Change is mandatory. Progress is optional. Are signing bonuses a sign of progress? Perhaps not, and more a continued sign of the competitive times. “A $1 Million Salesperson Signing Bonus is Not a Growth Strategy” is worth a skim. Today’s podcast interview is with me discussing the current rough environment, and as our brethren trail off home from the Texas MBA to the airport in Austin (and actually recognize each other without masks), the talk is about volume and cutbacks. Vendors are being beaten up on price. Long, long gone are the days of padding margins to slow things down as mortgage applications tumble week after week. Refinance volumes have fallen dramatically and are now heavily skewed toward cash-out transactions. Lenders also continue to indicate margins have been cut as much as possible, forcing reductions in capacity to try and control costs as volumes fall. Mid-level management is threatened (do you need district, regional, and divisional managers?) P
It’s Thursday. What should we talk about today? Elon Musk’s bid for Twitter? How about the jump in adjustable-rate locks as evidenced by the MBA’s figures? (Are your LOs well-versed in them?) Their share of applications last week was at 7.4 percent, which was the highest share since June 2019. How about this unique measure of wage inflation? Last night in Manhattan I was chatting with a chef who, when COVID hit, had moved from a fancy restaurant to become a personal chef at three meals a day for a family in New York. The chef had changed jobs, and was now working for (coincidentally) the family of a national home builder who had homes in Miami and Aspen, but only cooking one meal a day at the same compensation for three meals a day a year ago. Or we could talk about the CFPB filing a lawsuit against TransUnion, two of its subsidiaries, and longtime executive John Danaher for violating a 2017 law enforcement order. “The order was issued to stop the company fr
As we edge toward Easter, which isn’t until April 17 this year, the Dallas Fed has released a report on housing prices… have they become unhinged from fundamentals? Those crafty food scientists have been at work creating Black Jelly Bean Spiced Maple Syrup for creative pancake breakfasts. Some people will tell you that accounting can be creative, but one likes to think that publicly-held companies, with the advantages and disadvantages of being public, are an open book, accounting-wise. For example, Guild Holdings (Mortgage)’s the most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows its diversity & inclusion efforts (page 6), senior officer compensation (page 18), and what board members earn (page 20). Guild and nearly every lender have shifted to going after purchase business while at the same time grappling with “work from home” and “work from the office” decisions. Lenders are having refinance teams shiftin
Lending is full of statistics. And originators follow many of them, looking for an edge in finding clients. Last year 27.1 million Americans moved, 80 percent within the same state and 20 percent interstate moves. This report showed Florida being the most moved-to state and California topping states for folks moving away from it. Originators also look for ways to add value to their clients. They might want to consider letting them know about Realm. (Nope, this is not a paid endorsement.) Homeowners often struggle to decide which upgrades will offer the biggest boost in property value. Realm helps by analyzing real estate, tax, zoning, and other data to offer recommendations after assessing the impact of different designs, materials, and financing options to calculate the return on, say, a kitchen renovation. Realm is free: A good price.  Lender and broker products & services Texas-based doc prep law firm Black, Mann & Graham, LLP recently upd