Origination

If you were in charge of conducting a meeting with 25 people—some who know each other and some who don't —would you start it off with an icebreaker? Should you?

Successful selling almost always requires the salesperson to obtain information from the prospect to facilitate a sale. Regardless of your product or service, obtaining insightful facts about the prospect’s needs, concerns and desires should serve as a guide on how to accomplish a favorable outcome. The problem that always presents itself is determining how to effectively probe and extract information without sounding like a C.I.A. interrogator whose next question might involve waterboarding.

Although profit margins are still healthy for most mortgage banking firms, net income in the new year will continue to be impacted by "high" rep and warranty expenses, according to a recent report from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

Mortgage applications fell almost 4% for the holiday week ending December 30, according to new figures compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association. The decline is calculated on a sequential basis.

Publicly traded REIT Two Harbors Investment Corp. is laying the groundwork for a $200 million jumbo MBS deal, partnering with Barclays Bank PLC.

Despite improvements in the job market and low mortgage rates, Federal Reserve officials seem disappointed that their efforts to perk up housing are having little impact, according to minutes of the central bank's December monetary policy committee meeting.

The top 10 sellers of mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pay 20 basis points in guarantee fees compared to 30 bps for firms outside the top 100, according to a new report from Keefe Bruyette & Woods.

Another big year for multifamily construction could push housing starts up 13% in 2012 after posting a 4% increase last year, according to a new forecast from Wells Fargo Securities.

November was the second best month of last year in terms of new private mortgage insurance written, but new applications received declined from October, according to the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America.

Commercial mortgages had a mixed year in the securitized secondary markets during 2011 and the outlook for 2012 is that the sector still faces some hurdles but may hold some opportunities.