Women made up approximately one-third of the submitted entries to this year's Top Producers survey, and three of them did over $100 million in volume in 2025.

Tammy Saul of Federal Hill Mortgage led the way with a total volume of $235.7 million. Had she not been omitted from the original listings due to an administrative error, Saul would have been eighth overall in terms of dollar volume and seventh in number of loans originated.

Also doing over $100 million were Nichol Downey of RMC Home Mortgage at $176.9 million and Stephanie Dombrowski of Wings Credit Union with $147.1 million.

Downey sees each transaction as more than a one-shot deal. She uses email marketing to keep in touch with purchase customers. "We've been marketing our refinance programs to homebuyers for future business," she said on the survey.

Customer retention has become a battleground for originators, especially with Rocket's buy of Mr. Cooper, a big reason being to source mortgage servicing rights for refinancings.

Jori Stern, a loan officer at LoanPeople, has a plan. "I will retain mortgage clients by staying proactive, personal, and valuable," she said. "Consistent check-ins, educational content, annual mortgage reviews, and fast, tech-enabled service will strengthen relationships and turn past clients into lifelong referral partners."

Purchase is already a significant portion of Michelle Jacinto's business and she looks to keep it this way in 2026.

"This is 90% of what I do, trying to find direct to consumer marketing," the Direct Mortgage Loans loan officer said. She wants to do more on line and stop relying on agents.

"They are very entitled lately; its less like a realtor and lender partnership."

The Top Producers survey has been in existence for 28 years and is the successor to those conducted by Broker magazine and Origination News (former National Mortgage News sister publications) as well as Mortgage Originator Magazine, which Arizent owns the content rights to.

Submissions were made by the participants or their representatives. The information was verified to the best of our ability but National Mortgage News cannot claim the absolute veracity of the data. Some entries might have been removed due to submission errors or following the check on the data.