TULSA, Okla., May 17, 2012 – Gateway Mortgage Group, a privately held mortgage company providing conventional, FHA and VA loans through 50 retail branches nationwide, has acquired its largest branch and entered the Omaha market with its newest location at 12020 Shamrock Plaza, Omaha, Neb.  

Mortgage industry veteran, Kent Geschwender will lead the newly acquired branch and its staff of eight seasoned loan officers representing more than 120 combined years of lending experience. Geschwender brings more than 25 years experience to his role and most recently was a branch manager with MetLife Home Loans. He has also held the position of branch manager and mortgage origination with First Horizon Home Loans. Originally established in 1989, the Omaha location has a strong local footprint and was previously a part of the MetLife retail branch network. It will continue to serve the greater Omaha area.

Geschwender and his staff chose to join Gateway due to the lender’s hands-on and service-oriented approach to working with borrowers.

    “Our business was on the verge of a large transition and we were being pursued by several major lenders across the country. We knew it was important to align ourselves with a lender that shared the same core values we deliver to our borrowers every day,” said Geschwender. “By joining Gateway, we are able to continue to process, underwrite, close and service our loans locally. Gateway’s business principles were a natural fit for us and allow us to enhance our borrowers’ experience through the life of their loan.”

    “Gateway continues to seek opportunities to expand its footprint and gain top-tier talent such as Kent and his team. Our business model attracts some of the best originators in the country and we are committed to delivering a platform that supports them in every aspect of their business,” said Kevin Stitt, president of Gateway Mortgage Group. “We are excited about our entry into the Omaha market and we are confident that Kent and his staff are ideal ambassadors for Gateway and will be successful in their efforts.”

(TheNicheReport) — If Justin Timberlake can “bring sexy back,” then I’m “BRINGING SALES BACK!” It’s time that we return to the roots of what we really are – salespeople. That’s right, I said it, salespeople. Not Real Estate Agents, Real Estate Consultants, Account Supervisors, or Business Development Specialists. No matter what we call ourselves, no matter what our title says, at the end of the day we are salespeople. And it’s time that we bring the pride and professionalism back to the lost and ever-so-beautiful art of selling. 

Okay, now that I got that off my chest, let’s talk about the first challenge in getting back to “Sales Professionalism.” If I asked you for the first words that come to mind when I say “Car Salesperson,” what would you say? If you are like several thousand other people I have asked, you probably thought of words like “sleazy, pushy, dishonest,” and you might have even said “con man.” Ouch! 

The reality is that what you said about car salespeople is probably a pretty good reflection of how you subconsciously feel about salespeople in general. Sadly, you are not alone. Research shows that most people feel the same way. This fundamental belief means that no matter how great a case one can make for becoming a “sales professional,” no matter how much money someone would offer, nothing will make you feel okay with being pushy, sleazy or dishonest. 

So step one is to change our beliefs – our basic feelings – about being in sales. We need to realize again that we are here to solve our clients’ problems, to make our clients’ lives easier and to make a good living doing what we are passionate about. And we can only achieve all those goals if we sell, which means we have to close deals. Though faced with decades of negative stigma, I am confident we can make the necessary changes. 

True Sales Professionals

We’ve all experienced those rare but unforgettable moments of complete and utter surrender to the skills, technique and enthusiasm of a true “Sales Professional.”  We entered the scenario totally convinced that we were not going to buy. We even had the conversation in the car on the way over, making a pledge with our spouses that no matter how good it sounded, we weren’t buying! Then about half-way through the presentation you began to rethink your previous assumptions. You looked over at your spouse and shared a look that said “maybe there is something to this.”  By the end of presentation, you did not change your mind, but you made a new decision based on new information that made you want to buy what they were selling.

It was masterful: the timing of his questions, the tone of voice, the amazing ability to listen to what you were really asking for. It was like poetry in motion. It seemed like that salesperson could read your mind – and wow – even understood your pain! We were helpless and totally at the mercy of the Sales Professional’s defined sales process and perfect sequence, and the most fascinating part of it all, we loved every moment of it! The process was effortless and enjoyable, and we even spent more money than we had originally planned. 

Why?  Because the level of professionalism made us feel that our needs were safe and we could trust this person. We felt comfortable enough to be confident that this process would solve our problem and add value to our lives. You see, we love working with true professionals. We love buying from them because they make our lives easier. Even better, we love referring them because they make us look good. We tell their stories at dinner and we go out of our way to ensure that our friends and family uses them. 

So here are a couple of questions to consider. How many sales people do you know that are that good? My guess is that it’s a low number. Why is that?  I believe that the answer lies in the fundamental problem with the sales industry: there are few systems to create true “Sales Professionals.” There are often very few barriers to entry in the field, little real sales training and often poor management systems that fail to hold people accountable. The madness has got to stop!

Defining the problem

As a consultant, over the last decade I have consistently seen the following gaps with many salespeople. I encourage you to use this article as a springboard for discussion with your business partners to delve into ways to improve your business models.

1. Using marketing as a cop-out to selling
   Marketing and selling are both absolutely necessary to build a successful business, but very different. Struggling salespeople tend to prefer marketing because of the simple fact that it reduces the amount of rejection they need to face. Marketing, in its simplest explanation, attracts prospects to call us, while selling forces us to find people to call on and to risk rejection on a daily basis.
2. Lack of defined job descriptions
   This problem is worse in some industries than it is in others, but is widespread enough to warrant a look.  For example, ask 100 Real Estate Agents what their job is, and I would bet that all 100 would say something like “to sell homes.” Or they’ll give the textbook answer, “to help my clients.” The challenge with seeing the job as “selling homes” is that getting a client into or out of a home is a “result,” but not a “job.”
   
3. Confusing activity with productivity (results)
   This is a result of bullet point #2. If people don’t know what their job truly is, then any opportunity can seem like a good way to spend time. They live their work life like a feather in the wind, going in whatever direction the winds of “opportunity” decide to blow.  It’s easy to look “busy” while being broke. Perhaps this statement appears blunt, but the faster we can get real, the sooner we can solve the problem.
   
4. No Structured, Sequenced Sales System
   Not having a predefined, step-by-step process to take prospects from initial meetings to close, salespeople can find themselves eating up not only their time, but even worse, their clients’ time.  TheSalesBoard.com research showed that “80% of salespeople do not understand what the primary purpose of their sales call is.”  Their research goes on to say that by having a clear “commitment objective” you can cut your sales cycle by 25%. That equates to three extra months of sales time!
   
5. No “canned” presentation of value
   I have seen many people go into sales calls without a prepared presentation, resulting in saying something different at every sales call. You cannot depend on your ability to talk to save you from this one. Every successful salesperson you know has perfected their scripting and presentation. And the true “Sales Professional” can deliver his or her presentation on a napkin just as effectively as using a PowerPoint. The ultimate goal of having a “canned” presentation is to make it sound and feel natural.
   
6. NO TRAINING in the Fundamentals of Selling
   This was the first thing I noticed years ago. In many industries, either because of a very favorable market or because of a great marketing department, there was no great need for sales skills. Business was so abundant that anyone could make a great income. This was particularly true in the mortgage industry during the early 2000s.  I was challenged about this once by an originator who said, “Well I made $250,000 in the ‘Refi’ boom, so I must be a sales professional.”  My response was that a lot of people made $250,000 then. The sales professionals, however, made $700,000-$1,000,000 during that time.
7. Ashamed to be identified as salespeople
   This is at the core of the problem. People who are ashamed to be salespeople don’t engage in the habits of successful salespeople such as closing, driving commitment, countering objections, prospecting, etc. The Resurgence of the Sales Professional is about bringing true skill and pride back to the profession of sales.

Our industry, unfortunately, is full of “order takers” NOT “Sales Professionals.” A good friend and true sales professional, Scott Hardy, defines an “order taker” as someone who “facilitates a transaction that would have happened anyway.”  If the transaction would have happened anyway, then wouldn’t a computer suffice to get the job done? Isn’t that what vending machines are for?  The world has changed and technology will continue to become more advanced, which is why becoming a “Sales Professional” is becoming more and more crucial to long-term success.

What is a “Sales Professional?” 

 
My years of selling and studying successful sales professionals have resulted in the creation of the 7 Pillars of a Sales Professional™.  Professional sales people build a solid foundation in each one of these pillars and grow in each one on a daily basis. They are as follows.

1. The Fundamentals of Selling
   The fundamentals of selling consist of a basic, foundational sales skill set. This includes features and benefits, hot buttons, closing, silence after asking for the sale, the law of averages, the 80/20 rule, the six money-making activities, open-ended questions, etc.  It is virtually impossible to build a career as a sales professional without this foundation.  Returning to the fundamentals is the secret to getting out of a selling slump.
2. The Art of Selling
   Anyone can draw a picture of an apple, but an artist draws an apple so beautifully that you might pay to put it on your wall. Learning the fundamentals is a great start and will make a dramatic impact on your sales career and pocket book. Now add learning how to deliver those skills in the same way an artist makes a painting, and see your results soar. The art of selling consists of the proper use of voice inflection, body language, presentation skills, timing of questions, use of silence, pace of speech, etc. Research shows that tone of voice and body language make up 93% of the impact we make on other people. Essentially, it’s NOT what you say; it’s HOW you say it that matters.
3. The Psychology of Selling
   All sales people face the same psychological challenges of facing rejection, insecurity, fear, call reluctance and procrastination. These are not logical problems but rather problems of emotional self-regulation. Pure will power can sometimes be sufficient, but when we fail to overcome these challenges it may be due to taking a purely logical approach (better time management) to solve emotional problems (lack of impulse control). The psychology of selling consists of coping strategies and tools to deal with the realities of being a salesperson, and creates the proper mindset and winning beliefs of a “Sales Professional.” This is a complex topic, which is why it is so difficult to master. 
    
4. The Science of Selling
   This pillar is exciting because it offers the opportunity to take a giant leap forward in generating results if applied correctly. By using key scientific methodologies understanding the role the human brain plays in making buying decisions, the Sales Professional can experience vast improvements in closing ratios and speed the trust-building process with clients and referral partners.  Plus, the results can be achieved on purpose every time by following the scientific process/methodology, versus crossing fingers and hoping that the gift of gab or instinct will get you by.
    
5. A Defined Sales Process
   Sales professionals know exactly what their job is on a daily basis. They know what their objective is on every sales call and are comfortable driving the sales process forward because they are crystal clear on what step is next. Their clients find it easy to do business with them because they reduce the number of decisions the client needs to make, allowing them to focus on their business. The foundation of a defined sales process is made up of what I call the Six Money Making Activities: Prospecting, Setting Appointments, Presenting Value, Closing, After Care/Follow-up, and Referrals.
    
6. Advanced Selling Strategies
   Advanced Selling Strategies consist of creating leverage and compression, preemptive selling to eliminate all objections before they come up, and consultative selling. In essence, here you begin moving from $25/hr. activity to $2,500/hr. activity. 
    
7. A LEAN Sales Accountability System
   All of the first six pillars are, fundamentally, subject matter and skills that can be learned and honed by committed sales professionals. However, the key to bringing them all together and turning them into more income is a lean system that ensures that all the right things happen, at the right time, every time, with minimal wasted effort and maximum benefit both to the customer and to the sales professional.  These principles are ones that have been applied for years and with great success in the manufacturing world, but have yet to really break through to the service world.  Essentially, this would apply a “Toyota-like” approach to your business, leading to tremendous efficiency and quality gains. 

Such a system should keep track of every one of your contacts as well as your current lead pipeline, and then drive each lead through the Defined Sales Process (Pillar 5) that you created to take advantage of best practices. Contact management and CRM systems can be helpful here, but a lean workflow automation solution is the way to get it done right. Such a system brings accountability to how you are handling the leads in your pipeline and whether you are moving them through your Defined Sales Process at a pace and conversion ratio that ensures that you are consistently making money.

With competition high and unskilled salespeople lowering their prices on a daily basis, Sales Professionals need to streamline their business, focus on highest payoff activities and still deliver more value than competitors. By defining your sales process and accountability system, you then can focus on creating the life and business you’ve always dreamed of.

A Foundation of Integrity

I purposefully waited until the end to talk about the importance of integrity in the world of selling.  Bottom line, we are fighting against the negative stigma because of the previous lack of integrity in our profession. Stanley Kubrick is quoted as saying, “If you can talk brilliantly about a problem, it can create the consoling illusion that it has been mastered.”  

Given all the general press, business publications, self-help books, research data and market analysis over the last decade, it is possible we have mastered the talk about integrity, but progress on the practical, applied “how” of integrity continues to confound even the best business leaders, managers and employees. There is much to be done to move the integrity rhetoric into a common business practice.

In conclusion I would like to call on you all to join me in bringing pride, integrity and professionalism back to the world of selling. Take pride in being a salesperson. Continue to educate yourself in your chosen profession. Go back to why you sell what you sell, and be willing to act on the care that you feel for your clients. Care enough to be unreasonable when they don’t understand the value of what you are offering and ask again for the sale. Your customers need the value you are offering.

I hope that the fire of pride and passion has been re-ignited inside of you. The world needs salespeople of integrity to sell the right things to the right people at the right time. I look forward to seeing you all out there in the trenches as we lead the Resurgence of the Sales Professional!  Now go make some sales calls and make us proud!

Rene Rodriguez

The 7 Pillars of a Sales Professional is a trademark of Rene F. Rodriguez. Rene is Chief Executive Officer of Volentum, (www.volentum.com) a Management Consulting Firm that specializes in sales training, employee engagement, professional influence & change management, with significant expertise in applying brain research to improving results. He has a trusted advisor to Leadership and Business Teams Bank of America, Coca-Cola, Liz Claiborne, Daimler Chrysler, dozens of mortgage and real estate companies and many other major corporations. As a highly sought after keynote speaker, Rene’s mission is to lead the Resurgence of the Sales Professional and to ignite the voluntary momentum within organizations to reach their goals. For more information on improving your sales process or how to become a more influential leader, please visit www.Volentum.com, www.FollowRene.us or call 612-310-4010.

     The median price paid for a Southland home last month was $290,000, up 3.6 percent from $280,000 in both March this year as well as April 2011, according to San Diego-based DataQuick.

     Last month’s median was the highest since the median was also $290,000 in December 2010. The year-over-year gain in the April median was also the first since December 2010, when the median rose a scant 0.3 percent.

     Although price pressures have no doubt formed in some areas, the year-over-year increase in the April median price also reflects two other trends: the decline in the share of sales that are foreclosed properties, which tend to sell at a discount and be concentrated in lower-cost areas, and a shift toward a greater portion of sales this April in the higher-cost coastal markets. In April last year, for example, sales in San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties represented 68.0 percent of the region’s sales, compared with 71.5 percent last month.

      April’s $290,000 Southland median was 17.4 percent above the low point for the current real estate cycle – $247,000 in April 2009 – and 42.6 percent below the $505,000 peak in mid 2007. The peak-to-trough drop was due to a decline in home values as well as a shift in sales toward lower-cost homes, especially inland foreclosures.

     “The housing market continued its painfully slow crawl back toward normalcy last month. You can see it in the fading role of foreclosures, the uptick in median prices here and there, and the higher levels of sales in coastal counties,” said John Walsh, DataQuick president.

     “Of course, there are still a lot of things that make this market abnormal,” he said. “Investor and cash buying are still unusually robust. The jumbo loan market has yet to recover, and the use of plain-vanilla adjustable-rate mortgages, or ‘ARMs,’ remains far below normal. Lots of homeowners are ‘underwater,’ and the market remains awash in uncertainty over the economy, home prices, and the way lenders will handle the many thousands of homeowners who are behind on their mortgage payments.” 

     Last month a total of 19,284 new and resale houses and condos sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties. That was down 3.4 percent from 19,953 in March, and up 5.1 percent from 18,344 in April 2011.

     The change in sales between March and April has varied widely over the years. On average, sales have risen about 1 percent between those two months since 1988, when DataQuick’s statistics begin. On a year-over-year basis, Southland sales have increased for four consecutive months, and for eight out of the last nine months. However, last month’s sales were still 21.0 percent below the average for all the months of April since 1988.

     The Southland housing market saw a modest uptick in mid-priced sales last month. But contrary to the general trend in recent years, sales of lower-cost homes fell. The latter is partly the result of the dwindling number of foreclosures re-selling and the overall decline in the inventory of homes for sale.

     The number of homes that sold for less than $200,000 in April fell 4.7 percent from a year earlier, while the number that sold for between $200,000 and $400,000 rose 5.5 percent. Sales between $300,000 and $800,000 – a range that would include many move-up buyers – increased 3.5 percent year-over-year. The number of sales above $800,000 fell 3.0 percent from a year ago.

     Distressed sales – the combination of foreclosure resales and “short” sales – made up about 47 percent of last month’s resale market. That was the lowest level since the figure was 45.1 percent in April 2008.

     Foreclosure resales – properties foreclosed on in the prior 12 months – accounted for 28.6 percent of the resale market last month, down from 31.5 percent in March and down from 33.8 percent a year earlier. Last month’s figure was the lowest since foreclosure resales were also 28.6 percent of the resale market in January 2008. In the current cycle, the figure hit a high of 56.7 percent in February 2009.

     Short sales – transactions where the sale price fell short of what was owed on the property – made up an estimated 18.4 percent of Southland resales last month. That compares with 18.9 percent the month before and 17.3 percent a year earlier. 

     Credit remained tight last month but the influx of more traditional home buyers this spring has brought slightly higher levels of adjustable-rate financing and “jumbo” loans.

     Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) accounted for 7.1 percent of last month’s Southland home purchase loans, up from 6.4 percent the prior month and down from 8.5 percent a year earlier. Since 2000, a monthly average of about 36 percent of purchase loans were ARMs.

     Jumbo loans, mortgages above the old conforming limit of $417,000, accounted for 18.9 percent of last month’s purchase lending – the highest since December 2007. April’s figure was up from 16.4 percent the prior month and 17.4 percent a year ago. In the months leading up to the credit crisis that hit in August 2007, jumbos made up about 40 percent of the market.

     Investor activity held near a record-high level in April, and the share of buyers paying cash remained at double the historical average. 

     Absentee buyers – mostly investors and some second-home purchasers – bought 27.8 percent of the Southland homes sold last month. That was down from 28.2 percent the prior month and up from 25.4 percent a year earlier. The record was 29.9 percent in February this year. Last month’s absentee buyers paid a median $220,000, up from $212,000 the month before and $210,000 a year earlier. Absentee buying was greatest in the Inland Empire, where it represented 35.8 percent of all homes sold last month, up from 35.6 percent the month before and 33.1 percent a year ago. Since 2000, the Southland’s absentee buyers have purchased a monthly average of about 17 percent of all homes sold.

     Cash purchasers accounted for 31.5 percent of April home sales, down from 32.4 percent the month before and roughly even with 31.8 percent a year earlier. Cash buyers paid a median $225,000 last month, up from $215,000 the prior month and $210,000 a year ago. Since 2000, the monthly average for Southland homes purchased with cash is about 15 percent. Cash purchases are where there was no indication in the public record that a corresponding purchase loan was recorded.

     Government-insured FHA loans, a popular low-down-payment choice among first-time buyers, accounted for 29.3 percent of all purchase mortgages in April. Last month’s FHA level, which was the lowest for any month since August 2008, compared with 30.0 percent the month before and 33.5 percent a year earlier.

     In April, 20.5 percent of all Southland home sales were for $500,000 or more, up from 19.6 percent the month before and the same as a year earlier. Last month’s level was the highest since July 2011, when it was 20.7 percent. The low point for $500,000-plus sales was in January 2009, when only 13.8 percent of sales were above that threshold. Over the past decade, a monthly average of about 28 percent of homes sold for $500,000 or more.

     DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts.

     The typical monthly mortgage payment Southland buyers committed themselves to paying was $1,096 last month, compared with $1,063 in March. Last month’s figure was down from $1,181 for the same month last year. Adjusted for inflation, last month’s typical payment was 53.6 percent below the typical payment in the spring of 1989, the peak of the prior real estate cycle. It was 62.0 percent below the current cycle’s peak in July 2007.    

     Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions. Foreclosure activity remains high by historical standards but is much lower than peak levels reached in recent years. Financing with multiple mortgages is very low, and down payment sizes are stable, DataQuick reported.

(chart)

     All Homes                           #Sold            #Sold         Pct.              Median        $Median         Pct.

The share of home loans at least 30 days late dropped to 7.4 percent from 7.58 percent in the previous three months, according to a report today from the Mortgage Bankers Association. The rate peaked at 10.1 percent in the first quarter of 2010 and was last lower in the third quarter of 2008, when it was 6.99 percent.

“Delinquencies are clearly continuing to improve,”Michael Fratantoni, the group’s vice president of research and economics, said in a statement. “Newer delinquencies, loans one payment past due as of March 31, are down to the lowest level since the middle of 2007, indicating fewer new problems we will need to deal with in the future.”

Falling delinquencies may help limit foreclosures and solidify a recovery in the housing market as low interest ratescombine with decreased prices to stimulate demand. Housing affordability reached a new high in the first quarter and sales of previously owned homes rose 5.3 percent from a year earlier, data from the National Association of Realtors show.

Read full article from Bloomberg

(CNBC) — Housing starts

While KB Homes and Toll Brothers are reporting sales increases, this does not erase the fundamental problem with the real estate market today; there are too many people wanting to sell and not enough buyers. In some neighborhoods in the United States, every other house is for sale and sitting stagnant with no takers. But this is the obvious sign that the real estate market is troubled; there are deeper problems below the surface.

What is more troubling is in every block in neighborhoods across the United States, there are huge numbers of potential sellers that would sell their house if they could get the price they believe their house is worth. This huge reserve of sellers creates a supply waiting to flood the market when any sign of recovery in real estate capital values returns.

Additionally, banks continue to hold huge inventories of foreclosed properties waiting for a rebound in the market before placing these properties into the real estate market. This phantom supply of houses is another headwind for the real estate market. In my discussions with bankers, they are mortified that they have now become wholesalers of properties and fear this will be the case for many years.

Read more from CNBC

(TheNicheReport) — In the very first article regarding the Mortgage Acts & Practices rules, I mentioned that this new advertising rule now applies to everyone involved in selling and marketing one- to four-family, owner-occupied homes.  In addition to Realtors® and mortgage companies, it also includes ad agencies, lead-generation companies and telemarketers. 

The Mortgage Acts & Practices rules have been in effect since August 19, 2011—so it’s been around for a while, but not many people know about it…YET!

A large part of the rule explains “definitions” and what they mean.  And the biggie here is the Fed’s definition of “commercial communications”— or the various ways real estate agents and loan officers communicate with potential home buyers. 

Why would you care?  Because the rule states that if you do place an ad that includes mortgage terms, you must keep a written or electronic version of it for 24 months, in case you are ever audited. 

Here’s what is meant by the term “Commercial Communications”: 

• Any written or oral statement
• Illustrations such as charts and graphs
• English or any other language
• Labels
• Packages
• Package inserts
• Radio
• Television
• Cable TV
• Brochures
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Pamphlets
• Leaflets
• Circulars
• Mailers
• Book inserts
• Free-standing inserts
• Letters
• Catalogues
• Billboards
• Posters
• Public transit cards
• Point-of-purchase displays
• Film
• PowerPoint slides
• Audio transmitted over the telephone
• Telemarketing scripts
• On-hold scripts
• Upsell scripts
• Training materials provided to telemarketing firms
• Infomercials
• Internet
• Cellular phones/networks
• Web pages
• Email
• Direct mail
• In-person sales presentation
• …anything else considered “commercial communication”

To further clarify record keeping,

• You must keep copies of all advertising if “materially different.” 
  • If the same/similar ad runs in different areas, only one copy is required, but also a list of places where ad placed
  • Description of mortgage products offered to consumers
    • Including terms, conditions and any “unique
      names” given to the mortgage loan
    • Details of affiliated products, i.e., life/disability insurance 
      • If a home warranty is REQUIRED as part of the home purchase, it can be interpreted that this may also apply.  

Just a heads up—the two federal agencies assigned the task of enforcing these rules are the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau and Federal Trade Commission.

Here’s the info if you’d like to read more about it (or you need help falling asleep): Federal Register, FTC 16 CRF Part 321

Next month we will outline the 19 “Prohibited Practices.” 

Correction to the February issue article called Advertising Rules (Reg Z) for Mortgage for Realtors/Builders Part 1: the disclosure rules apply if real estate agent co-advertises with a lender.  However, check with your state’s regulators because some states require Reg Z disclosure—even if you are not advertising in conjunction with a mortgage company. The Mortgage Acts & Practice rules in this article covers unfair and deceptive practices and plugs the loop holes that are not covered by Reg Z.

Written and contributed by Karen Deis. President of Foundation Marketing, Inc. which specializes in training real estate agents and loan originators on consumer direct-marketing strategies. You may email Karen with comments or questions to this column at karen@karendeis.com

SEATTLE, May 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Zillow, Inc. (NASDAQ: Z), the leading real estate information marketplace, today launched the Zillow® Partnership Platform, developed to help Zillow, multiple listing services and brokers work together to display accurate, complete and timely listing information.

The Zillow Partnership Platform outlines Zillow’s commitment to work with its real estate industry partners to reduce the costs and time associated with listings management; and provide the best source of listing data to agents, home owners and home shoppers.

Under the Zillow Partnership Platform, Zillow’s pledges include:

• Update      active listings and remove stale information as frequently as the MLS or      broker allows.
• Always      show the listing broker, listing agent and the listing source.
• Never      re-syndicate, redistribute or sub-license listings without permission.
• Never      reuse listing data entrusted to one Zillow business to support another      Zillow business. 
• Allow MLSs      and brokers to choose Zillow’s listings data source.
• Honor all      intellectual property rights.

“Zillow is committed to partnering with MLSs and brokers to get reliable and timely information to its more than 32 million unique users each month,” said Bob Bemis, vice president of industry relations at Zillow. “We have a common goal to provide accurate listings for the benefit of agents and consumers.”

Starting today, the Zillow Partnership Platform applies to all renewal and future MLS and broker contracts. Each partner will have a dedicated Zillow account executive to address concerns and quickly solve problems. To learn more about the platform, email partners@zillow.com or call 206-757-4250.

PLEASANTON, CA – May 16, 2012 – Ellie Mae^® (NYSE MKT: ELLI), a leading provider of enterprise level, on-demand automated solutions for the residential mortgage industry, today released its Origination Insight Report for April 2012.  The report draws its data and insights from a robust sampling of the significant volume of loan applications—more than 20% of all originations in the U.S.—that flow through Ellie Mae’s Encompass360^® mortgage management software and Ellie Mae Network™.

MONTHLY ORIGINATION OVERVIEW FOR APRIL 2012

PROFILES OF CLOSED AND DENIED LOANS FOR APRIL 2012

More information and analysis of closed and denied loans, by loan purpose and investor, is available in the full report at http://www.elliemae.com/aboutus/about_reports.asp.

To get a meaningful view of lender “pull-through”, Ellie Mae reviewed a sampling of loan applications initiated 90 days prior (i.e., the January applications) to calculate a closing rate for April.  Ellie Mae found that 48.1% of all applications closed in April compared to 46.9% in March (see full report).  

“As we move into the spring and summer buying season, there was a significant pick up in the percentage of purchase loans: 44% in April up from 39% in March,” said Jonathan Corr, chief operating officer of Ellie Mae.  “This is the highest level of purchase loans activity in the last nine months.

“In April, the average loan-to-value (LTV) for closed loans hit 80%, the highest we have seen since we started tracking in August 2011,” Corr added.  “The increase was driven by an easing of LTVs on conventional refinances (the average LTV was 69% in April compared with 65% in March) and what we believe to be the first surge in Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) 2.0 activity from correspondent lenders.

“Last month closed refinances with LTVs of 95%-plus, nearly doubled to 7.1% compared to 3.6% in March. This has been slowly increasing since the HARP 2.0 announcement in October 2011, but correspondent lenders have only recently been able to run these loans through Desktop Underwriter and Loan Prospector.”

“Recently, the Wall Street Journal and other media outlets have been reporting that the nation’s largest retail lenders are now quoting long timelines for refinances—in some cases as long as 60 to 90 days,” said Corr.  “While the average refinance going through our platform took five days longer in April than in March, it still only took 47 days. So, it appears that small and mid-sized lenders and community banks on our platform are providing faster decisions than the retail channels of some mega-lenders.”  

About Ellie Mae Origination Insight Report

In 2011, the total volume of mortgages that ran through Ellie Mae’s Encompass360 mortgage management software was approximately two million loan applications, or 20% of all U.S. mortgage originations. The Origination Insight Report mines its application data from a robust sampling of approximately 33% of all mortgage applications that were initiated on the Encompass origination platform.  Given the size of this sample and Ellie Mae’s market share, the Company believes the Origination Insight Report is a strong proxy of the underwriting standards that are being employed by lenders across the country.

The Origination Insight Report focuses on loans that closed or were denied in a specific month and compares their characteristics to similar loans that closed or were denied in the prior three-month and six-month periods.  The closing rate is calculated on a 90-day cycle, rather than a monthly basis, because most loan applications typically take one and a half months to two months from application to closing. Loans that do not close could still be active applications, withdrawn by consumer, or denied for incompleteness or non-qualification.

The Origination Insight Report reports aggregated, anonymized data and does not disclose client-specific or proprietary information.

News organizations have the right to re-use this data, provided that Ellie Mae, Inc. is credited as the source.

About Ellie Mae

Ellie Mae, Inc. is a leading provider of on-demand automation solutions for the mortgage industry.   The Company offers an end-to-end solution, delivered using a Software-as-a-Service model that serves as the core operating system for mortgage originators and spans customer relationship management, loan origination, and business management.  The Company also hosts the Ellie Mae Network™ that allows mortgage professionals to conduct electronic business transactions with the lenders and settlement service providers they work with, to process and fund loans.  The company’s offerings include the Encompass^®, Encompass360^® and DataTrac^® mortgage management software systems. 

Under the plan, Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) will offer homeowners so-called relocation payments of between $2,500 and $30,000 if they sell their home in a short sale. In short sale deals, the sale price of the home is less than what the seller owes the bank.

The bank first tested the payments in a pilot program in Florida last fall. Under that initiative, Bank of America paid up to

Bank of America

$20,000 to borrowers who sold their homes in short sales.

“This program can help customers make a planned transition from ownership when home retention options have been exhausted or they have made a decision not to keep the home,” said Bob Hora, an executive for the bank.

Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) started a similar initiative in late 2010 that pays as much as $35,000 to short sellers. Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500) has also paid five-figure incentives to short sellers or to owners who turned over their deeds to the bank.

BofA said it has completed 200,000 short sales over the past two years. These sales are generally more cost effective for banks than foreclosures. By avoiding foreclosure, the lenders get distressed properties back from delinquent borrowers more quickly, which helps them to avoid property tax payments, maintenance expenses and legal fees that can build up for months, even years, as foreclosures work through the system.

Read full article from CNN Money

Real estate agents, who spent the six-year U.S. housing collapse coaxing buyers off the fence, are now hunting for sellers as home inventories hover near lows last seen in 2005. A scarcity of properties signals the housing market’s uneven recovery as purchasers trying to take advantage of record affordability run up against homeowners choosing to stay put in properties that aren’t worth as much as they owe.

“It’s a sign of transition from a slow slide down to what hopefully will be a solidly improving market,” Susan Wachter, a professor of real estate and finance at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, said in a telephone interview. “We’re not going to have a healthy market until we can have move-up buyers purchase homes and not simply stay in place.”

The number of homes listed for sale in the U.S. fell 22 percent to 2.37 million in March from a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. That’s a 6.3-month supply at the current sales pace, which is considered by the association to be a balance between buyers and sellers. In April, inventories fell to less than a three-month supply in markets including San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Denver, Phoenix, San Diego, Los Angeles, northern Virginia and Seattle, according to online brokerage Redfin.

‘Lack of Sellers’

“The places where the market is most competitive — like Washington, D.C., Phoenix and San Francisco — are where sales volume is actually declining,” Redfin Chief Executive Officer Glenn Kelman said in a telephone interview from Seattle, where his company’s based. “The limiting factor on sales volume isn’t a lack of buyers. It’s a lack of sellers.”

Silicon Valley homes were on the market for a median 49 days in April, down 29 percent from a year earlier, according to Altos Research LLC. That compares with a median 107 days in 30 metropolitan areas tracked by the Mountain View, California-based real estate data company.

Phyllis McArthur, a Realtor in San Mateo, California, sent letters to 18 homeowners who bought their properties more than four decades ago, asking if they were willing to sell to families who want to put their children in the school system.

“I got a call back from one gentleman who said, ‘They’ll have to carry me out feet first,’” McArthur said. “I said to him, jokingly, ‘When you feel yourself slipping away, will you call me?’”

Record Affordability

A housing affordability index that’s based on a combination of resale prices, household income and mortgage rates reached an all-time high in the first quarter, the National Association of Realtors reported today. The index shows that a family with the median income of almost $61,000 could afford a $325,500 house, which is more than double the median existing single-family home price of $158,100 in the U.S.

Read full article from Yahoo Finance