Fraud has always been a problem for mortgage lenders, but now it’s starting to really get interesting, and expensive. With the home mortgage market turning from refi’s to purchases, rates rising and a housing shortage along comes an increase in loan defects, fraud, and misrepresentations. In the past, instances of fraud mainly centered on the consumer trying to get away…
For MERS members, April brings the notification from MERS identifying the number of your MINS on the MERS® System, when the member is named as servicer as of March 31st. Here are some of the important numbers to remember. If your organization was identified as the servicer on less than 1000 MINS as of March 31st, you are required to…
Everyone is always looking for some positive signs when it comes to business and the economy; mortgage lenders are no different. So, let’s consider the recent results of the Fannie Home Purchase Sentiment survey as a glass half full. According to the Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI), the net share of consumers who think that “now is a good time…
Another year, another year older for the Millennial generation. They are now in their prime home-buying years and finally coming to market. According to recent activity, 45% of the purchase loans were made to Millennials versus 43% in December. Conversely, loans made to all other generations declined during the same period from 57% to 55. Millennials buying homes is a…
The dreaded tax filing deadline is fast approaching and this year it also serves as the date that the 3 major repositories will drop the reporting of outstanding tax liens from their credit reporting. As of April 16th, outstanding tax liens against consumers will no longer appear on a credit report pulled by a lender to make a mortgage loan,…
In case you hadn’t noticed, mortgage lending volume is off about 20% from a year ago, with refinances down somewhere around 35%. To add insult to injury, profit margins for traditional mortgage lenders reported for the fourth quarter of 2017 are less than half of that in Q4 2016; $237 versus $535. We all knew this was coming. But, did…
