What should be on a loan officer's to-do list going into 2024
National Mortgage News
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'Tis the season to work a little harder. While many professionals are taking a break and spending time with family and friends during the holidays, industry stakeholders urge loan officers to not get complacent. The next couple of months may be some of the most challenging the industry has seen, but it is also a time loan officers can take advantage of to implement useful tools and habits going into 2024, mortgage executives say. One of the most important bullet points on a loan officer's "to-do list" is doing outreach to past and present contacts, especially during a time that historically has low origination volume. Greg Sher, managing director at NFM Lending, thinks originators should go "back to the basics and double down on traditional methods such as calling more real estate agents and developing meaningful relationships with referral partners."?
Mortgage rates slowed their downward momentum to close out 2023, but still finished the year with nine straight weekly drops, according to Freddie Mac. The average rate of the 30-year fixed mortgage slid down 6 basis points to 6.61% for the weekly period ending Dec. 28 in the final release of Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey for 2023. Seven days ago, the average came in at 6.67%. Despite a precipitous recent fall, the latest 30-year rate is still 19 basis points higher than the 6.42% average recorded in the final week of 2022. Meanwhile, the 15-year fixed rate edged down to 5.93% from 5.95% week over week. One year ago, it averaged 5.68%.
From the roll ups of small- and mid- sized lenders through the mega transaction that finally combined the two largest names in mortgage technology, 2023 resulted in significant reshuffling in the corporate landscape. While observers expected a high level of industry consolidation entering the year as high interest rates had a severe impact on originations, some of the names pushed out of business were surprising. That included companies that went public during the COVID-19 boom. For quite a few of these lenders and vendors, how they conduct business is the difference between survival and becoming just another consolidation play, said Garth Graham, senior partner at Stratmor Group.
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Nonbank issuers of Ginnie Mae guaranteed mortgage-backed securities still have until the end of next year to comply with a pending risk-based capital ratio requirement, the government agency clarified Thursday, correcting a recent misprint. A published update to two chapters of the Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities guide within the Department of Housing and Urban Development handbook accidentally included the old effective date. Ginnie Mae had extended the deadline for the new risk-based capital ratio back in October 2022, but the update to the guide's second and third chapters inadvertently included the original deadline, which would have been Dec. 31 of this year.
Data Mortgage filed a lawsuit against Hometown Lenders in mid-December, forcing the lender to reckon with yet another litigation risk. All-in-all, Hometown potentially owes millions of dollars to former employees, government entities and other counterparties. The correspondent loan buyer, which does business as Essex Mortgage, is accusing the Alabama-based shop of reneging on a purchase agreement made Jan. 10, 2023. As a result, it wants $700,000 in damages from Hometown. Per Data Mortgage's suit, filed in the Superior Court of California, Orange County, the agreement with Hometown was that the lender would repurchase loans from the correspondent investor if the mortgages were sold or transferred within 210 days.
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