Illinois, Alaska, and California. This morning’s drama revolves around the next presidential debate (virtual or not) but folklore tells us that it was on this date in 1871 Mrs. O’Leary’s cow knocked over a lantern and thus started The Great Chicago Fire (3 square miles destroyed, 100,000 homeless, 200 died; for comparison, California, home of 25% of residential lending, has had 6,250 square miles burned this year). It reminds me of the term “blunder-a-whack”, defined as “one whose carelessness has brought on disastrous consequences.” Moving from one four-legged large mammal to another, the fabled Alaskan Fat Bear Contest was won by the appropriately numbered “747.” And the IT folks in the U.S. Park Service have a cool live webcam… Who doesn’t want to watch a bear have a live salmon snack? Speaking of snacks, California’s governor Gavin Newsom has taken a lot of well-deserved criticism over suggesting that diners in restaurants put masks on between bites. Huh? What should be mentioned, however, that Newsom also attracted attention by vetoing a bill extending employee protections to domestic workers despite the heated political climate.

Broker and Lender Services and Products

“We get it, with the rates right now everyone’s been refinancing. Problem is, with the onslaught of refis and mortgages, you’re leaving valuable loans on the table. Not to worry, Truework can help. Our dedicated team of highly trained mortgage industry professionals at Truework is committed to tackling and completing your VOE/VOI request (whether manual or automated) so you can close your loans faster than ever. We’re also excited to introduce Truework Teams, our new corporate offering that streamlines billing, makes it easy for admins to manage users, and with increased usage, gives you a dedicated customer success team that ensures that you receive the verifications in the timeframe you need. And for a limited time, Rob Chrisman readers get 5 free Verifications ($200 value). Let us do the heavy lifting so you can focus on what matters. Interested? Email Zackary Green.”

A new lender industry outlook survey is raffling off a $500 Amazon gift card to all people who complete the 5-minute survey (pretty good hourly rate there)! The survey looks to gather manager and executive feedback on industry trends, growth, and challenges. Start the survey here.

In a giant year for the mortgage industry, Home Point Financial’s explosive growth hasn’t just been in loan production. Not only is Home Point on pace to do three times as much closed loan volume in 2020 compared to last year, it’s also nearly doubled its size in terms of headcount: Now with more than 2,700 associates. Home Point is not slowing down, either, and all signs point toward Home Point continuing to grow bigger, faster, and more advanced technologically because they are heavily reinvesting market gains into the company. That’s great news for the many brokers and correspondents that already love working with them. For mortgage brokers and correspondents that still need to sign up with fast-rising Home Point, visit its website.

Discover How JFQ Lending is using direct mail with Monster Lead Group to surpass $4.2 billion in originations for 2020: In just its first 3 years, the JFQ team has grown to approximately 120 MLOs, funding upward of $400 million in a given month. JFQ Lending’s President, John Kresevic reveals “75%-80% of our growth comes from Monster.” Kresevic explains, “We’ve been successful with the strategies we get from Monster. I know what’s certain every week; Monday around 12 o’clock Pacific the phones are going to start ringing and they’re going to ring the rest of the week. I know that as long as I spend 'X, my return’s going to be Y.” If you want consistent phones and predictable ROI from your direct mail like JFQ, go to https://www.monsterleadgroup.com/jfqlending/ right now.

HomeBinder, one of the fastest growing tools in the lending market for post-closing retention, has initiated a capital raise to support its expansion. In June, HomeBinder finalized its partnership with Ellie Mae and their integration with Encompass. This has resulted in accelerated adoption of HomeBinder across mortgage companies nationwide as a value-added platform to help increase client retention. Accredited investors, or lenders interested in learning how HomeBinder can help retain the record number of clients you have closed in 2020 can contact Pete Paglia (978.618.0835). Click here to learn more about HomeBinder, or to receive a demo click here https://hubs.ly/H0t4tHx0.

2020 has been exciting to say the least, and so is this! On Oct 22, 2020 @ 1:00 PM EST Join me, Rob Chrisman, Alex Kutsishin (Sales Boomerang), Joe Zeibert (Nomis), and Kurt Reisig (APM) in a presidential-worthy discussion about how Lender’s should be using technology to prepare for the eventual slow down to the refi boom the mortgage industry is experiencing. You've broken records every month in 2020, and you know it won't last forever. Many experts are predicting a 30% drop in volume in 2021 for some lenders. What goes up must come down so how can you use technology to prepare for the eventual downturn that you know is coming? Lenders don’t have to go backwards - if they get ready now. Register here: Chance favors only the prepared lender: The Ultimate Preppers Guide.

Capital Markets: Products and Rates

PollyEx, a provider of SaaS solutions for the mortgage industry, announced that it has officially released it’s highly anticipated Product, Pricing and Eligibility Engine (PPE). The PollyEx PPE is now the industry’s most dynamic pricing and eligibility platform, allowing lenders to configure rule logic, manage margin strategies and distribute pricing with ease on one, centralized and fully modern user interface. The PollyEx PPE is the result of two years of extensive research & development into solving the core limitations of legacy systems and delivering speed, accuracy, usability and confidence to loan pricing and lock processes. The PollyEx PPE has been tested in a live production environment with several retail and wholesale lending customers, with well over 100,000 rate locks executed through the software platform. To learn more email Jacob Gerson or visit www.pollyex.com.

MCT is proud to announce the launch of MCT Business Intelligence, a powerful web-based analytics platform designed to empower lenders to understand the market, optimize their loan sales, and improve performance relative to their peers. The platform, the most comprehensive secondary marketing analytics tool on the market, will be officially released during an MCT client-exclusive webinar on October 15th, 2020 at 11AM PT. The Business Intelligence platform will give lenders a competitive advantage through actionable insights on mortgage pipeline and loan sale data. Customizable reports and illustrative charts compare aspects of lender's data to their peers and to the MCT average, engendering pickup in the secondary market. Dive deep into the data with segmentation by Date, State, Program, Purpose, Rate, FICO, LTV, Loan Size, and Peer Group for identification of pickup opportunities. Read the press release for more information and join the MCT newsletter to stay tuned for future updates.

Looking at rates, the stimulus saga doesn't appear over in Washington, and that moved the bond market yesterday. The UMBS30 basis surged tighter (except 3%) and Treasuries pulled back in “curve-steepening” fashion for the second time in three days, as the “risk-on” trade resumed. While negotiations on a broad stimulus package were stopped, President Trump indicated that he remains open to a partial deal potentially involving direct payments to people and aid to airlines. There was also further optimism regarding a vaccine and the day's $35 billion 10-year note reopening was met with solid demand.

Meanwhile, the September FOMC Minutes showed a discussion about expectations for inflation to overshoot 2.0% after 2023. The consensus among policymakers remains that the current environment is disinflationary. The minutes showed a readiness by some Fed officials to further assess and communicate how the committee’s asset-purchase program could best support the Fed’s dual-mandate objectives. In practical terms, this signals an openness to either alter what the bank buys or increase purchases of the bond buying program to further boost the economy.

This morning’s only scheduled news was the read on last week’s Weekly Initial Claims for the week ending October 3 (-9k to 840k) and Continuing Claims for the week ending September 26 (down 1 million to 11 million). We do have reopening results for $23 billion 30-yr Treasury bonds in the afternoon. The NY Fed will conduct three MBS FedTrade purchase operations totaling up to $5.3 billion, starting with $892 million UMBS15 1.5% and 2% followed by $2.9 billion UMBS30 2% and 2.5% and $1.5 billion GNII 2% and 2.5%. After yesterday’s release of the Fed Minutes, we have Four Fed presidents currently scheduled to speak today: Boston’s Rosengren, Dallas’ Kaplan, Atlanta’s Bostic, and Richmond’s Barkin. We begin the day with Agency MBS prices nearly unchanged from Wednesday’s close and the 10-year yielding .77 after closing yesterday at 0.79 percent.

Employment and Transitions

“Caliber Home Loans recognizes and celebrates the contributions that Hispanic and Latino Americans have made toward the development of our nation. Earlier this year, CEO Sanjiv Das, participated in the CEO Roundtable at the National Association of Minority Mortgage Bankers Association® state of the industry town hall series, The Color of COVID. Das discussed the impact COVID-19 has had on communities of color and solutions that the mortgage industry can implement during all stages of homeownership. If you share our passion of helping customers own a piece of the American dream, we want to talk to you! Join Caliber, where diversity is celebrated and mutual respect is core to our culture. Visit our website today to view open opportunities. To be immediately considered for Operations or Sales positions, email Jonathan Stanley or Brian Miller respectively.”

National MI is pleased to announce that Ralph Remy has joined the team as Director, Client Digital Experience providing leadership and advancement of the company’s sales enablement efforts, adapting and leveraging tools to succeed in a new digital environment and oversee external partner relationships that deliver exceptional results for the organization. Prior to National MI, Ralph has spent the past 24 years in the banking and mortgage banking industry in various leadership roles and most recently held the role of SVP, Training & Client Engagement, at XINNIX. Please feel free to reach out to Ralph (510-858-0397).

“Franklin American Mortgage’s Wholesale Lending business is booming, and now is your chance to join one of the strongest bank-owned wholesale lenders in the nation! We’re looking for a talented and experienced Operations Manager to oversee our Irving, TX operations center. The highly tenured staff at this site have always earned exceptional customer satisfaction scores through hard work and dedication. We’re looking for a leader who can help grow an inspired team to reach even greater heights. This senior management role will be part of the leadership team that sets the direction for Franklin American Mortgage Wholesale Lending nationally. If you’re interested in an opportunity to lead people and guide a business channel, learn more at our job posting today!”

It’s full speed ahead at AmeriHome Correspondent who is doing record volume and continuing to grow its teams and client base. While AmeriHome’s staff wishes that they’d have the chance to connect with all of their peers, clients, and partners in person at this month’s MBA Annual, they’re adapting. Whether you’re a current AmeriHome client, or you’ve yet to sign up with AmeriHome and are looking for some information, you can schedule a video meeting with the AmeriHome team for the week of the conference! The virtual environment allows for availability of more AmeriHome resources than ever, so whether you have questions about operations, credit, servicing, or secondary markets, they can get the right person on the call. Email CLsales@amerihome.com to schedule a meeting with the AmeriHome team the week of October 19th! Or, if you’re looking to JOIN the AmeriHome team, check out the careers page and current job openings! AmeriHome's commitment to “Relationships, Reliability, and Results” applies both externally and internally as AmeriHome invests in its clients’ AND employees' long-term success.

There is a tremendous amount of movement for producing loan officers and operations staff members because of unreasonable service levels and unreliable turn times in underwriting. Employees need to have faith and trust in their employer that the right investments are being made to support them. Dean Harrington, founder of Shamrock Home Loans, out of Providence, Rhode Island, touches upon this in his impressive weekly video-cast on leadership called the Morning Huddle where he points out that both mortgage companies and employees need to be “all-in” together in order to build a culture that retains high quality loan officers and ops staff. An operating culture that supports loan officer growth and ops staff at the same time, has driven Shamrock’s 30-year history, and is ready to expand across New England, New York, and the East Coast. Production Teams, Loan Officers and Branch Managers, to learn more, contact info@shamrockhomeloans.com