There are more stars in the universe than words ever uttered by all the humans who ever lived. (That’s a good line for tonight’s Happy Hour.) Money, on the other hand, is finite, and catching everyone’s attention this morning is a) Zillow telling us that 37% of U.S. homes are free and clear of a mortgage, and b) the Equifax settlement for $700 million in its 2017 data breach settlement from a consumer class action suit on behalf of 145 million people. The deal includes $77.5 million in attorney fees, per one story, and $300 million for credit monitoring – about $2 per head. I don’t know how this helps me, as my guess is that someone in a foreign land now has all of my “private” information. Can’t we take the billions that will be spent on space exploration, of dubious direct value to my family’s quality of life, and send some toward cyber security, or road & bridge repair? Okay, I’ll stop ranting.

Lender Products and Services

National MI has been approved to provide private mortgage insurance on conventional mortgage loans backed by the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA), effective September 5, 2019. CalHFA supports the needs of California renters and homebuyers by providing financing and programs to state residents. The agency works with approved mortgage lenders to offer low interest rate loans to low- to moderate-income homebuyers in California. CalHFA’s single family division provides first mortgage loans and down payment assistance to first-time homebuyers who meet specific requirements. “National MI is thrilled to begin working with CalHFA and its approved lenders in our home state of California, especially at a time when affordability has become such a challenge for would-be homebuyers in California,” said Mike Dirrane, chief sales officer and senior managing director with National MI. Dirrane is also the chairman of MassHousing, a Boston-based affordable housing agency for the state of Massachusetts. “Our approval with CalHFA also furthers our mission of expanding homeownership opportunities to deserving borrowers.”

“How do you dominate the NON-QM market? With Impac’s newly improved guidelines and enhanced rates! For example, our new investor product guidelines now allow your borrowers to qualify off an I/O payment. Landlord experience is no longer required (in most cases) and short-term rentals are also allowed. Vacant properties, with a 20% vacancy factor, qualify too - just some ways we’ve made it easier to qualify. Get the full scoop and receive a special offer on your next loan by attending our SoCal NQM Event at the Hotel Irvine on Wednesday, August 7th. Seating is limited and filling up quickly, so RSVP today! We’ll show you new ways to grow your business and say yes to more borrowers.” And as noted above, IMPAC continues to grow rapidly and is hiring motivated AEs to join its Inside Sales Team in Irvine, CA. Contact National Inside Sales Manager, Jim Mitchell, to apply.

Freddie Mac Single-Family is ALL FOR building the future of home. Affordable lending is evolving and Freddie Mac is ALL IN on providing solutions that enable emerging populations to achieve the dream of HOME. We are changing perceptions by developing products and resources that drive real opportunities for businesses while creating a renewed sense of access for borrowers. Read an Executive Perspective from Danny Gardner, Senior Vice President, Freddie Affordable Lending and Access to Credit, that highlights the value of education and strategic outreach to overcome barriers to homeownership. In addition, don’t miss Freddie Mac’s take on The Future of Affordable Lending in Housingwire. Learn more about All For Home SM, Freddie Mac’s approach to affordable lending, and discover key insights to inform your business and take advantage of solutions and tools that will further enable your borrowers to make Home Possible®. All in.  All of us.  All For Home.

“As a lender, accuracy is critical to your operation. Nevertheless, retrieving Trailing Documents is the part of the process that gets the least scrutiny. Signatures are missed. Documents are misplaced. Deadlines come and go. Fines accrue. At DocProbe, we understand your frustration, and take over the tedious task of retrieving, auditing, correcting, and shipping every deed and title policy on time. Our internal process provides a full-service solution, accepting responsibility for all aspects of the work, end-to-end. Documents are sent from the title company or county to DocProbe and then directly to the investor. Every document is accounted for. We audit records for accuracy and manage all needed corrections. Our proprietary LOS-integrated software allows you to track pending documents and stay informed, without having to be involved. With DocProbe, there are no errors, missed deadlines or penalties. Guaranteed. Our simple onboarding process makes it easy to get started. Email Nick Erlanger or call us at 866-486-0554.”

Here’s a free webinar: “What The Top 5 Banks Don’t Want You To Know About Selling Conventional Loans.” Think selling conventional loans are too much work for too little money? The big lenders count on that mindset and make billions in the 80% of the loan market you're not fishing in. If the bulk of your business is in the govy pond, you can't afford to miss this webinar with NMP and Monster Lead Group, where we reveal the statistics and strategy of how to create explosive loan revenue in any market, regardless of rates. You'll learn exactly how to make this strategy work for your business even if you're a small lender or don't have a large marketing budget. In this webinar, you will learn: - The top 3 reasons small companies don't fish in the same ocean as the big lenders; - Why just focusing on VA and FHA is the biggest mistake many brokers and lenders make; - How to build a predictable, successful conventional line of business without going broke. Did you miss it? Don’t worry - watch the replay here for free .

Vendor News Bits

Insellerate (the true mortgage CRM and the industry leader in intelligent borrower engagement) has added Neil Sahota, IBM Master Inventor, United Nations Artificial Intelligence (AI) subject matter expert and noted author to its board of advisors to enhance its AI technology and strategy.

New Capital Partners, a private equity firm in Birmingham, AL, announced that it has partnered with ARMCO (web-based quality assurance software for the financial services industry). “ARMCO provides a wide range of mortgage quality control, compliance and transaction risk management technologies. Its product line includes loan quality enterprise software, services, data and analytics, and the flagship product, ACES Audit Technology™, is used at virtually every point in the mortgage life cycle, setting the industry standard for user definability.”

Richey May and Co. posted a Client Alert regarding the state of California’s enforcement of regulatory requirements resulting in an increase of consent orders and penalties from improper calculation of per diem interest on loans originated in California.

Mortgage Coach announced the release of its new Advice Engine that offers the quick creation of a Total Cost Analysis with pre-defined strategy templates. The Advice Engine also includes coaching tips and scripts. Get a preview here.  

OpenClose has completed its integration with Vice Capital Markets resulting in advanced hedging automation. The integration takes loan-level lock data from OpenClose’s LenderAssist™ LOS and securely transmits it directly to Vice Capital’s hedging platform. This eliminates multiple manual steps and potential “break-points” in the overall process thus saving time, reducing errors, and increasing visibility that results in optimized position management.

AI Foundry’s newest capability, mortgage document model, will enable the mortgage industry to use AI to replace multi-week manual processes. Machine vision provides classification and extraction without human interaction; expands company’s breakthrough AI-driven mortgage processing solution. The document model includes an extensive set of standard mortgage document types and common variants. It incorporates the latest in AI, machine learning and machine vision to deliver a higher level of automated classification and data extraction capabilities. This document model capability will enable the mortgage industry to use AI to replace multi-week manual processes, so that mortgages can be processed from “application to underwriting” in days, not weeks.

Capital Markets

Rates continue to focus more on the Fed’s moves rather than economic news and went up slightly last week. Why? The 10-year closed yielding 2.05 percent, which is still pretty low, but the Federal Reserve Bank of New York clarified that comments made by President Williams yesterday were not meant to imply that an aggressive rate cut will be made on July 31. One could forgive 10-year Treasury traders who took off after jobs day and came back to work Friday for thinking that nothing’s happened, as the 10-year Treasury yield reversed almost all of the rise from two weeks ago, while the two-year touched levels not seen since prior to the payrolls print. While the clarification reduced expectations for a 50-bps rate cut to below 25 percent by the end of the day after rising above 60 percent Thursday afternoon, President Trump tweeted that he preferred the initial interpretation of the remarks made by Mr. Williams. No surprise there.

What would a week be without geopolitical tensions? Iran said it seized a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, heightening tensions in the critical waterway. The U.K. government said a second, Liberian-flagged vessel was taken as well. Those incidents follow both a July 11 move by the British navy to stop Iran from blocking a commercial oil tanker leaving the Persian Gulf, and an incident in early July when U.K. forces seized a tanker off Gibraltar that was suspected of carrying Iranian oil to Syria. Iran denied the vessel was heading to Syria and has since vowed to retaliate. Oil climbed on news of the Iranian action.

There were fresh reports that the European Central Bank plans to launch another round of quantitative easing by November. They are talking about the Italian government collapsing. Speaking of European banking, the highlight of this week’s economic calendar is most likely the latest decision from the ECB on Thursday, where markets are currently pricing a 50 percent probability that the deposit rate will be cut by 10 bp to -0.50 percent.

The week gets off to a quiet start regarding the domestic calendar, with only the Chicago Fed National Activity Index for June (-.02) out today. Things kick back up tomorrow with the May FHFA Housing Price Index, and June Existing Home Sales before June New Home Sales on Wednesday. Thursday sees the largest slate of releases, including June Advance Retail Inventories, June Advance Wholesale Inventories, and June Durable Orders. The week closes with arguably the most important print of the week Advance Q2 GDP and advance Q2 GDP Deflator, both expected to increase 1.8 percent. But we begin the week with Agency MBS prices better/up nearly .125 and the 10-year yielding 2.03%.

Employment

A “best in class” VA and FHA lender who has experienced unprecedented growth is looking for 2 VPs who can bring an experienced, loyal team of multi-state licensed consumer direct mortgage bankers capable of handling a high inbound call volume. Ideal candidates must have expert knowledge of VA or FHA loan programs and managing large sales teams. Leaders will be responsible for managing the sales force and call conversions of an abundance of customer calls looking to refinance at or above our company standards. Lead conversion, pricing and loan structure skills must be exceptional. It is required for the team to generate complete mortgage applications, ensuring appropriate company procedures and policies are followed, while meeting sales goals and objectives. Contact Anjelica Nixt with confidential resumes or questions.

Mortgage Banking CPAs, a division of CWDL is looking for an Audit Manager. “Flexible hours and remote opportunities aren’t the only perks at the firm. At CWDL, our mission is to exceed the expectations of our clients by providing transformational advisory services. Our interpersonal core value is to have a positive and fun team-focused work environment where we enjoy our team members and our clients. For our clients, we have invested relationships, see beyond (what they think they want), think outside the box and always strive to exceed expectations. If these values match what you are looking for in your next position, we encourage you to apply. Come be a part of a growing team that is committed to the mortgage banking industry. Contact Mark Wilson with confidential notes of interest.

IMPAC continues to grow rapidly! “We are hiring motivated Account Executives to join our Inside Sales Team in Irvine, CA. Contact National Inside Sales Manager, Jim Mitchell, to apply.”