“I'm at a place in my life where errands are starting to count as going out.” No one’s getting any younger, and like time marching on, technology does as well. For history buffs, here is a recording of the voice of someone born in 1800, at the 13:30 mark in the video. Fast forward, and something that enthralled countless kids has run its course: The last Chuck E. Cheese animatronic band in the world will exist in Northridge, California. Remember when that chain was popular for kids’ birthday parties? Assumable mortgages were, at one point, popular as well, but not any longer. “Assumable mortgages are hard to find, take long to process, and are only good for certain buyers.” But that doesn’t stop them from grabbing the public’s attention when they’re in the headlines. (Today’s podcast can be found here, and this week’s is sponsored by Richey May, a recognized leader in providing specialized advisory, au
“Hey Chet, since you’re the new guy here with the park U.S. Geological Survey in Hawai’i, you’re going to be the one placing the live cam on the volcano for our YouTube feed. Splendid! We’ll be behind you all the way.” (Apply to mortgage banking however you see fit.) Scooting back to lending, I am occasionally asked about high balance conforming conventional loans, and why so much of the country doesn’t care about them (to be somewhat blunt). The MBA put out a fine map showing “high-cost areas” defined by the FHFA as “areas in which 115 percent of the local median home value exceeds the baseline conforming loan limit.” The loan limits are permitted to be higher than the baseline loan limit until a ceiling of 150 percent of the baseline limit is reached. That said, remember that 20-25 percent of the nation’s home loans come from California. (Today's podcast is brought to you by SimpleNexus, an nC
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 Of course there is, and in many conversations with lenders, rate & term refis have been replaced by cash out.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