As we all know, the secondary market is where the home loans and servicing portfolios are bought and sold between lenders, banks, and investors. Lenders sell a large percentage of newly originated loans into the secondary market, where they are packaged into MBS’s  (Mortgage-backed securities) and sold to investors like pension funds,  insurance companies, and hedge funds, etc. Read more

Mortgage servicing has faced some unique challenges over the years mainly because its processes are dictated by state statute as well as federal rules or standards. To scale up and ensure compliance with all the stipulated rules and regulations, many servicers are choosing to adopt uniform procedures across all states. But several servicers lack complete clarity and the understanding of how it impacts the bottom line and timelines. Read more

Ellie Mae’s Origination Insight Report stated that the percentage of refinances accounted for 51 percent of closed loans in the month of October 2019, which is the highest percentage of refinances since March 2015. This trend confirms that homeowners are taking advantage of the lower interest rates to reduce their monthly payments on their mortgage. Read more

Annual conferences such as ALTA One are usually great to network with  Title agents across the industry and to get to know what matters to  them. It is nice to understand business trends and key focus areas across title agencies. This year, some of my colleagues were at ALTA One and it was interesting and insightful to interact with title agents and  understand their key focus areas. Read more

Title agents play a very important role in the mortgage process, that of helping the lender validate the ownership in the property and issuing title insurance.

Typically most title agents face a lot of month-end volumes as the workload is very high. Here are three ways in which title agents can  better manage these situations: Read more

Owning a home is a central piece of the American dream. It brings in several economic benefits, such as the possibility to accumulate wealth,  access credit through home equity, reduce housing costs through mortgage interest deduction, and gain long-term savings over the cost of renting. Read more

Mortgages – purchase or refinance – have a long to-do list of steps, and the oversight of any of them could jeopardize the process. But at a  time when the world faces an unprecedented situation with the COVID 19  pandemic, the mortgage chain has been affected in several ways creating several problems. Read more

Most financial institutions, including mortgage lenders, have business continuity plans in place, but the unprecedented situation has created a  vulnerability in fully addressing the unknown variables. Many mortgage lenders are seeing a spike in refinance applications after rate cuts by the Fed. A financial institution’s response to these issues in current times is one of the most critical aspects that will determine their relationship with their customers and employees in the future. Read more

The first week of October came with some robust news for the mortgage sector. The average mortgage interest rate on both the 30-year and  15-year fixed mortgage slipped giving a boost to the buying and refinance surge. Read more

Amidst the Covid-19 outbreak, while new home purchases are taking a hit,  refinance requirements are going through the roof. In the recent past,  mortgage companies have been experiencing stiff competition from other mortgage companies. But a bigger challenge has been the rise of fintech  companies that is significantly impacting mortgage lenders. Read more