Origination

Any individual or company who has a social media presence should do an annual review of their activities in order to increase its power, a Canadian social media consultant advised.

As Wells Fargo goes, so goes the mortgage industry. Well, not exactly, but it needs to be pointed out once in a while just how much of a dominant player this megabank is in mortgage finance. In the third quarter it ranked first among all lenders, which is no secret, but in the correspondent channel it bought $41.1 billion of loans from other firms - almost triple its next closest competitor, Bank of America.

Capital Markets Cooperative, a secondary market specialist, is continuing to look at possible acquisitions, but is in no rush to sign on the dotted line.

Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group PLC, a London-based insurance brokerage, has been named by the Home Builders Federation, a U.K. trade group, to manage and develop a mortgage indemnification program designed to allow buyers in that nation to purchase a home with as little as 5% down.

The Federal Reserve's Beige Book Wednesday afternoon indicated there were some slight improvements in real estate and lending as 2011 drew to a close, but generally the level of business in these areas remains relatively low.

MetLife is continuing to stonewall on the future of its $1 billion warehouse lending business, leading to speculation in the market that the insurance company may wind up keeping the business after all.

After investing $1.3 billion into rental housing in the fiscal year ending on Sept. 30, 2011, NeighborWorks America, one of the country's largest network providers of affordable housing and community development training, expects more growth this year.

Real estate agents and brokers should evaluate the portals where they place their home listings to maximize their effectiveness, said Spencer Rascoff, the CEO of home listing portal and mortgage rate search marketplace Zillow.

PHH Corp. has upsized its debt offering to $220 million and has priced it at 6%. The underwriters have a 30-day over-allotment allowance of $30 million.

Valuations are the No. 1 problem facing the reverse mortgage lending community, much in the same way they are impacting the forward mortgage business, the head of the nation's largest mortgage cooperative warned.