The frothy prices being offered for MSRs are beginning to cool somewhat. “There’s definitely a tighter range on bids lately,” said Matt Maurer, managing director of MountainView Servicing Group.

Paul Rozo, who runs PRMG, told us that he is not a big fan of call centers and that every LO in his organization is a “hunter,” a sales person “who relies on referral business and/or handling their own marketing."

Buyback resolutions declined by 28 percent from the second quarter, even as the government-sponsored enterprises wrapped up large-scale settlements with a handful of their largest sellers.

Freedom Mortgage chief Stan Middleman sees a "vacuum" in the mortgage market caused by retreating commercial banks.

PennyMac is showing that it's hungry for mortgage servicing deals.

According to Alice Alvey of Indecomm Mortgage U, “many shops are reassessing originator comp plans for January 2014 to adjust to the changing margins and seize the opportunity to blame it on the change in the law."

There was no surprise about why. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae securitized a total of $41.71 billion of refinance loans in October, down 22 percent from the previous month.

If a residential loan officer isn't doing at least six units per month, should he (or she) be fired?

The mortgage slowdown will separate the men from the boys, the girls from the ladies. It's time to fire all underperforming loan officers, says mortgage consultant David Lykken.

More players are entering the mortgage servicing market even with all the challenges besetting the sector, from the new national servicing standards to Basel III capital requirements, according to industry experts. With megabanks shrinking their mortgage businesses and servicing portfolios, small to medium-sized firms are stepping in to fill the gap, panelists observed during the recent Mortgage Bankers Association annual convention. Purchasers of mortgage servicing rights are mostly nonbanks with no ...