Mortgages

A bill was introduced in Congress requesting that the Federal Housing Finance Agency cease its plan to sell Fannie Mae-owned foreclosed properties in California to large investors.

Nearly 165,000 borrowers have filed requests for reviews on how their servicer treated them in foreclosure—to see if they are entitled to damages—according to new figures released by the OCC.

Frederic Gladle pleaded guilty in January to one count of bankruptcy fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft for charging distressed homeowners fees in exchange for fraudulently delaying foreclosure sales.

It seems clear that changes made to the HARP program late last year have spurred a strong wave of usage that the industry didn’t anticipate. It doesn’t matter, of course: mortgage bankers are now writing new HARP loans left and right and competition is picking up thanks to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac upgrading their AU systems.

Documenting and verifying a borrower’s income is one of the most basic tasks for an underwriter. While this appears to be relatively simple, validating income has become increasingly complex and susceptible to borrower fraud.

New York's Department of Financial Services hammered banks over their relationships with force-placed insurers in a Friday hearing, challenging JPMorgan Chase officials on lucrative reinsurance arrangements that the Department suggested are tantamount to kickbacks.

Competition is heating up among banks in the government's revised Home Affordable Refinance Program, which has helped spark a refi boom and contributed to strong mortgage profits at most banks.

A panel of diversified lenders at the Urban Land Institute's spring meeting in Charlotte described a healthy mortgage market in which only the long shots are having trouble finding funding these days.

The National Flood Insurance Program is due to expire at the end of this month and the Senate still can’t seem to find a way to pass a short-term extension or move ahead with a comprehensive reform bill that re-authorizes the program for five years.

You remember the HARP program, don’t you? Originally, the idea was to refinance current but high LTV Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac borrowers into new, lower-rate loans—provided they were current. Home values (and lack of equity) reeked havoc on the concept so Uncle Sam took the LTV girdle off.

Mortgage interest rates may be at historically low levels, but the housing industry is not helping the overall economic recovery in the U.S. With the secondary market all but dried up except for Freddie and Fannie, who together purchased over three-quarters of originations in 2011, getting a mortgage these days is near impossible—perfect borrowers need only apply.

Given today’s rancorous partisan atmosphere, which has almost shut the Congress down, what measure do you think you could get a 400-0 vote on?

Like any other discipline, selling should be learned and practiced in order to achieve effective results. Seminars, sales coaches, tapes, books, blogs and articles are some resources that might prove informative.

For No. 3 producer Shelly Logemann, it is being responsive to her clients, plus having the proper work/life balance which is important to her success as an originator.

Abhinav Asthana of Wipro Gallagher Solutions discusses issues and trends around mobile technology.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the government’s Small Business Review Panel next week will hold a private forum on its new proposal to revise the way loan officers, brokers and lenders are compensated on loan transactions.

One of the nation’s largest real estate brokerage firms said home sales were essentially flat in April after a 25% spike in March.

The long-term rate-indicative 10-year Treasury yield has officially dropped to and matched its 52-week low of 1.7%.

Healthcare Trust of America Inc., a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based nonlisted real estate investment trust, said it is looking to start trading its Class A common stock over the New York Stock Exchange.

As the housing industry continues to make a recovery from the most recent recession, the theme of this year’s show in Dallas was “shifting gears to build for the future.” Some popular topics that were talked about among session panelists and attendees were short sales, strategic defaults strategies and the REO-to-rental initiative.