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BrokerWire
Irwin Reports $22.2M Loss
May 8, 2008
Irwin Financial Corp., a bank holding company and mortgage lender based in Columbus, Ind., has reported a net loss of $22.2 million ($0.77 per share) for the first quarter, compared with a net loss of $10 million ($0.22 per share) in the first quarter of 2007.
HUD Extends RESPA Comment Period
May 8, 2008
Bowing to congressional pressure, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has extended the comment period on its Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act reform proposal for 30 days.
WaMu Tagged 'Bear of the Day'
May 7, 2008
Washington Mutual has been tagged as the "Bear of the Day" for May 7 by Zacks Equity Research, Chicago.
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Featured Grapevine Thread
A Grapevine poster asks for suggestions on how to handle a client with a balloon mortgage.
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This Week from Broker Magazine
This week's featured story from Broker
Magazine, our sister publication:
The Inside Corner
By Brad Finkelstein
Whenever the Florida Association of Mortgage Brokers holds its annual convention in the Orlando area, those
of us who stay at other hotels in the area and drive to the show are forced to use an overflow parking lot in Disney
World.
It was in 2005 on a bus from the parking lot to the convention hotel that I first met Richard Bitner, who was then
the president of Kellner Mortgage Investments.
We started talking about the company and one of the things that interested me was his business card, which looked
just like a baseball trading card.
Mr. Bitner was a speaker at the conference and talked about, among other things, how mortgage brokers need to rate
their wholesalers on the service levels they were receiving.
Read on...
Ask the Experts
Success with Subprime
untitled
Brian Sacks, mortgage expert, branch manager, trainer, and speaker gives advice on how to increase sales and
improve your business. This week's article: Consumer Credit Counseling How Long Does Information Stay on a Credit
Report?
Credit information can, and usually does, stay on a person's credit report for seven years. Collections stay
on the report for seven years from the date of last activity – whether that is the date that the account was filed
as a collection or the date the account was paid in full. Here's an example:
"Jane Borrower" had a collection for $300 filed against her in October of 1994, and she hasn't paid
it. It is now September of 2001, so in a few weeks that collection can come off of her credit report. (She will
probably have to request of all three credit bureaus that they take it off.) However, Jane has applied for a loan
today, and the loan officer tells her that she has to pay off that debt in order to be approved. Since she has
the money, she pays it off. Because the date of last activity is now September 2001, the collection will show on
her report until September 2008 – another seven years.
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more...
Legal Corner
 Prominent
attorney Herman Thordsen gives his advice and opinions on issues of law in the mortgage world.
ARIZONA ENACTS CONSUMER CREDIT FREEZE LAW
FACTS
Effective Aug, 31, 2008 Arizona will allow consumers to "freeze" their credit reports and prevent
consumer reporting agencies from releasing credit information to third parties without the express authorization
of the consumer. Mortgage lenders and brokers are affected and are allowed to treat an application for credit as
incomplete if unable to access a consumer's credit report due to a security freeze. (allregs42108)
MORAL
Tell the consumer if I cannot get to your credit, then neither any lender nor I can get you a loan. Or first
ask the borrower if (s)he has put a credit freeze with any or all of the three bureaus so you are not surprised
later.
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATION PROPOSES A DEED THAT WILL TRANSFER REAL PROPERTY ON DEATH OF THE OWNER
FACTS
AB 250 creates the revocable transfer on death deed, which transfers real property on the death of its owner
without a probate proceeding. The bill requires a person have testamentary capacity to make or revoke the deed
and requires the deed be in a statutory form provided for this purpose. The revocable TOD deed must be signed,
dated, and acknowledged, as specified, and recorded, as specified, to be effective. The deed, during the
owner's life, does not affect his or her ownership rights and, specifically, is part of the owner's estate for
the purpose of Medi-Cal eligibility and reimbursement. The bill voids a revocable TOD deed if, at the time of the
owner's death, the property is titled in joint tenancy or as community property with right of survivorship. The
bill establishes priorities for creditor claims against the owner and the beneficiary of the deed in connection
with the property transferred and limits on the liability of the beneficiary. The bill establishes a process for
contesting the transfer of real property by a revocable TOD deed. (AB 250)
MORAL
The lawyers' right to work act. It provides exceptions for joint tenancy and community property deeds but what
if the title is broken by one party secretly executing a quitclaim deed to convert their joint tenancy share or
community property share to tenancy in common and then do the TOD? Interesting question when you think about it.
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to read more.
What We're Hearing
By Paul Muolo
Back in 1969 while sitting at a kitchen table in Manhattan, two out-of-work mortgage professionals came up with an idea to create a nationwide mortgage lender. They were out of work because both had been employed at a non-bank lender whose new owners wanted to play games with the escrow funds of their customers (more on that tale at a later date). The two, Angelo Mozilo and David Loeb, created Countrywide Credit Industries, which eventually morphed into Countrywide Financial Corp. Come Sept. 30, Bank of America (once it buys CFC) will pull the plug on the Countrywide name. After almost 40 years it will be no more. Over the past few months CFC has become a punching bag for Sen. Charles Schumer of New York who has criticized the servicer's foreclosure practices as being (shall we say) less than consumer friendly. Mr. Mozilo was invited to testify before Sen. Schumer's committee on foreclosures but declined to appear. The hearing was held this past week in Washington. Mr. Mozilo is, presumably, preparing for retirement...
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Market Conditions
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read Market Conditions...
Database
In this section of BrokerUniverse we showcase the mortgage data and statistics offered by our sister site, MortgageStats.com.
In its regular quarterly survey, MortgageStats.com assesses the production of the top 150 prime and subprime lenders
and servicers around the country. In addition to its proprietary data, MortgageStats.com also provides compilations
of government data collected under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA).
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more...
Quality Time
April Showers Bring May Flowers
The weather has been absolutely lovely, at least where I live and I hope where you live also, with just enough sunshine and plenty of flowers and birds and those other nice outdoorsy things the poets have been talking about for ages. I was thinking that since Mother's Day is this weekend it might be nice to take your mother, or your sister, or your aunt, or your daughter, or your cousin, or possibly yourself to the arboretum to celebrate. Luckily for me several arboretums also thought this was an excellent idea and have various programs and brunches already planned.
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to read more...
Boomer Box
Reviews for baby boomers that still listen to music
Needle Drops
You Boomers will remember what a needle drop is (as well as you hip hop scratchers). Back in the days of vinyl, if you didn’t want to hear a side in the order it came on the LP, you grabbed the arm before the automatic device got it and dropped the needle on the track you wanted to hear (causing many scratches, by the way!). I was a champion needle dropper in my day, but alas with age I find my hand-eye coordination not up to the job anymore.
But maybe this will work out if I only drop the needle on track one of each side of a vinyl disk. (Obviously CDs are much less clumsy to use but you do lose something, what Bruce Springsteen called the strategic “four corners” of a record. CDs have but two corners.) And this way, I’ll be able to give my reflections on an entire record track by track.
Better make it a good one, then! Top 20 all-time, if possible! So I went to the old record collection and pulled out one of my remembered favorites of all time, the first Led Zeppelin record.
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Making the Sale
Sales and management ideas from Broker magazine, our
sister publication:
Ten Simple Rules for a Happier Life: The Art of Making Lemonade
By Brad Finkelstein
Psychologist Patricia A. Farrell said that when life gets tough, she finds such clichés as 'you've made
your bed, now lie in it' or 'when the going's tough, the tough get going,' not to be helpful.
So she created some rules based on the belief that we can make things better for ourselves and that we are in
control, if only we'll recognize it.
"There are, indeed, ways to change our lives in very important ways. I learned from one of my wisest graduate
school instructors that even job loss can be something you can turn around in a positive way. He used to call it
'career exploration' and he said that you should try many jobs and many careers in order to find the one that was
right for you. How many people really think that way when they choose their life's work? So, whether you've gotten
your 'rules of life' from your family or your school training, let's begin to change things, for the better, starting
today," Ms. Farrell said.
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Special Reports
In this section of BrokerUniverse we examine a subject of key importance
for mortgage originators every month, based on special reports that run in our sister publication, Origination News.
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read more.
The Paper Warehouse
This section of BrokerUniverse features useful documents
contributed by members of the Grapevine community.
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read more.
Conference Calendar
July 16 - 17
Commercial Loan Origination 301
CampusMBA Event
Embassy Suites Downtown
San Diego, CA
Tel: (800) 793-6222
More info September 23 - 25
16th Annual NJ Association of Mortgage Brokers Conference
The Borgata
Atlantic City, NJ
More info |
