Originations

Getting REO to market quickly can help optimize its selling value, but rushing the presale valuation process too much could prove counterproductive, according Carl Streck, principal at MountainSeed Appraisal Management.

Sometimes I go in circles. I do marketing, my phone rings, I get busy, I stop marketing. I close loans, I realize my phone isn't ringing as much so I start all over. My new goal is to go in a straight line.

BOK Financial Mortgage, a part of the Tulsa-based Bank of Oklahoma group, has been using an unusual correspondent lending strategy that has been gaining traction as bigger players have left or pulled back from the business.

Late last week, I talked to one mortgage analyst who said some firms he’s looked at earned more money in the first quarter than they did all of last year. That’s great news for the mortgage industry, but of course this one anecdote does not apply to all.

MGIC Investment Corp., the nation’s largest mortgage insurer in terms of policies-in-force, posted a $20 million loss for the first quarter, an improvement over the $34 million it dropped in the year-ago period.

Raj Date, the deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said the agency wants to avoid creating "disincentives" for mortgage lenders and banks as part of the qualified mortgage rule.

It's nice to know there's one sector of the mortgage business that's hot. In fact, it may be overheating (does anyone want to say bubble?). It's the agricultural mortgage sector. Now, before you dismiss this niche as insignificant, read this.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau poked its thumb in the eye of residential loan officers originating mortgages for depositories.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau shut the door on states issuing transitional licenses to bank loan officers who seek work for an independent mortgage banking or brokerage shop.

In the recently released CFPB enforcement guide, the newly formed agency clearly announced that it expected lenders to begin to institutionalize compliance to enhance monitoring, training and avoidance of errors and complaints. Federal agencies are already beginning to internalize this self-policing perspective.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development indefinitely debarred three Florida loan officers and a Pittsburgh title agent following their criminal convictions for defrauding elderly borrowers, mortgage lenders and the Federal Housing Administration.

Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee have made it clear they believe the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is already too big and needs to be cut down to size.

Fannie Mae guaranteed $7.1 billion of new multifamily MBS during the first quarter, its best issuance volume since the advent of the credit crisis four years ago.

It's no secret that over the past three years the megabanks have run screaming from the third-party lending sector, abandoning correspondent lenders and loan brokers alike. Bank of America and TPO: Gone. Citigroup and TPO: gone. Ally Financial: Just about gone. But there's a growing trend of mid-sized and regional banks that see a huge opportunity in wholesale and correspondent.

Between everything you do - family, friends, hobbies, work, play, lessons, school, well, you name it - you probably don’t have one spare minute in your life.

Cole Taylor Mortgage saw its revenues increase by 94% on a sequential basis in the first quarter while its mortgage servicing portfolio more than doubled in size, according to new figures released by the company.

March went out like a lion in Illinois, where existing home sales hit their highest level in four years during the month and the median price snapped a 20-month streak of declines.

For more than a year, lenders have complained about the tough enforcement regime and controversial legal theories espoused by the Justice Department's fair lending unit.

Title agents are hoping the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will get tough on lenders that low-ball the initial costs they disclose to homebuyers and then surprise borrowers at the closing table with higher charges.