I hope that Google never shuts down. I know six, maybe seven, things. I know that the President’s plane was delayed seven hours this morning due to cicadas. Another thing I know is that Freddie spelled out its graduated cap on non-owner and 2nd homes. I also know that rumors are now swirling that Fannie has sent out letters to selected lenders either cutting them off from selling Fannie these products or scaling them back dramatically. I know that guarantees can be problematic but a great way to garner headlines. Lenders offer products, price, and service, and it is hard to guarantee the industry to be #1 in one category, and nearly impossible to be #1 in two of those categories for any length of time. But guarantees have popped up recently in the wholesale channel, most recently from United Wholesale Mortgage and LoanStream Wholesale, and in the retail channel by Filo Mortgage. More below! (Today’s audio version of the commentary is available here. This week’s is sponsored by MCT and includes Part Two of an interview with SVP of Capital Markets, Justin Grant on BAM Marketplace the world’s first truly open loan exchange, where every loan can be priced by every investor, regardless of approval status. Join MCT today at 10am PST for a webinar providing a demonstration and details on how to achieve true best execution.)
Broker and Lender Products and Services
950k+ Homeowners Have Been Extending Forbearances For At Least 1 Year: Even with 14 straight weeks of declining forbearances (per MBA), re-entries are on the rise and ~954k homeowners have been extending forbearances for at least 1yr. What does this mean for servicers? Sagent policy pro Matt Tully offers key servicer takeaways from this week’s MBA forbearance data. Check it out here, and hit us directly with questions. To catch these briefings each week, follow Sagent on LinkedIn.
Is Thought Automation task automation 2.0? Candor thinks so (see what I did there?). It makes sense. Last year lenders hired in droves because they needed people to think through problems. So far Candor has automated 570,932 underwrites, so it must be doing something right. Ask for a demo here.
When thinking about unlikely, yet iconic duos, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau undoubtedly come to mind. The pairing, whether playing an Odd Couple or Grumpy Old Men, just works. Another pairing that works well together is servicing/subservicing operational reviews and servicing QC teaming up to create a comprehensive servicing risk management strategy. To make sure this duo is working as well as the comedic chops of Lemmon and Matthau, MQMR has developed a Servicing Risk Assessment that analyzes and grades the effectiveness of a lenders’ servicing program, identifies specific areas of concern within the servicing program, ensures the servicing program is effectively mitigating lenders’ risk and more. Once lenders complete the assessment, an MQMR servicing expert will then provide personalized and actionable recommendations. Make sure your servicing risk management strategy isn’t laughable: Take MQMR’s Servicing Risk Assessment today.
Appraisal Management Companies are all alike, aren’t they? Not so fast, cowboy - contrary to popular belief, AMCs can differ widely in their fees, service levels, turn-times, geographic coverage, compliance, and more. The CFPB requires any company under their purview to “Know Your Vendor.” So here are 12 Questions to Ask Your AMC, as well as the answers you should look for. Don’t be surprised! This is brought to you by Triserv, a 50-state AMC that has client-specific, dedicated teams on both coasts offering high-touch, personalized service. To find out more, contact Triserv Appraisal Management Solutions at learnmore@triservllc.com.
Monster Lead Group is reinventing mortgage marketing to help lenders and brokers generate revenue. They're the first and only company to use big data & analytics to qualify borrowers. Then, using conversion-centric direct mail marketing, they drive high-quality sales leads. If you need exclusive mortgage leads for your LOs, talk to the team at Monster. Or take a minute to read how they can help.
Are you leveraging intelligent automation? If not, you should be. Bring the different areas of your business together and serve all borrowers and product types with RM Automate and the robust Zoral Automation Platform. More than just robotic process automation (RPA), or a spot solution designed to address one specific use case, intelligent automation leverages artificial intelligence and advanced decisioning to allow companies to completely reimagine the entire loan manufacturing process. Leveraging the Zoral Automation Platform, our team works with clients to deliver automation from front end to back-end operations, allowing you to meet borrowers of all types, from any channel, where their needs are, and streamline operations in the process. Contact us to schedule a demo today to see how this intelligent automation can help mortgage leaders get ahead.
Too Much Time Spent In Email? Most mortgage teams are drowning in email, an old habit that once-upon-a-time created efficiency, but when overused significantly reduces productivity. Teams can lose as much as 50% of a workday managing, comprehending, and responding to volumes of messages flowing in-and-out of sight in their email inboxes. However, up to 99% of internal coordination emails (and the time they consume) can be eliminated with smarter collaboration systems. As this case-study shows, a division of American Pacific Mortgage produced 280% more revenues and quadrupled production in 30 days using simple, collaborative task-based-workflows from TeamworkIQ which eliminates the effort required to coordinate loans with “email-and-spreadsheets”. TeamworkIQ provides real-time, detailed views into each loan file and actively coordinates team member priorities across all the loans your team handles. At $24/mo./user the ROI is sky-high. See the data for yourself. Make the switch. See the case-study and request a test-drive.
Company-sponsored Events
When it comes to virtual resources, Stearns Wholesale has continued to provide exclusive monthly trainings and webinars on product and program developments, latest news, and market trends. Next Tuesday, June 15th, Stearns Wholesale will hold their monthly Town Hall webinar with special guest, Garth Graham, Senior Partner of STRATMOR Group. This upcoming session will cover a variety of informative and exciting topics, including industry trends, M&A, and more! If you’d like to register for this upcoming Stearns Town Hall with Garth, you can sign up here. If you’d like to partner with Stearns or learn more, click here to be contacted.
Knowledge Assets are hard to quantify, yet good-quality content in our industry is often hard to come by without a price tag. That’s why the team at ReadyPrice is partnering with brokers and lenders to provide quality educational content through their community platform, kicking off with a NAMB sponsored webinar in collaboration with Windsor Mortgage Solutions. Join us on Tuesday, June 22, 11:00 AM PST / 2:00 PM EST for a discussion with industry leaders Rick Soukoulis and Chris Vinson, as they present “What’s Winning Look Like to You? How to prepare yourself (and your team) for future success.” Register for the webinar using this link, and get your lender-sponsored access to the ReadyPrice community platform today by visiting www.readyprice.com.
Wholesale News
Guarantees are a tool used by some businesses for various reasons, and lenders are no exception. On the retail side we have Filo Mortgage’s guarantee for the lowest “total lender cost of rate, points and fees for the same mortgage program.” For a limited time United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) will match Conventional loans for primary residences with these 15 competitors on their 30-, 45-, and 60-day locks versus UWM's 15-, 30- and 45-day locks. And in the non-QM channel, LoanStream Wholesale boasts, “We will beat the rate or price on any Non-QM/NanQ loan from any competitor for all locked loans from Tuesday, April 20th, 2021, through June 30th, 2021.* (*The Best Price Promise requires a valid competitor's rate sheet at the time of lock. Valid only for Non-QM loan programs. Terms and conditions apply. This program is subject to change at any time.)
loanDepot’s Weekly Announcement discusses 2020 Federal tax returns reminder, Freddie Mac Seller Guide updates, and Fannie Mae’s reminder regarding employees of marijuana business’.
Mountain West Financial® extended its May free appraisal special through the month of June. Read Announcement 21W-038 for details. And Mountain West Financial Wholesale posted a Tax Document Flowchart, view additional information in Bulletin 21W-032.
Mountain West Financial® issued Wholesale Bulletin 21W-029 addressing UHC Sales and Income Price Limits.
CalHFA income limits have been updated for the first and subordinate loans. The new income limits will take effect for loans locked on and after June 1, 2021. View MWF Wholesale
Bulletin 21W-036 for details.
First Community Mortgage updated information on SOFR Adjustable-Rate Mortgage (ARM) in Wholesale Announcement 2021-9.
LendSure Wholesale Mortgage offers 90% LTV Bank Statement Loans with No MI. P&L Statement or CPA letter not required, both business and personal bank statements are permitted, and the borrower does not have to be 100% owner of the business.
AmeriSave Wholesale Mortgage Solutions is now powered by artificial intelligence and offers “lightspeed loan underwriting.” A new division of AmeriSave Mortgage Corporation, AmeriSave Wholesale Mortgage Solutions (AWMS), is known as ‘AUSSIE,’ a proprietary online platform that uses artificial intelligence to accelerate the lending process. AWMS “offers brokers completed loans in just seven days, shattering the current 10-12 day clear-to-close average through its industry-first technology and team of wholesale-minded experts. Using proprietary technology, it calls ‘AUSSIE’, an acronym for Automated Underwriting System Streamlined Internet Experience: artificial intelligence allows for around-the-clock underwriting in just seven hours and approval from clear-to-close in seven days. Additionally, the online platform requires no training to use, offers superior accuracy, has fewer errors, and offers competitive rates.”
Don’t forget that UWM announced its Appraisal Promise, which guarantees that appraisals (through UWM-approved AMC’s) will be completed within 10 business days or 50% of the appraisal cost will be credited back to the consumer. This promise applies to every brokered loan.
Capital Markets
Whether you’re considering a transition to mandatory delivery or are already hedging, Black Knight has the expertise and solutions to support your secondary marketing needs. Our comprehensive hedge analytics solution delivers a unique combination of robust hedging functionality, true best execution capabilities, industry-best practices, and trading desk services to help leading mortgage lenders confidently manage pipeline risk. We invite you to join our industry experts at our upcoming webinar, Hedging 101: The Benefits of Delivering Loans Mandatory, where we’ll examine loan pipeline management, risk mitigation and profit optimization. Attendees will gain a thorough understanding of hedging theory and best practices, hedging vehicles and their application relevance, and adaptive strategies to consider during market fluctuations. Register today to reserve your seat for this informative session, which will be held on June 10 at 1:30 PM ET.
Mortgage rates declined yesterday, as much due to investors continuing to process last week’s underwhelming payrolls report rather than any meaningful headlines on the day Tuesday. The bond market showed no reaction to the day's well received $58 billion 3-year note sale, which precedes today's $38 billion 10-year note reopening and a $24 billion 30-year bond reopening tomorrow. Also worthy of a slight note was the utilization of the Fed's reverse repurchase facility hitting another record with the total take-up reaching $497 billion yesterday. Economic releases on the day showed that the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index declined slightly in May from in April and job openings increased to 9.3 million in April from a revised 8.3 million in March.
Today’s economic calendar began with Mortgage applications from the Mortgage Bankers Association. They continue to drop. Applications decreased 3.1 percent from one week earlier for the week ending June 4, including an adjustment for the Memorial Day holiday. Later this morning brings wholesale inventories and sales for April as well as the aforementioned $38 billion reopened 10-year Treasury note auction. The Desk will conduct two operations targeting up to $4.65 billion across UMBS15s and UMBS30s. National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day starts with Agency MBS prices better by roughly .125 and the 10-year yielding 1.50 after closing yesterday at 1.53 percent on thoughts that inflation is really not picking up and that the U.S. economy is not doing quite as well as we thought it was.
Employment
A National Title Insurance Agency located in NY looking for a National Salesperson. This is an extremely lucrative position if you have the right connections. Real estate is thriving and if you have the ability to tap into your contacts this is for you. Please send resume to Chrisman LLC’s Anjelica Nixt and specify this opportunity.
loanDepot is looking to add a sales-based recruiter to drive growth in its wholesale division. If you are currently, or have recent experience, recruiting account executives nationally and want to join a company that has aggressive plans for growth, this is for you. loanDepot has experienced great success with its industry leading sales team, leadership, operations, and product/pricing model. For more information or a confidential conversation, contact Steve Rennie.
Finally, there’s a better business model that provides LOs with ultimate control, unmatched pricing & a proprietary LOS that promotes faster closings! See how top producing loan officers are leveraging digital storefronts to expand market reach and increase volume. Canopy Mortgage is hiring top producing Loan Officers and Branch Managers. Build your business the way you want, Join Canopy to stand out in the following markets: CA, CO, FL, GA, HI, IL, NC, SC, TN, TX, WA. Reach out to Josh Neumarker at Canopy Mortgage for more information 801-330-5016.
Get Rob Chrisman Daily by Email
