Here’s what happened when a company relied on forecasts and rate predictions during late 2022 for its business in 2023. You’d have a come-apart! Speaking of losing one’s cool, how do you think IMBs feel about this Bloomberg story about how mortgage fees at banks are less than at non-banks? In STRATMOR Group’s December Insights Report, STRATMOR provides key takeaways that will help lenders think outside the box, evaluate new strategies, take risks and survive the downturn that is likely to continue into the first quarter of 2024. Lenders are looking at rising credit costs, asking if there alternative financing strategies versus traditional warehouse lines, is there a “best” technology underwriter, and how are lenders handling HPML loans, like sharing the cost between a branch and corporate? Today’s podcast can be found here, and this week’s is sponsored by Lender Toolkit’s AI-powered AI Underwriter and Prism borrower income
“Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.” Corporate changes are the name of the game. Atlanta’s Crescent Mortgage’s bank owner is aligning all mortgage facets of the enterprise and moving to “retail only” and eliminating third party. Rather than wind down, Colorado’s Universal Lending is inking an agreement with Lower LLC in a partnership setting up Universal Home Loans being in the same markets as a division of Lower LLC and improve its competitive position. Every discussion that I’ve had with real estate agents lately involves a) thousands of agents leaving the business due to the lack of… business, and b) how 8 percent mortgage rates have absolutely ground transactions, and even interest in looking at properties, to a halt. Meanwhile, I’m having similar conversations with loan originators as a) NMLS licenses are declining, and b) 8 percent mortgage rates have ground activity to a halt. From a broker-d
The unofficial Chrisman LLC sarcastic slogan is, “We do this not because it is easy, but because we thought it would be easy.” Hopefully, there are no lenders out there with that slogan, as residential lending, done the right way, is not easy. Sometimes residential lending seems discombobulated. Sometimes things settle down and become more orderly: recombobulated! (Workflow and improved lender efficiency are the topics of today’s Mortgage Collaborative Rundown featuring Donielle Geiser with Thrive Mortgage.) Not only is our biz not easy but it is also unpredictable. 2024 is shaping up to be another tough year for mortgage originations due to the market environment, and every basis point will matter. Capacity still needs to be right sized across the industry, and the market and your competitors will force that to happen. Would you rather have profitability or market share? If you’re losing money what difference does market share make? If you don’t have
This morning (as I head to Chicago) and every morning, I keep myself sharp by regularly asking myself the tough questions like, “What happened yesterday?” and “What was I planning on doing just now?” Looking forward, as some attendees of last week’s conference made note of the MBA Annual’s dates in Denver for next year butting up against Halloween, successful salespeople will tell you that many of their best business meetings last week, or at any conference, contained very little business and didn’t take place in a meeting room. I’ve seen this in action many times over the years. Numerous conversations were personal in nature and took place in the hallways or at social events. Yes, the sessions were valuable, although if you’re a company whose unofficial slogan is, “Survive until ’25,” you’re not likely to care much about some Agency’s “Five Year Plan.” (Today’s podcas
“What do you call a bovine with a stutter that makes chocolate milk? Cacao.” Speaking of sweets, hats off to Byte’s booth at the conference for dishing out some amazing s’mores brownies here in Philadelphia. (They will be my breakfast on my flight out this morning.) The brownies are sweeter than the upcoming credit report cost increases (there is definitely a shift to lenders having borrowers pay for credit reports up front, not eating the cost of reports run on loans that don’t fund), the search by IMBs for HELOCs and 2nds and jumbo outlets, the talk of distant future EPO (early pay off) penalties when rates decide to drift down, and continued over-capacity and cost cutting until then. That said, there is good news for existing homeowners trying to build net worth: house prices hit another peak in September per one measure. (Today’s podcast can be found, after 8 AM ET, 5 AM PT, here: Sponsored by nCino, maker of the nCino Mortgage Suite, built