Episode 13: Rick Seehausen, President of Lenders One

In this episode of Mortgage Tech Intelligence, host Ash Omar sits down with Rick Seehausen, President of Lenders One, to discuss how independent mortgage lenders can remain competitive during one of the industry's most transformative periods. With rising origination costs, evolving borrower expectations, and rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, Rick shares why collaboration, technology adoption, and operational efficiency have become essential for long-term success.

Drawing on more than 30 years of mortgage leadership experience, Rick explains how Lenders One is expanding its cooperative model to help lenders access best-in-class technology providers, strengthen capital markets opportunities, and reduce the cost to produce a loan. The conversation also explores where AI is already delivering measurable value—from intelligent document processing and data validation to marketing operations and servicing—and why finding the right balance between automation and human expertise will define the next generation of mortgage lending.

Whether you're a mortgage executive, operations leader, or technology professional, this episode offers practical insights into how lenders can modernize workflows, improve scalability, and prepare for the future of digital lending.

About Rick Seehausen

Rick Seehausen is President of Lenders One, one of the mortgage industry's largest national cooperative networks serving independent mortgage bankers, banks, and credit unions. Throughout his career, Rick has held executive leadership positions spanning mortgage origination, operations, capital markets, technology, and fulfillment, including leadership roles at Cherry Creek Mortgage, LenderLive, and other respected organizations. Today, he leads Lenders One's efforts to help members improve profitability through strategic partnerships, technology innovation, capital markets execution, and collaborative purchasing power. 

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Transcript

MTI Intro

Intro 0:00

Welcome to Mortgage Tech Intelligence, the podcast that dives into the latest in mortgage technology brought to you by Blue Sage Solutions. For more resources and insights, visit Bluesage solutions.com. Now let's get started with your host, Ed Furbee.

Ash Omar 0:15

Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of Mortgage Tech Intelligence. I'm Ash Omar with Blue Sage Solutions. Today I'm excited to welcome Rick Seehausen, president of Lenders One. Rick has spent more than three decades in the mortgage industry with leadership roles spanning origination, operations, capital markets, and technology. Before joining Lenders One, he held executive positions at Cherry Creek Mortgage, Lender Live, and several other organizations, giving him a unique perspective on where our industry has been and where it's headed. Rick, welcome to Mortgage Tech Intelligence.

Rick Seehausen 0:46

Yeah, thanks, Ash. I am thrilled to be here. Glad to be speaking with you today. Look forward to the conversation. Appreciate you having me.

Ash Omar 0:54

Absolutely. I'm really looking forward to this conversation because lenders are navigating one of the most dynamic periods we've seen in years. Between shifting market conditions, evolving borrower expectations, our two favorite letters, AI, and continued pressure to operate more efficiently, there's a lot to unpack. So let's jump in. Yeah.

Rick Seehausen 1:12

Thank you.

Ash Omar 1:13

Rick,

Why Rick Seehausen Joined Lenders One and Its Mission

Ash Omar 1:14

you recently stepped into the role of president at Lenders One. What attracted you you this to this opportunity and what made you feel like this was the right chapter, next uh the right next chapter in your career?

Rick Seehausen 1:24

Yeah, thanks for the question. Um I'm I'm thrilled to be here. I've been a longstanding follower of Lenders One back in my Lender Live days. We uh we worked closely with the team at Lenders One. We had several clients of ours that were members of the cooperative. You mentioned uh I served as president of Cherry Creek Mortgage uh for a period of time here in the last decade, and uh and Cherry Creek has been a long-standing uh member of the cooperative. Cherry Creek, of course, now is part of Guild, and Guild coincidentally, uh I looked at our membership list the other day, and Guild's member number is L100004, and so I think they were the fourth uh member to join the cooperative literally 26 years ago. So there's a lot of a lot of ties and connections. Beyond that, you know, the mission and the vision for the cooperative to help lenders obtain better execution in the capital markets, uh buying power with suppliers to the industry, uh, lowering the cost to produce a loan, those are all things kind of near and dear to my heart for my entire career. When I had the opportunity presented to me and I got to meet the uh chairman and CEO, uh Bill Shepro, he and I hit it off uh quite well. And so all the all the things came together, and and here I am. So I'm uh it's a great team, it's a great organization, glad to be part of it, glad to see it grow and uh and expand in its offerings.

Ash Omar 2:48

Yeah, you've worked across nearly every aspect of the mortgage lending, so you bring a unique perspective to this role. And I remember I think one of the first times I met you was at Lenders Live, went back when I was in uh working for a lender way back in the day. So it's good to see that uh it's come full circle. As as

Lenders One's Growth Strategy for Independent Mortgage Lenders

Ash Omar 3:04

you look at Lender's One today, how do you define its role in the industry? And then also what's your vision for how the cooperative evolves over the next several years?

Rick Seehausen 3:13

Yeah, thanks for that. Uh so we're gonna continue to grow the cooperative. So we've been um we've been adding new members uh the last two quarters. Uh we added 15 new members each quarter, so that's pretty consistent and steady growth. We plan to see that trajectory continue. Uh today we serve about 250 members, which represents roughly 20 percent of the mortgage market. We have a near-term goal to bring that up to 400 members. We see a lot of opportunity in particular with um banks and credit unions, really of all different shapes and sizes, but but many, many ways that we can benefit them through the cooperative and and they can get a return on their investment and being part of us. And so uh, you know, membership growth is important. Uh bringing back to the cooperative strong opportunities in the capital market space is another keen focus of mine. I've been uh working with both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack, uh, but also several non-agency investors, buyers, to bring them into the cooperative and and offer value propositions to our members. Um and then we've brought some uh resources in to strengthen our provider network as well. So we want to make sure that we're we're identifying, you know, the best in class solutions out there that off can offer the the best uh services and products to to our members. So strengthening those opportunities is another key, key component for us. Um you may have seen recently we announced uh Brenna Nath just joined uh Lenders One as as our events director. You know, our events and our networking and our advocacy has always been a strong side to to Lenders One, and uh and that's gonna continue and only get better under under Brennan Fit Brennan's uh leadership. So excited for her to be part of the team too.

Ash Omar 4:59

Yeah, it's one of the things that that makes Lenders One unique is is the strength of its cooperative model and the partner ecosystem. I mean I mean I've been part of Lenders One as a as a partner for nearly a decade, and it's it's worth being part of and and it's very exciting to see it mature and grow uh under your stewardship.

Rick Seehausen 5:18

Yeah.

Ash Omar 5:18

Many lenders are looking for ways to stay competitive without taking on every challenge alone.

The Cooperative's Partner Ecosystem and Collaboration

Ash Omar 5:24

So what role do you see organizations like Lenders One playing in helping that independent mortgage banker succeed through collaboration, shared resources, and those preferred uh provider relationships?

Rick Seehausen 5:34

Aaron Powell Yeah. I mean, there you know, clearly it's hard to have a conversation these days where AI doesn't come into the conversation in in many different ways. I think the the technology evolution that's occurring right now in our industry, you know, is potentially a game changer. In the 40 years, four decades I've been involved in mortgage uh productivity to produce a loan really has remained unchanged over that entire period. It's about seven to nine loans per FTE per month. And uh and there's been a lot of technology change and adoption,

The Impact of New Technology on Mortgage Productivity

Rick Seehausen 6:10

but but the productivity metrics of resources hasn't moved a lot. And I think the technology today that's available, um especially for the larger scale institutions that have the capital and the resources to enable it and implement it, is going to move the needle in terms of uh of productivity efficiency, which translates into significant cost savings. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Smaller Smaller financial institutions will need to embrace technology solutions. Many of those solutions are available through our provider network as part of Lenders One. They'll need to effectively implement those solutions in order to remain cost competitive. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Ash Omar 6:50

Yeah, I completely agree. I mean, as we see the cost of originate, you know, keep going up year after year, even though technology should make it a lot easier for operational efficiencies. You know, those lenders look towards a cooperative like Lenders One to not only improve efficiency, but also, you know, decrease some of those costs to deliver those better borrower experiences. You've mentioned, Rick, that you spent much of your career at the intersection of lending a technology. Curious, how are you thinking about Lenders One, the Lenders One provider ecosystem and its role within helping those members modernize operations and create better lending experiences?

Rick Seehausen 7:28

Yeah, that's another good question. Thank you. Uh so Ash, we're we're working uh very closely with the preferred provider network to get a deep understanding of their specific areas of expertise. And and one of the things we've learned is there's so there's so many choices out there that lenders can make today in terms of the providers that they go to. And some of these providers have really specialized solutions, niche opportunities that that make them stand out. And we want to make sure that we're helping them, help making sure that our regional directors and our team understand where those specialties lie, and then through education and advocacy, you know, empower our members with that with that knowledge base so that they can adopt solutions more easily and more readily.

Using Mortgage Technology and Outsourcing to Increase Efficiency

Rick Seehausen 8:20

We also have a fulfillment channel to our platform where for some institutions, outsourcing the back office functions of fulfillment is is another area where they can they can get the benefits of technology advantages that we've adopted internally and they can get it through an outsource model as well. So if the financial institution wants to enable technology and and capabilities themselves, we're glad to help support that. And if they need need help on the fulfillment side, we're happy to to lean in there as well.

Ash Omar 8:55

Yeah, and you know, and and you know, providing or have an offering of a of a full service platform like you just mentioned, just you know, leads into so many different ways for for a lender to not only embrace you know system modernization, but also access to services that they may have not gotten through you know traditional channels. So speaking of lender focus, you know, we we talk about you know how what lenders look for uh for ways to become more efficient, resources are limited, um, thus opening up the fulfillment uh part of the uh the cooperative. When you look at uh look across the industry today, where do you see the biggest opportunities for lenders to improve operational efficiency and where can technology make a great impact?

Rick Seehausen 9:39

Yeah, so I would say, you know, doc data is probably the the the first and foremost area that a lender should be should be looking at, right? We ingest in our business, you know, dozens of of documents and information on those documents and beyond now, you know, traditional OCR capabilities that existed over the last couple of decades, we now have AI, which um really makes data recognition remarkably reliable. And in getting data off of documents and validating data and using tools to automate that validation is definitely a key opportunity for efficiency for lenders. I also think that, you know, companies in general, and and certainly within our industry, our members and lenders need to really find the intersection between the human interaction in mortgage and where AI interaction belongs. And that's interesting because if you look across other industries, I saw some articles recently that Ford announced that they're rehiring about 350 engineers because there were some areas where they thought AI was going to automate the human in the loop and the manufacturing processes. They've they've discovered that that's that's not working. And so they're bringing back engineers to bring that human element into play. And I think I think that's really probably a key area of focus and and opportunity. And the other thing I would

Where Mortgage Lenders Can Improve Operational Efficiency with AI

Rick Seehausen 11:12

say is I think when CEOs of mortgage companies think about AI and what it can do to their business, uh for their business, I think they immediately gravitate toward the loan process itself. And it doesn't necessarily have to be just that. So by way of example, our our head of marketing here just recently developed a tool using generative AI, developed an application uh for managing marketing projects. And we manage compliance requests and diligence requests and things of that nature on the tool. I mean, there's third-party systems out there that you can license and utilize for that, but they tend to be expensive and they tend to be generic, not specifically focused on your business. So it's a long way of saying outside of the loan process itself, there's opportunities for companies to get efficiencies and no technology conversation today would be complete without talking about AI.

Ash Omar 12:11

I know internally we we have very various uses for AI, not just from a mark sales and marketing perspective, but also operational as well. So it is the future of not only technology, but also lending as well.

Rick Seehausen 12:24

Yeah.

Ash Omar 12:25

Which is a perfect segue to my next

The Future of AI in Mortgage Lending and Loan Operationswith AI

Ash Omar 12:27

question is AI is uh reshaping nearly every aspect of mortgage lending. Where do you see the most practical applications today? I know you just mentioned documents, but how do you think AI will change the way lenders operate over the next several years?

Rick Seehausen 12:41

Well, I mean, at a macro level, I think you know I mentioned the statistic of seven to nine loans per FTE as a benchmark productivity statistic. I think it's conceivable, um, and it may not even take five years for that to be 30, 40, or 50 loans per FTE. And so I think what you're gonna see on the origination side of the industry is higher throughput and because of that, greater scalability. So you know one of the challenges challenges our industry has faced for decades is is we are obviously very um uh very rate sensitive. And and uh and as the macroeconomic environment and the housing economic environment changes around us, we see volumes ebb and flow uh higher and lower all the time. And and in a business that is relying so heavily on human resources, you know, that that's a challenge, right? It's a challenge to manage that that staffing and capacity need. And I think as technology comes more into play, and specifically AI and productivity gets better, the more scalable the businesses get, the less impactful those economic environments and downturns and upswings will will be on lenders. I also see a tremendous application on the on the servicing side of our industry as well. I think uh there's gonna be a tremendous amount of automation there, and again, productivity and throughput is likely gonna change on the servicing side of the business too. And the borrowers will feel it as well. They'll uh I think they'll feel more immediate responsiveness to service requests and things of that nature um as as things evolve.

Ash Omar 14:20

Yeah, for sure. Interesting times are certainly to come when it comes to not only our business, but also AI. Well, Rick, I just want to thank you again for joining us and sharing your perspective. It's exciting to hear your vision for Lenders One and your thoughts on how technology collaboration innovation will continue to shaping the future of mortgage lending. And thanks to everyone for listening to another episode of Mortgage Tech Intelligence. Be sure to subscribe, and we'll see you next time.

Outro 14:47

Thanks for listening to Mortgage

MTI Outro

Outro 14:48

Tech Intelligence, brought to you by Blue Sage Solutions. Catch new episodes every other Thursday, and for more ways to elevate your lending game, head to Blue Sage Solutions.com. Keep innovating, keep growing, and we'll see you next episode.