One conversation topic not in the hallways here at the MBA’s Independent Mortgage Banker Conference in Tennessee is the death of the original voice of Charlie Brown. The huge cost of health care is, however, and lenders can lower costs by negotiating. “Votre grand-mère donne de superbes massages!” Are things like free daily commentaries with French words, of a higher quality than those that don’t have them? I ask because the Econo Lodge here in Nashville (where free commentary writers bunk down) has some French phrasing on the plastic shampoo bottle, which is ironic because throughout history the French (veuillez m’excuser) were never known for their personal hygiene. One of the topics here is “marketing spend.” Lenders and vendors are acutely aware of marketing, its cost, and its compliance. Are you hearing about lenders or MLOs paying for the auto leases of their real estate agent’s cars? Or all the house photos for a 4 office realty company’s listings. (Those photos now cost $1,000 per house in many situations.) I recent STRATMOR Workshop on Sales & Marketing, led by Partner Jim Cameron, indicated that inefficient branch-level marketing expenses, measuring marketing performance, and MLO adoption of tech tools and marketing efforts were on the “front burner” of lenders across the nation. And monitoring compliance in new social media outlets is a big deal. After all, anyone can sue anyone over anything, right? Legos and a leather coat copywrite? Sure. (Today’s audio version of the commentary is available here and this week’s is sponsored by TMS, a top 10 subservicer with a 98 percent customer satisfaction rate. TMS is on a mission to “Grow Happiness” and delivers next level service with their award-winning proprietary technology, SIME.)

Employment

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NexBank is looking for a qualified, seasoned Account Executive to join its high performing sales team. The right candidate will work in a relationship driven sales and operations environment, supporting the needs of our Wholesale & Correspondent Lending partners while executing client growth in their assigned territory. This position has flexibility in geographical account coverage. NexBank has been nationally recognized as a top performing bank and is part of a financial services company with assets of $9.8 billion. NexBank Mortgage Banking provides Wholesale, Non-Delegated, and Delegated Correspondent Lending, as well as traditional warehouse lines of credit. We are focused on a personalized, high touch approach and are consistently launching new, innovative ways to help our clients. Please send your resume to Kari Kovelan.

“Virginia’s Trustar Bank, the fastest growing De Novo Bank in the country, is seeking an experienced Mortgage President to lead our existing Mortgage Subsidiary. A rare opportunity to continue to grow a successful mortgage operation with a De Novo Bank. We are searching for a proven leader capable of building high performing sales teams to join our existing successful operations and production teams. Candidate must have significant experience in recruiting, training, motivating, and managing both sales and operations teams. Candidate will report directly to the CEO of the Bank. Previous community banking work history is preferred. Excellent compensation package offered including salary, benefits, and equity share. Resume in confidence to: [email protected]. Principals only please. EOE.”

“Attention loan officers! Do you want to become one of the industry’s top producers? If so, you’ll need tools and programs that give you a competitive advantage. That’s what we have at New American Funding. With New American Funding’s Buyer Accepted program, we allow homebuyers to compete with all-cash buyers by purchasing their new home with cash and selling it back to them. This program allows buyers to be cash buyers, giving them the advantage when trying to buy a home at a time when inventory is at an all-time low. Plus, on the loans we service, you have the option to include your branding and photo or co-branding on mortgage statements to keep you top of mind with your borrowers, allowing you to build referral partners and customers for life. Interested in joining our team? Contact Brooke Anderson today! (609) 500-1520 EOE.”

Wholesale and non-del AEs, if you’re looking to up your game, it’s time to talk to Pennymac TPO. As an industry leader, with a proven track record of building scaled, sustainable businesses, Pennymac TPO brings expertise, technology, and great people together to serve your broker and non-delegated clients. It is ranked #6 in the wholesale channel (according to IMF) and were recently ranked #4 on Fortune’s List of “The Fastest-Growing Companies” in 2021. There’s still tremendous growth upside and many prime territories are available across the country. For strength, growth, and long-term career opportunities, join Pennymac while your territory is still open by applying here or reaching out confidentially to Scott Houp (East) or Jason Bannister (West) today.  

Lender and broker products & services

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The Farmers’ Almanac claims that crickets can predict temperature changes with surprising accuracy. It sounds like simple folksy wisdom, but the insects’ shocking precision is actually based on scientific principles. Thankfully, with the average American homeowner currently sitting on almost $180,000 in tappable equity, you don’t need to ask an insect to know that 2022 will be a hot year for home equity-related loan products. Instead, turn to Sales Boomerang for forward-thinking guidance on which loan scenarios you should prioritize for equity-laden borrowers. Gain the foresight to make the best lending moves in 2022 and download the free eBook today.

Northpointe Bank Correspondent Lending enhanced its WealthBuilder program allowing eligible borrowers to build equity faster with 100 percent financing combined with a 15- or 20- year amortization. Rather than borrowers using cash for a down payment, borrowers may apply it towards a lower interest rate and shorter loan term resulting in more dollars toward their loan principal. With loan amounts up to $975,000 and loan-to-value ratios up to 100 percent, Northpointe’s WealthBuilder is a great way to pay down a home loan faster and build wealth. Available in all states except New York, Northpointe Bank provides tailored solutions to maximize your profitability and help grow your business. View program details for more information or email [email protected]. Warehouse financing for all Northpointe Correspondent programs is available through Northpointe Bank’s warehouse program. Please contact Ashley Lockaby, VP Director of Warehouse Lending, for more information.

Lenders: With extreme housing market conditions and more competition than ever, you might be looking for ways to replace lost revenue. That’s why the experts at Matic Insurance, a digital insurance agency built for the mortgage industry, created a free guide to help you differentiate your mortgage process, stand out to borrowers, and close loans faster. You’ll get insights on what modern borrowers are looking for and actionable steps you can take to deliver exceptional value and create loyal customers. Better yet, you’ll learn how implementing these simple steps can help you drive revenue, increase pull-through rates, and decrease loan cycle times. Download the guide here. Matic’s embedded insurance solutions were built for mortgage lenders and LOs. Through our network of 40+ A-rated insurance carriers, we help your customers save time and money by matching them with the right policy. Contact us for information on partnership opportunities.

If the past two years have taught the mortgage industry anything, it is to expect the worst and hope for the best. While anticipated higher interest rates in 2022 are still a cause for concern, an overall positive origination outlook provides ample opportunity for lenders to achieve solid growth over the coming year, provided they can solve the rising origination cost conundrum. Nomis Solutions has weighed in on this timely topic in a recent MBA article titled Leverage Actionable Data to Capitalize on Margin Opportunities. Contact Gerald Dorman to discover how by rethinking core pricing strategies, leading mortgage lenders can offset many of the challenges 2022 is expected to bring while establishing a lasting plan for profitability and success… regardless of market conditions.

Do you know where you are ranking against your peers? The way to get ahead is to know where you stand in real-time! See where you rank against your peers in real-time with Richey May’s RM Analyze + Peer View Ops. View data for any time period to really drill into where and when you excelled or lagged in comparison to your peers, so you know where the opportunities are. With RM Analyze, a complete picture of your company is possible, and you can empower your managers to take proactive measures, find efficiencies, create change, and drive growth. Because this platform is designed by mortgage experts for mortgage experts, you can feel confident that this will fit your unique business needs. Contact us to schedule a customized demo today!

ME: Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?

MIRROR: They are the mortgage industry partner of choice for audit, risk, and compliance. They help their clients sleep tight at night knowing their compliance is right. Whether it is Fannie Mae compliant internal audit, Servicing QC and Subservicer Oversight, Fair Lending and Fair Servicing, and last but not least, Vendor Management.

ME: Ooooo, Vendor Management, tell me more!

MIRROR: Ahh, yes, Vendor Management, oh it is changing day by day! The increasing adoption of technology by mortgage and financial institutions marks an exciting shift in the industry!! MQMR can help you establish a compliant vendor management program, and its Fintech Vendor Management Whitepaper will guide you through the unique considerations of leveraging fintech vendors. Schedule a meeting today to meet the fairest of them all.

Every lender knows they should be collecting upfront fees because it gives the borrower an incentive to close the deal. But unfortunately, most lenders have a pretty terrible process. Some have loan officers complete a form with the borrower’s credit card number (until the regulators find out). Others still have borrowers write checks that get manually deposited (come on, people… it’s 2022). Eliminate all that headache with Fee Chaser by LenderLogix. Fee Chaser lives in your LOS, and when it’s time to collect a fee, the borrower gets a text message where they can securely pay on their device. Once complete, receipts are automatically uploaded to the LOS. Up and running in weeks, immediate ROI, no PCI headaches. So head over to LenderLogix and put your fee collection on autopilot today.

Company-sponsored webinars

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The latest Mortgage Finance Forecast from the MBA predicts $3.9 trillion in 2021 to $2.6 trillion in 2022. But there are many originators who will have their best year in 2022 thanks to Non-QM. Join National Mortgage Professional for “Making Money in Non-QM’‘ on Thursday, January 27th at 1PM ET (10AM PT). 2021 turned out to be a record year and 2022 can be even better if you commit to learning more on Non-QM. Many wholesalers are rolling out Non-QM products and you can sustain your volume and income using these programs. But it is important to separate the real Non-QM wholesalers from ones that are trying to learn this complicated and confusing market. Robert Senko, President of ACC Mortgage, will break down the products you need and how to package loans for success. Know where the opportunities in Non-QM are, how you can be more confident selling Non-QM, and what separates an average originator from a great Non-QM loan officer!

Do you need instant access to loan programs and pricing that’s easy to use? Do you need to have your clients’ bank statements analyzed quickly? Then you need iQualifi and iAnalyze from Sprout Mortgage. During our next Scenario Station Webinar, we will review both tools and show you how iQualifi is your go-to program & pricing engine and how iAnalyze enables you to upload your clients’ bank statement for analysis and reporting in under one hour. Learn more during the Scenario Station Webinar by Sprout Mortgage on Wednesday, February 2^nd at 9:00 am PT. Register now! Remember to submit your unique loan scenario on the registration page. Sprout is committed to providing product education and marketing assistance to help you grow. Loan Scenario Desk, complimentary Bank Statement Analysis through iAnalyze, Condo Review service, and complimentary marketing tools via The Sprout Marketing Store mean you can serve more borrowers in less time and with less effort. Loan amounts up to $10 million. Register today.

Shifting vendor money

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Lenders aren’t the only ones looking at M&A and investment money. Here are some recent vendor investments which are only expected to continue as we move through 2022.

Polly™, the SaaS technology company transforming the mortgage capital markets, announced it has raised $37 million in Series B funding, bringing Polly’s total funding to over $50 million. The round was led by Menlo Ventures with participation by new investors including Movement Mortgage, First American Financial, and FinVC. Existing investors 8VC, Khosla Ventures and Fifth Wall also participated in the round. Tyler Sosin, Partner at Menlo Ventures, will join Polly’s Board of Directors. This latest financing round comes at a time of rapid growth for Polly. The company has increased its customer count by nearly 3x over the past year and signed several of the country’s top 100 lenders. With this new round of funding, Polly will accelerate technology innovation, invest in AI & machine learning capabilities, and grow its ecosystem of partners to continue reinventing the mortgage capital markets. The company also plans to expand its product and engineering teams so that its customers can continue to benefit from the best and brightest technical and mortgage capital markets minds.

This week Sales Boomerang, a provider of automated borrower intelligence and retention software for lenders, and Mortgage Coach, a borrower conversion platform empowering lenders to educate borrowers with interactive presentations that model home loan performance over time, announced strategic investments from Philadelphia-based private-equity firm LLR Partners. Sales Boomerang and Mortgage Coach will maintain their existing brands and teams.

The Mortgage Collaborative (TMC), the nation’s largest independent cooperative network serving the mortgage industry, announced yesterday that the TMC Emerging Technology Fund LP (the “Fund”) recently participated in a $38M Series C investment round for AI Software, LLC dba Capacity. Capacity is an AI-powered support automation platform that connects into an organization’s tech stack to answer questions, automate repetitive support tasks, and build solutions to any business challenge.

Rice Park Capital Management LP, a Minneapolis-based investment firm, announced that it has closed on a $300 million capital commitment from M&G Investments for its inaugural mortgage servicing rights (MSR) fund. Rice Park is targeting $600 million in total capital commitments for its MSR strategy in 2022. Thierry Masson, M&G Head of Origination – Americas, said: “Through our partnership with Rice Park, we’re excited to provide liquidity to MSR holders, supporting the US mortgage market and homeownership, and do so by partnering with best-in-class originators and sub-servicers for the benefit of borrowers. Rice Park’s expertise in MSR and more broadly residential mortgage products will enable our clients to access a large market in a prudent way.” Morgan Stanley served as the placement agent for the MSR fund.

Bond market: treading water

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Rates have been chopping around this week as investors await the results of the two-day January FOMC policy meeting today. The policy statement is expected to suggest a rate hike in March with balance sheet runoff commencing not long after. Given the recent “risk off” sentiment, it would be a surprise if the committee decides to end QE (Quantitative Easing) after the current schedule.

We also received a couple housing market indicators yesterday. Home prices rose 1.1 percent in November, and are up 17.5 percent year-over-year, according to the FHFA House Price Index. While those figures are twice the monthly average we have seen over the last 20 years, echoing concerns about access and affordability, it does look like the torrid pace of home price appreciation is beginning to cool off. Separately, the Case-Shiller home price index showed an 18.8 percent gain for the year in November, but that is expected to decelerate as mortgage rates rise.

Today’s economic calendar kicked off with mortgage applications from MBA, which decreased 7.1 percent from one week earlier as rates continue to rise. We’ve also received advanced indicators for December of little consequence (goods trade deficit and retail & wholesale inventories). Later this morning brings December new home sales and FOMC events with the Statement due out just before Chair Powell’s press conference. The Desk will purchase $3.7 billion of 30-year MBS. We begin Hump Day with Agency MBS prices roughly unchanged and the 10-year yielding 1.78, unchanged from last night.

I wonder what my parents did to fight boredom before the internet.

I asked my 17 brothers and sisters but they didn’t know either.

Visit www.robchrisman.com for more information on our industry partners, access archived commentaries, or to subscribe to the Daily Mortgage News and Commentary. If you’re interested, visit my periodic blog at the STRATMOR Group web site. The current blog is, “Opening the Door to Consumer Direct” about the pros and cons of the CD channel. The Commentary’s podcast is live and at any place you obtain your podcasts (like Apple or Spotify).

qoɹ

(Market data provided in partnership with MBS Live. For free job postings and to view candidate resumes visit LenderNews. This newsletter is for sophisticated mortgage professionals only. There are no paid endorsements by me. For up-to-date mortgage news visit Mortgage News Daily. For archived commentaries, or to subscribe, go to www.robchrisman.com. Copyright 2022 Chrisman LLC. All rights reserved. Occasional paid job & product listings do appear. This report or any portion hereof may not be reprinted, sold, or redistributed without the written consent of Rob Chrisman.)

Source: Rob Chrisman

Numbers are interesting things. “1” is the number of dogs, that I know of, rescued by a drone dragging a sausage and leading the dog to safety out of a mud flat. “38.2” was the United States’ median age in 2018. (Yes, half above, half below… and it is up from 37.2 in 2010.) “$9 trillion” is the Federal Reserve’s bond portfolio which Federal Reserve officials are set to discuss reducing, and how fast they will shrink it when the time comes, which would serve as a tool for tightening monetary policy as the Fed tries to curb high inflation. “2022” is the year that Fannie Mae anticipates we will establish a new “normal” for the housing market. The top-level view is that inflation will remain elevated for the year, and home price appreciation will slow to the high single digits. Economic growth will also return to longer term trends. Expect GDP to fall to 3.1%, home price appreciation will grow 7.6%, and inflation will start at 7% before slowing to 4%. (Today’s audio version of the commentary is available here and this week’s is sponsored by TMS, a top 10 subservicer with a 98 percent customer satisfaction rate. TMS is on a mission to “Grow Happiness” and delivers next level service with their award-winning proprietary technology, SIME.)

Employment

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Throughout 2021, InterLinc Mortgage, a full-service mortgage banking firm based out of Houston, TX, expanded into several new markets, onboarded 12 branches and brought on over 160 new associates. With an updated mission, vision, and new leadership under CEO Gene F. Thompson III, InterLinc has rebranded, launched new innovative systems and tools such as SimpleNexus, a proprietary marketing utility platform and an optimized digital customer satisfaction tool, and achieved 5 new designations with elite showcases such as Top Mortgage Employer, Best Places to Work and Inc. 5000’s Fastest Growing Private Companies. All this and more has set the stage for an expansive 2022 ahead. For more information on InterLinc’s leadership, culture and value propositions, head to JoinInterLinc.com and download its comprehensive booklet.

Jeremy Smith, a proven leader with 15 years of experience, joins AmeriSave Mortgage Corporation as Retail Regional Vice President, Texas. “We are honored that a leader of Jeremy’s caliber has chosen to join the team. Jeremy has proven he can succeed at the highest levels…his best work is yet to come,’’ said Leif Boyd, Head of Retail Production. Smith seeks team members who are problem solvers, leaders in their area of expertise, and desire to make a difference. “It means everything to me to be able to put originators in the position to succeed – not just with clients, but also with referral partners,” expressed Smith. To learn more about AmeriSave, please reach out to Peter Schwartz at 916-770-0053. AmeriSave Mortgage Corporation, operating in 49 states and D.C., is one of the largest privately owned mortgage lenders in the country. For more information, visit https://www.amerisave.com/. NMLS ID #1168.

Bigger loans, risk-based pricing, and funding in as fast as 5 days: That’s why experienced real estate investors rely on Anchor Loans for fix and flip, new construction, and rental loans. Last year was an inflection point for Anchor: we became first bridge lender to pass $10 billion in total fundings, and then we were acquired by Pretium, a specialized investment management firm with approximately $30 billion in assets. To keep the pace with what’s to come, Anchor is looking for Account Executives and Processing staff for in-office, remote and hybrid positions. We’re offering signing bonuses, highly competitive compensation, comprehensive training, and a culture of caring and success. Contact Desiree Falcon to learn more. Come join the new A team and make history with us!

Want to work for the government? Calling all underwriters living in Denver or would like to live in Denver: FHA has an opening for a Supervisory Underwriter in Denver: Announcement Number 22-HUD-676-P. FHA is looking for a Review Appraiser in Philadelphia, PA (Announcement Number 22-HUD-725-P) with a salary range of $103-134k per year. And FHA has one vacancy in Albany, NY for a Supervisory Loan Servicing Specialist: the USAJOBS Website, announcement number 22-HUD-736-P.

Lender and broker products & services

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We’ve come a very long way since the invention of the first cell phone — a behemoth that weighed about 2.5 pounds and stood nine inches tall. But thanks to swift technological advancements over the past 50 years, today there’s no better way to reach your consumers than in the palm of their hands. That’s why FormFree is making it easier than ever for borrowers to permission verification of assets, income, employment (VOAIE) and rental payment history via smartphone using the Passport mobile app. When lenders text borrowers a link prompting them to download Passport, they can knock out VOIE and verification of rental payment history in a matter of minutes. Learn how you can help aspiring homeowners reach their goals without the troublesome paper chase by scheduling time with Gregg Palmer virtually or in person at MBA IMB.

Everyone needs someone to turn to, even mortgage brokers. Thanks to a new program from Rocket Pro TPO, all its broker partners will have a whole Crew. With this program, called “Crews,” each Rocket Pro TPO broker partner will now have direct access to a small, dedicated team of mortgage experts (Underwriters, Closing Specialists, Purchase Title Coordinators, etc.) who know the broker, know their business and can help get loans closed fast and with certainty. While other lenders may give brokers access to underwriters or closing specialists, Rocket Pro TPO is giving brokers a full team dedicated to their success. There also will be East Coast and West Coast Crews, who know are available during each broker’s specific working hours. Brokers, reach out to your AE now to meet your crew and learn how they can best help you succeed.

Looking for more from auction in 2022? RealtyBid®, Covius’ national online and live auction platform, differentiates itself with its unique blend of auction, real estate, and customer service expertise. RealtyBid delivers increased sales with shorter timelines, as well as targeted services for aged inventory and occupied assets. 2021 brought significant site enhancements benefitting servicers and investors, including partnering with Weiss Analytics to offer price indexing, forecasting and analytics for 80 million properties. Additionally, RealtyBid offers highly experienced and long-tenured staff, skillful micro-marketing of challenging assets, a structured, yet adaptable, process that is easily scalable and on-demand portfolio performance metrics via Dynamic Dashboard reporting. Our focus is success for our lender and servicer clients, and we continue to evolve and deliver on the most important performance metrics: accelerated sales and best execution at a lower cost. Learn more at RealtyBid.com.

“loanDepot Wholesale is now offering SOFR ARMs on our Jumbo Advantage Express program giving you more options for Jumbo Borrowers. Available for primary residence, second home, and investment properties. Purchase, rate/term, and cash-out refinances. Loan amounts up to $2,000,000 and 80% LTV/CLTV. Credit scores as low as 700. 7/6 and 10/6 terms available. Refer to the Jumbo Advantage Express program matrix for more details and contact your Account Executive today with any questions.”

As the refinance market continue to shrink, lenders may need to pivot into new products or lines of business. Imagine if the LOS platform that you have purchased does not support TPO, Construction Lending, Rehab Lending, HELOCS, Consumer lending, Business Entity lending, Chattel Lending, or Foreign National Lending, or short/long term servicing. What about supporting online origination or servicing in Spanish? These are all opportunities that you may be missing because the platform that you are using is holding you back. Lenders need options, at MortgageFlex, we provide them. Please contact SVP John McCrea or visit MortgageFlex today.

“Start off the new year celebrating your independence by connecting with Optimal Blue, a division of Black Knight, at the MBA Independent Mortgage Bankers Conference Jan. 24–27 in Nashville. Stop by the Optimal Blue booth to learn about the power of its product, pricing, and eligibility engine, which is used to lock 34% of U.S. mortgages. Optimal Blue also offers premier hedging analytics solutions, as well as expertise in MSR valuation, loan trading and social media management. We are ready to discuss your needs as an independent mortgage banker to help you propel revenue growth with distinctive automated solutions. Contact Optimal Blue today to learn more about the company’s best-in-class secondary marketing solutions or request a one-on-one meeting at the conference.”

For nearly 30 years, Sourcepoint has focused on the mortgage industry with the singular intent of creating a full suite of products and services that help lenders and servicers improve efficiencies and the borrower experience. Did you know that we now offer Mortgage Quality Control and Due Diligence services? Sourcepoint recently acquired The StoneHill Group, the leader in QC and Due Diligence, whose services are accepted by the top rating agencies, GSEs and hundreds of financial institutions across the country. Enabled by our proprietary platform, you can seamlessly scale loan QC operations, eliminate staffing challenges, and rely on best practices and subject matter experts, all without any upfront capital investment. What’s more, our web-based client portal and robust dashboard reporting provide deep insights into loan-level defects and round-the-clock access to your performance data. Contact our experts to learn more about how we can help you meet your QC and compliance goals in 2022 and beyond.

Get ready to crush your 2022 goals! Capacity, an AI-powered support automation platform, is offering free consultations to mortgage companies that would like to learn more about automation. During a 30-minute phone call, you’ll talk with an industry expert to uncover what processes and tasks in your company are ripe for automation. Capacity empowers mortgage professionals with instant knowledge and automated workflows. Are you ready to provide a superior employee experience? If your answer is “yes,” there’s no better time to get started on your automation journey. Let’s connect!

Conventional conforming changes continue

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Given that the overwhelming majority of residential loans either are processed using the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae procedures, run through their underwriting engines, and/or eventually are sold to the two Government Sponsored Enterprises, when they make changes, the industry follows. Let’s take a sample of who is doing what.

Freddie Mac’s analytical tool, AIMI, combines multifamily rental income growth, property price growth and mortgage rates to provide a single Index that measures multifamily market investment conditions. A rise in AIMI from one quarter to the next implies an increasingly favorable environment for multifamily investment opportunities, while a decline suggests that attractive investment opportunities are becoming more difficult to find compared with the prior period. Across all markets in the thirds quarter, AIMI showed favorable Multifamily Investment Environments. In addition to national and local values, a sensitivity table is available that captures how the index value adjusts based on changes in certain underlying variables. Additional information about AIMI is on the Freddie Mac Multifamily website, including FAQs and a video.

According to Fannie Mae research, a majority of consumers do not know the minimum credit score, down payment, and debt-to-income ratio needed to qualify for a mortgage, and fewer than 1 in 4 are aware that low-down-payment options are available products, including low-down-payment loans. Data from Fannie Mae’s Q2 2021 National Housing Survey® show that consumers continue to want information about purchasing and owning a home but have lacked a trusted, centralized source. Among those surveyed, renters and homeowners across race and ethnicity reported significant interest in learning about how much home they could afford as well as their financing options.

Fannie Mae launched it new homeownership education course, HomeView™, available free of cost, and accessible online anytime on any device at fanniemae.com/education. HomeView course includes seven interactive learning modules that guide the user through the steps of buying and owning a home providing comprehensive, easy-to-understand content and resources designed to ensure aspiring homebuyers are well equipped to become more informed and successful homeowners. Additionally, HomeView homeownership education aligns with the National Industry Standards requirements for many first-time homebuyers to qualify for certain mortgage products, including low-down-payment loans.

The brand-new, comprehensive homeownership education course is now available: Fannie Mae’s HomeView™ puts homeownership into focus for first-time borrowers by providing tools and information for every step of the homebuying journey. The course aligns with National Industry Standards and is available free of charge.

Supporting its commitment to promote environmentally sustainable single-family housing, Freddie Mac announced its Single-Family Green Bond Framework, to help reduce climate-related risks and increase affordability. Freddie Mac has issued more than $600 million in Single-Family Green MBS since the first bond was issued in April 2021. Each Single-Family Green MBS issued to-date is backed by Freddie Mac GreenCHOICE Mortgages^®, where borrowers used refinance proceeds to finance energy efficient home improvements.

Desktop appraisals will be an option for some loans beginning in March 2022, as described in Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter® (DU®) Version 11.0 March release notes. The fact sheet for lenders and appraisers provides high-level information about our requirements and answers to frequently asked questions.

In advance of the excess fee and cost process transition from LoanSphere to Property 360™, Fannie Mae updated the Attorney Authorization Approval (AAA) matrix to include Property 360 references.

Freddie Mac posted an update stating that March 6 Is the Correct Effective Date for New Messages Supporting Desktop Appraisals.

Capital markets

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Turning to the bond market and mortgage rates, this trading week began with covid leaving the headlines and traders considering both Ukraine tensions as well as today and tomorrow’s Fed meeting. Russia has continued to amass troops on Ukraine’s border, with any escalation from here leading toward military action likely spelling a fall for rates (LOs, don’t start rooting for a war, thanks). In regard to the Fed, expectations are for this week’s Fed events to give the all-clear sign for the Fed to start hiking rates as soon as the meeting in March, followed by rate hikes in June, September, and December. It would seem this is when “the punchbowl” is officially taken away. The question now becomes whether economic strength is sustainable without the government’s help or whether it was driven entirely by stimulus.

Today’s calendar is already under way with the Philadelphia Fed non-manufacturing indices for January (+2.6). Later this morning brings Redbook same store sales, November house price indexes from Case-Shiller and FHFA, January consumer confidence, and the Richmond Fed manufacturing and services indexes. After yesterday’s solid $54 billion 2-year note offering, today brings a $55 billion 5-year note sale. With regard to the Fed, day one of the two-day FOMC meeting will get under way at 9:00 a.m. ET. The Desk will purchase up to $3.4 billion of conventional MBS. We begin the day with Agency MBS prices nearly unchanged from Monday night and the 10-year yielding 1.76 versus yesterday’s close at 1.74 percent.

All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.

Visit www.robchrisman.com for more information on our industry partners, access archived commentaries, or to subscribe to the Daily Mortgage News and Commentary. If you’re interested, visit my periodic blog at the STRATMOR Group web site. The current blog is, “Opening the Door to Consumer Direct” about the pros and cons of the CD channel. The Commentary’s podcast is live and at any place you obtain your podcasts (like Apple or Spotify).

qoɹ

(Market data provided in partnership with MBS Live. For free job postings and to view candidate resumes visit LenderNews. This newsletter is for sophisticated mortgage professionals only. There are no paid endorsements by me. For up-to-date mortgage news visit Mortgage News Daily. For archived commentaries, or to subscribe, go to www.robchrisman.com. Copyright 2022 Chrisman LLC. All rights reserved. Occasional paid job & product listings do appear. This report or any portion hereof may not be reprinted, sold, or redistributed without the written consent of Rob Chrisman.)

Source: Rob Chrisman

Anyone who’s seen 1968’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” remembers the talking computer HAL (whose name was cleverly derived from subtracting one letter from IBM). We need more acronyms, right?! Here’s one I hadn’t heard: BNPL. The buy now, pay later industry is an increasingly important driver of retail sales, so has caught the attention of the mortgage industry’s pal the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. I’d never heard of Affirm, Afterpay, Klarna, and Zip, notable players in the BNPL industry, but regulators are looking into their data collection policies. Those danged computers and their programmers! Are help desk jobs in jeopardy? Perhaps: Capacity just raised another chunk of change to automate helpdesks. Ever heard of Coadjute? Me neither (it’s a UK company) but its basic business purpose is something you and your real estate agent connections should know about: using blockchain to “bring together everyone involved in a transaction, improving communication and speeding up the process.” Speaking of real estate agents, this one in Georgia ran afoul of the Department of Justice in committing mortgage fraud. (Today’s audio version of the commentary is available here and this week’s is sponsored by TMS, a top 10 subservicer with a 98 percent customer satisfaction rate. TMS is on a mission to “Grow Happiness” and delivers next level service with their award-winning proprietary technology, SIME. Today’s episode includes an Interview with Chuck Dimiceli, EVP of Secondary Marketing, on what Capital Markets folks spend their days doing.)

Jobs & a retirement

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“Mortgage Coach is seeking two technology sales rockstars to join its growing team (fully remote). What we’re looking for: a Sales Development Representative who can help create and turn leads into qualified opportunities with a minimum of 2 years sales/biz dev experience (mortgage industry preferred), and a National Account Director with 5-7+ years’ experience capable of executive-level sales prospecting, qualification and sales process closing. What’s in it for you: Mortgage Coach is an award-winning sales enablement platform that counts 120 enterprise mortgage lenders among its clients. As a member of our team, you’ll have the opportunity to grow your career alongside industry superstars who are as dedicated to professional development as they are to client service. Mortgage Coach offers generous benefits and a phenomenal culture boasting 5-year average employee retention. View the full job descriptions here.”

“Berkshire Bank, headquartered in Boston, MA is expanding its mortgage and consumer lending businesses and is currently seeking a certified senior level Encompass Administrator to join our team. This individual will be responsible for the administration, configuration, maintenance, and management of the Encompass Loan Operating System to ensure that Berkshire Bank Mortgage Lending is fully leveraging the system and plug in platforms. The candidate should have a minimum of 5 years of Encompass Administrator experience, experience building and enhancing mortgage technology from point of sale through servicing, an understanding of current industry best practices for retail and correspondent lending, and be an excellent communicator both oral and written with strong organizational skills. Berkshire Bank is offering a very competitive compensation package and sign on bonus for the right candidate. This position can be remote. If you are interested in learning more about the role reach out to Ellen Steinfeld or apply here.

Nothing but Non-QM. In 2022, you are going to see a lot of companies try and enter the Non-QM market. Why would you trust your income to companies that are trying to figure it out? Since 1999, ACC Mortgage has been committed to Non-QM, and Non-QM only. ACC has the most complete product offering and sharpest pricing. Go to www.NonQMPricer.com to see programs and pricing. If interested in joining the leader, e-mail your resume to ACC Recruiting. January 27^th, please join the president Robert Senko on the webinar “How to Make Money in Non-QM.”

Congratulations to Wells Fargo’s head of capital markets, Peter Diliberti, as he announced his 4/1 departure after a long and accomplished career.

Lender and broker products & services

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All signs point to mortgage rates increasing in 2022… But rates are still expected to remain in historically low territory. The market is unpredictable and this volatility challenges lenders to forecast operational ebbs and flows then staff accordingly. Now is the time to consider partnering with an expert 3rd party originations team. Outsourcing some or all your originations processes could reduce costs and expedite closings. Computershare Loan Services (CLS) has provided mortgage fulfillment for more than 23 years with highly trained, experienced processors, underwriters, and closers. CLS takes the overhead burden off your shoulders so you can focus on building your business. Partner with CLS and help your borrowers get to the closing table on time. In any market.

Want to get more financial advisor referrals and diversify your referral base in 2022? Download the Loan Officer’s Guide to Working with Financial Advisors. You’ll learn [A] the top three reasons why you should consider working with advisors; [B] two specific areas of value you can provide to financial advisors; and [C] three myths about working with advisors (it’s much more profitable than you imagine). The Loan Officer’s Guide to Working with Financial Advisors is provided by MGIC through its Loan Officer Hub, and authored by Gibran Nicholas, CEO of Momentifi, and Craig Strent, CEO of Apex Home Loans. Gibran has trained and coached over 9,000 top producers, and Craig consistently generates $100mm+ per year in business from financial advisors. Click here to download the Loan Officer’s Guide to Working with Financial Advisors and learn how to get more financial advisor referrals and diversify your referral base in 2022!

“The Freedom Mortgage Wholesale Division is heating up! Now offering up to a (0.625) improvement in VA & FHA FICO-based LLPAs. Plus! A (0.375) improvement on Conventional loans from $400-$499k and a (0.500) improvement on $500k+ Conventional. That’s $3,000 on a $600,000 loan! To learn more, check our rate sheet or email Freedom Wholesale to have an Account Executive contact you.”

“Nearly 1/5th of your lead list could enter the mortgage market within 120 days with Service 1^st’s lead generation portfolio, powered by Experian. When using Experian’s “In the Market” propensity model, consumers who score within the top 20% model tier are 80% likely to enter the mortgage market within 1 to 4 months. That’s powerful, instant data! Upload an existing list or compile your own. Create custom consumer lists using attribute combinations, including homeownership, credit score, mortgage balance, and zip codes. Create loyalty with unqualified prospects by leveraging CreditXpert^TM. Schedule with one of our friendly experts to learn more about predictive tools and other result-driven loan origination solutions. Please note: conditions apply to use these solutions. A knowledgeable Service 1st representative will review this information with you.”

How did TMS continue to grow happiness and become a Top 10 subservicer with 400,000+ customers in 2021? It always starts with the customer. In 2021 TMS proved that by achieving milestones such as a 99% customer satisfaction rate and a 91% first-call resolution rate. TMS’ latest blog takes a look at how by making its mission to Grow Happiness, it has become a leader in the subservicing industry in a short period of time. By staying committed to the Core Values of People Matter, Inspiring Leadership, Strength of Character, and Rock-Solid Service, TMS continues to lead the way on how the subservicing industry does business. They treat our customers like family, while empowering them user friendly and intuitive self-service options. But can you believe there’s more? There is. Check how their successes in 2021 will help them leap forward in 2022. Click here to read the full blog now.

A rare copy of Marvel Comics’ The Incredible Hulk #1 broke a world record recently when it was auctioned for $490,000, making it the most expensive copy of the issue ever sold. Speaking of incredible acquisitions, SimpleNexus, developer of the industry-leading digital mortgage platform, was officially acquired by fintech company nCino in a transaction valued at approximately $1.2 billion. By joining forces, nCino will leverage SimpleNexus’ end-to-end, cloud-based homeownership platform to expand its reach in the point-of-sale mortgage market. The two companies are assembling to form a partnership as strong as The Avengers, so drop by the SimpleNexus booth at MBA IMB to find out more about this exciting new deal or read about it here.

For underwriters, less is more. Less slog, more satisfaction. Less time grinding out income and asset calculations, more loans! Welcome to the best underwriting automation tools on the market. Brought to you by Richey May in partnership with Zoral Group, this specialized toolset, powered by robust automation, OCR and AI/ML capabilities, goes beyond mere validation of data points. It extracts data from borrower income and asset documents, performs complex analyses, checks for mismatches, flags malicious code, and supplies your team with a GSE fraud checklist and ongoing analysis, all without your processing and underwriting teams having to extract that data from borrower documents and enter it into your LOS. Bonus: Support for a full range of borrower types and loan products, including self-employed, FHA, VA, jumbo, and non-QM. Want to learn more? Sign up for a demo today.

Webinars & training to finish off January and head into next week

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Webinar alert from First American Data and Analytics! Get the inside scoop on the biggest factors driving the market in 2022. On January 25th at 11am PT / 2pm ET, join Odeta Kushi (Deputy Chief Economist for First American Financial Corporation) as she provides a 30-minute update on the macroeconomic background and gives an overview of the biggest factors that will drive the housing market in 2022. This webinar will cover topics that include the macroeconomic overview, the housing market’s demographic tailwind (Millennials), measuring the housing deficit, affordability challenges, and more. Register now to save your spot for this must-attend event.

More than 50 million people have watched Chris Hadfield’s cover of ‘Space Oddity’, which made history almost a decade ago as the first music video filmed in space. The astronaut has since said his missions taught him the importance of social media and video for staying connected with others in times of isolation. If your New Year’s resolutions include putting more video out on social media, I’ve got good news: you don’t need to leave the planet. Just join social media coach Kyle Draper and his friends from Sales Boomerang this Wednesday at 1:15 ET for a crash course on the 10 videos mortgage lenders should create right now.

If you’re going to the MBA’s IMB Conference in Nashville next week, and see me in the hallway, be sure to say hi!

The First American Data & Analytics 2022 Housing Market Outlook free webinar is tomorrow.

October Research has once again partnered with Fannie Mae’s Chief Economist Douglas Duncan to share his expert analysis of the housing and mortgage markets: October Research tomorrow!

All USDA lenders, builders, and real estate agents are invited to Register for USDA’s Live, Free, Virtual Training: Annual Income: Removing the Mystery on Wed, January 26^th at 11:00 a.m. ET / 8:00 a.m. PT. Annual Income: Removing the Mystery on Thurs, January 27^th at 2:00 p.m. ET / 11:00 a.m. PT.

FHA’s Wednesday, January 26^th Webinar: What FHA Needs to Know and When is on Wednesday, January 26^th.

Join California MBA Mortgage Quality and Compliance on Wednesday, January 26^th for great insights on the California Mortgage Relief Program from Bryan Courtney, Mortgage Servicer Liaison, CalHFA. This Webinar will go over program enrollment requirements, common data file requirements, program underwriting guidelines, call center and HUD Counseling/CBO.

Join K&L Gates for its January 27^th Webinar – COVID-19: Practical Guidance Following the Supreme Court’s OSHA and CMS Vaccine Mandate Decisions.

Weiner Brodsky Kider PC is offering a financial services update webinar on January 27^th, WBK Consumer Class Action Series: Financial Consumer Fee Litigation.

Register for MBA’s Webinar on January 27 – Commercial Real Estate and a Net Zero Future: Challenges, Opportunities, and Considerations.

This Friday is the next edition of The Mortgage Collaborative’s Rundown with Rich and Rob. Rich Swerbinsky, the COO of The Mortgage Collaborative, and I will be covering current events in the mortgage market for 30 minutes starting at 2PM CT in “The Rundown with Rich and Rob.”

Join us for an Industry Outlook 2022 with myself and Tabrasa LLC’s Bill Bodnar, Chief Revenue Officer, on Tuesday, Feb 1st. We’ll be discussing the Biden Administration, the Federal Reserve and U.S. economy, and what MLOs should know about the housing market.

 

Register for MBA’s New Webinar, February 2 – IRS Tax Transcripts, 4506-C Changes and Other Updates.

The Central Florida Chapter of FAMP’s Annual Tabletop Trade Show is on February 2. For more info, contact David Gold, Central Florida FAMP Chapter Trade Show Chairman. And sign up as an exhibitor at the event.

Join the Freedom Mortgage Wholesale Division, along with the Florida Association of Mortgage Professional (FAMP), for a LIVE webinar training session on the VA Cash Out Refinance mortgage product and origination processes: Friday February 4^th, 2:00 PM ET.

Capital markets

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Investors anxious about potential interest-rate increases by the Federal Reserve have sold stocks and bonds in recent weeks, while interest-rate futures markets indicated investors are betting on four to five rate increases this year, up from three to four a while back. Some analysts are even bracing for a 50-basis point rate increase in March, a move that would help impress upon markets that the Fed is serious about trying to rein in the surge in inflation.

Meanwhile, last week closed with markets trading “risk off” (how’s that crypto portfolio of yours doing?) and Treasury yields fell as a result, though we likely won’t see lenders reducing rate sheets. I know that this commentary focuses on mortgages, but stocks fell, capping the worst week since the outbreak of the pandemic, amid shaky company earnings, prospects for higher U.S. interest rates, and tensions ramping between Russia and the U.S. Demand for safe havens pushed the 10-year Treasury yield down more than 10 bps over the last three trading days, putting the yield lower on the week for the first time in five weeks.

 

Data on Friday showed the Index of Leading Economic Indicators rose 0.8 percent in December, as expected. The index ended 2021 on a rising trajectory, suggesting the economy will continue to expand well into the spring. However, there are plenty of risks in the global economy, including the aforementioned geo-political events, the Fed being behind the curve when it comes to fighting inflation, headwinds from the Omicron variant, labor shortages, and inflationary pressures, which may moderate economic growth. The Conference Board forecasts U.S. GDP growth for Q1 2022 to slow to a relatively healthy 2.2 percent annualized rate, while still expanding by a robust 3.5 percent for the entirety of 2022, well above the pre-pandemic growth.

We saw on Thursday that Freddie Mac’s (backward-looking) Primary Mortgage Market Survey showed the average 30-year rate at 3.56 percent, which has slashed the refinance candidate population nearly in half from about 11 million at the start of the year to just under 6 million currently, per Black Knight. Rising rates also impact home affordability, homebuyer purchasing power and potentially real estate supply and demand. 30-year fixed mortgage rates are closer to 3.75 percent, which means we are a long way from the high of nearly 20 million candidates in late 2020. While we are now looking at a significantly smaller population, if all were to refinance, they’d still benefit from an aggregate monthly savings of nearly $1.6 billion, or about $275/month per borrower. There are still over a million candidates remaining who could save at least $400/month, but the clock is ticking.

In Federal Reserve tapering news, after purchasing $3.5 billion average per day last week (compared with originator supply of $5.8 billion), the NY Fed’s Desk is set to purchase a similar amount this week before a new purchase schedule covering the January 31 to February 11 period is released Friday afternoon. There is a chance we could be seeing the end of QE after this week’s FOMC decision. Since the restart of asset purchases in March 2020, the Desk has purchased over $2.8 trillion MBS. Today, the Desk will purchase up to $3.8 billion 30-year 2 percent and 2.5 percent across UMBS and GNIIs. We begin the week with Agency MBS prices better by .125 and the 10-year yielding 1.72 after closing last week at 1.75 percent after the Chicago Fed National Activity Index for December (-.15!).

When my teenage son worked part time in a hardware store, a man came in to buy hooks for hanging plants. But there were only two hooks left in the gold color that he needed.

My son, trying to be helpful, suggested, “Could you maybe use the silver or the white instead? “

The customer scrutinized him and said, “You’re not married, are you?”

(Thank you to Stephen S. for that one.)

Visit www.robchrisman.com for more information on our industry partners, access archived commentaries, or to subscribe to the Daily Mortgage News and Commentary. If you’re interested, visit my periodic blog at the STRATMOR Group web site. The current blog is, “Opening the Door to Consumer Direct” about the pros and cons of the CD channel. The Commentary’s podcast is live and at any place you obtain your podcasts (like Apple or Spotify).

qoɹ

(Market data provided in partnership with MBS Live. For free job postings and to view candidate resumes visit LenderNews. This newsletter is for sophisticated mortgage professionals only. There are no paid endorsements by me. For up-to-date mortgage news visit Mortgage News Daily. For archived commentaries, or to subscribe, go to www.robchrisman.com. Copyright 2022 Chrisman LLC. All rights reserved. Occasional paid job & product listings do appear. This report or any portion hereof may not be reprinted, sold, or redistributed without the written consent of Rob Chrisman.)

Source: Rob Chrisman

Technology is changing the way homes are built in 2022. Today’s buyers can start the dishwasher from hockey practice or begin a forgotten load of laundry from the office. Being able to control one’s appliances through your phone is greatly improving the lives of some homeowners. Technology can assist, especially when costs become too high or manpower becomes scarce. Did you know that Habitat for Humanity and the University of Montana have partnered to build 3D-printed homes? The partnership follows recent 3D printing efforts by Habitat for Humanity organizations in Virginia and Arizona. “Stick building takes nine to 12 months for Habitat to build one home. The printer can print a home in two days… It saves time and requires less labor, which for Habitat for Humanity is mostly made up of volunteers.” Whale oil becomes too expensive? Let’s drill the earth for oil. In the residential lending process we’ve seen similar things happen. Underwriting becomes too expensive, or there aren’t enough underwriters? Let’s create underwriting programs. If the same thing happens with appraisals, let’s create a waiver system. If 6 percent real estate commissions are too expensive, in steps other ways to buy a house and not pay 6 percent.

Saturday Spotlight): Eltropy, enabling Financial Institutions to communicate more effectively with customers

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In 3-5 sentences, describe your company (when was it founded and why, what it does, where, recent growth and plans for near-term future growth).

Eltropy, founded in 2013, is a one-of-a-kind digital communications platform that enables financial institutions to communicate with customers over text, and other digital channels in a secure and compliant way. Using our world-class communications platform, mortgage lenders, credit unions, banks, debt collectors, insurance companies, and fintechs have realized a 20% acceleration in the lending process and a 44x increase in response time with customers throughout the lending lifecycle. In the past year, Eltropy added over 150 new financial institutions to our growing customer base, and plan to double our customer base of over 285 financial institutions by the end of this year.

 

Tell us about what type of volunteer work employees are encouraged to engage in, or charities your company supports, and why

 

Eltropy took on a Corporate Social Responsibility effort in building up the Adarsha Education Society in the rural Panchayat village in India. Learning has always been a paramount for our co-founders, so focusing on building a school and supporting the staff seemed like a natural fit for giving back. In addition to the building of the school, Eltropy has promised to match any donation given by its employees. 

  

What does your company do to help elevate your employees’ growth? Describe any mentoring programs, outside classes or training, in-house training. How does the company help people develop?

 

Education is paramount to Eltropy. We have prioritized hiring talent from the industries that we serve in order to help our teams build the best products for our clients. In addition, we provide our teams with firsthand experience and training programs from in-house industry experts.

 

Tell us how your company maintains its culture in a work-from-home environment, or how you plan on bringing employees back into the office, if applicable

 

A cornerstone of our company is a five-word motto which every employee pledges on their first day: “No Fear, Tell the Truth.” In addition to a weekly standup meeting that features everyone from the company, this pledge has enabled employees to maintain a productive, comfortable work culture built on honesty and trust.

 

Additionally, Eltropy offers guest house accommodations close to our headquarters in the Santa Clara Valley to encourage our employees to get valuable in-office experiences with our team at large and create social bonds we may not have been able to before.

  

Things you are most proud of that don’t have to do with sales

 

The thing we are most proud of as a company is our strength in diversity. We have over 100 employees located in over 40 cities across the globe. This diversity brings different ideas and perspectives that allows us to continue to grow and excel in all aspects. 

  

Fun fact about Eltropy

 

We are the only SaaS company (to our knowledge) that has a company theme song!

(For more information on having the charitable, employee improvement-centric side of your firm featured, contact Chrisman LLC’s Anjelica Nixt.)

Youth in our business

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I posted a video in Thursday’s commentary, and from Alabama Mike M. let me know his thoughts. “I’m a big fan of your daily commentary. But I am disappointed by the inclusion of the “hiring a millennial” video. It is already an uphill challenge being taken seriously as a professional in this industry if you are under the age of 40 (especially on the operations side) and, in fairness, the millennial cutoff is 1995. So the very youngest of us are 27 while the oldest are now 42… Hardly what I think is being portrayed in the video.

“This kind of content being included in a newsletter that has such a wide and impactful reach truly disheartens me as this industry is already challenged with recruiting and retaining new/young talent due to a lot of leadership having this mindset.” Thank you, Mike.

By the way, for someone of any age thinking about becoming an MLO, Monster.com spells out some basics.

Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time

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Maryland’s Dan P. corrected me on the Baltimore AG’s indictment of lying on a mortgage application, which she now claims to be racially motivated. “Marilyn Mosby is accused of purchasing the Florida property as a 2nd home, not as a primary residence. The problem is that, before she even closed on the purchase, she had apparently signed an agreement with a rental agency to rent the property out. This is probably a bigger issue that the pension loan and the nondisclosure of the federal lien.” Thank you, Dan.

And from Maryland Ken S., whose father served as the State’s Attorney for Montgomery County, MD from 1970-1996, writes, “The lender and borrower are both responsible for claiming a Florida property as owner occupied (OO) for the State’s Attorney of Baltimore City. (Prosecutors in the Counties and Baltimore City are State’s Attorneys, not District Attorneys or Attorney Generals. Maryland does have an Attorney General representing the entire State.)

“Mosby is best known for charging the police officers with the death of Freddie Gray, after he died in a police vehicle in transit for processing after he was arrested. In 2010, I suggested to MERS that an Owner Occupancy Registry be created, similar to a driver’s license, to avoid the claim of an Owner-Occupied property or releasing a current property/departure residence as the primary residence. MERS could drive fee income for managing the Registry and remove these outrageous claims, such as a primary residence for a Florida property for an elected official in Baltimore City.

“Recall that Sheila Bair refinanced a 2-unit property as a second home although was an investment property and guidelines indicated 2-unit properties are not eligible as a 2^nd home.

if a Bank Director has done either deed, the Board Member would be removed ASAP.” Thank you, Ken!

M&A in a tough environment

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Despite the thinking that the only thing that never changes in mortgage banking is the owner’s unwavering belief that their company is undervalued, we should expect to see a fair number of mergers and acquisitions in 2002, both from lenders and vendors.

Industry vet James Johnson sent over, “You have been listening to me for years rant about our forty-year bull market in bonds that began in August 1981. I read recently that the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index was down only four of those forty years, and never two years in a row. Amazing, but it was down 1.54% in 2021 and already down 1.62% in 2022. So, is the bull market in bonds now officially over?

“I would say that it is over for some period of time, until we get a handle on inflation, and maybe go through a few years of a rising rate cycle. But something else crazy will probably happen with interest rates one of these days and the Federal Reserve will find a good reason to take rates super low again. In the meantime, rates are quickly moving higher, and creating an inflection point for IMBs. The obvious question for your readers is how all of this will impact their business?

“Rates are hard to predict, but there are most likely some tough times ahead for IMBs, maybe along the lines of what we saw in 2018. The next stop on the 10-year Treasury is a 2% yield, and it is looking like it will get there by the end of January. Likewise, 30-year fixed rates are following and headed for something around 4%. The recipe is pretty simple when rates move higher: volume and rate & term refis drop, margins compress, profits suffer, and operating leverage begins working against companies. In the M&A world, acquirers are still paying premiums, but they are smaller than a year ago, and are probably headed even lower. This has many company owners upset, as they figure that the window has closed on them, but I don’t think it should be viewed like that.

“In 2020 and most of 2021 company owners felt that nobody was going to pay them enough to walk away from their fat profits, and for the most part that proved to be correct. By harvesting the once in a lifetime profits in 2020 and 2021, owners probably maximized their total take. That is earned profits, premium dollars, and back end earn-out money. Now that company valuations have declined, some owners are feeling like they made a big mistake not taking advantage of the recent market opportunities. But a bigger premium would probably not have compensated for their lost income. So, no reason for remorse, as most owners pocketed the easy money.

“So, what to do now in 2022? First, the reality is that there is way too much capacity right now, and we won’t see another good market until refis return. I’m suggesting to owners, if they are prepared to fight the next war, then they should hold on and hope for the best. But there is another group of owners with a very different mindset. They are thinking more in terms of lifestyle and the memories of 2018 are still fresh in their minds. These guys made a ton of money over the past 30 months, and may not be willing to put that at risk and kill themselves for smaller paydays going forward. Some probably like the idea of eliminating most of their risk, and monetizing some of what they have built. If any of your readers would like to discuss this further, they can call me at 707-738-2666 or email me.” Thank you, James.

Agency deals: driving rates in the primary markets

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Freddie got 2022 off on a good start. Freddie Mac will soon begin marketing a class of Multifamily WI Certificates from a substantial portion of the benchmark A-2 guaranteed bond class of Structured Pass-Through K-140 Certificates. The company began selling its Class A-M K Certificates through the WI K-Deal structure in September 2021, allowing Freddie Mac to transfer market risk as it pools collateral for K-Deals and providing investors early exposure to certain bond classes. Freddie plans to use the concept on the A-2 bonds for K-140, with the goal of eventually moving the entire principal-bearing guaranteed portion of a deal to the forward-funded structure. The WI Certificates are public securities backed by the Freddie Mac guarantee and tradeable shortly after pricing, initially receiving a fixed coupon amount, and, upon delivery of the K Certificates to the WI trust, WI Certificates will bear the same coupon as the coupon of the corresponding class of the newly issued K Certificates. Investors provide the initial cash collateral for the WI Certificates. Freddie Mac has published an investor presentation and FAQ providing additional details on the WI K-Deal program.

Freddie Mac announced the pricing of the SB90 offering, a multifamily mortgage-backed securitization backed by small balance loans underwritten by Freddie Mac and issued by a third-party trust. The company expects to issue approximately $403 million in SB Certificates (SB90 Certificates), which are expected to settle on or about September 24, 2021. The Optigo Small Balance Loan origination initiative helps to better serve less populated markets and provide additional liquidity to smaller apartment properties. Freddie Mac Small Balance Loans generally range from $1 million to $7.5 million and are generally backed by properties with five or more units. This is the ninth SB Certificate transaction in 2021. View the offering circular.

A while back Freddie Mac priced a new offering of Multifamily WI K-Deal Certificates (WI Certificates), which are initially backed by cash assets that will be used to purchase the A-M class of a to-be-issued reference K-Deal. Once the reference K-Deal class is issued and purchased by the WI trust, the WI Certificates will be indirectly backed by a pool of fixed-rate multifamily mortgages with predominantly 10-year terms. The company expects to issue approximately $170 million in WI Certificates (Series WI-K132), which were expected to settle on or about September 28. The one offered class, Class A-M, had a weighted average life of 10.24 years, a spread of S+27 bps, a 1.63 percent coupon and yield, and a $99.9922 price.

(Parental guidance recommended.)

A successful rancher died and left everything to his devoted wife.

She was a very good-looking woman and determined to keep the ranch, but knew very little about ranching, so she decided to place an ad in the newspaper for a ranch hand.

Two cowboys applied for the job. One was gay and the other a drunk.

She thought long and hard about it, and when no one else applied she decided to hire the gay guy, figuring it would be safer to have him around the house than the drunk.

He proved to be a hard worker who put in long hours every day and knew a lot about ranching.

For weeks, the two of them worked, and the ranch was doing very well

Then one day, the rancher’s widow said to the hired hand, “You have done a really good job, and the ranch looks great. You should go into town and ‘kick up your heels.’”

The hired hand readily agreed and went into town one Saturday night.

One o’clock came, however, and he didn’t return.

Two o’clock and no hired hand.

Finally he returned around two-thirty, and upon entering the room, he found the rancher’s widow sitting by the fireplace with a glass of wine, waiting for him.

She quietly called him over to her.

“Unbutton my blouse and take it off,” she said.

Trembling, he did as she directed. “Now take off my boots.”

He did as she asked, ever so slowly. “Now take off my socks.”

He removed each gently and placed them neatly by her boots.

“Now take off my skirt.”

He slowly unbuttoned it, constantly watching her eyes in the fire light.

“Now take off my bra.” Again, with trembling hands, he did as he was told and dropped it to the floor.

Then she looked at him and said, “If you ever wear my clothes into town again, you’re fired.”

Visit www.robchrisman.com for more information on our industry partners, access archived commentaries, or to subscribe to the Daily Mortgage News and Commentary. If you’re interested, visit my periodic blog at the STRATMOR Group web site. The current blog is, “Opening the Door to Consumer Direct” about the pros and cons of the CD channel. The Commentary’s podcast is live and at any place you obtain your podcasts (like Apple or Spotify).

qoɹ

(Market data provided in partnership with MBS Live. For free job postings and to view candidate resumes visit LenderNews. This newsletter is for sophisticated mortgage professionals only. There are no paid endorsements by me. For up-to-date mortgage news visit Mortgage News Daily. For archived commentaries, or to subscribe, go to www.robchrisman.com. Copyright 2022 Chrisman LLC. All rights reserved. Occasional paid job & product listings do appear. This report or any portion hereof may not be reprinted, sold, or redistributed without the written consent of Rob Chrisman.)

Source: Rob Chrisman