“I accidentally rubbed ketchup in my eyes. Now I have Heinzsight.” In terms of foresight, looking ahead, there are some interesting things going on out there in Mortgage Land! How ‘bout the CapitalW Collective non-profit for women in mortgage capital markets? And Beeline's Miguel Vega has been in the press lately with, "The Dream of Owning a Piece of America is a Dominant Theme in the Latino Community” and the company launching a Spanish-language version of its home loan experience this week. Something else that continues to be “interesting” is the question, “Are brokers violating RESPA every day?” This question is asked because brokering is a referral of a customer to a lender, right? HUD identified fourteen services normally performed in the origination of a loan (Section II, subsection C of the link above), and brokers usually do five out of the fourteen services, including taking the application, to get around
Remember when lenders were fretting about Amazon rolling out a major home loan program? The new acronym that the mortgage industry was about to start using was “WACD” (What Amazon Can’t Do). We reminded ourselves that Amazon couldn’t do is to deliver high value and personalized service and build relationships that last a lifetime. Play to your strengths! One strength is keeping up with what is going on, especially in the regulatory world. Today’s L1 show at 2PM ET features Kathy Kraninger, former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from 2018 to 2021, now CEO of the Florida Bankers Association, with a “behind the scenes” look at being the CFPB director and setting clear “rules of the road.” Next week Rich Swerbinsky returns to the airwaves on Thursday the 18th at 3PM ET, interviewing the CFPB’s Mark McArdle on what the big misconceptions about the CFPB are, and where its focus is currently. (Found her
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