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MortgagePoint » Your Trusted Source for Mortgage Banking and Servicing News 24 July 2025 T E H E X C H A N G E Q: How did you get your start in the mortgage space? Schmidt: My aunt worked in a real estate office and became friends with a loan officer, who mentioned his company desperately needed mortgage processors. I was still in college, looking for work, and their home office was close to my home. The rest is history. Q: What attracted you to the industry? Schmidt: At that time, interest rates had risen to 20%, so the handwriting was on the wall that I would soon be out of a job. While not everyone was getting a mortgage, many people already had one—so I began looking for a job in mortgage servicing. I was hired by Carteret Savings Bank to work in the tax escrow department. I found the diversity of the mortgage servicing functions and the constantly changing regulatory requirements both challenging and interesting. I was hooked. I ended up working in nearly every area of mort- gage servicing, except cash management and investor reporting. I loved it all. Q: Describe your role at DLS Servicing. What are some of your day-to-day responsibilities in the role? Schmidt: DLS began as a one-person consulting firm and remained that way for the first 15 years. When the housing crisis hit in 2008, one of my clients asked for help with their rapidly increasing default rates. Prior to the crisis, my client D onna Schmidt is President and CEO of DLS Servicing, a provider of loss mitigation support services, default ser- vicing consulting, training, and technology for mortgage servicers. A seasoned professional with four decades of leadership experience in the mortgage industry, she is a sought-af- ter authority on loss mitigation compliance. Schmidt is also the co-founder of WaterfallCalc, an online loss mitigation decision and calculation tool that enables servicers to streamline loss mitigation calculations while ensuring investor and regulatory compliance. She can be reached at DSchmidt@DLS-Servicing.com. Donna Schmidt Managing Director & Owner, DLS Servicing The Exchange would receive five loss mitigation appli- cations a month, but during the crisis it escalated to over 200. So, I set up shop at my dining room table, hired a few friends and neighbors who had recently been laid off, and we began helping our client with loss mitigation reviews and modification calculations. We quickly grew from my dining table to office space, and over the last 15 years, we went from working exclusively with all-paper files and Excel spread- sheets to a completely paperless envi- ronment. We designed a fully functional online application that processes loss mitigation waterfalls for every loan type, which became WaterfallCalc. Today, we operate out of two offices in Western Michigan. My day-to-day functions primarily revolve around continually improving operational efficiencies, ensuring data security, and meeting or exceeding client expectations. We consistently review industry regulations to ensure we are meeting the letter and intent of the rules. We work closely with our clients to assist them with their compliance responsibilities. They handle borrower solicitation, borrower and agency com- munications, and posting of loss mitiga- tion options. We provide loss mitigation support services, including data entry into the waterfall application, documen- tation support, preparation and mailing of legal documents codifying the loss mitigation option, as well as FHA loss mitigation claim transmittals. Q: With the Trump administration working to downsize or close the CFPB, what impact could such an action have on the servicing space? Schmidt: We prepared a white paper (dls-servicing.com/white-paper-harmo- nizing-regulatory-compliance-and-in- dustry-perspectives/) in March detailing the damaging unintended consequenc- es that the CFPB caused in mortgage servicing and how there is already suf- ficient industry oversight by numerous