Mortgages

The owners and operators of mortgage businesses that I talk to often feel they are at the mercy of outside factors when it comes to generating new business, which is completely understandable given what the housing bubble did to the mortgage industry. However, when it comes to generating new leads and producing revenue, this really isn't the case.

If your Loss Mitigation and REO Departments interact with listing agents in the traditional fashion, then you are enabling fraud.

The Prestwick Mortgage Group is offering $128 million of Freddie Mac servicing rights and hopes to complete the auction by the end of next week.

As mortgage rates continue to be at all-time lows, the present day is a better time than ever before for a prospective homebuyer to purchase any type of property.

In shaping the future of the housing finance system, Congress needs to review the patents Fannie Mac and Freddie Mac own on many lending, servicing and secondary market processes, according to the Consumer Mortgage Coalition.

The foreclosure crisis is loosening the traditionally strong tie homeowners have with their homes. New findings from FICO's latest quarterly survey of bank risk professionals indicate one way the slow recovery will affect distressed homeowners in 2012 is increased propensity for "strategic default."

Online-only mortgage lender Quicken Loans is using the recently announced layoff of 2,000 Yahoo employees to try to boost the tech talent within its own ranks.

In 2011, more than $184 billion in commercial and multifamily mortgage loans was originated, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Lenders are hoping the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will approve a 'qualified mortgage' rule with a safe harbor, protecting them from consumer lawsuits, but a legal analysis shows lenders may still be vulnerable if they are careless or cut corners.

This morning The New York Times reported that our nation's banks are "back to lending to risky borrowers. As banks look to make up for fee income barred by new regulations, they've gone back to offering loans and credit cards to borrowers with bad credit."

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's latest mortgage servicing proposals have the residential lending industry seeing dollar signs -- and not the good kind.

Mortgage applications fell 2.4% for the week ending April 6, continuing a trend that started several weeks ago when rates began to rise, according to new figures compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

With over a million borrowers delinquent on their mortgages and nearly two million properties in the foreclosure pre-sale inventory, analysts, Realtors and servicers can only speculate about when the housing industry will take positive steps towards a recovery.

Resource Real Estate Opportunity REIT has purchased a distressed multifamily REO property in Houston that was experiencing operational and capital deficiencies for $11.4 million.

Roughly 33 full-timers will lose their jobs when Ally Financial closes its MBS broker/dealer operation, according to a company spokeswoman.

Alloya Corporate Federal Credit Union of Warrenville, Ill., the survivor of what was once Members United Corporate FCU, said it has signed a letter of intent to combine with Central Corporate Credit Union of Michigan, creating the nation's largest corporate with almost $5 billion in assets.

For the past few months, large players have had a lock on refinancing high LTV and underwater loans in their GSE portfolios. In a nutshell the megabanks could manually underwrite loans they controlled under Dec. 1 revisions made to the Home Affordable Refinancing Program.

Just over 2,300 years ago, a wise father hired the greatest scholar of his age to tutor his young son in the ways of the world. Aristotle spent the next few years instructing the young man in literature, architecture, music, politics and the art of warfare. Armed with this knowledge, the student, barely in his 20s, set out to conquer the world. It took him just 11 years.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau detailed a slew of new mortgage servicing rules last week that it plans to propose this summer, including a call for expanded disclosures for payments and fees and new policies in how banks must handle customer accounts.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is about to take another step forward in its efforts to write a series of rules to define "larger participants" in specific markets, including those in the consumer credit reporting business.