Whether it’s from TikTok or a relative, executive lays out the keys to tackling fake news about mortgages
Open up social media, and you will find a wealth of information about mortgage loans. From influencers to your family members, everyone has an opinion on what customers should do in the current market.
According to one mortgage executive, much of the loan advice on social media is completely inaccurate.
Nora Guerra (pictured top), SVP of community lending solutions at Guild Mortgage, dedicates a significant amount of her time to debunking the misleading advice she encounters on social media.
“There's so much misinformation on social media,” Guerra told Mortgage Professional America. “I follow TikTok, and there's a reason I do. I follow housing industry professionals. I want to hear what agents are saying. I want to hear what loan officers are saying. I want to hear what folks who say, ‘I'm a legend in my industry.’
“They’re giving such bad information out there to prospective buyers on all spectrums, repeat buyers, Boomers, Gen X, millennials, and don’t forget 1.7 million Gen Z buyers just graduated college. They’re looking for jobs now, which means those are your prospective buyers in the future.”
Scare tactics
Guerra said she follows all segments of the market, and enjoys seeing the perspective of young agents in the field. But whether it’s young agents or those who have been in the industry for years, when she sees them sharing misinformation, she feels obligated to step in and correct them.
“I've heard things like, ‘Hold on, first-time homebuyers, especially millennials,’” she said. “’The GSEs are going to release foreclosures.’ I will go in there and say, ‘Please do not share this information that is not accurate.’ I almost feel like, as an SVP of community lending, my sole job sometimes is dispelling the myth of what they've read on social media and saying that it is not accurate.”
She said the flood of misinformation is not attracting business, but is instead driving younger borrowers out of the mortgage market.
“It's almost like that scare tactic of bad information will lead to people wanting to reach out to you,” Guerra said. “What it's done is it's created the synergy of 50 million millennials that haven't bought a home. There are 71.2 million millennials out there, and 50 million have not bought a home. That is concerning.”
When she speaks to first-time homebuyers and they tell her that their favorite mortgage influencer is telling them to hold off on buying a home, she reminds them that if they don’t buy now, they might not be able to buy next year.
“Every time a consumer says, ‘Nora, should I buy today?’ I'm like, yes, because next year you're not going to qualify,” she said. “That's not an opinion. That's a statistic: there is 9% housing appreciation year over year, according to Freddie Mac. If you invest in a bank, you're never going to get 9% ROI. Yeah, buy a home.”
No repeat of the housing collapse
One statement that drives both Guerra and many mortgage brokers crazy is hearing influencers or fellow brokers talk about an impending crash, like the one that occurred in 2008 and 2009.
“A lot of our industry professionals tell first-time homebuyers or other buyers, ‘Hang tight, a crash is coming.’ No, it's not,” she said. “We have $32 trillion worth of equity. We have the lowest inventory in housing history, and we have the largest buyer population of consumers waiting to buy a home. In 2009, it was the opposite of that. We had excess inventory. We were looking for buyers. We had no equity out there.”
Another common myth that Guerra dispels is the concept of needing 20% down to buy a home. She noted that this is a common message young borrowers often receive from older family members, who are often unaware of the various mortgage programs available.
“I can’t believe that I have to dispel this myth, but you don't need 20% down to buy a home,” Guerra said. “People I talked with at these big events, they're telling me, ‘Nora, my mom and dad said I didn't have 20% down, and I can't buy a home.’ You can buy a home with 0%, 1%, or 3% down. You don’t need 20% down.”
Due to affordability challenges on the market, many prospective first-time buyers believe they must remain in rental properties rather than owning their own home.
“People say, I don't qualify. I got denied. I need to be a renter,” she said. “No, you do not. Get a non-occupant co-signer. Get a second signer, or get a third person. As a Latina, that is a housing strategy we Latinos have embraced. We need to do that now for our prospective buyers. Then, they can refinance two years later, when the rates go down, and get that other person into a home.”
Steve Marks (Ohana Mortgage Solutions) is successfully utilizing multigenerational mortgage loans in Hawaii, where cultural norms often include multi-family living arrangements, to help first-time homebuyers qualify for mortgages they otherwise couldn't. https://t.co/jzdqjxSdKl
— Mortgage Professional America Magazine (@MPAMagazineUS) July 23, 2025
A report that Guerra worked on at Freddie Mac discussed the buyer of the future. It mentioned how millennial buyers are highly educated, but they haven’t received the financial training needed to navigate transactions like a mortgage. So they typically fall back on what they see on TikTok or Instagram Reels or hear at home at the dinner table.
“I have to educate them on every nuance and dispel the myth of what mom and dad have said,” Guerra said. “If social media is bad, mom and dad really discourage these folks from buying. But remember, due to a lack of inventory, mom and dad haven't bought a home for the last 10 to 15 years. They are not the experts. We are.”
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