If you’ve ever had to hire people, did you sort your applications into three piles: Mad, Hopeless, or Possible? For his Antarctic expeditions, Ernest Shackleton did, and thank you to Fairway Independent’s Guy Schwartz for sending along this article on recruiting. (At least click on the link to look at photos of when men were men, not like we are now when none of us even know how to change our own oil.) In the Antarctic it is springtime, the end of September and end of the 3rd quarter everywhere. In the Northern Hemisphere, places like Minneapolis are losing 3 minutes a day of sunlight. Lenders and vendors are certainly hoping that their company never sunsets…How profitable was your 3rd quarter? LOs and lenders are continuing to face hard times for the foreseeable future as we head into the autumn and winter. Be sure that your financial counterparties, such as warehouse banks, investors, and broker-dealers, are kept up to date on your P&L and plans for profitability going forward. (Today’s podcast is available here and this week’s podcast is sponsored by AIM-Port, an appraisal management platform built to reduce costs and elevate the borrower experience for lenders managing appraisal operations. Go to aim-port.com for more information or click here to reach out to a team member today!)

Lender and Broker Products, Services, and Software

Broker and Non-Delegated loan originators: amidst changing mortgage landscapes and increasing competition, anything is possible with the right people to support you. With Pennymac TPO, you have a lender you can depend on for the long run. Pennymac’s Broker and Non-Delegated clients rely on their proven experience, led by an executive team with a track record for building scalable and sustainable businesses. Feel at ease working with a public company with financial transparency. Have confidence even after the loan closes with Pennymac’s seamless, uninterrupted servicing experience. Pennymac retains all of their servicing. Their balanced business model makes it possible for them to focus on top-notch customer experience for your borrowers. Sign up to become a partner today with Pennymac TPO, a lender who has the strength and stability to support you and your goals! Interested in working at Pennymac TPO? AEs in the West, contact Eric Yang. In the East, contact Scott Houp.

Orion Lending is your home for out of this world DPA’s! Orion offers Full TBD underwrite with a $500 credit if the borrower goes to contract within 30 days, 24-HR SLAs for purchases, highly experienced and in-house UW for quick closings, FICO scores down to 600, FTHB OK but not required, no income limits, N/O co-borrowers, spot condo approvals and so much MORE! Coupled with industry leading STAR Portal technology (it auto creates the 2nd lien for you!) for easy submissions, what’s not to love? To learn more about all of Orion’s Down Payment Assistance programs, please click here. Click here to get approved today!

Waterstone Mortgage has gone back to the Usherpa SmartCRM after trying another big-box CRM and facing disappointment, according to the company. Waterstone has made the company’s marketing automation and relationship engagement technology available to all its loan officers nationwide. “In the past, our team used Usherpa SmartCRM before transitioning to another CRM platform, which did not meet our expectations,” said Sue Millspaugh, Waterstone Mortgage Division Executive – West. “We are very excited to re-establish Usherpa as our company CRM, as we believe it’s the best CRM – with the highest functionality – for loan officers.” Lenders who understand the power technology can offer their sales teams will achieve the most success in this market. Now is the time to implement marketing automation if you haven’t already. It’s easier to do than many think. Find out more today.

In today’s market, lenders need every advantage to lower production costs and optimize the mortgage manufacturing process. Lender Toolkit's PowerTools™️ are the perfect fit to optimize this process by reducing time & clicks, improving efficiency, increasing compliance & accuracy, reducing costs, and much more! One of the most popular PowerTools™️, the Audit Log plugin, is a powerful UI for viewing the complete Audit Log data for the loan. This intuitive UI allows searching by field IDs, date ranges and by user. This means significant time savings for users and managers when attempting to analyze all of the changes that occurred over the life of the loan, and it makes auditing field data fast and easy. See who changed what field on what date and export it as a spreadsheet if you’d like. Interested in a more efficient LOS? Get PowerTools™️! Schedule a demo today with one of our experts!

FREE EBOOK: Surviving the Remainder of 2022: How to Manage Rising Rates, Declining Volume & Challenges to Profitability. With interest rates hitting 7%, the mortgage market continues to pose serious challenges—but the truth is, it’s very possible to make money in tough markets like today’s. To dig into the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, mortgage solutions provider Maxwell asked five experts (Serent Capital’s Amy Brandt, Richey May’s Seth Sprague, and Maxwell leaders Bryan Traeger, Anthony Ianni, and Kim Powers) for their thoughts on the rest of 2022. The result is a forward-looking game plan to help lenders best position themselves to compete in a tightening market. For expert advice on how to allocate spend, expand loan and product offerings, achieve peak efficiency, and more, don’t miss this free report (with accompanying webinar included!). Click here to download Surviving the Remainder of 2022: How to Manage Rising Rates, Declining Volume & Challenges to Profitability.

Leverage out-of-the-box, cutting-edge, proven technology that’s fully customizable and deployed in weeks with Richey May’s RM Analyze. Business intelligence designed by and for mortgage industry experts, our platform consolidates data from every department and every piece of software you use. Need to know which loan officers are converting applications to funded loans? Get the answers in one click, plus intuitively drill down to all the details you need. Curious how you’re measuring up against your peers? Use our Peer View Ops functionality. With RM Analyze, you get a complete picture of your company and the tools to empower your managers to take proactive measures, find efficiencies, create change, and drive growth. Contact us today for a walk-through and custom implementation plan.

Freddie and Fannie Adjust Conventional Conforming Policies

By far, the lion’s share of mortgages is still either being sold to the Agencies or are processed and underwritten to their guidelines. Lenders and investors react to their changes (and yes, the official 2023 conforming loan limits aren’t announced until around Thanksgiving), so let’s see what they’ve been up to recently.

Freddie Mac September releases include improved loan assignment functionality, new Duty to Serve loan program identifiers (LPIs), support Supplemental Consumer Information Form (SCIF) requirements, updated ARM qualifying PITI rate calculation. Freddie Mac September Loan Product Advisor® (LPASM) releases.

Measuring affordability for future homebuyers, Freddie Mac’s new First-Time Homebuyer Affordability Map (FFTHAM) developed by Freddie Mac’s Economic & Housing Research team can help in the affordability evaluation based on credit characteristics and income distribution.

Freddie Mac is expanding community land trust (CLT) mortgage loan delivery options. Effective October 3, delivery of CLT mortgages through Guarantor or Fixed-Rate Cash execution will be available. View Freddie Mac Tools to Help You Execute for loads of information.

Did you know that certain forgiven student loan debt may be excluded from a borrower’s debt-to-income (DTI) ratio with documentation? Fannie Mae’s Ask Poli® provides answers to this and other underwriting questions, reducing the steps and time it takes to track down answers so you can get an instant and accurate response. Log in to Ask Poli or check out the top trending underwriting and eligibility questions to find more answers.

In coordination with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac published the requirements related to the updated minimum financial eligibility requirements for Seller/Servicers in the Single-Family Seller/Servicer Guide Bulletin 2022-19. The requirements are effective September 30, 2023, unless otherwise indicated.

At the direction of Fannie Mae’s regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), and in coordination with Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae updated the minimum financial requirements for seller/servicers, including an enhanced minimum net worth requirement applicable to all sellers/servicers, an enhanced minimum liquidity requirement applicable to all non-depository sellers/servicers, a new origination liquidity requirement applicable to certain non-depository sellers/servicers, and new requirements applicable to large non-depository sellers/servicer View Lender Letter. LL-2022-04 - Maintaining Seller/Servicer Eligibility for additional information.

Capital Markets

Mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and U.S. Treasuries faced renewed selling on Thursday, though the long bond outperformed, finishing with a modest loss. 30-year mortgage rates are not set by the Fed, or are pegged off of the fed funds rate, but Cleveland Fed President Mester (FOMC voter) was quoted as saying that the fed funds rate range needs to be increased above 4.00% in the coming months and that a recession would not stop the central bank from continuing its rate hikes. The employment situation is helping the Federal Reserve slow down its rate increases: yesterday’s initial jobless claims showed its first drop below 200,000 since early May. The low level of initial claims will register with the Fed as a basis to maintain an aggressive line with its rate hikes since it sees a softening in the labor market as a necessary ingredient for helping to bring inflation back down to its 2.0% target.

Freddie Mac tells us that mortgage rates continue their recent ascent with the 30-year rate hitting its highest level since July 2007 with the 15-year rate highest since 2008. For the week ending September 29, the 30- and 15-year year fixed rates rose 41bp and 52bp versus the prior week to 6.70% and 5.96% while the 5/1 hybrid ARM rate rose 33bp to 5.30%, highest since 2009.

When the Federal Reserve has made its path clear, weekly or monthly economic news has less impact on rates. Still, this morning we’ve had Personal Income (+.3 percent, +6.2 percent for the year) and Spending (+.4 percent, +4.9 percent for the year) for August, Core PCE Price Index (+.6 percent), and Chicago Purchasing Managers Index for September. The presidents of the various Federal Reserve districts are out and about: Richmond’s Barkin, Fed Vice Chair Brainard, and Governor Bowman. The last day of September starts with the U.S. 10-year T-Note, which closed yesterday yielding 3.75 percent, at 3.72, and Agency MBS prices better by .125-.250 versus Thursday’s close.

Employment Opportunities

“JMAC Lending is hiring top producing Sr. Account Executives in multiple states. Contact us or visit us to apply. JMAC Lending is celebrating 25 years in the TPO business with a full lineup of products for Wholesale and Correspondent lending. JMAC is a Direct Seller/Servicer for Fannie and Freddie, along with Ginnie Mae for FHA and VA with manual underwriting. JMAC has six aggressively-priced Jumbo products with 4 eligible for High-Balance along with ARMs. Our Cash-Flow DSCR investment loan offers unlimited properties, no income, no job, Gift funds, Appraisal Transfers and no minimum DSCR for loans greater than $150K. Fixed, ARMs and Interest-Only options, Foreign Nationals and Condo Hotels. Alt-Doc Non-QM offers two credit tiers and loans to $3.5M (Bank Statements, 1099 Only, P&L Only, WVOE and Asset Depletion). One year seasoning for major credit events with FICOs from 600. Contact Sales@JMACLending.com to get started and see all our products. See our Premier incentive.”

“Here we grow again! Towne Mortgage Company, a multi-channel, national mortgage lender with the strength and stability of 40 years in business has added 4 industry veterans to the Team. We are excited to announce Lesa Meulemans, Alicia Fattore- Brozek, Michele Sween and Ross Barnett. Despite industry downsizing, we are still growing and have a strategy to continue. Towne Account Executives prospect and originate across all channels (Wholesale, Non-Del, and Fully Delegated) and across the country free of specific territories, a huge advantage in a slowing market and giving them the opportunity to excel in a declining market. As a seller/servicer we have full access to FNMA/FHLMC/GNMA agency product sets, renovation (203K, FNMA HomeStyle & FHLMC HomePossible), no minimum FICO FHA, manual underwrites and manufactured housing loans. All this, and we service most of our loans! If you're looking for a generous compensation plan, an all-encompassing benefits package, and a one-of-a-kind Business Support Team, look no further. AE’s interested in Towne opportunities please send your confidential inquiries to Mark Zierott.”

REMN is hiring successful Account Executives nationwide. Click Here. Visit REMN WHOLESALE (Booth 832) at the 2022 NAMB National Conference Oct 8th & 9th @ Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Stop by the REMN booth to enter the "WEAR IT TO WIN IT" hourly $$$ drawing (winners will have the chance to walk away with $50 to $500). Rules Apply. REMN will be easy to find on the exhibit floor… just look for the Lamborghini. Regarding SPEED: if your borrowers have the “need for speed,” consider REMN’S 5 day HELOC program. Approvals in Minutes, Closings in as Little as 5 Days! For details, click here. REMN + ARIVE = BROKER SUCCESS! ARIVE is the industry’s first full-stack loan origination platform and wholesale marketplace for independent mortgage brokers. REMN loan products, pricing and integrated loan registration is available automatically to REMN WHOLESALE - approved Brokers.