The
Navigator✦

The Builder Division continues to demonstrate strong growth while driving NorthStar brand awareness across the greater Atlanta market and beyond. Our team maintains a consistent presence at Greater Atlanta Home Builder Association weekly events, philanthropic organizations, and LinkedIn for B2B visibility. The addition of Greg Wiggins has expanded our community engagement, allowing Kelly to focus on deepening relationships with over 200 active builder prospects currently ranked in the database.

Since launching in August 2025, Enterprise Development has been building the foundational systems that will shape how NorthStar attracts, onboards, trains, and retains talent. Here's an overview of where we stand heading into the heart of 2026:

Onboarding & Welcome Experience — The NorthStar Welcome Program is officially launching in 2026, complete with a welcome kit, company directory, and in-person training at the Marietta office. The curriculum has been finalized with live test accounts enabled for credit pulls and disclosures, walking new hires through the full application-to-loan-partner-handoff workflow.

Training & Education Strategy — The 2026 Training Framework includes quarterly Pipeline Pro training (in-person, Marietta office), monthly secondary market policy and guideline recap sessions, and product training that recaps Power Hour topics. A Mentor Program has been structured with Team Lead involvement and accountability built in.

Policies & Procedures — We're formalizing standards across Specialist Department policies, Preapproval Specialist baseline expectations, Builder Division expectations, Georgia Dream program standards, and comprehensive systems training documentation.

The NorthStar underwriting team continues to set the standard with a focus on loan quality, consistency, efficient workflow, and strong inter-departmental teamwork. The team stays aligned daily on pipeline status, attendance, and any emerging priorities.

Nancy asked each underwriter how they view their own strengths — and the answers speak for themselves:

Nothing exemplifies our Closing and Funding group better than the word TEAMWORK.

Tommy and Sandi are always willing to go above and beyond — whether it's logging in early, staying late, or working weekends. I can always count on them to get the job done without any complaints. Closing can be overwhelming at times, especially during the end-of-month madness, but having people you can rely on makes it easier to handle when things get hectic. They are truly the unsung heroes of the whole process, and I'm really grateful to work alongside them.

One thing I've been thinking about that could take us to the next level is a shift in how we look at the unexpected things that come our way — last-minute changes, rush files, or a same-day closing. It's easy to view these as just "another" file added to our workload, but I think back to something Michael always talks about: we need to think about the families on the other end of those files.

We are one of the final steps in getting them into their new home, and when we hit send on the package or approve funding, it relieves a lot of anxieties for all the people involved working on the file. Whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed, I like to remember the families we are serving and how important this closing is for them. I think that shift in mindset can help us stay positive and, in turn, help us deliver even better service internally and externally.

In 2026, we're moving from a linear chain to a centralized hub. The old way — Loan Partner → Underwriting → Closing — was linear and slow. The 2026 way is a collaborative "living" file where closing items are tackled simultaneously with underwriting. The big picture goal is Total File Ownership. The Loan Partner isn't just a paper-pusher — they are the Pilot of the transaction.