Nationstar Mortgage, Lewisville, Texas, is the newest preferred mortgage lender for KB Home, after two other relationships fizzled in the past year.
Back in April, the Los Angeles-based homebuilder said Bank of America, its partner in a mortgage banking joint venture, approached it during its first fiscal quarter asking to restructure their relationship.
However those talks ended up being fruitless, and on June 26, 2011, the joint venture was shut down and the next day MetLife Home Loans became its preferred lender.
At the time, Jeffrey Mezger, president and chief executive of KB Home, said the marketing services agreement with MetLife allows his company to focus on its homebuilding operations.
But all did not sail smoothly. Mezger said during the company's fourth fiscal quarter call that in the time it took MetLife to mobilize its operations in the markets where KB Home sells houses, many homebuyers chose to work with other lenders to finance their purchases, which caused delays in the closing process.
Furthermore, MetLife late last year embarked on a course of exiting the forward mortgage business, first by putting it up for sale, than electing to close it.
A spokeswoman for KB Home said Nationstar is its only preferred lender. There are no plans to create a joint venture with the company. At the time of the MetLife announcement, Mezger said a number of companies, including MetLife, have expressed an interest in forming a new mortgage joint venture with KB Home and the company was exploring its options.
