Loan Think

The main reasons businesses look to market their services is to demonstrate what makes them stand out from the crowd, the stuff that makes them different from their competition.According to one marketing expert, small businesses are failing at this.

Here's a pop quiz for readers of National Mortgage News: name one Wall Street or mortgage executive who's doing hard time for financial fraud as it relates to the nation's housing bubble/subprime crisis. Can't do it, can you.

A lawsuit filed Monday in Hennepin County District Court in Minnesota by Attorney General Lori Swanson alleges that Meredian Financial Corp. of Costa Mesa, Calif., pretended to be homeowners' current mortgage company in order to gain their trust, then collected fees for refinancing services that were not delivered.

Sometimes, when the government goes too far, the industry finds a way to cut "the man" out of the picture. No, I'm not talking about mortgage bankers taking up arms against the government, I'm talking about finding ways around "the man." (Mortgage banking is an art, not a science.)

This morning National Mortgage News was the first news organization to report that loan brokers won a stay against the LO compensation rule – but the battle is far from over. The stay expires next week with a new hearing on the squabble scheduled for April 5. (See the NMN website for a complete update.)

The number of completed foreclosures in Massachusetts dropped by 44% in February to 515, down from 917 during the same month last year, according to new figures released today. Of course, the Massachusetts housing market is probably one of the healthier ones in the nation, which is why the decline in foreclosures is so steep.

I have a friend who manages 12 apartment complexes. He has tracked the turnover rates of tenants and year in and year out, 62% of the tenants move after one year. Another 28% move out after the second year and the remaining percentage live in the complex three years or more.

It's not easy being a technology company these days. And it's not easy being a mortgage lender either. Although origination profit margins are still wonderful, applications are starting to thin out a bit. So, where does that leave technology firms that sell their products to the market?

This past weekend I had a booth at a Senior Expo. It was held at a religious institution in our neighborhood. Typically, I would not attend one of these expos and I definitely wouldn’t have a booth.

The new risk retention/QRM proposals are out and it appears that mortgage insurers might be winners after all – over the short-term, that is. The draft notes that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will "be able to satisfy their risk-retention requirement...as long as they continue to operate under conservatorship or receivership."