Loan Think

Let's put Bank of America on the couch. If anyone can figure out its absolutely schizophrenic approach to mortgages over the past two decades drop me a line. Remember when it owned a subprime lender back in the 1990s and actually liquidated the thing even though it was making money?

The White House has been talking up a plan to help underwater borrowers who actually want to stay in their homes refinance, but from what we're hearing from lobbyists and at least one former administration official, it may be too little, too late.

If you had the steel nerves to buy thousands of shares in Bank of America stock a few days ago at $6.01 each then you woke up this morning to the happy news that Warren Buffett will invest $5 billion in the struggling megabank. If you bought the stock at just over $6, your two-day return would be 29%. Not bad.

So, were you one of the people who thought scrapbooking was just a fad and that it would go away after a short period of time? I did! But surprise, it’s more popular than ever!

As we all know, residential application volumes have been climbing now that 30-year FRMs can be had for 4% or less, but as everyone mortgage lender knows this is a cyclical business. Will full-time processors hired today be needed three months from now?

In the early spring Wells Fargo & Co., and Bank of America – which rank first and second, respectively, in terms of residential lending -- shed thousands of back office loan processors and support staff. Wells alone cut its mortgage retail fulfillment staff by 4,500 full-time equivalents or FTEs.

The No. 1 tool in the marketing bag of tricks is the use of incentives. Discounts, teaser rates and the like have been used very effectively in the cable television vs. telephone company wars. Now, one of the nation's largest mortgage lenders, Navy Federal Credit Union, Vienna, Va., said its application volume is up over 50% since the start of August because of its incentives.

I just returned from a week long vacation in the South New Jersey shore area with good news: the rental market is fairly strong with prices holding steady.

Talal Ashek of Holland pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to submit false claims to a lending institution for his role in a mortgage fraud conspiracy. Sentencing will take place on Oct.17, before U.S. District Judge Neil V. Wake.

A few weeks ago, National Mortgage News upgraded its presence on Facebook; yours truly now has an account there as well. But we aren't the only ones using Facebook to expand our marketing activities.