Competition is the mainstay of many businesses and individuals. How does UPS compete to hire drivers for their trucks? One way might be to offer air conditioning, which has been negotiated for the first time. Lenders and vendors are led by competitive people, and several own interests in major or minor league sports franchises, the latest being Stan Middleman & the Phillies. Competition in the food and beverage industry? SF’s Anchor Steam was scaling back, Tupperware is in rough straits, and now the owner of Pyrex and Insta Pot is filing for bankruptcy! How is the public expected to keep its leftovers!? Builders are out there competing for lots. Residential lenders don’t compete with real estate agents, but NAR is always discussing its lobbying efforts. This week the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is hosting a national, industry-wide campaign to grow its free grassroots advocacy network, the Mortgage Action Alliance (MAA), a non-partisan and effective way to participate in the political process. It only takes a minute or two to sign up, and there is strength in numbers! (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s is sponsored by SimpleNexus, the homeownership platform that unites the people, systems, and stages of the mortgage process into one seamless, end-to-end solution that spans engagement, origination, closing, incentive compensation, and business intelligence. Today’s has an interview with CoreLogic’s Thom Malone on investor activity in the housing market and takeaways from the latest CoreLogic housing reports.)

Broker and Lender Services and Software

“Newrez Wholesale remains a leader in the affordable housing market. We continue to work closely with the agencies to enhance national homeownership for all groups of borrowers that dream of owning a home. We recently announced that we are accepting the new 2023 AMI limits effective with all applications dated on or after June 12th. Please reach out to your account executive for the latest details. Not a partner? It’s a great time to join forces with Newrez Wholesale.”

Lenders have a wealth of purchase leads in their CRMs. The trick is nurturing relationships with past customers, so they return when they are ready for their next home loan. Percy’s homeownership engagement solutions keep customers anchored to your brand long after close with captivating equity insights that showcase their home’s value and how it can be leveraged to fund home improvement projects, their next move, and more. Find out why hundreds of thousands of agents and their lender partners use Percy’s private label solutions to boost retention and referral business as a stand-alone solution or via our integration with Total Expert. Learn more here.

The introduction of ONE+ by Rocket Mortgage has provided Rocket Pro TPO’s mortgage broker partners, realtor networks and clients an incredible opportunity to engage and serve their communities like never before. Plus, the recent Area Median Income (AMI) updates for 2023 can open the door to more borrowers who may meet AMI requirements and benefit from ONE+! Designed for clients with an income less than or equal to 80 percent AMI, this product requires just a 1 percent down payment while Rocket Mortgage covers 2 percent with a grant, and clients are not responsible for paying the mortgage insurance! Next week, June 20th at 2pm ET, Rocket Pro TPO will offer its broker partners valuable Sales Pro Performance Training. This session is focused on ONE+ marketing, sales, and realtor engagement strategies! Hear and learn directly from their partners who are winning with this product today. Partners can enroll right from their portal or contact their AE for more information! Interested in learning more about a Broker or Non-Delegated Correspondent partnership? Contact Rocket Pro TPO to get started.

Training On Tap for Early Next Week!

Monday is a federal holiday, so there’s a lot crammed into the remaining days next week. Let’s see what’s going on in the early part of the week; more about the later part in Monday’s commentary.

The Indiana MBA's State Convention is June 19th and 20th at the French Lick Resort in French Lick, IN, the home of a retired basketball player named Larry Bird!

Learn How to Appraise Solar Panels, led by Instructor Mark Buhler; 2-day session; Monday & Tuesday, June 19th & 20th, 10am-1:30pm CT each day. 7h Live-Virtual CE. $155.95.

Don't miss MBA Secondary Session on Tuesday, June 20th, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm, A Day in the Life of the 2023 Secondary Manager. The session will review widening treasury and mortgage rate spreads, MBS Volatility, geo-politics, FED watching, credit availability, GSE changes, HPI shifts, volume, competition, products, MSR values and more.

Learn how to navigate Fannie Mae's latest updates with MMLA’s Lunch and Learn webinar, Tuesday, June 20th, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. Speaker Kristin Broadley, Chief Innovation Officer at QC Ally will discuss the latest changes on how QC & How to use it for improving your manufacturing process.

It’s time to renew your MBAH membership and enjoy member pricing at its Annual State Conference, June 20th-22nd packed with top notch speakers.

Register for Clear Capital’s upcoming webinar, June 20, 11:00 AM PST “How to adopt Fannie Mae’s Value Acceptance + Property Data program.” Learn the ins and outs of value acceptance + property data: benefits, use cases, and answers to common lender questions.

Built Technologies, on June 20th at 12 PM CST, has an exclusive webinar that will dive into proactive portfolio monitoring as Built’s experts share best practices for achieving greater visibility into your construction portfolio.

Join California MBA on Tuesday, June 20th at 11 AM PST for Part 2 of DE&I Committee's Appraisal Bias & Fair Lending discussions. Panel of experts will provide valuable insight into the latest industry trends and provide strategies to help lenders combat appraisal bias.

MBA's popular Single-Family Research & Economics Showcase provides the rare opportunity to hear directly from all the experts behind the key data you want and trust. Taking place

June 21st - 22nd, this online event features MBA's Research & Economics staff* who will dive into the most current results and insights from our residential surveys, forecasts, and reports. Get the intel you need from this in-depth program and receive valuable CPE credits. The two-day event will be recorded, register today to receive the recordings.

On Wednesday, June 21, at 1 p.m. ET, join Covius and Rocket Mortgage Servicing leadership, along with Allan Weiss (founder of Weiss Analytics & co-founder of the Case-Shiller-Weiss HPI), for a webinar on the state of today’s housing market: home values, where borrowers are most at risk for negative equity, the current regulatory environment and how to digitize the loss mitigation experience for the best borrower outcome.

If you’re in the Philly area June 21, 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM (EDT) and want to meet Realtors, the MBA of Eastern PA is hosting its first ever Summer Trifecta. It’s a networking opportunity for Loan Officers, Realtors and Title companies. It’s at an outside venue with an open bar and a live band! Plus, Realtors are free! More information and registration is here.

“At rebel iQ we built a solution that would not only give our clients more at-bats with consumers but also to be able to deliver these opportunities consistently. We launched rebel IGNTIE, which provides exclusive lead opportunities to our clients every month, guaranteed. On June 21st, we invite you to join our webinar June 21 at 9:30AM with our CEO Andrew Pawlak, EVP of Growth Jason Frazier, and Mortgage Marketing Expert Scott Schang, where they will show you the strategy that will put you in the best position for success in 2023.”

Don’t miss this opportunity to become approved for NAMB’s newest certification, the Certified Veterans Lending Specialist (CVLS). Register now for NAMB Southern Chapter (CVLS) Class, June 21st, 8am – 5pm in Tucson, AZ. Class fee for Professional, Affiliate and Associate Members is $199; Newly Licensed is $299; and Courtesy Associate Members and Non-Members is $399.

A Capital One survey found that 42 percent of Americans believe all adults automatically have a credit score, indicating a need for lenders to improve their financial education strategies to serve homebuyers more effectively. On June 21 at 1 PM ET, join CrossCountry Mortgage's Gina Myers, Enact's Amanda Richardson, and TrustEngine's Dave Savage as they tackle the most prevalent MI misconceptions. Register and seize this golden to help your clients access sustainable homeownership in a high-cost market.

Capital Markets

The Fed doesn’t set mortgage rates, but its opinions sure move bonds and therefore rates. Market participants were mostly right about the expected “hawkish pause” from the Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday, but what caused a stir was the revised forward guidance pointing to two more hikes this year: bond markets sold off amid the news. This historically aggressive round of monetary tightening from the Fed that followed a historically aggressive round of monetary loosening is now on pause for at least a month as the Fed wants to give the previous rate hikes time to have an observable impact, specifically on inflation. The U.S. economy doesn’t stop on a dime, but tightening cycles have triggered recessions consistently in the past and this cycle has been the most aggressive since the early 1980s, which caused the deepest recession since the Great Depression. The economy and job market are expected to soften further in the second half of 2023, further slowing inflation and eventually leading the Fed to start lowering interest rates by early 2024. Before then, fed funds futures see nearly a two-in-three chance for another hike in July, but are assigning a low probability for anything further. Measuring inflation has always been vaguely defined and to some is a hopeless task.

To say that annualized inflation in the U.S. over the past year was 4 percent, what does that really tell us? It's an average teased out of an arbitrary basket of goods and services with arbitrary weightings and composition. Each individual inflation rate is unique because each different basket of goods and services is unique and ever-changing in both its weighting and composition. In the words of Bank of Oklahoma’s Chris Maloney, “It's much like telling a ship's captain who is about to sail across the Atlantic that the average depth of that ocean is about 12,000 feet. How useful is that information to him? What he cares about is the actual depth for the route he will be using to cross.” There are a lot of individuals amongst the 330 million people in America with a land mass extending thousands of miles that are experiencing different rates of inflation. However, headline inflation numbers do matter because both investors and the Fed react to them, and that moves markets. Yesterday brought a flurry of economic data with higher-than-expected initial jobless claims (but still well below any historical recessionary averages) and May Retail Sales coming in above estimates. Spending was flat or up in May across nearly every retail category with the exception of gasoline stations and miscellaneous store retailers, which speaks to the persistent spending capacity of U.S. consumers who continue to be bolstered by a strong labor market. There was some welcome deflation in import and export prices, and total industrial production declined 0.2 percent month-over-month in May and the capacity utilization rate slipped to 79.6 percent, remaining positive and helping to offset weakness in mining and utilities output. After the European Central Bank announced a widely-expected 25 basis points rate hike and raised its core inflation forecast for 2023 to 5.1 percent from 4.6 percent yesterday, the final day of trading this week includes the Bank of Japan who left its rates unchanged as expected. There will also be one more key economic report later this morning, preliminary June consumer sentiment which includes consumer inflation expectations. Fedspeak returns after the FOMC blackout period with St. Louis President Bullard, Governor Waller, and Richmond President Barkin all delivering remarks. We begin the day with Agency MBS prices unchanged and the 10-year unchanged yielding 3.73 percent.

Employment

Bay Equity Home Loans affiliated with Redfin last year and has an immediate need in the Boston, MA greater market for a team to handle dozens of monthly buyside purchase transactions. This team will be paired with Redfin agents that will be referring business and working with loan officers to win deals in today’s competitive market. Customer referrals from Redfin’s online customer ecosystem are also being funneled to Bay’s loan officers resulting in closed purchase transactions and an opportunity to grow your database. This business would be in addition to a team’s self-sourced deals and only add to your pipeline and income. If you are interested in this amazing opportunity reach out to Sean Wilson or 415-622-5768.

“Whatever your business initiative is, know this: Flagstar is committed to the TPO mortgage space, just as it has been for over 35 years. As a nearly $124 billion asset bank, Flagstar is well positioned in today’s marketplace offering a comprehensive product set, including Construction Loans with limits up to $3 million, recently improved pricing on their Advantage Suite (Non-QM), including Bank Statements, Doctor Loan, HELOCs, and many more options in multiple mortgage channels. Speak to an AE today to see how Flagstar’s strength, stability, and expertise can help take your business to the next level. Are you an experienced AE looking for a new opportunity? Flagstar is hiring! Make a smart move and choose Flagstar. Visit us or reach out to John Gibson to learn more.”

Deephaven is hiring wholesale account executives across the country to help fuel its growth. Deephaven is setting records in loan volume each month and need highly motivated sales professionals to help it capture more market share in the Non-QM space. Deephaven offers a proprietary suite of Non-QM products, strong pricing, webinar support, best-in-class scenario desk, fully integrated platform, superior customer service, great benefits, and unmatched company culture. It’s an exciting time at Deephaven Mortgage Join a winning team and watch your career soar. Contact Chief Sales Officer Tom Davis directly.

A C-Suite Executive is seeking position as President, CEO or COO/CSO. Immensely competent with strategies, goals, team building, P&L Management, executing a pivot; no pixie dust just fast, agile, smart work with high output. Highly connected with GSEs, Investors, Regulators, industry vendors, PE Money, Compliance Executives. Broad industry experience in Mortgage, Building, Land Development, Insurance, Financial Services, Marketing, Software Development, Capital Markets, TPO, Private Lending, Data Analytics, Tech Stacks, M&A, turn arounds, project building/deployment, and leadership/team building. Entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial. Experienced in building tech/digital/DTC as part of strategic plan to build other channels while building traditional sales efforts. Fintech relationship a bonus. Comfortable with boards, C-Suite, and stakeholders. Ego is in check, even-tempered, highly goal driven, innovative and creative problem solver, excellent communicator. Currently living on West Coast, relocation considered or will do long distance commute. Please email Anjelica Nixt for additional information and connection.

“Looking to dominate the summer market? At Guaranteed Rate Affinity you get the tech, tools, and support to level up like never before. We were just named as the #16 Mortgage Retail Lender in the United States by the Scotsman Guide in just our sixth year of business. Since our inception in 2017, our innovative joint venture has funded more than $53.2B in loans and is home to more than 500 of the nation’s premier loan officers. But we’re still growing and looking for top talent every day. Want to get on board with the best? Learn more about us today and email Tim McGraw or call (972) 236-9632 to start growing your business today!”

Are you frustrated as a retail loan officer or mortgage banker with the lack of flexibility to provide custom loan options? Take control and follow the lead of an estimated 24,000 MLOs like you who have joined the wholesale channel in the last year. Whether you open your own independent mortgage brokerage or join a team as a loan officer, you’ll have the ability to provide your clients with the personalized solutions they need. Contact our team at BeAMortgageBroker.com today and you’ll be well on your way to a more fulfilling tomorrow.