Origination

Quicken Loans Mortgage Services, a unit of Quicken Loans that provides services to banks, credit unions and mortgage originators, said it is going to add more than 75 people by the end of the year.

The other day a mortgage recruiter made a blunt statement to us: “Wholesale lending is really hot right now.” Of course, given what’s happened to the mortgage business the past few years and all the blame being placed on brokers for crappy loan quality, such a statement might be taken with a grain of salt.

A 13% increase in refinance applications led to a 9.2% seasonally adjusted increase in overall application volume for the week ended May 11, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

When Residential Capital Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this week it left behind a trail of unsecured creditors with claims totaling well over $1 billion, according to court documents.

John Robbins has created mortgage production platforms from scratch before, most notably with American Residential Mortgage and American Mortgage Network.

Truckloads of Realtors – more than 10,000 of them, according to their leader – will swarm Capitol Hill Thursday with this familiar message for lawmakers: Housing is key to the economic recovery.

When I first landed in the business of mortgage loan origination back in 1983, the first milestone I was told to shoot for was $12 million a year. Originators who produced a million dollars in total closed loans each month were said to have “arrived.” Once there, the second level of success to set your sights on was $25 million a year. People who consistently produced over $2 million a month were said to have “achieved.” Finally, the peak performance group to belong to was the $50-million-plus club. Those stellar, superstar originators “amazed” everyone with the volume of loans they closed and the money they made.

An answer to why people hold their job in the mortgage marketplace or elsewhere does not come by so easily. Do people work simply to survive, or because it’s enjoyable and meaningful? The world of work is in a state of transition. It is now facing a new direction.

A pair of analysts at the Mortgage Bankers Association Secondary Market Conference said they don't believe there will be a private-label mortgage-backed securities product anytime soon.

Loan origination system vendor Mortgage Builder announced that it will acquire GCC Servicing Systems, the mortgage technology vendor it was spun off from in 1998.