Mgt. Review, BBYS, Digital HELOC, Non-QM Products; Opinions on Credit Fixes; IMB Underway
There are lots of rumors about more M&A. For example, Maxwell, a POS and mortgage origination services company, being acquired by Place, a real estate tech platform and real estate brokerage company. Place (with its Mortgage Calculator App) is rumored to be heavily involved (owns?) Envoy Mortgage. Word in the hallways that Place, and others, will continue to strive toward creating end-to-end platforms of real estate through mortgage origination. Sure enough, on today’s Now Next Later at 1PM ET, presented by Depth, Eric Lapin of Finfusion Consulting will join the conversation on emerging technology in mortgage, with a focus on blockchain and whether it is a friend or foe for lenders. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s are sponsored by Truework, the one verification solution to replace in-house waterfalls. Verify any borrower with a VOIE solution that automates the entire process to quickly deliver the most accurate and complete reports with broad GSE coverage. Today’s features an interview with FundingShield’s Adam Chaudhary on why escalating fraud, regulatory scrutiny, and refinance activity are making proactive, real-time verification essential for lenders.)
Products, Services, and Software for Brokers and Lenders
Close more deals and open the door to more buyers with up to 75 BPS Price Improvement on February Specials from LendingPros! Non-QM Price Improvement (includes DSCR 5-8 Units and Jumbo), up to 75 BPS with Select or 25 BPS without. Plus 37.5 BPS Price Improvement on FHA DPA Pro loans (includes Streamlines; excludes Select, CalHFA) plus 12.5 BPS price improvement on FHA Select Loans (FHA and DPA Pro Specials cannot be combined with Select)! Learn More: Want to dive deeper on DPA Programs? Join LendingPros’ upcoming DPA webinar, where you’ll get the latest updates on new terms and options, plus a helpful refresher on the upcoming CalHFA Dream For All Program for California brokers so you’re fully prepared to guide your clients to the finish line. Register yourself or your team today and reserve your spot!
Lenders are still buzzing about a recent webinar focused on how leaders should be evaluating AI in mortgage technology as it shows up more frequently in vendor conversations. The Executive’s Guide to Evaluating AI in Mortgage Technology features Brooke Anderson-Tompkins, Founder and CEO of Bridge AIvisory, in conversation with Patrick O’Brien, CEO of LenderLogix. The discussion goes beyond AI buzzwords and marketing claims to explore how executives can think more clearly about transparency, data usage, accountability, and long-term risk and value. The full webinar is now available on demand for lenders looking to bring more clarity to AI-related technology decisions. Access the recording here.
PHH Mortgage invites you to join FlexIQ DSCR Essentials on Thursday, February 5 at 10:00 AM PST / 12:00 PM CST / 1:00 PM EST, an educational webinar designed to help correspondents confidently navigate DSCR lending within the FlexIQ Non-Agency product suite. This session will provide a practical deep dive into DSCR qualification guidelines, documentation requirements, and a walkthrough of the DSCR calculator to help you evaluate scenarios efficiently before submission. Participants can ask questions and interact directly with PHH’s experienced non-Agency experts. Whether you’re new to DSCR or looking to sharpen your execution and support scalable investor lending strategies, this webinar delivers actionable insights you can apply immediately. Register today.
“Approve loans faster, with confidence: Gateless Smart Underwrite®. Mother Nature doesn't care about your closing dates, but we do. While storms might keep teams at home, automation doesn’t take a snow day. Built for modern lending, our AI-driven platform keeps your pipeline moving by reading borrower documents, verifying assets, and clearing conditions automatically, even when the office is closed. No more bottlenecks. No more ‘stare and compare.’ Smart Underwrite delivers accurate, consistent decisions in hours, not weeks. While the rest of the industry gets buried in the drifts, you can scale your operation and give borrowers a faster path to ‘yes.’ This is underwriting without the weather delay. Book your demo today.”
“Why REMN Is the #1 Wholesale Lender for Digital HELOCs. In today’s market, speed and simplicity matter. That is why REMN is the #1 wholesale lender for Digital HELOCs, offering a digital-first experience backed by expert support when it matters most. Originators can move loans more efficiently while borrowers benefit from a clear, transparent process from application to funding. Learn more by joining our upcoming REMN Digital HELOC Webinar, Streamlining Income Verification in the Digital HELOC Experience, on February 5th at 2:00 PM ET. We will walk through how income verification is simplified within the workflow, helping reduce friction and improve turn times for both originators and borrowers. Register here. REMN has also extended two pricing specials through February 28th. DSCR offers up to a full point off based on LTV, FICO, and DSCR. Conventional loans receive a .375 pricing special on loans over $350K, excluding High Balance. REMN continues to deliver the technology, pricing, and support originators need to compete and win.”
Calque and The Loan Store Announce Partnership to Expand Buy Before You Sell+ Program. Today, Calque and The Loan Store announced a new partnership to expand the availability of the Buy Before You Sell+ program in more markets, with greater flexibility. This enhanced reach helps The Loan Store deliver easier funding options for its wholesale partners and provide more certainty for homebuyers. Buy Before You Sell+ allows consumers to purchase a new home before selling their current one by leveraging their existing equity to support the new loan, while excluding the existing mortgage from the debt-to-income calculation. This structure helps more borrowers qualify and supports smoother, faster transactions. Partners can learn more about program details and how to get started by visiting here. “Our teams share a commitment to practical solutions that help brokers win more business and serve clients better,” said a spokesperson for The Loan Store. Calque and The Loan Store are excited to bring this program to more partners, helping them close purchase deals with confidence, speed, and fewer hurdles.
Momentum is building among mortgage companies who are proactively strengthening their organization’s leadership team for this new lending environment. STRATMOR has been working with several firms to help them rethink their current org structures. This is a process that is all too often overlooked or ignored, particularly among small and mid-size firms. This process helps clarify individual leadership roles and responsibilities, personal strengths, spans of control and personal interests. The output and recommendations are designed to help improve alignment, performance, engagement, and communication within the firm, all critical elements of a highly functioning leadership team. Note: this work also helps build a roadmap to support potential succession opportunities and eventual retirements, another topic that is all too often ignored. Investment in tech is important but investment in people is critical. Contact STRATMOR, or connect with David Hrobon at the IMB Conference at Amelia Island this week to learn more.
The Chrisman Marketplace is a centralized hub for vendors and service providers across the mortgage industry to be viewed by lenders in a very cost-effective manner. We’re adding new providers daily, so check back often to see what’s new. To reserve your place or learn more, contact us at info@chrismancommentary.com.
Thoughts on Credit Issues
During the last few Saturdays, I posted information and thoughts about credit reports. Normally I post opinions and thoughts on Saturdays, but the inflow of opinions from Saturday’s piece warranted distributing today.
“Rob, why do you think so much is made about the cost of credit, which is important, when title fees are a minimum 7x the cost of a credit report, or more? Is it the power of the title lobby? I’ve literally never seen a title company pay a claim without a long, drawn-out legal process. Where does all that revenue go? Wouldn’t we be better off as an industry advocating to work on reducing one of the largest fees the consumer faces, i.e., Title?”
“I think the credit reporting agencies are the problem. Credit reports should be transferable to different lenders. Perhaps the borrower should order the report and own it. Then they can transfer the report to any lender they want a pre-approval & quote from. One report and the lender would pay for updates when expired per lender policies.”
“As a loan officer it's frustrating that we are not allowed to even give a copy of the report to the borrower. The credit reporting agencies need to offer alternatives directly to borrowers. With trigger leads and non-transferable reports, the agencies are making a killing. Why are reports so expensive now anyway with all the automation and AI available?”
Another note: “I think when borrowers shop for a lender, the first lender they speak with runs a full credit report, and the borrower pays the fee. Then the borrower is provided an I.D. # they can provide to every other lender they speak with who can access the full report. Then the borrower does not pay any further credit report fees for at least 90 days. When the report expires after 90 days, the lender who actually wins the business runs another report and eats the fee on an actual loan. Why can't that work?”
Shawn writes, “My view is credit report costs are the least of my worries in the overall costs associated with a loan. Has anyone looked at a CD lately?!?!? If not, you should do so immediately. The credit report cost is about the LOWEST cost on the CD! Flood cert, tax service and MERS fees are in the $10-$30 range but the next lowest are credit report fees. I work at a large IMB and a hard pull tri-merge for a joint report is $100. So, let's say that a small broker shop without economies of scale is in the $200 range. Okay, now let's look at all the other fees on a CD like escrow fees, buyer and seller title insurance fees, county and state stamp and transfer taxes, appraisal fees, mobile notary fees, endorsements, HOA condo review fees, inspections, just to name a few and the list goes on a LONG ways...
“Those fees are orders of magnitude greater and yet no one is pounding the table about those fees! Why are the credit reporting companies taking the heat? Can anyone else do it cheaper (if you can then make it happen)? I think we could be looking at many other places on the CD to save $100 and not at the credit reporting companies.”
Capital Markets
The Federal Reserve was certainly in the spotlight last week, with the FOMC keeping rates unchanged at its January meeting (as officials feel comfortable that policy is near neutral amid stabilizing labor conditions) and President Trump nominating Kevin Warsh as the next Fed Chair. Bond markets are focused on widening trade deficits and persistent fiscal imbalances reinforcing the sense that downside risks haven’t disappeared, even if the Fed’s near-term urgency to cut rates has faded. Warsh is widely respected as an experienced, establishment figure, but he is a conflicting bag of rhetorically hawkish, operationally loyal, and historically unwilling to dissent even during the most aggressive easing cycles.
The Federal Reserve has amassed and held an unprecedented amount of Agency MBS since the advent of quantitative easing in 2008, peaking at $2.7 trillion during QE4 and underscoring how what was once “experimental” has become routine, even as the Fed has repeatedly stated its desire to return to an all-Treasury balance sheet. While holdings have declined by about 25 percent since March 2022 to roughly $2.03 trillion, the current passive runoff pace of around $15 billion per month means it could take another decade or more to fully unwind; clearly a difficult and slow process.
The Fed’s footprint is especially large in lower-coupon 30-year UMBS and Ginnie Mae II securities, where it owns a significant share of the outstanding float, meaning any active sales could cause meaningful spread widening and market disruption. For now, however, the Fed appears committed to letting time and slower prepayments do the work, a hands-off approach that avoids compounding the market distortions created by years of aggressive MBS purchases.
Economic data last week painted a mixed narrative: strong durable goods orders and rising business investment contrasted consumer confidence slumping to a decade low, reflecting anxiety over jobs, trade tensions, and stubbornly high living costs. This week's data, which concludes with the January payrolls report on Friday, includes updates on manufacturing and services PMI, JOLTS job openings, ADP employment, Challenger layoffs, Michigan sentiment, and consumer credit. Fed speak picks up after last week’s Fed events, while markets will also digest monetary policy decisions from the Royal Bank of Australia, European Central Bank, and Bank of England. Treasury will announce the details of the Quarterly Refunding on Wednesday, with rumors of some potential tweaks to issuance. Agency MBS prepayments for January will be released after Thursday’s close. Earnings also continue from Wall Street.
Today’s economic calendar kicks off later this morning with final January S&P Global manufacturing PMI and will be followed by the ISM equivalent, some short-duration Treasury auctions and Fed speak, before Treasury releases the borrowing estimate for the January to March quarter. We begin the day with Agency MBS prices better than Friday’s close by about .125, the 2-year yielding 3.51, and the 10-year yielding 4.20 after closing last week at 4.24 percent given the partial government’s shutdown and weather’s impact on the economy.