Tommy's Blog

Freddie Mac is starting a new servicing service to Servicers called Servicing Success Program.  The intent and purpose is to find robust and balance in its approach to setting mortgage servicing performance expectations by providing feedback on servicer’s strength and weakness.  Freddie Mac will do this by promoting a feedback to servicers on how to improve portfolio performance in order to preserve homeownership. The Servicing   [more...]

You may have seen the news today that the Federal Reserve rejects some banks attempt to use the same law firms that were used in the foreclosure process for auditing their internal process for foreclosures. I must applaud the Federal Reserve for this.

I do not think the law firms involved in the foreclosure process at the 14 banks that were targeted by an interagency   [more...]

On April 2011, an interagency audit report was published called, Interagency Review of Foreclosure Policies and Practices. This collective audit was performed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Office of Comptroller of Currency (OCC), and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS). They conducted on-site reviews for foreclosure processing at 14 federally regulated mortgage servicers during fourth quarter 2010. This report provides an overview of   [more...]

I saw a disturbing advertisement on the Internet today. After some careful thought, I feel the need to discuss it.

If no one is going to call it as it is, then, I will. Dude… you are committing internet fraud or unethical behavior. Shame on you for
telling everyone to hurry up and cheat Facebook before Facebook finds   [more...]

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., Kay Hagan, D-N.C., and Mary Landrieu, D-La., and U.S. Congressmen John Campbell, R-Calif., and Brad Sherman, D-Calif., will host a news conference on Wednesday, June 22, 2011 to call on federal regulators to revise their proposed 20 percent down payment requirement for Qualified Residential Mortgages. The lawmakers will reiterate that the proposed rule would shut out responsible homebuyers and   [more...]

As covered in an earlier article, HUD is planning, barring Congressional action, to lower loan limits in over 3,000 areas nationwide. 

They and the GSEs are reminding investors everywhere that come October 1, 2011 “the current Conforming Plus and FHA maximum mortgage limits apply to loans closed within the government’s current fiscal year which ends on September 30, 2011. Loans that are closed with a Note   [more...]

For those of you in our industry that has not cared or really has not been paying attention, I am going to fill in some of the details regarding the Qualified Residential Mortgage (QRM) provisions that I touched on in my last article. 

While lobbying efforts continue, it is critical that you voice your opinion with the Fed at: 

http://www.federalreserve.gov/generalinfo/foia/proposedregs.cfm 

In recent news, more than 163 Congressmen have   [more...]

The last couple of days have spawned several interesting articles regarding the housing recovery that sheds some light on what the American public is thinking and, as a result of their perception, what we might expect in the remainder of this year and in election year 2012. 

Trulia and Realty Trac recently conducted a survey of 2,018 American adults and have come up with some very   [more...]

Those of you lending in “higher loan amount areas” of the nation should pay particular attention to this part of my article: 

“Barring Congressional action, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan limits will revert back to loan limits determined under the Housing and Economic recovery Act (HERA) for loans insured by FHA on or after October 1, 2011. As a result, FHA loan limits will more   [more...]

Here at Quality Mortgage Services we see literally thousands of closed loans every month and we have been seeing a very interesting shift in the type and quality of the borrower’s in general.

For the most part, on refinances particularly, very rarely are we seeing borrower’s with credit scores below the 700 benchmark.  Same can be said with purchases, with the exception of HUD/FHA loans, where   [more...]

Quality Mortgage Services performed post closing quality control audits and reviews according to agency standards.  The purpose of this report is to provide the results of the agency audits for 2010 and 2009.

 INDUSTRY OVERVIEW

The mortgage industry in general overview made great improvements and post closing quality control findings were reduced.  This is direct result to the industry’s focus on loan quality, reduced compliance deficiencies, and   [more...]

Quality Mortgage Services a mortgage auditing and review company provides more than a mortgage QC report.  The Mortgage Fraud for Housing Incident Report 2010 is to help the mortgage industry see where loan defects are and what channels that may invite unethical lending practices, what works well, and shifts in vulnerable areas in the loan process.

The FHA loans had the most increase in incidence of   [more...]

I am taking a short break in the Q & A session between the Mortgage Bankers Association and the Federal Reserve Ruling to comment on the future of our industry as defined by the Obama administration in its attempt to reshape the government’s role in the mortgage market in this country. 

Fortunately for those of us in the industry, the administration’s position closely follows and mirrors   [more...]

As January 2011 closes and April 1st rapidly approaches, there has been considerable discussion over the last month regarding the future of compensation for the industry. 

There have been a variety of questions posed by the MBA that have received answers from the Federal Reserve.  I can not cover all of them in this one article but will address them over the next few weeks.  The following   [more...]

It appears there is still a lot of confusion and uncertainty in the industry about how compensation is going to work after April 1, 2011.  So much confusion that the Mortgage Bankers Association has formally written to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors requesting written guidance to assist the industry in being in compliance with the Board’s final rule on originator compensation and steering (the   [more...]

In the news today is an article regarding HUD responding to complaints from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.  It seems that the NCRC believes and is accusing 22 banks across the country of violating fair housing laws by denying FHA loans to borrowers with credit scores that met the federal standard. 

As those of you in the industry know, FHA’s minimum FICO score requirement is 580,   [more...]

Regulators received a pounding on the head this week in Washington DC for not being ahead of the problems in the mortgage servicing industry and for not taking the lead in trying to stem the ever growing problem with foreclosures nationwide. 

A House Judiciary Committee, holding hearings on the foreclosure mess, the fourth hearing since the robo-signing mess reared it’s ugly head, initiated comments of disappointment   [more...]

As a follow up to my earlier posting about the National Association of Realtors conference in New Orleans, their Board of Directors is calling on regulators and lenders to loosen up the current lending standards and make home loans more available to a broader range of qualified buyers.

 “Many qualified borrowers are finding it hard to obtain a mortgage without extremely high credit scores, “according to   [more...]

In the mortgage news today is an announcement from San Ramon, California based CMG Mortgage who stated that in a partnership with technology and their warehouse fund provider they have made them the first lender to use a warehouse line of credit to originate a fully electronic mortgage and sell it directly to Fannie Mae. 

This transaction represents a potentially huge shift in the mortgage industry   [more...]