NMP National Mortgage Professional September 2020

SEPTEMBER 2020

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Volume 12, Issue 9

WHITE HOUSE, BLACK MARKET HOW ADMINISTRATION'S RULES ARE FAILING MINORITY BORROWERS

WHO’S WHO IN WHOLESALE APPRAISAL CHALLENGES GO VIRAL

ALTERNATE FACTS

THE FUTURE FOR ALTERNATE PRIVATE CAPITAL FINANCING

UP, UP AND AWAY

SUPERBROKERAGES ARE SURGING AS LOs CAPTURE MARKETSHARE

BACK COVER

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SEPTEMBER 2020

FRONT COVER

Volume 12, Issue 9

WHITE HOUSE, BLACK MARKET HOW ADMINISTRATION'S RULES ARE FAILING MINORITY BORROWERS

WHO’S WHO IN WHOLESALE APPRAISAL CHALLENGES GO VIRAL

ALTERNATE FACTS

THE FUTURE FOR ALTERNATE PRIVATE CAPITAL FINANCING

UP, UP AND AWAY

SUPERBROKERAGES ARE SURGING AS LOs CAPTURE MARKETSHARE Cover image by iStockphoto / yogysic

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The Leader in Non-QM

| NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE

SEPTEMBER 2020

Volume 12 Number 9

CONTENTS

nationalmortgageprofessional.com

6 Black Loans Matter Feds finally take action on redlining 26 years later.

8 Set Yourself Apart Potential employees need to know what makes you unique.

12 Creating Workable Solutions Listen to the Godfather when he says “Pivot … or else!”.

14 When Old Seems To Be New Old methods to tackle new issues due to COVID-19.

15 People On The Move See who the movers and shakers are in the mortgage industry.

16 Build-A-Broker: It’s Easy To Be Top Tier Treat your customers right and you’ll come out on top.

18 Your First Million Dollars: Look Beyond Today Have a plan for tomorrow and beyond?

You better.

20 Clients Don’t Set Speed Limits They want things fast lest they get furious.

22 Who’s Who In Wholesale Our annual director focusing on a cornerstone of the industry.

WHITE > HOUSE BLACK MARKET 24 Special Section: Market Updates How to prepare for the emerging markets in mortgages.

28 The Achilles Heel Known As Appraisals Record lending may be hamstrung by the appraisal process.

26 Special Section: Secondary Marketing 101 Factors that will impact the future of mortgage pricing.

30 The Rise Of Superbrokerages The conditions are ripe for a new breed of brokers.

>

COVER STORY PAGE 30

Up, Up and Away!

As the broker channel snags more market share, the time seems ripe for the rapid growth of superbrokerages.

PAGE 6 Administration, agencies’ actions paint a picture of discriminatory neglect.

41 Heard on NMP Words to remember from our broadcasts and website.

42 Struggling With Home Values Private lenders are fretting over a myriad of problems.

47 New To Market The new products impacting your dayto-day work.

51 My Best Deal: A Roof Over Her Head Brooke Mulder helped a 92-year-old widow stay in her family home.

53 NMP Calendar of Events 74 Facebook Thoughts: If Doctor Seuss Wrote Pandemic Prose!

nationalmortgageprofessional.com

NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE |

3

SEPTEMBER 2020

SEPTEMBER 2020

nmp

Volume 12, Issue 9

WHITE HOUSE, BLACK MARKET HOW ADMINISTRATION'S RULES ARE FAILING MINORITY BORROWERS

WHO’S WHO IN WHOLESALE

APPRAISAL CHALLENGES GO VIRAL

ALTERNATE FACTS

THE FUTURE FOR ALTERNATE PRIVATE CAPITAL FINANCING

UP, UP AND AWAY

SUPERBROKERAGES ARE SURGING AS LOs CAPTURE MARKETSHARE

LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

Meeting Demand

F

or loan originators, this has been a topsy-turvy year. Many have seen their personal lives locked down as cities and states try to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. But at the same time, their professional lives have mostly been on overdrive, as rocketing demand for refis and a move by renters seeking large homes has kept them pushing paperwork relentlessly.

One element that’s been missing is the ability to meet directly with colleagues and peers, to be part of the origination community networking for ideas and opportunities. Because since this pandemic hit in earnest in mid-March, there have been no live mortgage conferences anywhere in the country.

Until now.

On Sept. 2, the Originator Connect Network hosted the Arizona Mortgage Expo, the first live, in-person mortgage show in the nation. Roughly 300 attendees signed up for the event and for the live NMLS license renewal class the next day. It was different than these get-togethers have been in the past. Hosted at the Wild Horse Pass Hotel outside Phoenix, the event featured socially-distanced seating, temperature checks for all attendees, structured meal breaks and mandatory face masks. But for all of that, and with the support of a dozen sponsors and exhibitors, the ability for LOs to once again gather was jump-started, with safety paramount. Healthy In, Healthy Out was the show’s motto.

Volume 12, Number 9

STAFF CEO, PUBLISHER & EDITOR Vincent M. Valvo ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Beverly Bolnick MANAGING EDITOR Keith Griffin CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Lew Sichelman, Ralph LoVuolo, Harvey Mackay, Nick Roberson, Pam Marron GRAPHIC DESIGN MANAGER Stacy Murray INTERACTIVE DESIGN DIRECTOR Alison Valvo USER EXPERIENCE DESIGNER Billy Valvo ONLINE CONTENT DIRECTOR Navindra Persaud MARKETING & EVENT ASSOCIATE Melissa Pianin HEAD OF ENGAGEMENT AND OUTREACH Andrew Berman FOUNDING PUBLISHER Joel Berman

Submit your news to editorial@ambizmedia.com If you would like additional copies of National Mortage Professional Call (860) 719-1991 or email info@ambizmedia.com

www.ambizmedia.com

Originator Connect Network is committed to bringing LOs the information they need to succeed. That’s via print magazines, webinars, email newsletters and more. And, once again, it’s also through in person conferences. Slowly, carefully and deliberately, we’re working with the mortgage community to meet the demand for live meetings.

VIN CE N T M. VALVO Publisher, Editor & CEO

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| NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE

© 2020 American Business Media LLC All rights reserved. National Mortgage Professional magazine is a trademark of American Business Media LLC. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Advertising, editorial and production inquiries should be directed to: American Business Media LLC 345 North Main St., Suite 313 West Hartford, CT 06117 Phone: (860) 719-1991 info@ambizmedia.com

NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE |

5

LEW SICHELMAN

THE MORTGAGE SCENE

Trump Troop Doesn’t Believe Black Loans Matter Administration, agencies’ actions paint a picture of discriminatory neglect.

BY LEW SICHELMAN | CONTRIBUTING WRITER, NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL

F

or the first time in its 10-year history, the political football known as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has filed a complaint in court alleging a violation of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act by a mortgage company.

The supposed miscreant, Townstone Financial, a small Chicago-based nonbank retail lender, fired back, saying it did not violate the law’s prohibitions against redlining, which is the abhorrent practice of refusing to lend in poorrisk neighborhoods. But whether Townstone is guilty or not is not the point, at least not here.

Rather, the point is that it took so long for the CFPB to locate a lender, any lender, that purportedly violated the ECOA, which was put in place 26 years ago to make it unlawful for any creditor “to discriminate against any applicant, with respect to any

aspect of a credit transaction, on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, or age; to the fact that all or part of the applicant’s income derives from a public assistance program, or to the fact that the applicant has in good faith exercised any right under the Consumer Credit Protection Act.” More than a quarter century later, discrimination still exists.

Recently, LendingTree took a look at mortgage denial rates between Black Americans and the overall population in each of the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas. The findings were abysmal.

Generally, Blacks were more likely to be denied financing for a house they want to buy than the overall population. For purchase money loans, their denial rate was higher in every one of the 50 metros and double overall. For refinance loans, the denial rate also was higher in each market, an average of more than 13 percentage points higher.

And the racial disparities were sometimes even more extreme at the county level. Even in majority Black counties. “Racial barriers to homeownership ... are an undeniable reality for many,” said Tendayi Kapfidze, the site’s chief economist.

MINAMILIST EFFORT The Townstone case has been hailed in some quarters as proof the Trump Administration is serious about anti-discrimination and its support of people of color. But the CFPB suit is but small potatoes,

perhaps to mask all that this White House has done to unravel all the steps that took place before it to improve the lot of minorities.

Of course, less than three years of the CFPB’s existence have been under Trump’s watch. Perhaps previous administrations haven’t been all that vigilant, either. But it seems to me as someone who is not a particularly political animal that there’s little else the current regime has done to promote antidiscrimination in the housing sector.

In fact, it’s been just the opposite.

Trump recently showed his true colors when he said, and I paraphrase here, that suburban homeowners no longer have to worry about people of color moving into their neighborhoods and bringing down housing values. The occasion of that repulsive remark was the recission of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rules, an Obama-era regulation requiring local governments to proactively ensure fair housing in order to receive federal housing funding.

The reg was designed to give more teeth to the Fair Housing Act in combating segregation and was praised by civil rights groups at the time it was put into place in 2015.

But in late July, the Department of Housing and Urban Development replaced it with a significantly watered-down policy that allows local governments to self-certify that housing is affordable and free of discrimination.

The move was justified as

alleviating undue burdens on local jurisdictions. And it was widely covered in the popular press. But what has largely been missed by the glare of the public spotlight are several tactical maneuvers from the White House in the mortgage sector that also point to the administration’s views on discriminatory practices.

For example, according to ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest, at least six investigations into redlining have been either halted or stalled by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Against staff recommendations, no less. More on that later.

SHIFTING STANDARDS More recently, HUD, under former Trump challenger and current Secretary Benjamin Carson, finalized rules put forth more than a year ago to change the Fair Housing Act’s disparate impact standard. Specifically, the changes are said to provide a framework for setting legal liability for actions that on their face seem neutral but nevertheless have unintended discriminatory effects. “The new rule is intended to increase legal clarity and promote the production and availability of housing in all areas while making sure every person is treated fairly under the law,” Carson said in August 2019.

At this writing, the rule is still under review at HUD’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

Normally, the changes – plaintiffs relying on the so-called “disparate impact” doctrine would have to show a more direct link between a lender’s policy and its discriminatory effect -- would be applauded by the lending community. But these are not normal times, not hardly. Indeed, the National Association of Realtors, National Association of Mortgage Brokers, Wells Fargo Bank of America, Citi and Quicken Loans, among others, have asked HUD to reconsider its timing, if not the changes themelves.

In a piece penned for HousingWire,

David Stevens, former FHA Commissioner and former CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, had this to say: “In this year especially, when we see the stark divides of opportunity and access so plainly displayed throughout the nation, it’s the imperative of all who care about equality to simply call for what’s right. Whether it impacts the bottom line is irrelevant to the clarity of what needs to be stood for. HUD needs to withdraw its planned changes to the disparate impact rule.”

CROSSING A RED LINE In another sinister action, meanwhile, the Comptroller of the Currency has “fixed” something else that many agree wasn’t broken.

In this case, it was the Consumer Reinvestment Act, a 1977 law intended to fight redlining by forcing lenders to serve all consumers within their banking footprints, not just highincome individuals.

Without a buy-in from other banking regulators, the OCC moved on its own in 40 quick days after receiving more than 7,000 comments on the revisions, which many say will weaken the CRA. U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, said the new regulation: “will be harmful for so many communities across the country at a time when they are under severe distress due to the pandemic.”

The day after the final rule was posted, Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting, a Trump appointee who once worked with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin at One West Bank, submitted his resignation, never to be seen or heard from again. Meanwhile, several community groups have filed suit against the agency and the Democrat-controlled House has passed a resolution to block the changes.

OCC NOTHING Now, back to ProPublica, which found at least six incidents in which the OCC under Otting’s watch failed to take action against major mortgage lenders found by his own staff to have

engaged in discriminatory practices.

Shortly after ProPublica’s report, 18 Senate Democrats called on the OCC to explain how these cases were handled and why the banks involved were not sanctioned. And no wonder.

In one instance, examiners “trained to spot discriminatory lending” found something they thought was amiss at Bank of America in Philadelphia, where the institution was believed to be making fewer loans to Blacks than to whites. But “after complaints” from the bank, the OCC failed to follow up.

Wrote ProPublica: “The abandoned Bank of America inquiry is part of a larger, previously unreported pattern in which the Trump administration has pulled back on civil rights enforcement as a part of its overall relaxation of bank oversight.”

Investigative reporters found five other apparently solid cases that were shelved: Flagstar Bank was said to charge Blacks higher rates through a network of lending affiliates. Colorado Federal Bank, an online lender, supposedly did the same to female borrowers. Examiners also concluded that MB Financial of Chicago charged Latinos too much, that Candence Bank turned away minorities in Houston, and Fulton Bank had been discriminating against minorities in Richmond, Va., as well as part of its home state of Pennsylvania.

“In each case,” ProPublica’s investigative team wrote, “despite staff recommendations that fines or other penalties be imposed, the OCC took no public action and closed the investigations quietly.”

Is it just me, or does anyone else see a pattern here? And more importantly, where’s the outrage from the mortgage community?

Lew Sichelman has been covering the housing and mortgage sectors for 52 years.

His syndicated column appears in major newspapers throughout the country. He also has been the real estate editor at two major Washington, D.C., dailies and spent 30 years on the staff of National Mortgage News, formerly National Thrift News.

NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE |

7

DAVE HERSHMAN

RECRUITING CORNER

Recruiting Key—Your Unique Selling Proposition Know what makes your company unique to attract new hires

BY DAVE HERSHMAN | CONTRIBUTING WRITER, NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL

T

he ability to summarize your benefits in a short statement is typically called a “USP” or Unique Selling Proposition. It is also sometimes called an “elevator speech” because you are imagined being in an elevator and someone asking the question – What do you do? You must answer in full before the elevator door opens.

It makes sense that, to attract candidates, you really have to answer the all-important question – why should I come to work for your company? With all the other choices out there, what makes your company unique? If you can’t answer this question easily, then you will have to compete within the areas where most other companies compete:

• What is your commission plan?

• What is your pricing like?

• Do you have every product under the sun?

Thus, this step is extremely important unless you have the best commission, the lowest pricing and every product. The key to marketing is to differentiate yourself from the competition in a positive manner.

For a manager, recruiting requires all the steps of marketing and this one is essential.

EASY COMMUNICATION Here are a few rules for developing your USP: • It must be easily communicated.

If it takes you an hour to describe your USP, your opportunity for marketing and connecting will be very limited. You should be able to do this in seconds, not hours.

• It must be factual and specific.

Everyone says they have a low rate or deliver quality service.

Broad statements such as these are worthless. If you are focusing on service, for example, what is

your average approval time? Are you surveying your consumers and agents and have you compiled statistics to demonstrate your satisfaction ratings?

• When you don’t have facts… use testimonials, or social proof.

Statements from your customers, employees and vendors are absolutely essential to establish credibility for your statements.

• Tie it to the interest of your candidates. Like mortgage marketing, true value lies in the interests of your targets.

What you are interested in is not paramount. Most candidates will be interested in two things: • Increasing their income; and • Lowering their stress levels at the same time.

• You must recognize why you are unique. Your experience, education, and skills and more, are all part of what makes you a unique manager. Your unique ability to help your candidates increase their production and

“Your unique ability to help your candidates increase their production and lower the stress levels in their life are paramount.”

Take some time to determine what you would like to say about yourself and your company – before you start the recruiting process.

lower the stress levels in their life are paramount.

You must take an inventory before you develop your uniqueness. Do not make the mistake of looking at other companies and saying “I am like that one.”

Your uniqueness should come from “within” not from “the outside.”

In this regard, you must remember that the question is not only why they should come to work for your company. The question is also – why should I come to work for you? It makes sense to spend some time making this determination of uniqueness before you commence building your recruiting marketing plan.

Here are some possible categories—

> Service > Support > Benefits > Technology > Targeting > Compensation plan > Products and services

UNIQUE STATEMENTS Here are some examples of unique statements which are factual and targeted to the interests of your candidates –

• Our average operation staff member has 12 years of experience.

• Our customer service response is 99.1% positive.

• Our loan officers averaged $175,000 in income last year and 30% were listed as national top producers.

• Our marketing systems helped produce an average of 20 referrals to each of our loan officers last year.

• I have personally hired, trained and coached over ___ top industry producers during my career.

• Here is what our loan officers are saying about our operational staff.

Take some time to determine what you would like to say about yourself and your company – before you start the recruiting process. If you want quality recruits, you will have to upgrade your game with a quality plan.

> Company reputation > Team make-up > Culture

Dave Hershman, senior vice-president of sales for Weichert Financial Services, has published seven books.

NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE |

9

SPONSORED EDITORIAL

Transparency & Knowledge Are the Keys to Success for this California-Based Broker By being honest and keeping his clients informed throughout the process, it helps them feel connected during a major financial transaction that can often be confusing and overwhelming.

U

sually, mortgage brokers like to keep their commission close to their chest. However, Alex Ramirez, owner and mortgage loan advisor of HomeSmart Advisors in Garden Grove, California, freely discusses his compensation with clients.

When asked why he is so open about the commission he earns, Alex’s answer was simple, “They always ask me! They say, ‘How can you get me such a good rate when I have talked to four or five different lenders?’ and I break it down for them.”

This idea of transparency flows through the entire operation at HomeSmart. By being honest and keeping his clients informed throughout the process, it helps them feel connected during a major financial transaction that can often be confusing and overwhelming.

Outside of being transparent, Alex is also incredibly knowledgeable about mortgages.

Being in the industry for 15 years, and working in all channel types, taught him the ins and outs of the business.

This wealth of experience gave him the knowledge needed to pursue his own ventures and build a brokerage from the ground up.

“I became an account executive and loan officer at a mortgage company where I was really able to get familiar with the broker channel – not just the frontend but also the backend of the process. I started managing people and began to learn about the secondary market. From there, it turned me on to becoming a broker myself because I could use my experience to help clients get what is best for them,” Alex said.

He founded HomeSmart Advisors in mid-October of

2019. Many of his clients are firefighters, police officers and nurses. This wasn’t necessarily intentional but after serving a few and receiving glowing referrals – in part due to his transparency and using his knowledge to take on an educational role with clients – more began to cascade in.

After opening the business, he soon partnered with Quicken Loans Mortgage Services (QLMS). Alex had worked with the lender in the past – leading to a quick partner approval process – and knew them to be great partners who run a smooth operation. Now, not even a year after starting his brokerage, he hopes to soon become part of QLMS’ Pinnacle program – an elite group of partners who consistently achieve a high level of performance.

“My partnership with QLMS has always been a really good relationship. It is one of those things where we mesh well – it’s almost perfect. From programs to what my clients need, the way the process works and even all the technology they have available, it fits well with my business,” Alex said.

So, what is next for HomeSmart?

Ramirez has already added a few loan officers after his business began to increase exponentially and is looking to hire more in the near future.

“We’re up to five loan officers, we have an executive assistant and are thinking about bringing on another. The goal is to have 15 to 20 LOs but they have to fit the culture and match my transparency,” he said.

Clearly, Alex understands how valuable his transparency is and that clients appreciate it. That will surely be the cornerstone of future success for HomeSmart going forward.

Alex Ramirez OWNER AND MORTGAGE LOAN ADVISOR OF HOMESMART ADVISORS

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11

ALPH LOVUOLO

THE MORTGAGE GODFATHER

Get Ready To Pivot …

Or Else Good things come to an end when there is no plan to pivot to a workable solution

BY RALPH LOVUOLO, SR. | CONTRIBUTING WRITER, NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL

I

f I had discipline in my life, I would be much happier.

And so, it comes to pass that all good things must end. But is that really the truth? Must it always be that there is an end to those things that we have come to embrace, that we value, that we enjoy? No, not always, for always has no end, and we’re nowhere near the end. The aphorism that is credited to author and poet, Geoffrey Chaucer is an oft used adage. Supposedly the “Father of English Literature” who lived and wrote in the 14th. century used the adage in his poem “Troilus and Criseyde,” a story of two lovers.

However, I am distracting you from the main theme that needs to be addressed here. Is the pandemic over? Are interest rates going up?

Will there continue to be a glut of purchases? Is the refi market dead?

To wit: all good things do not have to come to an end if you adapt, pivot and become that which you have sought for your

entire career, disciplined in all aspects of your life.

I recently read an article where Rob Chrisman posited, and I’m paraphrasing: If you’re a loan officer right now and not making more money than you’ve ever made, you’re in the wrong business.

These words are so true that I’ve repeated them over and over to all my clients.

MARKET FOR MORE BUSINESS! The people I coach would more than likely tell you they are sick and tired of hearing me talk about all the additional marketing they could be doing that would produce so much more business, that there are so many more people who need to refinance and only a nudge, just a little nudge from them and the client could save enough money, they would be so much happier knowing they are saving money and they could stop calling themselves procrastinators.

If you don’t want the party to end, you have to do things that you didn’t do before all this business fell in your lap. Pivot. Become more disciplined.

Somewhere in the early ‘80s, there was an incredible need to refinance as rates fell from a high of at least 17% to somewhere near 9%10% in just a couple of years. I took advantage

of that market buying a house for $55K with a 15.5% rate that I kept for one-and-a-half years and sold for $200K. In addition, having started my own business originating a serious passel of refinances, I was as guilty as mortal sin to have just about abandoned many of my Realtors, seeking the quick buck and not being disappointed. There was a particular Realtor, a first-class professional salesperson, who had an excellent reputation and had come up on my radar screen early in that recession, somewhere about 1982-1983. I had visited her office a number of times but to no avail. I gave up, mostly because I was doing so well with other Realtors and my office was booming with refinances.

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? What a mistake that was. Give up?

Didn’t I preach it even back then?

Yes, I did! But justification is an easy teacher. My pipeline was full for a couple of years. Then the end came. Rates didn’t drop much anymore, and sales were slowing down. It was time to revisit people who could and would, boost my effectiveness.

When I walked in her office, dressed in a silk jacket, custom tailored shirt with French cuffs, $150 tie, Italian leather loafers, driving a Mercedes, boy I was something else. She turned her eyes toward me, with the devil himself

“We need to get back to the basics. We need to have a plan and get the discipline necessary to outperform every single other MLO who will not be able to survive this market.” to an end. This lockdown could prove to be a boon for you, mentally and physically. But only if you have a plan, a workable, well-thought-out plan meant to overcome the stare that will ensue when you or your

burning holes in my beautiful Armani jacket and I promise I’m telling it just as it happened, she immediately said, “So where have you been for the last two years?” Crushed, just crushed me.

The look would have been enough, but the words destroyed me.

It took months of visits plus every legal trick I could muster to get just crumbs. But my sterling personality won the day. Well, that’s not the complete truth. She never let me forget my mistake.

BACK TO THE BASICS My coaching has come to this: We need to get back to the basics. We need to have a plan and get the discipline necessary to outperform every single other MLO who will not be able to survive this market. It’s September, I’m pretty sure you’ve refinanced every possible worthy client, their friends and family and if you were smart, you were lucky enough to refi the family of your past clients.

If you’re a leader of people, there are questions just for you: What has

changed about you during the lockdown?

What are you going to continue to develop that will make your team(s) develop more business?

Do you have regular meetings with your team(s)? What do you discuss?

Do you have a training program? Do you require your team members to report their activities? Do you meet with your team members individually?

Calling me to speak with your group on a regular basis will only make them more effective.

If you’re an MLO, here is what to discuss: What time do you go to bed?

What time do you get up? What do you eat for breakfast? What do you weigh? What did you weigh when the lockdown started? How much time do you spend exercising in a week? What do you eat for lunch, dinner? What snacks do you eat?

How many Realtors do you do business with? How many loans do you want to write a month? What is your detailed marketing plan? How much time have you spent developing new referral sources? Have you filled out my self-evaluation questionnaire?

When do you want to retire? How are you going to pay for your kids’ college? What are you spending for your car(s) monthly payments?

salespeople walk into that real estate

THIS COULD BE A BOON

Ralph LoVuolo creates a daily video @ www.oneideaaday.com

All good things do not have to come

office you stopped calling, emailing and texting. We can help you.

Good things come to an end when there is no plan to pivot to a workable solution that has not been addressed. I’ve heard about people who did as much business in two months that they normally would do in six months. I am also aware of people who did not address the issue of developing ANY Realtors and just accepted what came in the door.

That proves they were not serious contenders to begin with. They are the kind of people who would not have been calling on that realtor I set aside and definitely are content with three-to-four deals a month for most of their working life.

Are you a professional? It is a story often told of the mortgage broker who went to their 40th HS class reunion wearing the $150 tie, custom fitted shirt, silk jacket, driving a Mercedes who fit right in with those he graduated with: Doctors, Lawyers, Judges and Presidents of major corporations who was a professional and had pivoted enough to fit right in.

That Professional was me. It can be you.

NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE |

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COVID-19

Unusual Issues Are Being Tackled During COVID 19: Some Not New

BY PAMELA M. MARRON | CONTRIBUTING WRITER, NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL Mortgage business has increased, though some issues never experienced before are popping up.

Unusual circumstances have caused many in our industry to join forces for better processes, and some of the problem solvers from the housing crisis are making sure past solutions learned are ready to use.

URGENT NEED FOR REMOTE ONLINE CLOSINGS

PAM MARRON

I’ve had two “drive-by” closings in the last two months where clients, unable or not allowed to enter the premises of a title company, could sign closing documents outside of the building in a vehicle. Preparation and physically giving and retrieving closing documents to these folks was a process.

I’ve attended my closings for years. But In Florida, it’s highly uncomfortable being outside in summer months. So I was greatly interested in the effort of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), National Association of Realtors (NAR) and the American Land Title Association (ALTA) who together have developed a model executive order for states to enable remote notarizations.

Remote Online Notarization (RON) allows banks, title companies and law firms to complete mortgage transactions that require signatures and a notary seal remotely but allow this to be done on a computer with online audio and video technology. There are still kinks being ironed out, but this benefit cannot come soon enough!

Bravo to these trade organizations who are working to provide a secure legal method to use for home closings during this unusual time!

PAST LOSS MITIGATION AND CREDIT COLLEAGUES BEING PRO-ACTIVE My past work with consumer credit code resulted in interaction with loss

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mitigation policy makers who could do something to fix problems. “Loss mitigation” is what the mortgageservicing industry calls the process where borrowers and their loan servicer work together to avoid foreclosure.

I have been surprised to hear from many of these folks who have their eye on credit and loss mitigation issues coming out of this pandemic.

Many problems were found during the housing crisis, but solutions were ultimately found. The proclamation of a national disaster before new forbearance policies became effective due to COVID-19 seems to have thwarted an avalanche of disastrous credit for consumers that was experienced during the housing crisis.

HUD housing counselors were deeply involved with many of these issues then and are already assisting those that need help now.

CREDIT TOOLS IMPORTANT NOW MORE THAN EVER I am already documenting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac automated system approvals for a few clients who have experienced forbearance of mortgage, student loan and car loans. This has resulted in memorizing forbearance credit rules for all loan types and checking with lenders on their documentation and if overlays are applied.

Deep analysis of credit was learned during the housing crisis, so where the best detail of which credit reporting bureau, Trans Union, Experian and Equifax, is reporting derogatory credit has become common to spot thanks to the credit reporting platform Meridian Link that allows detail to be seen broken out for all 3 credit bureaus.

And for those clients who need credit evaluation that loan originators can assist with, specific credit tools like the Credit Xpert Wayfinder and the Credit Xpert What If Simulator are a few of the best resources.

FHA APPRAISAL EXTENSIONS Did you know you can extend an FHA appraisal for 30 days? I’ve had two contracts in the last month where an FHA appraisal was assigned to my buyer from the previous buyer but the 120-day appraisal expiration was occurring before my client’s closing date.

The appraisal can be extended by the Mortgagee (HUD 4000.1 Handbook, pgs 111-112) if (1) the Mortgagee approved the Borrower or HUD issued the Firm Commitment before the expiration of the original appraisal; or (2) the Borrower signed a valid sales contract prior to the expiration date of the appraisal.

An appraisal update must be performed before the initial appraisal, with no extension, has expired. Where the initial appraisal is subsequently updated, the updated appraisal is valid for a period of 240 days after the effective date of the initial appraisal report that is being updated.

Far too often after a tumultuous time in our country, stories are written about those who were able to take advantage of the misfortune of others for their own financial benefit.

I am grateful that policy makers and agencies have already prepared to assist clients who will need our help and am confident we will be able to do so.

Stay tuned. Stay safe.

Pamela M. Marron is a senior loan originator with Innovative Mortgage Services Inc.

HOW NMP’S MONTHLY SECTION OF HANDS-ON PRACTICAL ADVICE

BUILD-A-BROKER: Create A Top Tier Customer Experience YOUR FIRST MILLION DOLLARS: Make All Of Your Tomorrows Brighter Go Full Throttle For Success CAREER TICKER: People On The Move

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE //

> LenderClose

appointed Chris Meade as vice president of sales.

> Nicole Booth

was hired as the executive vice president of public affairs for Notarize.

> LenderClose

selected Sarah Bond as relationship manager.

> RealtyTrac,

a foreclosure listings and search portal, named Rick Sharga as executive vice president of marketing.

NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE |

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BUILD-A-BROKER

Creating A Top-Tier Customer Experience Customer service cannot be left on the backburner

BY BRETT FARMILOE | SPECIAL TO NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL Quality customer service plays a huge role in a customer’s loyalty to your brand. If their experience is positive, they are more likely to return. For that reason, a business’s customer service must be top tier.

How can you ensure that your customers have a memorable experience with your brand?

We asked 11 thought leaders to share how businesses can improve their customer service and brand experience.

ENGAGE ON SOCIAL MEDIA It can feel hard to interact with clients in the virtual environment; engaging with your clients on social media can help them feel like they haven’t lost touch. Commenting back to them, resharing their content on your profile, or posting about featured clients can improve their customer experience with your company.

-LIZ RIGGLEMAN, ARROW LIFT

RESPOND IN A TIMELY MANNER Know and improve your average response time. 90% of customers want an immediate response and 60% of customers define “immediate” as 10 minutes or less. Fast response times make your customers feel appreciated and provide a sense of instant gratification. Plus, they set you apart from your competition! Only

7% of companies respond within five minutes of form submission. Take the opportunity to be better and outshine your competition with lightning-fast customer service.

-JAYSON DEMERS, EMAILANALYTICS

REWARD YOUR LOYAL CUSTOMERS Reward your loyal customers. Be creative with the loyalty programs you run and the incentives you offer.

Discounts and coupons are great but go above and beyond to reward the customers that keep coming back.

-PETER BABICHENKO, SAHARA CASE

BABYSIT THEM AS THEY EXPERIENCE YOUR PRODUCT This is not as literal as it sounds.

Be sure to guide them and check on them especially if they are first-time customers. Doing so can make them feel that you care for them and that you are not just after their money. It is better that your customers feel how much you care and how much you value their comments and suggestions.

-WILLIE GREER, THE PRODUCT ANALYST

HAVE ONE PERSON DEDICATED TO CUSTOMER SERVICE Small businesses are sometimes shortstaffed or juggling many tasks at once.

However, customer service is a crucial aspect of your business that cannot afford to be put on the backburner.

Customers will gauge their experience largely on customer service, so small businesses must make it a point to have a person dedicated specifically to customer service. That person should greet customers, handle any grievances, and answer all customer calls. Customers need to feel heard, respected, and cared for.

-VANESSA MOLICA, THE LASH PROFESSIONAL

KNOW YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE In our recent LinkedIn poll, we asked, “What’s your biggest customer service complaint?” The poll showed 43% said, “Not being more knowledgeable about your product.” Job knowledge is one of the, if not the top traits of customer service. Customers get extremely frustrated with staff and employees who aren’t knowledgeable.

Job knowledge is critical for in-person, on the phone, and virtual customer service. The answer “I don’t know” should not be allowed (because one can always find out). The best answer is “Good question, let me find out for you.” This tells the customer you have some common sense and will soon have the answer for them, even if you need to return the call.

-NANCY FRIEDMAN, TELEPHONE DOCTOR

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE //

> Atlantic Home

Mortgage announced Tyler Pate joined its Alpharetta, Georgia branch as a senior loan officer.

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> Dave Bricker

was named chief financial officer at Mortgage Capital Trading Inc.

> Equity Prime

Mortgage promoted Eric Skates to chief marketing officer, after more than five years as director of marketing for the company.

> Michael

Wilberton was named chief financial officer for Radius Financial Group Inc.

CUSTOMER SERVICE MIRRORS With so many businesses going and staying digital, it is crucial to find a way to be personable. It is so easy to come across as very monotone over the phone or to sound impersonal through written messages. To remind my team members of this, my customer service reps use mirrors when speaking over the phone. I’m not kidding, if you saw my team, each member would have a great, big round mirror taped to their monitor so they can look at themselves and remember to smile. When you watch yourself speaking, you quickly catch if you are moping around or if you are smiling and engaging.

-JAY FRAGA, LENDIO

DON’T JUST TELL, SHOW Whenever we get a query from a customer about how to do something specific, we try to write a detailed paragraph on how the customer can achieve that in clearly written steps.

Sometimes, we even go to the extent that we log into their website, fix the issue, and record a video (after gaining their permission first, of course). We’ve seen that our customers are extremely

pleased with this gesture and come back to us with more business because they understand that we care for them.

-RAM SHENGALE, FANTASTECH SOLUTIONS

AUDIT THE CUSTOMER’S JOURNEY This is fairly straightforward in a virtual environment. The focus here is on removing friction. As you navigate the screens as a customer would take note of the things that would discourage them from continuing.

Perhaps it takes too many clicks or forms that require too much information. What inconsistencies do you see? What do you find confusing or irritating? Address these issues first. These are your starting points for improving customer experience and driving business growth.

-CHRISTOPHER K. LEE, PURPOSEREDEEMED

HIRE GREAT PEOPLE In order to have great customer service, you need to hire great people who truly care about your clients.

Oftentimes, companies try to automate

Depend on Us. Deliver for Your Clients.

As a trusted local wholesale lender, we’re committed to providing great service for you and great results for your clients – each and every time.

No FICO score (unless PMI loan)

Up to 97% financing

Cash-outs* up to $2.5M (no seasoning)

Discounted rates

Loan amounts up to $3.5M with CLTVs to 90%**

Bijan Farassat (917) 731-4870 bfarassat@ridgewoodbank.com NMLS ID# 646654

24/7 access through our online portal

Joseph Noviello (718) 240-4780 jnoviello@ridgewoodbank.com NMLS ID# 625762

*On primary residences. (LTVs apply). | **1–2 family and condo purchases and rate and term refinances – primary residences. | Terms and conditions subject to change without notice. Loans subject to credit approval. © 2020 Ridgewood Savings Bank. All rights reserved.

this process with chatbots or other tools, but customers want to feel like there is a real person behind the scenes who is dedicated to fixing their problems. When recruiting customer service professionals, be sure you are hiring engaged individuals who have exceptional communication skills and truly believe in your products and services. It will make all the difference!

-NIKITHA LOKAREDDDY, MARKITORS

SCHEDULE ACCIDENTAL CHECKINS FROM THE CEO Schedule “accidental check-ins” with customers. An accidental checkin is unexpected for the customer but scheduled and planned for the executive. This is intended to keep the conversation casual, just like a friend phoning a friend because they were “thinking about them.”

Because protecting a customer base is critical, a simple check-in phone call from the CEO goes a long way in strengthening the relationship. And, if things aren’t going smoothly, the call is an opportunity to correct any issues that may exist.

-BRETT FARMILOE, MARKITORS

“I cannot express how grateful I am to have a broker relationship with Ridgewood. Time and time again, you’re the lender I count on for personal attention and unparalleled service.”

Mary Ann Scaggs Sr. Mortgage Loan Originator Purchase, NY

www.ridgewoodbank.com

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YOUR FIRST MILLION DOLLARS

Tomorrow – What Are You Going To Do Tomorrow?

Without a plan you are going to be miserable

BY RALPH LOVUOLO, SPECIAL TO NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL

W

hen you get up to go to work tomorrow, what are you going to feel like? While you’re driving to work tomorrow what will you be thinking about and what emotions are you going to be feeling?

Here’s what I’m willing to bet.

Most of you, the greater majority to be exact, well maybe even more than that, will feel a combination of a sense of panic, worry, wonder, envy, dread and fear.

Why all these negative emotions?

Why would people in the greatest business in the world, one that allows us to help our fellow man live a better life and make money while doing that, why in the world should you not be feeling GREAT? What I believe, based on careful observation of people just like you for over 50 years, is most of you have no sense of your goals, your plans or what to do with yourself almost every day of your life. You really, for the most part, don’t set yourself up to win, you allow yourself to fail, or at least be mediocre.

At best!

ELIMINATE QUIET DESPERATION Don’t you want to be a professional?

Don’t you want to eliminate from

your life the quiet desperation that the philosophers say most of us live with every day? Don’t you want to be in control of your life, your income, your future, your family, your existence?

You can you know. But all of those things can only be yours if you change and do it quickly. I have written repeatedly about the perfect storms that the mortgage industry has had to bear. I’ve written of just a couple of ways that can help you navigate out of the storm. But there is something bigger, something so immense that most of us can’t even comprehend it.

I read all the wonderful things that most of my peers write. I see all the websites, Facebook pages and informational pamphlets from coaches and trainers that promise to help you make a life for yourself filled with riches beyond belief. So why don’t you have those riches? Why oh why are you so desperate every day to figure out where your next deal is coming from?

I’ll tell you again. You won’t change.

You won’t take control. You just want to roll with what’s going on in your life because change and taking control of your daily activities is too hard.

Well I guarantee you this, if you don’t take control, don’t set up a plan don’t take your life by the horns, you’re going to continue to be miserable.

SUCCESS IS WITHIN REACH If I could be in front of most of you right now, I’d grab you by the shoulders and shake you silly. You know why? Because your success is right in front of you, right there for the taking; as available to every one of you as it is to those who have already achieved success.

So about 40 years ago, I was working as a new loan officer. There was this guy, a real estate salesman.

He was most unremarkable, in appearance, dress, brainpower, and sociability. But one day, when I went to visit, he told me he was going to open his own office, be his own boss.

Little did I know what had gone on behind the scenes. He had been studying. He had decided to change; to make something of himself and change the way he acted to achieve the dreams he had.

He asked me to visit the new office.

I found out he had been studying how to set up an office; how to be a manager by studying management books. He was ready to change. He was positioned to be the man he wanted to be.

DON’T FEAR SUCCESS You can be that person, you can change the way you do things every day, but why don’t you? Why don’t

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE //

> Page Woodall was selected as senior regional sales director at Mortgage Capital Trading Inc.

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> Planet Home

Lending hired Maureen Morais as controller in the servicing operations division.

> Sarah Porter

was named sales executive

by LenderClose.

> Reed Bell

joined Atlantic Home Mortgage as a senior loan officer at its Alpharetta, Georgia branch.

Success? Is that what you’re afraid of? Is that why you won’t take control of your life? I don’t buy that for a minute. you just decide to be what you want to be? What the hell are you afraid of?

Success? Is that what you’re afraid of? Is that why you won’t take control of your life? I don’t buy that for a minute.

Here is what I believe. You are doing what you do because you like it. You’re comfortable; if you take yourself out of your comfort zone, you might not be able to get to where you want to be. You’re afraid, because someone in your life told you that you should not put yourself out. Well thank God for those few that don’t listen to that crap.

Your dreams can only be realized if you take serious major steps in a different direction. Well, maybe you’ve been crawling. You need to get organized, establish goals, and put together a plan. Then you need to actually work on the plan, creatively, as if you mean it; as if you were putting together a group to go out this coming Friday.

And right here is the first solid step for you.

SET YOUR GOALS What are your goals? How much business do you want to do in the next 12 months? How much money do you want to make in the next 12 months?

And what are you going to do with the money? What the heck are you working for? What dreams can you actually make happen if you had the money? WHY do you do what you do?

Write down on one piece of paper exactly what I’m about to tell you to do. Do it just like I’m telling you, and

> Planet Home

Lending selected Desiree Kirkland as vice president of national closing.

if you put it off, you really don’t want to change. Do it NOW! Make a list of the next 12 months, one under the other; next to each month, write how many loan applications you will write that month; next to that write down how many closings you will have. Next to that make an average of how much you make per closing and multiply it by the number of closings you will have, total the final column and see if it adds up to the amount of money you say you want to make.

If the numbers don’t add up, you need to adjust the number of loans you will write or the number of closings or the amount of commission you will earn. I hope you have noticed that I have not once used any of the following words; expect to, hope to, want to, might, maybe. The goals you write down must be real; they must be attainable; they must be a bit beyond reasonable. But more than anything they must be written down.

MAKE YOUR MARKETING PLAN Next you need to come up with a minimum of FOUR different marketing initiatives that will get you the number of loan applications you will write, close, and get paid on! Here are some samples: • Apartment complex marketing.

• Database marketing. Call every person in your database every quarter.

• Realtor partnering.

• Affinity marketing.

• A weekly email to every person you know.

> LenderClose

adds Kristin Walters as its marketing communications specialist.

• Calling on bank and credit mortgage officers to ask them to give you the loans they can’t do.

• Develop relationships with builders.

• Develop relationships with financial planners, CPAs, insurance brokers.

• Teaching at real estate schools.

Write out a detailed plan of how you are going to actually put into play the minimum of four marketing initiatives that you’ve chosen. A detailed plan. Got it? Detailed. How many? specifically how often? who? when? why? Who are they? Detailed.

Specifically what are you going to say when you write, call or email them?

Any good marketing plan has as a basis the idea that you will do it over and over and over until you die.

DIE! If you get lost in the details, ask someone who knows how to do this sort of thing to help you. Details. A plan. Got it?

Statistics show that 44% of all salespeople quit after the 1st call (mailing); 22% after the 2nd; 14% after the 3rd; 12% after the 4th; ONLY 8% persist to the 5th call back.

Further statistics show that 60% of all buyers’ say “No” 5 times before they buy. So, it is imperative that you become part of the 8% that persevere.

Most salespeople fail because they give up too soon.

Ralph LoVuolo is a regular contributor to National Mortgage Professional.

He produces a video daily at www. oneideaaday.com

> FormFree

appointed Jocelyn Crum Brooks as national account manager.

> Atlantic Home

Mortgage hired Kelly Levens as a senior loan officer for its Alpharetta, Georgia branch.

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LEADERSHIP LESSONS

Business Has No Speed Limits Clients want it fast, or they’re furious.

BY HARVEY MACKAY | SPECIAL TO NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL

S

uccess is a journey, not a destination.

You may take a few detours, hit some roadblocks and arrive at a different place than you planned.

Success comes in many forms and means different things to different people. In the working world, it is often defined as landing the perfect job, achieving a targeted income level, occupying a corner office or owning a business. However you measure it, success is sweet. And it doesn’t happen overnight.

“Pushing the envelope” is a phrase that originated with American test pilots such as Chuck Yaeger and John Glenn in the 1950s. Each aircraft they flew was said to have an “envelope” of performance. In other words, it was designed to fly safely up to a certain speed for a certain distance at a certain altitude. The job of test pilots was to “push the envelope” by making the plane go faster, farther and higher.

To me, “pushing the envelope” means pushing the boundaries and pushing yourself to maximize your

advantage to be better, faster and smarter and to get the results you want – in business and in life.

It’s difficult to overstate the importance of speed in business. This century’s business is dominated by speed.

Speed is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity. Having a great product isn’t enough anymore. People expect things faster, cheaper and better. Every part of your business needs to be up to speed.

UP TO SPEED Take customer service. You need to speed up the time handling customer complaints. When you serve your customers in a timely fashion, you end up with satisfied consumers. Poor customer service equals dissatisfied clients. My motto has always been “Taking care of customers is taking care of business.” If you make customers #1, they will make you #1. Speed allows you to differentiate in the marketplace. Amazon’s emphasis on speed is a great example.

If businesses don’t think and act fast, they get passed like jalopies on the freeway. Companies like Blockbuster, which stayed the same for years, was passed up by video streaming subscriptions like Disney, Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Mainstay companies like Sears, Kodak, Xerox, Radio Shack, and Toys “R” Us, are all shells of what they used to be. Businesses have to

If businesses don’t think and act fast, they get passed like jalopies on the freeway.

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE //

> Mortgage

Guaranty Insurance Company promoted Danny Garcia-Velez to vice president, business development.

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> Home Point

Financial appointed Perry Hilzendeger as the new president of servicing.

> Stephanie

Casper has been appointed to the role as vice president of sales for LendingHome.

> John

Lawrence was promoted to president of servicing and lender services for BSI Financial Services.

keep up or get passed up.

Kmart and Walmart both started in 1962 but compare the two companies today. Walmart has continued to make changes and reinvent itself, which is reflected in its sales of more than $510 billion. Kmart, on the other hand, remained stagnant, and it’s struggled (after being acquired by Sears) in and out of bankruptcy.

IBM and Hewlett-Packard got passed up by Dell when it started selling computers directly to consumers, instead of through stores.

LIVING IN THE NOW We live in a world of instant gratification, so consumers expect speed. They can’t wait until the next great smartphone with expanded capabilities. There will always be a group of people who demand the latest and the greatest, and there will be a forward-thinking company ready to serve them.

An important component of speed is getting your workforce – employees, contractors and vendors – up to speed by training them to complete tasks faster, innovate and share best practice ideas. When you hire the right person you’re only halfway right. Train them correctly, consistently and constantly to move at a rapid pace with ease. One caveat: Never sacrifice quality for speed. Faster is only better if the result is a top-notch product, as illustrated in this story:

A man was driving down a country road one day at 45 miles per hour when suddenly he noticed a three-legged chicken running at the same speed beside his truck.

Though he thought this odd, the man decided to speed up so he wouldn’t cause an accident with the chicken.

The man sped up to 55 miles per hour, but so did the three-legged chicken. The man then sped up to 65, and so did the three-legged chicken.

As the man watched in amazement, the chicken suddenly made a sharp left turn and took off down a side road toward a small farm. The man turned and followed the chicken to the farm. Looking around, the man found a farmer around back amid a flock of threelegged chickens. After greeting the farmer, the man asked him why he was raising three-legged chickens.

“Well, we figure that with an average family of three people, only two can have a chicken leg with a normal chicken,” said the farmer. “But with a three-legged chicken, each member of the family can enjoy a chicken leg of their own.”

“That’s pretty wise,” said the man, who then asked, “So how do your three-legged chickens taste?”

“I don’t know,” said the farmer. “We’ve never been able to catch one.”

Mackay’s Moral: Business has a need for speed.

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Wholesale lenders have and continue to be a cornerstone of the mortgage industry, forging relationships with brokers and enabling consumers to take advantage of the best rates possible for their loans. Below is a directory of lenders who have strong wholesale channels and maintain their broker partnerships, while supporting the wholesale mortgage marketplace. Many of these companies have stood the test of time in an often-tumultuous environment and continue to thrive.

ACC Mortgage Website: ACCMortgage.com Specialty/Niche: Non-QM ACC Mortgage founded in 1999 is the oldest Non-QM lender in the industry.

We have never stopped lending through two financial crises. We offer a full complement of products: JUMBO, Bank Statement, P&L Programs, ITIN, 2nd Chance and DSCR programs.

States Licensed in: CA, FL, TX, OR, WA, NV, NV, CO, ID, TN, AR, CT, NJ, DE, PA, IL, MD, DC, VA, NC, SC, GA, IN, MI, MN, AZ, KS

REMN Wholesale Website: remnwholesale.com Specialty/Niche: Renovation A commitment to excellence and a superior experience for mortgage brokers and bankers are the pillars REMN Wholesale was built upon. Our industry-leading turn times on new files and bicoastal management teams have helped REMN to become one of the most trusted wholesale lenders in the country.

States Licensed in: All 50 States

CMG Financial Website: cmgfi.com Specialty/Niche: Every Customer, Every Time. No Exceptions, No Excuses.

CMG Financial delivers the personal service of a local lender backed by the resources of a national brand. CMG is known for reliable pre-approvals, ease of transaction, on-time closings, and transparency and communication throughout the mortgage process.

CMG is committed to Every Customer, Every Time. No Exceptions, No Excuses.

States licensed in: All 50 States + DC

United Wholesale Mortgage Website: uwm.com Specialty/Niche: ELITE, MI, Consistent Turn Times, Direct Communication, Technology United Wholesale Mortgage is the #1 wholesale lender in the nation five years in a row, providing state-of-theart technology and unrivaled client service. UWM's teamwork and laserlike focus on delivering innovative mortgage solutions are driving the company’s ongoing growth and its leadership position as the foremost advocate for mortgage brokers.

States licensed in: All 50 States

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LoanStream Mortgage Website: loanstreamwholesale.com Specialty/Niche: Non- QM A top national lender, LoanStream is dedicated to providing Conventional, Government, and Non-QM Loan Programs with excellent technology, service, and fast turn times. Get access to the best Non-QM loan programs that help you close more loans and win more relationships. Be the ONE to call with the ONE Lender.

States Licensed in: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, NV, NJ, NM, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI

First National Bank of America Website: fnba.com/mortgage-brokers Specialty/Niche: Non- QM First National Bank of America is a portfolio lender with over 60 years of lending experience. Servicing all of the loans we originate allows us to set our own guidelines and risk tolerances for Non-QM and Jumbo loans. Only 12 months of income documentation. ITIN borrowers welcome.

States Licensed in: All 50 States

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

WHO’S WHO IN THE 2020 WHOLESALERS MARKETPLACE

Equity Cap Fund Advisors Website: EquityCapFundAdvisors.com Specialty/Niche: Private Money Loans Equity Cap Fund Advisors is a Direct Nationwide Private Money Lender that Lends to Professional Active Investors such as Real Estate Developers, Fix & Flippers and Professional Landlords with Small to Large Real Estate Portfolios for Opportunistic Real Estate Opportunities such as Acquisitions, Cash-Out for Business, Commercial purposes only.

States Licensed in: California

Carrington Mortgage Services Website: CarringtonWholesale.com Specialty/Niche: Our Niche is Your Success Our full spectrum of government and conventional financing empowers brokers to unlock the best lending solution for their borrowers. Our team is accessible and dialed in to get results while our tools and technology are built to help brokers succeed at every step. Visit us at CarringtonWholesale.com or call 866453-2600.

States Licensed in: AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY

States Licensed in: AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE FL GA HI IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MI MN MS MT NE NV NH NJ NM NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VA WA WV WI WY DC

Since 2000, Plaza Home Mortgage has built business on relationships and deep understanding of the needs of the TPO community. We offer a full range of agency, non-agency, VA, renovation and reverse mortgage programs, and maintain a number of regional loan underwriting and operations centers in major U.S. markets.

States Licensed in: All 50 States

Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions Website: angeloakms.com Specialty/Niche: Non-QM, NonAgency Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions is the leader in non-QM. We specialize in non-Agency and non-QM mortgage solutions for brokers helping borrowers who don’t fit conventional guidelines. We have completed 16 non-QM securitizations totaling $5.7 billion. Our fresh approach to today’s mortgage lending challenges help our partners grow their business.

Plaza Home Mortgage Website: plazahomemortgage.com Specialty/Niche: FHA 203(k) Renovation, FHA Streamline, FHA Fixed & ARM, Conforming & High Balance Fixed, Fannie Mae® HomeReady®, Freddie Mac Home Possible®

Princeton Mortgage Wholesale Website: PrincetonWholesale.com Specialty/Niche: Great rates, less effort.

Princeton Mortgage Wholesale is headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA driven by the leadership of the SVP Wholesale Lending, Matt Joy. We believe that customer loyalty is earned by providing a consistent, effortless experience and by doing the right thing, all the time.

States Licensed in: CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, IL, MD, MI, MN, NJ, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, TX, VA, WA

Citadel Servicing Corp.

Website: citadelservicing.com/ Specialty/ Niche: Non-QM Citadel Servicing Corporation (“CSC”), was formed with a focus on providing the industry’s leading tailor-made Non-QM mortgage products. We partner with industry leaders and mortgage professionals, focusing on delivering programs that center around borrower and industry needs.

States Licensed in: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MI, MN, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NC, OK, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, WI, WY

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SPECIAL SECTION: MARKET UPDATES

Photo credit: iStockphoto / archigram

Emerging Markets And How To Reach Them

These generations need a little extra help but it’s worth the effort.

BY CHRISTIAN OLIN | SPECIAL TO NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL

W

ith interest rates as low as they are and additional contactless home loan services available, now is a great time to appeal to emerging and new markets for your business. Marketing to different groups of home buyers comes with concerns and challenges, since each group is unique.

From millennials looking to buy their first home to Baby Boomers thinking about downsizing but feeling hesitant, these markets need a little extra help in the right direction. By recognizing your buyer’s desires and fears, you can tailor your approach.

The kind of help each group needs differs, so understanding the unique

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qualities of each demographic is critical if you want to reach them.

MILLENNIALS Millennials are an emerging market that is only growing as even younger millennials are graduating from University or looking to move from their hometowns. While the average age for first time home buyers has increased over the past decade, homeownership is a goal for nearly all. In fact, over half of millennials hope to own a house in the next five years. The novel COVID-19 has sped up this influx, making now a great time to convert renters into homeowners.

One of the biggest aspects

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holding millennials back from homeownership is lack of knowledge about the mortgage process, and the additional fees associated with purchasing a home, such as closing costs. However, more than half pay over 30% of their income on renting, meaning homeownership is more in arms reach than they think.

Another factor is the common millennial belief that owning a home will require them to stay put in one location for a long time. Consider comparing the costs and benefits of renting and homeownership to understand how to guide millennials to financial success.

The key to reaching this market can be done by presenting a streamlined, transparent mortgage lending

process since they are most likely to be first-time homebuyers. Also, a down-payment assistance program could help make a millennial’s homeownership goals possible. Look to cities such as Seattle, Denver, or Austin, which have all seen a net increase of over 5,000 new millennial residents based on the 2018 census.

GENERATION X Another group to consider targeting is Generation X. While Gen Xers may not typically be considered an emerging market, they are often overlooked as home buyers. The children of Baby Boomers have quietly become the country’s top earners. As the group that suffered the most financially from the 2008 housing crash in their early homebuying age, they are now ready to move up.

face a competitive housing market, the same one that their millennial counterparts have been struggling in.

There are ways you as a lender can assist them.

The struggle Baby Boomers are experiencing can be a great way for you to step in and use your expertise.

Christian Olin is vice president of direct lending for On Q Financial.

A reverse mortgage or HECM, which is the most common type of reverse mortgage insured by the FHA, can help those who are 62 or older use a part of their home equity without

Xer kids still live at home and these home features don’t fit into their busy days.

Similar to Millennials, Gen X also highly values community involvement in their neighborhood.

The top desirable cities for Gen X includes Miami, Atlanta, and San Francisco. Some of the best ways

moving to make home improvements.

A HECM can also help in buying a home. Another possibility to present to Baby Boomers is the option of taking out a loan against their own home equity to help make accessible modifications.

Keep in mind, Baby Boomers have their eyes on sunshine-filled cities including Las Vegas, Austin,

Boomers are going to face a competitive housing market; the same one that their millennial counterparts have been struggling in..

and Mesa. If these are regions you are considering targeting, do not overlook Baby Boomers because of the struggle they are facing due to rising

Currently, the 65 Million that make up Gen X are buying the highestpriced median homes. This market is also attractive since they are probably not first-time home buyers and won’t need quite as much hand-holding through the loan and mortgage process.

To appeal to Generation X, it is imperative to understand their housing desires and where to find them. Assist them in their home search by presenting homes with an abundance of storage, proximity to parks for their kids, and a nice yard as these things are all high on the Gen X list of what they are looking for.

Shy away from homes with formal living and dining rooms as it does not fit their lifestyle quite like their parents, making these rooms unnecessary. The majority of Gen-

to get in touch with those in their 40-50s is through direct mail, online email, and Facebook.

housing costs for smaller homes and limited retirement savings. There are loan options that can work for them.

Focus on accessibility and you may

BABY BOOMERS Another market to pay attention to is Baby Boomers. Baby Boomers own a third of the houses in America and millions are looking to downsize.

They are rapidly looking to move closer to their adult children, therefore, opening a new market.

Boomers are feeling hesitant to move because of the rising housing costs and they’re comfortable with the equity in their current residence.

While some Boomers consider aging in place, their older current homes are often not equipped with wide enough hallways, showers, staircases, and of course, proximity to their children to help out as caretakers. Boomers are going to

just win over this generation.

While not all of these varying generations are typically considered an emerging market, a large portion of prospective home buyers are being overlooked, and each for different reasons. With new social distancing protocols, there has been a shift in many renter’s mindsets towards homeownership. Another factor making now a great time to reach new markets is low mortgage rates for conventional 30-year loans.

By understanding the housing goals of each market and honing in that respective region, you will be on your way to great lending success.

NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE |

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SPECIAL SECTION: MARKET UPDATES

Secondary Marketing 101: Factors Impacting Mortgage Pricing Dynamic between primary and secondary spread is playing out

BY JASON LEE | SPECIAL TO NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL

I

n my role as executive vice president and director of capital markets at Flagstar Bank, I’m responsible for all secondary marketing, including marketing of residential mortgage-backed securities, pricing, margin management, and loan delivery. I’ve been in the industry for 23 years, starting out in secondary marketing in the Detroit area right out of college and then working with several major lenders across the country— always in secondary marketing. I’ve learned a lot along the way that’s helped prepare me for the curve balls that come with the territory.

With the uncertainty brought on by COVID-19, followed by the Federal Reserve’s jolt to the market for mortgagebacked securities, then the CARES Act and the confusion about forbearance, followed by the GSE pricing hits, I welcome the opportunity to provide some insight into the various factors that have affected Flagstar’s way of pricing in this topsy-turvy environment we’re operating in.

Jason Lee is executive vice president,

comes pre-packaged head of secondary marketing & capital market operations, for with costs for things Flagstar Bank. like loan counseling, loan modifications, servicing, and foreclosure, if it comes to that.

As a lender, Flagstar looks for the sweet spot where we can continue to help our partners and our loan advisors and still make sure we’re protecting the bank. Here’s where our longevity in the industry, our liquidity as a bank, and our long history of focusing on relationships come into play.

SERVICING VALUATION

The value of servicing, which is the fee that an institution gets paid to administer a loan, also affects pricing. When a consumer makes a payment, the servicer processes the payment, applies it to the loan, tracks the loan and, if the FORBEARANCE loan is escrowed, pays the taxes and insurance. There is a First, forbearance is expensive. Right out of the box, fee built into a mortgage payment for this service.

Fannie and Freddie bumped up the pricing on loans in The value of that fee is basically a forward cash flow, forbearance. We’re talking 500 to 700 basis points a loan. which investors purchase. A wild card here is the number That created a lot of heartburn and uncertainty about of years servicing is expected to be in effect. Investors future cash flow. put a value on the cash flow of X amount of years of that So, lenders tightened credit because of nervousness money coming in. around defaults and possible foreclosure issues down So, they might figure, let’s say, the average 30-year the line. Many lenders dropped products and increased mortgage is really around for six years. When there’s fear, minimum FICO scores and down-payment minimums for uncertainty, or if rates drop, and there’s a high propensity certain loans in order to forestall defaults. Forbearance for prepays or customers are incented to refinance to a lower rate, that cash flow could be disrupted.

In the mortgage industry, we’re looking at a virtual Investors get nervous because of the high level of uncertainty around the assembly line for home loans. We have only so much

capacity to process loans.

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T H E

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THE NATION’S LEADING NON-QM LENDER (949) 900-6630 sales@citadelservicing.com | www.citadelservicing.com 15707 Rockfield Boulevard Suite 320, Irvine, CA 92618 Citadel Servicing Corporation NMLS ID# 144549, Licensed under Division of Business Oversight Under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act license #41DBO-74196, Finance Lenders License # 60DB094450, and CA-DRE #01799059. For mortgage professionals only. This information is intended for the exclusive use of licensed real estate and mortgage lending professionals in accordance with local laws and regulations. Distribution to the general public is prohibited. CSC is an equal opportunity lender. Rates, terms, and programs subject to change without notice. Offer of credit subject to credit approval per applicable underwriting and program guidelines, applicant eligibility, and market conditions. Not all applicants may qualify. Not valid in the following states: AK, HI, IA, MA, MS, MO, NM, NY, ND, OH, RI, SD, and WV.

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Pandemic Problems Adding To Appraisal Issues For Lenders Record lending may be hamstrung by appraisal delays.

Virus shutdowns are just one more roadblock.

BY JOHN TEDESCO, SPECIAL TO NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL

T

he appraisal industry has been under a great pressure for several years now.

Increasing demand, shrinking pools of aging appraisers, evolving data and technology, growing regulations, and difficult entry barriers into the profession, are just a few factors that have contributed to the current climate over the past 10 years.

Now add the impact from the COVID-19 pandemic and the industry challenges expand even further. The impact is being felt by mortgage lenders and borrowers across the nation, and they will need to navigate these concerns in the new world.

First let’s talk supply and demand; the key pressure on the industry.

With Millennials becoming the largest generation in American history, housing demands are at an all-time high both for the Single Family and Multi-Family Rental markets as well as first homeowners. The National Association of Realtors is predicting 12 million new homeowners over the next 10 years. The second biggest generation, Baby Boomers, are starting to downsize. Both the selling and buying in these transactions typically require an appraisal; granted large portions of the selling may overlap with many of these millennial home buyers. Additionally, interest rates are at an all-time low driving a refi boom and also requiring valuations in many cases.

The 2019 Fact Sheet from the

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Appraisal Institute highlights 79,000 active appraisers in America.

Less than 50% of those are active residential field appraisers; meaning many other may work for an organization like an AMC full-time doing quality control or review work, serve as chief appraisers for public and private organizations, work directly on staff for a lending institution, or perform only commercial asset class appraisals.

The Appraisal Institute Fact Sheet notes several other important facts.

First, that number of active appraisers is down more than 10% in five years and has been on a steady decline for more than 10 years. The average age of an appraiser is now over 55. More than 50% of those have been in the industry over 20 years while less than 16% have entered the industry in the past 10 years. Nearly 41% of appraisers surveyed in 2018 by the National Association of Appraisers responded that they plan to retire in the next 10 years.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION All of this is exacerbated regionally.

Rural areas have always dramatically been underserved by appraisers by nature because of lower populations, but even cities and states can deviate significantly. Clearbox, host of the annual Valuation Expo (largest for the valuation community) reported in 2017 that metro Atlanta has 60 appraisers per 100,000 people, San Francisco had 30, while Cincinnati

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had 14 for 100,000 metro residents – and shrinking. In Illinois, its state appraisal board reported nearly 1,500 new trainee licenses issued in 2005; just 53 a decade later in 2015. Followed by the housing market recession of 2008, increased regulations, added risk, and stagnant fees compounded with added education and trainee requirements to deter many from entering the industry.

This supply and demand pressure has been dramatic and painful to lending across America. Initially it has added costs to appraiser fees and delayed turn-times, extended times that killed rate locks, delayed closings, and added to loan expenses.

In recent years the impact forced federal agencies, lenders, and key decision makers to take measures to combat the challenge. Some measures pushed to increase supply with reduced barriers to becoming an appraiser trainee; scaling back the added education requirements and field hours. Other measures focused on reducing demand.

In 2017 and 2018, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac adopted and expanded waiver policies that allowed low-risk borrowers with previous appraisals on file and higher down payments to secure appraisal waivers. In 2018, Fannie reported 60,000 of their 1.2 million loans (5%) received a waiver. Other exemptions from the Federal Reserve and FDIC were put in for commercial properties under $250,000 and then in 2018 that was

raised to $500,000. In 2019, the FDIC raised the residential exemptions from $250,000 to $400,000 and required alternative valuations for items below that. These were for nonGSE loans, and in September of 2019, HousingWire reported these waivers represented 750,000 residential loans in 2017; the updated threshold based on based on that 2017 data would have added an additional 214,000 appraisal waivers.

Government entities also started using bifurcated reports, or what many of us know as hybrid reports (although technically there are some differences). These reports allow the appraisers to complete key portions of the report from home while other methods can be used to acquire photos and inspections.

DEMAND ESCALATES As we entered 2020, those changes were still being significantly outpaced by the growing demand from new home buyers, low-rate refi’s, and new construction. In addition to the conventional demand, the rapidly growing demand from private capital investors acquiring residential assets through private lenders, real estate investment trusts (REIT), family funds, institutions and more has surged. In 2005, it was projected that this represented 5% of all residential lending in America; many experts suggest that number has grown to closer to 12% to 15% today.

Further, these private lenders who fund investors with fix & flip loans, rental loans, refi’s, bridge loans and more have seen a dramatic boom in recent years with the emergence of a secondary market.

In March of 2020, ATTOM Data released its 2019 Home Flippers report where they reported an eightyear high with over 245,000 homes flipped in America in ‘19. That alone represented 6.2% of all lending in America for $32.5 billion in financed flips in 2019.

Rental programs were even stronger in 2019 for these private lenders and had more than doubled in recent years, while public and private REITs contributed even more with greater residential rental asset acquisitions than ever. In 2019, NaREIT (National Association of Real Estate Investment

SECOND WAVE OF DELAYS

Trusts) reported their 2018 holdings now had 150,000 single-family rentals and over one million multifamily units. All of this driving valuation demand.

COVID CREATIVITY As a provider of valuations across all these sectors, in the beginning of March we saw record breaking volume for ourselves and many of our clients. By mid-month, this all came to a screeching halt with COVID-19 shutdowns. The conventional spring/ summer house buying flood that normally backlogs appraisers and drives added delays turned into a trickle; virtually no one was house hunting while quarantined. That secondary market funding helping the private lending boom was now on lock down.

As states opened up, we saw demand return quickly. We anticipate this will further grow as we reach a full easement of restrictions in all states over time. We feel the backlog from spring volume may just add to Summer and Fall demand, so we are advising lenders to be aware of added turn-times and potential fees as appraisers do charge more when demand is greatest. Further, we believe this temporary crisis will not have quelled the housing shortage we were experiencing pre-virus.

With such demand for conventional homeowners and private investors alike, the industry will need to continue to address these appraiser issues that impact consumers with significant delays and higher costs.

The pre-COVID exemptions and

Appraiser supply and demand pressure has added costs to fees and delayed turntimes, extended times that killed rate locks, delayed closings, and added to loan expenses.

Government agencies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were scrambling to find ways to accommodate the lending that was continuing. The ability of appraisers to enter a home to inspect or even leave their own homes was different state by state, even county by county in some cases.

Some states deemed them essential workers in line with inspectors and contractors while others deemed them unessential. Exemptions were being made to allow conventional singlefamily interior 1004 reports to be done as an external drive-by reports, and the agencies began allowing lenders to use a desktop report in certain circumstances.

GSEs and lenders began evaluating further alternatives as well. We were fortunate to be one of the first to market with an app that allowed the borrowers to use a carefully guided but easy-to-use tool to take their inspection photos according to all key guidelines, geo-coded and timestamped the photos, and then send them direct to the appraisers.

waivers were easing pressures slightly, but it was still too early to access at what risk to these taxpayer backed agencies. And while there has been success with hybrid and alternative valuation products, they are best used in lower risk scenarios.

At the end of the day a computer cannot see non-conforming conditions on a property, smell carpets soaked in pet urine or a nearby waste site that may drive down value. We need to continue to grow the appraiser pool by making it a more attractive profession, limiting barriers, and expanding the tool belt. Alternative technologies, further exemptions, and added tools that emerged during the COVID-19 crisis should be valuable resources as we continue to grapple with these challenges.

John Tedesco is senior vice president of business development at Appraisal Nation.

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nmp

COVER STORY THE BIG BANG

FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BROKERAGE As the broker channel snags more market share, the time seems ripe for the rapid growth of superbrokerages.

BY GEORGE YACIK | NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL CONTRIBUTING WRITER

F

or decades, the real estate brokerage was the domain of the local agent – Hometown Realty, or Jack Jones Real Estate, for example. They implied local folks advising local buyers, one-on-one advisors and friendly service.

They were the mark of friendliness for a transaction often fraught with uncertainty.

Then came Century 21. And Better Homes & Gardens. And Re/Max. The franchise companies saw change coming in real estate. They saw more complexity, greater mobility among buyers, a need to raise standards. They saw that small-town real estate agents needed help keeping up with new technology and marketing. And so they brought all this to community after community.

Photo credit: iStockphoto / zeremski

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Now, buyers and sellers seek out the chain affiliations because they want national expertise. Real estate brokers rely on the benefits of consistent tech and multi-state marketing. And agents expect the kind of back-end support that only regional or national organizations can provide.

That’s a history lesson that isn’t lost on Brian Kent, general manager and co-founder of C2 Financial, the largest regional mortgage brokerage in the U.S. In fact, it’s a proven strategy that his company and a growing number of others are looking to bring to home financing the same way the real estate franchises evolved home sales.

And since the foundation of evolution is the survival of the fittest, that means it’s time for the era of the Superbrokerage to finally take flight.

RISING VOLUME Independent mortgage brokers have been capturing an increasing share of

Brian Kent, general manager and co-founder of C2 Financial

the mortgage market, according to Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data, now accounting for about 17% of originations, up from 14% just a year ago and 11% just three years ago.

But all that extra business brings with it operational challenges. It means more processors are needed to get originations moving, more oversight is needed to keep up with

changing lender and regulatory rules, more marketing is needed is to sway borrowers. And all of that involves more time, effort and strategy on the part of each individual brokerage.

Brett Weiss, manager of NEXA Mortgage’s Glendale, Arizona branch and nationwide team lead, says that there’s a Catch-22 that prevents mortgage brokers from getting big: You can’t get big without volume, but you can’t produce enough volume to become profitable unless you’re big.

That’s a conundrum that stymies many aspiring brokerages trying to grow.

The typical mortgage brokerage in the U.S. is a small operation, with three or four loan officers and some support staff. Putting on more staff in either sales or support also means taxing the resources of management, which is often in the trenches originating, too. But attracting highpowered originators is the only way to get substantial growth. And those sales stars are reluctant to move without seeing an advantage.

LOS NOT FOR SALE

Brett Weiss, manager of NEXA Mortgage’s Glendale, Arizona branch and nationwide team lead.

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“You can’t just go out and buy a bunch of originators,” says C2’s Kent.

“We had to build up slowly over time in order to be able to get the volume in order to get preferred rates with our lenders. It’s just something that takes more time to develop.”

C2 Financial in San Diego is generally considered to be the largest mortgage brokerage in the country based on origination volume, totaling $5.2 billion in 2019, according to company data. The firm boasts about 800 originators licensed in 11 states, mostly on the West Coast, but also in Texas, Florida and a few others.

Nexa Mortgage, based in Chandler, Arizona, has only been around since 2017 but already has 600 loan officers, second only to C2, licensed in 39 states. Last year, it originated almost $1 billion in loans, more than half of it coming in the last four months of the year.

“There is this belief that [mortgage brokerage] is just not the type of business that is scalable to the level of being a superbrokerage and be

Mat Ishbia, president and CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage in Pontiac, Michigan.

One of the biggest drawbacks you hear in the mortgage broker business is that loan officers do not get the support they are used to in the retail environment. successful,” Weiss says. “Nexa and C2 are showing that that isn’t the case.

But it’s not easy, and it really has to revolve around volume. The volume just has to be there.”

EASY TO BE SMALL? Mat Ishbia, president and CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage in Pontiac, Michigan, the nation’s largest wholesale lender with $107.7 billion in loan volume last year, says the reason there are so many small brokerage firms is because “it’s very easy to become a mortgage broker.”

“The barrier to entry to become a mortgage broker is not very high,” he notes. “There’s not a branding thing

you need as a mortgage broker. It’s about being independent and having options, which is why the broker channel is exploding right now and it’s going to continue.

“Being a mortgage broker is the best place for a loan officer to work.

In the broker world right now, there are plenty of options, whether it’s working for a large broker or a small shop or starting your own. All these options are viable.”

But hanging out a sign as a broker and being able to scale the operation are dramatically different. That’s why wholesalers like UWM and Quicken Loans Mortgage Services offer originators complete backend

offerings, from branded marketing to online application portals to inperson training. But it’s also why more big brokerages are trying to expand their footprint by offering a unified back office and sales support to originators flooding into a hot market.

While real estate and mortgage brokers operate in the same basic space – residential real estate – there are significant differences between the two.

Primarily, there are a lot more Realtors than there are mortgage brokers. While the National Association of Realtors, one of the largest and most powerful trade groups in the country, has 1.4 million members, there are fewer than half a million originators licensed by the Nationwide Mortgage License System, and many of those licenses aren’t for individuals.

A big issue, Nexa’s Weiss says, is support. “One of the biggest drawbacks you hear in the mortgage broker business is that loan officers do not get the support they are used to in the retail environment,” he says.

“The training and daily support of a scalable large brokerage is a hindrance and why people are not attempting to do it. That’s a cost at the corporate level that plays into the profitability.

How do you support that many loan officers?”

At the same time, “at the smaller brokerages, the owners are originating themselves, so they have to take care of their own business to make sure the bills get paid. Do they have the time and the financial resources to train and support a growing number of loan officers they are bringing in?

Those are the two main reasons we do not see many brokerages of our size.”

A HYBRID ALTERNATIVE Motto Mortgage, which calls itself the “only mortgage brokerage franchise network in the U.S.,” is somewhat of a hybrid between the superbrokerages like C2 and Nexa and the typical “mom and pop” offices that dot the landscape. Based in Denver, Motto launched in October 2016 and has sold 200 franchises since then, with more

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working. Motto Mortgage was named by Entrepreneur magazine to its “2020 Fastest-Growing Franchise” list, along with several other accolades. And other mortgage entrepreneurs are also trying to get into the game. California-based Arcus Lending, for example, is quickly adding locations stretching to the Midwest.

But even when such companies are on a roll, success isn’t a certainty.

Motto Mortgage notes that it has “sold 200 franchises” in just four years. But only 125 of them are still active.

ACHIEVING SIZE

Motto president Ward Morrison.

At smaller brokerages, owners are originating themselves, so they have to take care of their own pipeline to make sure the bills get paid. than 300 loan officers in more than 30 states, although it’s licensed in all 50.

Last year it originated more than $1 billion in mortgage volume.

Motto, a wholly owned subsidiary of RE/MAX Holdings, calls its concept “a mortgage brokerage in a box.”

“For the small and medium-sized real estate company that may not have the capital, our solution of becoming a mortgage broker is a great one for them and allows them to open up with less capital and somewhat less risk because they’re a broker, not

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a banker,” president Ward Morrison says.

Motto generally attracts less experienced mortgage officers, Morrison says, “people who have been around the mortgage industry but not necessarily in it. We get them set up, compliant, legal, connect them with a good product, technology, marketing tools, all from the get-go. We level them up and get them up to speed.

They’re in business for themselves but not by themselves.”

It’s a tack that seems to be

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It took a while for C2 to achieve its current size. The firm started in 2009 with 50 loan officers but then “ramped up pretty quickly,” Kent says. “Our volume increased, and with increased volume comes better negotiating ability with our lenders for lower interest rates and better service. It’s sort of a cycle: You get bigger, you are able to negotiate better rates, and because you get those rates, more originators want to be with you.”

“There’s more risk involved,” he added, “and there are fewer people [in the mortgage business] willing to take that risk. For a big real estate broker, what’s the liability on those deals? On the mortgage side, if we have a loan go bad, or there’s fraud on a loan, we may have to buy that loan back.

And it doesn’t take a lot of buybacks to put a company out of business. I don’t think there’s a lot of people who have the risk tolerance to have 800 originators conducting business under their license, because things could potentially change pretty quickly.”

Not surprisingly, then, controlling risk is “the core issue for us,” Kent says, and that requires quality control.

As a wholesale lender, Ishbia says it doesn’t really affect his business whether it deals with lots of small mortgage brokers or superbrokerages like C2 and Nexa.

“It doesn’t matter to us at all,” he says. “Every originator is independent. Even if you work at a big broker shop, each loan officer is

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independent and they make the choice which lenders they work with. What matters is whatever is best for the originator. We’re on the same team.”

DUE DILIGENCE “When a new originator joins us, we do heavy screening and due diligence in terms of background and reference checks,” said Nexa’s Weiss. “And most of our originators are referred to us, so we already have an advantage, there’s some trust there already.”

“Then from the loan file standpoint, for every file that comes in, we do pre-quality control, where all the key elements of the file are re-verified by us. And we do a post-QC on the back end. We also work closely with our lenders on QC. Our originators know that if we see something, our lenders are going to call us right away. So, before that loan funds, if we have more than two issues on a loan,

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depending on the severity, we are going to pull the plug on that loan.”

“The smaller brokerages hit a point where they just don’t see that it’s possible to get any bigger,” he says.

“Nexa gives the lion’s share of the commission to the loan officer, and that drives the volume, but that’s probably the scary part to most broker owners, because of the small margin they operate on at the corporate level. If that volume goes away that becomes a problem, and explains the hesitancy why more broker owners don’t try to increase their scale.”

But in the same way many real estate agencies didn’t want to align with the national chains but eventually did, more originators will likely be looking for more structured help. If existing brokerages don’t try to scale up to provide that kind of support, the real estate franchises – who have experience in exactly this

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kind of business model – likely will.

“It does not come as a surprise that traditional national real estate firms, which have experience in the franchise model, are pressing forward into the mortgage industry. It is a natural extension, especially as real estate firms are seeking to or needing to expand revenue opportunities,” says Brian Marks, an adjunct professor at the University of New Haven. “These national firms will need to move fast, however, as the window of this opportunity will not remain open forever.”

Motto’s Morrison says it hopes to continue its pace of adding an average 50-plus franchises a year over the next five to 10 years. “We believe in the power of the franchise network,” he says. “We have seen it done on the RE/MAX side, so we do it on the mortgage side as well.”

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37

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FACTORS IMPACTING MORTGAGE PRICING CONTINUED FROM PAGE 26

pandemic. The value of that servicing asset goes to a very low multiple or sometimes zero. If you need to sell your servicing, you can find a buyer, but you might not like the price. As we get on the other side of COVID, the values will be back, maybe by the end of the year or Q1. Meanwhile, servicing valuation is another pricing pressure for lenders to contend with.

THE PRIMARY-SECONDARY SPREAD The primary-secondary spread is the difference between the mortgage rate for borrowers and the yield on newly issued agency mortgage-backed securities. It’s the pass-through rate to sell a loan in the secondary market. When the spread widens—as it has recently—it’s often a capacity issue. The market works efficiently to limit demand to handle the influx of volume.

Flagstar is based in Detroit, so automotive analogies always work well for me. You can only push so many cars down the assembly line, and there are limited parts available and a limited number of people available to assemble the car, paint the car, etc.

In the mortgage industry, we’re looking at a virtual assembly line for home loans. We have only so much capacity to process loans. When rates dropped and demand skyrocketed, you didn’t see a parallel drop in the consumer rate because lenders needed to control capacity in order to serve their customers and deliver their product in a reasonable time.

As capacity is now becoming less of an issue, the primary-secondary spread is narrowing and the industry is getting back to business as usual— backfilling the roles needed to sustain our virtual assembly line. This means that rates are also falling for consumers. What we’re seeing firsthand is the dynamic between the primary and secondary spread play out.

PRICING AND THE RIGHT PARTNER One of the maxims about mortgage pricing is that if it is too good to be true, then it probably isn’t true. The reality is there is no wizard behind the curtain, magically pulling pricing strings. It’s the net result of a handful of components, and lenders arrive at very similar numbers, though that’s not necessarily how they market them.

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heard on

National Mortgage Professional hosts a regular Mortgage Leadership Outlook series live on Facebook and YouTube. The industry’s best share their views. Here are some of their observations from the past few weeks, as well as quotables from NationalMortgageProfessional.com To see these full interviews and more, just go to to www.nmptv.com.

“How do you make the average person as best as they possibly can be? Give them the tools, automation and best practices, you know, put them in the best place to succeed.”

—Josh Friend, founder and CEO of InSellerate

“Hey look, the companies that took the most market share during the recession are the companies that doubled down on their marketing, this is what we’ve been waiting for is that opportunity to take market share.”

—Michael McAllister, Empower Funnels founder

“Rising home prices mean brokers should have a laser-like focus on educating first-time homebuyers about what they can afford.”

—Austin Niemiec, Quicken Loans Mortgage Services executive vice president

“When you step back and look at the bigger picture, it seems that those writing off urban real estate have done so prematurely.”

—Jeff Tucker, Zillow economist

“Home equity lenders expect to bounce back in 2021 and have ambitious plans for digital enhancements and initiatives to expedite the borrower experience. These initiatives are expected to help them better compete.”

“The federal government’s initial bolstering of unemployment insurance and the foreclosure moratorium kept the economy afloat during one of the greatest shocks in our lifetime.”

—Dr. Luis Torres, Texas A&M University’s Real Estate Center research economist

“The housing market is well past the recovery phase and is now booming with higher home sales compared to the pre-pandemic days.

With the sizable shift in remote work, current homeowners are looking for larger homes and this will lead to a secondary level of demand even into 2021.”

—Lawrence Yun, chief economist, National Association of Realtors

“The second quarter of 2020 really was a tale of two markets. One saw a continued flood of homeowners refinancing their loans at lower interest rates while the other saw a drop in home-purchase and home-equity borrowing as the economy sagged under virus-related lockdowns.”

—Todd Teta, ATTOM Data Solutions, chief product officer

—Marina Walsh, Mortgage Bankers Association’s vice president of industry analysis

Austin Niemiec Jeff Tucker Lawrence Yun Todd Teta Joe Dahleen

Nomi Smith

PRIVATE LENDING

FLIP? OR FLOP?

Uncertainty In Home Values Could Tighten Lending Market

BY CHUCK GREEN | NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL CONTRIBUTING WRITER

W

ith nerves already frayed by COVID-19, some financial backers are fretting over the prospect of doling out cash to private lenders considering financing the purchase of a foreclosed or distressed property.

After all, how does anyone know whether it’s really a “good buy?”

Plus, profit margins as a percentage are at their lowest in almost nine years.

That’s never been an especially easy question. Loan originators have always been unable to forecast what a future sale might look like with complete certainty; there’s always going to be some inherent degree of risk, said Than Merrill, CEO and founder of real estate education company FortuneBuilders, and founder of CT Homes. That said, today’s most prolific lenders aren’t those who can “realistically” forecast.

Instead, they can mitigate risk by working with tools already at their disposal; namely, comparables.

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PARADIGM IN QUESTION

Frank Gallinelli

Frank Gallinelli, founder and president of RealData Software & Education for Real Estate Investors, said his first inclination is that in this new abnormal, one would be hard-pressed to have a basis for a realistic forecast of value. However, while one would normally want to take a long view of market data to make a credible forecast, investors and lenders might want to refocus on data’s short tail.

| NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE

Up until March, he added, young -- and often not-so-young – professionals, preferred to be where the action was. That entire paradigm is now called into question, with implications for markets that are in reach of, but not within, big cities.

Investors and lenders would need to tap into a more immediate heartbeat in order to recognize if this may becoming, to coin a phrase, ‘the new normal’.

Then there’s this research from ATTOM Data Solutions, a property data provider. In the first quarter of 2020, the gross profit on the typical home flip nationwide (the difference between the median sales price and the median paid by investors) did increase to $62,300: a step up of $300 from the previous quarter and up $1,625 year-over-year.

But with home prices rising, the typical gross flipping profit of $62,300 translated into only a 36.7% return on investment compared to the original acquisition price, down

from a 39.5% gross flipping ROI in the fourth quarter of 2019 and 40.9% a year earlier. The latest profit margin on a percentage basis sits at the lowest level for home flipping since the third quarter of 2011.

The first-quarter pattern of investors unable to fully keep pace with soaring home prices revealed a soft spot in the nation’s nineyear market boom, just as the major impact of the worldwide Coronavirus began damaging the United States economy. While it remains unclear how hard the housing market will get hit by the pandemic fallout, a drop in prices could further erode investor profits and cloud the future of the home-flipping industry.

“Home flipping has gradually taken up a larger portion of the housing market over the last couple of years.

But profits are down and are lower than they’ve been since the dark days following the Great Recession, which is a sign that investors aren’t keeping up with price increases in the broader market,” said Todd Teta, chief product officer at ATTOM Data Solutions.

NOT EDUCATED GUESSING Lenders won’t solely base their decision on an educated guess of where the market will be in the future. Instead, they’ll compare the

subject property to comparables within the context of the market cycle. A home that’s more likely to sell than its competitors is inherently less risky, which bodes well for today’s lenders, added Merrill.

As asset-based lenders, historically, private lenders have based their decisions on the quality of a property compared to nearby comps -- not the prospects of a future sale. It’s only once a property can accurately be compared to similar, nearby homes that lenders can determine the relative safety of their investment, he continued.

The value indicated by recent sales of comparable properties, the current cost of reproducing or replacing a building, and the value that the property’s net earning power will support are the most important considerations in the valuation of real estate property, said Brent Roberts, senior manager of communications at the Appraisal Institute. It serves neither the lender nor the consumer to enter into a mortgage loan that’s more than the value of the property, he added.

In some cases, the appraisal may not match the contract price. But just because an appraisal comes in below – or above – the contract price doesn’t mean it’s flawed, he said.

Lenders will want to see the subject

Mark Ferguson

property’s after repair value (ARV), acquisition cost, and the amount rehabbers will need to spend fixing it up, Merrill added. In the event all of the costs justify the home’s ARV, the lender might find itself with a good investment. However, if there isn’t enough room to warrant the risk, investors may wait for something better to come along.

NO TREPIDATION … YET Mark Ferguson, founder of Investfourmore, said value also hinges on timing and could change based on the project’s longevity. If someone’s flipping in three months, there might not be much risk since it usually takes the market a while to correct.

On the other hand, there could be considerably more risk if someone’s

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43

“I’ve seen some hard money lenders tighten up a lot, but other hard money lenders keep asking me if I have any deals they can lend on.”

–Mark Ferguson, founder, investfourmore

taking one year to flip.

As a house flipper himself, Ferguson said his private lenders haven’t had any trepidation loaning money to him. “I’ve seen some hard money lenders tighten up a lot, but other hard money lenders keep asking me if I have any deals they can lend on.”

The underwriting decisions, he believes, are based more on the operator than the property. The big operators who have reserves, systems in place to work quickly and a track record, are less risky than the small operators who may make big mistakes that take time to correct.

All that said, lenders should allow the data to guide them, said Jeffrey Tesch, CEO of RCN Capital. “They’re nervous because their financial backers are, so lenders are holding back properties, on getting involved,” he noted. Like everyone else, his company was ill at ease. The issue was: is there going to be a housing crisis? “The data’s showing that that’s just not the case.”

In March, overall transactions were up 20% over the previous March, while the volume was down 70% in April. April. May lagged 50%. Markets are come backing back, said Michael Tedesco, CEO of Appraisal Nation.

Tesch noted that lenders must see that while they’re inclined to remain on the sidelines, ‘here’s why a property’s a good buy’ and jumping into the market would be wise. Current data clearly shows that the transaction market’s active and at or above January and February levels, predating the pandemic, Tesch continued.

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should be reducing their terms to 75% of its the value. It helps mitigate risk if they end up with the property. “The lending box for the time being should be getting a little tighter so that it puts the burden of the risk on the borrower.”

Added James Baisley, national outside sales manager at Temple View Capital: “With the future unknown all that can be done is lend to a lower Jeffrey Tesch, CEO of RCN Capital

LTV so that we are in for a safer deal in proportion to uncertainty in selling market. We (and most lenders in our space) are also currently requiring a

RISK TOLERANCE As a lender, in terms of risks, Tesch said when his firm underwrites loans for investors and almost every loan it originates, it does so as a wholesale lender. As such, it taps independent mortgage brokers from across the United States, and mostly residential mortgage brokers to originate its non-owner-occupied lending products. His firm’s been advising its independent originators that it’s comfortable originating non-owneroccupied loans.

For his part, Eddie Wilson, president of real estate investor Thinkrealty.com, said that before anything, originators must choose their risk tolerance, Given the market’s current position, a lender can reduce their risk by changing their lending terms. For instance, most economists are saying that we will see at least a 10% reduction in value of the housing market.

If the lender was lending at 85% of the value of the home, then they

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payment escrow for 6-18 months to mitigate a potential cash flow issue with the borrower. Finding a good deal from a borrower perspective is relatively unchanged, but borrowers should be very conservative on their after-repair value calculations at this time.”

Real estate appraisals also are critical components in real estate financing and risk management, pointed out Roberts from the Appraisal Institute. Lenders order appraisals to get a stronger understanding of risk relating to the underlying collateral offered in a mortgage. Lenders want to know how much that property would bring in an open market so they can ascertain the loan’s well enough supported by the collateral. Technically, mortgage appraisals are provided to confirm a sales price, although they can help both lenders and consumers in making sound financial decisions.

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NEW TO MARKET SEPTEMBER 2020

Insellerate launched a new mobile tool that enables lead management and distribution, click to call, inbound call routing, first call automation, two-way compliant text messaging and more.

Shape Software’s customer relationship management and marketing automation tool has been integrated with leadPops, a mortgage marketing and technology company.

OpenClose is now integrated with Business Technologies. Both companies are looking to eliminate data input redundancy, prevent errors and operate more efficiently.

DataTrace introduced TitleIQ Enterprise, a title automation solution that was created to expedite nationwide title report production.

AFR launched Streamline Express, a tool that offers an expedited process and special pricing for eligible FHA refinances.

SimpleNexus added an eClosing feature to its digital lending platform for loan officers, borrowers and real estate agents. It allows lenders to conduct hybrid closings for purchase and refinance loans.

Jobot launched a first-of-its-kind mortgage recruit division powered by artificial intelligence to help companies fill open positions.

NEW TO MARKET

Indecomm launched Botgenuis, a collection of software robots that are pre-programmed to emulate human computer interaction functions for specific standardized processes, tasks and workflows.

DocMagic and Simplifile joined forces for eClosing adoption, eNotarizations and eRecordings. This partnership was created to further digitize the closing process.

Home Point is now offering a whitelabeled HELOC product to customers, powered by the Figure as a service platform built on Provenance.

Reali added Reali Rate Lock, a tool that customers can use to safeguard against future rising rates.

Roostify expanded its digital lending platform with the addition of conditional approval by direct request from consumers or loan originators.

National Mortgage Professional invites you to submit any information promoting new “niche” loans programs, new products or any other announcements related to the introduction of a new program to the attention of:

United Wholesale Mortgage announced the arrival of Blink+ which now offers loan officers a point of sale, loan origination system and customer relationship manager all in one package.

New To Market column: E-mail: editorial@ambizmedia.com Note: Submissions must be sent via e-mail. The deadline for consideration of submissions for possible publication is the 1st of the month prior to the target issue.

NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE |

47

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andemics aside, it’s a good time to be a loan originator. Net gains per loans have reached their highest levels since the Mortgage Bankers Association started tracking the profits back in 2008. All but 4% of companies reported earning a profit for the quarter.

Independent mortgage banks (IMBs) and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks reported a net gain of $4,548 on each loan they originated in the second quarter of 2020, up from a reported gain of $1,600 per loan in the first quarter of 2020, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s most recent Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Report.

Key findings of the quarterly report include: • The average pre-tax production profit was 167 basis points (bps) in the second quarter, up from an average net production profit of 61 bps in the first quarter of 2020.

• Average production volume was $1.02 billion per company in the second quarter, up from $728 million per company in the first quarter. The volume by count per company averaged 3,631 loans in the second quarter, up from 2,654 loans last quarter.

• Total production revenue (fee income, net secondary marking income and warehouse spread) increased to 429 bps in the second quarter, up from 362 bps in the first quarter. On a per-loan basis, production revenues increased to $11,686 per loan in the second quarter, up from $9,582 per loan in the first quarter.

• Net secondary marketing income increased to 341 bps in the second quarter, up from 283 bps in the first quarter.

On a per-loan basis, net secondary marketing income increased to $9,355 per loan last quarter from $7,548 per loan in the first quarter.

• The purchase share of total originations, by dollar volume, decreased to 39% in the second quarter from 52% in the first quarter. For the mortgage industry as a whole, MBA estimates the purchase share was at 37% in this year’s second quarter.

• The average loan balance for first mortgages increased to a new study high of $282,309 in the second quarter, up from $276,291 in the first quarter.

• The average pull-through rate (loan closings to applications) was 71% in the second quarter, up from 67% in the first quarter.

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MY BEST DEAL

Helping A Widow Keep A Roof Over Her Head Name: Brooke Mulder

|

Job Title: Senior Vice President

How much was your best deal?

Fifty years ago, as Brooke Mulder notes, her Best Deal may not have been possible. Lenders used to make credit decisions based on age and gender. If that was the case, she would not have been able to make her Best Deal a reality!

As she told us, her Best Deal, as with other Best Deals that have been profiled in National Mortgage Professional, did not involve a huge sum of money. In this instance, it was a $125,000 FHA cashout refinance for a prior company. Brooke is currently with Key Mortgage as senior vice president of sales development.

What made it your best deal?

“The reason this was my best (or my favorite) deal is because of who it helped,” Brooke recalled. “My client was a widowed 92-year-old woman who lived by herself in Tucson, Arizona. She needed to do the cashout refi to get enough money for a new roof. Her current roof was fine, but she knew she’d need a new one in the coming years.”

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Stop there and reflect for a moment on that thought. Her client was at an age when some would suggest buying green bananas was a risky investment – and she was putting a new roof on her home where still lived on her own.

|

Business: Key Mortgage live by herself. She was also sharp as a tack! At 92 years old, she even e-signed her initial disclosures! I loved being able to help this client stay in her home, which was her greatest wish,” Brooke said.

At first glance it may seem odd to help a nonagenarian with a long-term investment. However, this client was confident she had many years still ahead of her.

“I spoke to her daughter at one point during the process. Her daughter was in her 60s and she let me know that the women in their family tend to live to very old ages. They’ve had relatives live to 105 or 108 years old! So even though her mom was 92, she was anticipating her mom being around for another 15 years. I was so happy to get her the money to get a new roof, so she could continue to live comfortably in the house she’d been in for many years,” said Brooke.

What else?

“She was on a very fixed income but was still able to

Have a great story about your best deal? We’re not talking about your biggest deal. We want to hear about your best deal – the one that resonates with you personally, the one that became the story you’ve told again and again about why you’re in this business. Head over to bit.ly/MyBestDeal and tell us the details. You can win a $100 Amazon gift card if your story is selected for publication.

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NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL

Calendar of Events

SEPTEMBER 2020

Thursday, Sept. 10 2020 Texas Mortgage Roundup— Dallas DoubleTree by Hilton Dallas 4099 Valley View Lane Dallas, Texas TXMortgageRoundup.com Wednesday-Saturday, Sept. 16-19 NAMMBA CONNECT 2020 The Westin Buckhead Atlanta 3391 Peachtree Road NE Atlanta, Georgia NAMMBACONNECT.org

OCTOBER 2020

Thursday, Oct. 1 2020 Colorado Mortgage Summit Embassy Suites by Hilton Denver Tech Center North 7525 East Hampden Ave. Denver, Colorado COMortgageSummit.com Wednesday, Oct. 21 2020 Suncoast Mortgage Expo Embassy Suites Tampa—USF 3705 Spectrum Blvd.

Tampa, Florida SuncoastMortgageExpo.com

NOVEMBER 2020

Thursday, Nov. 5 2020 Utah Mortgage Expo & Show Park City Marriott 1895 Sidewinder Drive Park City, Utah UtahMortgageShow.com

Wednesday, Nov. 11 2020 New York Mortgage Expo Crowne Plaza Suffern 63 Executive Blvd.

Suffern, New York NYMortgageExpo.com

Monday, April 20 Texas Mortgage Roundup San Antonio Wyndham San Antonio Riverwalk, 111 E Pecan St San Antonio, TX txmortgageroundup.com

DECEMBER 2020

Tuesday, Dec. 8 2020 Great Northwest Mortgage Expo—Portland Edition Holiday Inn Portland South 25425 SW 95th Ave. Wilsonville, Oregon GreatNorthwestExpo.com Monday-Friday, Dec. 7-11 Mid Atlantic Conference of Mortgage Bankers and Brokers 37th Annual Regional Conference of MBAs Virtual MBANJ.com

JANUARY 2021

Thursday-Friday, Jan. 14-15 2021 New England Mortgage Expo Mohegan Sun Resort & Casino 1 Mohegan Sun Blvd.

Uncasville, Connecticut NEMortgageExpo.com

MARCH 2021

Thursday, March 18 California Mortgage Expo – San Diego Crowne Plaza San Diego 2270 Hotel Circle North San Diego, CA Camortgageexpo.com

APRIL 2021

Thursday, April 15 2020 Carolinas Connect Mortgage Expo Embassy Suites Hilton Charlotte 4800 South Tryon St. Charlotte, North Carolina CarolinasConnectMortgage.com

Tuesday-Thursday, April 27-29 Maryland Mortgage Bankers and Brokers Association 2021 Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference MGM National Harbor 101 MGM National Ave. Oxon Hill, Maryland MARCMBA.org

MAY 2021

Tuesday, May 11 2021 Motor City Mortgage Expo DoubleTree by Hilton Detroit— Dearborn 5801 Southfield Expressway Dearborn, Michigan MotorCityMortgageExpo.com

JUNE 2021

Thursday, June 3 2021 California Mortgage Expo— Irvine Hilton Irvine/Orange County Airport 18800 MacArthur Blvd.

Irvine, California CAMortgageExpo.com Tuesday, June 22 2021 Chicago Mortgage Originators Expo Holiday Inn Chicago SW 6201 Jollet Road Countryside, Illinois For more information, visit ChicagoOriginators.com

To submit your entry for inclusion in the National Mortgage Professional Calendar of Events, please e-mail the details of your event, along with contact information, to editorial@ambizmedia.com.

All events are as of September 1, 2020 and are subject to change.

NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE |

53

FACEBOOK THOUGHTS

The Cat In The Mask?

NICK ROBERSON

Nick Roberson

54

Nick Roberson is a long-time mortgage industry veteran and a board member of the California Association of Mortgage Professionals. He’s a forthcoming and giving guy, who shares his … unique … perspective on work and life on his Facebook account. Here are some of Nick’s FB thoughts this month:

Quarantine Lesson #59: it’s only appropriate to say, “Wow! Look at you! You got so big!” to children. Adults tend to get offended.

Quarantine Lesson #67: When frolicking late at night in your neighbor’s lawn sprinklers, it is important to note whether or not they have a Ring Cam. You might just end up on a video synced to the song, Milkshake. Jim, I am going to need you to delete that video.

I was complaining to my daughter Savannah last night that I had been in a humor slump and had not thought of anything funny to write for 3 days.

In typical Savannah manner, she replied; “Has it only been 3 days?

It seems like you haven’t been funny for a lot longer than that.”

This morning I was posting my Quarantine Lesson #67 just as she was walking up behind me. I told her my slump was over and I had written something.

She leaned over my shoulder to read it, then stood back up and said, “I thought you said your slump was over.” Then she just laughed and walked away.

I will be under my desk if anyone needs me.

Quarantine Lesson #66: It may

be 100 degrees outside, but you can still help save the planet and help yourself at the same time. Instead of using a disposable shopping bag, have the clerk tuck that box of ice-cold popsicles right down the front of your pants. Make

| NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE

sure to ask the clerk to do it so they don’t think you stole them. Oh, and don’t get the cartoon themed ones. That would just be weird.

Quarantine Lesson #64: Apparently, you pee on a Jellyfish sting, not on a jelly stain. My apologies to the lady who dropped the jar of grape jelly at the grocery store this morning.

Quarantine Lesson #63: Do not fall for the

“Survey Party Ahead” sign when you are driving down the road. I waited in a long line only to find, there were no snacks, music, or beer there. It was the worst party ever!

Quarantine Lesson #62: People with their

mask on are starting to look like a Dr. Seuss story.

- Some masks are big and some are small. Some barely cover their mouth and nose at all. Some are worn just below their lips. Some have nostrils peeking out of their tippy-top tips. Some masks are tilted, some are too tight, some are up so high it must surely block their sight. Some masks are too thin, they’re good for nothing at all, and some are bedazzled like a disco ball. Masks are everywhere, they’re sometimes on the ground. I even saw one in a tree on the other side of town.

Sew them, bling them, print them, and make them as creative as you can. They tell us we must wear masks, for now, to protect our fellow man.

Quarantine Lesson #62: When taking an Arthur

Murray virtual dance class, I probably should close my window blinds first. My neighbors saw me trying to do the Samba and called the paramedics because they thought I was having a seizure.

Quarantine Lesson #61: I just realized I

can stick my tongue out and make funny faces at people in public while wearing my mask without them knowing it. GAME CHANGER!

Quarantine Lesson #60: You can yell at Alexa all you like to turn the lights on in a room, but it simply can’t happen if you don’t have any smart lights in that room. Oh, we had a heated debate on the topic, but she just can’t do it. Apparently, she’s not a miracle worker.

To see more by Nick, just go to www.facebook. com/nickroberson.

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