Loan Think

For one's marketing efforts to be successful, it is more than just gathering up names so that an e-mail list can be created. Contacts are good, but to be able to make your sale, you need to have a real follow-up program.

THIS JUST IN: Industry veteran Jess Lederman —who has done stints at Bear Stearns and Ohio Savings during his long career in mortgages —has apparently left Kinecta Federal Credit Union of Southern California where he was involved in a jumbo lending program. Lederman did not return a telephone call late this past week and a colleague said he was looking to get involved in a jumbo program at another firm...

Ed Pinto, a former Fannie Mae executive from decades ago, who has emerged as a harsh critic of the GSE and its sister company, Freddie Mac, has an update about what may lie ahead for the two: "I have found that many are under the impression that the government's backing of the GSEs ends on 12-31-12 and, as a result, resolution of the GSEs' status needs to be accomplished well before that date.

We have all heard this statement: If I just knew then what I know now...blah, blah, blah.How about this updated version: Everything you know now that you wish you had known then you need to take action immediately to adjust that thing to the new and current level of knowledge. Now!

I recently wrote an article called "How to Get Face Time with Realtors-Become Their Teacher." Since then I have received requests from loan originators, asking how to get the managing broker to send their real estate agents to your training classes.

As we all know, the home equity lending business has slowed to a crawl with many banks ceasing their direct mail barrage to home owners in select zip codes. Then again, not all lenders are backing away from home equity.

Less competition and more work for the ones that are left. Problem is that many of the loan officers were classified as independent contractors when they did not meet the criteria under federal or state law. Especially in California.

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.