I want an Ethereum-powered home loan! It doesn’t matter that I don’t know what Ethereum is; apparently they’re on their way to NY and CA. “Tokenizing the house” doesn’t sound warm and friendly, but now you can add Fluidity and Propellr to the list of companies other lenders will fret about, or the list of fintech companies that take a stab at home lending and find out how complicated it is. What about something old-fashioned like… naming a stadium? Guaranteed Rate general counsel Neil Hayes was involved when G- Rate needed legal help renaming the White Sox stadium in 2016. Here's a look at legal's role in purchasing a baseball field's naming rights, and the negotiations that followed.

Lender Products and Services

Are you a broker or correspondent looking for a long-term partner to help you originate single-close construction (One-Time Close) or renovation loans? A partner who has expertise with FHA, VA, and USDA loans, as well as conventional products? A partner whose knowledge and understanding of the manufactured home space is able to help you grow your business into these markets? A partner large enough to offer the full breadth of capabilities you need, yet small enough to personalize those capabilities to your business needs? Then, look no further than AFR. For over 20 years, AFR has been providing their business partners with industry-leading technology, ready-to-use marketing materials, a wealth of professional expertise and convenient education opportunities. Plus, it also offers an impressive range of products and value-added services. Find out even more by visiting www.afrwholesale.com. Questions? Email sales@afrwholesale.com or call 1-800-375-6071.

“TCF Bank’s Relationship Lending Unit is excited to announce that we have reduced margins in a number of our credit and CLTV buckets, with pricing as low as Prime minus .51%. ‘Our goal at TCF is to continually provide our valued partners the ability to meet their customers’ growing HELOC needs,’ said Mark Zierott, SVP, National Sales Director at TCF. Couple that with TCF’s recent announcement to pay 1% of the loan amount, no less than $750 nor more than $1500, on a Stand-Alone transaction and TCF continues to be the HELOC partner of choice for loan officers. Please contact your existing Business Development Manager (BDM) for more details.  If you are not currently an approved partner, please email us or visit our site for more details.”

LoanCraft is working to develop and expand its vision for how pricing technology should help wholesalers deliver their product. LoanCraft’s technology goes beyond automating rate sheets and providing pricing for standard QM agency programs with a variety of tools embraces a wide range of loan types and non-agency or non-QM business. If you’re a wholesale lender who wants pricing technology to help you deliver innovative products, they want to talk to you. Contact Ron George or visit LoanCraft’s website to obtain its white paper: “Engineering Pricing Technology So Wholesalers Can Deliver Innovation.”

“Vendor oversight is becoming increasingly complex, and without a technology solution in place to manage vendors, your organization’s data, operations, and reputation are all at risk. Introducing Vendorly®, a SaaS-based TPRM solution designed for and by vendor management professionals. Leverage our real-world experience of sitting on your side of the table and managing in excess of 55,000 vendors. Learn how to automate your vendor management program by leveraging integrations with the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database, OFAC and other leading data providers. Click to watch Vendorly’s short informative video to learn more.”

“It’s about time the east coast had its first-ever Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference. And to celebrate, TMS is proud to sponsor the happy hour event at MBA/MW - MMBBA MARC 2019. Join us for drinks and networking at 5pm on Tuesday, May 14th in the MGM Grand Ballroom. While there be sure to find TMS Correspondent SVP Joseph Villani or email him to schedule a meeting.

Disaster Updates

Every lender and investor have policies and procedures triggered by a declaration announcement by FEMA.

Ginnie Mae is utilizing technology to stay on top of natural disasters by developing its own dashboard aimed at tracking disaster-related risk. Ginnie Mae said the dashboard allows it “to get ahead of the curve, assess potential loss exposure and understand the magnitude of disasters’ impact on first-time homebuyers, low-income borrowers and veterans.” The dashboard provides real-time risk assessments and a forecasting component to estimate potential future impacts of natural disasters. Users can test different scenarios, model stress on lenders and measure default risk.

Mortgage Solutions Financial issued a revised Announcement 09-19C regarding the Iowa Flooding, a revised announcement regarding the Nebraska Flooding Disaster Alert and an announcementregarding the Alaska earthquake disaster.

loanDepot Wholesale/Correspondents’ weekly newsletter covers updates to Jumbo and Credit Advantage, disaster declarations for additional Nebraska counties and April key dates.

Freedom Mortgage Wholesale issued a Flood Notification Reminder: On table funded loans, the Flood Notification Disclosure is mailed to the borrower by Freedom Mortgage once it is determined that the property is or will be in a flood zone. On warehouse purchase loans, the Flood Notification Disclosure must be provided to the borrower by the client. The flood certification ordered by Freedom Mortgage is available in the Document Center for your reference.

SunWest Mortgage Company released updated information regarding FEMA declaration of Nebraska as Major Disaster Areas.

On April 11th with DR-4420, FEMA granted federal disaster aid with individual assistance to 12 additional NE counties affected by flooding during the period of 3/9/2019, through 4/1/2019. An Incident Period End Date was also noted. Contact AmeriHome Mortgage Company for its inspection requirements.

First Community Mortgage posted Wholesale Announcement 2019-09 with Nebraska disaster.

LoanDepot Wholesale/Correspondent published its weekly announcement with information on Sun-setting its 40-year Interest Only Program, Signed 4506T for Business and Disaster Declaration Additional Counties.

Fifth Third Correspondent posted links for the FEMA disaster declaration specific to counties in Nebraska and Alabama.

FEMA has declared the Nebraska counties of Butler, Dodge, Sarpy, Cass, Douglas, Saunders, Colfax, Nemaha and Washington as disaster areas. Iowa counties of Fremont, Monona, Harrison, Woodbury and Mills have also been declared as affected by the recent severe storms. Loans in these counties must be in adherence with the Mr. Cooper Disaster Area Lending guidelines. To view the Disaster Area Lending guidelines for Mr. Cooper (and Mr. Cooper formerly Pacific Union), see the respective Seller Guides in the Mr. Cooper libraries within AllRegs.

SunWest Mortgage Company posted information regarding the FEMA disaster update for Iowa.

CoreLogic has integrated its Instant Merge credit and flood services with LendingPad’s cloud-based, loan origination system (LOS). This integration helps LendingPad stay at the forefront of industry innovations by providing mortgage professionals with the ability to modernize the complex LOS, streamline the origination process and lower overall costs. CoreLogic Flood Determinations are the most widely accepted and transferable Life of Loan Determinations on the market. CoreLogic guarantees that its Flood Determinations meet all federal regulatory requirements. Using the Standard Flood Hazard Determination Form from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Flood Determinations provide all the information necessary to determine whether flood insurance is available or required.

Capital Markets

U.S. Treasuries finished last week flat, including the 10-year closing unchanged yielding 2.46% as the news cycle throughout Friday revolved around tariffs on $200 billion worth of imports from China increasing to 25 percent from 10 percent overnight despite trade talks between the two nations in Washington. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin described Friday’s meeting with China's Vice Premier Liu He as "constructive," though reports allege U.S. negotiators told their Chinese counterparts that tariffs will be imposed on the remaining imports from China if trade talks are not completed within the next three or four weeks. Atlanta Fed President Bostic did comment the Fed may have to cut rates if higher tariffs on imports from China begin having a negative effect on consumers and GDP.

The muted April CPI report from Friday should keep the Fed in a neutral state of policy-setting and does leave some uncertainty over what and when the Fed's next move will be. Elsewhere internationally, the Reserve Bank of Australia's latest quarterly statement assumed that the cash rate will be cut twice but showed no change in GDP growth expectations for 2020 and 2011; Japan's March Household Spending increased above expectations; Germany's March trade surplus beat estimates; and the U.K.'s Q1 GDP increased in-line with expectations.

Today’s calendar is light, headlined by Treasury auctioning $39 billion 3- and $36 billion 6-month bills at 11:30am. We also have two Fed speakers, Boston Fed President Rosengren and Vice Chair Clarida. Tomorrow, things kick back into swing with April NFIB Small Business Optimism Index and April Import/Export Prices. Wednesday brings the usual Weekly MBA Mortgage Index, but also April Retail Sales, May Empire State Manufacturing, April Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization, and March Business Inventories. Thursday sees jobless claims figures, April Housing Starts and Building Permits, and the week closes with April Leading Indicators and Preliminary May Michigan Consumer Sentiment. We begin today with Agency MBS prices better by .250 and the 10-year yielding 2.42% on tariff tension.

Employment

On Q Financial, Inc., one of the Top 50 mortgage lenders in the United States and licensed in 45 states, is looking for a Secondary Marketing Manager. On Q is looking for candidates with strong experience in hedging, loan sales, and managing investor relationships. Interested candidates should submit resumes to Erin Dueck. In addition, On Q is expanding its One-Time Close Construction Team and is looking for a Construction Project Specialist to complete project reviews and act as builder liaison.

Must have minimum of 5 years’ experience working with construction loan products. On Q offers One-Time Close Construction up to 95% LTV Conventional, FHA, VA, and USDA transactions for over two years and the pipeline is growing fast! Interested candidates should submit resumes to Lisa Sleeper. Also, if you are a Loan Officer with construction experience, we would love for you to join our team! Interested candidates should submit resumes to Nick Suwanvichit.

“IMPAC continues to lead the charge in Non-QM. IMPAC is growing rapidly and we are hiring Account Executives in, Utah, Washington, Oregon, Colorado and many other locations throughout the nation. For more information, contact Louise Woods. As a PIONEER of Non-QM lending, IMPAC offers valuable training, including: webinars, large events and in-office training – yours or ours. Our next exciting webinar is focused on our Bank Statement Program and is scheduled for Tuesday, May 21 at 10:00 AM PST. Don’t miss out, register now! Other training topics include: Asset Qualification – “Which assets can you use?” Investor Loan Program – “How do you calculate DCR accurately?” Loan Processor Training – “How to complete and submit a Non-QM loan file correctly.” Sales Growth Training – “How to increase your business with Non-QM.” Now is the time to explore the Non-QM marketplace with a partner that will help you succeed! Contact us today to get started.”

“Market Valuation Services ‘The Confident Choice in Appraisal Management’ is pleased to announce the addition of Cherie Pheiffer to our national sales team. She is a Texas native with more than 30 years’ experience in the mortgage industry. Cherie is based in Dallas, where she is president elect for the Dallas MBA. Her knowledge, professionalism, and customer focus make an excellent addition to the MVS team. MVS is a privately held corporation founded in 2010 headquartered in Atlanta. Facilitating the appraisal management process for more than 150 clients in all 50 states, MVS has a track record of brand consistency throughout tremendous growth. Our valued client partners appreciate the customizable and boutique approach we bring to each and every relationship.” MVS is actively seeking additional sales support in its West Coast and North East regions. Please contact Donna Stephens, National Sales Director.   

Wipro Gallagher Solutions (WGS), a leading provider of loan origination software solutions, and a Wipro Limited company, is seeking a Business Development Manager for sales and marketing activities for company’s multi-channel loan origination software solutions suite, NetOxygen. The BDM will be responsible for lead generation and follow-up, pipeline management, drafting proposals, solution selling, conducting product demonstrations, negotiating and closing deals. WGS currently offers both enterprise and hosted models that cover Tier I, Tier II, and Tier III lending institutions (banks, independent lending institutions). Experience in software sales to the financial industry, especially the mortgage and consumer lending arena, is required. An understanding of the mortgage origination process and/or consumer lending process, and exposure to state & federal regulations in mortgage/consumer compliance, is a major plus. If mortgage specific experience is lacking, then prior financial services or credit product experience will be an advantage. Please contact Girija Murali.

Apex Lending in Santa Ana, CA is excited to announce that industry veteran Kyle Tague has joined its team as Vice President of Sales. After nearly two decades with Flagstar Bank he is a strong addition to Apex Lending’s efforts to expand its footprint and grow its branch network. The Company’s growth has been due to employing highly skilled professionals whom are dedicated to creating a productive environment and providing exceptional service. Apex is actively seeking Loan Officers for its Orange County office and branches in several states across the country. If you are an originator or producing branch looking for competitive pricing and corporate transparency, please contact careers@apexlending.com.

Congrats to Rob Porges who has joined Flatworld Solutions as a Senior Partner, responsible for managing sales of Flatworld’s growing mortgage and financial services client base as well as driving new business and awareness of Flatworld’s broadening customer solutions and brand.