Sep. 10: LO jobs; CRM, QC, warehouse, reverse, broker products; current economic picture

The gap between the haves and have-nots continues to widen. Though the wealth of U.S. households has eclipsed $100 trillion, the wealthy have primarily accrued the post-recession gains. Those in the top 1 percent of U.S. households have seen their wealth double and now hold over $30 trillion of that. The next 9 percent of households hold about $40 trillion. As for the half of households outside of the top 50 percent, things are worse than they were before the recession. In 2002, the bottom 50 percent of households held $2 trillion in wealth, in 2006 was $1.2 trillion, went negative from 2010 to about 2013, and today is just at $1.3 trillion. “Fortunately” the share of families in the bottom half fell to 37 percent in 2016, from 43 percent in 2007.

Employment

Your smartphone could be the most powerful origination and marketing tool that you have. Academy Mortgage is leveraging the prevalence and power of mobile technology to deliver the ultimate mortgage experience. Customers can now apply for a loan and get pre-approved in just minutes from their mobile device with Academy’s My Mortgage app, AI pre-approval bot (AMY), and online 1003 which can be quickly accessed from the lender’s mobile-optimized website. The Academy Marketing Platform (AMP) gives Loan Officers the ability to communicate with customers by text message for loan progress updates, birthdays, loan anniversaries, etc. AMP and nearly every Academy business management resource can be easily used on the web or through apps, providing originators with on-the-go flexibility. Are you using the power of your phone to its fullest? Contact Chad Melin, VP of National Business Development, to join a company that is committed to staying ahead of the technology curve to help you achieve your potential.

Lender products & services

Digital mortgage platform provider Maxwell announced its strategic partnership with Integra to offer seamless, bi-directional integration with Integra’s EPIC Loan Origination System. Maxwell has been announced as the preferred partner for Integra, and this blossoming partnership is tightly focused on providing an innovative Digital Mortgage Platform-LOS integration with features not previously seen in any other integration in the industry. Lindsay Hunt, Maxwell’s Head of Product said, “We’ve worked tirelessly to build a strong partnership so we can provide something efficient and beautiful to fill that void and empower lenders that rely on Integra to streamline their process and focus on the relationships at the core of the mortgage experience.” To learn more about Maxwell’s empowering features of their digital mortgage platform, click here or request a demo today.

Top of Mind Networks’ Surefire platform is now the industry’s only CRM to offer Power Calls, a tool that allows loan officers to segment a contact list and make consecutive calls automatically. Scripts for phone conversations and pre-recorded voicemails guide the messaging, while integration with the loan officer’s Surefire contact database makes follow up and documentation a breeze. The company has seen clients triple their call volume with implementation of the new Power Call system. Click here to get started: http://bit.ly/2kABOso

PlainsCapital Bank National Warehouse Lending, a subsidiary of Hilltop Holdings (NYSE: HTH), is looking for mortgage bankers and lenders that offer renovation products and programs. “PlainsCapital Bank National Warehouse Lending currently funds multiple renovation programs and products with little to no additional requirements. Whether it is a FNMA HomeStyle, FHA 203K Full, Limited or even a USDA Rural Housing renovation loan, PlainsCapital Bank National Warehouse Lending wants to be your preferred warehouse provider for these programs and products. Please ask us about our competitive rates, utilization and deposit incentives, and other ways that we can reduce costs and time to exceed your loan funding needs in 2018. If you are interested in learning more about PlainsCapital Bank National Warehouse Lending, please contact Deric Barnett, EVP National Warehouse Lending.”

The financial services landscape isn’t what it used to be. Loan officers must go to new lengths to build meaningful relationships with their customers and anticipate their needs. And, to do this (at scale) loan officers need a technology solution that supports their efforts to get to know their customers on a human level. The good news? Once you build the foundation, your customers will be motivated to stay with their loan officer for all their future lending needs. Read the Total Expert blog to learn how to restore the human touch and inspire loyalty among the people you serve.

While the speed, reach and ease of social media make the platforms a powerful instrument in a lender’s marketing toolbox, organizations must also be cognizant of the industry-specific risks social media poses and act accordingly. By being aware of the most common social media “sins,” lenders can avoid many of the pitfalls that come with social media use and develop appropriate policies and procedures to mitigate risk and ensure safe, compliant social media use for marketing purposes. To learn more about the “The 7 Deadly Social Media Sins,” and which ones you may be unknowingly committing, download MQMR’s free white paper today.

Supporting its Customer For Life approach, Home Point Financial’s Home Point Edge suite of loan products is designed to help brokers widen their reach to more areas of the market. Home Point has a Near Prime tier for near misses, and an Expanded Access tier for more challenging loan files, as well as a dedicated underwriting team to help brokers make the most of this exclusive offering. There’s even a pricing special going on through the end of September: The elimination of the 24 month bank statement price adjustment (LLPA) on the Tier 2 product; for a limited time HPFC Edge 24 month bank statement program is the same as full doc; and reduced Doc-1Yr (W2 or Tax Return) also removed LLPA adjustments. To become an approved broker with Home Point, click here and take advantage of this offer while it lasts.

Half of America’s retirees and pre-retirees lack enough retirement savings, but have accumulated over $7 trillion in home equity. Reverse mortgages provide a financial cushion that have enabled over 1.2 million seniors to live more secure lives. Adding reverse mortgages to your product line makes sense. Chrisman blog subscribers have been extended a special promotional rate to attend the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association’s Annual Meeting in Nashville, November 18-20. While FHA insures most reverse mortgages made in the U.S., the market is growing for proprietary reverse mortgages with fewer restrictions, lower upfront costs and the ability to draw down more money that may appeal to your older clients. NRMLA’s Annual Meeting will introduce you to the key concepts and contacts that you need to succeed in the business. Enter the promo code CHRISMAN2019 to receive $330 off the current non-member registration rate. For questions contact Darryl Hicks.

Evaluation Checklist: 20 Sign You Need to Upgrade Your QC Process. As a best practice, it is important to conduct an annual self-evaluation of your current quality control and compliance process to ensure you are utilizing the most efficient methods to best meet the needs of your organization. This checklist was designed to help mortgage quality control professionals assess their current QC process, identify areas of improvement and determine if it is time for an upgrade. Access the checklist here.

One warehouse lending organization gets noticed in the marketplace for doing things the right way. ResX Warehouse Lending is a division of Connecticut-based United Bank, a respected commercial lender with a long track record of building long-term relationships with its clients. They’re not new to the warehouse lending business, but if you haven’t heard the name yet, it’s only because they’re not promoting themselves with every new trend or fad to hit the market.  These are serious experts looking to build relationships with clients like you who are focused on sustainable growth…one relationship at a time. ResX Warehouse’s clients rave about the lender’s proactive approach. And that expertise is provided by seasoned, top-level professionals. Customers also love their commitment to delivering more effective and efficient processes. Combined with United Bank’s full-service array of products and resources, ResX is the ideal platform for the correspondent focused on real growth. Learn More.

Despite being called the closing table, it’s really the beginning of a customer relationship…for potentially 30 years or more. Make sure you cement that relationship the day the homeowner takes the keys. Learn how in this new episode of Open Mic with The Mortgage List. TMS CEO Darius Mirshahzadeh shares how a customer love starts by creating a core values driven organization. Listen to the full podcast episode here.

Capital markets

Per Fed Chairman Powell, the Federal Reserve doesn’t expect a recession for the US or the global economy. The central bank is monitoring uncertainty caused by trade tensions and is prepared to “act as appropriate to sustain the expansion.” And on Friday we learned that employers in the US hired 130,000 people in August, a smaller number than the average for the past six months, and included census workers, and there were back-month revisions downward. But unemployment held at 3.7% for the third consecutive month. Hourly wages increased, indicating employers have decided they must pay more to attract and retain employees. What’s not to like?

That said, a slowdown is obvious. Let’s turn to Treasury markets. JPMorgan’s “Volfefe Index,” (named after the covefe tweet) suggests that Trump’s twitter musings are having a statistically significant impact on Treasury yields and are becoming “increasingly relevant’ to global markets. And despite his thoughts on the resounding strength of the American economy, after two boom years the picture has changed for America’s factories. Hurt by rising uncertainty and the damper that has put on capital expenditures, slowing export markets, a stronger dollar, and higher input costs due to tariffs, U.S. manufacturers are making less than they did a year ago, as evidenced by last week’s ISM contractionary reading, the first since 2016.

That data release sent U.S. stock prices and bond yields tumbling as it confirmed Federal Reserve data from the summer that showed factory output falling for a second consecutive quarter. The surge in industrial jobs seen in the first two years of the Trump presidency has also gone into reverse in some parts of the country. Nationally, the U.S. has added 44,000 manufacturing jobs so far this year, according to data released on Friday, but that’s way down from the 170,000 added in the same period last year. In 22 states—including electorally important ones like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania—the number of people working in factories actually fell in the first seven months of this year (including a loss of 8,000 in Pennsylvania alone), after the president unraveled trade deals such as Nafta, and deployed tariffs on China and others.

The inescapable irony is that Trump’s trade wars have helped create a scenario similar to one that helped get him elected in 2016, when he benefitted from both the grinding and uneven recovery from the last recession, and a manufacturing slowdown that struck the Rust Belt just as he hit the stump promising a new era of protectionism. The last time the U.S. logged two consecutive contractions in quarterly industrial production before this year was the first half of 2016, when the country lost almost 30,000 manufacturing jobs during the year as a collapse in oil prices hit the energy sector and filtered through manufacturing. Yet none of those 2016 quarters saw as large a slump as the 3.1 percent fall in output recorded in Q2 of this year.

All that being said, U.S. Treasuries retreated to begin the new week, including the 10-year closing +7 bps to 1.62 percent (its highest level in two weeks), with the long bond setting the pace. China reported a smaller than expected trade surplus for August during the overnight session, but that was not enough to change risk tolerance. Additionally, the People’s Bank of China was expected to refinance loans issued through a medium-term lending facility, but it did not make that move. And finally, more ECB officials spoke out against renewed QE ahead of its meeting this week, which aided the pullback in Treasuries as it was seen as being a sentiment shared by several global banks.

Today’s calendar got under way before the open with NFIB small business optimism (down to 103.1). Next up will be Redbook same-store sales for the week ending September 7, followed by JOLTS job openings for July. At the same time as the JOLTS release, the Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing that will discuss the administration’s housing reform plan where Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, HUD Secretary Carson, and FHFA Director Calabria will testify. We begin the day with agency MBS prices roughly unchanged from last night and the 10-year yielding 1.65%.

Part 2 of 5 of “Books Never Written.” (Yes, my mind spends a lot of time in 3rd grade. Warning: Rated PG for bawdy humor.)

Small Treasures in the Toilet Bowl by I.P. Nickels

What Makes a Good Thief by Ian Yerhous

Waiting in Line for the Bathroom by Ivana Tinkle

Practical proctology by Bea Hind

The future of robotics by Cy Borg and Anne Droid

What to do if you’re in a car accident by Rhea Ender

How Things Work by Wyatt Dunne

Breathing Lessons by Hal E. Tosis

Why Should I Walk? by Iona Carr

Deep in Debt by Owen A. Lott

The Most and the Least by Maxi & Minnie Mum

How to Get Good Grades by B.A. Wiseman

The Sun by Sol Ar

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. The current blog is, “Mortgage Rates: Thinking the Unthinkable.” If you have both the time and inclination, make a comment on what I have written, or on other comments so that folks can learn what’s going on out there from the other readers.

Rob

(Market data provided in partnership with MBS Live. For free job postings and to view candidate resumes visit LenderNews. Currently there are hundreds of mortgage professionals looking for operations, secondary and management roles. For up-to-date mortgage news visit Mortgage News Daily. For archived commentaries, or to subscribe, go to www.robchrisman.com. Copyright 2019 Chrisman LLC. All rights reserved. Occasional paid job listings do appear. This report or any portion hereof may not be reprinted, sold or redistributed without the written consent of Rob Chrisman.)