Mark Weber sends, “Can I take my 2.5 percent loan to another property? Remember the portable loan idea? When will we see real estate agents advertising, ‘This home for sale has an assumable FHA/VA loan!’?” Ask any LO (loan originator, or officer, depending on what you want the “O” to stand for) and they can tell you stories about lenders either fumbling the servicing handoff or a myriad of borrower woes. There is a good reason that it has become a lightning rod for CFPB examinations. J.D. Power released its U.S. Mortgage Servicer Satisfaction Study, which measures customer satisfaction with the mortgage servicing experience in six factors (in order of importance): level of trust, makes it easy to do business with, keeps me informed and educated, people, resolving problems or questions, and digital channels. “The latest results show an ugly situation for the industry. Overall satisfaction is down… there’s been an increased rate of mortgage transfers and a rise in account problems. In particular, the data indicate servicers cannot ignore consumer financial health, and they need to be proactive about providing advice.” (Today’s podcast can be found here and is sponsored by Candor. Candor’s patented automated underwriting decision engine, CogniTech, is a state-of-the-art, 100 percent machine platform that can handle infinite loan scenarios. Listen to an interview with Fairway Independent’s Guy Schwartz on the ins and outs of loan production and closing deals.)

Lender and Broker Software, Products, and Services

Maps aren’t only for travelers. If you’re working to enhance the experience of your workforce and your borrowers, Services mapping can be a helpful way to find pain points in your operations. When you identify the needs of both external and internal stakeholders, you can turn those insights into actions. These maps can help you identify and prioritize operational pain points by surfacing bottlenecks and dead ends. By the time you are finished you should have a clear picture of linear processes, single points of transition, and legacy processes that don’t seem to have any current purpose and are being performed for reasons that are no longer relevant. To learn more about identifying pain points with experience mapping, read Black Knight’s blog post.

Act now and save! Schedule your firm’s 2023 MERS Annual Review and e-Annual Report with TENA Companies, Inc. today. Every MERS member is required to complete a MERS Annual Review. If your firm had 1,000+ active MINs on March 31, 2023, you must use an independent third party for the review, with the results submitted by December 31st. Lock in significant savings by signing up for a MERS Annual Review with TENA and providing all required documentation by August 31st. To ensure that your firm is in compliance, contact TENA today to initiate the 2023 MERS Annual Review. TENA also offers a full range of MERS reviews, including MERS Data Reconciliation and MERS Document Reviews. TENA Companies, Inc. has been the mortgage industry’s trusted source for Mortgage Quality Control Audit Services and Software, serving with excellence since 1982. Don’t delay, secure your early-bird rate today!

Are you looking for areas to save on loan pipeline hedge costs? Agile’s whitepaper, How (and How Much) Agile Helps Mortgage Originators Save on Hedging Costs, discusses how lenders who use platforms which limit competition to only 4 dealers miss out on improvement in execution. Based on the Agile TBA Execution Data Study, lenders can expect to save 3 basis points on average. "I have Agile and a competing platform side by side. Agile wins about 50 percent of the time,” said Philip Kukafka, Chief Capital Markets Officer at Towne Mortgage Company. “I rarely execute at screen levels - I almost always trade through." Download the whitepaper to learn how Agile’s request for quote (RFQ) platform is helping improve execution. Additionally, if you’re interested in learning more about the current mortgage market, register for Agile’s webinar discussing MBS Pooling Overview, Market Dynamics, & Best Practices on August 9th at 11AM PT.

Rocket Pro TPO wants to see you at the biggest industry event of the year: Originator Connect in Las Vegas! Fawaz, EVP of Rocket Pro TPO, will deliver an important keynote and you’ll hear from other industry pros. Register for free by using code ROCKETFREE. If you can’t make it to Vegas but would like to get an inside peek at what it’s like to be a Rocket Pro TPO partner and hear about the new solutions they have to help brokers drive new business, join their monthly IGNITE Live call. August’s IGNITE Live will be on Monday, Aug 14 at 2p EST. You can register here! Contact Rocket Pro TPO to learn more.

Batman & Robin. Chocolate & peanut butter. Jordan & Pippin. It’s time to add one more pair to the list of all-time great dynamic duos… MMI & Bonzo. Mobility Market Intelligence (MMI) has just announced its acquisition of relationship management and mortgage marketing platform provider Bonzo. Bonzo will continue to operate as an independent service, but current and future MMI and Bonzo customers should be on the lookout for benefits from a growing list of integrated services and features. By combining MMI’s unrivaled LO, agent, and transaction data with Bonzo’s superior marketing CRM experience, this dynamic duo is going to create lots of happy and efficient customers. To learn how your business can get in on the action, register for a free MMI demo here.

We’ve got something special for the most innovative minds in real estate, lending, and tech converging at Inman Connect next week in Las Vegas. Read this engaging whitepaper from Realfinity.io that shows how to break into mortgage ancillary services. Are you looking to create a tech-powered, vertically integrated business with real asset value? Our whitepaper outlines how to establish a powerful and flexible business model for your future in real estate and lending. Act now with HomeDashboard, a tool developed by Realfinity that is designed to expand your client database and engagement and bolster your revenue. To dive deeper into these topics, schedule a meeting with Luca, one of our experts at Realfinity.io.

Webinars, Events, and Training

James Brody, who was named Senior Litigation Partner in the wake of his merger with Garris Horn, LLP, will be co-hosting a webinar with The Mortgage Collaborative (“TMC”) at 10:00 AM PST, on August 17, titled: “Repurchase Defense Roundup: Proven Strategies to Help Lenders Fight Repurchase Demands and Pursue Culpable Third Parties.” Per Mr. Brody, who has defended hundreds of mortgage companies against repurchase demands over the course of his career, who is presently defending millions of dollars in claims that the FDIC is pursuing on old WaMu Loans, and who routinely prosecutes culpable third parties, both Mr. Brody and his colleague, Ingrid Petersen, look forward to educating attendees on a number of invaluable strategies that will help them more effectively fight repurchase demands and improve their chances of being made whole whenever a lender is not able to successfully dispute a claim because of bad facts and/or needs to preserve a business relationship. For those who would like to learn more about Garris Horn LLP and the full suite of litigation, mitigation, and regulatory compliance related services, please know that Mr. Brody and a number of his colleagues will be attending the CMBA’s Western Secondary Conference in Dana Point, CA, between August 21 - 23. However, if you won’t have an opportunity to attend Western Secondary, you can reach Mr. Brody here.

Register for Mortgages with Millennials with Kristin Messerli and Robbie Chrisman, a weekly video show designed to empower mortgage professionals to tap into the millennial market. Each episode will feature timely and relevant market updates by Robbie Chrisman, exclusive research by Kristin Messerli, and a guest conversation with an expert in millennial homebuying. This show demystifies the psychology of first-time homebuyers and offers strategies to win more market share with a key segment of the market. Sign up for a weekly reminder with the link to join and a sneak peek into the next episode. The first episode airs on Tuesday August 8 at 10AM PT.

FHA free on-site training in Atlanta, GA., August 7, 8:30 AM – 12:30 PM (Eastern). FHA Endorsement & Program Offices Overview will provide information on FHA endorsement/insuring policies, practices, procedures, and more. Additionally, there will be an introduction to Real Estate Owned (REO), Program Support Division (PSD), and Quality Assurance Division (QAD). Also that day at the same place is free on-site FHA Condominium Approval and Processing Training from 1:30 PM – 4:00 PM (Eastern) providing information on FHA policies for approving condominium project submissions and Single Unit Approval (SUA) guidance.

Free, in-person FHA Appraiser and Appraisal training, August 8, 8:30 AM – 4:00 PM (Eastern), in Atlanta addresses industry FAQs on the Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1. Topics include changes, policy clarifications, and updates on property acceptability criteria, underwriting the appraisal, minimum property requirements, property defective conditions, enhanced appraiser, underwriter responsibilities and requirements, programs, and products (i.e., 203(k)), and much more.

Free, on-site FHA Underwriting Training in Atlanta, GA., August 9, 8:30 AM – 4:00 PM (Eastern) will address industry-related FAQs on the Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1. Topics include changes, policy clarifications and updates on CIA (credit, income, and asset) documentation, manual underwriting, Automated Underwriting System (AUS), closing, and more.

Looking for more in-depth commentary on weekly mortgage news? Register here for "Mortgage Matters: The Weekly Roundup with Robbie and Rob Chrisman" presented by Lenders One. Every Wednesday at 2:00 PM EST/11:00 AM PT starting August 9th, Robbie and Rob will dive into a range of mortgage-related topics, including market trends, interest rate fluctuations, innovative mortgage products, and industry advancements. Robbie and Rob will bring a unique mix of age perspective, expertise, and charisma to the screen, ensuring that the information is not only educational but also entertaining. Register for the first show on August 9th with Lenders One’s Justin Demola, CMB, as a featured guest discussing chatter from his hundreds of members.

Tomorrow at noon PT is the next edition of The Mortgage Collaborative’s Rundown with Melissa Langdale and me. We’ll will be covering current events in the mortgage market for 30 minutes starting at noon PT in “The Rundown” with co-host Larry Bsharah, President of John Adams Mortgage and Total Home Lending.

Capital Markets

Who you gonna believe? Job growth and cooling inflation are making some Americans more optimistic about the economy, which would lead to higher rates. But here’s a CNN poll saying that about half of Americans think things are worsening, which would lead to lower rates. Ahead of tomorrow’s Nonfarm payroll report for July (expected +200k), investors are mulling over yesterday morning’s ADP Employment, which showed the private sector added 324k jobs last month, far exceeding analyst estimates of 190k. Leisure and hospitality jobs accounted for the bulk of the pickup. Job stayers reported an increase of 6.2 percent in wage growth year-over-year while job changers saw an increase of 10.2 percent growth. Insight into the strength of the labor market is important as market participants and an admittedly data dependent Fed search for direction.

Yesterday was headlined by Fitch Ratings lowering the credit rating of the United States to AA+ from AAA, which the U.S. Treasury responded (not directly) to via a ramp-up in issuance of longer-dated securities. The government needs more money than expected because of a rapidly deteriorating budget deficit and soaring interest rates and doesn’t care if the price tag is climbing because of a worse (arbitrary) credit rating. For the first time since early 2021, Treasury will boost its so-called quarterly refunding of longer-term Treasuries, to $102 billion from $96 billion. While down from the record levels hit during the initial Covid-19 crisis, that’s well above pre-pandemic levels.

Today’s calendar began with a .25 percent hike from the Bank of England. The busy U.S. calendar is under way with job cuts from Challenger, Gray and Christmas for July. U.S.-based employers announced 23,697 cuts in July, a 42 percent decrease from the 40,709 cuts announced one month prior. It is 8 percent lower than the 25,810 cuts announced in the same month last year and marks the first time this year cuts were lower than the corresponding month one year earlier. We also had weekly jobless claims (227k, 1.7 million continuing claims), and preliminary Q2 nonfarm productivity and unit labor costs (+1.6 percent). Later today brings the final July S&P Global services PMI, July ISM non-manufacturing PMI, June factory orders, Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Markets Survey, and remarks from Richmond Fed President Barkin. We begin Thursday with Agency MBS prices worse .125-.250, and the 10-year yielding 4.15 after closing yesterday at 4.08 percent. At 4.88 the 2-year is approaching 5 percent.

Jobs and Transitions

“Equity Resources is a privately owned mortgage banker that is seeking career-focused loan officers. Equity is proudly celebrating our 30th anniversary and we are excited about our continued growth! Our team tells our story the best! I recently spoke with several of our Loan Officer’s and their comments were: “Equity is the best place to be! I will retire one day from Equity Resources… Our marketing division rocks! Incredible support! …I feel valued! …Equity is the best company I have worked for…. Thank you for all that you do for us!” The average tenure of our LO team is 10+ years, with many LO’s celebrating their 15th, 20th and 25th anniversaries with us! We are an agency direct lender that is currently licensed in 19 states along the east coast and mid-west. We offer a stellar marketing platform, unparalleled support, a plan to help you grow your business, as well as a full suite of products (including several specialty lending programs.) For confidential inquiries to join our award- winning team, please contact Tom Piecenski, Executive Vice President of Sales at 614.327.5353.”

“Spring EQ Wholesale is the mortgage industry’s top second lien TPO lender, offering a suite of adjustable rate HELOCs and fixed rate HELOANs. Over the past 4 weeks, we’ve implemented significant rate reductions across all our home equity products -- you can see rates and guidelines here. And now, pricing home equity second mortgages is faster & easier with our NEW pricing engine tool! Simply adjust loan parameters and get instant quotes. Don’t forget, with Spring EQ you can earn traditional broker compensation on HELOCs and HELOANs. Looking for new opportunities in the mortgage space? We’d love to speak with you! Explore our job postings and come join our growing team of fun and experienced mortgage professionals! At Spring EQ our primary focus is second mortgages. So, think of us first for all your seconds. Become a partner now or contact your Account Executive to learn more.”

“At Planet, we're hiring Branch Managers and empowering them with the resources to build extraordinary teams. Bring your team to the only Top 10 mortgage company with positive year-over-year production growth for the first 6 months of the year. Reach out today for a confidential discussion with Brian Miller, Planet's SVP Talent Acquisition, at 214-223-9986, or Peter Briggs, VP Talent Acquisition, at 949-202-8213. When you’re here, you’re home.”