Loan Think

On July 21, 2010, President Obama signed a bill that literally overhauled every corner of the financial industry—Dodd-Frank became an immediate game changer. Among other it contains an obscure provision that may fail to catch people's attention.

Some mortgage bankers are hoping for a Romney White House with the first order of business being the death of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Of course, even if Romney wins that doesn’t mean he will be able to jam a bill to kill the agency quickly through the House and Senate.

If you are uncertain on the future of your LOS and vendor partners and feel like you are navigating a landscape that you can barely recognize, you are not alone. The good news is that you have options.

There are basically three things a salesperson must accomplish. First, the salesperson needs to find someone interested in his/her product or service. Next, the salesperson must convince the prospect/client to allow him/her to satisfy that interest and need. Last, but by no means least, the salesperson has to ensure that the transaction closes and funds. This third part to the equation is usually a good predictor of long-term success.

With all the attention to the new appraisal independence requirements in Section 129E of the federal Truth in Lending Act (TILA) that became effective in April of 2011, it can be easy to forget that more Dodd-Frank-based appraisal regulations are coming.

Are the instructive lessons of the past sufficiently integrated into current industry business models and strategic planning?

The final wholesale tally is in for 2011and the nation’s top ranked wholesalers – in terms of volume – were: Provident Funding Associates ($19.8 billion), Wells Fargo ($18.1 billion), U.S. Bank Home Mortgage ($7.3 billion), MetLife Home Loans ($6.6 billion), and Fifth Third Mortgage ($6.1 billion).

The Supreme Court in Freeman v. Quicken Loans No. 10-1042 ruled that federal regulators cannot use RESPA as a price-setting statute to stop lenders and other settlement service providers from charging excessive fees or even “unearned” or bogus fees for which no service is provided.

Although the U.S. soccer team lost to Brazil the other night we can thank the interest rate gods that investors, world wide, keep buying our Treasury bonds, driving prices up and bond yield downs. In the past I've joked about a 30-year fixed rate loan at 2% and I'm starting to believe that it could happen.

With all the troubling news coming out of Washington for lenders these days, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a much-needed win to the industry last week. In Freeman v. Quicken Loans, the U.S. Supreme Court held that no cause of action existed under RESPA for a lender’s retention of a marked up fee.