Many users of LodeStar’s closing cost calculator use it in most or all of the states they do business. However, it’s telling to note that, of all of our single-state users—title companies that prefer to do their LEs and closing cost estimates by hand—the vast majority use it for the state of New York.

When it comes to preparing a TRID Loan Estimate (LE) there might not be a trickier state for your transaction than Maryland, with its myriad of wrinkles and various, differing taxes and requirements.

By now, you probably know that LodeStar has launched our new website and, with it, rounded out our mission statement. That’s built upon what we call “The Three C’s:” Clarity, Connectivity and Community.

We recently visited with Dan Smith, VP of Sales for one of LodeStar’s partners, Lending Pad. Like many, Dan joined the mortgage industry almost by accident. However, he has thrived—especially in mortgage technology, in the 20+ years since.

This week, we’re going to deviate from our typical conversation and offer up our own version of a mortgage trends report! However, it’s a topic that could become increasingly important, even though few are discussing it—yet.

We recently had a fascinating conversation with George Baker, the founder and CEO of Talkuments. Talkuments is the producer of a multi-lingual, digital home loan guide for mortgage lenders to provide to borrowers—especially multi-lingual or non-English speaking borrowers.

We’re going to hit “pause” on our usual content stream for a moment. So we won’t be talking much about closing cost calculators, TRID guidelines or mortgage compliance this week. This is actually much more important (not that those other things aren’t important…).

As you may already know, we at LodeStar are passionate about promoting mental health awareness. September was National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month, so there was no question we would be getting out, spreading the word and doing our part toward raising awareness.

It really astonishes us that more mortgage-related businesses aren’t fully taking advantage of the wonderful marketing lever that social media can be. We see some brands spending thousands upon thousands on outdated or downright bad lists.