Saturday, May 24, 2008

We've Moved This Blog!


This blog has been moved to our main website, you can click this to visit at our blog's new home:
http://americasmoneycenter.com/blog

Friday, May 23, 2008

Long Week-End




For all my fellow Veterans, have a nice Memorial Day holiday!





Just about 10 days ago, I decided to move this blog to our main website, utilizing WordPress, as I have seen and heard many positive things about that blog software/system. So I download it's software to my hard drive and discovered I am not skilled enough to install it; began a search for someone to help me, found a great guy in Canada to do it, but first had to upgrade our old server to be able to accomodate WordPress requirements -- that bagan the saga!

For the last nine full days, I have been wrestling with our Host (been with them since 1999!), since the site move to their new server had troubles. Evidentially the new spiffy Linux Developer Series server/box was/is faulty ... result? Our main site's been off and online ever since, PLUS the Canadian guy 'quit' out of frustration trying to install WordPress! I hope to get him back, since I'm right now, changing host's to the firm he recommended in the first place!
Thankfully with all this down-time on my hands, The Mortgageland Journal's June 1st edition has been completed and is ready to go, plus our May 17th Secret! Master Seminar was well attended (next scheduled for August 16).

Monday, May 19, 2008

The Teaming Masses

Along with the teaming masses, yesterday my brother and I went for an air conditioned Metro Rail Blue Line train ride from Long Beach to downtown Los Angeles at Noon for lunch at World Famous Philippe’s; then on the subway from there under Wilshire Blvd to the end in that direction. It was a lot of fun, especially since when we got back to Long Beach it was 92 degrees at 4PM, and 94 degrees @ 4:15 when I got back home to San Pedro ... WordPress coming soon.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Moving To WordPress soon!

I've become convinced that it's smart for me to move my Blog from it's current blogspot location (where you are now), to right inside our own main website http://www.americasmoneycenter.com/ - for the past 2 days I've been learning about 'WordPress' and upgrading our server to accomodate this blog utilizing WordPress along with it's bells & whistles on our site.

I've discovered, I've become used to the theme (colors, etc) of this standard choice I had when I started this Blog a year ago. I've liked it from a branding viewpoint, it's similar to our main website. With WordPress, there's a Zillion choices to select from (maybe a HOT Pink would be nice?), looking at them one at a time and my brain's RAM memory is almost full!

You'll notice some changes soon, but I won't trick you -- you'll get plenty of warning!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Secondary Market - Follow Up

As promised this morning I'm going to reveal some immediate instant gratification information about this hot topic, along with some long-term sound career advise, that will earn you many hundreds of thousand of extra dollars IF you follow it (it did for me).

First off for the immediate. Contact the California Mortgage Bankers Association (cmba.com), and pay the money for your entry into their July 9-11 Western Secondary Market Conference in San Francisco. For non-members of CMBA, before June 9 it's $459 and after that it's $509. I myself can unconditionally guarantee you that anybody you know, who's been a mortgage banker for longer than 20 minutes, will tell you this is the premiere conference on this subject in the entire Nation. I started going to this way back when I was a mortgage broker, its helped me grow-up my career; I attended probably two or 3 dozen of them and I know you should too!

Here's what happens there ... you'll attend this and that session on a few of the topics which interest you, you may make a new friend or two ... BUT you'll take the time and slowly walk around the Exhibit Hall and you'll see and speak with every single secondary market player in the Country - they'll all be there looking YOU right in the eyes!

The education you'll get will startled you - once you see the magnatude of this industry that's been over the horizion to you, so far.


Now for the Long-term: I saw the ad for this in the latest National Mortgage News newspaper, which I have been reading every Monday edition for almost 30 years, (1). You need to subscribe to it and READ it carefully 800/221-1809 it's $259 yearly. Reading this will give you a much more well-rounded view of your own career and where it can go. (2). Join and attend (at minimum) the Annual Convention of the Mortgage Bankers Association - you'll be equally stunned at what you can learn there, I first joined them about a year before my own company evolved into a mortgage banker and was a member for a couple of decades after that.

These simple things, read that particular industry publication, go to the Secondary Conference mentioned above yearly, join the MBA and go to it's annual convention and you'll GET SMART!

Monday, May 12, 2008

Mortgage Brokers & Their LO's Charge More

This morning, I finished off the paper I referred to yesterday, and I saw this:

In one recent major study by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) of 1.7 Million individual 30 yr fixed subprime mortgage loans originated between 2004 and 2006, it revealed borrows pay significantly more for getting a loan from a mortgage broker as opposed to a retail lender. In fact, the typical borrower pays $5,222 more during the first four years of a $166,000 mortgage compared to a similar borrower who received a loan directly from a retail lender (TRANSLATED: Higher Fees & Higher Rate due to YSP). This study among others, cry out for the complete ban on YSP’s being paid to mortgage brokers. It’s co-author said, “… there is a need to remove incentives to mortgage brokers that do not correspond to borrower interests ….”

When you see article after article, after article like this ('cause I do), what does it make you think? Is it possible a Federally mandated real fiduciary duty to customers by originators is long over due (although it has become Law in more than a dozen States this past year or so), or are news pieces like this just like kicking a dead horse now?

My feelings? Facts like this are no surpirse to me whatsoever, most of you have heard me screaming about this for a long time ... but today I honestly believe a most honest people know in their secret heart of heart this practice is/was absolutely true, and that it was stupid ... AND that it contributed to the mess we have now. HOPEFULLY, those that agree with me, will try and do something about this during this cycle. Widespread YSP (from my viewpoint of many years in the biz) has been a new thing, an is just over a decade old ... mortgage brokers and their LO's don't NEED it.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

New Subprime Player - Want a Name?

OK, it's time for a little self-deprecating humor for those of you that don't know my witty side ... here goes ... guess what a genius I am!

In this article immediately above, I talked a little about a new business paradigm and subprime wholesalers a bit, and in several previous pieces here in my personal Blog, I refered to them, have said they're here now, BUT you just don't know what they are! Well guess what? Want a NAME?

Now comes the "Genius" part, I actually READ THE WORDS regularly in several industry publications (you've only heard me tell you to do that - what - about 10 dozen times or so?) AND because I've 'been there and done that,' I often can recognize stuff others might miss.

So ... today I'm reading my dead-tree (paper) version of the National Mortgage News (my favorite industry publication for nearly 30 years, comes out every Monday) --- and low and behold --- on the front page is an article about WL Ross & Co. LLC (a name you'll all hear a lot about soon); who last year purchased the servicing platform of bankrupt American Home Mortgage, Melville, NY and last week they closed on it's $1.3 Billion purchase of Option One Mortgage Corp, Irvine, CA (a $55 Billion servicer of non-conforming paper).

TRANSLATION: Many of you have heard me say for several years, that the serious money in this industry is NOT as a Mortgage Broker, but as a Mortgage Banker Seller/Servicer. Over time, the stable servicing income out paces origination income many times over; this I know from several decades of personal experience from my own company.

CONCLUSION?: WL Ross & Co. LLC is clearly gonna be one of the next generation subprime wholesalers, on that you can bet your future career (says me, that 4 decade subprimer dude you know).

Saturday, May 10, 2008

My Prediction – A Case Study

It’s sorta like John McCain telling us ‘we may be in Iraq for 100 years,’ when you take data out of context, you can make it mean anything.

It’s like what one of our readers said to me a couple of days ago. He was an LO who left the business, similar to the stampede that entered during the Gold Rust days of the last cycle, but in the other direction. He’s considering jumping back into the industry, and asked me what I thought about that. He’s a pretty intelligent young man, he pointed out to me, he closely follows ‘The S&P/Case-Shiller® Home Price Indices’ who have reported the value of residential real estate held by households and non-profit organizations totaled US$ 22.4 trillion in 2006, so it’s real big. These indices capture and measure a vast and largely untapped U.S. housing asset class, and are designed to measure the change in the price of homes that have not undergone significant changes in quality. So, he strongly values them.

BTW, in April they reported Feb results, where there was a steep decline in values, and he said to me they’ve indicated the housing market will take something like ‘10 years to rebound.’ He’s also heard the secondary market is a real mess and his former friendly yet irresponsible non-conforming funding sources are all gone. Therefore I could hear in his voice, loud and clear, he’s worried about feeding his family!

Given that focus on two (2) seriously important factors, he’s scared to return to the residential real estate mortgage lending industry, as a self-employed mortgage broker. He’s not alone, I’m sure.

Now for my perspective today, yes I agree timing is vital and it looks like a moving target on the surface; in my view it’s not … consider these pieces of industry publication news and information:

In a blog posting I made two (2) weeks ago - http://americasmoneycenter.blogspot.com/2008/04/secondary-market.html#links - I pointed out, that contrary to what the press and more specifically industry publications seem to be focused upon, (between January 1st and March 31, 2008) there was $323,338.1 (in US $ Millons) securitized (that's well over a Quarter of a Trillion Dollars) in 'non-conforming' production! … so, NO the secondary market for non-conforming is not dead, it’s sick and yes a train wreck, but the end of the world is not at hand.

In June we had “Brokers Turning to FHA For Loans”: http://americasmoneycenter.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1551

Then in August we saw “Brokers Migrate Back to Prime” http://americasmoneycenter.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1574

We all intutitively know, mortgage bankers/ mortgage brokers and Loan Officers are skidish about where to turn, what to believe and which ‘guru’ to believe, given all I see myself, that surely doesn’t surprise me.

And let’s not forget the oft quoted ‘Bureau of Labor Statistics’ who tell us the overall industry is now down to 360,000 ‘Mortgage Bankers and Mortgage Brokers’ – even though HUD (inside it’s latest RESPA proposal says at year’s end we had more than 600,000 workers in the business). OK then who’s right? Consider this (use your own common sense) we both know there have been a lot of unlicensed originators working for net branches, etc., we also know the vast majority of employers (unlawfully in most cases) pay their LO’s via 1099 and not W-2, so both the Labor Dept and HUD stats simply couldn’t be correct, and in my opinion, not even close! BUT, yes a whole lot of people have left the indsutry; but I know you can lie with ‘real’ numbers and slant them to mean anything. So, yes lots are gone, we all agree that’s good for the biz, and more will come and go all the time, since that’s the nature of this business – say my 40+ years in it.

On, so now that I’ve ran far afield to provide you with several of my random thoughts on some of the circumstances of the industry today, and of course I read on the conforming side Fannie, Freddie, and the MI firms are clamping down hard as well (‘cause they’re supposed to be conservative!). Let me please say, you need to read a whole lot of industry publications to soak in the whole picture, which is in part some of what I’ve tried to do today for you (I’ve got another 10,000 words in my head about all of this, but too lazy to type them all out, and it would bore you to death anyway)!

Things are a mess, conforming will get uglier and stay tight for a little while, before they come to their senses (after being pressured by legislators soon to loosen up, and fulfill their Congressional mandate to be a viable secondary market for the Nation’s conforming lenders and ‘Stop Pushing Away Good Loans - http://americasmoneycenter.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1709
), FHA will not be the end all of everyone’s subrpime dreams … and not nearly as wreckless as the last decade – more new subprime/non-conforming wholesalers will emerge THIS year and the bottom of the housing crisis will start to reverse THIS year.

You know that old saying of your father’s or your grand-father’s … “been there done that” – well, guess what? I’ve been there and done that, the punishment portion of this industry wide correction/cycle (just like the four I’ve been in the middle of) is coming to a close, and it’s on to the new paradigm way things will be done this pendulum swing in the opposite direction from the last cycle/swing.

So if you’re like this former LO I’m speaking about, or if you’ve stayed in the biz during these tough times, and you feel that you would be a credit to the industry to continue on Ethically with your career, then it is my pleasure to welcome you back, or to encourage you to stay.

Friday, May 09, 2008

FHA Approval In!


Today we got word that the long awaited FHA Approval for our affiliate Loan Officer Opportunity Program, has finally arrived. Over the last several months we have had scores of inquiries asking when this would take place; we're pleased it happened today. It's my guess, once the boss returns from his overseas vacation at month's end, the FHA portion will be rolled out; if not then, shortly thereafter we anticipate. Many of you know, we have endorsed this organization for more than six years. I know them to be honest, genuine, and all they purport to be; financially strong and no 'tricks' unlike many other similar type opportunities available.

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Siete de Mayo!

Here in So Cal this is a big celebration, as today's my Birthday! Leaving in 20 minutes to go to see our Los Angeles Dodger's end a three game winning sweep of the New York Mets. Our team's in second place here in the West, and is looking real good for a strong pennant run again this year; especially with our new Manager.



Looks like that HUD RESPA propsal is dead on arrival once again, even with all the hard work that was done in their attempt to be fair and well balanced with the modifications they suggested. I myself would like to see far less new regulations being enacted, and instead a warp-speed increase in aggressive punishing enforcement of the many laws that are on the books already. We've had too many people who didn't know things they were doing was unlawful, and far too little publicity reporting enforcement, that would have not only detered some folks, but enlighted more as to the rules we/they should operate by - heaven help us their bosses didn't help much in that vain at all.


I see that 'education' side the most important, from all I've seen and heard ... and I'm trying
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