Digital, Broker, Correspondent Products; Vendor Updates; Holiday Trading in Bond Market
Sure the world noted that Sweden’s central bank hiked its rate to 0%. But in this country, Michigan is making mortgage news. First, United Shore/UWM had a record year and gave away 13 Cadillacs at its Christmas party. Then came the news that Quicken Loans became the first mortgage lender to complete the mortgage process in Michigan using Remote Online Notarization (RON). This electronic mortgage closing (eClosing) was completed using the Nexsys Clear SignSM eClosing platform from Nexsys Technologies, a Detroit-based FinTech company providing technology services for mortgage origination and closing. "In a RON eClosing, the consumer and the notary perform a mortgage closing digitally from separate locations using the internet and an audio/video connection, eliminating the need for the traditional pen-and-paper-intensive closing process. Currently, 22 U.S. states permit RON eClosings."
Lender products &
services
Part of the estimated 112M people traveling for the holidays this year? Here's a perfect podcast to queue up for your holiday commute. Episode 002 of "Clear to Close" from Maxwell was just released and features an impactful discussion on marketing in the mortgage industry. Topics include what lenders do well, where they have opportunities to improve, and present a scorecard of the average marketing process today as a consumer. From digital to branding, it's an entertaining and valuable listen. Highly recommend for all lending managers and teams. Download and subscribe from your favorite podcast platform or listen in your browser here.
"Q2 2019 Mortgage QC Industry Trends Report Draws Correlation Between Lenders' Profitability and Adaptability to Market." According to Nick Volpe, chief strategy officer at ARMCO, volume fluctuations like those seen in the quarters prior to Q1 2019 and Q2 2019, cause challenges for lenders, who often respond to sudden spikes and dips by adjusting their labor forces through layoffs, downsizing, re-allocating staff and hiring. Report Summary: The critical defect rate fell 5.5% | Defects in Income/Employment and Credit declined 32.0% and 22.0% respectively, from the preceding quarter | Interest rates in Q2 2019 were roughly a full point lower than Q2 2018 which fueled a high refi-to-purchase ratio | Refinances comprised a higher percentage of all loans reviewed | Critical defects on FHA loans underperformed conventional loans by a greater percentage than previous quarters. VIEW REPORT
This holiday season, TMS is putting the CARE in CAREspondent Lending. For every new lender that partners with TMS before the end of the year, they will donate $250 to Family Reach- a national non-profit dedicated to alleviating the financial burden of cancer. Only a couple more weeks to take advantage of this promotion. You can sign up here today!
Mortgage Brokers! Gain independence, optionality and control through the Non-Delegated Correspondent channel. Mortgage.Exchange is your universal loan delivery platform that makes NDC lending a simple and profitable transition. The exchange serves as one place for NDC lenders to Rate-Shop, Lock, Disclose, Underwrite, Doc and Fund with the top investors and warehouse lenders. It creates massive efficiencies by connecting NDC's directly to their fulfillment providers, enabling unbeatable collaboration and transparency. Mortgage.Exchange is for lenders large and small, with no set-up cost or seat fees. Contact Mortgage.Exchange or request a live demo today.
A high-tech, high-touch strategy will bridge the divide between digital and human interactions, providing a holistic experience consumers will look for in 2020. Blend spoke to industry experts about what we can expect for digital lending in the coming year. It's clear a digital experience won't be enough. Click here to see why.
NEXA Mortgage is a mortgage broker with 380 Loan Officers and that is up from 313 just a month ago. NEXA was recently featured in HousingWire and GrowJo.com as the fastest growing mortgage broker in the country. Want to know why they are growing so fast? They are hosting a weekly webinar today, "Why NEXA with Mike Kortas". The CEO dives into a deep conversation of what drives this growing channel. This webinar is today at 10am PST/1pm EST at www.NEXAmortgage.com/support. Just click on the link and join. Let them know you heard about it on Chrisman.
Vendors
What's the most common question students ask at the Servicing MSR Day for the School of Mortgage Banking (SOMB)? According to STRATMOR Principal and SOMB II Instructor Seth Sprague, CMB, whether or not to retain servicing permeates most class discussions. "The answer is that the decision is usually determined by a company's overall business strategy, it's cash flow and the value of the customer," says Sprague in his article in STRATMOR's December Insights Report released today. In "Prepayment Speeds, Escrow Balances and Diet Coke: Tales from a Servicing Expert," Sprague discusses students' other common servicing questions and provides current data to illustrate the answers. Sprague also shares what he has learned from students, including the fact that servicing technology is often greatly outdated. "Some of the most used servicing systems are over 30 years old," he notes. "Companies will often focus their IT investment dollar on more consumer-facing products or services, like a loan origination system. Yet to remain profitable, servicers need to invest in optimizing the borrower experience and making information more accessible to consumers." Check out the December Insights Report.
The Loan Officer Hub is designed to be an all-inclusive resource for top loan officers. It includes everything a loan officer needs for business success and is designed to be an all-inclusive resource for top loan officers. It includes everything a loan officer needs for business success. You'll find modern resources like podcasts, infographics, blogs, webinars and much more from established thought-leaders in the mortgage industry.
Competitive Analytics joins Optimal Blue's already established suite of business intelligence offerings including the Optimal Blue Mortgage Market IndicesTM(OBMMITM) published earlier this year.
Credit Plus announced an integration with Volly, a SaaS-based Marketing Automation, CRM and POS solutions. LOs will now experience a simplification to their mortgage process by submitting a loan application on-demand directly through the Volly POS and, in turn, receiving a borrower's credit report from Credit Plus automatically. Credit Plus' integration with Volly also empowers borrowers to digitally submit their consent directly to lenders with just a few clicks, thereby eliminating the hassle of collecting credit reports for loans.
Roostify has chosen has chosen Level Access as its digital accessibility compliance provider. Level Access creates customer experiences that are fully accessible to people with disabilities. "Such universally designed interfaces ensure everyone can participate in the lending process through digital mortgage websites and mobile applications. In addition, they support compliance with key accessibility standards such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)."
The CoreLogic Verification of Employment and Income solutions are now fully integrated with Fannie Mae's Desktop Underwriter (DU) validation service giving lenders automated access to validated loan components and provides a true end-to-end verification solution to help users accelerate business growth by saving time on each origination.
Capital markets
Rates appear to be stuck in range, which is fine with capital markets folks. Volatility is not a good thing for predictable margins. Looking back over the last few weeks, Washington has been busy not only with the impeachment activity, but in reached a spending deal, avoiding a repeat of last year's government shutdown. NAFTA's replacement, USMCA, was agreed to into the House and appears likely to pass in the Senate in 2020. While the new deal is more of a tweak than an overhaul; it will provide certainty to some business, especially auto manufactures, which will allow them to move forward with investment decisions. A Phase I trade deal between the US and China was announced on Friday which prevented the December 15th tariffs on Chinese imports from going into effect. It also scaled back the 15% tariff to 7.5% in exchange for an increase in Chinese purchases of US agricultural products. The latest data showed that the tariffs imposed to date have not greatly impacted official measures of inflation having added only 0.05 percentage points over the last year. As we begin to close the book on 2019, much of the uncertainty which has plagued businesses appears to be approaching resolution.
Sweden's central bank has become the first to announce an end to its negative interest rate policy, setting it at 0%. But there wasn't a whole lot to report yesterday. Treasuries retreated on the day following reports on declining Japanese exports, an increase in confidence surrounding German businesses, and a flurry of corporate news near the closing bell.
We've been in a holiday trading mood for a while but today is a tad busier. Ahead of today's open the Bank of Japan () and the Bank of England () were out with their latest monetary policy decisions. Domestic releases are also already under way with Weekly Initial Claims for the week ending December 13 (234k, -18k), Q3 Current Account Balance ($124.1 billion), and December Philadelphia Fed Survey (barely budging). Later this morning, markets are set to receive November Existing Home Sales and November Leading Indicators. Treasury will announce the auction sizes for next week's 2-year, 5-year and 7-year note auctions (estimated at: $40/$41/$32 billion, respectively). Treasury will also auction $18 billion reopened 5-year TIPS after the Desk conducts a the last UMBS30 FedTrade operation of the year, targeting up to $829 million 3 percent ($570 million) and 3.5 percent ($259 million). We begin the day with Agency MBS prices worse slightly and the 10-year yielding 1.94 percent after closing yesterday at 1.92 percent.
Jobs
Do pay for your own marketing and spend valuable time searching through your database for opportunities? Caliber Home Loans, Inc. supports the retail Loan Consultant-borrower relationship at no cost to its originators. Between the Caliber-provided 3-year post-close campaign and monthly mortgage statements that also include the originating loan officer's photo and contact information, it's almost guaranteed borrowers will remember their Loan Consultant long after closing. Caliber identifies retail originated customers who may benefit from a refinance, automatically sending those customers a Loan Consultant-branded campaign, also at no cost. Caliber provides more marketing solutions on behalf of our Loan Consultants, no cost or time required. And there's more to come in 2020! To learn more about a career at Caliber visit www.joincalibernow.com or email Brian Miller.
"At Finance of America Mortgage we provide our Chief Xperience Officers, or CXO's, with the tools they need to succeed, including: an industry leading technological platform, products that fit our borrowers' needs, and an arsenal of educational and marketing materials at your fingers tips. We are creating a complete "Two-X Platform" for our CXO's. We've invested tens of millions into a new proprietary suite of tools, including websites, CRM, POS, and more. The platform is fully integrated to optimize your business and reinforce your trusted role. The loan process needs to be transparent, mobile, and instant for every Finance of America Mortgage employee who touches that customer. Two-X will take us there. And for the entrepreneur in you, Finance of America Mortgage believes in providing you with the autonomy you need to succeed in your own way. Click HERE to learn more."
Thrive Mortgage seeks ways to affect positive change in the lives of their clients, employees, and local communities. As part of its "Thrive Cares" initiative, Thrive will be working with employees, clients and partners to impact the U.S. Health Care system. Roy Jones, CEO of Thrive, stated, "This is something affecting every U.S. citizen. It's long been my contention that someone should do something substantive about fixing a broken system. In 2020, that's going to be us." To kick off this initiative, Thrive hosted a webinar with Dr. Marty Makary, author of "The Price We Pay" and the primary inspiration for Thrive's efforts on this front. "Dr. Makary's purpose statement is directly in line with Thrive's," added Jones. "This is about always doing what is right as a professional in any industry, not just Real Estate." For more information, please reach out to Thrive Mortgage at info@thrivemortgage.com.
We believe our Production Recruiters at PrimeLending are the best of the best - and we're adding to our elite team. If you're an established recruiting professional looking for a competitive incentive-based compensation package, regionalized marketing support for targeted recruiting campaigns and industry-leading technology that makes your life - and your recruits' lives - much easier, make the new year merry and bright by joining PrimeLending. We've been a proven mortgage powerhouse for more than three decades and we're coming off one of our best years ever in 2019. We're carrying that momentum into the new year with plans to make 2020 even better. If you want to be part of that growth while taking your career to the next level, contact Brian Geller today for a confidential conversation about all that PrimeLending has to offer.
Steps for reading online articles:
1. Accept cookies
2. Block notifications
3. Deny location to website
4. Decline invitation to subscribe
5. Stop auto-playing video ads/mute sound
6. Dismiss reminder of free articles remaining
7. Shrink drop down banner
8. Click "read more"
9. Give up