Loan Think

Last week I wrote about the need for marketing to connect with the consumer on an emotional level. This is especially true if the product you are selling is or nearly is a commodity.

Boxing reminds me a lot of today's lenders. Most lenders get into the ring every day, fighting until someone drops. The reason however is not to win a match, but to prevent a repurchase.

Politicians - including those in the White House - continue to jawbone about how the private sector needs to step up and create a whole new securitization market that some day will replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This effort - supposedly - starts with the safest non GSE product out there: jumbo loans where well-heeled borrowers put down (say) 10% and are so filthy rich that their chance of default is next to nil.

I've lived (and originated loans) in three states over the last 10 years and an interesting thing happen one day. I got a call on my home phone from an old client. This was a client I had helped a numbers of years earlier, in another state.

In his recent State of the Union address, President Obama laid out a "Blueprint for an America Built to Last," calling for, among other things, action to help responsible borrowers and support a housing market recovery.

Field service companies must continuously evolve their best practices to develop and maintain the most effective vendor network possible. Key areas of focus are: recruitment, training, diversity and technology.

Interactive Mortgage Advisors is offering a $4.5 billion MSR package with another $1 billion in the works. Phoenix Capital is peddling $35 billion of MSRs for Bank of America - with more on that way.

FACTS - On Jan. 30, William Tro Goings of Sacramento, Calif., pleaded guilty in federal court to participating in a conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme that defrauded a failed Sugar Creek, Mo. bank of more than $8.5 million.

What is pro-active credit repair? Before I answer that, let's define re-active credit repair. As the president of a credit repair backend processing company, I have the good fortune to counsel with mortgage and real estate professionals as well as credit service organization company owners from all across the county on a daily basis.

Larry Fink, chairman and CEO of BlackRock Financial, is nobody's fool - not by a long shot. He cut his teeth at First Boston many moons ago, helped shape the MBS market, and then went on to create a financial services powerhouse: BlackRock