Loan Think

On Monday morning a rumor was making the rounds that a decent sized loan brokerage firm was considering selling out to a mortgage banking company.

I’ve just seen a vision of the future. Not a vision of the mortgage future, but the future of the media business, as shown by the work of the student journalists who were all over the coverage of the UNITY 12 conference in Vegas.

We’ve been hearing whispers about a Fannie Mae nonperforming loan auction for several months now. We understand the GSE has been actively telling people it could happen by yearend or early 2013.

I know of two loan officers – one who worked for a bank, the other for a mid-sized nonbank – who recently gave notice and went out on their own to become mortgage brokers.

One of the biggest compliance and litigation risks for lenders involves the performance of branch managers.

On July 25, U.S. District Judge Paul G. Rosenblatt sentenced Clint Bryson Rogers of Scottsdale to five years in federal prison for his role in a mortgage fraud conspiracy. Rogers pleaded guilty on Jan. 18 to conspiracy to commit the crimes of false loan application, wire fraud and money laundering.

If you’re a flaming liberal in Congress you view the Ed DeMarco-principal-reduction controversy as follows: Fire that Republican now!

Electronically signed 4506-T forms will mean that lenders will be able to verify the borrower’s income in as little as a few minutes.

Recently we heard of a West Coast REO auction where one investor arrived in a hotel ballroom (where the event was being held) with body guards and $40 million worth of cashier checks.

Proactive mortgage originators look to build sales; reactive ones do refis.