Aug. 27: Ginnie & loss mit; a real-life econ tale; vendor news runs the gamut; Saturday Spotlight: Lender Price
How do you, and your clients, make decisions? Being able to successfully work with clients takes more than just answering the phone, or making outbound calls, or remembering their birthday. I’ve found that good MLOs, AEs, and vendors know a thing or two about how to communicate, and about the psychology of their clients. Quick: List your three favorite fast-food restaurants! If you’re like many people, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Carl Jr.’s may come to mind, even if you really prefer In-N-Out, Chick-fil-A, and Burger King. A study out of UC Berkeley found that when it comes to making choices, we frequently and predictably forget about the things we like best and are instead swayed by what we remember. “Push button. Get mortgage”? A borrower may really like their LO but they’ll remember that tag line. This is why brands are important for consumers, and challenges the fundamental economic model that assumes people make rational decisions from all available options. Most decisions don’t come with multiple choice answers, but instead we have to conjure options from our imperfect memories. And thus our memories limit our choices, per lead author of the study Zhihao Zhang and Associate Professor Ming Hsu.
Saturday Spotlight: Lender Price
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“Equipping the lending community with innovative loan decision engine solutions.”
In 3-5 sentences, describe your company (when was it founded and why, what it does, where, recent growth and plans for near-term future growth).
Lender Price was founded in 2015 to tackle the labor-intensive activities and inefficiencies in the mortgage loan origination process. Since our inception, we have become the most accurate, robust, and dynamic mortgage product & pricing engine (PPE) in lending. With advanced business intelligence & analytics, Lender Price’s versatility allows over 200 correspondent lenders, banks, and credit unions to market and manage product pricing for all mortgage types (conforming, non-conforming, non-QM, and specialty loans). Lender Price provides powerful performance and innovative features such as built-in compliance checks, capital market tools, margin management, lock desk, and customized workflows with full mobile functionality.
As we continue to scale, Lender Price is constantly staying innovative and working to improve our technology. Our newest enhancement, Marketplace 2.0, gives lenders access to one of the largest wholesale broker communities in the mortgage industry. With Marketplace, lenders of all sizes can expand their reach inside the broker community and increase awareness of all loan programs including non-Conforming, non-QM, and programs that fit any borrower situation such as alternative documentation, DSCR, HELOCs, and HELOANs.
Tell us about what type of volunteer work employees are encouraged to engage in, or charities your company supports, and why.
Lender Price supports many national organizations, but our main focus is doing what we can to give back to our local communities. Our employees are encouraged to seek out organizations that match their individual interests and make an impact on their local communities.
What does your company do to help elevate your employees’ growth? Describe any mentoring programs, outside classes, training, or in-house training. How does the company help people develop?
A key theme at Lender Price is continuous learning. We’ve sent many employees over the years to tradeshows, sales seminars, and nationals to help enhance their personal, product, and industry knowledge. We continue to provide access to these options and encourage team members to get involved with various industry groups and local chapters.
Additionally, the Lender Price product team holds weekly training classes to help keep employees updated on product and feature enhancements. It provides a collective space to improve overall product knowledge across the company.
Tell us how your company maintains its culture in a work-from-home environment, or how you plan on bringing employees back into the office, if applicable.
Transitioning to a work-from-home environment was hard for many organizations, but it was quite a commonplace for Lender Price before the pandemic. Our approach has always been to find the best talent regardless of physical location.
As Lender Price continues to grow, we understand the importance of building a culture around employee recognition. We implemented an employee recognition program called “Kudos,” where employees have a direct channel to be rewarded and recognized by their peers for going above and beyond. Every team member at Lender Price has a chance to express their gratitude and motivate one another whether it be in-person or from home.
Things you are most proud of that don’t have to do with sales.
We are extremely proud of equipping the lending community with technology that is driving innovation and providing an enhanced experience for users and borrowers.
Our platform is helping lenders of all sizes stay competitive in the market and provides quality products that are priced accurately. Lender Price is the first modern pricing engine using natural language processing (NLP) and proprietary algorithms to automate the management of loan programs, margins, loan adjustments, and loan eligibility. We touch the entire loan manufacturing process including origination, underwriting, and capital markets. By analyzing a lender’s loan programs and adjusting prices automatically, Lender Price is empowering lenders to become leaner, more effective, and more profitable in this market.
Fun fact about Lender Price.
In conjunction with our private equity partner, Argentum, some of our investors include legendary movie star Kevin Costner, Rod Lake (Kevin’s business partner and founder of various enterprises that have achieved successful exits), mortgage pioneer Glenn Stearns, Regions Bank, and Mr. Cooper.
(For more information on having your firm’s extracurricular activities, employee growth, and your charitable side featured, contact Chrisman LLC’s Anjelica Nixt.)
The economy in real life
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What’s better than a real-life story about the economy?
From Narragansett, RI, Bob Favicchio sent, “Some of your readers might find this insightful, especially anyone who did yard work growing up.
“Our son just relocated to Brentwood, Tennessee and has a corporate job in Nashville. He lives in an attractive suburb where most homeowners have a lawn service though he chooses to do his own. Recently he fell a little behind and found a local high school kid to do some odd jobs. One job that he asked about was weeding the beds around the front and side of the house. Believe me, there is nothing extravagant here. The young man estimated it would take 8 hours or more, and while my son thought that was more than enough time, he wanted it done and appreciated the young man’s willingness to work. Our son offered to pay $40 per hour for the work and the young man refused, saying he needed $50 per hour.
“Since weeders now make $100,000 per year, underwriters seem like a relative bargain! I just had to share. I may fly down next weekend and take care of it as the flight will be less expensive.” (Bob, be sure to wear sunscreen! And bring business cards to pass out to the neighbors when they approach you.)
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The Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) wrote a letter to FHA Commissioner Julia Gordon and Ginnie Mae President Alanna McCargo asking both to work together to develop changes to the FHA loss mitigation and Ginnie Mae loan re-pooling requirements, to address problems created by a rising interest rate environment. CHLA Executive Director Scott Olson said in the letter, “Rising mortgage rates are creating problems for Ginnie Mae issuers carrying out loss mitigation for defaulted FHA borrowers.
“Typically, issuers implement loss mitigation by buying an FHA loan out of a Ginnie Mae pool, modifying the loan, and then selling the loan back into a Ginnie Mae pool. “This was not a problem when mortgage rates were stable or falling. However, Ginnie Mae issuers are now facing two unpalatable options: either an increase in the mortgage rates that could make it difficult to carry out the loss mitigation or the re-sale of loans into Ginnie Mae pools at steep losses to the issuer.”
(The letter also outlines a proposal by Ted Tozer, former President of Ginnie Mae, as to how loan guarantors should consider adopting waterfall for loans that would not require the buyout of the mortgage from the MBS pool or the loan’s note rate to be increased.)
Vendor and third-party developments
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Agile is the mortgage industry’s MBS fintech. Bringing the mortgage capital markets into a new digital era. From lenders to dealers, Agile is the new way to quote MBS.
How much did “X” produce last year? In which states? What is their product mix? What was their growth YoY? Where can I access this data? There are various dashboard products, but the latest is Gallus’ new data visualization tool that provides answers to such questions and much more, including multi-year trends for all market participants.
MCT’s capital markets platform, MCTlive! is now integrated with Freddie Mac’s Whole Loan Purchase Advice Seller API. This API connection allows MCT Mark-to-Market and Hedge Accounting Reports to be updated with Freddie Mac purchase data directly, instead of waiting to run reports through a Loan Origination System (LOS). The integration also allows MCTlive’s Loan Commitment Tracker to automatically draw down outstanding commitments as loans are purchased by Freddie Mac
Angel Oak Home Loans recently implemented SimpleNexus’ Nexus Engagement™ and Nexus Origination™ solutions to optimize business processes and improve the borrower experience. Angel Oak is only the latest in a series of IMBs, banks and credit unions that have announced their adoption of mobile-first mortgage technologies from SimpleNexus; at nCino’s last earnings call (June 1), the company shared that SimpleNexus grew its customer base by 80% year-over-year.
OptifiNow, a provider of CRM technology and services, announced today the successful deployment of their sales and marketing platform with Eleven Mortgage, the wholesale division of Benchmark Mortgage. Industry experience and specialization in wholesale lending was a key factor in Eleven Mortgage’s selection. “OptifiNow has all of the features we were looking for,” said Garrett Finkelstein, vice president of marketing at Eleven Mortgage “There are very few CRM companies that are focused on wholesale mortgage lending,” said Finkelstein. “We initially selected a vendor that modified a version of their CRM built for retail loan officers. unfortunately, it was like putting a square peg in a round hole. The gaps were too numerous to overcome.”
OptifiNow recognized that wholesale lenders are underserved with CRM technology and created a strategy that targeted their needs.
VantageScore made the decision to remove medical debt collection records from credit scoring model.
The mortgage lending market is challenging right now, and there’s no denying that. Fortunately, you can prepare, and Candor has your solution. Check out our free guide, The Opportunity Presented by Crisis, and see how you can do more than just survive uncertainty and turmoil. You can thrive. With an invincible business strategy built around data and technology, you can create a game plan your competitors will envy. It’s time to take your rightful place as an innovator in the industry. Get your free guide from Candor.
Accurate Group will deliver data collection for ACE+ PDR orders through its property inspection division, GroundWorks™. Real estate lenders who leverage Accurate Group for Freddie Mac’s new ACE+ PDR offering, may benefit from the innovation of appraisal modernization resulting in significant cost savings, quicker turn times, mitigation of risk, and the advantage of a robust panel ready to fulfill orders. “GroundWorks provides the real estate sector with over 30,000 inspections per month, nationwide,” stated Paul Doman, president, and CEO of Accurate Group. “Our best-in-class proprietary desktop and mobile technology disrupted the industry when first introduced in 2018 and continues to raise the bar as we continue to innovate without sacrificing quality, accuracy or compliance.” And if you’re looking to learn more about appraisal modernization – download Accurate Group new eBook “The Lenders Guide to Appraisal Modernization”.
SingleSource Property Solutions, a leading provider of residential services supporting the U.S. housing industry, is celebrating the 20-year anniversary of the launch of its home equity service offerings. The company’s second mortgage services, which are available in economical bundles and include valuations, title products and online closings, are currently helping lenders meet growing demand for home equity loans (HELs) and home equity lines of credit (HELOCs). Loan valuations are one of the biggest sources of cost savings for second mortgages compared to first mortgages. With SingleSource, a Morningstar-accredited valuation provider, lenders can skip full appraisals and obtain less expensive alternative valuations, such as drive-by reports, broker price opinions and automated valuation models with property inspections.
SingleSource Property Solutions has been busy. It also launched the SingleSource Attorney Conclusion of Title (ACT™), a standardized attorney opinion letter that will save mortgage borrowers and lenders significant costs while providing comparable coverage to a more costly title insurance policy. “Although the concept of using legal opinions to confirm the marketability of title has been around for as long as property transfers have been documented, ACT™ is a new iteration that makes these opinions scalable, affordable, and widely available – and GSE approved. Under the authority of the supreme court of the state where the property is located, attorneys who issue an ACT™ will be protected by a comprehensive liability wrapper – enabling SingleSource to provide comparable coverage as a title insurance policy at a much lower cost to the consumer.”
Mortgage Cadence recently launched version 2.0 of its MCP LOS platform, which includes over 50 new features with key areas of focus in Product & Pricing enhancements, UI Designer improvements, new vendor integrations and services related features. 2.0 takes the platform even further by expanding key functionality accelerating the company’s ability to bring solutions to production with speed and efficiency and marks a critical step in the company’s innovative services strategy journey.
Ever wonder if…
Your future self is watching you right now through memories.
You replace “W” with “T” in “What, Where and When”, you get the answer to each of them.
Many animals probably need glasses, but nobody knows it.
Visit www.robchrisman.com for more information on our industry partners, access archived commentaries, or to subscribe to the Daily Mortgage News and Commentary. If you’re interested, visit my periodic blog at the STRATMOR Group web site. “Lenders are Eying Compensation and Ops Trends” is the current blog. The Commentary’s podcast is live and at any place you obtain your podcasts (like Apple or Spotify).
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(Market data provided in partnership with MBS Live. For free job postings and to view candidate resumes visit LenderNews. This newsletter is for sophisticated mortgage professionals only. There are no paid endorsements by me. For up-to-date mortgage news visit Mortgage News Daily. For archived commentaries, or to subscribe, go to www.robchrisman.com. Copyright 2022 Chrisman LLC. All rights reserved. Occasional paid job & product listings do appear. This report or any portion hereof may not be reprinted, sold, or redistributed without the written consent of Rob Chrisman.)
