New HUD Secretary, Ben Carson, made it clear that FHA is concerned about lenders, especially banks, not participating in FHA lending, due to fears from potential False Claims Act (FCA) actions by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Secretary Carson made it quite clear that HUD wishes to bring more clarity into the FHA lending process when it comes to what…
Will we see any meaningful tax reform any time soon? Maybe, but what impact might it have on the housing market and our economy? Everybody seems to have their opinions. What’s yours? The problem as I see it is that the Republicans are working on tax reform to provide corporations and the so-called ‘middle class’ with some tax breaks. As…
Do you remember, the line from Top Gun when Maverick turned to Goose and says, “I feel the need, the need for speed!” It seems consumers may be feeling that way about the digital mortgage process. According to a recent J.D. Powers survey, 43% of all mortgage applications were done online. This was up from 28% a year ago; making…
I hope by now everybody knows or should know, that CFPB has increased the reporting requirements for data under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). Even some people outside of our mortgage lending arena have asked me about it. Go figure. Effective with loan action dates in 2018, lenders need to report 48 loan data elements to CFPB for each…
Social media has exploded in the last few years. Today, people have more ways to communicate through more channels, instantaneously. The speed of information, we see it everywhere; online pictures and videos of events; all news, all the time, in real time, as it happens. Pretty cool stuff, eh? For a company, social media can be a boon or a…
With the recent hacks of Equifax, Google, Target, and other major companies, everyone is becoming much more concerned about information security (InfoSec). It’s no different in mortgage lending. Lenders need to protect the vast amounts of a consumer’s non-public personal information (NPPI) that they collect during a loan process. It’s not easy when so much of the lending process is…
