Loan Think

Everything is great when you are getting a healthy paycheck, but life can become quite stressful if you don't plan for the day when loans will slow down.

The appraisal independence requirements within the Dodd-Frank Act go a long way to shedding more light onto an issue that needs to be solved, but it doesn’t go quite far enough.

There is much discussion about how housing prices have stabilized lately, implying the housing market is progressing forward into recovery mode. Econ 101 says differently.

With the bucket-load of regulations coming down the pike toward mandatory implementation in our industry, it’s time to track, measure and quantify experience while simultaneously speeding the process, complying with changing rules, and recovering the most dollars.

The marketing world has lost another great as Barry Becher, one of the men behind the Ginsu knife commercials, passed away recently. Those famous (or depending on your point of view, infamous) television ads still contain a lesson for today's mortgage marketers.

Chairing a webinar is like chairing a session on a hot topic at a live meeting. The big difference is you are sitting somewhere alone in a room with the controls all in front of you.

Well, well, well (or maybe it should be Wells, Wells, Wells), it’s been quite a week for the little guy. Citigroup started it all off when National Mortgage News published a story about its ‘exclusionary list’ for correspondents. Then Wells Fargo came along and tossed its broker network into the ocean. Oh, and then Wells finished the week off by confirming that it’s killing most of its Realtor joint ventures (mortgage companies). We understand that the survivors include one in Virginia and at least one in Hawaii.

Most medical professionals suggest an annual checkup for their patients (speaking of patience, be patient to see where this line of reasoning takes us). Sales management and sales teams should employ the same checkup process.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently released its proposed rule on integrated mortgage disclosures, providing some direction about where the agency is headed . That is the good news. The not-so-good news is that the proposed rule presents potential compliance challenges.

Many people mistakenly believe restrictive covenants for loan officers are not enforceable. Excluding the very few states that have banned such covenants, this is largely a myth created by the fact that most people do not correctly develop restrictive covenants.