Slew of vendor updates

I do a little traveling (this week, hopefully, is California, Colorado, and Kansas) so it was interesting to see that Pro Teck Valuation Services recently identified 29 of the hottest markets, with 21 of them west of the Rockies. Some of the top markets include, Anaheim-Santa-Ana-Irvine, CA, Bellingham, WA, Boise City, ID, Chico, CA, Durham-Chapel Hill, NC, Medford, OR, Olympia, WA, Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ, Portland, OR, Seattle, WA and Salt Lake City, UT. Coldwell Banker reports the most expensive housing markets (in order) the US are: Newport Beach (CA), Palo Alto (CA), Saratoga (CA), Cupertino (CA) and Los Gatos (CA). Meanwhile, the least expensive cities in order are: Cleveland (OH), Riverdale (GA), Wilkes-Barre (PA), Detroit (MI) and Alma (MI).

Lenders continue to outsource tasks to vendors, and there has certainly been plenty of vendor news!

MCT Trading, Inc., a mortgage risk management company which provides pipeline hedging, best-execution loan sales and centralized lock desk services, announced that it has acquired certain key assets of PLar Analytics, LLC, a provider of financial models for mortgage bankers, and of PB Pacific Partners, LLC, which offers consulting services on capital markets and mortgage servicing. The deal expands MCT's advisory services to include specialization in mortgage servicing rights (MSR) valuation business. This new MSR Services Group will be headed by Phil Laren, founder of PLar Analytics and PB Pacific Partners

A while back Levy & Watkinson, a New Jersey law firm devoted to representing the mortgage industry in the New Jersey metropolitan area, announced that it is joining Offit Kurman Attorneys At Law, a full service law firm located in the mid-Atlantic Region. E. Robert Levy and Wayne Watkinson, partners in Levy & Watkinson, will join Offit Kurman as principals and as members of the firm's Financial Institutions Regulatory Practice Group.  

 

Playing some catch up, a while back (like 6 months ago) Flagstar Bank has joined The Lenders One Mortgage Cooperative as a new preferred investor. Read all the details in Flagstar and Lenders One agreement announcement.

 

The IRS has released a revised Form 4506-T (version 9/2015). The only significant change is the new form contains a borrower attestation box which must be checked (above the signature line).

Credit Plus announced a new feature that can be added to its credit reports to help validate a borrower's name, address, date of birth, Social Security number and phone number. In addition, FraudPlus ID goes even further and reviews the borrower's data against the Industry Standard Exclusionary Watch lists. Click here to read the latest news on FraudPlus ID from Credit Plus.