A Zen master visiting NYC approaches a hot dog vendor and says, "Make me one with everything." The hot dog vendor fixes a hot dog and hands it to the Zen master, who pays with a $20 bill. The vendor puts the bill in the cash box and closes it. "Excuse me, but where’s my change?" asks the Zen master. The vendor responds, "Change must come from within." Most believe that, despite thoughtful and continuous efforts by those in the industry, there won’t be any change coming from Congress this year, perhaps even next, on Freddie and Fannie’s status. There’s not a lot of urgency, nor is it an election issue, nor, it can be argued, are consumers being hurt by current policies and procedures. The FHFA and industry will be adjusting things as time goes on regarding guidelines, policies, mortgage insurance, the common security, and so on. There is change from within.

Upcoming Events

“Big happenings in the mortgage biz as of late. Zillow throwing their hat into the ring, margin compression, M&A, and disruption. The question is what are you going to do about it? At The Agent Marketer, we believe that if you are in survival mode as opposed to seizing the opportunity for growth, then you are going to be in for a rough ride.  We recently wrote an article for HousingWire and recorded a podcast on the subject that has had thousands of views and downloads. With all the questions we have received we decided to hold a FREE live webinar on Friday, August 24th at 10:30am PDT. Join our founder, award-winning marketer and industry speaker Jason Frazier, as he talks about the ‘silver bullet’ for how Lenders and Loan Officers can step on the neck of disruption. Register now, as seats will be limited!”

The California MBA and Blend is hosting an event this evening in San Francisco at Blend’s offices – come on by and say hi! The gathering is from 5-7 pm. Here's the link, or you can just come.

Attend Plaza’s upcoming live training and see how to create a Loan Estimate (LE) within BREEZE in less than 15 minutes, on average. Plus, send it to the borrower for e-signing - all right at the point of sale.  This new feature is being added on August 13th. There are two training sessions available: Tuesday, August 14th and Wednesday, August 15th.

On Wednesday, August 15th, join Plaza for a webinar as its panel of title and settlement experts provide information surrounding Trusts & POAs and offers guidance that can help you avoid future oversights.

On August 15th, join Metrostudy Housing for its quarterly Webcast to get an update on the state of housing in the United States as well as a close-up look at the West Coast metros.

The Plaza VA Renovation Program allows VA-qualified borrowers to easily fund the purchase or refinance of a home and – at the same time and in the same loan – fund the extra financing needed to remodel or repair their home. Register for a live training on Thursday, August 16th.

California Mortgage Bankers Association is hosting a deep dive into the “E-Mortgage” during the group’s August webinar presentation from the Mortgage Technology & Marketing Committee (MTAM). Dawar Alimi, Founder and President, Lender Price and Amy Moses, Director of Marketing and Media at MERSCORP Holdings will help you learn how to bring the mortgage of the future to your clients today. “Specifically, we’ll cover how to evaluate and select digital mortgage technology to meet your needs, streamline pricing and product selection at the point of sale, simplify document management and e-signatures, make mortgage closing a painless process, and enable a seamless transition to servicers and investor. Register for this exclusive webinar presented by the CMBA Mortgage Technology & Marketing Committee on August 22 at 11 AM PST.”

Mountain West Financial is accepting registrations for its August 23rd webinar: Energy Efficient Mortgage (EEM) with speaker Julie Gregory.

Conventional Conforming Changes

Want a primer on the single security efforts, and a status report? Here’s one. Loan originators should care because anything that contributes toward an active and liquid market for mortgages helps rates for borrowers.

For LIBOR fans, know that Fannie has issued $6B in adjustable rate securities tied to the secured overnight financing rate (SOFR). This is the first large issuance tied to the index. SOFR is overseen by the Fed and is meant to replace Libor by the end of 2021 when that index officially expires.

Fannie Mae issued a new fraud alert identifying 10 apparently fictitious employers being used on loan applications in Northern California. This scheme is like the one identified in a fraud alert we issued in May (updated June 28), but the geographic area is different. View the fraud alert and other resources on our Mortgage Fraud Prevention page.

Quicken Loans has rolled out its new exclusive MI rate sheet. There are no DTI restrictions, no additional underwrites or different pricing buckets. The same is true with multiple borrowers. Its savings do not show up in 3rd party pricing engines, you must utilize the Quicken Loans portal to price out a BPMI. For additional details, watch this video.

Fannie Mae has made updates and provided clarifications to its allowable foreclosure title costs guidance to address questions received after recently announcing new requirements, effective September 1st. Get some answers and tips in the updated Allowable Title Costs for Fannie Mae Foreclosures and Mortgage Default Counsel Retention Agreement Amendment 2018-03, located on the Delinquency and Default Management page.

Fannie Mae’s recent updates in Selling Guide Announcement SEL-2018-06 includes the high LTV refinance option, which will be available for applications received on or after Nov. 1. The high LTV refinance option is for Fannie Mae borrowers who are making their mortgage payments on time, but whose LTV ratios exceed our maximum allowed for standard limited cash-out refinance transactions. For more information, visit the high LTV refi option page.

Freddie Mac announced an innovative financing initiative that will incentivize multifamily property owners to keep rents at levels affordable to working families without any federal, state or municipal subsidy. Freddie Mac Multifamily’ s new Mezzanine Loan Pilot effectively operates as a subordinate loan, delivering additional debt capital necessary to fill in the gap between borrower equity and the first lien mortgage loan amount.

Freddie Mac confirmed its disaster relief policies for people whose homes or places of employment have been affected by the ongoing, historic California wildfires. Freddie Mac's disaster relief options are available to borrowers with homes in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)-declared disaster areas where individual assistance programs have been made available to affected individuals and households. In areas where FEMA has not made individual assistance available, mortgage servicers may leverage Freddie Mac’s forbearance programs to provide immediate mortgage relief to their borrowers that have been affected by the devastating wildfires.

Capital Markets

It’s still kind of a snoozer out there in bond-land, despite a little Turkey-inspired turmoil. International volatility withstanding, U.S. rates rebounded up after last week’s dip, with the 10-year closing yielding 2.88%. Turkey has been the headliner, with the Turkish lira depreciating 12% overnight, but Italy also added to the volatility when 's the League's chief economic, Claudio Borghi, suggested via twitter that the ECB should guarantee EU sovereign issuance with BTP / bund spreads blowing out in the process.

Elsewhere, the Indian rupee and Argentine peso fell to new record lows against the dollar, and an overnight flash crash in the South African rand briefly had the dollar trading higher by 10% against the rand. The Central Bank of Argentina unexpectedly increased its policy rate by 500 bps to 45.0%. The interest rate on seven-day liquidity notes was also increased by 500 bps.

Looking to today, it’s light. The July NFIB Small Business Optimism Index was the second highest level in history! Also out were July Import Prices (flat) and Export Prices (-.5%). Tuesday begins with agency MBS prices little changed from Monday’s close and the 10-year yielding 2.88%.

Lender Products and Services

The rapid pace of innovation in the industry has changed how modern lenders market to consumers. Yet, many lenders today are trying to build their marketing and sales growth engine on outdated technology and practices. To position your salespeople for success – and your company for growth – you need the right tools, processes and support. Leveraging technology to increase the productivity of your loan officers requires commitment to digital transformation. Learn from Movement Mortgage and Total Expert how to build a marketing ecosystem that reduces costs and increases ROI in their on demand webinar: Leading Digital Transformation in Marketing. This webinar explains the framework of the modern marketing stack and cover best practices for executing your marketing strategy across your entire organization at scale.

Attracting and retaining top originator talent is an increasing challenge in this market. Technology can play a big role; however, not all providers are created equal. The right platform enables your LOs to be more productive and efficient, delivering trust in your organization to invest in their future. Maxwell stands out from all other digital mortgage providers. They allow entire teams of LOs to incorporate technology as a natural extension of their work, allowing them to accomplish more every day, delight their referral partners, and attract new business. Maxwell was developed with input from thousands of LOs. The efficacy of their intuitive design is apparent in their high adoption rates across lending businesses. Request a demo to learn more about Maxwell today.

New Penn Financial recently announced the SMART product series, which includes SmartTrac, a product designed for borrowers with a bankruptcy, short sale or deed-in-lieu just over one year or multiple 30-day mortgage lates. This product features no pre-payment penalties and fixed 30, ARM 5/1, 7/1, 10/1, all optional interest-only. A minimum 620 FICO is required with 80% LTV purchase, 75% cash out. The SmartTrac product offers flexibility to a variety of borrowers; call your rep for more information or go to www.gonewpenn.com.

PlainsCapital Bank National Warehouse Lending, a subsidiary of Hilltop Holdings (NYSE: HTH), is looking for mortgage bankers and lenders that offer renovation products and programs.  PlainsCapital Bank National Warehouse Lending currently funds multiple renovation programs and products with little to no additional requirements.  Whether it is a FNMA HomeStyle, FHA 203K Full, Limited or even an USDA Rural Housing renovation loan, PlainsCapital Bank National Warehouse Lending wants to be your preferred warehouse provider for these programs and products.  Please ask us about our competitive rates, utilization and deposit incentives and other ways that we can reduce costs and time to exceed your loan funding needs in 2018. 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.

Employment, Opportunities and Promotions

A EVP/ C-Suite executive is looking for opportunities in Sales, Operations, Marketing, or Business Intelligence. The 15-year veteran is geographically mobile, with a proven track record of building exceptional teams and counts Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Waterford, & PIMCO, along with some Fin-Tech startups. Career highlights include strategic sales vision and business development (generated $2 billion + media mentions during 30-day promotion), leadership and change management (transformed 10th ranked sales division to #1 in three months; division originated $10 billion for the year), performance optimization and tactical execution (created real-time reporting across marketing and business intelligence, increasing productivity by 270%, conversion by 42%, and funded units by 2.3x), and innovation and Creative Problem Solving (reduced ~1M loss/month by ~85% in six months). Interested parties can contact me to forward their note to the candidate.

Residential Bancorp is expanding and seeking to partner with motivated mortgage loan officers, brokers and branches nationwide. The company has increased its territories in Texas, Florida, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada, and is providing a unique opportunity for qualified applicants to open new branches across the U.S. Offering substantial growth potential, aggressive compensation and competitive rates, Residential Bancorp also provides professional marketing support with a fully-integrated LOS/CRM/Mobile App and has a 14-day closing guarantee program. Ready to double your volume and increase your income by 300%? Open a branch in your area today! To learn more or apply online, visit bancorp.com/Retail or call (888) 998-3364. Residential Bancorp has been providing exceptional service to customers and integrity in lending for over 29 years. We are a Direct Servicer with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac & Ginnie Mae.

Congrats to Ben Green whom Movement Mortgage announced is its Business Development Manager to lead loan officer recruiting in the western U.S. He will lead Movement’s business development team covering 23 states across the western half of the U.S. after helping lead and grow recruitment operations for another major mortgage lender.

And to Brett Boman who has joined Alta Mortgage Bankers as its Southeast Regional Sales manager. Located in Florida, he brings over 25 years’ experience of mortgage sales and will be the Regional Sales Manager for the Southeast and will be managing all AEs and sales efforts in the Southeast.

And to Gordon Miller, joining Buckley Sandler as a Senior Counsel in our Washington, D.C., office, strengthening its Bank Counseling & Compliance practice.

Sierra Pacific Mortgage Company, Inc. announce that Mike Cass has joined the company as a Regional Manager to oversee the company’s retail sales teams in the northern, midwestern states.