Every lender or investor with an “a” in their name seems to be subject to rumors and news in recent months. (More on Flagstar and American Pacific below.) Know anyone named “Bernadette”? The name is actually Latin for, “The act of torching a mortgage.” (Yes, it is cutting edge humor like that which brings you back.) Burning liens isn’t a topic, but paying them off early is, and with mortgage rates off of their highs, early pay offs, or EPOs, were a conversation topic at the conference this week. And with it, loan officer compensation follows. Can a lender pay an originator based on pull through? Yes. Can lenders pay different originators under different payment plans, as long as the originator sticks with one plan? Yes. Can a lender, if they comply with state labor law, ask for compensation back after an EPO or EPD? Yes, and it may depend on the contract signed by both parties at the beginning of employment. As always, consult your in-ho
Yes, it’s already Tuesday. Are we at the top of the market? A pair of Goldman Sachs-backed ventures gobbled up an entire rental home community in Florida last month for $45 million, according to reports. Lenders everywhere keep one eye on housing trends, and every Friday at 3PM ET I do a Zoom show with Rich Swerbinsky for The Mortgage Collaborative discussing current events in finance and housing. I try to have fun backgrounds. In Friday’s show, however, at the 6-minute mark the wild horse in the hills above Reno decided he was done with the filming. And then there was the lunging horned toad at 32:30; fortunately, I outweighed it. Speaking of weak segues, “Demand continues to outweigh supply, with the number of potential buyers currently 61% higher than the five-year average. Meanwhile, the level of homes for sale is 37% lower than normal. But the number of properties being put up for sale is beginning to increase. The number of new listings in the four weeks to 2
The last pay phone was removed from New York City yesterday. (Heck, growing up I financed my baseball card purchases by looking for loose change in those and newspaper vending machines.) Communication is certainly always changing, and successful loan officers and managers are adept at knowing the best way to communicate with others. Communication aside, loan officers have a lot on their plates. On a micro level, every loan is a hard deal, and LOs are focused on providing the best program for their client at a competitive rate. (Today MortgagePros411’s Audrey B. and Kevin C. – both LOs - and I have, for lack of a better term, a freewheeling conversation today at 2PM ET about what is happening in the mortgage biz and what loan officers are seeing.) Senior management is working on making sure their origination staff has software to help LOs do their job, or products that LOs were too busy in the last couple years to attend training on and are now saying, “Huh? We have
Besides a reminder that it is Teacher Appreciation Week, how about some loan officer humor to lead off Monday? “We’re closing on our house next week. Sorry we didn’t use you.” “Oh, that’s okay. You should really go buy a new car this week to celebrate.” LOs have a lot going on, including dusting off their adjustable rate mortgage playbooks: ARMs are making a comeback. Rate talk dominates. Unfortunately, the pricing isn’t quite there yet to their complete liking. And despite the uptick we’ve seen in ARM locks (around 8 percent industry-wide), the yield curve is extremely flat, so there is limited incentive to move into a 15-year loan or an ARM at this point. And regarding the yield curve, the two-day Federal Reserve meeting will conclude with a rate announcement this week on May 4. The market has fully priced in a 50 basis points hike for May and at least another five to six 25-point hikes are expected before the end of year