2011 Bills We’re Watching

Posted by on Feb 15, 2011 in Dodd Frank Act, Legislative Watch, Regulations, Uncategorized, VA | 0 comments H 363: Forced Refinance Provisions For Fannie/Freddie Status: Introduced 1/20/11 The formal name of the bill is ‘Housing Opportunity and Mortgage Equity Act of 2011”. The bill would require Fannie/Freddie to create a     program for qualified mortgages where an appraisal is not required. The servicing fee will be restricted to a maximum of $1,000. H 330:  First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit...
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Mortgage U To Conduct FHA Training For HUD

Posted by on Jan 20, 2011 in Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac, FHA, FHA/VA, Origination, Uncategorized, Underwriting | 0 comments Mortgage U is proud to announce that we have been selected by Campus MBA, the education division of the Mortgage Bankers Association to conduct FHA training for a team of employees from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The training will cover an overview of FHA residential, senior housing and hospital programs including renovation lending, reverse mortgages as well as new...
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Risk Based Pricing Disclosures Made Easy (?)

Posted by on Jan 3, 2011 in Fair Credit Reporting Act, Final Rules, Uncategorized | 0 comments Like RESPA in 2010 we are faced with a yearend disclosure that at first can seem relatively straight forward but the details start to make operations managers nervous. The Risk Based Pricing (RBP) policies and disclosures required as of 1/1/11 will need some attention to make sure both the technology and operations have been considered. The regulation requires creditors (therefore not mortgage...
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Vicki Bott Speaks to MBA Committee

Posted by on Oct 25, 2010 in FHA, Uncategorized | 0 comments The MBA Residential Loan Production committee meeting was held yesterday at the MBA Convention in Atlanta. Vicki Bott, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Single Family Housing Programs spoke at the meeting and provided an important update. FHA’s main focus in 2011 will be oversight of its business partners the DE lenders. Bott said they will be “looking harder and smarter” at the quality of...
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97th MBA Convention, Atlanta Panel of Industry Experts

Posted by on Oct 20, 2010 in Operations, Processing, Uncategorized | 0 comments The 97th Annual MBA Convention is here. We are looking forward to the panel of prestigious experts on the mortgage industry assembled by Solidify for October 26, 2010 in Atlanta. The expert panel includes Pete Taglia, CPA, CMB, Vice President of FTN Financial Capital Assets Corporation whose expertise is loan sale and securitization strategies, asset backed securities and portfolio analysis...
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What do FHA approval and LO compensation have in common?

Posted by on Oct 20, 2010 in Uncategorized | 0 comments We are seeing a pattern in the way regulators are communicating their policies to the industry. First let’s look at the FHA lender approval changes. FHA has said that wholesalers are responsible for monitoring that all ‘sponsored correspondents’ (the new term for non-FHA approved companies) are in compliance with FHA requirements. This is a very broad statement and every wholesaler is...
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How Many Loans by Processors?

Posted by on Oct 6, 2010 in Uncategorized | 0 comments Alice Alvey President, CMB  Mortgage U, Inc. I have been on a mission asking every customer ‘how many active loans can your processors handle in their pipeline?” As you can probably guess I receive a lot of questions in return trying to qualify the definition of pipeline, processor and if the processor is working overtime. One person asked me if the processor is pushed to the brink...
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Processors are a Bridge

Posted by on Sep 14, 2010 in Processing, Uncategorized | 0 comments A processor’s role has changed dramatically from the first widespread use of computers in the ‘80’s to the paperless task management systems of today. The automated systems moved the industry into thinking processing was an entry level administrative task. It is not uncommon to hear processors say ‘it doesn’t matter what documentation I think I need, the underwriter is going to change...
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FHA Fine Print Reduces Allowable Lender Contributions

Posted by on Aug 6, 2010 in FHA, Processing, Proposed Rules, Uncategorized, Underwriting | 0 comments FHA published a proposal on July 15th announcing changes to important underwriting requirements. Lenders and brokers must be aware of a problem in the fine print and respond to FHA immediately! FHA is not only changing the maximum seller contribution from 6% down to 3% they have changed the definition of ‘interested third party’ in a footnote at the bottom of page 41220. FHA’s 4155.1...
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Appraiser Coercion or Not?

Posted by on Jul 2, 2010 in Appraisals, Fraud, Origination, Processing, Uncategorized, Underwriting | 0 comments Everyone in the mortgage industry, including borrowers are all too familiar with the challenge of trying to determine whether the comparables provided by the appraiser are adequate. Typically the underwriter is concerned that the value is inflated and the borrower and loan officer are concerned that the value is too low. The ‘tip toe’ around the home valuation code of conduct and requesting...
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