Loan Think

The public conference call to discuss quarterly earnings is a good way for investors (and anyone else) to gage the character of a company's CEO.

The distribution of your business card should not be just an afterthought, but a thoughtfully conceived marketing campaign in and of itself. There are many ways to develop a unique plan that can buy you top of mind awareness—so when someone thinks of mortgages, they think of you.

Days of preparation are never wasted. Planning and preparation are two keys to success that you absolutely cannot discount.But so often we are too busy to prepare. We are too busy to plan appropriately. Instead we do a lot of wishing. Right? If that's you, today is the day to wrest yourself from that stratum of success and begin to get ready for the next level.

The time for small business owners to start preparing for the changes coming under health care reform is right now, according to a financial planner. Actions taken today could save money down the road.

I received an interesting question from reader last week and I want to share it because she made an excellent point probably without even knowing it. She asks, "Sue you have your hand in so many different projects (yes I do write, speak, and teach in addition to my own reverse origination), how do you get it all done?" She goes on to say that she has a hard time just getting the few reverse mortgage applications that she has to closing. Great question!

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio denied certifying a Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act class action lawsuit on March 11, 2010. The Carter v. Welles-Bowen Realty, Inc., case No. 3:05 CV 7427, consolidated No. 3:09 CV 400, 2010 WL 908464 (Northern District of Ohio) is a case where the plaintiffs asserted that Welles-Bowen Realty, Inc was engaged in operating illegal affiliated business arrangements (aka sham AfBAs) which is a violation of RESPA Section 8(a) and 8(b) (12. U.S.C. 2607 (a) and (b))

It appears the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will begin taking final bids on the $23 billion AmTrust servicing portfolio by the end of July with a winner picked shortly thereafter, or so we're told. Only a handful of players can take down the whole portfolio but investors can buy portions of it. The FDIC and its investment banker on the deal, Milestone Merchant Partners, aren't giving much guidance on the pool these days. Meanwhile, General Electric reports 2Q earnings this Friday. We only mention this because GE is a fairly large player in the commercial mortgage servicing market. Stay tuned...

It appears to be one of those "good days" for mortgage-related financial news. According to our sister publication, American Banker, new Federal Housing Administration rules are actually helping loan brokers.

Jay Sidhu, the former head of Sovereign Bancorp, is a busy man these days.

Before we get to the main event, I should point out that the coming week is the beginning of "earnings season" which means all the big boys—Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup—will be reporting. The second quarter was decent in terms of residential loan production thanks to the expiring federal tax credit for first-time and move-up buyers. But it will be especially interesting to see what type of "new" mortgage hits these megabanks take and how their overall profits were hurt by a horrible quarter for the stock market. All three (and many other "investment banking" related firms) have enjoyed strong trading profits (stocks, bonds) during the stock market boom but the bloom (as we all well know by looking at our 401k statements) is off the rose. Stocks stink, this past week being an exception. Also, all three of these banks hold or service billions of delinquent mortgages thanks to "legacy" acquisitions. And yet, we hear little about the big boys unloading their problem loans in the secondary market...