“It was the third of September, that day I’ll always remember, yes I will… Wherever he laid his hat was his home… And when he died, all he left us was a loan.” Oh, sorry, “alone.” (And yes, I dance like that, at the 2-minute mark, when I finish sending this commentary out every day.) My guess is that The Temptations, through hard work and talent, generated a fair amount of wealth for themselves and those around them. I know that we’ll probably have a record number of MLOs who earn north of a million bucks this year. Did you, as a lender, make some doubloons in the 2nd quarter? I sure hope so. Independent mortgage banks and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks reported a net gain of $4,548 on each loan they originated in the second quarter, up from $1,600 per loan in the first quarter. And speaking of money matters, the U.S. central bank now owns almost a third of bonds backed by American home loans. U.S. government debt is on track to exceed the size of the economy for the 12 months ended September 30, a milestone not hit since World War II, and the Congressional Budget Office reported that federal debt held by the public is projected to reach or exceed 100 percent of U.S. gross domestic product. Someone has to pay for this, right?
Lender and Broker Products and Services
“We get it, everybody and their dog is refinancing with the rates right now, but your processors are unable to get to a file for 4 days, so everybody (dog included) ends up going with another lender. Truework can help. Our dedicated team of highly trained mortgage industry professionals at Truework is committed to tackling and completing your VOE/VOI request (whether manual or automated) so you can close your loans faster than ever. Truework is a US-based company and has partnered with major lenders across the country to conduct 100,000+ verifications and counting. And for a limited time, Rob Chrisman readers get 5 free Verifications ($200 value). Let us do the heavy lifting so you can focus on what matters. Interested? Email zackary@truework.com.”
NAN’s vision is 2020! Nationwide Appraisal Network's (NAN) CEO, Joni Pilgrim, is a proud winner of the prestigious 2020 Women With Vision Award. Pilgrim joins the winner’s circle surrounded by the top women professionals in the mortgage industry. “Joni has paved the way for women in the mortgage and valuation business as well as women entrepreneurs across all industries. She is a fearless leader who is always ten steps ahead,” says Ashley Griffin, Director of Marketing at NAN. As NAN enters its 16th year in business, Pilgrim’s success as CEO of one of the top AMCs servicing mortgage lenders and brokers, comes as no surprise. Pilgrim is the epitome of professionalism and is a true visionary leader. NAN’s success in 2020 is a direct reflection of her leadership. From August 2019 to today, NAN has seen a 119% YoY growth in orders and is on track to finish Q3 with record-breaking numbers.
In celebration of National Mortgage Professional month, AFR Wholesale would like to say THANK YOU to all the mortgage professionals who work so hard to make the dream of homeownership come true for so many. Fully invested in the success of their business partners, AFR Wholesale offers a wide variety of value-added complimentary services, including On-Demand Processing. If you’re like many mortgage brokers in 2020, your sales pipeline is flowing, but processing loans can take up A LOT of your time. In addition to underwriting, funding, and closing your loans, AFR can also process your loans for you, so you can focus on acquiring new business! AND it’s on a loan-by-loan basis, so they process only the loans you choose. For more information about becoming a partner, go to afrwholesale.com, email sales@afrwholesale.com or call 1-800-375-6071.
Already proving to increase lender purchase conversion rate 3-10X, Home Captain has now announced the Home Captain Hub, a Conversion Optimization System, with a new suite of innovative products and services tailored to dramatically increase the lifetime engagement and satisfaction of mortgage service and banking customers who are purchasing, selling or refinancing their home. This includes products for portfolio retention, artificial intelligence lead engagement, loss mitigation, and customer propensity modeling while enhancing Home Captain’s home buyer and seller concierge services. Combining technology and human services enables clients to increase revenue events, recapture customer relationships, and provide industry leading NPS scores. Home Captain has begun rolling out its Hub to their current portfolio of over 40 lender and bank customers and is projecting complete adoption of the new product by the beginning of 2021. Visit www.homecaptain.com/enterprise-solutions to learn more about Home Captain’s new suite of products and opportunities.
Is it really possible to close a loan in 7 days? Yes, says Jay Promisco, Chief Production Officer at Sierra Pacific Mortgage, and it starts by “redesigning and reimagining how a mortgage should work.” Catch up on our recent States Title Ask the Expert webinar and find out how Sierra Pacific designed a baseline workflow for the “mortgage of the future.”
Event News
MBAC has rescheduled its 65th Annual Convention Due to COVID -19, deciding to hold next year's event at the Hotel Ballast in Wilmington, October 4- 7, 2021. Sponsorship Opportunities for 2021 Convention will be sent out in the future. MBAC still has other opportunities for you to get involved, if you need to hire, has a new career hub, on our website, webinars, forums, and blogs. Questions can be addressed to Robin Weyrens (704-557-0204).
Franklin American Mortgage Wholesale Customer Training Calendar for the month of September is posted. Training opportunities include Seizing Market Share, Organizing and Planning a More Effective Day and Week, Negotiations – How to Get What You Want, Up Your Game to Score Approvals Sooner, 5 Habits of Highly Effective Salespeople: Habit #3 and Detecting & Avoiding Fraud in Loan Files.
Arch MI has released its September calendar of training and events.
PRMG University TPO Training Calendar for September is Now Available. Live webinars include PRMG Outlook Basics Part I and Part 2, Phone Call with a Purpose, Rural Property Appraisals and Symmetry HELOCs for TPO.
FHA is offering a free, online webinar, Thursday, September 10th, to assist FHA-approved lenders (and their auditors) with their upcoming Annual Recertification and provide detailed information on how they can successfully submit an acceptable recertification package via the Lender Electronic Assessment Portal (LEAP).FHA-Approved Lender Annual Recertification Requirements.
NAMMBA Connect registration (free) is now open, slated for September 16-17.
The upcoming Colorado Mortgage Summit on Thursday, Oct. 1st will be LIVE at the Embassy Suites Denver Tech Center North. It features actionable insight, It will show you how to make more money with compelling new tech offerings, It looks at how to best make use of your Wholesale rep. and It's got amazing showcases of techniques you can use to make yourself and your sales teams much more productive. (And, of course, we want to make sure everyone will be safe. So please understand that masks are mandatory.
Capital Markets
Have you updated your pull-through forecast to account for the agency refi fee delay? Mid-August originations can be expected to fall out at a higher rate and require special attention. Get guidance on forecasting this unique pull-through environment in Rasori’s Relentless Releases Episode 1 from MCT, and review tactics to profitably manage borrowers in the Rate Renegotiation Policies Explainer. Phil Rasori will be back shortly with Episode 2, focusing on loan and lock level hedge costs. Stay tuned by joining the MCT newsletter.
It’s not yet Labor Day Weekend, so I’m going to use the “dog days of summer” to describe the market yesterday. The yield curve flattened again, the large news on the day being the Federal Reserve's Beige Book for September observing an improvement in activity in most Districts, though the gains left overall activity well below the previous peak. Manufacturing and consumer spending slowly improved, commercial construction was broadly lower, but residential real estate sales improved. Employment increased in most Districts but slowing job growth was reported in some places. The ADP Employment Change report missed badly, a troublesome precursor to tomorrow’s payrolls report. Factory orders in July, which is a sign of business spending, increased more than expected following an upwardly revised increase in June, the third straight monthly increase in factory orders following declines in March and April. Finally, and disappointingly, there was no progress on the stimulus front from Washington. Senate Leader McConnell expressed doubts, saying talks haven't been fruitful and that any embrace of bipartisanship has "descended" as the fall elections near. Based on that ADP employment report, the economy seems it could use further stimulus.
This week, both the MBA and Black Knight reported a roughly flat sequentially total industry forbearance rate, though the GSE forbearance rate ticked slightly lower to 5.3 percent according to Black Knight. Several weeks after supplemental federal unemployment insurance benefits expired, we have still not seen any notable uptake in forbearance, though monthly payments due in September are likely to present a more important test of borrower health. The majority (62 percent per the MBA and 72 percent per Black Knight) of borrowers in an active forbearance plan are now in an extension of their initial relief plan. The industry mortgage forbearance rate has generally flat-lined for several weeks around 7 percent to 7.5 percent after peaking around 8.5 percent to 9 percent in June.
Today’s economic calendar is already underway: August job cuts from Challenger (115k, -56 percent from July), weekly initial claims for the week ending August 29 (881k, lower than forecast), July trade deficit (63.6 billion) and revised Q2 productivity and unit labor costs (+10.1 percent, down to +9.0 percent, respectively). Later this morning brings final August Markit services, August ISM non-manufacturing PMI, and Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week ending September 3. Today also sees two dovish Fed presidents speaking: Atlanta’s Bostic and Chicago’s Evans. The NY Fed will conduct three MBS FedTrade operations totaling up to $5.4 billion MBS, starting with $754 million UMBS15 2 percent followed by $2.9 billion UMBS30 2 percent and 2.5 percent and $1.8 billion GNII 2 percent and 2.5 percent. The Desk will then report on MBS purchases for the week ending September 2 in the afternoon. We begin the day with Agency MBS prices unchanged from Wednesday’s close and the 10-year yielding .65 percent, also unchanged.
Employment and Community Development
All signs indicate that Home Point Financial is gearing up to make a continued big push in market share. Home Point has competitive pricing, great service, retains servicing as part of its Customer For Life philosophy, and Home Point is hiring like crazy. Home Point is on pace to have hired more than 800 people in 2020, with three recent additions in Operations leadership showing that the company is pursuing an increasingly faster process, too. The company welcomed industry veterans Kami Kent, Jennifer Romo, and Christa Formo to its team this week. Already the fastest-growing Top-5 wholesale lender and the 12th largest correspondent lender in the country, despite having only been in business for five years, brokers and correspondents are looking to buy, buy, buy into Home Point “stock” moving forward. If you’re a mortgage broker or correspondent that still needs to get signed up with Home Point, visit their website now.
“Caliber Home Loans recently raised $500,000 in its United Way fundraiser (Caliber Kindness) to benefit COVID-19 relief operations. The funds represent generous donations from employees that were matched by Caliber. ‘At Caliber, we felt it was important to help those most in need in 50 of our top communities where we live and work,’ said Caliber CEO Sanjiv Das. ‘I’m so proud of how our employees stepped up to this challenge, and we’re thankful for United Way’s partnership and support.’ Do you want great job satisfaction, to work at a company with an outstanding employee satisfaction rating and to have the ability to truly make a difference where you live and work? Contact Jonathan Stanley today. #CaliberStrong.
“There’s no shortage of opportunities these days for Underwriters, Closers and Funders who are looking to make a career move. But how do you know which company is the right fit for you? At Axia Home Loans, we are more than just 100% employee owned. We are a collection of genuine, hardworking professionals dedicated to achieving excellence through the extraordinary service and support we provide not only to our customers, but to each other. We’re tech savvy, efficient, inclusive, and offer great benefits. But at the end of the day, it’s really all about the people, isn’t it? Would it make your day to work alongside fellow employee owners who, at ALL levels of the organization, are passionate about serving and supporting each other? If so, Axia may be a perfect fit for you. Apply for an open position now or contact Leslie Boyce for more information.”
AmeriHome is now the 3rd largest correspondent investor in the country according to Inside Mortgage Finance, and it’s still growing! AmeriHome is currently hiring for several positions, and now is a perfect time to join the AmeriHome team! AmeriHome Correspondent is looking for Non-Delegated Underwriters, as well as a Non-Delegated Underwriting Trainer, and a Non-Delegated Underwriting Manager. AmeriHome is also looking for Delegated Underwriters, Loan Review Operations Managers, Loan Review Specialists, and more. Positions are available in Southern California, Texas, and remote! AmeriHome's commitment to Relationships, Reliability, and Results applies both externally and internally; it is invested in their employees' long-term success and development. They have a great, supportive culture, and a focus on career pathing, mentorship, and career growth opportunities. Visit AmeriHome’s careers page to view all open positions, and submit resumes to Mitchell Tsai to schedule an interview.
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