Page 4 - Broker Software News Today

The unofficial Chrisman LLC sarcastic slogan is, “We do this not because it is easy, but because we thought it would be easy.” Hopefully, there are no lenders out there with that slogan, as residential lending, done the right way, is not easy. Sometimes residential lending seems discombobulated. Sometimes things settle down and become more orderly: recombobulated! (Workflow and improved lender efficiency are the topics of today’s Mortgage Collaborative Rundown featuring Doni...

It is said that if all the hunters on opening day(s) of deer season in Wisconsin were grouped together, they would comprise the sixth largest army in the world! Sometimes lenders feel that they have a target on their backs, and here at the WMBA’s 49th Annual Real Estate & Finance Conference in Milwaukee, some of the informal talk in the hallways is about avoiding redlining, a focus of audits and exams. Another is RESPA. When does “As you wish” or “intent&#...

Here in the Milwaukee area (yes, the autumn colors are stellar), I attended a Newrez joint venture event and one of the conversation topics (besides lenders either saying “no mas” and exiting or being purchased, more below, or NAR’s legal events, more below) is the changing landscape of down payments and down payment assistance programs. STRATMOR’s current blog is titled, “Mind the Down Payment”. Despite high mortgage rates and low buyer demand, home pri...

I was very excited last Saturday when I rode my bike by a garage sale and saw, “The Holy Bible” for sale, with a “signed edition” sticker on it. Of course I bought it. How cool is that? Trains are pretty cool too. “A railroad conductor needs to make sure he doesn’t go down the wrong track and lose his train of thought.” This morning I head to Milwaukee by train. While in Chicago I spent some time hearing how LOs must get back to the basics, includ...

This morning (as I head to Chicago) and every morning, I keep myself sharp by regularly asking myself the tough questions like, “What happened yesterday?” and “What was I planning on doing just now?” Looking forward, as some attendees of last week’s conference made note of the MBA Annual’s dates in Denver for next year butting up against Halloween, successful salespeople will tell you that many of their best business meetings last week, or at any confere...

“Who closes the door when the bus driver gets off? The world is full of questions. “Why have all the predictions of lower rates been wrong?” Yesterday I was in the SF Bay Area giving a speech to a group of LOs and management and was asked, “Rob, are you hearing that lenders are requesting clients pay for the credit report(s) up front?” Absolutely I am. Lenders have grown weary of paying for the credit reports of loans that don’t fund and heaping those ri...

Unlike lenders who are dealing with 8 percent on rates sheets, sports fans and sports bars are reveling: NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL, all at the same time… And Philadelphia is in the thick of it. A lot of halftimes. Is our industry “down 20-0 at halftime?” Here are the thoughts of Fairway CEO Steve Jacobson on not giving up, having shots taken at you, and using the tools lenders and LOs have to keep helping their clients, including technology. The word “technology” was ...

“What do you call a bovine with a stutter that makes chocolate milk? Cacao.” Speaking of sweets, hats off to Byte’s booth at the conference for dishing out some amazing s’mores brownies here in Philadelphia. (They will be my breakfast on my flight out this morning.) The brownies are sweeter than the upcoming credit report cost increases (there is definitely a shift to lenders having borrowers pay for credit reports up front, not eating the cost of reports run on loans...

Talk in the hallways here at the MBA Annual in Philly? How about the cost of insurance of all types. Case in point: “What Happens When the Flood Insurance Market Goes Underwater?” The NAR commission legal issues are a big, big deal, possibly impact real estate agents’ commission structure. The cost of credit will be going up, with the evening up of tiers: ask your CRA about it. Buybacks (repurchases) have been a problem for months. Several sales managers have told me that a ...

The old joke, “Why don’t the Phillies have a website? Because they can’t string three W’s together!” is no longer true. The Phillies are doing just fine, and the MBA Annual is underway. Talk in the hallways includes the Community Home Lenders of America, National Association of Realtors, and Independent Community Bankers of America sending a letter calling on the administration to reduce the historically high, long-term mortgage rates relative to long-term Trea...