“Sometimes it takes me all day to get nothing done.” But things are always changing. When I was a kid I “got a drink of water.” Now kids “hydrate.” Really? A few years ago, a good originator could do 10-20 loans per month. Now, it is rumored that 80 percent of volume is being done by 40 percent of originators, and lenders have instituted minimum production numbers: “If you’re not funding 2 loans per month, we’re going to let you find success elsewhere.” Diving into 2023’s production via NMLS looking at 234,000 records, Ingenious found that only 24 percent of originators did 24 units or more! 30 percent did 18 or more units, 40 percent did 12 or more units, and 60 percent did 5 or more units. Has the “norm” changed? Certainly a portion of marketing has shifted to people under the age of 40s, and Mortgages with Millennials with Kristin Messerli and Robbie Chrisman talking about Overlooked Strategie
“What do you call James Bond having a bath? Bubble 07.” In different bond matters, mortgage rates will always be higher than Treasury rates, in part because of the prepayment risk in mortgages that doesn’t exist with Treasury bonds. With the drop in rates, sales management personnel at lenders are busy figuring out how best to remind the staff about EPO (early payoff) penalties levied by investors while at the same time working on ways to save money besides furloughing, cutting staff, outsourcing, and re-doing vendor contracts. The recent decline in rates and increase in applications is welcome: According to Curinos, November 2023 funded mortgage volume decreased 11 percent YoY and 10 percent MoM. In the Retail channel, funded volume was down 22 percent YoY and 10% MoM. The average 30-year conforming retail funded rate in November was 7.45 percent, 25bps higher than October and 85bps higher than the same month last year. (Curinos sources a statistically significant
The mortgage industry does not move in unison, unlike some groups. (You’ll need sound.) But consistency is important. For example, Starbucks fans can be pretty much assured that the water that goes into the coffee, regardless of location around the world, will taste the same due to the filtration process, and brew a uniform product. Can you say the same about your originators? As a quick aside, STRATMOR offers a secret shopper program and senior advisor Brett McCracken said a lack of consistency is one of the most common findings from the program. “We recently shopped the same lender ten times with the same two scenarios. Besides the logo in the signature block of the emails we received, not much about the experiences overlapped. From how the originator approached the call to the advice we received to the follow up, it was all over the experience board. We can usually tell why one originator funds eight units a month and their colleague in the same office funds two based
Who is Harrison Ruffin Tyler? Answer: He is the last living grandchild of former U.S. president John Tyler, born in 1790. (Tyler was President from 1841-1845.) Between him, and his father Lyon, and John, they’ve been alive for nearly the entire span of the United States. One of the topics here in Atlanta at the MBA STRATMOR Peer Group meetings, besides M&A (more below), is reliability and longevity, managing risk in the face of competition, and about, in the capital markets arena, how MIAC’s systems lapse for several days gave competitors an opening. For many years MIAC has seen many loans reliably flow through its hedging system, just as the Tylers have seen a lot of people in the world come and go during their lives. Which reminds me, there are three types of people in the world. Those who can count, and those who can’t. Don’t inflate your numbers, especially when dealing with a buyer. Ever heard of Frank, a college financial aid tool that JPMo
Want to really let someone know that you’re no longer interested in them? For $10 the San Antonio Zoo is offering a special Valentine’s Day greeting for exes who keep bugging you after you part ways: naming a cockroach after your not-so-special someone and feeding it to an animal. What about when a lender parts ways with a loan officer? Obviously a new company may not have the same product set, and good luck to LOs who rely on one product and then are cut loose, especially if it is a purchase-centric product. For example, I bet all of those Flagstar originators will miss that portfolio product: A well-priced ARM that allowed clients to buy before selling. (Flagstar offers a wholesale and correspondent channel, by the way.) (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s is sponsored by Milestones. Giving homeowners an all-inclusive homeownership experience including home value and equity monitoring, home maintenance reminders and how-to articles, cloud-ba