1. What’s your elevator pitch? Give us the elevator pitch on why you think this nominee should be an Insider honoree. (No more than three sentences.)
2. Contribution to your organization. Provide the reasons this person is so valuable to your organization, focusing particularly on the last 12 months as applicable. You may also include any volunteer work or trade organizations they are a part of.
3. Leadership and excellence. Describe how the nominee has actively demonstrated excellence and reflected the values of your company. One or two paragraphs recommended.

For questions about Insiders or any of our awards programs, contact Lesley Collins at lesley@hwmedia.com.

This program recognizes mid-level industry professionals in real estate and mortgage who have become essential forces in their respective fields within housing. Those housing professionals whose enterprising efforts are moving markets forward, each and every day.

Winners of the 2026 Insiders award will be announced on HousingWire.com on August 3, 2026.

Nominations for the 2026 nomination period are open June 1 – June 30, 2026.

Nominees must be working in the housing industry, which includes businesses in residential mortgage lending, servicing, investments, or real estate (see break outs above). Each application must provide tangible evidence of significant impact within their individual company, primarily focused upon the past 12 months.

A selection committee made up of HousingWire’s editors, executives and reporters will decide who is nominated.

Nominations must be submitted via HousingWire’s official award submission platform. Click the registration button above once the nomination period has opened.

The nomination fee ensures award winner integrity by only allowing serious candidates to be nominated, and covers editorial time. It takes a significant amount of time and resources for HousingWire’s editorial and awards team members to organize and successfully determine who will be named to this year’s list.

No. We need to have the application completed through the submission form, including contact information for the person you are nominating.

You can nominate yourself, a client, a family member, your boss, an employee, or an acquaintance. The most important thing is that you state a clear, business-oriented reason for the nomination.

No, only one nomination per person is necessary to be considered by the panel.

Yes, multiple professionals from the same company can be nominated and will each receive individual consideration.

After the nomination period closes, the HousingWire selection committee begins an extensive process of reviewing all nominations, evaluating accomplishments and applying industry knowledge to determine the impact each nominee has on their organization and the industry. Following review, the editorial selection committee holds a series of meetings to determine which candidates will be chosen. We strive to select the most impressive and impactful leaders leveraging the nomination information and industry knowledge of organizations, accomplishments and trajectory. The process takes a significant amount of time over a compressed schedule.

Honorees of all HousingWire awards, including Insiders, become a part of the larger HousingWire family and are frequently tapped into for other opportunities including Q&As to promote future awards, podcast interviews, panelist opportunities at HousingWire events and much more. However, this is not a requirement for any HousingWire award winner.

Unfortunately, we cannot provide status reports. If we need any further information, we will contact you.

No. PR firms often submit candidates, but they do not influence the judging.

With hundreds of candidates and only a few spots available, the majority of the time we are unable to share specific feedback for each nominee who wasn’t selected. Oftentimes, many quality nominees don’t make the cut.

We understand that things change and nominees may switch companies in between the time that they’re nominated for an award and the time that the selection committee votes on the winners. In this scenario, HousingWire will continue to keep the person on the winners’ list and work with the honoree to update their awards profile to include information — if they so choose — about their new endeavor. We treat our people-based awards like they belong to the award winner. That said, once someone is selected, we believe it is fair to continue to recognize the honoree despite the fact that he/she may have switched roles.