Loan Think

Don't be a stranger. To your professional network, that is. I know a lot of loan officers (and other sales professionals too) tend to skip the networking meetings over the summer. The thought here is that "practically everyone is on vacation and there won't be any productive networking going on." Well, guess what-the summer is just about over and that excuse (and it is just an excuse) is no longer relevant.

Okay, the headline is intentionally misleading, but one never knows these days. The Federal Reserve is worried that the economic recovery is slowing, noting yesterday that it will buy Treasuries en masse, which means rates are going to stay low forever (or close to it.) The 10-year fell below 2.7% this morning and it appears Lew Ranieri's recent prediction that we'll see a 2.5% yield soon may come true. But yet, consumers aren't buying homes. So, I ask this: just how low do mortgage rates have to go before homes really start moving? (The operative word is 'really.') But low rates alone won't move homes. Job growth will. And as we all know: U.S. firms — despite sitting on $2 trillion in cash — are not hiring. As long as employers can squeeze more hours per week out of current staff, why bother? Yet, it stands to reason that soon housing will catch a break — either companies will indeed start hiring or heck, rates on 30-year FRMs will finally fall to 3%, igniting a home buying boom. Or maybe not.

We're starting to hear solid reports that one decent sized warehouse lender is cutting back its commitments to many nonbank customers. We continue to research the story and hope to have an update for you shortly. The lender is a publicly traded depository in Texas.

In the good old days of traditional direct mail marketing, experts repeatedly stressed that to determine the success or failure of any campaign, the marketer had to have metrics in place to measure the response. Failure to have those metrics in place meant that in most cases the marketer was wasting his or her money.

There's a little more than four months left in 2010 and some mortgage bankers are getting a bit nervous about next year. I'm not talking about rates and loan volumes.

THIS JUST IN: Who says super jumbo lending is dead? Directors Financial Group of Aliso Viejo, Calif., is telling customers it can fund mortgages of up to $5 million. Its partner is a Japanese bank. The mortgage banker will fund 30- and 15-year loans and even 40-year notes. However, only California homes are eligible which means our nation's movie stars are in luck.

The job numbers came out today and let's face it, they stunk: A small gain and fears that growth is slowing. The strange thing (as well all know) is that corporate profits are damn good and the auto sector looks like it's thriving.

As a result of my ignorance my dog Buddie almost died this week.How: He had been eating the stalk of a palm plant on the back porch after it died from the winter freeze.

Now that AIG and the FHLB system are profitable again, what about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? What about all the loan buybacks - and putback settlements they've been negotiating with seller/servicers the likes of GMAC/ResCap?

I recently came across a blogger's post which said, "I hate marketing-especially when it comes to marketing and talking about myself. I hate talking about myself-but most of all, I don't think people are interested in what I have to say."