Origination

Michigan First CU, Lathrup Village, Mich., believes a growing number of credit-challenged borrowers are becoming good credit risks as they find new employment.

Here's a taste of a story appearing in the Monday edition of National Mortgage News: Brian Simon, CEO of Caliber Funding, in a recent interview predicted that his company could grow originations by threefold or fourfold in 2012.

Commercial real estate property owners might not have enough equity to refinance their properties as loans originated in 2007 become due throughout this year, warns one expert.

Aurora Loan Services, Denver, on Friday finally made it official - the troubled mortgage firm will no longer accept new loan registrations or locks, but will continue to service its current mortgage customers.

Last week's blog focused on clarifying the rules for producing branch managers. This week, we will discuss some creative compensation strategies. My preferred way of compensating producing branch managers is to set them up on a traditional profit and loss model, but treat the "profit" as a fixed amount of basis points per loan amount. In other words, all expenses remain deductible.

Online-only mortgage lender Quicken Loans said it has openings for 1,400 positions, primarily in its downtown Detroit office, including 300 technology jobs.

For the first time in more than 20 years, market research and analytics firm Mortech LLC did not conduct its annual lender survey and will not publish its annual mortgage industry trends and analytical report.

It's all about opportunity. Bank of America and Ally Financial recently tossed their correspondent lending divisions overboard. On the surface, some may look at these exits and shout, "The sky is falling." But the smart money knows that such departures spell opportunity.

Gateway Mortgage Group, Tulsa, Okla., this week launched a new correspondent lending division that will purchase conforming and government loans from depositories and mortgage bankers, with the aim of retaining the servicing rights.

You pick up the phone. The person on the line starts the conversation by asking what the interest rate is on your 30-year fixed rate loan.