Loan Think

It seems that the refinancing boom is beginning to overwhelm certain lenders. A spot check of the nation's top 10 residential mortgage firms by National Mortgage News found that some shops are putting potential applicants on hold for 10 to 15 minutes. In one instance, a potential applicant at CitiMortgage waited 15 minutes before being sent to voicemail with a promise of a call back. CitiMortgage's parent, of course, is Citigroup, which could be broken into several different operating parts in the months ahead. Or not...

In the sixth annual edition of the “Bankers As Buyers” survey put out by the William Mills Agency there was a lot of bleak news about technology spending this year. The survey is a collection of research, observations and articles about what technology, solutions and services bankers will buy in 2009 and the changing financial industry landscape. It was a good read, in my opinion. While this news is causing some technology vendors to panic, it really shouldn’t, and I’ll tell you why.

HUD/FHA RESCINDS PARAGRAPH 4-9 OF THE MORTGAGEE APPROVAL HANDBOOK

JPMorgan Chase is exiting the wholesale channel, in part, because it says that delinquencies on mortgages brought to it by brokers are higher than in other channels. However, a spokeswoman for JPM would offer no numbers whatsoever on what those delinquency rates are. The president of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers lays the blame on JPM's underwriters, not brokers. (See National Mortgage News Online.) Some loan brokers believe by exiting the wholesale arena, large money center banks are trying to corner the residential market, put brokers out of business, and force all that refi traffic into their branches. Meanwhile, one loan applicant refinancing through Chase (JPM's residential sub) told us that the mortgage banker is charging him a 50 basis point rate-lock fee and informed him that it cannot close the loan for 90 days -- even though he's already being serviced by the lender...

The reverse mortgage market seems to be picking up steam. According to exclusive survey figures compiled by National Mortgage News, some lenders are seeing a handsome increase in their reverse applications and fundings. In the fourth quarter, for example, Bank of America, originated $1.18 billion in reverses, compared to $426 million in 4Q 2007. The figures will appear in the upcoming issue of the Quarterly Data Report, a NMN statistical publication...

With the current state of the mortgage industry, and the word bailout being used in every other sentence it is no wonder that many are pointing the finger at the mortgage industry. There is plenty of blame to go around. Is mortgage industry leadership to blame for the current crisis or is leadership the answer to the problem?

Call a friendly real estate agent with access to the Multiple Listing System. Ask them to begin to send you, on a daily basis, preferably, the list of properties that were marked "pending." This is because a property which is being marked as pending means that an offer has been accepted on the property.

What do former industry veterans Glen Corso(PMI), Bob Englestad(Fannie Mae), and Pete Mills(Countrywide Home Loans) have in common? They've banded together to form 'The Warehouse Lending Project' whose goal is to unfreeze the supposedly frozen warehouse credit pipeline. Unbeknownst to most Americans, there are plenty of non-bank mortgage originators still left and they need warehouse credit. Anyway, that's what Mr. Corso said this past week. One idea the group is kicking around is allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to provide warehouse financing at the closing table. A few years ago that idea would've gotten a mortgage banker lynched. If you want to read the full exclusive story see Monday's National Mortgage News. Don't subscribe? Call: (800)221-1809...

HUD/FHA AUDITS FOR CHANGES OF OWNERSHIP OF MORTGAGEE WITHOUT NOTIFYING HUD OF THE CHANGE

As we enter 2009 the familiar debate begins. Will this be the year that e-mortgages gain significant traction? Is 2009 going to be the year of the e-mortgage? The majority of discussions around e-mortgages have traditionally focused on paperless mortgages, SMART Docs vs. PDF’s, e-signing, electronic closing rooms, e-vaults, e-recordings, e-registry, e-notarization and legal enforceability. But isn’t all of this really a mute point if the process does not start out electronically?