The mortgage broker will survive the financial reform process, declared the incoming president of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers William Howe, and the trade group is taking steps to insure its own survival.
NAMB's activities, he said, will be enhanced through the use of technology that will lead to a more involved organization membership and an organization on a more secure economic footing.
Howe took the reins of the group at its annual meeting in Phoenix. His shop, Howe Mortgage Corp., is located in nearby Scottsdale, Ariz.
At the time ON spoke with Howe, the financial reform package was before a conference committee in Congress and the final details had not been hashed out.
But he noted that NAMB "already has done quite a few tough sells, we have a few tough sales going forward." The government affairs committee has been very active with planning and strategy sessions and "honestly I think the brokers are going to fare pretty well.
"We have a good game plan," he said, noting that there are 10 other organizations working on the issues being discussed. The workload is being spread around the groups, and each is focusing on one aspect.
Howe noted it is difficult to speak with Congressional staffers on a menu of items, because by the time one works his or her way down the list, they are no longer being heard.
But if each group presses one item, they are more likely to be listened to.
The Home Valuation Code of Conduct, which the brokers have strongly opposed, is due to sunset. When it does, Howe said, the brokers are hoping there will be wholesalers who drop the settlement's requirements. When that does happen, competitive issues will lead the remaining wholesalers to drop HVCC as well.
On the Federal Housing Administration front, there are amendments in Congress which NAMB opposes, including one that raises the minimum downpayment for loans insured through the program to 5%. It also opposes an amendment which would limit FHA's market share to 10% and a third one which would decrease the FHA loan limits.
But NAMB supports the change in FHA where the agency no longer approves its correspondents, leaving that responsibility up to the individual lender.
Howe said the change makes the FHA program more accessible to the broker community. His suggestion to those entering this line of business is to learn the program and its rules, plus do it fairly and honestly. The FHA program is important to the nation's economic recovery, he said.
He has been an FHA originator since 1994. "To my business, they have been an absolute godsend."
As for the organization itself, Howe said that in the past, the group's employees had the option to work from the group's office in the Washington area or work from their homes.
Recently, NAMB has closed the office and the organization's staff now works virtually from their homes. "So, if you've had contact with anybody from NAMB over the last month or two, guess what? They weren't sitting in the office and you probably couldn't tell the difference," Howe said.
This cost-cutting move, accomplished during the term of Jim Pair, has already had one benefit for the national organization, is that the California state group has signed its affiliation agreement and memorandum of understanding with NAMB.
But this is not the only technology-based initiative coming out of the group.
NAMB is entering the viral video age. The group has done a pair of video messages for it members so far and more will be down the pike. Mike Anderson, NAMB's legislative chair, has already done a couple of videos and that was going to be one of Howe's "strongest suggestions" to the NAMB board that it use video instead of print.
Video, he feels, will get the message across and perhaps forwarded to more people. It is also the "wave of the future" and using video will bring the group into the mainstream, he continued.
Also on the tech front, NAMB is entering into a partnership with the University of Phoenix, Howe said, where the school will take a look at the trade group's CMC and CRMS designations, and possibly the Lending Integrity seal. The school will give members of the group college credit for having obtained those designations.
So if any NAMB member wants to take courses from the university, which offers coursework online, they will have a head start, he continued.
In another move to save expenses, the NAMB board, Howe said, is looking to combine its annual meeting with its annual legislative conference, which is held in the spring in Washington.
"If we can do both events at one time, that will save duplicate travel, hotel rooms, time out of the office, etc. So it is just another cost-saving move that NAMB is attempting to do to make this thing a lean, mean fighting machine. Because there is nobody that I know of in this country that represents the brokers the way NAMB does," he said.
NAMB/West, the conference the organization has held the past few years in Las Vegas, will continue for the next three years, he added, with Don Frommeyer doing a good job as the show's chair trying to get the conference back on track. This is the only conference where NAMB has a trade show/exhibit hall.
Howe is also offering to those with high-cost areas in their state the opportunity to form their own subcommittee under NAMB's government affairs committee, so those people can have their own voice and concentration on those issues.
