Origination

I occasionally get invitations to speak at mortgage industry events (in addition to chairing our own SourceMedia conferences). My reaction is always bifurcated. On the one hand I'm always flattered people think my outlook on the business is worth listening to. On the other hand I'm always worried I will say something exquisitely stupid.

It was announced this week that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is planning on issuing a proposed rule changing the current loan officer compensation laws in the near future.

Investors ramped up their purchases of single-family homes last year to a level not seen since 2007 -- and only half of those buyers financed the purchase. Almost half (49%) paid cash, according to a new report from the National Association of Realtors.

Mortgage brokers are complaining to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that the loan officer compensation rule is making it more expensive and difficult to close loans -- and it appears the bureau is listening.

Mortgage Master, Walpole, Mass., one of the largest privately held nonbank lenders in the Northeast, this week hired industry veteran Don Henig to be its managing director of national sales, officials at the company confirmed to National Mortgage News.

Today is the final deadline for submissions for our 2011 survey of loan officer production. The top 150 in terms of dollar volume will be featured in May's Origination News.

Reputation is everything in a business such as mortgage originating, where the consumer needs to trust the person they are doing business with.

Over the past few months eWarehouseOne has been gaining somewhat of a buzz among small to medium-sized nonbanks that have been searching high and low for a good deal in warehouse financing. But at the same time, these very same lenders have been asking a very basic question: who exactly are these guys?

New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman's efforts to carve $15 million out of the state's $132 million national mortgage servicing settlement fund to provide foreclosure prevention assistance to New Yorkers came to fruition only a few days shy of the fund's expiration date.

The aggregate value of loans collateralized by commercial MBS increased 50 basis points in February from the month prior, continuing an upward trend, said DebtX, a Boston-based loan sales advisor.