Borrowers will bear the brunt of this, but rumors from several sources have Fair Isaac planning on giving most residential lenders an early Christmas “present,” effective 12/26, of higher fees for mortgage work incorporated into a new tier system. (Talk to your credit reporting agency or provider for details and tiering.) I heard a dealer in a Reno casino say that no one gets ruined by losing, they get ruined by trying to win back the money they lost. How hard is it to get back a lost client? People ask me why I send the commentary out six days a week. Hey, if I can help one MLO not lose one borrower, it’s worth it, right? For example, if an MLO is working with a borrower, or their spouse, who is Native American, they can access VA's Native American Direct Loan (NADL) program to buy, build, or improve a home on federal trust land. The borrower may also be eligible for a loan to refinance an existing NADL to reduce their interest rate. Find out if they quali
While investors who “jumped the gun” on establishing their own conforming conventional loan limits ahead of the official proclamation at the end of November by the FHFA are wondering if they “spoke too soon” as values drop, time is rushing by. Kids are back in school, learning about Cuba and having pizza. We’re losing about 3 minutes of daylight a day. Children are picking out Halloween costumes. There are fake Christmas trees in Costco. We don’t turn back the clocks (daylight savings time in all the states except Arizona and Hawaii) for another month, November 6. Things are happening behind the scenes, and today’s Rich and Rob Rundown has Nadia Evangelou, the National Association of Realtor’s Senior Economist and Director of Forecasting, and Jim Parrott, a nonresident fellow at the Urban Institute and owner of Parrott Ryan Advisors. Topics will include FHA pricing moves, FHFA pricing moves, the FHFA on credit scoring models, fore
If you’ve ever had to hire people, did you sort your applications into three piles: Mad, Hopeless, or Possible? For his Antarctic expeditions, Ernest Shackleton did, and thank you to Fairway Independent’s Guy Schwartz for sending along this article on recruiting. (At least click on the link to look at photos of when men were men, not like we are now when none of us even know how to change our own oil.) In the Antarctic it is springtime, the end of September and end of the 3rd quarter everywhere. In the Northern Hemisphere, places like Minneapolis are losing 3 minutes a day of sunlight. Lenders and vendors are certainly hoping that their company never sunsets…How profitable was your 3rd quarter? LOs and lenders are continuing to face hard times for the foreseeable future as we head into the autumn and winter. Be sure that your financial counterparties, such as warehouse banks, investors, and broker-dealers, are kept up to date on your P&L and plans for p
All eyes have been on the Federal Reserve this year, but for independent mortgage banks, the focus has been on maximizing production and minimizing overhead in the face of higher rates and decreasing margins. In fact, the ability to offer unique and relevant products has helped keep the lights on at many companies. One of these products is non-QM, which will be discussed in a webinar today at 1pm EST hosted by Robbie Chrisman (Hey, that’s me! It’s been fun writing, editing, and publishing this commentary in its entirety the past three weeks with my dad on vacation. I’ve enjoyed hearing from many of you). Webinar panelists will dive into strategies, compliance, how they are performing, and what the future looks like for non-QM. One other current concern in the industry is Ginnie Mae’s Single-Family Applicant and Issuer Financial Eligibility Requirements , which were announced last month and have caused consternation for Ginnie Mae issuers and potential iss
With most mortgage related headlines focused on rates being back above 6 percent for the first time since 2008, it makes sense that 67 percent of millennials and Gen Zers who moved back home during the pandemic still live there. Lending Tree surveyed more than 1,300 U.S. parents and/or generation Zers/millennials to get their thoughts on pandemic parent-living arrangements and found that 85 percent of parents would let their children move back in as adults or have previously done so, and most (73 percent) wouldn’t charge them rent. That sounds “pretty sweet” as higher mortgage rates combined with still-high home prices are making it challenging for homebuyers as we head into what historically has been the best time of the year to find a home. According to economist Elliot Eisenberg, Ph.D., asking rents rose 0.4 percent in August this year. While that is historically very high (pre-Covid, rent hikes in August were about 0.2 percent), that figure is way down from the