value nation
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not mean one-third of us will never own homes, but we may not own them at the same time. We are likely to see younger people moving up the ladder to homeownership, while older people sell their homes and move into facilities offering more care with less maintenance. We will all own relatively less expensive homes. More of us will be content to stay in the smaller home and make it our palace, rather than borrow more than we can afford in an effort to chase the unrealistic versions of the American dream. Home values will stabilize, but not increase so fast in the future. Fewer people will be owning homes, and tighter credit will curb demand. There is a lot of talk about more appraiser independence or less pressure from those with a stake in closing a transaction. This would lead one to believe that appraisals will be more accurate. While that is a good goal, it is a lofty one. There will be, at a minimum, more emphasis placed upon separation between those selling loans and those performing the appraisal. There will be appraisal management companies, but they will not take over the business as some have suggested. Banks will continue to order appraisals directly from appraisers. Fewer appraisals will be ordered by mortgage brokers. We as a group will have less debt
going forward. Credit will be harder to get and people will have more equity in their homes. Credit card debt will be tighter and fewer of us will be tempted to run up large, unsecured debt. We will have less reason to refinance our homes to pay for credit card debt. That will be a very good thing. In the end, the finance industry will be smaller. There will be fewer loans and fewer new homes. More emphasis will be placed on quality and less on quantity. It will be a long time before we see home prices increasing at such a frantic pace as 25 and 30 percent per year. The numbers of new homes constructed each year will be smaller. It may be just a while before we see politicians placing the taxpayers’ money at risk at the frantic pace, which we saw recently. Would that not be refreshing? In a nutshell, we are in for some rightsizing of our financial system, which has been long overdue. We will be just fine and, who knows, we may just look back on the past and say it was time for it to happen and that we are better for it. Charlie W. Elliott Jr., MAI, SRA, is president of Elliott & Company Appraisers, a national real estate appraisal company. He can be reached at (800) 854-5889, e-mail charlie@elliottco.com or visit his company’s Web site, www.appraisalsanywhere.com.
OCTOBER 2009 O
OREGON MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE
O www.NationalMortgageProfessional.com
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Lend America to launch wholesale mortgage lending platform Lend America has announced that it is entering the wholesale residential mortgage lending business by launching Lend America Wholesale, to compliment its nationwide retail lending platform, and offer mortgage brokers and borrowers greater choice, knowledge and efficiency in the mortgage lending process. Lend America Wholesale anticipates accepting its first wholesale loan in mid-October 2009. Lend America Wholesale is built around a mission of responsible lending, with a clear focus on service and speed. The business is looking to build longterm relationships with a high quality, skilled and credible mortgage brokers. “A full blown reset has taken place within the wholesale lending channel since our parent company strategically exited the wholesale business in 2008,” said Michael Ashley, chief business strategist of Lend America. “With wholesale lending platforms dwindling we believe today there is a tremendous opportunity to help mortgage brokers better meet borrowers’ needs, increase close rates and rebuild their businesses. Through our innovative centralized model and systematic loan process, which address risk factors as well as time and cost inefficiencies in the lending value chain, we can quickly become a major resource for the mortgage brokerage community. In addition, we are able to build off our past experience to insure we are better equipped to meet the needs of the mortgage brokerage community.” Lend America Wholesale will be based in Melville, N.Y. and operate through a centralized model in order to better mitigate the risk associated with the wholesale lending process and improve the consistency and quality of the broker experience. Building on a base infrastructure of 25 geographic focused teams, more the 30 Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Direct Endorsed underwriters and an automated paperless platform for all loan originations and processing, Lend America Wholesale will look to partner with mortgage brokers committed to extensive FHA product knowledge, ethical behavior, customer service and open and honest communication. The business is currently licensed to do business in 47 states. “With our unparalleled leadership and
technology platform, which brings the entire mortgage process into a single user friendly application, we believe we can help mortgage brokers build a better business,” said Ashley. “In addition, our wholesale team has the experience to offer realtime solutions and train or answer questions on FHA products or loan processes in order to help our mortgage broker partners close loans faster. In the current challenging environment mortgage brokers need the right partner to be successful and we can definitely fill the void that is currently impacting the wholesale channel.” For more information, visit www.lendamerica.com.
Informative Research and Comergence partner to provide Trusted Mortgage Professional Seal Informative Research has partnered with Comergence Compliance Monitoring LLC to complete the requirements for the Comergence Trusted Mortgage Professional Seal. Used by consumers and lenders to ensure that brokers meet the highest standards of honesty and integrity, this seal verifies member ethics, professionalism and compliance with local, state and federal laws. Informative Research provides the prospective member access to their income tax records (4506-T), as well as tools to become Red Flags compliant. These are combined with other components, including business and license history to complete the application for the Trusted Mortgage Professional Seal. “The need for thorough vetting of mortgage brokers has never been greater,” said Greg Schroeder, president of Comergence. “With the income verification and Red Flag compliance tools from Informative Research, we have completed the requirements for the full certification of brokers, setting a new standard of professionalism for the industry.” For more information, visit www.informativeresearch.com or www.comergence.com.
Mortgagebot and PCLender.com form marketing alliance
Mortgagebot LLC has announced a new referral alliance with Honolulu, Hawaii-