Credit, PPE, Non-QM, LO Sales Training Products; Training and Events Nationwide

Nature “always bats last.” Terrible flooding in Pakistan, flooding in Mississippi impacting its drinking water supplies. Severe temperatures in China, a hot summer in the Western U.S. Fortunately, this year’s hurricane season in the U.S has been tepid, so far, and fires in the West have been limited. Certainly, storms can impact borrowers and lenders, as can documentation problems or appraisal delays. What percent of your clients don’t close on time? In retail news, if you're a Chase customer buying a new home or an investment property, you may be eligible for the Chase Closing Guarantee. “We promise an on-time closing in as soon as three weeks or you'll get $5,000.” As summer winds down, in many second home areas like Florida, concerns in places include investment property and 2nd home price adjustments. Of course, it is not in Freddie or Fannie’s charter to help 2nd home or investment property financing as the focus is on first time home buyers, underserved segments of the population, and affordable housing. There are 16 million vacant homes in the USA. This means there are more than five times as many vacant apartments as there are estimated homeless people. If you want to squat for a while, head to Vermont, Maine, or Alaska, but steer clear of Connecticut, Washington, or Oregon. (Available here, today’s podcast has an interview with MCT Chief Administrative Officer, Chris Anderson, on the benefits of a centralized lock desk. This week’s podcast is sponsored by MCT’s Hedge Advisory. As the industry leader in pull-through analytics and best execution with the highest staff-to-client ratio, lenders of every size trust MCT to manage risk and optimize profitability in their mortgage loan pipeline management.)

Lender and Broker Services, Software, and Programs

Xome®, the premier asset management provider, offers data-driven solutions for mortgage servicers and the expertise required to optimize portfolio execution and reduce credit losses. With a massive audience at the ready, and an auction platform built for scale, Xome can help get you the quickest sales, at the highest price, possible. Benefitting not only you, but also our communities, by helping facilitate a healthy, stable housing market. Xome’s solutions include multi-channel disposition strategies, a leading nationwide auction marketplace, analytics, and loan recapture solutions. Xome also offers affordable housing solutions, including First Look programs for homeowner, owner-occupants, community development nonprofits, HUD-approved nonprofits, and governmental entities. Learn more about how Xome can help you build capacity & optimize efficiencies.

Printing letters, stuffing envelopes, and mailing it all off can be such a hassle… Who has time to worry about that sort of thing? Why not let Velma Connector do it for you? Connector integrates with your LOS, so when it’s time to send out a goodbye letter, an NOIA, an insurance transfer notice, or any other kind of physical mail (or email), Connector does it for you. Smart lenders eliminate labor costs while improving their accuracy, record keeping, and timeliness for a positive ROI. So, say goodbye to physical mail hassles and say hello to Velma Connector. Check out Connector today!

“If you’re a broker looking for new opportunities to help you better serve your buyers and build your business, Caliber Wholesale has exactly what you need. With Caliber’s line of Non-QM loans (including SmartEdge, SmartSelf, and SmartVest), you’ll be able to give credit access to self-employed borrowers who may have been locked out of the market before, as well as appeal to entrepreneurs, those heavily invested in stock, and real estate investors. At Caliber, more credit access for your customers means more closed loans for you. With an experienced and knowledgeable team backing you, you’ll get the support you need to help you understand the value Non-QM loans can bring your clients. Ready to give your borrowers what they’re looking for? Contact to get approved with us today if you aren’t already.”

Chicago contains 100+ unique neighborhoods that span more than 200 square miles, but there’s only one place you need to be Sept. 25 – 27: meeting with Optimal Blue during The Mortgage Collaborative (TMC) in Chi-Town conference. If you’re attending this event at the Loews Chicago Hotel, make plans to visit with one of Optimal Blue’s secondary marketing experts to discuss ways to improve efficiency and profitability in your business. Plus, don’t miss John Dumonsau’s Lightning Showcase session on increasing ROI with a combined PPE and hedging platform. Additionally, Colleen Flynn will participate in an Emerging Product Track about successfully launching new products Optimal Blue is also a proud sponsor of the Women’s Networking Event on Tuesday. We hope to connect with you in Chicago!

Mortgage lenders: Do you use the MeridianLink platform with your current credit reporting partner and have you been told you will now need to change platforms? Do you want to continue to use MeridianLink and keep your team’s workflow intact? Has your account team changed, or even gone away? These are just some of the headaches many of you are facing with recent bureau consolidations. There are options for you! Birchwood Credit Services has been delighting customers for over three decades, but don’t take our word for it. Take a look at what our customers are saying about our award-winning service. With Birchwood, you can stay on your current platform, have exclusive access to your account team and experience an onboarding process that is completely simple and seamless. Get started today and let us deliver a level of service that’s almost too good to believe- until you’ve experienced it for yourself. At Birchwood, service that delights isn’t just our marketing pitch. It’s our promise!

Events, Webinars, and Training

Mortgage Pros 411 with Audrey Boissonou and Kevin Casey: Two LOs discuss all things mortgage with Industry Leaders every Tuesday at 11AM PT. Today’s session features the CFPB’s Mark McArdle discussing regulatory trends.

Join Appraiser eLearning for a Live-Virtual offering of its brand new 7-Hour CE class, Critique Anatomy of a Review, with Instructor Hal Humphreys via Zoom Meeting on Tuesday, August 30th | 8am-4pm Central Time. This course is for active, boots on the ground real estate appraisers. It can help bring you into competency to start marketing and accepting review assignments. It will also help you understand, more fully understand the process of appraisal review when dealing with reviewers who critique your work. Check out additional New Live-Virtual Courses from Appraiser eLearning coming this Fall.

The Servicing Transfers Development Workgroup’s sessions starts today, Aug. 30–31, at the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization® (MISMO®) Fall Summit.

With the growing gig economy and increasing demand for non-QM bank statement loans, many mortgage lenders are looking for ways to efficiently and accurately process 6, 12, or even 24 months' worth of bank statements. Learn how Ocrolus can help streamline your income calculation process and enable faster decision-making, even while reviewing more documents. Join Ocrolus mortgage experts to discuss automating bank statement loans register for the webinar on Thursday, September 8.

In September the private mortgage insurance companies offer a fine range of very cost-effective/free training: National MI University, Enact’s course catalog of on-demand webinars, MGIC, Essent, Radian, and Arch MI.

Join MBA of Metropolitan Washington for a lunch and learn webinar on Wednesday, September 7 for a discussion on the outlook for our industry and how to approach selling in one of the most dynamic times in decades for the sector.

There’s no shortage of hot buttons (and headaches) for HR professionals in the mortgage industry these days. Capacity management, onboarding and offboarding personnel, incentive plan design, labor law and remote work are only a few of the topics keeping HR professionals in our business up at night. And MBA’s Human Resources Symposium is taking place September 8-9 in Arlington, Virginia.

National MI University’s “Winning Business in an Era of Distrust” with Kristin Messerli is Sept. 8 at 10am PT. In this webinar Kristin will share practical methods to build trust with today's consumers through systems, automation, and customer experience techniques to drive better lead conversions and brand recognition in the market.

In the state of Washington, kick off the fall dinner season with Michael Fanning, register to attend PSMLA’s Dinner on September 8. Michael’s motivation, coaching and sales strategies will help you navigate this changing market.

Check the schedule at MBA’s Risk Management, QA and Fraud Prevention Forum, see the opportunities for timely updates and deep dives on the hottest topics impacting your business, plus networking opportunities with your peers from across the nation. You won't want to miss it. Use the justification letter to get buy-in from your supervisor. Register for your event of the year in Nashville, September 11 - 13.

Join MMLA’s webinar on September 13 and hear from speaker, Tom Host on what 1031's are, what they can be used for, and what the benefits of 1031's are.

If you’re working to fine tune your lock policies to address today’s market, make plans to attend the upcoming webinar, hosted by Optimal Blue, a division of Black Knight, on Sept. 14 at 1 p.m. CT. Save your seat today!

Register for the MBA of Florida webinar, Survival Kit: Helping You Prepare for Today’s Cybersecurity Threats Sep 16, 10:00 AM EST. Presenter Robert Bigman, former Chief Information Security Officer for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, will discuss specific cyber threats - business email compromise, equipment security, and ransomware; Preparedness and steps if a breach occurs.

Free for MMLA members, hear from Doug Duncan, Chief Economist, join the Webinar on September 20th.

The New England Mortgage Bankers Conference is fast approaching, and there is a discount code of RESUME for anyone wanting to attend the conference for a special one-day pass who is not employed. They can attend either Wednesday or Thursday for $25. It's on the honor system. Attendees will be packaging 15,000 meals for Rise Against Hunger. There is a servicing track, an MLO track, and an operations track on Wednesday as well as live streaming the Fed meeting with Matt Graham doing a real-time commentary and then talking about interest rates afterwards.

Lenders One has the upcoming Sales and Marketing Basecamp on 9/22 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, featuring experts sharing strategies on sales and marketing trends, technology, recruiting, retention and more. Ready to get a savings review and learn what Lenders One membership benefits and networking events can do for you? Click here or email Tricia Migliazzo today.

Interested in completing your Continued Education in a way that will keep you engaged and entertained? Join The Knowledge Coop for one of our Live In-person CE Classes! September 21 Bellevue, Washington (20% Discount Code: 20Washington), September 22 Lakewood, Washington (20% Discount Code: 20Washington), September 26 Houston, Texas (20% Discount Code: 20Texas), September 30 Austin, Texas (20% Discount Code: 20Texas), and October 6 Denver, Colorado (20% Discount Code: 20Denver).

Capital Markets

“We are going to cause a recession and if we have a hard landing, so be it." That appears to be the message from an increasingly hawkish Federal Reserve. Expectations have been recalibrated to indicate that the Fed will continue to raise interest rates at all costs to tamp down on inflation. The bond market sold-off and the Fed Funds futures got more hawkish to open the week as it is clear the Fed is intent on raising rates higher and keeping them there longer than the market is anticipating. Predictions are now for a 2/3 chance of a 75-basis point hike in September and a 1/3 chance of a 50-basis point hike.

There are no 8:30 AM ET market-moving economic announcements this morning. Today’s economic calendar begins later this morning with Redbook same store sales, followed by June house price changes from S&P Case-Shiller and FHFA, August consumer confidence, July job openings from JOLTS, and remarks from Richmond Fed President Barkin and New York Fed President Williams. The Desk will purchase up to $101 million UMBS15s 3.5 percent and 4 percent. We begin the day with Agency MBS prices roughly unchanged and the 10-year yielding 3.08 after closing yesterday at 3.11 percent.

Careers and New Positions

Berkshire Bank, headquartered in Boston, MA is looking for a Capital Markets Pricing Analytics and Strategy Senior Analyst- FVP. Individual is responsible for development of pricing analytics, driving strategic decision-making, and supporting Mortgage (Retail & Correspondent) and HELOC. Provides financial and competitive analysis to aid decision making. Deliver guidance to leadership team on functional KPIs, risk & controls monitoring, developing business cases for strategy/policy changes. Provides risk support by ensuring adequate controls, risk reporting and analysis processes are in place. The candidate should have 5+ years of Financial Services experience & 3+ years of relevant Mortgage Secondary/Capital Markets experience, a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, Economics, Finance, or like discipline, proficiency in financial analysis and ability to present to senior leaders, experience communicating complex concepts, Strong MS Excel, BI Tools, SQL skills, and Encompass, Meridian Link, Optimal Blue experience. If you are interested in this remote position, reach out to Douglas Redmond.

Nations Lending Named to Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies for 2nd Year in a Row. Nations Lending has made the Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies list for the second straight year, and third time overall. The list ranks companies with the highest growth rate in the nation. Nations ranked 2,774 on the list of 5,000 and 182nd among all Financial Services companies on the list. It also ranked fourth among all financial services businesses in Ohio. The company saw its two best-ever years for total loan volume in 2020 and 2021, which grew a total 201 percent since 2018. “We're thrilled to have made the Inc. 5000 list for a second consecutive year and three times total,” said CEO Jeremy Sopko. “This level of continued success would not have been possible without the dedication and work of the Nations family. They deserve this win.” To learn more about Nations Lending, you can visit Nations Lending.

Primis Mortgage has added 30-year vet Greg Richardson to its team as EVP of Capital Markets. “Greg successfully managed mortgage pipelines and other loan portfolios for some of the biggest players in the industry. At Primis, he’s expected to strategize and execute upon new ways to enhance revenue via strategically evaluating Capital Market alternatives that will enhance product breadth and optimize revenue.” Congratulations!