Loan Think

"Nothing happens until something gets sold!" My regular readers have heard this phrase before, and whether or not you agree with the concept, the practical aspect of that application cannot be denied. Furthermore, it's all in the technique.

Whether the servicing operation is owned by a bank with an origination arm or not, HARP 2.0 represents both a great opportunity and a real risk for mortgage servicers.

Before Barack Obama was elected president residential mortgage debt in the U.S. was actually larger than outstanding Treasury debt. At yearend 2009 home mortgage debt peaked at $10.1 trillion. Today that number is a $1 trillion lower - according to figures compiled by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report.

A trio of loan officers from the same Chicago-based company occupies three of the top four spots in the preliminary results of the Origination News 2011 top producer survey.

The media has been flooded this past week with positive news on the housing market. Sales of existing homes show definite signs of life and construction jobs are rebounding, making it is easy to sit back and breathe a sigh of relief. However, in taking a second look, it is important to keep in mind that we are not out of the woods yet.

On Feb. 16, a federal grand jury in Tucson returned a four count indictment against Rex Adams for Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud, and False Statement to Influence a Financial Institution. At the time of the allegations raised in the indictment, Adams worked as a manager and loan officer for a mortgage broker in Tucson.

Is outsourcing American jobs -- white collar jobs, no less -- evil? Is it a bad thing to set up a servicing acquisition company in the Caymans because by doing so you can avoid paying both income taxes to your executives and corporate income tax?

My posting last Monday talked about gathering testimonials. Now I want you show you how to take those testimonials and utilize them in your business. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Here's a taste of a story appearing in the Monday edition of National Mortgage News: Brian Simon, CEO of Caliber Funding, in a recent interview predicted that his company could grow originations by threefold or fourfold in 2012.

Last week's blog focused on clarifying the rules for producing branch managers. This week, we will discuss some creative compensation strategies. My preferred way of compensating producing branch managers is to set them up on a traditional profit and loss model, but treat the "profit" as a fixed amount of basis points per loan amount. In other words, all expenses remain deductible.