Blame mental health. Blame gun control. Blame “the system” or background check procedures. There’s plenty of blame to go around when it comes to the terrible mass shootings, and shootings in general. One would think politicians are weary of saying, “Our thoughts and prayers go out to…” Meanwhile, states wait for the next one. Are U.S. states at least putting money into housing construction? Yes! Speaking of the United States, several readers wrote to me regarding my post Saturday about the significant strides that Hispanics have made in obtaining financing to purchase homes, and more specifically to tell me that the United States as no official language.
Lender Products and Services
“Using the Right Tools and Team: When asked, lenders like yourself often say that trailing docs is the weak link in an otherwise fluid operation. You stretched your resources, but still can’t keep up with the tedious, but critical, tracking and follow-up needed to ensure that all docs are retrieved and processed in time to send to your waiting investors. At DocProbe, we heard you loud and clear. So we put together a team, and built the technology to quickly and accurately retrieve, audit, manage corrections, and ship every deed and title policy on time. Our proprietary LOS-integrated software lets you track your loans while we do all the work. And our online reporting shows the status of all files in real time. Your DocProbe rep works with you to customize the system according to your needs, as we become your partner in turning out great work. Always correct. Always on time. To get started, email nerlanger@docprobe.net or call us at 866-486-0554.”
“The Stearns Lending Wholesale https://www.stearnswholesale.com/ team continues to break records, with July 2019 being our highest lock month in nearly two years. Stearns continues to demonstrate our unwavering commitment to the mortgage broker. Through operational excellence, industry leading technology and Account Executives that are committed to bringing value to our clients, the Wholesale channel continues to make waves in the market. We are ready to kick August into high gear with new product offerings, new pricing specials and great technology enhancements to our SNAP 2.0 system. If you’re a broker looking to sign up with a lender who has a 30-year track record of success, please email us.”
“Spring EQ Wholesale, the 95% combo and 100% CLTV stand-alone, fixed rate home equity lender that pays LPC on every closed loan, is growing. Joining the team are the following Senior Account Executives: Amanda Saunders in the Southeast region, Andy Schmitt in Nevada/Texas, and Susan Feight in the Northeast region. In addition, we are announcing a webinar designed to show you, the originator and your company, how important a Home Equity 2nd mortgage product offering is to your overall ‘Customer for Life’ strategy. Competition is fierce and keeping your customers connected and thinking of you as a trusted advisor is hard work. Having a well thought out strategy for your past customers and their needs beyond a single transaction is more important today than ever before. Differentiate yourself and compete by partnering with Spring EQ Wholesale. You can view the webinar directly from Spring EQ Wholesale’s webpage. To contact Spring EQ Wholesale for more resources to make it easier to execute a second mortgage strategy please click here.”
“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 Deric Barnett.”
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.
According to CSO Insights and the 2019 CMO Survey, less than half of loan officers use their CRM to increase sales, and only 36% of marketing executives can prove marketing ROI to the C-Suite using quantitative metrics. To solve these problems and help you create immediate ROI on your tech investments, Momentifi has created a mobile app that integrates with your current CRM and LOS. “The Momentifi App allows you to increase the applications and fundings from each marketing campaign by making it super simple for your loan officers to follow up without having to log into your CRM,” says Gibran Nicholas CEO of Momentifi. “Loan officers can send personalized text messages and videos to borrowers and referral partners that get logged into your CRM for compliance. The best part is that you only pay for the LOs and LOAs who actually use it.” Click here to schedule a demo.
CFPB Rumblings
It was reported to me that since last June, the CFPB has been investigating a tiny Chicagoland mortgage lender for possible Fair Lending Violations. Recently, the DOJ opened its own investigation in the case leading some sources to conclude that the Bureau may be ready to take legal action. If it does, it may be testing a new legal theory of discrimination that harkens back to the FCC’s Equal Time Rule.
Based on what has been seen thus far, this Equal Time theory suggests that if a financial services company fails to provide an equivalent opportunity to every demographic or political group, then it may be considered guilty of redlining violations. At issue is the way the Chicago-based lender advertises its services and, apparently, expresses its conservative political viewpoints. The small lender apparently has its own radio show on Chicago’s AM560 The Answer, the same radio ration that features Sean Hannity, Jay Sekulow, and Hugh Hewitt. Does this constitute discrimination against listeners who don’t agree with conservative commentators?
An anonymous source confirmed that “an independent investigation of the lender’s HMDA data indicated that it was not an outlier and actually beat several larger peers.” The source said they were also scratching their head when they learned that an independent survey of Chicago African American residents revealed no perception of discrimination, leading them to wonder what was driving the case.
As one person sent to me, “If the CFPB moves against a small lender without the finances to oppose it, we could see a legal environment that requires banks, lenders, title insurance agencies, real estate brokerage, real estate agents, loan officers, attorneys, and others to spread out their advertising budget evenly based on demographics, political affiliation, religious affiliation, or other metrics that might be a proxy for a prohibited basis under fair lending laws, even into markets and media outside of their competitive strategy. Or worse, this could be a free speech issue in which corporations, owners, and executives cannot express any political beliefs the then-current administration finds objectionable. Will companies started pulling their ads from Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, and moving them to MSNBC and the New York Times?
“Seems incredible but consider the impact of conservative media losing half or more of its revenue just in time for the 2020 election cycle. It’s probably time to reach out to your Congressional representatives about this issue.”
The CFPB has updated its TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) frequently asked questions to include items regarding provision of the Loan Estimate (LE) to consumers.
The questions outline the six required pieces of information that, once collected, begin the clock to run on providing the initial Loan Estimate: The consumer’s name, income, consumer’s social security number to obtain a credit report, property address, an estimate of the value of the property, and the mortgage loan amount sought. Once the six pieces of information have been received, the initial LE may not be held pending additional verifying information. Additionally, if the consumer is seeking to obtain pre-approval or pre-qualification and submits the six pieces of information, a LE is required to be issued. View the CFPB’s TRID frequently asked questions.
The CFPB issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the definition of a “qualified mortgage” under its ability-to-repay/qualified mortgage rule. Morrison and Foerster tells us that the ANPR states that the Bureau does not intend to extend the temporary qualified mortgage (QM) classification for loans eligible to be purchased or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. This decision raises important regulatory and policy issues.
FHA, VA, Ginnie News and Trends
On Tuesday, Aug. 6, at 2 p.m. Eastern, the Mortgage Bankers Association will be hosting the webinar, VA Underwriting for Military Veterans. The event features NewDay USA Chief Credit Officer Michael Oursler.
In case you weren’t around last week, HUD acted and its moves are, “designed to reduce risk associated with cash-out refinance lending. The changes preserve homeowners’ ability to convert home equity to cash via a government-sponsored mortgage but also improves the risk profile of HUD’s housing finance programs… the FHA will lower its maximum LTV requirements for cash-out refinance transactions from 85 percent to 80 percent. This policy change will be effective for loans with case numbers assigned on or after September 1, 2019 and aligns with the maximum cash-out LTV allowed by the Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs).” And Ginnie Mae issued All Participants Memorandum 19-05 (APM 19-05), which is the implementation of changes to pooling eligibility requirements for VA insured, or guaranteed, mortgages.
Ginnie Mae published a Request for Input (RFI) on the analytical framework it is developing to assess Issuer financial performance under a variety of economic environments to continue to monitor and support the sustainability of the Ginnie Mae MBS market. As outlined in the Ginnie Mae 2020 progress report, the development of this analytical framework and the publication of the RFI aligns with additional policy steps the agency has undertaken to ensure the strength and liquidity of Ginnie Mae's counterparties. All responses to the RFI are to be submitted to Ginnie Mae at gnma.rfi.submission@hud.gov no later than 3:00 PM Eastern Time on August 31, 2019. The RFI may be viewed here.
Ginnie Mae posted changes to its requirement regarding the Trustee for a new HREMIC transaction effective as of July 31st 2019.
Last week FHA published Mortgagee Letter (ML) 2019-10, which announced the suspension of the effective date of Mortgagee Letter 2019-06, “Down payment Assistance and Operating in a Governmental Capacity,” until further notice. Mortgagees were advised to continue following the guidance published in the Single-Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1 regarding this matter.
Capital Markets
Someone listened to LOs who prayed, “Just give me one more refi boom and I’ll retire.” U.S. Treasuries ended last week with yields on the 10-year note and the 30-year bond reaching their lowest levels since late 2016, though the much-anticipated release of the July Employment Situation report did not cause any waves in the market. The 10-year closed yielding 1.86% as rate cut expectations increased once again towards near certainty that another cut will take place in September. Economic releases Friday after the release of the commentary showed the final July reading for the University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment missed expectations as economic uncertainty and trade uncertainty has inversely impacted consumers in addition to the fed. And Factory orders in June also missed expectations and will prove to be a drag in the second estimate for Q2 GDP.
This week brings a light economic calendar, but Fed speak resumes following last week’s decision, and the latest central bank decisions are due from the RBA and RBNZ. Today’s domestic calendar brings the final July Markit Services PMI, the ISM nonmanufacturing PMI for July, and the Employment Trends Index for July. Things pick back up tomorrow with JOLTS figures for June, the most important release of the week outside of Friday’s PPI figures. After news of China’s retaliation in the trade and currency war, further hitting world economies and stock & bond markets, we begin the day with Agency MBS prices better .125-.375 and the 10-year yielding 1.76%.
Employment
50 for 50. This is what ACC Mortgage is calling the plan to generated $2.5 billion dollars a year in Non-QM paper. ACC has designed and built a platform to support 50 top quality AE to each generate $50MM a year. AEs will not be restricted to geography, or by legacy. ACC has grown to 26 states, increased its funding capacity, lowered rates, and created new products. On top of the top comp plan in the industry, ACC has added a profit-sharing program to compliment the generous health and benefits program while leading the market as the Oldest Non-QM Lender in the industry. If interested, please send resume to recruiting@accmortgage.com
Trinity Oaks Mortgage is proud to welcome Scott Crutcher as Executive Vice President of National Production. Scott joins Trinity Oaks with a wealth of industry knowledge with experience from origination to leadership. Scott’s track record of building profitable and productive teams will be utilized as Trinity Oaks continues to expand nation-wide. “Scott is an incredible asset to our team,” said Trinity Oaks Mortgage President TJ Henley. “Our business continues to grow due to bringing on team members who believe in our vision and want to join us in our efforts to orchestrate simple home buying experiences for families across the country.” Leveraging a unique culture, cutting-edge technology, robust marketing, and outstanding operations team, Trinity Oaks Mortgage is hiring Producing and Non-Producing Branch Managers and Loan Officers in its multi-state footprint. If you’d like information about career opportunities, Scott can be reached here.
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