Loan Think

Taking a trip? Most prudent travelers create some sort of plan before venturing on any type of journey. Where to begin the trip, what items to pack and what markers you'll encounter to aid in getting to your destination are just a few of the details to be addressed.

The Mortgage Bankers Association's annual convention was set for Orlando in 2005. So far, so good. I'd been to a million meetings in Orlando, and here was one more. The trouble was, Florida was also set for a visit at the same time by a monster hurricane named Wilma.

CitiMortgage is throwing its wholesale division overboard – again. Readers of the National Mortgage News website (and weekly) might recall that two years ago Citi scaled back its broker channel significantly only to re-grow it a bit. But at last check, wholesale production accounted for just 10% of its overall production and some brokers I talked to are not sorry to see them go.

President Obama's recent State of the Union speech, as widely predicted, turned out to be a campaign speech rather than objective, substantive oratory. GOP candidate Mitt Romney characterized the Obama speech as a 'Groundhog Day' event ... more of the same optimistic promises of things to come.

In the movie "Groundhog Day", Bill Murray is forced to live the same day over and over again until he begins to change his choices. Today, many loan officers might be feel as doomed as Murray even after writing their 2012 production goals. Nothing has really changed and today is the same as yesterday.

Home sales in some of our nation’s hardest hit markets are showing signs of recovery. This is great news for the industry, especially if estimates are true and we still have years’ worth of housing industry that has yet to reach the market.

Military generals are cautioned to avoid fighting the last war; time and opponents have a way of producing new ways to contest a battlefield, catching unwary leaders off guard. When it comes to housing policy and political power, are Washington observers missing the next conflict?

Is the Obama Administration starting to listen to the mortgage industry - and in a good way? Well, don't throw a party quite yet, but two major mortgage developments this week suggest that perhaps the White House is starting to understand that you can't have a housing recovery without the cooperation of lenders and servicers that make the loans.

Larry King has made a career (and millions of dollars) interviewing people. You can do the same thing-by interviewing experts, authors, speakers, and real estate agents from different parts of the country-yes, even agents in your lending area.

If someone fell asleep in 1980 and woke up today, that person would be astounded at the progress the last three decades have brought. However, if someone fell asleep in the appraisal industry in 1980, and woke up in the appraisal industry of today, that person might barely notice a difference.