Origination

There are any number of ways mortgage originators today can be more proactive and take control of their own lead generation process.

The alarm over regulation continues to paralyze the mortgage business. That's what attendees of the Regional Conference of Mortgage Bankers in Atlantic City, N.J., heard from David Stevens, president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Al Siapno, a Border Patrol agent from San Diego and his wife Leila have pleaded guilty in a mortgage-fraud scam that involved at least 24 other people and several home loans throughout the county. The alleged perpetrators listed in a federal indictment overstated incomes, over-appraised home values and used other fraudulent means to obtain millions of dollars in mortgages.

If you're looking for the missing piece to the mortgage "deconsolidation" equation, its name is Wells Fargo. Never before in the annals of residential finance has one company amassed such an enormous market share in lending (27%) and servicing (20%).

Wells Fargo's origination business has been operating at full steam, keeping the company’s mortgage servicing assets well above a cap proposed under Basel III. A new servicer compensation system could resolve the issue, but something has to give.

Whether it is due to the weaker U.S. dollar, the large foreclosure inventory for sale, more favorable economic expectations going forward, or all of the above, Canadians are emerging as the largest group of foreigners purchasing residential property in U.S. Sun Belt states. And they do not mind buying foreclosures.

The government-owned Ally Financial sold $250 million of legacy mortgages last year, using the whole loan securitization market, according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

New single-family home sales fell 1.6% in February to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 313,000 units, but prices jumped to their highest level in eight months, according to government figures released Friday morning.

In case you missed the story on the National Mortgage News website, here's a headline for you: Some firms have the ability to make $10,000 per loan on HARP 2.0 loans. A nice chunk of that profit estimate is tied to secondary market pricing.

One of the most misunderstood and misapplied areas concerning LO compensation involves the application of varying compensation related to the source of the business. In its simplest form, the concept is that a company should be able to pay a loan officer more for a self-originated deal than it pays a loan officer for developing a loan through a lead purchased by the company.