Loan Think

One of the best ways to improve your reputation with Realtors is to add value "behind the scenes." Basically, this means that you go above and beyond getting the loan done. You find ways to help their business or make their job easier. It's even better if you give this type of value in ways that are not expected.

The first day after his appointment as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Richard Cordray indicated he intends to move aggressively to enforce the agency's expanded authority. He announced the launch of the agency's nonbank supervisory program and stated that the CFPB was already working on significant enforcement actions.

For the "information junkie" who anxiously searches for any glimmer of an economic recovery, 2012 may prove to be a classic "good news-bad news" scenario. If you follow the news feeds, there is definitely no shortage of stories to bolster the position that the housing market is still a mess.

First, some good news: We understand that 350 MetLife Home Loan staffers are about to be made an employment offer. On top of that, other offers are being made to many of MLHL's high-performance loan officers. That's good news for the rank-and-file workers that make up this industry.

The doors to the first chamber of justice in the federal court system have been shut in the faces of nonborrowing spouses in HECM transactions for the second and last time. Yet, their plight, foreclosures and evictions when their spouses die, remains.

When it comes to finding an advantage to using social media to market your REO assets while still managing all the other associated tasks, it can be a real challenge.

What does the NLRB have in common with Lady Gaga? Overtime. And a lot of it. While Lady Gaga is being sued by a single personal assistant for almost $400,000 of overtime, the National Labor Relations Board is throwing out agreements designed to protect businesses from class action overtime suits.

Who says retail lending is more expensive than wholesale production? Well, actually, JPMorgan Chase does. In its new earnings statement JPM notes that it spent an additional $82 million in 4Q (compared to 3Q) due to higher residential production costs: increased retail expenses and "enhanced" loan underwriting. JPM has been out of wholesale for two years now.

It's exhausting reading all those articles about marketing, product development, public relations, motivation and every business discipline one can imagine. Every so often there's an article that discusses sales or something relative to selling. All of these authors and motivators have their priorities backward.

What thoughts should guide ongoing Congressional consideration on housing finance? Let's start with this one: "It is increasingly clear that the Fed and the U.S. government's entwinement with the housing market is one of the greatest economic distortions on earth" (as the Lex Column of the Financial Times wrote).