Home » April 23rd, 2009
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WASHINGTON D.C. (April 23, 2009) ? At a hearing today before the House Financial Services Committee, Massachusetts Commissioner of Banks Steven L. Antonakes pressed for a more coordinated system of oversight to enhance supervision of the mortgage market.
Testifying on behalf of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) at a hearing on H.R. 1728, The Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2009, Antonakes urged Congress to ensure that states continue to play a major role in mortgage supervision and enforcement.
?The most effective system of supervision and consumer protection is not purely federal,? Antonakes said.
He pointed to the recently-enacted S.A.F.E. Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 requiring all mortgage loan originators to be licensed or registered through the CSBS-AARMR Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System (NMLS), as a model for much-needed cooperative federalism.
?Within weeks of the Act?s passage, the states developed a model state law to implement its requirements. As of today, 20 states have passed legislation to become compliant with the S.A.F.E. Act, and an additional 29 states are in process,? Antonakes said.
April 23rd, 2009 | Posted in Uncategorized | Read More »
- Dedicated to promoting health within the mortgage banking industry -
DENVER, April 20, 2009 ? Mortgage Spirit, a Denver-based provider of loan search and pricing revenue management technology for the mortgage industry, announced the formation of its Gold Member Services Program. Gold Member Services partners actively support and promote each other?s continued success and strive to return health back into the mortgage industry.
Members of the program are vendors and independent service professionals who have demonstrated willingness and a proven ability to provide quality products and services to help increase productivity, reduce operating costs and increase efficiency in the mortgage banking industry.
Recent members of the Gold Member Services Program include five esteemed partners: Al Killeen, president of KDT/Integrated Mastery Programs; Karl Mecklenburg, former all-pro NFL captain and motivational speaker supporting the mortgage industry; Wave eSignSystems, provider of eSignature and eVaulting solutions eliminating the need for traditional paper-based mortgage; and Mortgage Trainers of North America, provider of up-to-date online mortgage training and SMD Marketing Group, a mortgage and insurance marketing company. The five partners are equally committed to providing the best in product and service, as well as being actively engaged in their local communities and the community of mortgage banking at large.
April 20th, 2009 | Posted in Uncategorized | Read More »
Company first to provide configurable, multi-search results view of mortgage information
PLANO, Texas, April 14, 2009 ? Optimal Blue , developer of a comprehensive, Web-based platform that couples decisioning technology with content management for the mortgage industry, announced the company has launched myLender, a feature that simultaneously displays up to six views of search results for a given borrower?s profile. Each of the six views can be configured independently to the lender?s specification. No other vendor in the industry can return more than one view of their search results. This represents a phase change in PPE search capabilities.
Using a highly sophisticated algorithm, myLender performs a best execution complete with loan level adjustors for every possible note rate and lock period combination across all possible products and investors and concisely displays the results in one of the six views.
Almost as important, this complex feature returns results in less than three seconds. myLender?s performance is further enhanced with the recent release of Optimal Blue?s new engine, data center and user interface. The new user interface empowers an originator to search for any combination of products from a single product type to all product types without limitation.
April 14th, 2009 | Posted in Uncategorized | Read More »
A little while back, I was talking with my friend Chris Rohr. He has been a huge fan of Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing for many years, and also did some amateur motorcycling racing himself. One of his all-time favorite racers is Wayne Rainey, a three time 500cc World Champion. Rainey set reasonable goals aimed at making incremental progress at becoming a better racer each time he got on the bike. Rainey openly admitted that he studied the way the top caliber racers rode as a learning tool for his own benefit. Chris went on to say how he too set out to watch and learn from the top riders that he competed against. Apply this to lending. Here is what I call a learning moment. When a champion shares a method of success, take note. After all, why reinvent the wheel? All that needs to be done is implement this winning strategy to your field of expertise.
April 9th, 2009 | Posted in Articles | Read More »
The First Available ?Forward Look? at House Price Movement
- What is Present-Value ?Mix-Shift??
- Bottom-Line
- CA Housing Market – Detailed Charts Highlighting CA Present-Value Mix-Shift
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Housing is close to ?bottoming? but only in the headlines. The truth and the ?reported? national, statewide and MSA housing statistics are completely different stories. Most are affected by the headlines but make wise decisions and real money by knowing the facts. These new data sets highlight the facts.
Based upon our research, we saw that median house prices were very close to ?bottoming? a couple of months ago. Then February California (CA) house prices did bottom as reported by DataQuick on March 19th (http://dqnews.com/Articles/2009/News/California/RRCA090319.aspx).
When the national February Existing Home Sales headlines are released the week of March 22nd they should also show a much smaller fall in median prices than February?s number did — perhaps even a leveling out of prices at least in the entire Western Region. But this does not mean the housing market is improving. On the contrary, due to most of the existing sales are resulting from the foreclosure stock, it means conditions are worsening in the mid-to-upper end.
April 9th, 2009 | Posted in Articles | Read More »
My first job out of college back in 1988 was selling copying machines out of the back of a van. It was brutal sales work that consisted of an endless cycle of door knocking, lugging copiers into businesses, making copies and hauling them back to my van. Rarely, somebody bought one; and oh, what a feeling!
But it was nothing like the feeling I received when my phone would ring with a call starting like, ?Jack over at Mesa Electric said I should talk to you about a new copier.? It was a referral from a past client. God bless Jack.
Selling to referred clients is radically different than selling to cold prospects. Referred clients waste no time christening you with acknowledged titles such as ?the product expert,? ?trustworthy consultant,? or even the near knight worthy, ?my problem solver.? These titles I wear proudly and make the referred sales call glide toward a signed order.
April 9th, 2009 | Posted in Articles | Read More »
This article is intended to outline the requirements of the SAFE Act and its impact on the lending industry.
The SAFE Act is part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. All states must have a loan originator licensing and registration system in place by August 1, 2009 or August 1, 2010 for legislatures that meet biennially. If a state fails to meet the federally mandated minimums and the state is not participating in the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry (NMLS&R), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will step in and implement a licensing system for the state.
PURPOSE AND INTENT
The purpose of enacting the SAFE Act is to provide uniform licensing standards nationwide, create a comprehensive licensing database, improve accountability and tracking of loan originators and enhance consumer protection.
April 9th, 2009 | Posted in Articles | Read More »
Ok, let?s talk about financing land in today?s environment while everybody is in the stimulus mode. Hey, is that possible? I received a call from Russell Ward, who asks me to write about land financing for his newsletter Vacant Land Guide www.vacantlandguide.com. I tell him it?s been awhile since anyone asked me to help him finance land, but in the name of all the great financial wizards getting away with a bonus package, I submit to you a lexis of great wisdom.
First, I am a scavenger of information on anything related to financing real estate. I spend hours online, on the phone, read several newspapers with eyes and ears locked on the message. I?m a networking fanatic and in doing so, clients come to me for loan counseling, loan packaging services, writing executive summaries, refining business plans, negotiating terms with lenders and in general, posture them favorably to increase their chances of capturing an acquisition or refinance loan program.
April 9th, 2009 | Posted in Articles | Read More »
A combination of labor oversupply, squeezed contractors’ margins, and falling material?s price will significantly drive down costs across the board.
BY ROBERT BARONE, R.A.
Without a doubt, the scarcity of new construction financing, the skittish mood of project sponsors, and the discomfort of developers and investors to begin or move forward with new building projects, have combined for an overall bearish sentiment in the real estate business. During the past six months, for instance, IVI International, Inc. has been tracking the drop off in new construction ? and it seems like activity has come to a complete stop.
Numerous projects have already been canceled; including many that were previously viewed as solid deals. As a result, the cost analysts have had very little hard information with which to measure the effects of the slowdown on construction costs.
April 9th, 2009 | Posted in Articles | Read More »
We owe the MBA of New Jersey a huge THANK YOU! In March we attended the 26th
Annual Regional Conference of Mortgage Bankers Associations as a vendor. It was held at
the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey. This was the show to be at for 2009. Not
only did we share in the optimism with the large crowd of attendees, but the venue had an
air of ?anything goes? ? one moment you?d be talking to new faces about their passion for the
industry and the next moment you?re at a 24/7 bistro eating buckets of hot wings with new
found friends at 4:00am ? this conference was proof that time flies by when you?re having
fun.
On another note, I mentioned in last month?s issue that I felt many mortgage brokers were
making a transition into being bankers to remain competitive and relevant. Richard Russell
wrote to us with a poignant description of how and why the broker is important and serves
as an excellent reminder of the noble work performed by mortgage brokers ? read below for Richard?s ?Letter to the
Editor?
Keep up the fight,
Robert Pegg
April 9th, 2009 | Posted in Articles | Read More »
A lot of people don’t...
