Page 8 - Broker Software News Today

Phantom Planet sang, California here we come, right back where we started from.” Many here at the Western Secondary have spent their entire career in California, which makes sense given that, over the decades, 20-25 percent of the nation’s home loans come from here. Overheard in the hallway yesterday: “I’ve been in this business so long, I remember when the big sleeping area in the house was called a ‘master bedroom’ and not a ‘primary sanctuary.&...

For those attending the Western Secondary, remember, it never rains in Southern California. Except for now. Here’s one person who won’t be seeing So Cal any time soon, and dare I say, every honest person in our biz is happy when this happens. Daniela Rendon, 31, was a Miami real estate broker but was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for stealing $381,000 in COVID relief funds, wire fraud, money laundering, and identity theft. Rendon probably won’t care too much ...

As numbers approaching a thousand head to Orange County, CA, for the California MBA’s Western Secondary, keeping an eye on the remnants of a hurricane, it is not an easy lending environment with mortgage rates at 20-year highs, firmly in the 7’s. Thomas Edison believed, "Vision without execution is hallucination." Many owners of lenders and vendors had very good vision and execution some years ago when creating their companies. But thinking that 2020 and 2021 woul...

Time flies, and we’re more than halfway through the 3rd quarter. Few lenders and vendors look forward to heading into the autumn or winter of any year, and with the U.S. 10-year up to 4.30 percent, millions of borrowers content with low rates thanks to us, and with four consecutive negative prints in MBA mortgage applications, the demand for mortgages is now roughly 9 percent lower compared to the last positive print on July 14th. With mortgage rates hovering around 7.5 percent, we can al...

If I am not borrowing money, the impact of higher rates isn’t a big direct hit to my lifestyle or spending. But if I had a credit card from Kohl’s, paying 30 percent would sure dissuade me from buying something and putting it on “layaway.” Lowe’s? 28.99 percent. Nordstrom’s is over 31 percent! With credit card debt moving about $1 trillion for the first time ever, something has to slow down, right? Today I head to Las Vegas, forecast 103 degrees, and I h...

Sorry the commentary is a little late this morning. I received an email from my IT department that I needed to change my username and password. It took me a few minutes to remember that I didn’t have an IT department. Beware of those phishing expeditions! Technology… if it weren’t for my pets or grandparents, I don’t know what I’d do for passwords. There are obviously pluses from technology, of course, and thank you to Steve Richman who told me about Canva, a m...

For anyone attending the California MBA’s Western Secondary starting this weekend, here’s a challenge too good for any tennis players to pass up. Augie Del Rio, CEO of Gallus Insights, and I will play doubles against anyone Sunday afternoon from 2-4PM across the street from the Waldorf. The loser of 2 out of 3 sets pays $500, the winner gets to decide the charity. First two to email Augie snags the opportunity. (I don’t know Augie’s skill level, but I am old… i...

A general discussion topic of those here at the MMLA conference in Michigan is the ups and downs we’re all facing. While mortgage applications drift down, and industry headcounts go down, and towns on Maui like Lahaina burn down, here’s something that isn’t going down: credit card debt. Talk to any underwriter or loan officer and they will tell you that loans have become more difficult, in part because of borrower debt loads, and sure enough credit card balances hit $1.03 tr...

“Once things were so tough for me, I worked at a cheap pizza shop to get by. I kneaded the dough.” Things are indeed tough out there. The other day I caught my cat Myrtle at the keyboard, apparently trying to show my new granddaughter Kozette how to apply for a loan to buy a tuna fishing boat. (I know, there’s a lot going on here.) Anyway, up on the screen was a website that will generate a paystub given whatever information you provide. How’d you like to be an underw...

Lending continues to be intertwined with legal and compliance issues. Here’s a story from overnight that is catching a lot of attention: “Equifax stock falls after saying it received a CID from the CFPB.” The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) agreed to drop its challenge to Intercontinental Exchange Inc.’s (ICE) proposed deal with Black Knight Inc. in a joint stipulation that allows them to work toward a settlement. Lender ToolKit is suing Celebrity Home Loans and MLD. a...