The VA condominium-financing process can be difficult for both veteran borrowers and lenders, according to experts at a recent VA lender conference. The big issue for borrowers is finding a condo development that has VA approval or one that can obtain approval quickly enough to complete the loan process in the shortest time possible. A development that has a high number of foreclosures, a significant number of condo owners that are behind on their association dues, or pending litigation against the homeowner association is unlikely to win VA approval, experts said. Such factors could put the VA and the lender at risk. As such, securing VA approval for a development is crucial. In 2009, VA stopped accepting HUD/FHA condo project approvals in lieu of a VA project review, said Phyllis Chilton, valuation officer at VA’s Phoenix regional loan center. Condo projects that were accepted previously by ...
The FHA has issued guidance to lenders and appraisers regarding problems that have arisen since the agency announced its Electronic Appraisal Delivery (EAD) portal in 2015. Effective June 27, FHA will require appraisals for new FHA originations to be submitted through the EAD. The portal’s use has been voluntary. Users without a valid user ID for accessing the EAD portal will be locked out of the system after the effective date, the FHA warned. Users that have not signed on the FHA Connection will lose their user ID. Only their organization’s FHAC application coordinator can reinstate them and restore access to the portal. “Hard stop” messages, which are built into the EAD portal, indicate data errors that must be resolved before the appraisal can be successfully transmitted to FHA. This helps avoid potential data conflicts between the portal and FHA. The FHA has identified five hard-stop errors ...
VA troubleshooters have identified the technical glitch that has prevented servicers from uploading current servicing data to the agency’s VALERI system. According to a VA spokesperson, the problem was caused by faulty uploading procedures, not by malware within the documents as earlier feared. “Dridex was originally suspected because we became aware of it at the same time the uploading problem occurred,” he explained. “Our warning to servicers was an emphasis on the side of caution.” The Dridex malware, which can go undetected, targets customers of financial institutions by stealing their personal information through HTML injections. The VA Loan Electronic Reporting Interface (VALERI) is a loan administration system that servicers use to oversee loan servicing, monitor loan defaults, and accept and pay claims and incentives. Servicers experiencing problems with uploading servicing data should immediately ...
The Department of Housing and Urban Development could soon face a technology crisis with roughly 87 percent of its antiquated information-technology systems dying or on the verge of collapse. The warning came from the HUD inspector general in a semiannual report to Congress. The report raised concerns about the poor state of HUD’s IT systems, “of which 87 percent are at or near the end of their life cycle.” These systems include 400 IT products that no longer have technical support, the report noted. The problem is so bad that HUD is having trouble doing mathematical ...
House Financial Services Committee Approves Flood Insurance Reform Measures.The House Financial Services Committee this week reported out several bills to reform and reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program, which is set to expire on Sept. 20, 2017. The bills that passed included H.R. 2875, the National Flood Insurance Program Administrative Reform Act of 2017, which would protect taxpayers from program fraud and abuse; H.R. 1588, the Repeatedly Flooded Communities Preparation Act, which would ensure community accountability for areas frequently damaged by floods; and H.R. 1422, the Flood Insurance Market parity and Modernization Act, which would increase the availability of private flood insurance. The committee also approved H.R. 2246, the Taxpayer Exposure Mitigation Act of 2017, which would shift flood insurance risk for commercial and multifamily properties in ...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit rebuffed arguments that would have subjected mortgage lenders and other secondary-market participants to increased liability under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. In a published opinion that appeared in the Banking Law Journal, the Fifth Circuit court rejected plaintiffs’ argument that mortgage investors that promulgate discriminatory lending guidelines could be held liable as the original creditor. ECOA prohibits...
Former Ginnie Mae president Ted Tozer stressed the importance of getting the post filled as soon as possible. “The way things are going, by yearend Ginnie will have $2 trillion of guarantees on its books,” he said.
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