Loan Think

Over the years, many women have been attracted to the mortgage brokerage business and many have been very successful at it.

MORTGAGE FRAUD JUST GOT TOUGHER - NEW FEDERAL LAW MEANS STOP DOING IT AND GET A DAMN GOOD LAWYER IF YOU HAVE COMMITTED MORTGAGE FRAUD

James G. Hicks of Lawrenceville, Ga., staked a claim for $9 million in bankruptcy court, saying he's owed that money from now defunct mortgage banker Taylor Bean & Whitaker of Ocala, Florida. In this past weekend's column I asked for information regarding Mr. Hicks' business ties to TBW. (The BK filing only mentions his address with no details about his relationship to the non-depository.) According to industry sources, Mr. Hicks managed a retail net branch of some sort called Home America. The unit was based in Gwinnett County, a suburb of Atlanta. One mortgage banker said Hicks "agreed to a buyout or settlement of some kind with TB&W/Farkas [company CEO, Lee Farkas] around the same time as TB&W/Farkas purchased Platinum Bank. I heard that the plan was to roll the Home America folks under Platinum Bank together with TB&W's other retail franchise." It appears that something went wrong with the deal and Mr. Hicks is owed $9 million or so he claims...

Most readers know the obvious: the nation’s top four residential lenders are banks and they have a “cartel” like hold on the origination business. In case you’re wondering who the top four are, next week National Mortgage News will release its Quarterly Data Report but here’s a preview of the top four and it’s the same four that have been dominating the business for well over a year: Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase, and CitiMortgage – all of which received sizeable TARP money from Treasury last year. Meanwhile the SAFE Act (Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act) is coming. According to Scott Stern of the Lender’s One cooperative depositories are exempt from the pre-licensing and continuing education requirements of the legislation. Non-banks must foot the expense of these items which Mr. Sterns calls a “tax” on the non-bank industry. The question now becomes: how did the mega banks – all recipients of government aid – pull off such a lobbying coup?

Credit. Besides values and down payment, is there any one particular subject keeping you from closing loans more than the credit and the resulting score of your borrowers?

THIS JUST IN: A $10 billion bulk package of residential servicing rights is expected to hit the market shortly. For the full story see the Monday edition of National Mortgage News. Don't subscribe? Call 800-221-1809. Also in Monday's issue: a list of the nation's top residential servicers at June 30. A top 100 ranking is available in the new Quarterly Data Report. For more info on the QDR e-mail Deartra.Todd@SourceMedia.com...

California’s implementation of the SAFE Act (Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act) should happen in the next few weeks, according to the California Mortgage Bankers Association. For an active California loan broker this means they will have to be licensed as an individual – no longer can they use a company license and act as a loan officer of a company licensee. Meanwhile, I’ve been combing over the 100-page plus bankruptcy filing by Taylor, Bean & Whitaker of Ocala, Florida. Hundreds of creditors are listed in the Chapter 11 filing including claims from what appear to be former employees (who might be owed back pay) but also a claim from the Alaska attorney general (but not Sarah Palin), several appraisers and law firms (those lawyers don’t miss a trick), a few banks and even a florist and coffee company up in Woburn, Mass. And last but not least, Bloomberg (the box/news people) have submitted a claim...

If you are not moving forward than you are moving backwards. With new RESPA laws, new appraisal ordering standards there is an all-out assault on mortgage brokers.

Day traders are being credited with recently driving up the share price of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Freddie’s shares now trade for $2 compared to a 52-week low of 25 cents. Fannie’s stock trades for $1.80 compared to a low of 30 cents. But check out the August sales by company insiders. At Fannie executives such as David Hisey, Thomas Lund, and William Senhauser have been unloading shares at prices ranging from $1.03 to $1.13 which means they missed out on some nice upside. Then again, the future of Fannie and Freddie is unwritten and won’t be addressed by Congress until next year, if then. Meanwhile, the holding company of Colonial Bank of Alabama filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday. Among the unsecured creditors is one Don Powell of Amarillo, Texas, who submitted a claim of $432.92. Could this be the former Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chairman? Stay tuned...

One of the best ways to reach out to seniors and educate them about the benefits of reverse mortgages (or any products) is often overlooked even by the most experienced reverse mortgage originators. It is something you can do at practically any time since the means to accomplish this is in front of you every day. It is passing on to your potential clients what's in the news. Using current events and news is an effective way to link (match the message) reverse mortgage benefits to the audience.