Legal eagles out there are buzzing about PHH deciding not to appeal the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C.’s January decision in its CFPB challenge. Recall that four months ago the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. Circuit ruled en banc in favor of PHH’s RESPA claims, but rejected its CFPB constitutionality claims. With neither PHH nor the CFPB filing a petition for certiorari, the PHH case will not serve as a vehicle for Supreme Court review of the CFPB’s constitutionality. (Assuming that the CFPB is still called the CFPB), it released its  regulatory agenda last week. In other legal/regulatory news, Nationstar Mortgage agreed to return of inspection fees in a $1 million settlement with Maryland.

Products for LO's and Lenders

Mortgage Speaker and New York Times Bestselling Author, Todd Duncan, recently announced that his High Trust Coaching Program has 60 slots opening up June 1, 2018. Between May 15th-29th, they are offering a free 30-minute coaching consultation to see if coaching is right for you. The program boasts that their coaching members make 8X more than the industry median. Consideration will be on a first come basis to those who qualify. Click here to schedule your free consultation.

Maxwell, the emerging digital mortgage leader for lending teams across the nation, is continuing to make a huge impact in the industry. From independent lenders to credit unions and even TPOs, I’ve seen their product drive real results and transform businesses. They’re scaling incredibly fast, now facilitating over $1B in origination volume per month. It shouldn’t be surprising that an easy to launch borrower-centric experience can take the industry by storm. The team at Maxwell has told me they are closing mortgages over 45% faster than the industry average and reducing underwriting turns by 25%. If a digital mortgage platform isn’t on your road map for 2018, it needs to be! Learn More About Maxwell Here.

One of the difficulties of implementing new technology is how it integrates with current software and business processes. While future time savings of technology is an obvious benefit, set up can be a real challenge. Choosing a company that will consistently be there to support you during and after implementation is the key to success. As an example, new technology like the Bid Auction Manager (BAM) from MCT introduces the ability to significantly improve processing speed of an organization’s best execution loan sales. Built to integrate quickly and easily into existing secondary processes, the software includes rapid market-adjusted pricing, commitment data write-back, and a centralized bid repository, all from a dedicated team of capital markets experts who provide ongoing support. Whenever you’re considering new technology: schedule a demo, think about the amount of time saved, the difficulty of implementation, and ongoing support offered to help inform your decision.  

Envoy Mortgage announced its new marketing operating system powered by Total Expert. With the addition of Total Expert, Envoy continues its commitment to be an industry leader by offering first-rate technology. “Providing our loan originators with the best tools available continues to be one of our focus points in 2018," said Ron Millard, CEO of Envoy. “In 2017, we launched several marketing and technology driven platforms to arm our loan originators to expand their business in the local communities. We are focused on the future of the industry. As the world becomes more modern and digitally driven, so does Envoy. Our loan originators have the automation tools for many marketing and back-end processes allowing them to continue to shape strong Realtor and borrower relationships. Our partnership with Total Expert is testimony to our non-stop effort in building our brand and continuing to create lasting relationships.”

PlainsCapital Bank National Warehouse Lending, a subsidiary of Hilltop Holdings (NYSE: HTH), “continues to look for opportunities to help reduce our customers costs as related to their warehouse funding needs. That is why we offer multiple incentive pricing options to reduce costs for our customers; Tiered Utilization Incentive Pricing allows our customers to set utilization tiers they are comfortable meeting with rate incentives that reduce their costs. Our customers can also take advantage of Deposit Incentive Pricing. PlainsCapital Bank offers a competitive line up of Treasury Management products and when our customers take advantage of those products, they earn rate incentives to further reduce costs. We are committed to building strong relationships with our customers and providing the service you need most.” If you are interested in learning more about PlainsCapital Bank National Warehouse Lending, please contact Pamela Robinson, SVP National Sales or Deric Barnett, EVP National Warehouse Lending.

When you’re in, you’re in. And for over 22 years the team at HomeScout-HBM has been IN. In the business of helping lenders succeed by providing lead and conversion technologies to help them be successful in good markets and bad. With the many challenges facing today’s real estate lending industry, the HomeScout-HBM technology platform continues to provide loan officers with solutions that help build buyer pipelines, improve lead conversion, retain preapprovals and compete with larger lenders by engaging customers with real estate search and providing business intelligence to streamline work flows. HomeScout-HBM has proven lead and conversion technologies that have helped lenders build relationships with top-performing agents and tech-savvy homebuyers, increasing purchase production and commissions for thousands of loan officers from coast to coast. For more information and schedule a demo contact us HERE or give us a call at 952-831-0623.

Trainings and Events

Join Freddie Mac on Wednesday, May 16th for a free webinar and learn how to incorporate Loan Quality Advisor into your business processes to further strengthen loan quality, as you identify potential pre- and post-closing loan eligibility issues before delivering loans to Freddie Mac.

Indecomm is offering a complimentary “Ask Me Anything” webinar with Joy Gilpin, VP of Indecomm Compliance & Mortgage Learning, on Thursday, May 17 at 2PM ET. The topic is Policy & Compliance. “We offered the first one last week and it was a big success, and we're offering the next one this week. “What policies you are required to have based on entity type? Risk exposure relative to compliance training? Compliance management systems, oversight, and requirements? Whether a policy you have provides the appropriate coverage to be considered compliant?” You'll be able to submit your questions live during the webinar session.

Learn how to avoid common underwriting mistakes with Plaza’s Wednesday, May 16th webinar presented by Genworth.

Arch MI has a complimentary Fannie Mae HomeStyle webinar on May 17. “The session will cover guidelines and expanded eligibility for HomeStyle Renovation and HomeStyle Energy, including program features and benefits.”

Hear from Ari Karen, Principal with Offit Kurman and CEO of Strategic Compliance Partners, on 5/17 at 1PM ET as he discusses best practices and strategies for mergers and acquisitions in the mortgage industry in this webinar.

Register for the Sun West webinar on May 23rd to learn about its enhancements to the SunSoft BrokerQueue.

Register for the Richey May & Co. Webinar 3: Provisions Impacting Business Income Under Tax Reform on May 24th. This webinar will examine the entity changes with the largest potential influence on the lending community.

Sun West is adding Fannie Mae's HomeStyle® Renovation into its program / product library effective immediately. Register for its May 30th webinar for FHA 203k Rehabilitation and HomeStyle Renovation Training.

The Fannie Mae 2018 Risk Management Boot Camp is open. “Register today to enhance your knowledge of quality control, underwriting/policy, and condo project standards. All sessions will focus on mitigating post-purchase risk while supporting our joint commitment to loan quality. Participation is exclusive to Fannie Mae sellers/servicers. For more information, check out the Boot Camp fact sheet.”

ACUMA is holding a workshop for mortgage-lending credit unions in Charleston SC May 22-23, and another in Minneapolis in mid-June.

The Indiana Mortgage Bankers is having its 2018 IMBA State Convention and 60th Anniversary Gala in early June in Ft. Wayne.

The Mortgage Collaborative will be holding its 2018 Summer Conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago, IL from Sunday, August 19th through Tuesday, August 21st. That is also the weekend of the Chicago Air & Water Show, America’s largest air show. “TMC has done something pretty neat with their conferences, they allow their lender members to dictate the content, format, and agenda of their events. The result? A myriad of lender-led, discussion-based breakout sessions each day on (very specific) topics and issues viewed as the most pertinent by their national network of lenders.”

Capital Markets

Folks wonder about non-QM, jumbo, or ARM securities. “Tight spreads” are good things for LO/borrower pricing, and spreads between non-QM pools and AAA have been tightening over the last year as the market has become more comfortable with this asset class. The deals coming to market have less riskier layer and offsetting factors such as lower LTVs compared to the alt-A and subprime pools of the past. Pool sizes have typically ranged between $200 million and $300 million though first-time issuers have trended below $200 million. Looking at the last twelve deals, spreads have tightened from a high of 110bps in February 2017 to 58bps in January 2018 with a couple outliers likely due to uniqueness in the pool characteristics. While the tightening cannot be solely attributed to increased familiarity with the product as well as increased liquidity, these factors are significant and could likely contribute to continuing tightening in AAA spreads.

Housing and jobs drive the economy. As a reminder, existing home sales increased 1.1 percent to a 5,600,000 annualized pace and new homes sales increased 4.0 percent to a 694,000 pace.  Supply for existing homes remains tight at just 3.6 months’ worth and new homes stand at a moderately tight 5.2 months’ worth. The tight supply is expected to support moderate house price gains as we continue through the year. According to the most recent Case-Shiller US National Home Price Index, prices have increased 6.3 percent over the previous twelve months with Western cities showing the strongest gains.

Yesterday 10-year Treasury yields closed at nearly 3% as investors assessed the outlook for trade relations and tensions in the Middle East when President Trump eased some tensions ahead of a meeting in Washington between U.S. and Chinese officials this week, despite mixed comments from some in his administration. He did tweet that he and Chinese President Xi are working on getting Chinese telecom firm ZTE back into business soon. Traders will get to take the pulse of the Chinese economy today: China’s retail sales and FAI (fixed income investment) fell short while industrial production was better than expected.

Cleveland Fed President Mester said she sees gradual rate hikes over the medium term but cautioned that rates could go up more quickly if economy grows faster than expected. She also advised on the U.S. working now to keep debt-to-GDP ratio from getting out of hand in the future.

This morning we’ve had April retail sales (+.3%, control +.4%) and May's Empire State Manufacturing Survey (at 20.1, higher than forecast). The Redbook Same-Store Sales Index for the week ending May 12 is due out shortly thereafter at 8:55am ET (previously 0.8% MoM, 4.25% YoY). The May NAHB Housing Market Index and March business inventories are next up at 10AM ET with the NY Fed's Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit at 11AM. The Treasury will auction $45 billion of 1-month T-bills at 11:30AM. We also have several Fed speakers: Dallas' Kaplan, the Senate Banking Committee’s nomination hearings on Rich Clarida (Vice Chair) and Michelle Bowman (Governor), and San Francisco Fed President Williams. After the initial retail sales and manufacturing data, we find the 10-year yielding 3.04% and agency MBS prices are worse .250.

Employment and retirement

“At Lenda, we close loans three times as fast as the industry average. Lenda is a San Francisco-based startup is on a mission to create a simple, radically transparent home loan experience for consumers. As a Home Loan Advisor, you will work closely with a high performing operations team to deliver loans to borrowers in as fast as 13 days. You will approach our customers with a consultative, customer-service driven approach and be the liaison between operations and the borrower throughout the entire loan process. Our technology will deliver new qualified leads for you every day and you must respond to those lead within 1 hour. We are looking for experienced loan officers who want to join a team that is transforming mortgage into a paperless, honest, transparent and fast industry. At capacity, we expect that you will be able to fund at least 15 loans/month. If this sounds like a good fit for you, please apply here.”

Congrats to Wells Fargo Home Lending's EVP Brad Blackwell who announced his September retirement from Wells’ Housing Policy and Homeownership Growth Strategies.