Loan Think

Are you super challenged about the state of your business? Take note. There is a reason that old adages become old adages; it is because they say something true.

It appears that certain regulatory agencies want the 'qualified residential mortgage' test to be written in such a way that a QRM loan will be one with a downpayment of at least 10%. (If that happens you can bet that Wells Fargo will place a huge order for champagne.)

In last week's article we spoke about the one sentence that will generate more clients for you. Here’s the sentence: People will do anything for those who encourage their dreams, justify their failures, allay their fears, confirm their suspicions and help them throw rocks at their enemies.

If you were listening to Ally Financial's fourth quarter earnings conference call this morning (as I was) you would've been struck by two things: (1)Boy, this company loves all facets of the auto finance business (2)it doesn't seem to fear, in the least, residential buyback claims from investors who bought GMAC's nonprime MBS during the go-go years.

Given all the trouble the mortgage broker industry has been through in the past three years, if a loan officer went up to his or her friends and told them he or she was opening up their own shop, the LO would get back a very puzzled look at best.

What will the legacy of the robo-signing scandal be? Will it be more careful servicers who don’t cut corners under pressure from huge pipelines of foreclosures? Will it be large settlement payouts by the largest servicers involved in the mess?

There's talk that an Irvine-based company called Roosevelt Management has received significant backing from Texas Pacific Group to buy distressed residential mortgage loans and has been quite active lately. A few of Roosevelt's top executives used to work at C-BASS.

As of Jan. 1, the Department of Real Estate has issued over 22,000 mortgage loan originator license endorsements. MLO license endorsements applications continue to flood in and the DRE expects to eventually issue over 30,000 endorsements. (cadrepr12011)

THIS JUST IN: A West Coast-based nonbank plans to make a big splash in the wholesale market and is busy hiring account executives. At last check the firm had almost 15 AEs signed on with half of them coming from (you guessed it) Bank of America. For the full story, see the Monday paper edition of National Mortgage News. Don't subscribe? Call: 800-221-1809…

Okay, so Sen. Rand Paul, the Tea Party darling from Kentucky, wants to kill the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which contains the very popular FHA program. (See the National Mortgage News website for details.) And yes, he's dreaming., but as the late great Stan Strachan once said: "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story."