In our biz, you never want to hear, “deception,” “targeting the elderly,” or “abusive tactics” related to a company. But there they are in this report, “The Ugly Truth Behind We Buy Ugly Houses.” (Thank you to Ken S. for passing this along.) The franchise is nationwide, unlike… cicadas? The U.S. Census Bureau says the Midwest includes 12 states: the Dakotas, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio. I mention this, not only because some people are confused where they live, but also because this spring, two different broods of cicadas, one that lives on a 13-year cycle and the other that lives on a 17-year cycle, will emerge at the same time from underground in a rare, synchronized event that last occurred in 1803. Billions of the winged insects will make an appearance across the Midwest and the Southeast, beginning in some places in late April, for a raucous mating ritual
In Florida there are approximately 3,000 lakes, not enough to make it onto the leader board of states with the most named lakes (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Alaska are up there). (Here’s a bit of trivia: what is the only state without a naturally occurring body of water large enough to have a name?) Nebraska has the most rivers. I mention this, not to make you thirsty for a glass of clean, cold water, but to bring up that Nevada and Arizona may have their water allotment from the Colorado River cut. What might that do to property values? Florida has its share of rivers, despite the lack of elevation change (its highest point is only 345 feet above sea level). Here in Florida they’re not talking about water, but at the Florida Association of Mortgage Professionals attendees are talking comp, and the current STRATMOR blog is titled, “Lenders are Eying Compensation and Ops Trends.” In addition, don’t be too slow to right-size your company in toug
Big and small, they aren’t the first and won’t be the last. Residential lenders everywhere are ruminating on Notarize laying off 75 percent of its legal staff, the closure of fledgling correspondent Cypress Mortgage Capital, “powered by Celebrity Home Loans,” and the announced winddown and shutdown of loanDepot’s wholesale channel, effective by Halloween, along with dramatic cuts to its retail division. Frank Martell took LD’s helm in April, and announced the bad Q2 results (fortunately helped by servicing income). loanDepot is not alone. Of course it’s stock, and that of nearly every lender, has not done well after its initial investors cashed out: LDI went public at $14 per share, hit a high that day of nearly $40 per share, and closed yesterday at $1.84. If someone had invested their life savings of $1 million at the high, their life savings would be worth $46,000 now. Thousands have been laid off, not only from loanDepot but from oth
May the 4th be with you! Without the lisp, there are many forces tugging at lenders and vendors. Forget 2020 and 2021. Recruiters are asking LOs what their numbers were in 2018 and 2019. Prequals are running amok, and with them costs for any vendor services like credit verification. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s Marina Walsh tells us that the cost per loan has gone up six quarters in a row, despite all the “cost saving” automation. Meanwhile, in the secondary markets, life isn’t much better… and what happens there directly impacts rate sheet pricing for borrowers. Liquidity in higher coupon securities backed by mortgages (MBS) has been poor to say the least with very wide bid/offers or simply no price discovery. As a result, some higher rate combinations may simply not be available yet. (Keep in mind that any rate over 6.125% would have to be delivered into a UM30 5.5, which are not yet trading in any material amount.) So LOs looking for premium
The risk-free 2-year Treasury began 2022 yielding .73 and is now at 2.52 percent! Does your company offer 2-1 buydown loans? Do your LOs even know what a 2-1 buydown loan is? (If they don’t, bring them up to speed internally or through a program like XINNIX.) Things are changing. My gauge is very unofficial, but the number of emails saying, “Hey Rob, I am retiring but love your Commentary so can you change my email to…” is picking up. And I received this note from a mortgage vet. “Well, with the rates going up, looks like the mortgage industry is heading for another purge. We’ll start seeing the LOs that only had refi business slowly migrate away. Loss of ops staff still continuing. Like we haven’t heard this song before.” Lending aside, what do we make of these recent headlines? Investors place inflation bet on US farmland. Prices for prime Midwest ground climbed by up to a third in the past year as world food prices hit records.