Loan Think

No matter what your view is on New Year's resolutions—last week I related part of an interview I saw with Suze Orman on the topic—the best way to success is to set achievable, realistic goals.

It has been a few days since Massachusetts' highest court repudiated two foreclosures in the state, sending servicers (and financial journalists) into a frenzy trying to figure out what it all means. According to one press report the ruling "could scuttle other foreclosure cases statewide and may portend similar blows to the industry elsewhere."

The Federal Reserve Board is publishing an interim rule amending Regulation Z, which implements the Truth in Lending Act. This interim rule revises further certain requirements of the Mortgage Disclosure Improvement Act of 2008.

THIS JUST IN: Are employees of the U.S. Treasury moonlighting as loan officers to make extra cash? We can't say for sure, but we know of at least one Treasury official that's preparing to take his state test. And no, it's not Tim Geithner…

I'm beginning to hear more complaints about bank lenders getting sloppy with their 'Good Faith Estimate' disclosures. One LO who works the Connecticut market told me that she's running into more and more customers who aren't being served a GFE until three to four weeks after application.

By now you've heard about the recent fish kills in the Chesapeake Bay, birds dying in Arkansas and Kentucky, and crab corpses washing up on beaches in England. These random events are fanning the flames of religious fanatics who think the 'Big Guy' (and I don't mean Clarence Clemons) is on the way very soon (and it's not even 2012.) Of course, if the world will end soon the obvious thought for consumers is this: why keep paying the mortgage?

First, let's state the obvious: few inside the private sector really know what's going to be in the White House's master plan to revamp Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which is really a plan to reshape all of housing finance in America because let's face it: Fannie and Freddie buy/guarantee 70% of every home mortgage in America.

Last week we spoke about creating opportunities for business. But there is a whole other side to having lost a deal being good news: There are just some clients that you should not work with.

We can't yet tell you the name of the trade group that wants to sue the Federal Reserve over its loan officer compensation rule, but if a lawsuit is filed, it will happen this month. The LO compensation rule goes into effect April 1 and it's unclear exactly what it will mean for the nation's remaining 5,000 loan brokerage firms.

Most of the nation is familiar with the major snowstorm that did something very rare—practically shut down New York City. So when I was not outside shoveling show, I had the opportunity to watch plenty of television, and I saw one particularly bad piece of advertising that mortgage marketers should never emulate.