Ocwen Financial midweek agreed to buy PHH Corp. for roughly $360 million in cash, a deal that caught the market by surprise and has analysts and advisors wondering whether two money-losing lender/servicers can make a go of it in a tough origination market.

Both publicly traded nonbanks have struggled with profitability the past four years – but for different reasons.

Vanderbilt of Maryville, TN, is known mostly for its role as a financier of manufactured and modular homes.

As one servicing broker told Inside Mortgage Finance: “Wow. I didn’t see that coming.”

An investment banker who looked at the portfolio for one of his clients was at a loss regarding what direction Stearns might be taking…

Over the past 12 months, Stearns Lending has jettisoned its delegated correspondent lending platform and recently sold most of its $23.2 billion servicing portfolio, raising new questions about the company’s direction.

Invitation Homes, the nation’s largest single-family rental operator, lost $46.0 million in the fourth quarter...

PennyMac likely will use the proceeds to buy additional servicing rights…

Flagstar also will hire Santander’s “existing" warehouse relationship managers...

“The new year has all of us in the MSR market off to a running start as we see increases in mortgage rates and lower originations leading to greater demand, allowing for improved pricing of the MSR asset,” said Tom Piercy, managing director of Incenter Mortgage Advisors, Denver.