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
If I tried to carry my cat Myrtle around like in this short video, there would be conflict. We all continue to hear conflicting information about home sales and prices in different parts of the nation and at different price points. One thing remains constant: there are over 50 million people aged 28-38. Millions do not own homes yet; sure, some of them don’t want to own them, but millions do. There are currently only 562,000 active listings of houses for sale in the U.S. The supply/demand imbalance that helps home prices. Zonda did a survey of why people decide to buy a home. The top reasons, which every LO should use in conversations, are: building my own equity rather than someone else’s, marriage or having kids, stability, participating in home price appreciation, and it was cheaper to own than to rent. Recent reports have New Home Sales rising 9.6 percent MOM in March but were down 3.4 percent compared to a year ago. The median new home price was $449,800 which was up