"Nine Important Facts to Remember
as We Grow Older"
#9 Death is the number 1 killer
in the world.
#8 Life is sexually
transmitted.
#7 Good health is merely the
slowest possible rate at which one can die.
#6 Men have 2 motivations:
hunger and hanky-panky, and they can't tell them apart. If you see a gleam in
his eyes, make him a sandwich.
#5 Give a person a fish and you
feed them for a day. Teach a person to use the Internet and they won't bother
you for weeks, months, maybe years.
#4 Health nuts are going to
feel stupid someday, lying in the hospital, dying of nothing.
#3 All of us could take a
lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
#2 In the 60's, people took
acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird, and people take Prozac to
make it normal.
#1 Life is like a jar of
jalapeno peppers. What you do today may be a burning issue tomorrow.
Huh? Uber has a new update that allows users to file a lawsuit against
the company directly in the app? What will they think of next? In a more
serious vein, convictions, lawsuit, & settlement news continues - see
below. And we have news of a Baltimore real estate agent pleading guilty to mortgage fraud. It isn't hard to see why
the public's opinion of the biz is tough to change.
Speaking of origination, STRATMOR
just announced that Summary Results for the April-May "Spotlight"
Loan Originator Hiring Insights Survey are now available for purchase and download for a fee of $250 for survey
participants and $500 for non-participants. Forty-three (43) lenders
participated in the survey, including 28 Independent and 15 Bank/Credit Union
lenders. Included among the many interesting and actionable results coming out
of the survey (using a 5-point scale where 1= Very Unsuccessful and 5 = Very
Successful) were lender responses when asked to rate the effectiveness of
various recruitment methods.
STRATMOR's survey indicated
that Branch Managers are the most effective resource at recruiting
Experienced LOs (originators with more than 6-months experience as a retail
LO when hired). While no method for recruiting Newbie LOs (originators with
6-months of less experience when hired) was deemed effective, the use of Inside
Recruiters scored the highest. Survey results also include useful details as to
the effectiveness of recruiting whole branches; the financial incentives that
are most commonly used to recruit experienced and "newbie" LOs; the
ramp-up period and minimum volume targets that lenders set for experienced and
"newbies;" and, finally, the performance of new LO hires, in
particular the percentage of experienced and "newbie" LOs that fail
to meet minimum volume targets within the proscribed ramp-up period.
There are some
upcoming networking events & webinars and events of note!
Nations Direct Mortgage & Motive Lending are hosting a Grand Opening
Networking Event at their new Dallas Operations Centers on Thursday, July
14th, from 4-8pm CDT. If you're in the TPO origination space,
you are encouraged to attend, even if you aren't necessarily ready to make a
career change. Private meeting times will also be available upon request.
Thanks to explosive growth nationwide this year, Nations & Motive are
welcoming new members into their family to continue their skyrocketing success.
There are openings for all operations and sales staff. This is an
opportunity to learn about the company and meet executives, including the CEO
and COO! The Grand Opening Event will be held at the office location of
14110 Dallas Pkwy, Suites 240/250, Dallas. Thompson Reuters recently named
Nations Direct Mortgage & Motive Lending in the top 25 Wholesale FNMA and
FHA issuers. For additional information, please contact Alex Falas, Recruiting
Manager.
If you need more leads
and you like the idea of knowing how to generate them without any marketing
cost, you don't want to miss out on "5 High Impact No Cost Lead
Generators," a complimentary webinar scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday,
July 7th at 2 pm EDT. Learn in only 45 minutes exactly
how to master the strategies of generating quality leads, referrals, and
business partnership relationships without spending a dime on
marketing. This webinar will be presented by Ron Vaimberg, the
Executive Director and Head Coach of NMP U as part of the National
Mortgage Professional Magazine Webinar Series. There is limited space for
this webinar.A recent article from CBS News discussed using home
equity for retirement consumption could be one possible solution for retirees
who are "home rich and cash poor." Plaza Home Mortgage
believes Americans are underutilizing this resource. If you are new to the
Reverse Mortgage Market, check out Plaza's training webinars.
Network Funding, LP has launched The Giving Network,
the charitable arm of the company. All funds given through The Giving Network
will be matched, up to 100%, and distributed to a selected list of non-profits
that work with homes and families. Visitors also have the opportunity to
sign up for service projects where Network Funding will fund the stated amount
on the website. "At Network Funding we're all about home and family;
that's why we created The Giving Network. We want to make a difference in the
lives of families and improve the homes in which they live," said
Co-Founders Rex Chamberlain and Buzz Baker. Network Funding invites visitors to
explore and learn more about The Giving Network at give.nflp.com. (Interested in working for a company
that gives back? Visit www.join.nflp.com to learn more about Network Funding
and its available positions.)
In legal news, a federal
jury has cleared two former Thornburg Mortgage executives of five counts
and could not reach a decision on five others. The Securities and Exchange
Commission filed a lawsuit in 2012, alleging that Thornburg leaders Larry
Goldstone, Clarence Simmons III and Jane Starrett hid the company's
deteriorating financial condition at the start of the housing market collapse
by issuing misleading statements. They also were accused of hiding a $428
million loss in a 2007 annual report. Starrett reached a settlement with the
commission and agreed to pay a penalty. As for Goldstone and Simmons, the
commission could retry the counts on which jurors couldn't agree. An attorney
for the two says the verdict sends a message about the weakness of the case.
Yet we continue to hear
about lenders surrendering large sums of money to government bodies in the form
of fine and penalties. The latest big one involved HSBC which ponied up $1.6 billion to end a 14-year mortgage-lending
lawsuit. The lawsuit stems from questionable mortgage lending
undertaking more than a decade ago.
But wait! At the end of
June investors & bondholders learned that they can dismiss a $1 billion Lehman lawsuit. As Kenneth
Pringle with Bloomberg put it, "Holders including banks, hedge funds and mutual
funds can avoid lawsuit that sought to recover $1 billion paid out to them in
wake of Lehman Brothers' 2008 bankruptcy, according to a ruling dismissing the
2010 lawsuit filed in a Manhattan bankruptcy court...U.S. bankruptcy Judge
Shelley Chapman says Lehman Brothers Special Financing Inc. failed to state
claim under which recoveries could be granted."
Apparently
distributions were made in connection with the early termination of hundreds of
swap transactions to which LBSF was counter-party and triggered by LBSF's
default.
On the "constructive"
side of the ledger, Ben Slayton, a veteran Chief Compliance Officer and
Publisher of Mortgage Compliance Magazine, and Burton Embry, Executive
Vice President & Chief Compliance Officer with Primary Residential
Mortgage, Inc., announced the launching of Mortgage Compliance Professionals
Association of America (MCPAOA), a new compliance association for
Compliance Professionals by Compliance Professionals. Burton will serve
as the association's new President. Membership is free - click here to join the organization. Among other things the
association's mission is to provide a forum for members to enhance their
professional skills and keep up with current trends, and peer-to-peer sharing
to exchange ideas and best practices.
Jonathan Foxx of Lenders
Compliance Group has just published another article on advertising
compliance, this time dealing with risk assessments. He discusses three
compliance tools: the Advertising Manual, with a host of supporting forms;
Record Retention, containing all advertisements and reviews; and Forms and
Checklists, constituting all loan products and origination methods. Advertising
compliance is a big section on federal and state banking examinations - head
over to Lenders Compliance Group and download the article.
Turning
to the capital markets, no one is complaining about these rates, aside from
anyone who bought loans (and servicing) any time since 2012 and expected to
keep them on their books for any length of time. Wo to those who were paying
up big time for servicing late last year and early this year and don't have
portfolio retention programs. Rates dropped again Tuesday with the 10 and
30-year yields touching all-time lows (1.35% and 2.13%, respectively) as the
British pound sterling hit a 31-year low and traders continued to adjust to a
post-Brexit world. Heck, it will take years for the UK to extract itself - and
who knows what might happen during that time period!?
In an interview with
MarketWatch, San Francisco Fed President Williams said that he expects that
Brexit's effect on the U.S. real economy will be limited and that the Fed will
resume its path of gradual rate hikes to prevent financial imbalances from
emerging. Really? Williams also said that he believes the May jobs
number (+38k nonfarm payrolls) was artificially depressed by good weather over
the winter which moved economic activity forward.
Tuesday we learned that U.S.
factory orders declined more than expected in May, which helped rates slide
lower. The 10-year treasury yield set a new all-time low of 1.367% yesterday on
increased risk aversion caused by global growth worries, further weighed by the
UK vote to exit the EU, weak data from China, and a nearly 5% drop in US crude
oil - take your pick! At the 3pm close the 10-year note was marked higher by
.875 to yield 1.37% and the 5-year note was up nearly .375. Mortgage-backed
securities lagged somewhat, as you'd expect with the uncertainty and the
prepayment risk, although Fannie 2.5% securities rallied .625.
This morning we've
already had the MBA's survey of retail applications (+14%; purchases +4% and
refis +21%!). We've also had the May Trade Balance figures (wider than expected
at $41.1 billion); coming up are some June ISM Services figures of little
consequence but later are the June FOMC Minutes which could move things around
a little.
Anyone trying to guess
where rates sheets will be should know that the 10-year closed Tuesday at
1.37% and this morning is at 1.35% with agency MBS prices better by .125.
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