An LO from Wyoming recently reminded me that, “At the end of the day we sell a product driven by rates.” And we may be at, or near, these rates for a while, so I hope you’re happy with them (and have great service and solid products to back them up). Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams recently said that the central bank is not set on predetermined policy on interest rates in coming months and that "the key thing is we're not locked into any specific decision." The Fed is satisfied with monetary policy at the moment, Williams said, and the economy is in a good position. So U.S. mortgage rates could very well chop around in the range we’ve been in for several months already, despite a lot of jawboning about economic news every week.
Lender Products and Services
Galton’s new Prime Jumbo Program is one of the most comprehensive in the industry with many unique features including LTV’s to 95% (with unlimited cash out), non-warrantable condos, Co-ops, 30- and 40-year IO options, and NOO (up to 85% LTV), all on loan amounts down to $100,000. Both Fixed and ARM products available. With the addition of the Jumbo product, Galton rounds out their product suite, making it one of the most robust in the Non-Agency space. With Jumbo, Expanded Prime, Streamlined, and Alternative Doc programs, Galton continues to be a leading one stop shop for Non-Agency options. Together with this industry leading product set, Galton offers highly competitive pricing, especially on higher LTVs, Purchase transactions, NOO, 2-4-unit properties, and low DTI loans. Please visit Galtonfunding.com/contact-us/ and contact one of Galton’s Business Development Mangers to learn more today.
Caliber Home Loans, Inc. celebrates the season of gratitude by offering Wholesale Business Partners a New Fall Pricing Special now through Wednesday, November 27th. This applies to all new locks on conventional and government loan products locked between November 19 – 27, 2019. When you lock your next loan through the H2O platform or through the easy-to-use H2O mobile app, you will see the price improvements as loan level adjustments. Don’t miss out on this great special! Approved business partners can call your dedicated Caliber Wholesale Account Executive with your loan scenarios or email newclientinquiry@caliberhomeloans.com to get connected to a Caliber Rep in your area.
The Customer is King
How can lenders get their customer experience vision to catch fire throughout their entire organization? In his November MortgageSAT Tip, STRATMOR’s MortgageSAT Director Mike Seminari looks at two factors that foster buy-in of a shared vision: awareness and accountability. “One of our lenders identified a loan officer who had asked for the same documents multiple times on 28 of her last 45 loans, costing her 52 Net Promoter Score points and a lot of referrals,” says Seminari. “What’s interesting is that the loan officer had no idea the customers were unhappy. Multiply this type of situation across a company’s loan officer base and the detrimental impact of ‘lack of awareness’ looms large.” Seminari offers three suggestions for driving your customer experience vision to completion in “Translating Customer Experience Vision From Leadership to Loan Officer.”
Intelli-Mortgage is a pre-packaged Mortgage Data to Decision Manager for the mortgage industry that integrates data from your loan origination, accounting, and other source systems and provides mortgage specific key performance indicators (KPIs) via integrated dashboards, scorecards, alerts, and robust analytics using the combination of the latest state of the art technologies: Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, Machine Learning and neural networks !!! Click here to contact.
Wells Fargo Funding updated measurement periods for Non-Conforming PerformanceWorksSM to allow increased time to fund and eliminate evaluation period overlap. The changes are effective with the Q1 benefit quarter and appear in the October progress reports.
Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions recently announced major improvements to the process of submitting loan conditions. Changes include an improved screen, documents uploaded directly to the condition, no more missing conditions, and a comment section for the underwriter to explain why a condition was not cleared. Instructions and pictures are available in a downloadable PDF.
Avenu Inc., creators of the IntroLend transactional convergence platform, made to empower home buyers, agents, and lenders, announced the official launch of its platform with RE/MAX Associates Utah. The platform has been incorporated for all RE/MAX Associates team members across the state to serve home buyers better while transforming the monetization model for the agents. The company refers to the RESPA-compliant, Affiliated Business Arrangement-Third Party Origination platform, as Transactional Convergence. Moving the agents from a single-monetization event, i.e., sales commission, to developing new services they can now provide their valued client while at the same time generating new revenue flows from these services.
Mid America Mortgage, Inc. has completed the transition of its servicing operations to its newly formed in-house servicing department. As of November 4 Mid America’s national servicing portfolio, which currently comprises more than 35,000 loans from across the Mid America family of brands, will be managed by an internal staff of approximately 40 employees located in the firm’s Addison, Texas headquarters.
Capital Markets
Odds & ends: The PennyMac Correspondent Group has posted an announcement: 19-57: New Bulk Bid Tape Field – Number of Borrowers. And Redwood Trust closed its first single-family rental securitization since its acquisition of CoreVest (it was CoreVest's tenth securitization since 2015). And Mr. Cooper’s Hybrid AOT is now available as a bid option for Delegated transactions through MOXI - Mortgage Originations Xpress Interface. During the loan submission process, Hybrid AOT loans can be grouped together on one tape or indicated individually.
U.S. Treasuries ended the week with a slight curve flattening as markets received a few reminders of slowing global growth via contractionary Australian, Japanese, and eurozone PMIs. The session also saw optimistic remarks from General Secretary Xi regarding a U.S. / China phase one deal, saying that he wants the partial trade deal with the U.S. to be built "on the basis of mutual respect and equality." President Trump was asked during a morning interview on FOX whether he will sign the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which was passed with overwhelming Congressional support, but the president refused to provide a direct answer. Instead, he said "I stand with Hong Kong, I stand with freedom, I stand with all the things we want to do." Six weeks after Trump declared he had just about secured a partial end to his trade war with China, he still appears to have fundamental disagreements with Xi. Domestic releases saw the final November reading for the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index beating expectations, suggesting consumer spending activity should remain supportive for the U.S. economy.
Keeping things in perspective for the entire week, the economic data was once again mixed, painting a picture of a global economy that's slowing or stalled in some cases. The Purchasing Managers' Index for the Eurozone, the world's largest trading block, was at 50.3. In Japan, the index showed contracting conditions for the seventh straight month and the index showed contraction in Australia as well. Back Stateside, the Conference Board's Leading Economic Index saw its third consecutive monthly decline. On the bright side, both housing starts and building permits increased in October. Both single and multifamily projects saw increases. Existing home sales increased last month and inventory fell to a tight 3.9 months' worth. According to the National Association of Realtors, the median sales price of an existing home increased 6.2 percent over the last twelve months to $270,900. This was the 92nd successive month of year-over-year gains. Mortgage purchase applications increased 6.7 percent for the week ending November 15 while refinance application fell 7.7 percent. Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed continue to hover around the 4 percent level.
This holiday-shortened, month-end week sees a very busy calendar in terms of data and supply ahead of Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday with an early close on Friday (and a de facto one on Wednesday). Key releases include Advance October Retail Inventories and Wholesale Inventories, the September FHFA Housing Price Index, September S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index, and October New Home Sales on Tuesday, October Personal Income and Spending, the PCE Price Index, Q3 GDP -- Second Estimate, October Durable Orders, October Pending Home Sales, and the December Fed Beige Book on Wednesday, and November Chicago PMI to close the week.
Today’s calendar began with the Chicago Fed National Activity Index for October. Next up will be the Dallas Fed Texas manufacturing index before $40 billion 2-year Treasury note auction results this afternoon. With regards to MBS, the NY Fed will conduct a sizable UMBS30 FedTrade operation when they purchase up to $1.579 billion 3 percent ($1.15 billion) and 3.5 percent ($429 million). The lone scheduled Fed speak is Chair Powell, who will speak tonight. After closing Friday unchanged at 1.77 percent, we begin today with the 10-year yielding 1.78 percent and Agency MBS prices down/worse a few ticks (32nds) versus Friday night.
Employment
A Mid-Atlantic Mortgage Company is looking for an experienced Underwriting Manager. Responsibilities include overseeing the department to ensure all mortgage transactions are underwritten based on the guidelines in a timely manner and meeting commitment dates and closing dates. Collaborate with management team to create, revise and implement policies and procedures. Hire, develop and manage their team. Must have knowledge of Encompass, at least 10 years’ experience in underwriting (3 years’ experience as an underwriting manager) and knowledge of all products and guidelines. Confidential notes of interest should be sent to Chrisman LLC’s Anjelica Nixt for forwarding.
A rapidly growing direct Non-QM Lender headquartered in FL is seeking to hire experienced Sales Manager and Team Leads. The company has a large portfolio of innovative Non-QM products and a diverse team of experts equipped with cutting edge loan origination technology. Management is looking for candidates that can demonstrate extensive knowledge of mortgage wholesale market, strong analytical background, and the ability to lead and manage sales team. “There is a tremendous opportunity with our company as you can be one of the first in your area to procure accounts and represent us to potential mortgage brokers”. Please email resume to Chrisman LLC's Anjelica Nixt for forwarding; specify opportunity.
Plaza Home Mortgage is looking for superstar Account Executives. “What if you could step into an established wholesale territory and book of business and offer your clients a can’t-miss program line-up, including; Renovation, Non-QM, One-Time Close Construction-to-Permanent, and Reverse, best-in-class service, technology to make their life easier, and free industry and program education, just to name a few perks? Do you think you would be successful? Or do you KNOW you would be? If you KNOW you would be, then Plaza Home Mortgage may have just the spot for you covering our established market and existing client base in the upper Midwest states, based out of our Chicago branch office. Plaza has been in the business for nearly 20 years and is one of the nation’s leading third-party originators. We are looking for an exceptional salesperson for our growing team of Account Executives and will provide the support and tools you need make an impact and drive success in this market. If interested, contact David Loch (708.408.8448).
Mortgage Investors Group has opened its first branch in Georgia as part of its continuing efforts to expand its mortgage lending presence across the Southeast. The opening of the Alpharetta branch marks the Knoxville-based company’s first step to expand its retail presence outside the state of Tennessee, where it has grown over its 30-year history to become a respected residential mortgage lender among industry peers. Branch Manager Andrew Denham said the opening of the Alpharetta office marks the beginning of a journey towards MIG becoming a household name among Georgia homebuyers seeking customer-focused mortgage lending services from knowledgeable loan officers.
And in February MIG hired Gary Royal to oversee the growth of its retail presence in select markets across the Southeast. “The North Fulton/South Forsyth area represents a great opportunity for MIG with both new construction and resale,” Gary said. “With our primary mission to always do what is right, we will provide an exceptional customer experience for everyone. From the first-time homebuyer to those looking for their dream home, MIG will be there every step of the way.” Interested in learning more about joining the MIG team? Schedule a call with Gary Royal here.
Indecomm, a leading provider of mortgage automation, outsourcing, and business services for the US mortgage industry, is hiring a Senior Counsel/Assistant General Counsel to work out of the Charlotte, NC or New York/New Jersey office. In addition to general corporate legal responsibilities, this senior attorney will be the legal point of contact on contracts and assigned projects supporting sales and revenue generation agreements. For a full description of the position and its duties, visit https://mortgage.indecomm.net/job_post/senior-counsel-assistant-general-counsel-position/ or email Indecomm for more information.
Get Rob Chrisman Daily by Email
