Pro Teck Valuation Services' Home Value Forecast (HVF) examined the impact of lower oil prices on home values. Perhaps to no one's surprise, the HVF suggested that areas with a diverse economic market and don't solely depend on oil experienced stable home prices. The HVF evaluated Houston's home prices compared to crude oil prices within the last forty years and found that Houston's home prices have been slightly increasing due to the diversity of the industry (with the exception of the 1980s). The survey also identified the ten best and the ten worst performing metros ranked by the survey's market condition ranking model. San Antonio, Houston and Denver joined Washington State and California areas as top performing metros according to real estate market indicators including, sales/listing activity and prices, months of remaining inventory, days on the market, sold-to-list price ratio, foreclosure percentage and REO activity.

Stonegate introduced Streamlined Commitment for VA IRRRLs. Stonegate Mortgage has recently introduced a streamlined commitment for VA IRRRLs for Wholesale and Prior Approved Correspondent clients. Its new process program offers VA approved accounts greater speed in underwriting and closing. Their goal is to have VA IRRRL loans approved in 24-48 hours, Wholesale loans funded in 15 days or less and Prior Approved loans clear to close in within 10 business days of receipt.  

The Correspondent Division of Envoy Mortgage posted information regarding removals of overlays, minimum credit scores reduced and lower/reduced LLPA's. For complete information, click ENVOY CLD.

Mann Mortgage, LLC announced that it has enhanced its risk management policies and procedures governing its mortgage lending business by requiring all settlement agents to pass independent risk evaluation, rating, monitoring and reporting in order to close their residential mortgage loans. The process will be managed for Mann by Secure Settlements Inc., the first vendor management firm to specialize in closing table risk. Mann chose the SSI Closing Guard^TM tool to evaluate all settlement agents who wish to close loans with its company. For more information, visit the Mann Mortgage website.

Plaza's guidelines have been updated to reflect Home Possible Advantage loans eligible to 97% LTV. Plaza's Home Possible Guidelines have been revised with other improvements as well. For more information, view its Home Possible Program Guidelines. Refer to the Program Guidelines for complete changes and requirements.

Nationstar Mortgage Correspondent Lending published its seller guide update on Monday, March 9, Various Credit Overlay requirements and clarifications have been updated since its release. To download the complete update, please click here.

Citi posted updates to its general and loan specific credit policies and announced, effective as of March 5^th, a more streamlined pricing formula for its Rate Renegotiation Policy to address borrower rate change requests on its "best efforts" rate-locks.

First Community Mortgage Wholesale has issued its February product and pricing guideline changes. To view these updates, click here.

M&T is re‐introducing FHLMC Super Conforming. This Agency program which provides conventional financing for borrower's financing properties in high‐cost markets.  This program is Freddie Mac's version of the FNMA High Balance.  The borrowers can get conventional loan underwriting instead of a higher priced Jumbo loan option. M&T is has also returned to offering the Fannie 97% LTV option. M&T also posted an introduction to its Early Renovation Review Process for 203(k) loans in its latest bulletin. This service enables a Correspondent to submit all renovation documents for review after a loan has been registered but prior to purchase.  M&T's Project Review team will conduct all reviews.

Wells Fargo Funding's January newsflash covered the following information: An overview of the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule and Policy Expansion regarding Tax Return Transcripts for W-2 Income. Also included are updates to its Maximum LTV/CLTV Reductions for Condominiums and Non-Conforming Loans which are in effective as of March 2, 2015. Updated Non-Conforming Conventional LTV Matrix and a Reminder regarding Standard Documentation Requirements are now available as well.

Speaking of TRID, according to Dr. Matt Lind of STRATMOR Group, TILA-RESPA disclosure requirements are one of the most significant changes to the mortgage lending process the industry has seen since the passage of Dodd-Frank. Do you wonder how your peer lenders are addressing this important regulatory change?  Find out by participating in the STRATMOR PeerViews survey. This free survey addresses how lenders are approaching the implementation of the new TILA-RESPA disclosure requirements along with the status of their implementation and is open to senior mortgage lender executives until March 31st. Participants will receive a report summarizing the findings in early April. The results will be aggregated so that individual company results are not disclosed to any party, nor will they be displayed in such a way that individual company responses could be determined.

Regarding TRID, James Brody with American Mortgage Law Group writes, "I wanted to provide you with a link to the recording and PPT of the AMLG webinar with MBA guest speakers. While we had to cut around 500 people to meet the maximum 1,000 allowed, we have been receiving some incredible feedback and it may be something that your audience will benefit from. Hope all is well and look forward to hearing when you want to do our lunch. 

"Rob, I read your opening paragraph a while back about the large number of correspondent lenders, but my CEO still wants to take a look at moving into that space. Do you have any idea about staffing for a correspondent division?" Well, a few. I can see the attraction - the correspondent channel is a good way to add servicing economically. First you'll need someone to run it. After that you'll probably need a Regional Sales Manager who manages individual client relationships, client level pricing, a Regional P&L, many aspects of counterparty risk, accountable for ensuring client bills are paid on time, input to annual planning and corporate as well as regional strategy. That person is basically there to figure out "why a wheel fell off" and has the tools and internal company resources and relationships to fix it, along with managing the support team for the region, either directly or via a dotted line. They could manage other sales people, may or may not deal with loan level issues, informs and trains correspondent clients about products and pricing, and is accountable to annual volume and P&L goals.

After that you'll need an Area Manager who handles all of the above but with less focus on regional and corporate strategy & planning. Typically an Area Manager is present in cases where the Regional Manager is far removed from clients, and when there are a lot of AEs to manage. Under that person you need Account Executives for "outside sales". These folks will focus on just bringing in the volume, informing and training correspondent clients about products and pricing, and spends a certain amount of time visiting clients in their physical office. You could also have AEs for "inside sales". They pretty much do the same as above but without the physical presence - usually works from a corporate or centralized office, which has advantages when dealing with policy makers or loan level issues. They are less costly but are arguably less effective. Hope that helps!

Turning briefly to bank mergers & acquisitions, things have been pretty quiet - but they are still being announced. In Kanas three bank holding company Southeast Bancshares ($291mm) will acquire The First National Bank of Howard ($8mm). Up in Illinois five bank holding company Foresight Financial ($921mm) will acquire State Bank of Herscher ($136mm). Down in Tennessee McKenzie Banking Co ($123mm) will acquire The Farmers Bank ($12mm), and in New Jersey Glen Rock Savings Bank ($136mm) will acquire Llewellyn-Edison Savings Bank ($122mm). Perhaps the biggest news is that the FDIC has given conditional approval for Primary Bank (NH) to insure customer deposits and open as a new bank after it raises at least $22mm in capital. This is only the second bank to open in 4 years.

Turning to the markets, we've certainly seen some volatility this week, and Thursday the bond markets did give back some of Wednesday's rally - not atypical. For news yesterday Initial Jobless Claims were +1k to 291k and the previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 289,000 to 290,000. The 4-week moving average was 304,750, an increase of 2,250 from the previous week's revised average. The Philadelphia Fed was "5.0" in March, as expected. (How'd you like to do that for a living: spend your time estimating what the Philly Fed is going to be next...?)  And the Conference Board's Leading Economic Index +0.2% to 121.4 in February.  By the time the dust settled agency MBS prices were worse about .250.

Interestingly, traders have seen increased agency MBS trading, and I am hearing lock desks are seeing a nice pick up in lock volumes - maybe even some records yesterday for some reason. Perhaps margins have been dropped, and borrowers & LOs might be thinking that rates are going up and the opportunity for a rate & term refinance is slipping. There will always be cash out refis, right? As Thomson Reuters mentioned, "Supply has been a cloud over the sector the past several weeks, with $2 billion the new norm as rate locks get pulled through and hedged more frequently."

There is no news this morning, and the markets are pretty quiet here at the Vernal Equinox - the traditional start of spring. The 10-yr is sitting around 1.96% and MBS prices are a shade

Jobs and Announcements

In the jobs & expansion category, Guardian Mortgage Company is seeking producing Branch Managers and Loan Officers as it expands its presence in Michigan. Positions are available in the Grand Blanc, MI office and a new location in Oakland County, MI. "Serving generations of homebuyers since 1965, Guardian is dedicated to Loan Officer empowerment-as proven by an average Loan Officer tenure of 10+ years-through origination assistance and in-house Marketing and Training Departments. Guardian's approach to the business of residential mortgages is one of integrity, honesty, and retained servicing focused on long-term relationships and what is right for the needs of each borrower. For the top 12 reasons why Guardian would be a good fit for you and how you can join a partner you can trust," please visit GuardianMortgage or forward your confidential inquiries and resume to LO-Employment@gmc-inc. com.

2,300 miles away National MI continues its expansion and is searching for an Account Manager in the Northern California market. The Account Manager utilizes their expert understanding of the residential mortgage industry and their existing relationships in the Northern California market, to build strong relationships with key senior level client advocates and influencers, and drive new business. This individual will meet with clients on a daily basis, clearly communicate the National MI value proposition, articulate industry and client trends, and use their superior presentation, communication and interpersonal skills to develop opportunities, train and educate clients, and grow profitable market share within their assigned territory.  Headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, National MI is a U.S.-based, private mortgage insurer enabling low down payment borrowers to realize homeownership. For the complete job posting, visit National MI.

Congrats to Matt Patterson who has joined 1^st Advantage Mortgage, as National VP of Business Development in the Hammonton NJ office. "Matt's professionalism and integrity have provided him with a solid foundation of knowledge, ethics, and understanding, and his 33 years of experience make him a great fit for managing company growth. Prior to joining 1st Advantage, Matt was the President of Superior Mortgage Corp. and was the Regional Manager at Guaranteed Rate for an area with offices covering NY, NJ, PA, and DE managing a $1.5 billion plus region. At 1st Advantage Mortgage, Matt will focus on growing the company, especially on the East Coast. 1st Advantage Mortgage, a Draper and Kramer company, is one of the top 100 Mortgage Bankers in America.

Let me introduce to you Wildcat Lending, LLC., a hard money (also known as private money) lender in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. "This area of lending is such an untapped or unknown area of lending that EVERY Real Estate Agent and Loan Originator needs to know about, especially in today's lending market, to get more offers accepted and more sales and loans closed.  Need a bridge loan or can't approve a 'subject to' appraised value?  Hard money is the next 'big' thing in terms of demand in residential lending and Wildcat is willing to educate you and show you how we do business so you close more deals. We lend on the After Repaired Value, or ARV, and our loans include both purchase and rehab funds. This is for investment properties only where an investor acquires, renovates and either flips or keeps the property as a rental. Closings can be days (remember those days?) and this is basically considered a cash offer!  Please email Jeremy Rehwald or Kai Chandler to learn more about Wildcat Lending's loan products and terms.