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The mortgage talk here in Cleveland is how, “Tough times never last but tough people do.” Many estimates have residential production hitting $4.8 trillion in 2021, so is there anyone left to refinance? Of course there is, and in many conversations with lenders, rate & term refis have been replaced by cash out. Black Knight, a mortgage technology and data provider, says there are still 3.8 million people who would benefit from refinancing (30-year fixed-rate mortgage holder with a maximum 80% loan-to-value ratio, a credit score of 720 or more, and a likelihood of reducing their current first lien rate by at least 0.75%) and potentially save $1 billion per month. But many MLOs and lenders have turned their attention to the purchase biz, so what are they doing? The current STRATMOR blog is, “What’s Next” about how lenders and MLOs are shifting to a purchase-centric focus. And unfortunately, even “purchase business” has a solid p ....
Overheard in the hallway: “My email got hacked again. That’s now the third time I’ve had to rename the cat.” But there’s a lot of other conversation and session topics here in the hallways at the IMB in Nashville. Discussion about the rapidity of the Federal Reserve’s moves in attempting to combat inflation, and how might those moves actually eventually push rates back down if they dampen the economy. How volume and margin projections for 2022 are changing the minds of lenders, potentially turning them into sellers. The impact of Experian Go: a free, first-of-its-kind program designed to help credit invisibles begin building credit on their own terms. The continuing shift by employees, and the mangers managing them, in hybrid work-from-home arrangements. Trends in signing and retention bonuses. (The STRATMOR Group has a compensation survey, as does the MBA’s Compensation Survey.) Conventional servicing multiples up to 5x1! Conventional f ....
As I head to Orlando this morning for business meetings, much of the concern is about Treasury yields, with mortgage rates tagging along, climbing to a two-year high. Loan officers and lenders can’t do anything about rates or the market’s servicing values, but they certainly can do something about technology and cost savings. (Speaking of savings, a friend of mine was fond of saying, “’Free’ is a good price, and you and me and other taxpayers are footing the bill for free COVID tests; all you have to do is ask.) During a recent STRATMOR workshop session, I heard Partner Jim Cameron state, “Outsourcing is the gateway drug to automation.” Every 18 or so months, computer processing speed doubles, an observation known as Moore's law. A complaint that I hear from lender CEOs and owners is that AEs and LOs don’t even know what technology is available to them. “Educate yourselves on what’s available and then we&#x ....