Power House

Kevin Rodman spent 24 years at Morgan Stanley, rising from bond trader to partner overseeing mortgage operations as the system came apart in 2008. What separated the survivors from the casualties, he says, was culture and discipline, and a refusal to let one superstar desk run the firm off a cliff. Those lessons now sit at the core of ABL Asset Based Lending, the private lender he helped build into a billion-dollar platform for new construction, fix and flip, and DSCR loans. In this episode, Rodman walks Zeb through ABL's growth from a 2010 post-crash startup to a national platform serving seasoned infill builders, the hard reset that followed when DSCR volume doubled and service times slipped, and how AI is already reshaping the mortgage factory. His read on the next decade: the lenders who win will pair durable capital with modern tech and a culture where everyone thinks like an owner.

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The Power House podcast brings the biggest names in housing to answer hard-hitting questions about industry trends, operational and growth strategy, and leadership. Join HousingWire’s Zeb Lowe every Thursday morning for candid conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

Logan Mohtashami built his housing market framework out of frustration with online “doom porn.” In this episode, HousingWire's lead analyst walks Zeb Lowe through how it actually works: why the 10-year yield and mortgage spreads matter more than the Fed funds rate, which labor data he watches first, and how he reads purchase apps, pending sales, inventory, and price cuts to judge pricing power. He also makes the case that today's market is structurally healthier than the 2000s bubble, thanks in part to 2005 bankruptcy reform and post-2010 QM rules. Plus, what he's watching for the rest of the year: the Fed's hawk-dove split, labor resilience, and oil risk out of the Strait of Hormuz.

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The Power House podcast brings the biggest names in housing to answer hard-hitting questions about industry trends, operational and growth strategy, and leadership. Join HousingWire’s Zeb Lowe every Thursday morning for candid conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

In this episode of the Power House, Zeb Lowe sits down with Sean Faries, founder and CEO of Land Gorilla, a company that’s become a quiet force behind construction loan management across the country. Sean walks us through what makes construction lending fundamentally different from a traditional purchase or refi, explaining that you’re really underwriting a future home that doesn’t exist yet. It’s not just credit, income, and assets—you’re evaluating builders, budgets, plans, inspections, draw schedules, lien risk, and the emotional roller coaster between borrower and builder.

Sean also opens up about the origin story of Land Gorilla, which started in the aftermath of the financial crisis when he lost his home, lost a business, and moved back in with his parents. After even getting turned down for a “safe” job because he didn’t have a degree, he turned to doing draw inspections himself just to get by. That gritty, boots‑on‑the‑ground work slowly evolved into a SaaS platform at a time when “SaaS” wasn’t even a mainstream term, and while the rest of the industry pulled back from construction lending, he stayed in the space, learning its pain points in depth.

We dig into the stigma that still hangs over construction loans and why, in Sean’s view, construction lending is absolutely not for every lender. It demands true product ownership, passionate leadership, and a willingness to invest in a program that won’t run itself. Sean breaks down the delicate dynamic between lender, builder, and borrower—the “throuple” as we joke about it—and why lenders must keep their primary duty anchored to the borrower while managing performance‑based relationships with builders, not risky referral-driven ones. He also talks about where AI is already transforming the space, from internal productivity to productized tools like Land Gorilla’s X‑ray, and how better data and visibility might help the market self‑correct faster on supply and risk than it did in past cycles.

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The Power House podcast brings the biggest names in housing to answer hard-hitting questions about industry trends, operational and growth strategy, and leadership. Join HousingWire’s Zeb Lowe every Thursday morning for candid conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

Fraud isn’t just a closing risk. It’s a housing affordability problem.

On this episode of Power House, Zeb Lowe sits down with Chris Morton, CEO of American Land Title Association, to unpack the growing threat of wire fraud, deed fraud, seller impersonation and AI-powered scams—and the costs those risks ultimately create for homeowners and lenders.

Morton also weighs in on Fannie Mae’s title insurance waiver efforts, why refinances aren’t necessarily as low-risk as they appear, and the work title professionals do behind the scenes to protect property rights and transactions.

As AI makes fraud increasingly sophisticated, the conversation explores an emerging arms race between technology and human judgment—and why secure transactions are fundamental to making homeownership sustainable and affordable.

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The Power House podcast brings the biggest names in housing to answer hard-hitting questions about industry trends, operational and growth strategy, and leadership. Join HousingWire’s Zeb Lowe every Thursday morning for candid conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

In Part 2, Abdel Khawatmi moves beyond the technology and explains what he’s ultimately building with it: a business that creates more room for relationships.

From more than 700 YouTube videos and 250 podcast episodes to hyper-local market updates, Abdel explains how consistency became a competitive advantage. He also breaks down what he refuses to delegate, his PROF framework for originators and why direct communication with clients and referral partners remains firmly in his hands.

The conversation ultimately becomes less about AI and more about scale: building teams, developing other producers and creating a culture where technology handles more of the work without removing the human relationships that actually drive the business.

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The Power House podcast brings the biggest names in housing to answer hard-hitting questions about industry trends, operational and growth strategy, and leadership. Join HousingWire’s Zeb Lowe every Thursday morning for candid conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

Abdel Khawatmi left personal injury law for mortgage after experiencing firsthand how poor communication can derail the homebuying experience. Eight years later, he’s built a high-producing business around the opposite idea: educate relentlessly, communicate clearly and stay close to the client.

In Part 1, Abdel breaks down his “Six Cs of Conversion Tracking” and explains why conversations—not leads, rates or even content—may be the most overlooked part of an originator’s business. He also opens up his AI stack, showing how he records and analyzes client conversations, improves scripts and uses tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Fireflies and NotebookLM to become a better originator and partner.

This isn’t AI for novelty’s sake. It’s a look inside how one producer is using technology to systematically get better at the human side of mortgage.

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The Power House podcast brings the biggest names in housing to answer hard-hitting questions about industry trends, operational and growth strategy, and leadership. Join HousingWire’s Zeb Lowe every Thursday morning for candid conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

On this episode of Power House, Zeb Lowe sits down with Paul Gigliotti, CEO of the California MBA, for a conversation about leadership, adaptability and what it takes to help move the mortgage industry forward.

Gigliotti has built a career that spans mortgage, technology and industry advocacy, giving him a perspective that extends well beyond any single corner of the business. He discusses how strong leaders evolve, why innovation is ultimately about people rather than technology, and the responsibility industry leaders have to create opportunities for the people coming behind them.

The conversation also explores the importance of staying curious in a business that never stops changing, and why the ability to bring people together around new ideas may be one of the most valuable leadership skills in housing today.

Make sure to stick around until the end: Zeb and Paul have a special announcement about an upcoming collaboration.

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The Power House podcast brings the biggest names in housing to answer hard-hitting questions about industry trends, operational and growth strategy, and leadership. Join HousingWire’s Zeb Lowe every Thursday morning for candid conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

The AI conversation in housing has changed. The question is no longer whether the technology works—it’s what leaders do with it now.

Fresh off HousingWire’s AI Summit, Zeb Lowe sits down with HousingWire CEO Clayton Collins to unpack that shift. They discuss lenders using AI to drive down origination costs, builders transforming how they identify land, and executives now managing everything from token utilization to AI governance and implementation.

But Collins argues the biggest change has to happen at the leadership level. AI can’t be another technology initiative delegated down the organization. It requires CEOs to rethink workflows, costs and talent—and determine where automation can create more room for the human work that actually drives the business.

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The Power House podcast brings the biggest names in housing to answer hard-hitting questions about industry trends, operational and growth strategy, and leadership. Join HousingWire’s Zeb Lowe every Thursday morning for candid conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

How do you expand access to homeownership without taking on more risk?

On this episode of Power House, Zeb Lowe sits down with Devin Norales, Head of Mortgage and Capital Markets at FICO, to discuss the future of credit scoring and why represents one of the biggest shifts in mortgage lending in decades.

Norales explains how trended credit data and rental payment history can provide a more complete picture of borrowers, improving predictive accuracy while responsibly expanding credit access, particularly for first-time homebuyers. The conversation also explores the rental reporting gap, financial literacy and why credit modernization isn't just about better models, but better outcomes for borrowers, lenders and the housing market.

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The Power House podcast brings the biggest names in housing to answer hard-hitting questions about industry trends, operational and growth strategy, and leadership. Join HousingWire’s Zeb Lowe every Thursday morning for candid conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

On this episode of Power House, Zeb Lowe sits down with architect and researcher Ann Sussman to explore a provocative idea: many modern homes and neighborhoods are fundamentally out of sync with human biology.

Drawing on neuroscience, architecture and urban design, Ann explains why our brains are wired for faces, detail, walkable environments, and how blank facades, oversized roads and car-centric development can quietly contribute to stress, isolation and disconnection.

From Disneyland's Main Street to Amsterdam and Nantucket, the conversation explores why some places feel instantly welcoming while others never quite do. If you build, finance, design or sell housing, this episode may permanently change how you see the built environment.

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Want more from Zeb? Don’t forget to subscribe to LendingLife.

The Power House podcast brings the biggest names in housing to answer hard-hitting questions about industry trends, operational and growth strategy, and leadership. Join HousingWire’s Zeb Lowe every Thursday morning for candid conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.