Loan Think

The Federal Housing Administration is on everybody's mind recently. With new jumbo lending authority it is poised to take even more share away from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. But will FHA mortgagors refinance? Our Nov. 21 article sparked a number of replies about why it is hard to refi an FHA loan.

Late this week we were hearing reports that the Treasury Department might be looking for outside help on evaluating servicing rights. The question, of course, is why?…

Yes, I know: Fannie Mae isn’t really in the servicing business even though it bought $74 billion of MSRs from Bank of America in the third quarter. The news of the deal – published by National Mortgage News and at least one other media outlet – is starting to sink in.

"Don't mess with Texas" is one popular bumper sticker I used to see, but not so much anymore. But one thing is for certain: Texas has one of the best housing and mortgage markets in the nation. Why? One word: oil.

Think about it - there are very few occupations where you are all things to all people.

National Mortgage News is still adding up warehouse results for the third quarter, but one thing seems clear: lines of credit are up compared to both 2Q of this year and 3Q 2010. Also, there is a new willingness on the part of firms to disclose their commitment volumes. (We thank you.)

Is credit card giant American Express contemplating an entry into residential finance? Such talk was making the rounds the past few weeks, but we're told the inquiries were preliminary.

This is yet another column discussing running your mortgage originations business (be it broker or banker) like it was any other business. Successful business owners don't necessarily reinvent the wheel especially when it comes to what might be termed "human resources" stuff.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.is issuing "inquiry letters," followed by subpoenas, followed by lawsuits against brokers as well as the loan officers. Sometimes the FDIC skips the inquiry letter and other times it skips the subpoena and goes right to the lawsuit. How do we know?

Mortgage companies ramped up hiring in October, adding 1,500 full-time employees to their payrolls - but almost all of the new hires came from mortgage brokerage firms, according to newly released government figures.