At roughly $8,500 per loan and continuing to defy gravity, scholars disagree on whether vendors lower the cost of originating a residential loan. But then again, scholars disagree on everything. (We can expect new cost figures from the MBA early next week but most expect it to increase somewhat on lower volume.) There are over 1,400 vendors that “touch” residential lending, and plenty of lenders are overwhelmed in deciding who is doing what, and which can best help their clients. (I wish that I had a dollar for every lender, vendor, or tech company that either capitalized some middle letter in their name or took the conventional spelling of a word and changed it.) A random sampling of vendor news below.
Lender Products and Services
The MBA Tech Conference is next week in Dallas from March 24 to 27. Asurity will be there to show how its mortgage ecosystem combines data-driven, dynamic document architecture and compliance testing, reporting, and analytics tools into one powerful solution. It’s not just about the docs, but rather the data driven result from origination through close and beyond. Its systems’ data validation prevents package generation when a loan is out of tolerance and performs compliance testing at the loan-level through bi-directional integrations with your preferred LOS. From disclosure to close, all dynamic content, calculations, and compliance tests are fully warranted and defended by a $10 million E&O policy. If you are heading to Dallas, be sure to connect with one of Asurity’s experts to see how they can help streamline your lending processes. Better yet, schedule a meeting beforehand.
Simplify your underwriting process with Loan Product Advisor® asset and income modeler (AIM). Through the expertise of third-party service providers, AIM automates the manual processes of assessing borrower assets and income. AIM reduces the burden of traditional documentation, speeds up the loan origination process and helps you close loans faster. Freddie Mac is working hard to bring you solutions that create efficiencies for your business and improve the borrower experience - giving you a competitive edge. These capabilities are available now. Gain greater efficiency in your underwriting processes with AIM - get The Freddie EdgeSM.
The Caliber Home Loans, Inc. Correspondent channel is a one-stop shop that provides a growing array of loan options and variety of solutions to provide superior and knowledgeable service. Caliber Correspondent has just originated its 7,500th Non-Agency loan and has long been regarded as the pioneer in post-crisis, non-agency lending. Caliber was the first lender to reintroduce non-agency products into the mortgage space post-2008, providing creditworthy homeowners an alternative to restrictive agency and government products. Most recently, Caliber Correspondent was ranked the #5 non-bank Correspondent channel by Inside Mortgage Finance based on its 2018 volume. With enhanced technology and best-in-class service, Caliber Correspondent offers a simple and easy partnership with proprietary technology that supports the entire mortgage origination process. Interested in partnering with Caliber Correspondent? Visit www.calibercl.com for more information.
Stay productive and profitable by converting transactions at a higher rate with HomeScout lead and conversion technology solutions. This proven technology platform has helped thousands of lenders across the country by introducing them to home buyers early in the purchase process, prior to meeting an agent; giving them more control over their transactions and closing more loans. Take the guess work out of where leads and pre-approved borrowers are going to search for homes by introducing them to HomeScout’s 100% MLS listing data and keep them off public search sites where they can be sold to your competition. HomeScout offers lenders a powerful search widget that seamless integrates into their existing web sites to provide more resources for their customers in a single location. See them at MBA’s Technology Conference in Dallas next week. Go HERE to schedule a demo or call 952-831-1919. You’ll be glad you did.
Training and Events
As the bumpy ride in the mortgage industry continues, XINNIX has partnered with Mitch Kider, one of the industry’s foremost legal experts, to help us understand how to steer into calmer skies. TOMORROW at 2PM, they’re presenting a powerful webinar—Transcending the Turbulence: The New Era of Change in the Mortgage Industry. In this webinar, they will tackle some of the industry toughest topics, including LO compensation, compliance, and mergers and acquisitions. Seats are limited, so CLICK HERE to sign up today!
With the changes in the market and managers desperately looking to replace lost production, recruiting has never been more in focus than it is today. However, in order to be an effective recruiter you must understand the 7 critical steps to ensure a successful recruiting campaign. Join Recruiting and Leadership Mastery founder, Ron Vaimberg, President of Ron Vaimberg International, Inc. for a complimentary webinar on recruiting and team leadership, The 7 Step Ultimate MLO Recruiting Process to be held on Thursday, March 21st at 3 pm Eastern / 12 pm Pacific. In this webinar you’ll be taken step-by-step through the critical aspects of building a successful campaign for attracting the right talent to your organization. Whether you are a sales manager, branch manager, or company owner, you will not want to miss this one-time opportunity to learn and master the proven system necessary for building your sales team. Click here to register for this FREE webinar!
It is forecasted that as much as half the labor force will be working independently and virtually by 2020. Sierra Pacific Mortgage is hosting a webinar, “Working Virtually: How to be Productive, Efficient and Valued” on Tuesday, March 26 at 11:00 am PST. Take the time right now to register so that you are prepared for the workforce later. From this course you will gain best practices and tips on working remotely or virtually.
Vendor-Mania
NRL Mortgage is now using the Riivos Mortgage Lending forecasting, planning and reporting application to help them analyze and capitalize on growth opportunities. "We are expecting a challenging environment over the next few years and need a financial budgeting, reporting and forecasting solution that can help us continue to maximize profitability," said Chief Financial Officer Joe DeDominicis, NRL Mortgage. "We vetted several vendors and Riivos is the only vendor that specializes in the mortgage industry, so implementation was painless," he continued. "The Riivos team serves as a trusted advisor to independent mortgage banks and banks, so they delivered a solution that is customized to our operation and reduces our dependence on manual, Excel-based planning."
Tammac Holdings Corp., a financial services company that specializes in lending programs for the manufactured housing industry, announced $60 million in new financing from LL Funds to support housing lenders across the Northeast. Additionally, the capital will be used to accelerate hiring, expand its loan product offerings and enhance its technology platform infrastructure to enable Tammac to streamline its loan application and origination process. Tammac has been a leader in offering new and competitive financing options to the manufactured housing industry since 1976 and currently operates in 13 states in the Northeast and Midwest and has originated over $1 billion in manufactured housing loans since 1997.
RoundPoint Mortgage Servicing Corporation implemented CLARIFIRE® as its loss mitigation workflow automation platform. CLARIFIRE provides loss mitigation workflows coupled with a robust workout underwriting calculator and offers a proven workflow platform that seamlessly integrates across systems that yields a more efficient process and improved customer experience. Already reaping the benefits of a streamlined workflow and measurable operational efficiency gains since implementing in January, RoundPoint will begin expanding the use of CLARIFIRE’s platform to propel their customers’ experience to new heights during the loss mitigation process.
CoreLogic launched its enhanced Verification of Employment and Income solution. An inefficient applicant verification workflow can cost lenders time and money. The enhanced VOE/I product features a three-step “waterfall workflow” that ensures each borrower’s employment and income is verified as efficiently as possible. Step One: Instant verification via a direct integration to The Work Number (TWN). Step Two: Automated verification leveraging dozens of third-party data sources. Step Three: Manual verification by a team of dedicated CoreLogic verification experts. In addition to the waterfall workflow, the enhanced VOE/I product offers an easy to use interface with real-time tracking and detailed status labels to better understand where each submission stands.
A while back First Allegiance, a certified woman owned national field services company, announced Valuation Occupancy Inspection. First Allegiance has combined the best of two services: Drive-by BPO's and Occupancy Inspections. Get the latest value of a property and determine occupancy with one order request. Geared toward early stage delinquency borrowers, foreclosure, and REO situations. Contact Brian Daily for more information.
Capital Markets
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac jointly hosted a conference updating market participants on the status of the Single Security Initiative (SSI). The primary purpose of the conference was to discuss recent developments and plans related to the rollout of the initiative, which is on track to “go live” on June 3. Read the MCT Whitepaper March 2019 Single Security Initiative Conference Recap to review the initiative, receive the update on recent developments, and learn how MCT plans to adapt to the new trading terminologies and protocols.
Broadridge has brought on the first and largest retail credit union, the Navy Federal Credit Union, to its Mortgage-Backed Securities Expert Saas platform. “The credit union will leverage the platform’s advanced functional capabilities for its mortgage-backed processing needs across the front, middle and back-office. Broadridge’s platform is designed to give users an efficient and effective advantage, minimizing the time to market and expense associated with MBS solutions. Subsequently, Navy Federal has already transacted over $2B worth of MBS trading with MBS Expert and is now a full-clearing member of the FICC’s MBS Division.”
The time period leading up to the Federal Reserve meetings usually provides a series of snoozer days, rate-wise, and Monday was no different. All treasuries across the curve moved within a +/-1 bp band, the U.S. 10-year closing +1 bp to 2.60%. Any news of note came internationally. Across the Atlantic, British Prime Minister Theresa May was warned a third vote on the Brexit deal will not be entertained unless the proposal is substantially different from the previous versions. (This comes after Prime Minister May warned MPs that a failure to support her deal would lead her to seek a lengthy extension from the European Union.) Japan reported a February trade surplus 33% above expectations, and rumors have the meeting between President Trump and President Xi not happening until June. China's President Xi may travel to North Korea in April.
We have two economic releases of little substance on the calendar today, Redbook Chain Store Sales and January factory orders at 10:00am, but don’t expect either to have much of an impact on markets. At 1PM ET day one of the two-day FOMC meeting will get under way in D.C. Fed Chair Powell recently called inflation expectations “the most important driver of actual inflation.” And Vice Chair Clarida warned against allowing inflation to slide down toward zero, as that neuters the central bank’s ability to react to downturns. We will know the thoughts of the Fed to a much larger extent tomorrow. Today begins with agency MBS worse a tick or two and the 10-year yielding 2.61%. Steady as she goes.
Employment
On Q Financial is helping their borrowers and Originators to stop competing with other offers and start winning the bid with their On Time Closing Guarantee. They’re closing loans in as little as 15 days OR ELSE they pay both the buyer AND seller $1,000. If you're a passionate and driven individual that thrives in a fast-paced environment and you're interested in joining the team at On Q, please contact Nick Suwanvichit or visit On Q Financial Careers.
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