I’ve been going back and forth this morning on what I want to blog about. On one hand I want to talk about the market… as we speak the 10-yr is at 3.081% and we’re preparing for a decent lock day. We’re also on the heels of what appeared to be a HUGE conference in Las Vegas last week as the new broker advocacy outfit, AIME, hosted their first event. We sent our young gun Peter Gallagher out there to cover the event and all he said when he came back was “the broker community is ALIVE and well brother… trust me, that conference was flames”. If you know anything about Pete… that is exactly what he sounds like. I’ll be honest… that gets me fired up. It’s amazing to see the resurgence of the broker. I don’t like to say I told you so, BUT I wrote about the Broker Renaissance months ago… check it out.
Let’s see what else is going on in the wholesale world… UWM came out with UClose 2.0 which allows brokers to close loans faster. I hate to burst the wholesale giants bubble, but everything they are doing to enhance the closing process… we here at Princeton Mortgage Wholesale have been doing for years. Don’t believe me? I spoke with our Closing Manager, Charles Howell and he shared these little nuggets with me about our closing process:
MJ: C, tell me why we have the best closing process in the industry?
C: Matthew, like you, I’ve noticed the uptick in propaganda surrounding the closing processes. Lenders are claiming that they are able to speed up their Closing process, but they are not stating the stipulations behind achieving this goal. Look, our closing department treats every closing the same no matter the loan product or situation. We’re the originators of the 30-minute closing.
MJ: I get that… but what do we ACTUALLY do?
C: Like a magician a good closer never reveals their trick… in fact we have to make it seem like there is no trick at all.
MJ: Sigh… give us SOMETHING!
C: Look (hands me 4 poorly printed out emails that were taped to his wall) this is what our customers are saying:
“Charles, I want to thank you for your hard work on getting us funding the day before. Our settlements together are flawless. This morning completed in less than 30 minutes from start to finish. Our 4 o’clock same thing. Huge benefit of not having funding docs going back and waiting for authorization. I am enjoying this new relationship!” (Dan – Mortgage Broker, PA)
“Thank you so much! Will do. It was great working with you. I also told my agent it was great working with all of you!!” (Cyndi – Title Officer, PA)
“Hey guys, please see attached as requested & give a shout for anything further needed. I don’t know how you guys make it so easy. It’s been a pleasure working together.” (Michelle – Settlement Agent, PA)
“Thanks Brandon! Wire has been received! Borrower signed docs are on the way. By the way we wrapped the closing in 20 minutes. Thank you so much! It was a pleasure working with all of you!” (Karen – Mortgage Broker, NJ)
MJ: Wow… I guess that will do the trick. Thanks brother!
What else do we have out there? Oh, here is a good one… first of all I want to shout out our friends at HousingWire… they do a fantastic job covering the industry. Okay, plug over. A recent article reported that almost 250 senior mortgage executives from some of the industries top dogs (Franklin American, Guild Mortgage, loanDepot, New American Funding) wrote to the CFPB asking them to amend the LO compensation rule. I’ll spare you all of the nonsense that is in the letter and cut to the juicy part. The executives have suggested that loan officers should be allowed to voluntarily reduce their compensation to allow them to compete in our current market… WAIT WHAT?! Retail shops want to start offering Borrower Paid Compensation?! If you aren’t privy to Borrower Paid Comp… it’s what’s allowing brokers to swing into the market and price as aggressively as they are. I won’t share the details because I’ll have brokers burning down my door, but if you want to learn… give me a call to discuss. I will mention that the report goes on to talk about… reducing LO comp when an LO makes an error on the loan as well… the letter says:
“Greater loan originator accountability will reduce errors and encourage compliance with regulatory requirements and company policy, leading to a safer, more transparent market for consumers,”
Things that make you say hmmm… are these companies not regulating the applications that are being sent in by their LOs? Isn’t it the operations team’s responsibility to catch compliance errors? Yikes… this letter is juicer than I thought!
I’m on fire today… so I apologize if I’m coming off a little strong. It was my 31st birthday this week and this marks my 10th year in the mortgage industry. I get fired up about the industry, because it’s the only thing I know. I’ve made mortgages my life since graduating from college. I don’t know if that should be celebrated or laughed at… but those of who have made this decision know exactly what I’m talking about. There is no other industry quite like the one we’re in and man is it an exciting time to be involved. As I’ve stated before we’re in a dog fight and no amount of technology, marketing or product niches are going to save you from the fight. This fight is going to be won by culture. It’s going to be won by having a team of people operating as one cohesive unit, ensuring that every loan that comes in is closed with the utmost care, attention and efficiency that your teams have to offer. This fight, and trust me… this is a fight (if you don’t think so… refer to the paragraph above) will be won in the trenches and if you’re not ready to get in those trenches… good luck because 2019 isn’t going to be any easier.
We’re ready over here… are you?
Talk to you soon!
MJ
The opinions expressed in this post are the sole view of the writer and do not reflect the opinion of Princeton Mortgage Corporation.