RE/MAX Holdings is working to place mortgage brokers in real estate brokerage locations using a franchise model that the firm has used to become the top residential home seller. Officials at RE/MAX stress that the Motto Mortgage effort is compliant with stringent regulations regarding the mixing of real estate agents and mortgage offerings. Dave Liniger, CEO of RE/MAX, said many real estate agents and brokerages are eager to work closely with loan originators. “However, compliance remains...
CEO Debra Still of Pulte Mortgage blamed low usage on the fact that Fannie and Freddie use different terminology and eligibility criteria for things like area median income.
PHH officials say the company has improved its servicing operations in recent years and agreed to the consent order “to avoid the distraction and expense of litigation.”
Mortgage lenders and servicers could see a dramatic change in the regulatory environment following the election of Donald Trump as president with a GOP-controlled Congress. During a campaign of many and sometimes conflicting promises, Trump vowed to repeal the Dodd-Frank Act, which would require Congressional action and, if carried out in its entirety, would abolish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Some observers think a more likely outcome is a restructuring of the CFPB itself and curbing of some regulatory and enforcement actions, perhaps with new leadership. Mortgage lending issues were...
The primary mortgage insurance market remained on track for its best year ever during the third quarter of 2016, as the government-insured sectors gained some ground on private MIs, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. Mortgage lenders originated a record $220.46 billion of home loans with some form of primary MI during the third quarter, a 16.6 percent increase from the previous period. That brought year-to-date primary MI activity to $553.77 billion, just $92.40 billion less than the all-time annual record of $646.17 billion set in 2015. The government-insured market – mostly FHA and VA – was...[Includes three data tables]
Come February 1 of next year, Fannie Mae will temporarily halt bulk transfers of mortgage servicing rights as it upgrades its reporting systems, a change the industry has known about for quite some time, but one that still promises to cause headaches. The moratorium runs from Feb. 1, 2017, through March 31, according to Fannie lender letter LL-2016-01, at a time when seller-servicers are implementing new investor reporting requirements. The government-sponsored enterprise is advising servicers that if they want to avoid disruption they “should not propose post-delivery servicing transfer effective dates that fall during” the two months. According to investment bankers that buy and sell servicing rights for a living, the moratorium can be worked...