The Department of Veterans Affairs has issued new guidance and some servicing reminders in connection with mobile-home foreclosures, consent judgments, servicer transfers, liquidation appraisal fees and others.VA servicers must specifically refer to the mobile home in foreclosure declaration documents to ensure that both the home and the land are properly foreclosed, the VA said. Many states require two separate foreclosure procedures for every transaction – one to foreclose the interest on the land and the other to foreclose on the title of the mobile home. The VA said foreclosure on the title of the mobile home may have to be filed with state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). When a VA loan on a home on wheels is referred to foreclosure, the servicer must inform the foreclosing attorney that it is a mobile home and whether a DMV filing is required. The VA will reconvey the mobile home to the ...

The Department of Veterans Affairs has clarified the type of documents lenders would need to provide clear and marketable title for conveyed properties to the VA in all states and U.S. territories. Under VA rules, each conveyance or transfer of real property to the VA shall be acceptable if “the holder covenants or warrants against the acts of the holder and those claiming under the holder (e.g. by special warranty deed).” In addition, the conveyance would be acceptable if it entitles the VA Secretary to such title as is or if it is acceptable to prudent lenders, informed buyers, title companies and attorneys, generally in the community in which the property is located. The VA said its determination of clear and marketable title depends on state statutory requirements. As a general requirement, documents for proper conveyance of clear and marketable title to the VA include the ...

Issuance of jumbo MBS has fallen off since mortgage disclosure requirements set by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took effect in October. While the slowdown in jumbo MBS issuance has been blamed on TRID, there still appears to be plenty of demand from secondary market investors for jumbo whole loans. Redwood Trust’s jumbo origination and sales volume has been humming along without much impact from the CFPB’s combined Truth in Lending Act and ...

Falling interest rates pounded the earnings of publicly traded nonbank lenders in early 2016 by forcing them to take huge writedowns on their mortgage servicing rights. The nine nonbank lenders tracked by Inside Mortgage Trends reported a combined $510.0 million loss in the first quarter, following a $12.7 million loss in the previous period. Back in the first quarter of 2015, the group had a combined $104.5 million in net income from their ... [Includes one data chart]

If you’re searching for some good news on the troubled PHH Corp., look no further than the book value of the company’s common stock, which is roughly $23 a share, according to a recent calculation from Sterne Agee CRT. In trading late this week, PHH’s share price was a mere $12.60, which means there appears to be plenty of upside as long as management can right the troubled ship and find a way forward as private-label clients fall to the wayside and servicing "marks" ...

Two lenders are returning to the structured finance market in an uncommon way, participating in a $210 million mortgage warehouse securitization. The transaction involving agency originations received provisional AAA ratings from Moody’s Investors Service last week. Station Place Securitization Trust 2016-3 will be backed by a revolving pool of agency mortgages originated by Greentree Mortgage and loanDepot. The two lenders participated in a similar $225 million deal ...

A preliminary analysis of 2015 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act reports suggests that loan denial rates declined slightly last year. ComplianceTech, a supplier of fair lending and HMDA technologies for lenders and others, recently released an “EarlyLook” at its online Lending Patterns database of HMDA reports. A group of 175 lenders had a combined $730.9 billion in mortgage originations last year, up 35.7 percent from its volume back in 2014. The 175 aren’t necessarily the ...

The practice of an individual investor purchasing a property, fixing it up and reselling it for a profit – an activity so prevalent before the financial crisis that it spawned television shows – is making a return, especially in certain markets, according to CoreLogic. “Flipping was at an all-time high before the housing bubble burst because of easy access to credit and speculation for higher home prices,” said Bin He, principal economist at CoreLogic, in a recent blog post ...

Altisource Residential Corp. this week reached an agreement with a group of activist investors who control about 2.5 percent of the company’s stock and were concerned about the firm’s shift toward the single-family rental market. Altisource agreed to add two new independent directors and continue a $100 million stock buyback initiative. The so-called RESI Shareholders Group led by BLR Partners, a private equity firm, agreed to withdraw its nominations for replacements of ...

Freddie Mac posted a net loss and Fannie’s profits sagged in the first quarter of the year, prompting some industry groups to renew their calls for the GSEs to rebuild capital. A surprise interest rate decline in the first quarter of 2016 resulted in sharply lower net income at Fannie and Freddie. The GSEs booked a combined $7.37 billion in net derivative losses for the first quarter that compromised most of their income from their core businesses. Since 2012, when the two GSEs became profitable again, they have booked $23.46 billion in hedging losses. Both GSE CEOs pointed to volatility in the market as having affected earnings this quarter.