As attendees head home from the MBA’s IMB in New Orleans, plenty will be eating airplane chow. Maybe you should buy vittles on the ground instead. Given the breezy weather in New Orleans, leather jackets are out in force. Those in attendance are talking about several good things that happened in 2023, impacting mortgage rates and lenders. Inflation has come down, hourly wages outpaced inflation the last seven months of the year, we didn’t have a recession or a banking crisis that some “experts” expected. In fact, the S&P 500 was up 23 percent, and the economy grew a decent 2.6 percent. Credit costs and trigger leads are a big item; today’s L1 Mortgage Matters session at 2PM ET features John Fleming, of John Fleming Law and the Texas MBA, and a good update on the trigger lead situation. Basel III is a concern; as MBA President Bob Broeksmit points out, no bank has ever failed due to servicing requirements, and we should guard against non-se
Isn’t ice cream a great food!? In fact, I worked in an ice cream plant in my early 20s. Did you know that Moose Tracks ice cream was named for a miniature golf course in Michigan's Upper Peninsula? Thank you to Carla M. who reminded me that July is National Ice Cream Month with an article on the top flavors. It is fortuitous that chocolate and ice cream met, as many of the most popular flavors have it. I know for a fact that mortgage attorney Brian Levy’s favorite ice cream is the uncommon rum raisin, although his latest piece has no relation to it whatsoever. Brian Levy’s most recent Mortgage Musing covers crowdsourced housing policy, professionalism, conflicts of interest in affiliated business arrangements, and whether doctor body cams are a good idea (spoiler alert: no). If you want to be “a-mused” while learning something about the mortgage business, subscribe to Levy’s Musings (it’s free and he promises he won’t sell
The most dangerous statement in the English language is, “But we’ve always done it this way.” Referral business has always been a mainstay in our biz, and is not “against the law,” but oddly enough one topic that has come up a few times here in San Diego at the MBA’s conference is continued talk about MSAs, or Marketing Service Agreements. The CFPB spells out everything in its FAQ site. Attorney Brian Levy also discusses the topic in one of his Musings. One session yesterday included attorneys Mitch Kider and Troy Garris; any questions on the following should be addressed to them. The shorthand notes? Referrals are fine, but paying for them, think twice! RESPA’s been around for decades, the purpose being to discourage kickbacks and illegal referrals. You can’t give someone a thing of value for a referral. You can still do lots of things that you can do with your referral partners! Setting up an MSA? Make sure it is for real servic
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