Thu, Jun 24 2010, 12:59 PM
I’ve talked to quite a few loan originators over the past month. My most recent conversation with a loan officer started out with an explanation of a...
Tue, Jun 22 2010, 3:13 PM
We’ve talked a lot about how it makes sense for an originator to latch onto a commercial or federally chartered national bank. Net worth, state licen...
Thu, Jun 17 2010, 12:33 PM
Over the course of the last decade, many mortgage bankers implemented a "Russian Roulette" approach to managing the risks associated with originating ...
Thu, Jun 10 2010, 3:42 PM
I noticed a short article this week in the Wall Street Journal that reported on the $108 million settlement between Countrywide Financial and the Fede...
Mon, Jun 7 2010, 3:21 PM
The perfect mortgage company allows a loan officer to focus 100% of their attention on their job: WRITING LOANS! There are a handful of regional and...
Thu, Jun 3 2010, 1:15 PM
A month ago I visited a client in Las Vegas, the epicenter of the mortgage and real estate malaise. During my interviews, the owner of the operation i...
Tue, Jun 1 2010, 3:37 PM
The MBA recently published a comprehensive study on the risk management practices of the mortgage industry that ultimately led to themeltdown. The s...
Thu, May 27 2010, 3:56 PM
As with a conventional mortgage, there are costs associated with a reverse mortgage. While perceived as high, once understood you’ll see the reverse ...
Tue, May 25 2010, 10:44 AM
I recently attended a Board of Directors meeting of a mid-size commercial bank that owns a mortgage banking operation. I was invited to make a presen...
Fri, May 21 2010, 1:30 PM
Twenty years plus years ago I was operating a wholesale mortgage bank that was owned by a savings & loan that was on the brink of shutting down. Regu...
Thu, May 20 2010, 3:34 PM
USDA Section 502 Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loans are primarily used to help low-income individuals or households purchase homes in rural areas....
Wed, May 19 2010, 10:31 AM
Our Management Advisory Program (MAP) results for the first quarter 2010 are starting to come in. We measure top line revenues, gain-on-sale, compen...
Mon, May 17 2010, 3:47 PM
The GSEs were once the cornerstones of American Homeownership. However, at last count, the CBO estimated that it would cost taxpayers $389 billion thr...
Thu, May 13 2010, 3:08 PM
This week USDA announced that lenders could continue to fund loans despite a budget shortfall that had threatened to put an early end to 2010 USDA loa...
Tue, May 11 2010, 3:31 PM
America was built by risk-takers, and you can’t have risk without potentially negative outcomes. If America were to become a risk-free society, this ...
Thu, May 6 2010, 3:41 PM
Regional mortgage bankers (RMB) with a retail and wholesale orientation may be the best partners for mortgage brokers. We won’t call it what it reall...
Tue, May 4 2010, 3:14 PM
We are dumping millions of dollars to support people who are in trouble on their mortgages, in many cases these are people who over stretched to begin...
Tue, May 4 2010, 2:45 PM
The mortgage business is a study in Darwinism. Mortgage participants that learn to collaborate and adjust to the business environment will prevail. ...
Fri, Apr 30 2010, 1:59 PM
Let’s do a short review of what I believe RMBS traders were thinking in 2006 and 2007 and what they did to address increasing risk to the firm. They ...
Thu, Apr 29 2010, 1:04 PM
Political thinkers like George Orwell and Hannah Arendt used to think technology would be the permanent boot-jack on the neck of mankind. You only nee...
Tue, Apr 27 2010, 5:37 PM
Mortgage bankers can’t survive without loan originations. Loan originations create the opportunity to generate revenue through loan fees and secondar...
Fri, Apr 23 2010, 1:58 PM
I recently received my ARM notice from Aurora Loan Services that my interest rate was going to adjust in 30 days. Remember ALS? It was the savings ...
Wed, Apr 21 2010, 3:37 PM
Jonathan Spurr, a like-minded colleague of mine and a wholesale account rep for 18 years came up with this idea which we just pitched to the Arizona D...
Tue, Apr 20 2010, 3:11 PM
This last Saturday I paddled something new. I’ve had a habit of kayaking 2-3 places and not exploring something new. There are many great bays and l...
Mon, Apr 19 2010, 12:32 PM
Recently lenders have been offering an option of ‘no origination fee’ on the HECM fixed rate reverse mortgage program. This sounds good on the surfac...
Thu, Apr 15 2010, 2:44 PM
During our visits to mortgage companies, we often get asked: Does it make sense to retain servicing? And, if it does, when should be it considered?
Tue, Apr 13 2010, 12:16 PM
We almost never see mortgage bankers doing formal, ongoing due diligence on their counter-party risk, and it always concerns us. The point of looking ...
Fri, Apr 9 2010, 11:32 AM
This week, I visited a small North West retail mortgage banker that is doing around $20M per month. I was hired to perform a FOCIS study on the compa...
Thu, Apr 8 2010, 11:01 AM
If you are a mortgage banker, you know what the new four letter word is: COMPLIANCE. Investors, regulators and consumers will be using compliance viol...
Thu, Apr 8 2010, 4:09 PM
It is a common belief that one must have a lot of equity in their home to qualify for a reverse mortgage. In reality, a reverse mortgage can be done i...
Mon, Apr 5 2010, 12:27 PM
Loan Approvals Before Delegated Underwriting; Repurchase Liability and the Value of a Mortgage Company; Flagstar Stock Dilution; Citi and TARP
Mon, Apr 5 2010, 1:05 PM
The reverse mortgage industry started out as a fulfiller of dreams to the greatest generation. For its first 17 years of existence, regulators outside...
Thu, Apr 1 2010, 1:42 PM
If a mortgage banker has been originating and selling loans to investors, it should it should prepare for The Law of Unintended Consequences. One doe...
Tue, Mar 30 2010, 11:46 AM
If you are considering raising capital today, take some time to understand the difference between Common and Preferred Stock. If you are looking to m...
Mon, Mar 29 2010, 3:20 PM
Most people have preconceived notions about reverse mortgage. Why are so many folks afraid to hear the facts from an expert?
Mon, Mar 29 2010, 2:20 PM
We hate to sound like a nag, but what are you doing to track your leakage? If you’re building in a profit of, say, 150 bps on FHA loans, are you real...
Fri, Mar 26 2010, 11:00 AM
We recently reviewed a FOCIS-plus study with board members and management of a small mortgage bank. What was interesting about this company was its s...
Wed, Mar 24 2010, 12:01 PM
We look at the most recent results of the difference between best efforts and mandatory delivery. There are four key areas a mortgage banker must dev...
Tue, Mar 23 2010, 3:51 PM
It’s hard to manage a company without have the details of revenues, cost of goods sold and expenses. Appropriate placement of the details on the P&L...
Mon, Mar 22 2010, 1:54 PM
Would you invest in a company laden with huge amounts of debt and moderate growth or a company with high growth and no debt? What if the choice were ...
Thu, Mar 18 2010, 12:06 PM
We perform our FOCIS audit for warehouse lenders looking to identify hidden risks and potential “tapebombs” that may result in unexpected losses. We ...
Tue, Mar 16 2010, 3:47 PM
I have probably drafted around 15 different articles for a Community Commentary since the beginning of the year, but chose not to post them because fo...
Tue, Mar 16 2010, 1:21 PM
There is a saying in the business world that “you raise money when you don’t need it”. With the many changes in the industry, there have become many ...
Mon, Mar 15 2010, 4:33 PM
Let’s pretend you’re a bank and you’re funding mortgages today with Fed Funds. Fed Funds will cost you 16 bps, and let’s say you’re closing 5% loans....
Fri, Mar 12 2010, 3:51 PM
Top performing mortgage bankers made 90-100 bps per loan. That means, for every $100 million you closed, you should have (and could have) earned $900...
Thu, Mar 11 2010, 12:48 PM
A portmanteau means a blend of two or more words and their meanings into one new word. An example is the word brunch meaning breakfast +lunch. Anoth...
Tue, Mar 9 2010, 2:56 PM
Frank Sinatra’s son was kidnapped on a Friday in 1963, and the singer called up Bank of America, Security Pacific and a few other big banks asking for...
Mon, Mar 8 2010, 11:59 AM
The arrangement works like this, the bank collects a fee for the appraisal from the borrower; orders an appraisal from the appraisal management compan...
Mon, Mar 8 2010, 3:01 PM
HVCC has been a challenge for originators who don’t have the flexibility they had in the past. Some mortgage bankers complain there are quality issue...
Fri, Mar 5 2010, 12:10 PM
Mandatory commitments offer the opportunity to increase profits and even lower rates, but we must point out the risks associated with mandatory commit...
