Mortgage Brokers, Just Can't Get Any Respect

Perhaps, the National Association of Mortgage Brokers should license the Aretha Franklin song "Respect." As most industry professionals know, brokers have taken their fair share of blame for the mortgage/housing collapse while retail LOs at many shops have escaped scott free. In case you missed the latest 'dis' against brokers, it came from President Obama who, while talking about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said: "And a key component of that was making sure that we have a watchdog in place who can police what mortgage brokers and payday lenders and other non-bank financial entities are able to do when it comes to consumers." It wasn't the first time Mr. Obama has singled out brokers as the main culprit in the collapse of the housing market. It's hard to know what Obama was thinking, but his use of the word likely means that brokers are considered toxic by the general public. The sad thing is that the nation's surviving brokers are the "good guys," the ones who kept their noses clean and passed all the new regulatory tests. LOs working at banks don't have to do any of that. And keep in mind that when the FEC and AGs sued subprime firms for the crappy loans they funded during the go-go years they didn't sue brokers. They sued the retail dirtbags at Ameriquest, Associates, and Household Finance. The problem is that this history has not filtered down to the general public. Then again, I will bet that when a consumer walks into a bank branch and asks to see a mortgage professional, he might ask, "Are you a loan broker?" Sometimes, you just can't fight ignorance.