Hughston Homes & NorthStar Mortgage Advisors Sales Dashboard & Standard Operating Procedures

Sample Populates from the same Nano pull as New Opportunities: applications created in the trailing 30 days, split by whether a purchase contract landed. Turndown reasons join this view once the limiting-step field is mandatory.

Pricing refreshed daily via Nano Chrome Extension • 30-day lock • $400K sales price • 820+ FICO • Dark window 6:30–10:30 AM ET

2026 Monthly Activity — click a month for loan-level detail

Books are reconciled and debits are clear through June 30, 2026. Credits post per funded loan; debits (rate specials, EPO / EPD / early payoff) post as received and close out with each month's book reconciliation.

Partnership Ledger — 2026 — balances prior to 2026 agreed and closed; going forward, credits post as each transaction occurs

Guiding Principle: Speed to Contract

A buyer should never leave a community, end a phone call, or finish a weekend without a pre-approval letter in hand if they are a viable candidate. The risk of losing a buyer to a competitor while waiting for document verification far outweighs the risk of issuing an approval that later requires conditions to be met.

Pre-Approval Standard — Stated Income, Stated Assets

NorthStar issues pre-approval letters based on stated income (buyer's verbal/application representation), stated assets (buyer's verbal/application representation), and verified credit (credit pull). This replaces the prior practice of requiring verified income documentation (pay stubs, W-2s) before issuing the letter. The letter includes all outstanding conditions — specific items the buyer must provide before the approval becomes a full underwriting approval.

Turnaround Targets

• Floor pop / in-community buyer: Pre-approval letter issued within 30–45 minutes of the On-Site Mortgage Advisor's initial conversation. If documentation is not immediately available, the letter is issued on stated information with conditions noted.
• Phone / application buyer: Pre-approval letter issued within 24 hours of receiving a completed application, regardless of whether all supporting documentation has been uploaded.

Pre-Approval Letter Content

NorthStar's builder team pre-approval letter (via the NorthStar portal) includes:

• Approval amount and loan program
• Target cash to close and target monthly payment
• Whether the buyer has a home to sell (contingency flag)
• All outstanding conditions listed individually — specific items like "borrower to provide offer letter for new employment" or "borrower to pay off Visa ending in 4521 to achieve 621+ credit score" (not generic boilerplate)
• Line 5 notation of the buyer's elected incentive (rate special, money-your-way amount, or combination)

A cover letter accompanies the pre-approval with full detail from the On-Site Mortgage Advisor's initial conversation — income sources, asset summary, rate/payment/cash-to-close discussion notes, and any limiting factors.

Incentive Election at Contract

Each buyer must choose their incentive structure at contract. Whether rate special, money-your-way toward closing costs, or money-your-way toward options/upgrades — the election is documented in the original contract at signing. Buyers cannot combine a rate special with a full money-your-way allocation unless the Sales Goal email explicitly permits it. The On-Site Mortgage Advisor documents the buyer's elected incentive on Line 5 of the pre-approval letter, which becomes part of the contract file.

Contract Execution Sequence

1. Buyer visits community or contacts the On-Site Mortgage Advisor.
2. The On-Site Mortgage Advisor conducts initial qualifying conversation (income, assets, credit, rate/payment/cash-to-close).
3. The On-Site Mortgage Advisor issues pre-approval letter (stated basis with conditions).
4. Sales agent writes the contract. The Sales Manager does not execute until the pre-approval letter is in hand (verbal confirmation from the On-Site Mortgage Advisor is acceptable to begin drafting).
5. The Sales Manager reviews the contract against the Sales Goal email, the pre-approval letter's Line 5 incentive notation, and any special stipulations.
6. Contract is executed. Buyer has the contractual contingency period to provide remaining documentation.
7. The Inside Mortgage Advisor takes over condition tracking and document collection from the buyer.

Hope Program — Credit Repair Pipeline

When a buyer meets two of the three qualification legs (income, assets, credit) but the third is attainable within a defined timeframe, NorthStar may issue a conditional pre-approval.

For spec homes: A conditional approval may be written with the Sales Manager's awareness. The pre-approval letter's condition detail gives the Sales Manager full visibility to assess the risk of taking the home off market.

For pre-sales (Hope Program): For buyers who need 3–6 months of credit repair or financial preparation, NorthStar and the builder may reserve a pre-sale lot under a hope contract. The buyer commits earnest money; NorthStar provides a detailed credit repair plan and monitors progress. If the buyer becomes ready before the lot enters the build queue, they proceed. If not, they are released and the lot returns to inventory. This is a marketing and pipeline-building strategy, not a standard sales path. The Sales Manager approves all hope reservations.

Construction Milestones as Pipeline Triggers

The builder's construction schedule produces four key projected closing dates, each refining the timeline:

The revised close date in ThreadKore is updated weekly during the sales meeting. Once a date appears in the "Revised Close Date" field, NorthStar may treat it as actionable for lock timing and pipeline management.

Rate Lock Trigger: Cabinets Installed

1. Construction manager reports cabinets installed to sales team and the Sales Manager / Builder Closing Coordinator.
2. Within one week of cabinets, the sales team, Sales Manager, and Builder Closing Coordinator confirm a closing date with the buyer.
3. The Builder Closing Coordinator communicates the confirmed closing date to the On-Site Mortgage Advisor.
4. The On-Site Mortgage Advisor locks the rate on a 60-day lock (providing approximately a two-week buffer beyond the projected close).
5. Once locked, the On-Site Mortgage Advisor requests a contract amendment to clarify the seller-paid closing cost amount tied to the locked rate.

Rate Lock Extensions — Cost Responsibility

Appraisal Management

Appraisals are ordered at cabinets installed, coordinated with sales input. Before ordering, the Loan Partner confirms with the Sales Manager / Builder Closing Coordinator whether any pending closings in the same community should close first to establish favorable comps. This prevents ordering an appraisal before a higher-value comp has recorded.

Low Appraisal Protocol

1. NorthStar reviews the appraisal for errors or missing comps and files a dispute if warranted.
2. If the dispute does not resolve the gap, the Sales Manager and NorthStar discuss options: price reduction, buyer bringing additional funds, or alternative comp strategy.
3. All low appraisals and their resolution are tracked on the dashboard and reviewed in the monthly executive summary.

Condition Tracking & Document Collection

After contract execution, the Inside Mortgage Advisor takes ownership of all borrower-facing condition tracking. Communication with buyers on outstanding items is constant — issues are communicated to the team immediately as they arise, not held for meetings. Any buyer non-responsiveness triggers the escalation protocol (see Escalation section).

Buyer Closing Window

Once the builder issues a Certificate of Occupancy (CO) and turns the home over to the sales agent, the buyer has two weeks from CO to schedule and complete closing. After two weeks, carrying costs begin accruing to the buyer. This tightens the previous informal practice of allowing up to 30 days.

Rate Special Designation

The Sales Manager determines which homes and communities qualify for rate special incentives (e.g., 4.99%, 5.50%). At the beginning of each month, the Sales Manager distributes a Sales Goal email to the NorthStar mortgage team, all on-site sales agents, and the builder leadership team. The email lists, by community and lot number, which homes are eligible for rate specials and what incentives are available.

Pricing Visibility

NorthStar provides the builder with a live pricing dashboard. The dashboard displays real-time cost of rate specials (updated daily by noon), unlocked loan exposure by lot and community, locked vs. unlocked pipeline status, and forward cost projections for all active rate specials.

Rate special pricing is live except between approximately 6:30 AM and 10:30 AM Eastern, when markets are dark. Outside that window, the builder has continuous visibility into what any rate special will cost on a given day.

Hedging & Rate Protection Strategy

For rate specials, NorthStar treats the builder's pipeline as a forward commitment. When the Sales Manager designates a rate on a specific lot, NorthStar hedges approximately 80% of the expected pipeline to protect against adverse market movement:

• The cost quoted on the day the Sales Manager makes the rate decision is the cost the builder should budget. There is no market slippage.
• If rates improve, the hedge has already been purchased — the builder does not benefit from improvements on hedged loans. Gains are netted across the servicing portfolio and reflected in the monthly P&L.
• If rates worsen, the hedge absorbs the loss. The builder's cost does not increase beyond the quoted figure.

The preferred commitment window is 120 days or less, aligned to the lumber-drop construction milestone. Beyond 120 days, hedging costs increase significantly and true protection instruments become less available. For pre-sales where the gap between contract and lumber drop exceeds 120 days, NorthStar and the builder will evaluate on a case-by-case basis whether to hedge early (at approximately one additional point of cost) or float through the gap.

6% Seller-Paid Closing Cost Threshold

8-Day Closing Campaign

At 8 business days before the confirmed closing date, if the borrower's file is not clear to close, NorthStar initiates an escalating communication campaign:

The messaging is intentionally direct. The goal is to prevent the common scenario where documents arrive 1–2 days before closing, forcing a rushed and poor-quality closing experience.

Clear-to-Close Target

All borrower-controllable conditions should be cleared by 3 business days prior to closing. Third-party items (appraisal, title, CO, VOE) are tracked separately and are not part of the borrower's 8-day campaign.

E-Signing

Borrowers are encouraged to complete e-signing prior to the closing table — ideally the morning of closing. The Loan Partner's email campaign includes highlighted instructions for e-signing. If a borrower arrives at the closing table without having e-signed, it adds significant time and friction to the closing experience.

Post-Closing Surveys

The builder conducts buyer satisfaction surveys after closing. The Sales Manager reviews all surveys mentioning the lender at each sales meeting. NorthStar reviews the same surveys internally. Any negative lender feedback is discussed at the next Wednesday Level 10 meeting with a root cause and corrective action identified.

Wednesday Level 10 Pipeline Meeting — 10:00 AM

Level 10 Agenda

1. Scorecard review — Key metrics (see Metrics section)
2. Rock review — Major initiatives and projects
3. To-do review — Action items from prior week
4. IDS — Identify, Discuss, Solve on any pipeline issues

Builder Sales Meeting (Weekly)

NorthStar attendee: On-Site Mortgage Advisor (attendance expected but at the advisor's discretion based on value)

Purpose is rapport building with sales agents, real-time market updates, incentive communication, agent Q&A. Information exchange regarding closings and pipeline is handled at the Wednesday Level 10; the sales meeting is primarily for relationship and brand building with the field team.

Weekly Data Reconciliation

After the builder's weekly sales meeting (when ThreadKore data is updated), NorthStar exports the pipeline data and runs an automated reconciliation using Claude via the Nano MCP integration. This compares the builder's closing dates, sales prices, seller-paid closing costs, and earnest money against NorthStar's loan system data. Any discrepancies are flagged for resolution at the Wednesday Level 10 meeting.

Executive Review Meeting

Agenda

1. NorthStar Executive Summary — A 5-minute recorded video (screen share of the dashboard) walking through key metrics, outliers, and narrative for the prior month. Distributed to builder leadership 24 hours before the meeting.
2. Financial Review — Bullet-point summary in the executive video. Deep-dive only if builder leadership has questions after reviewing the numbers.
3. Forward Projection — What NorthStar expects for the coming month: pipeline volume, rate environment, anticipated closings.
4. Incentive Decision Support — Rate cost data and pipeline composition to inform the Sales Manager's incentive decisions for the following month.
5. Friction Review — Round-table: What caused friction last month? What's a quick fix vs. a bigger project? Are the weekly meetings working? Any SOP adjustments needed?
6. Open Items — Follow-up on any outstanding action items from prior months.

Monthly P&L Review

The Financial Analyst prepares the monthly P&L. Financials are typically finalized by the 20th–25th of the following month (servicing gains post mid-month and require reconciliation). The dashboard provides real-time forward P&L projections so the builder does not have to wait for the formal reconciliation to understand their cost position.

Profitability Model

NorthStar's financial model for builder partnerships operates at or near zero margin on rate-special loans. Profitability is driven by three sources:

• Outside business — The On-Site Mortgage Advisor targets 5–10 closings per month from co-op agents, referral partners, and non-builder buyers. These loans close at full margin.
• Money-your-way loans — Builder buyers who elect money-your-way rather than a rate special are originated at standard margin.
• Servicing gains — Spread across the entire book; reflected monthly in the P&L.

Builder Cost-Management Levers

The builder can influence profitability through adjusting the split between rate specials and money-your-way based on market conditions, requiring earnest money increases for non-NorthStar loans (no direct cost to the builder), paying seller closing costs only when buyers use NorthStar, and promoting the partnership advantages to agents to drive capture rate.

Annual Review

An annual in-person gathering focused on team building and strategic alignment — not a performance review. Include all team members from both sides (NorthStar mortgage team, Sales Manager, Builder Closing Coordinator, sales agents, financial analyst, builder principal). The format should be social with a brief state-of-the-union component covering the year's results and the coming year's vision.

NorthStar Dashboard (Replacing Google Sheets)

NorthStar provides each builder partner with a web-based dashboard. The dashboard provides the builder with:

• Real-time rate special pricing — updated daily at noon; visible anytime markets are open
• Locked vs. unlocked pipeline — by lot number, community, and borrower
• Forward cost exposure — total seller-paid closing cost projection on unlocked loans
• Closing forecast — projected closings by month
• Rate lock status and expiration dates
• Credit pull and lead attribution data (trailing 90 days)
• Profit per loan (net of concessions)
• Customer satisfaction scores
• Delayed closings tracker
• Heat map — geographic origin of buyers
• Appraisal status — ordered, received, value vs. contract price

ThreadKore Access for NorthStar

The builder will grant the NorthStar mortgage team (On-Site Mortgage Advisor, Inside Mortgage Advisor, and Loan Partner) read access to ThreadKore, specifically the Sales and Closings views. This gives the NorthStar team direct visibility into construction milestones, confirmed and revised closing dates, incentive capture, buyer contingency status, and contract amendments. This eliminates manual translation of information between teams and enables NorthStar to prepare for pipeline meetings with accurate, real-time builder data.

Lot Number Integration

NorthStar will add lot numbers as a required field in the Nano loan operating system for all builder loans. This enables direct cross-referencing between NorthStar's pipeline and ThreadKore data by lot number rather than by address.

Technology Stack

Key Metrics — Dashboard & Level 10 Scorecard

The following metrics are tracked on the NorthStar dashboard and reviewed in the weekly Level 10 and monthly executive summary:

• Total pipeline count (locked and unlocked)
• Rate special loans in pipeline (by rate tier)
• Forward cost exposure on unlocked rate specials
• Leads to contracts ratio
• NorthStar capture rate (% of builder contracts using NorthStar)
• Average profit per loan (net of concessions)
• Customer satisfaction scores (from post-closing surveys)
• Delayed closings count and cause
• Contracts canceled for financing reasons
• Contingent buyers in pipeline
• Appraisal status (ordered, received, value vs. contract)
• Marketing spend (NorthStar + builder rate special advertising)
• Buyer geographic origin (heat map)
• Closing forecast by month

On-Site Mortgage Advisor NorthStar

Primary point of contact for all builder buyers from first conversation through pre-approval. Conducts initial qualifying interviews and issues pre-approval letters. Manages rate lock decisions and communicates lock status to the Builder Closing Coordinator and Sales Manager. Attends builder sales meetings (weekly) and Wednesday Level 10 pipeline meeting. Prepares monthly executive summary (5-minute video walkthrough of the dashboard). Pursues outside business (co-op agents, non-builder referrals) to generate additional revenue — target of 5–10 outside closings per month. Communicates rate lock extension policies clearly to every buyer at time of lock. Manages Dialpad call recordings for coaching and quality review. Operates under a Canopy DBA — positioning as an independent advisor rather than a builder-captive lender.

Inside Mortgage Advisor NorthStar

Takes over from the On-Site Mortgage Advisor after pre-approval to manage document collection and condition tracking. Maintains constant communication with buyers on outstanding items. Communicates any buyer non-responsiveness or issues to the team immediately (not held for meetings). Attends Wednesday Level 10 pipeline meeting. Supports the On-Site Mortgage Advisor's outside business pipeline. Updates NorthStar's loan operating system (Nano) with lot numbers and pipeline data.

Loan Partner NorthStar

Manages the 8-day-out closing campaign. Coordinates with the Builder Closing Coordinator on confirmed closing dates. Attends Wednesday Level 10 pipeline meeting. Orders appraisals at the appropriate trigger point (cabinets installed, coordinated with sales to optimize comp timing). Monitors third-party items (appraisal, title, CO) and flags delays.

Sales Manager / Director of Sales Builder

Determines rate special eligibility by community and lot. Distributes monthly Sales Goal email. Reviews and approves all contracts against incentive parameters. Approves exception requests for rate lock extension cost absorption. Approves hope program reservations. Participates in monthly executive review meeting. Manages ThreadKore data integrity for the partnership.

Builder Closing Coordinator Builder

Communicates confirmed closing dates to the On-Site Mortgage Advisor once cabinets are installed (within one week of the cabinet milestone). Manages the closing tab in ThreadKore. Coordinates closing logistics with buyers, attorneys, and NorthStar. Attends Wednesday Level 10 pipeline meeting.

Social Media Coordination

Both teams will conduct an audit of current social media activity across Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, and TikTok. Content should promote builder communities, highlight buyer success stories, and build the On-Site Mortgage Advisor's personal brand as a trusted advisor. Reels and short-form video from NorthStar's podcast studio are a priority format.

CRM Overlay

NorthStar's CRM (GoHighLevel) will be evaluated for overlay with the builder's CRM to maximize engagement with all leads who express interest in builder communities — not just those who enter the active pipeline. This includes automated rate-update campaigns for under-contract buyers (reducing inbound calls to the On-Site Mortgage Advisor for market checks) and long-term nurture for leads who are not yet ready to buy.

Google Business Page

The On-Site Mortgage Advisor will establish a Google Business page for the NorthStar office within the builder's sales center. This requires a walkthrough video of the physical space with NorthStar signage in the advisor's office. (Signage to be installed; does not need to be displayed in the main builder lobby.)

Additional Marketing Initiatives

• Newsletter through CRM — Program-of-the-week or rate-update content distributed to the builder's buyer database
• Agent value-add sessions — Quarterly gatherings with builder sales agents focused on how NorthStar supports their success
• Sales meeting content — The On-Site Mortgage Advisor brings a brief market update or buyer insight to each sales meeting

This SOP is a living document. It will be reviewed at each monthly executive meeting. Any proposed changes are discussed in the monthly meeting and documented as amendments with an effective date. Both parties maintain a copy; the version hosted at Hughston.NorthStarLending.com is the master.

Prepared by: Michael Stallings, Managing Partner — NorthStar Mortgage Advisors

Reviewed by: Builder Principal, Sales Manager

NorthStar Mortgage Advisors Builder Partnership Standard Operating Procedures