The housing industry has weathered plenty of turbulence in recent years, and no one feels it more than industry professionals and consumers trying to navigate affordability pressures, inventory shortages and an ever-shifting rate environment.
A session titled “The Referral Equation: What Lenders, Homebuilders and Consumers Expect Today,” will put that consumer experience front and center during the 2026 National Settlement Services Summit in Kansas City, Mo., May 19-21, presented by October Research. The session is scheduled for Wednesday, May 20, at 9 a.m.
It will bring together four voices from across the home lending ecosystem to explore what it actually takes to serve today’s homebuyer, examining how lenders, homebuilders and settlement partners can better collaborate to improve the buyer journey and, in turn, drive referral business for title agencies.
The panel will include Kate Steineman, vice president of procurement at Mortgage Connect; Brandi Snowden, director of member and consumer survey research at the National Association of REALTORS; Keith Dutton, senior vice president of fulfillment operations at Flagstar Bank; and Bud Moscony, president of Taylor Morrison Financial Services.
“The various perspectives this esteemed panel brings will give a lot of information to the audience on how to help the consumer and make your business succeed in this environment,” Steineman said.
Noting that “NS3 is my favorite conference of the year,” she said her hope is that attendees will walk away with one clear idea: leverage your partners to ensure the customer continues to have the best experience when purchasing or refinancing their home.
“There has been a lot of turbulence in the mortgage industry, and the customer is doing their best to navigate all the changes and afford a home,” Steineman said. “We as lenders, service providers, realtors, attorneys, escrow agents and settlements agents need to do all that we can to educate and assist our customers with the most important financial purchase they will make.”
In a market this complex, no single player can deliver a seamless consumer experience alone.
Dutton said this topic sparked his interest because he is passionate about developing ways to make the customer experience more efficient and that begins with the processes behind the scenes, well before the borrower reaches the closing table.
He is looking forward to engaging with lenders, title agents and third-party service providers about some of the major issues facing the industry, such as need for more clarity about safe and effective applications for using artificial intelligence (AI).
“All the talk is about AI but some basic blocking and tackling on sharing data/information will go a long way,” Dutton said. “If we get some standardization, it will be transformative for the industry.”
Moscony and Snowden will share data illustrating what kind of experience consumers and their referral partners expect at closing today and what the industry needs to do to meet that bar so that it is not just delivering a transaction, but earning the next one too.
“We can’t control interest rates or inventory, but we can absolutely control how we show up for our partners and their customers,” Moscony said. “When I see the impact that thoughtful process design, automation and secure digital tools have on cycle time and customer satisfaction — and how that translates directly into stronger referral relationships — that’s genuinely exciting. It’s a competitive differentiator that’s within reach for companies of any size.”
With years of experience on the homebuilding side, Moscony believes title and settlement companies that are still running their businesses as they did five years ago could learn a lot from the insight about how builder-affiliated lending models are responding to today’s affordability and inventory constraints.
“The referral ecosystem has changed, and if you’re waiting for partners to tell you your process isn't working, you've already lost some of that relationship,” he said.
Snowden stressed how the data obtained through NAR’s research can provide valuable insight into who is buying a home and how they are able to buy, while also facing affordability and inventory challenges.
“In the latest consumer data, we’ve seen that buyers are historically older than we’ve seen before and the share of first-time buyers is at a record low share,” Snowden said. “Being able to understand who is buying can help you better understand what their needs are.”
What drew Snowden to NS3 was the chance to bridge the gap between high-level consumer data and the ground-level professionals, showing how NAR’s research can be a tool to help the entire industry identify new opportunities, not just agents.
To learn more about the sessions at NS3 and to register, visit NS3TheSummit.com.