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 Treasury bonds, and the supposed UMortgage financials (showing loans held for sale, typically the sign of a mortgage banker not a broker, but really, financials on Reddit?). For many IMBs, their goals by going to the MBA Annual here in Philadelphia include searching for the reason for the wide bid/ask spreads in MBS trading, the reason for the increased Agency buybacks (increased inspection rates and not taking chances on seller servicers not being around in the future, are usually mentioned as the culprits), finding the least expensive credit reporting company, a great HELOC and/or 2nd program, seeing what’s new with down payment assistance programs, and seeing the latest in under-served markets. There is, of course, the thread of continuing over-capacity, personnel, and technology cutbacks, as well as continuing to negotiate better deals with vendor partners. (By the way, anyone displaced can post their resume for free here where potential employers can view all the resumes for several months for only $75.) (Today’s podcast can be found here: Sponsored by nCino, maker of the nCino Mortgage Suite, built for the modern mortgage lender. The nCino Mortgage Suite unites the people, systems and stages of the mortgage process. Hear and interview with Fairway Independent’s Steve Jacobson on false reports of his company’s takeover and the problems with defamation.)