Loan Think

On Thursday afternoon Congress will hold a hearing on the 'qualified residential mortgage' test and what it means for the industry and the world at large. But if you think Congress or banking regulators will cut lenders any slack on the 20% downpayment measurement, you can forget about it.

I just completed a killer interview with Denise Phillippi, a branch manager in Overland Park, Kans. Every single week, she has at least one file transferred to her (requested by the real estate agent or the buyer) because her competition simply screwed up.

JPMorgan Chase released its mortgage earnings this morning (along with all that banking stuff that our readers probably don't care about) and it sure as heck looked ugly on the revenue side: Just $696 million in residential-related revenue in 1Q compared to $2.78 billion in 4Q.

In case you are just tuning in to this article we have been covering a very important marketing lesson. It’s one that might explain why your current marketing efforts may not be working.

Yesterday National Mortgage News broke the news that Southern Trust Mortgage Co. of Virginia Beach had exited the wholesale channel, citing what it calls "increasing compliance implications" tied to the Federal Reserve's new loan officer compensation rule. Translation: management didn’t want to hassle with the reporting requirements and compliance.

Word of mouth marketing and the social media complement each other and need to work together in order for one's marketing efforts to be successful.

What will the shape of a new secondary market look like?It could be one where lenders shun the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage.

The Federal Reserve Board does not want to back down on its loan officer compensation rule despite congressional requests and industry lawsuits to delay the April 1 effective date. The FRB has taken a hard line on compliance issues and repeatedly rejected industry proposals that would allow more flexibility.

At this point, there seems to be plenty of confusion about the new loan officer compensation rule but with just about everyone in the industry subscribing to the notion that loan brokers are at a competitive disadvantage to depositories and well capitalized nonbanks.

Remember that 1972 movie “The Poseidon Adventure” when the cruise liner flips over in the ocean and is turned completely upside down in the water and the only way out is to hike north to the hull? (Then again, what do you do when you get to the hull? Pray?) The way I see it, the Gene Hackman character is a loan broker/loan officer. He has a firm belief that he’s right, even though the odds are insurmountable.