've gotta do what we wanna do and only focus on that. I'll pause with that, I've said enough, but Happy Thanksgiving everyone, I think David Kittle, you raised your hand, so I'm gonna pause there, but
[Kittle] Yeah, Allen. That's fabulous. I would just add to it. I'm not rebuking anything you said, I would say this, that we are developing things too quickly and too fast and over promising. And the things that are being delivered do not integrate with each other and they don't integrate with all LOS, which means it is a cluster for what's being sent out there right now.
[David] Well said. Yep. Very good. Good report, Allen.
Allen Pollack
, Chief Operating Officer, Tech Consultant
Allen Pollack, a Mortgage & Financial Services Technology Advisor, is a subject matter expert in the mortgage origination process along with software product management and software development.
In today’s financial services push to all things Digital, Allen has been helping lenders and financial services solution providers align their digital transformation and technology strategies by removing the human element of risk, and automating processes that drive efficiencies and margins into profits.
Over the course of his career, Allen has co-created and developed technology business models that have birthed highly successful, innovative solutions and companies.
Allen co-founded and served as CTO of New York Loan Exchange (NYLX), a loan product eligibility and pricing engine (PPE) that made an immediate impact on the industry, scaling the company quickly and forming partnerships with multiple mortgage and financial lending companies. In 2012, Allen was a co-founder of a merger between NYLX and Aklero Risk Analytics that created LoanLogics, A Mortgage Loan Quality and Performance Analytics company. Allen served as CTO where he continued to bring new and innovative product solutions to the market that made a significant impact to mortgage lenders that reduced risk, scaled business channels, and grew profits in a very competitive and highly regulated market.
Allen is also is mortgage and finance technology contributor on a weekly live industry podcast, Lykken on Lending, and is launching a new podcast soon to be released, TechStack Radio, dedicated to technology and innovation in Financial Services.