Loan Think

The start of a new year is like that proverbial breath of fresh air. It is a way to just close the door on all that happened in the previous year, both good and bad, and start over.

The "jumbo" loan market in and around the New York City area continues to have problems. One loan officer told me this morning that most lenders continue to require at least 50% down on home purchases north of $2 million. "I have a client who makes $2.7 million and wants to buy a $3 million Brownstone," one LO told me. "He just got divorced and wants to put 10% down but I can't help him." He noted that some of the largest lenders in the city refer jumbo applicants to their 'private banking' divisions but require a net worth of $1 million. As for the jumbo securitization market coming back any time soon, don't hold your breath...

My colleague Brad Finkelstein and I held a roundtable discussion with the board of the New York Association of Mortgage Brokers at their annual meeting in Melville, N.Y. Participating were Bonnie Nachamie, treasurer; Mary Ann Pino, secretary; Rick Wilson, vice president; Robert Duquette, president; Richard Biondi, immediate past president; Lou Borsellino, lower Hudson Valley regional president; Susan Kreyer, president-elect; Gene Tricozzi, past president; and John Commons, past president.MARK: The years 2008 and 2009 certainly haven't been great years for the mortgage broker industry. On the national level and in New York, what do you think next year will look like?

Now is the time to start doing what is necessary for success.

Social media seems to be the new buzzword for commerce of all varieties these days. Big and small businesses are seeing the power of reaching out virally through social networking platforms. Consumers, especially those in the Gen X and Y sector, are seeking advice and information from these resources before making their purchasing decisions. If you aren't online, in a variety of ways, you may not be considered of value.

Here are a few "housecleaning" items to start the new year. At the top of the list, a correction. I recently reported that New York Community Bank was going to sell a large chunk of the AmTrust servicing portfolio. The portfolio eventually will be sold but the seller won't be NYCB. It will be the FDIC, which kept the receivables and didn't pass them on to NYCB which purchased AmTrust in early December. Sorry about that. And in a related matter, there's some good news for the wholesale/broker community. NYCB recently told our colleague Marc Hochstein of the American Banker that it will "continue to operate" AmTrust's third-party wholesale channel. Of course, this raises a question: If NYCB is keeping AmTrust's wholesale division why didn't it take control of that thrift's servicing portfolio? NYCB has never been a player in single-family lending/servicing. Its forte has been multifamily. Then again, with single-family profit margins on new originations strong, NYCB likes what it sees, at least for now. AmTrust's EVP in charge of mortgage banking is Jon Baymiller. A few years back Mr. Baymiller was promoted to that position when the institution was known as Ohio Savings Bank...

Before we continue our discussion about the books I read, let me go over the four areas you should be looking to cover in your reading:

As many readers of this column know, I try to focus on practical items that affect the "on the street" loan originator who is in the reverse arena. No pie in the sky, no using the readers as guinea pigs for a new untested strategy. With that in mind, I'm throwing out a call to action: What is it that you want to see in this column in 2010? Are you looking for marketing strategies? Have you been relying on direct mail that is just not producing results anymore? Maybe it's a script that needs tweaking. Having trouble with that "kitchen table talk?" Wish you could increase your closing ratio? Perhaps if you are new to the reverse space it's something more basic.

The trend for 2010 is for businesses to be spending more money on their online marketing efforts. That is according to a study reported by The Herman Group, Greensboro, N.C., in its most recent Herman Trend Alert.

FORMER FUGITIVE OUT OF SAN DIEGO ARRESTED AND INDICTED ON MORTGAGE FRAUD CHARGES