A Missouri-based wholesale mortgage banker, Equitable
Mortgage Corporation, is continuing its expansion into
Arkansas and Kansas and is looking for AE’s. With 16
years of experience they offer turn-key secondary market
access for community banks, provide in-house underwriting, and
boast programs for Large Acreage, Rural Properties,
Conforming, FHA, VA, and USDA,. Account Executives currently
living in these markets that are interested in developing
Community Bank partnerships are encouraged to submit their
resume to Wholesale Lending Director, John Cardoza, john@equitablemortgages.com.
Previous retail or wholesale residential lending experience is
required – learn more about the company at http://www.equitablemortgages.com/.
As the CEO of an independent mortgage banking company, are you
concerned about the financial, competitive and compliance
viability of your business model over the coming cycle? You
may be interested in exploring an opportunity to be
acquired by a federally-charted (FDIC) community bank that
was founded in the mid-1800's. I have been retained to
identify a retail production entity with a strong purchase
orientation that is originating from $20 million to $100
million monthly. There are no geographic restrictions, and my
client brings a solid mortgage banking culture which has
evolved over 30 years and which will close $2.5 billion in
2012 in all 50 states. The acquired company would enjoy
numerous tangible benefits: Fannie/Freddie approvals,
significant warehouse spread, proven and tested compliance
practice, scalable state-of-the-art Information Technology
platform and a solid back office which delivers consistently
competitive service levels (like consistent 72 hour
underwriting turn times). I welcome your inquiry to discuss
this opportunity in strict confidence: rchrisman@robchrisman.com.
“The
road to success is under construction.” And it appears that AIG,
the owner of UG, is under construction and gearing up
to possibly become a direct lender. Anyone wanting to
sell their operation to it, step right up! Seriously, here is
the article, complete with exotic locales right out of a James
Bond movie: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-aig-assetsbre8ab0lk-20121112,0,5854584.story.
Remember how, in some classes, the teachers might let you drop
your worst test? "The Federal Reserve will give the 19 largest
banks a preliminary result of its capital stress test,
offering institutions that fail a chance to adjust their
dividend and stock buyback policies. The change comes after Citigroup
and SunTrust narrowly missed meeting the 5% tier one
common equity to risk-weighted assets minimum capital ratio in
the 2012 test at 4.9% and 4.8% respectively. Ally
Financial had a stressed ratio of 2.5 percent in the
last test": http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-09/fed-to-give-failing-stress-test-banks-second-chance.html.
"I've
been reading with interest the issues regarding fair lending,
steering, redlining and disparate impact in you daily
newsletter. My discussion group on linked in addresses those
issues every day. If your readers are an Optimal Blue user
they can join the group at "Optimal Blue Fair Lending and
Compliance Group". If they are not, the can access the
same articles on our external blog which is www.optimalbluefairlending.com."
Thank
you to Tammy Butler, the Director Fair Lending and Compliance
with Optimal Blue.
Speaking of lending in a compliance-heavy environment, the
Bank of America Mortgage lawsuit (Countrywide “Hustle” scheme)
offers other lenders examples of a thing or two to learn.
Remember that prosecutors are suing for $1 billion over
Countrywide’s “Hustle” scheme, which facilitated the sale of
thousands of fraudulent and otherwise defective loans to
Fannie and Freddie. The filings contend that Countrywide
“eliminated every single checkpoint on loan quality and
compensated its employees solely based on the volume of loans
originated” into 2009, well after it had been acquired by
BofA. With the allegations of employing unqualified
underwriters, concealing quality control reports that
disclosed astronomical defect rates, and even using
Wite-Out, scissors, and tape to alter documents, it’s
safe to say that the suit is unlikely to garner BofA and the
late Countrywide any sympathy from the general public. Of
course at this point our government has brought suit against
it, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo (the last two by the New
York AG and the Department of Justice, respectively).
The NAIHP has a new petition circulating, this one
about appraiser independence: http://www.naihp.org/.
On to some other somewhat recent agency, investor, and MI
updates, along with the usual disclaimer that it is best
to read the bulletin for full details, but this will give you
a flavor for current trends.
Wells
Fargo
has aligned its income qualification and documentation
requirements for manually underwritten conventional loans with
those outlined by Fannie. This affects Wells guidance on
documentation of commissions, bonuses, overtime income,
alimony, child support, separate maintenance, royalties, and
trust income. The income continuance policy for
non-conforming loans has been updated as well. For income
types with set durations (alimony, relocation compensation,
child support, etc.), Wells previously required a minimum of
three years’ guaranteed continuance, but this has been changed
to five years. In cases where the income source makes up less
than 25% of a borrower’s total qualifying income, the three
year requirement remains.
Wells will be updating the Loan Submission Summary, the
revisions to which will affect all closed loans that are
received on January 2, 2013 and after. The changes affect the
disclosure of the Final Borrower Rate Lock Date, conventional
New Construction loans, and borrowers’ tax information,
including borrowers who are exempt from property taxes,
borrowers who elect not to create a monthly tax escrow, and
the Economic Loss Date in cases where there are multiple
taxing authorities.
Sellers originating Guaranteed Rural Housing loans are
reminded that they are required to comply with USDA RD Office,
Agency conventional loan program, GRH, and Wells’ own GRH
policies, particularly with regards to repair costs, as this
has apparently become an issue. Neither Wells nor RD limits
the amount of repairs that may be financed, but repairs aren’t
permitted to be financed unless the property’s post-repairs
appraised value supports the loan amount.
Citi reported an increase in the number of purchased
loans with credit reports that contain security alerts, which
are used to notify consumers that their identity may have been
stolen and used to purchase goods or services. Lenders are
reminded that Citi will not consider such loans eligible for
purchase until it has received verification of the borrower’s
identity, the details of which should be provided by the
reporting agency.
Fifth Third requires that loan officers sign and date
the initial 1003 at the time of initial applications. At
present, electronic signatures and/or delivery aren’t
permitted for any loans delivered to Fifth Third. A free
15-day lock extension will be applied to all active Fifth
Third loans in federally declared disaster areas in
cases where the current lock expiration date is in the month
of November.
Flagstar published the list of counties and zip codes
in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey,
New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Virginia where it
will be requiring appraisal re-inspections for all properties
whose appraisals are dated October 31st or before. Clients
should note that the re-appraisal requirements for FHA loans
have been revised to state that loans that don’t disburse
within the month of payment being due must be
re-underwritten. In addition to the re-inspection, loans must
be accompanied by an updated payoff letter, updated Refinance
Authorization, updated asset verification, proof that the case
number hasn’t expired, and evidence that the borrower made all
mortgage payments apart from the one due for the month the
loan will disburse.
Lenders are no longer required to submit copies of the prior
note for Flagstar-underwritten FHA Streamline refinances or
FHA Streamline refinances underwritten by DE Delegated
correspondents. Flagstar now uses title commitments, payoff
statements, credit reports, and FHA Refinance Authorizations
to determine the FHA’s net tangible benefit requirement.
Until further notice, US Bank has postponed its
scheduled appraisal ordering fee increases, which were
originally meant to go into effect on November 4th.
Provident Funding will be making adjustments to
appraisal fees in various markets that will go into effect on
December 1st. See the appraisal pricing table for full
details (http://news.provident.com/DownloadAttachment.aspx?id0).
Changes
have also been made to the complex assignment and fee
disclosure sections of the appraisal order form, and the
Provident website will allow users to upload building permit
documentations for any alterations made to the property in
order to explain discrepancies with public records.
GMAC’s appraisal fees have also been updated; see the
matrix for the full changes.
Kinecta has revised its documentation guidelines for
refinances in community property states where a spouse or
registered domestic partner wants to maintain the property as
his or her sole and separate property. Under these
circumstances, Kinecta now requires evidence of a newly
recorded document to ensure clear title, the specifics of
which will be dictated by the title company.
Mountain West Financial has removed the 45% DTI maximum
it had previously imposed on Fannie High Balance and Freddie
Super Conforming loans. Ratios will be accepted as determined
by DU or LP.
Rates are good – enough said?! They’re even better this
morning than where they were Friday. Markets don’t like
uncertainty, so with the election out of the way, and Congress
back to work in its lame-duck session, that will dominate the
press (Petraeus scandal aside: “In the Line of Booty”).
Everyone says they want a deal, but actually doing it prior to
December 31 remains to be seen. Last Tuesday’s results also
increased the chance that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will
finish out his term, set to end in Jan. 2014, and not be
replaced with a more hawkish chairman.
So
every
LO should be excited, since this suggests that monetary
policy will stay on its extremely accommodative course, even if the economy strengthens
at a faster pace than currently anticipated. And in fact the
economy looks decent – or at least the recent standard of
“sluggish growth.” The ISM non-manufacturing index showed that
the service sector continues to expand at a moderate rate. The
international trade report for September came in better than
expected. For the labor market, jobless claims looked slightly
better on the surface, but are being distorted by the early
effects of Hurricane Sandy.
As
mentioned, rates are better today than on Friday. The U.S.
10-yr is down to 1.60% (after being in the high 1.50’s
overnight) and agency MBS prices are better by about
.125-.250 depending on coupon. There really is not a lot
of market-moving news for a couple days – more on that later
in the week.
We'll
take
a break from the usual joke to give some travel advice,
especially as we're coming up on the holiday season. A new survey by flight search
engine Kayak.com says the lowest domestic flights can be
found 21 days before your date of departure—make that 34
days before your departure date for international flights.
Domestic airfares found within two weeks of departure
increased by five percent, and were 30 percent higher one week
before the departure date. The international airfares found 34
days prior to departure were four percent lower than flights
booked six months earlier than the departure date. The new
findings come from compiling and analyzing one year's worth of
search results data from an average of 100 million flight
searches per month. Here's something counterintuitive; The
results suggest that you should NOT book domestic flights too
early, as those reserved six months before the departure date
were 19 percent higher, and flights found five months ahead
were 18 percent higher than flights booked 21 days before
departure.
Which days of the week you fly also make a difference. When
booking domestic flights that are up to one week long, Kayak
found that the lowest-priced fares depart on Saturday and
return on Wednesday, while flights longer than one week that
depart on Tuesday and return on the following Wednesday have
the lowest-priced fares. For international flights up to one
week long, Kayak recommends departing on Tuesday and returning
on the following Wednesday, or departing on either Friday or
Saturday and returning the following Monday—for trips longer
than one week, try departing on Saturday and returning the
following Sunday, or aim for the second-cheapest set of
airfares by returning on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. Read
more: http://www.budgettravel.com/blog/a-new-survey-by-kayak-reveals-the-best-time-to-book,12557/#ixzz2AE8UwBnM.
If
you're interested, visit my twice-a-month blog at the STRATMOR
Group web site located at www.stratmorgroup.com.
The current blog discusses some of the considerations facing
the FHFA regarding Fannie and Freddie. If you have both the
time and inclination, make a comment on what I have written,
or on other comments so that folks can learn what's going on
out there from the other readers.
