“Yeah, I think I’ll put up some plywood and buy some water and just wait out this supposed hurricane. Those scientist/weather people are just exaggerating things.” Forgetting parallel comments about viruses, here is a quick snippet of video this week sent to me by a few folks of why that’s not smart. mortgage fraud in Las Vegas, and some trivia & a quiz. Did you know that Boston is the closet major city to all of Europe, the Middle East and almost all of Africa? Did you know that Bristol, Tennessee, is closer to Canada than it is to Memphis? Or that Reno and Lake Tahoe are farther west than San Diego? Who said, “Hearing directly from borrowers is key to helping us better understand mortgage market trends.”? LOs are responsible for making sure their client remembers them; it is not the borrower’s responsibility. When it comes to great personalized service, do you remember the individual or the company they worked for? Today’s audio version of the commentary is available here and this week’s is sponsored by Floify. Loan originators, mortgage brokers, and wholesale lenders, expedite your mortgage process with Floify POS, Floify+, and Floify TPO. Visit floify.com to schedule a live demo of any one of these three powerful loan origination solutions.

Products and Services

Conference Season is Back! Autumn has nearly arrived, which means it's time for conferences, and the ReadyPrice Team could not be more excited to be headed back to in-person events! Over the next two months, you can find meet with ReadyPrice at AIME Fuse National Conference, NAMB National, and the MBA Annual Convention & Expo. Schedule a meeting with us ahead of time, or look for us at the shows, don’t forget to join the ReadyPrice community ahead of time to take advantage of our Lender Sponsored Pricing Engine and be a part of the positive change happening in the mortgage industry today. 

On this day in 1969, the first ATM made its public debut, revolutionizing the banking industry. The ATM has proven so advantageous to our everyday lives that there are even two of them in Antarctica today. Speaking of advantages, are you a lender looking to gain an advantage over the competition? Great news! Sales Boomerang has announced the topic for its next webinar: “How To [Legally] Start Winning With An Unfair Advantage.” Join Alex Kutsishin and industry icon Jim Deitch (moderated by Pablo Troncoso) on Thursday, Sept. 2, at 3 pm ET for an unscripted discussion of the tech tools and strategies for fielding an all-star production team. Register today to take advantage of this opportunity before it’s too late.

Opteon is excited to announce it has acquired Valucentric! Valucentric is an innovative, nationwide staff appraisal firm. For Opteon USA clients, this means priority access to seasoned staff appraisers and more service offerings. In the not-so-distant future, the Valucentric team will roll out Opteon’s new technology to further reduce times. Check out the press release to learn more!

Compensation Study

According to STRATMOR’s Spring 2021 Compensation Connection® Study, the fulfillment positions of processor, underwriter, and closer saw the highest turnover rates of the last four years. From 2019 to 2020 underwriter turnover more than doubled, while closer turnover increased 78%. What is your company doing to stem the turnover tide during these challenging times? How do you position yourself relative to your peers in base salary, retention/recruiting bonuses, and incentives? Get the compensation data you need to help you keep your staff. There is still time to participate in STRATMOR's 2021 Compensation Connection® Study that provides key compensation data exclusive to the mortgage industry. Study participants receive a report comparing their responses to survey averages on key comp metrics and characteristics. Hurry: the registration deadline for the fall survey session is September 15. Sign up today: https://bit.ly/3iUM36o.

More on Disasters

For FEMA’s latest declarations, click here.

Freddie Mac issued a news release confirming immediate mortgage relief options for homeowners affected by Hurricane Ida. Freddie Mac's disaster relief options are available to homeowners whose homes or places of employment are located in presidentially-declared Major Disaster Areas where federal individual-assistance programs are made available to affected individuals and households.

Fannie Mae reminded those impacted by Hurricane Ida of available mortgage assistance and disaster relief options.

Effective August 30, Flagstar Bank suspended funding for properties located in the parishes and counties listed in the Flagstar announcement due to Hurricane Ida. Once closing and funding has resumed, Flagstar will provide the re-inspection requirements, as applicable. And effective August 23 Flagstar Bank suspended funding for properties located in the counties listed in Flagstar announcement 21114 due to active wildfires.

FCM issued a Disaster Announcement  specifying additional property inspection requirements for any property located in a designated disaster area. Due to Hurricane IDA, FEMA has declared federal disaster aid to 25 Parishes in the state of Louisiana.

In response to Hurricane Ida, Sellers must follow Wells Fargo Funding disaster policies for all properties located in counties allowing individual assistance per the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Disaster policies are effective with the FEMA declaration date or applicable amendment date.

All loanDepot Wholesale California files in wildfire impacted areas, based on its Disaster Requirements, will be conditioned appropriately and an Affidavit of No Damage will be required.

Capital Markets

With Polly’s revolutionary Loan Trading Exchange, it’s now easier than ever to optimize your bottom line. As a trusted provider of innovative software solutions for the mortgage industry, Polly’s best-in-class trading tools and analytics ensure execution optimization on every trade across each agency, aggregator, and co-issue buyer, including Fannie SMP & Freddie CRX. Users can publish bid tapes and select best-ex in under 15 minutes by utilizing advanced filters, sorting, and automated last look functionality. Choose from a best ex or preferred investor point of view to maximize gain on sale. Additionally, loan level and pool level best-ex analysis ensure traders never miss a pay up with automated spec, high balance, CRA and spot vs. forward commitment optimizations. To learn more about how Polly’s Loan Trading Exchange is helping customers maximize gain on sale, email Jeff Krischer or visit www.polly.io.

One of my favorite parts of being able to attend in-person conferences again is listening to chatter from around the mortgage industry. Recently, talk has been about announced changes at FHFA and what that means for lenders and their pipelines. I had a chance to sit down with MCT and its COO Phil Rasori at the California MBA Western Secondary Market Conference to discuss the future of the GSEs. The result is MCT's latest blog, “The Future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” which reviews the actions of the previous FHFA Director, looks forward to what we can expect under a new FHFA Director, and discussed the privatization aspect of mortgage lending. For more informative and educational pieces like this, as well as to stay up to date with the latest industry chatter and happenings, sign up for the MCT newsletter.

Good news! This is the last time this week I will write that nothing of real note happened in the bond market during the runup to Friday’s August payroll figures. We got a small preview yesterday in the form of a weak ADP figure, which came in at 374k when the market was expecting 625k. Ouch! While gains were concentrated in leisure and hospitality, companies still have hiring challenges with no shortage of jobs available. All signs point to a slowdown in the labor market recovery. Separately, manufacturing PMI readings from several major economies showed a stronger-than-expected pace, though data showed a pickup in order backlogs and labor constraints. August marked the 15th straight month of expansion for the domestic manufacturing sector, and at a faster pace than what was seen in July.

Today’s economic calendar is already out of the gate with two more labor market indicators ahead of tomorrow’s jobs report. Job cuts from Challenger for August: announced job cuts fell 17% m/m to 15,723, down 86% from year ago, the lowest in more than 21 years. And weekly jobless claims (340k, down slightly by 13k, about as expected). We’ve also received the July trade deficit ($70 billion, as expected). Later this morning brings Q2 productivity and unit labor costs, July factory orders, and Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. Today’s Fed speakers are Atlanta’s Bostic and San Francisco’s Daly. The Desk will purchase up to $4.6 billion of conventionals. We begin the day with Agency MBS prices a tick or two better than Wednesday night and the 10-year yielding 1.29 after closing yesterday at 1.30 percent.

Jobs, Employment

“Chase has been an investor serving correspondent lenders for over 30 years. We are a relationship-driven investor with a seasoned team of Client Relationship Managers that seek to understand our clients business strategy and needs, so we can thoughtfully provide liquidity and the full value of JPMorgan Chase. Chase is seeking a Correspondent Division Manager to lead the Central and West regions of the U.S. Reporting to the Director of Client Management, the Division Manager is entrusted to develop and coach a team of Client Relationship Managers while partnering with other JPMC business leaders to develop strategies and set priorities. Will be responsible for 5-10 Client Relationship Managers and over 300 client relationships. Must have mortgage banking expertise, strong leadership attributes, expert knowledge of loan pricing, contract requirements, and mortgage banking risks. Can be based anywhere in the US. If interested, please contact Pam Moffitt.

“Wholesale Account Executives, in the current environment are you aligned with a solid wholesale lender? If not, Franklin American Mortgage a division of Citizens Bank NA is the place for you! We're looking for Account Executives in the AZ, CA, CO, NV, MD, MN, and WA areas to join the top bank-owned wholesale lender in the country. For over 25 years, we’ve built our success on our commitment to delivering unparalleled customer service to our valued industry partners. Together, our forward-thinking leadership team and innovative company culture continue to produce undeniable results – just check out our latest Earnings Report at Citizensbank.com! We are seeking best-in-class talent and if you’re ready to join a winning team, apply online at jobs.citizensbank.com, or email Dutch Schorgl directly to learn more!”

“Growing a company takes a tremendous amount of empathy. Just because we are a dominant lender in some markets, this does not mean we can’t learn from sales leaders in newer markets”, says Rick Roque, Corporate Vice President at Shamrock Home Loans. “While consulting with many of the top lenders in the US, I learned there was an effort to force loan officers or processors to conform, rather than first, to understand how the company could be improved by their direct experience. This is the reason why Shamrock is expanding in most states, most recently, Montana, Texas, Colorado, and Illinois. We added a new Branch in Louisiana, and we closed their first $1.3M in loans in under 15 calendar days… We didn’t lose time forcing them into ‘our model’. We first learned from one another and the results speak loudly. Expect more and aim for a greater experience for your borrowers: contact us.”

Fresh on the heels of announcing the introduction of CryptoPay by Thrive Mortgage (accepting certain payments via cryptocurrency without incurring a transaction fee), Thrive conducted another first! Branch Manager Gracie Morrow assisted a client with Thrive’s first RON eClosing of an FHA loan. Thrive is no stranger to the digital eClosing landscape as it pioneered the technology with Thrive’s partner Notarize and became the first lender in the State of Texas to conduct a 100% digital closing over two years ago. “[I am] so proud of Thrive Mortgage and the team who made this exciting moment possible,” stated Morrow. “We look at each innovative idea as the pathway to delivering an amazing mortgage experience to our clients and partners!” “To begin a conversation about best career opportunity in the mortgage industry, contact us confidentially at info@thrivemortgage.com. We also invite you to visit us at “Grow With Thrive”.”

Jeff Douglas, founder and CEO of Wyndham Capital Mortgage, is an Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2021 Southeast Award winner. Now in its 35th year, this preeminent, competitive award for entrepreneurs and leaders of high-growth companies recognizes unstoppable, entrepreneurial leaders excelling in talent management, degree of difficulty, financial performance, societal impact and building a values-based company, and originality, innovation, and future plans. “This recognition is a testament to all of the people who currently work and have worked at Wyndham Capital,” Douglas said. “We are proud to be a main street fintech where people make as a big a difference as the technology.” Wyndham Capital had a record year in 2020, serving more than 13,000 families and originating more than $5.4 billion in loans. Douglas is eligible for consideration for the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2021 National Awards to be announced in November. 

Homespire Mortgage has announced Stephanie Sailor as its new VP of Secondary Marketing where she will be leading Homespire’s initiatives related to loan purchasing, sales, and servicing transfers.