NMP February12

P R E S O R T E D S T A N D A R D
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N M P M E D I A C O R P .
1 2 2 0 W A N T A G H A V E N U E
W A N T A G H , N E W Y O R K 1 1 7 9 3
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A Special Look at Its All About Marketing
Marketing 101: Its the Message That Makes the
Difference! By David Lykken & Jon Traver ..............................34
Do You Have a Marketing Problem or a Branding
Problem? By Patrick H. Seroka........................................................35
Dont You Forget About Me
Make Marketing Matter By BJ Bounds ......................................36
Direct Mail Marketing Best Practices By Jim Blatt............37
Jumping Onto the Social Media Bandwagon and
Reaping the Profits By Ray Eickhoff ....................................38
Finding Success for Your Brand in Social Media:
By Chris Clothier ..................................................................39
The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection and the Ultimate
Marketing Machine By Joy Beam-Burns ..............................41
Where Will You Enroll: New School or Old School
Marketing? By Chris Nordby ................................................42
How Mortgage Brokers Find Customers in a Bad
Economy By Justin Restaino ................................................43
Features
Make the Most of an Extra Day By Mary Beth Doyle ............4
Pursuing Excellence By Casey Cunningham ..........................4
The FHA 203(k) Loan: How to Help Clients Buy
the House of Their Dreams By Ginger Bell ..........................8
The NAMB Perspective ..................................................12
ValueNation: A Review of What to Expect in a
Collateral Management Solution By David Rasmussen ........16
Trigger Lead Complaints on the Rise By Terry W. Clemans....16
For Managers Only By Dave Hershman................................18
Marketing HARP 2.0 By Raymond Bartreau..........................20
The Elite Performer By Andy W. Harris, CRMS ......................20
USA Cares Mortgage Heroes By Beverly Frase ..................21
Supply & Demand in the TPO Channel By Mark Greco ......22
Appraisal Quality Control is No Longer Optional
for AMCs By Jennifer Frank..............................................................23
The Top Five Things to Know to Start Your Career
as an LO By Leif Boyd ......................................................................27
The Foreclosure Landscape in 2012
By Christopher G. Brown ........................................................29
A Deeper Dive Into 2012s Mortgage Industry
Hiring Forecast By Drew Waterhouse ..................................30
Columns
Heard on the Street..........................................................6
NMP News Flash: February 2012 ..................................19
New to Market ................................................................32
NMP Mortgage Professional Resource Registry ..........44
NMP Calendar of Events ................................................48
Visit Our
ADVERTISERS
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Best Rate Referrals, LLC .................................... www.bestratereferrals.com ..................................15
Calyx Software ................................................ www.calyxsoftware.com ......................................37
CBC National Bank .......................................... www.cbconnex.com ............................................17
Elliott and Company Appraisers, Inc................... www.appraisalanywhere.com ................................18
Equity Loans LLC .............................................. www.equityloans.com ............................................5
Freedom Mortgage .......................................... www.fmbranch.com ......................Inside Back Cover
Frost Mortgage Lending Group .......................... www.frostmortgage.com/nmp ..............................40
Hometown Lenders .......................................... www.hometownbranch.com ................................21
Icon Residential Lenders, LLC ............................ www.iconwholesale.com ..................10 & Back Cover
Land Home Financial Services .......................... joinamx@lhfinancial.com ....................................37
Loyalty Express ................................................ www.loyaltyexpress.com ......................................43
MBA-NJ/NJAMB ................................................ www.mbanj.com ..................................................28
Menlo Park Funding ........................................ www.menloparkfunding.com ................................41
Mortgage Brokers Network Corp, Inc. ................ www.mortgagebrokersnetwork.com ......................19
NAMB.............................................................. www.namb.org/legconference ..............................33
NAPMW .......................................................... www.napmw.org ..................................................6
PB Financial Group Corp. .................................. pbfinancialgrp.com ..............................................10
Polaris Home Funding Corp. (Branches) .............. www.polarishfc.com/TimeForAChange ....................9
Polaris Home Funding Corp. (Wholesale) ............ www.polarishfc.com ............................................25
REMN (Real Estate Mortgage Network)................ www.remnwholesale.com ......................................7
Shortsale Speedway.......................................... www.shortsalespeedway.com/freedemo ................24
Streetlinks LLC ................................................ sales@streetlinks.com ..................Inside Front Cover
TMS Funding.................................................... www.tmsfunding.com ..........................................11
Veros Real Estate Solutions .............................. pmc2012.com ......................................................14
National Mortgage Professional Magazine
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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February 2012 Volume 4, Number 2 Company Web Site Page
A Message From NMP Media Corp.
Executive Vice President Andrew T. Berman
2
February 2012
Volume 4 Number 2
1220 Wantagh Avenue Wantagh, NY 11793-2202
Phone: (516) 409-5555 / (888) 409-9770
Fax: (516) 409-4600
Web site: NationalMortgageProfessional.com
STAFF
Eric C. Peck
Editor-in-Chief
(516) 409-5555, ext. 312
ericp@nmpmediacorp.com
Andrew T. Berman
Executive Vice President
(516) 409-5555, ext. 333
andrew@nmpmediacorp.com
Joey Arendt
Art Director
joeya@nmpmediacorp.com
Jon Blake
Advertising Coordinator
(516) 409-5555, ext. 301
jonb@nmpmediacorp.com
Kelsey Domino
Executive Sales Assistant
(516) 409-5555, ext. 316
kelseyd@nmpmediacorp.com
Tara Cook
Billing Coordinator
(516) 409-5555, ext. 324
tarac@nmpmediacorp.com
ADVERTISING
To receive any information regarding advertising rates, deadlines and require-
ments, please contact Senior National Account Executive Karen Krizman at
(516) 409-5555, ext. 326 or e-mail karenk@nmpmediacorp.com.
ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS/PRESS RELEASES
To submit any material, including articles and press releases, please
contact Editor-in-Chief Eric C. Peck at (516) 409-5555, ext. 312 or e-mail
ericp@nmpmediacorp.com. The deadline for submissions is the first of
the month prior to the target issue.
SUBSCRIPTIONS
To receive subscription information, please call (516) 409-5555, ext.
301; e-mail orders@nmpmediacorp.com or visit www.nationalmort-
gageprofessional.com. Any subscription changes may be made to the
attention of Circulation via fax to (516) 409-4600.
Statements, articles and opinions in National Mortgage Professional Magazine
are the responsibility of the authors alone and do not imply the opinion or
endorsement of NMP Media Corp., or the officers or members of National
Association of Mortgage Brokers and its State Affiliates (NAMB), National
Association of Professional Mortgage Women (NAPMW), National Credit
Reporting Association (NCRA) and/or other state mortgage trade associations.
Participation in NAMB, NAPMW, NCRA, and/or other state mortgage
trade associations events, activities and/or publications is available on
a non-discriminatory basis and does not reflect the endorsement of the
product and/or services by NMP Media Corp., NAMB, NAPMW, NCRA,
and other state mortgage trade associations.
National Mortgage Professional Magazine, NAMB, NAPMW, NCRA,
and/or other state mortgage trade associations do not make any misrepre-
sentations or warranties concerning the regulatory and/or compliance
aspects of advertisers, products or services and/or the editorial content con-
tained in NMP Media Corp. publications. National Mortgage Professional
Magazine and NMP Media Corp. reserve the right to edit, reject and/or post-
pone the publication of any articles, information or data.
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It really is all about the marketing!
This issue happens to come out on the heels of one of Americas biggest non-holidays,
the Super Bowl. Hype around this event spans nationwide, no matter if your city is
sending a team to the game or not, but this year in particular, the New York Giants rep-
resented my home turf against the New England Patriots. Needless to say, you couldnt
turn to any media outlet in New York over the past two weeks and not have the New
York Giants in your face in the top headlines.
Each year, as the nation tunes in, the big-budget advertisers line up, cash in hand,
to pay for their 30- to 60-sec. spots at an average of $3.5 million per 30-secs. of air time.
The audience was there, as an estimated 111 million Americans tuned in, and the advertisers waged war,
marketing their beer, cars, Web sites, summer blockbusters, etc. via spots featuring babies, scantily-clad
women and cute animals. Was there ever actually a game played on the gridiron? Or, did that game serve
as filler to the multitude of TV timeouts to accommodate these multi-million dollar commercial spots?
Maybe this is a bad example because most of Americas TV sets were tuned into the big game, but what
are you doing to get your message across to your target audience? Has your own marketing budget suf-
fered? What tactics do you use to promote your goods and services? You may not have Chryslers money to
hire Clint Eastwood for a big budget commercial, but this month, we take a look at proven tactics and tips
used by todays mortgage professionals to market to their audience.
Kicking things off on page 34 is David Lykken and co-author Jon Traver of Mortgage Banking Solutions
with their piece on the importance of the message in marketing. Does the message get lost in transla-
tion? Patrick H. Seroka of Seroka discusses the proper way in which to brand yourself on page 35 in his
piece, Do You Have a Marketing Problem or a Branding Problem? On page 36, BJ Bounds of Calyx
Software explains how it is important to target what is best for your client, not for you, in her article,
Dont You Forget About Me. In the age of all things digital, Jim Blatt of Mortgage Returns details a
method that many have been abandoned in direct mail in order to yield positive results. Ray Eickhoff of
Fairway Independent Mortgage, on page 38, explains how to utilize todays social media outlets into your
marketing campaigns. Chris Clothier of Memphis Invest stays on the subject of social media and net-
working beginning on page 39, as he analyzes social media personas to avoid in marketing to your social
media contacts. We return to another piece on branding on page 41 as Joy Beam-Burns of CBC National
Bank looks inside what it takes to create the optimal marketing machine. Chris Nordby of Protelus looks
at old school marketing versus the new school and digital era of marketing in his piece, Where Will You
Enroll: New School or Old School Marketing? on page 42. Things wrap up on page 43 with Justin
Restaino of Titan List & Mailing Services Inc.s piece on mortgage professionals marketing to the home-
buying public in a down economy.
When we put this section together, it was our intent to provide our readers with the tips and tools nec-
essary to take their marketing abilities to the next level. Hopefully, our panel of experts will equip with the
means and tips to do so.
The political scene is heating up jump aboard!
We are about a month away from the 2012 NAMB Legislative & Regulatory Conference, set for March 18-
20, 2012 in Washington, D.C. If the state primaries are firing you up for this election year, get a head start
and join your peers on the frontlines as they walk the halls of Congress at the 2012 Legislative Conference,
this March in D.C. In this months NAMB Perspective beginning on page 12, NAMB President Donald J.
Frommeyer and Government Affairs Committee Chair John P. Hudson give an overview on what to expect
in D.C. by breaking down the agenda. If you ever felt compelled to become involved in the political process,
now is the time to band together for this unique opportunity to meet with your elected officials and edu-
cate them on the importance of your role to the American homebuying public.
Thats not all
We have assembled yet another great slate of contributors to educate and update you on the latest hap-
penings in the industry in our February 2012 issue. Like our marketing experts, these contributors are the
tops in their field and aim to share with you, their expert knowledge and thoughts on ways in which to
improve your bottom line. From 203(k) loans, to collateral management solutions, to trends in mortgage
industry employment in 2012 this issue is jam-packed with ideas on how to take the resolutions you
made just one month ago at the outset of 2012 to the next level.
Until next month ...
Andrew T. Berman, Executive Vice President
NMP Media Corp.
is published monthly by NMP Media Corp.
Copyright 2012 NMP Media Corp.
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The Association of
Mortgage Professionals
2701 West 15th Street, Suite 536 O Plano, TX 75075
Phone #: (703) 342-5900 O Fax #: (530) 484-2906
Web site: www.namb.org
PresidentDonald J. Frommeyer, CRMS
Amtrust Mortgage Funding Inc.
200 Medical Drive, Suite D
Carmel, IN 46032
(317) 575-4355 O dfrommeyer@amtrust.net
Vice PresidentDonald Fader, CRMS
SMC Home Finance
P.O. Box 1376
Kinston, NC 28503-1376
(252) 523-5800 O dfader@smchf.com
TreasurerJohn Councilman, CMC, CRMS
AMC Mortgage Corporation
2613 Fallston Road
Fallston, MD 21047
(410) 557-6400 O jlc@amcmortgage.com
SecretaryOlga Kucerak, CRMS
Crown Lending
222 East Houston, Suite 1600
San Antonio, TX 78205
(210) 828-3384 O olga@crownlending.com
Past PresidentJim Pair, CMC
Mortgage Associates Corpus Christi
6262 Weber Road, Suite 208
Corpus Christi, TX 78413
(361) 853-9987 O jlpair@aol.com
Rocke Andrews, CMC, CRMS
Lending Arizona LLC
1996 North Kolb
Tucson, AZ 85715
(520) 886-7283 O randrews@lendingarizona.net
Fred Arnold, CMC
American Family Funding
24961 The Old Road, Suite 101
Stevenson Ranch, CA 91381
(661) 284-1150 O fred@fredarnold.com
Kay A. Cleland, CMC, CRMS
KC Mortgage LLC
200 South Wilcox Street #224
Castle Rock, CO 80104
(720) 810-4917 O kaycleland@comcast.net
Deb Killian, CRMS
GMAC
246 Federal Road, Unit C-24
Brookfield, CT 06804
(203) 778-9999, ext. 103 O debkillian@snet.net
Linda McCoy
Mortgage Team 1 Inc.
6336 Picadilly Square Drive
Mobile, AL 36609
(251) 610-0494 O linda@mortgageteam1.com
Donald J. Unger
President
(303) 670-7993, ext. 222
don@advcredit.com
Daphne Large
Vice President & Treasurer
(901) 259-5105
daphnel@datafacts.com
Tom Conwell
Ex-Officio & Legislative
Chair
(800) 445-4922, ext. 1010
tconwell@credittechnologies.com
Nancy Fedich
DirectorConference Chair
(908) 813-8555, ext. 3010
nancy@cisinfo.net
Judy Ryan
Director-Strategic Alliance
Chair
(800) 929-3400, ext. 201
jryan@Kroll.com
Susan Cataldo
DirectorEducation
& Compliance Chair
(404) 303-8656, ext. 204
susancds@cdsusa.net
William Bower
DirectorTenant Screening
Chair
(800) 288-4757
wbower@confinfo.com
Mike Brown
DirectorTechnology Chair
(800) 925-6691, ext. 4350
mike.brown@ncogroup.com
Maureen Devine
DirectorEducation
& Compliance Co-Chair
(413) 736-4511
mdevine@strategicinfo.com
Renee Erickson
DirectorNew Membership
& Elections Chair
(800) 311-1585, ext. 2101
renee@zipreports.com
Terry Clemans
Executive Director
(630) 539-1525
tclemans@ncrainc.org
Jan Gerber
Office Manager/Membership
Services
(630) 539-1525
jgerber@ncrainc.org
President
Laurie Abshier, GML, CME, CMI
(661) 283-1262
lauriea@gemcorp.com
President-Elect
Candace Smith, CME
(512) 329-9040
csmith@wrstarkey.com
Senior Vice President
Jill Kinsman
(206) 344-7827
jill.kinsman@usbank.com
Vice President-Northwestern Region
Nita Cook, GML, CME, CMI
(360) 705-5053
nita.cook@legacyg.com
Vice President-Western Region
Lyman King III, CME, CMI
(916) 967-4653
lking@gemcorp.com
Vice President-Central Region
Lisa Puckett, CME
(405) 741-5485
lpuckett@ameagletitle.com
Vice President-Eastern Region
Christine Pollard
(607) 656-5005
cpollard1046@gmail.com
Secretary
Katheryn M. Farrell
(509) 528-0349
katherynfarrell@yahoo.com
Treasurer
Jeanne Evans, CME
(918) 431-0155
drmjevans@att.net
Parliamentarian
Hulene Bridgman-Works
(800) 827-3034
hulene137@yahoo.com
NAMB Board of Directors
National Association of Professional
Mortgage Women
P.O. Box 451718 O Garland, TX 75042
Phone #: (800) 827-3034 O Fax #: (469) 524-5121
Web site: www.napmw.org
OFFICERS
DIRECTORS
2012 Board of Directors & Staff
National Credit Reporting Association Inc.
125 East Lake Street, Suite 200 O Bloomingdale, IL 60108
Phone #: (630) 539-1525 O Fax #: (630) 539-1526
Web site: www.ncrainc.org
National Board of Directors 2011-2012
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continued on page 18
Make The Most Of
An Extra Day
by Mary Beth Doyle, Founder
What would you do with an extra day? Since 2012
is a Leap Year, its a great time to fnd out. Ambitious
professionals look at 24 extra hours as an opportunity.
Staying ahead of the competition is all about making the
most of every minute.
Why not utilize the extra time as an incentive to re-assess
business development strategies? Start by calculating how
effectively you currently engage customers, partners, and
prospects. And if there is a way to do it better, make
it happen.
LoyaltyExpress is the #1 choice of the most demanding
loan offcers & executives across the nation. We provide
comprehensive, high-impact marketing solutions that
continuously capture new, repeat, and referral business.
No other marketing platform delivers better results:
t Our proprietary technology empowers the automation
of high-impact communications that engage & motivate
recipients to take action. Intelligent data mining quickly
identifes and promotes new opportunities.
t Our extensive selection of targeted programs engages
recipients through cross-media formats and channels.
By combining high-quality direct mail, e-mail, and on-
demand marketing pieces, wider audiences are
continuously reached, resulting in a steady increase in
closed loans.
t Our solutions are easy to use. With a few clicks of the
mouse, targeted marketing campaigns are sent that
achieve exceptional ROI. Theres a reason that we
continue to lead the industry with our methodologies
and products.
Bottom line, LoyaltyExpress is the company to call for serious
business development impact. Take a few minutes to learn
more about the benefts of working with us. It would be a
pleasure to hear from you.
LoyaltyExpress is the leading mortgage marketing
company in the nation. For more information:
call 877.938.1175
or visit
www.loyaltyexpress.com.
By Casey Cunningham
As it relates to marketing, the question is simply this: How do the
efforts you put forth with your sphere of influence make them
feel? Does it stop them in their tracks? Does it create that wow
factor youre looking to achieve? Does it set you apart from your
competitionthe same competition that is also employing a
number of different marketing techniques and gimmicks?
As I pondered the focus for this short write-up, I was remind-
ed of one of my favorite quotations that I feel is so very, very important to keep
in mind in both business and in life:
People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will
never forget how you made them feel.Maya Angelou
If we are being completely honest with ourselves as salespeople, we all know
that the majority of the marketing materials we receive in our own lives do not
create the desired effect. Why then, when we are on the sending end of mar-
keting materials, should we expect a different effect?
There are a myriad of books, seminars, strategies and other newfangled
approaches to the world of marketing. It is my opinion, however, that of all the
available noise out there, two things need to be kept in mind when marketing
yourself to your sphere of influence: Injection of Personality and Platinum Club.
Why are YOU different? Why should
these clients work with YOU? What
makes YOU the right choice? It is critical
that you personalize your marketing
efforts. Inject your personality into the
process. These days, clients can get their
loan virtually anywhere, including
places like Costco. Now, more than ever,
it is imperative that you inject YOU into
the process of marketing to these clients.
I know of one loan officer who has a
penchant for classical music. For the past
10 years, he has been putting together an
annual CD of his favorite classical pieces.
Using limited computer knowledge, he was able to design a jewel case and select
tracks to be burned to CDs from his personal collection of classical music. He has built
an entire marketing strategy around his love of the works of Beethoven, Chopin,
Rachmaninoff and the rest. He readily admits the recipients of this annual CD will not
always listen to it, but he is convinced that it sets him apart from the other loan offi-
cers who drop off a desk calendar emblazoned with some random corporate logo.
On the subject of personalization, there is another approach, and while more time-
consuming, that can be incredibly effectiveinject the recipients personality into the
marketing materials. Does your target have an English Bulldog? Is your target a huge
Atlanta Hawks fan? Does your target coach Little League? Does your target ride horses?
These are the questions that, when answered, can give you an incredibly unfair advan-
tage as it relates to making an impact on your target audience. Most salespeople auto-
matically discount the notion of personal marketing as being too expensive and unaf-
fordable. This is simply is not true. Making an emotional connection does not cost money.
I received a simple e-mail referencing my love for fly fishing (something on my
LinkedIn profile) from a vendor trying to get an appointment. And yes, they got
the appointment! In my 10 years in business with a sales training organization and
being solicited daily by countless sales professionals, I have only been on the receiving
end of personalized marketing a shocking one time. Because personal marketing is
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Twenty percent of the
individuals currently
in your database yield
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referrals. They are the
cream of the crop.
5
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email dgowen@equityloans.com . Also, Visit us on the web at www.equityloans.com or on Linkedin and Facebook.
6
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REMN Expands Into the
New England Region
Real Estate
Mo r t g a g e
Network Inc.
(REMN) has announced the opening of
its newest retail location in Burlington,
Vt. REMNs new Burlington office will
be overseen by Matt Hemphill, area
manager, a New England native who
joins the company with more than 20
years of industry experience. Hemphill
will work alongside a team of local, sea-
soned mortgage industry professionals,
each one a veteran of the New England
real estate industry. New associates
joining Hemphill in REMNs Burlington
office as loan originators include John
Blouin, Lorene Butler, Barbara Holzel,
Kim Negron, Elizabeth Porzucek, Henry
Rackliff and Terryann Stein. They will
be supported by Kelly Bellinger and
Donna Bigger, experienced mortgage
loan processors.
Vermont, along with the New
England area in general, represents
great opportunities for REMN, said
Doug Tarta, Northeast regional manag-
er for REMN. Were well-known in the
national real estate community for pro-
viding quality mortgages bundled with
top-rate customer service and the same
will hold true for this new office.
Regardless of if someone is looking for
a traditional mortgage, or something
such as a 203(k) product for a fixer-
upper, the team in our Burlington
office will be able to help them secure
the loan they need with the customer
service REMN is known for nationwide.
REMN employs more than 600
throughout offices in California,
Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware,
Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri,
New Jersey, New York, North Carolina,
Pennsylvania, South Carolina and
Tennessee. In 2011 alone, REMN closed
more than $2.3 billion in home loans,
solidifying its position as one of the
largest independent non-bank lenders
in the U.S.
PRMI Launches
Enterprise Risk
Management Group
Primary Residential Mortgage Inc.
(PRMI) has announced the formation of
a new Enterprise Risk Management
(ERM) group. The creation of new ERM
group demonstrates the companys
commitment to manage risk through
the entire loan origination process and
ensures that the company has the
appropriate monitoring and evaluation
policies.
Over the last couple years, the
mortgage industry has been under
intense scrutiny, said Dave Zitting,
president and chief executive officer of
PRMI. While the larger banks all have
ERM departments, its uncommon for a
company of our size to have one but we
wanted to take aggressive steps to
demonstrate to our customers, partners
and employees our commitment to
providing a safe and compliant mort-
gage experience.
Twenty-five year mortgage banking
industry veteran H. Burton Embry has
been named senior vice president
Enterprise Risk Management and will
be responsible for overseeing the com-
pliance, licensing, quality control (QC),
insuring, final docs and HMDA
Departments for the companys more
than 190 nationwide offices and more
than 850 mortgage loan originators.
In todays mortgage environment,
lenders must manage compliance and
quality issues more closely than ever
before, said Embry. By establishing
this new group, we are implementing a
solution that will sharpen our focus on
complying with all mortgage banking
laws and regulations, improve on our
overall loan quality and help us to bet-
ter manage risk across all areas of our
company.
In addition to Burtons promotion,
Shelly Hill has been promoted to com-
pliance director. Hill will be responsible
for the day-to-day compliance activities
of PRMI. Previously, Hill was PRMIs
state compliance manager, a position
shes held since April 2011.
Former Silver Hill
SVP Mike Boggiano
to Head SL Capital
Mike Boggiano, for-
mer senior vice presi-
dent and national
sales manager of
Silver Hill Financial
LLC, has announced the launch of SL
Capital LLC, a full-service commercial
mortgage banking firm providing capi-
tal from $3 million to $200 million-
plus, for a variety of commercial loan
N
M
L
S
National Education
National Training
National Networking
NAPMW is a community of nearly 2,000 professionals across the
Country who engage in the mortgage / banking industry. Men
and women from all backgrounds have joined NAPMW because
they want to excel at what they do. Employers who want excel-
lence from their employees engage with NAPMW for up-to-date
education. Both professionals and employers have found there is
a place for them in NAPMW.
To Join NAPMW visit:
www.napmw.org
or call: 1-800-827-3034
Have Questions? Please
feel free to e-mail us at:
napmw1@aol.com
Organized for the purpose of providing education to profession-
als in all phases of the mortgage industry, NAPMW ofers educa-
tion via many venues seminars and workshops held around the
country, on-line, and at its National Education Conference held
each May.
NAPMW membership gives you exclusive access to timely educa-
tion regarding the regulations afecting your career such as a
FREE TO MEMBERS monthly webinar on industry updates AND
our 8 hour NMLS continuing education class ofering (NMLS
Provider # 1400309)
If you believe in helping to elevate the educational standards of
this industry, or assisting in developing the most competent
industry work force, then you believe in NAPMW.
NAPMW is not a womens organization. But since women make
up the majority of professionals in the mortgage/banking profes-
sion, our purpose is to help them advance in business, personal,
and leadership development.
Coast to Coast Associations
Discounted Services
Industry Updates
Education
Networking
Leadership
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Three Simple Reasons
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to direct the new operation as vice pres-
ident of default services.
Due to more stringent government
loan requirements and increased over-
sight by regulators, small servicers have
experienced problems with traditional
sub-servicers, such as high delinquency
ratios under Ginnie Mae, high FHA cur-
tailments, low loss mitigation workout
ratios and challenges with conveying
properties to FHA.
Gateways new division was created
to provide small servicers and commu-
nity institutions with high-touch expert-
ise in specialty and default servicing for
FHA and VA loans. The subservicing unit
reduces risk for servicers working with
government loans and provides a viable
servicing solution for community insti-
tutions that allows them to retain their
customer relationships.
In 2008, Gateway decided to retain
our servicing in house to keep the
entire lending relationship from origi-
nation through servicing under our roof
to ensure quality service for our bor-
rowers, said Kevin Stitt, president of
Gateway Mortgage Group. We now
want to use our experience to provide
smaller companies with an alternative
to traditional sub-servicers, offering the
expertise and performance of a large
organization with the personal care of a
smaller institution.
In his role as vice president of
default services, Osuna will be responsi-
programs and non-performing notes
nationwide. SL Capital is an affiliated
company of the Lynd Company, an
established organization with more
than 30 years of experience in multiple
facets of the commercial real estate
markets. Boggiano will serve as presi-
dent of SL Capital.
Investors are coming back to the
market and deals are closingthere is
a need for access to competitive capital,
and we knew we could provide it in one
convenient source, said Boggiano.
With our national network of commer-
cial lending relationships, experience,
and affiliation with Lynd Company,
were able to assist investors and exe-
cute the type of transactions they need
to capitalize on opportunities in the
market.
SL Capital offers a variety of national
loan programs including commercial
mortgage-backed securities (CMBS),
multifamily financing, mezzanine debt,
preferred equity, bridge loans and sen-
ior financing for non-performing notes.
SL Capital has also been designated a
correspondent lender of Cantor
Fitzgeralds Cantor Commercial Real
Estate, offering CMBS fixed- and float-
ing-rate loans from $5 million to $200
million-plus for stabilized commercial
properties including multifamily, office,
retail, industrial, warehouse, self-stor-
age, mobile home park, assisted living
and hospitality.
Steve OShaughnessy, former vice
president of loan acquisition for
Bayview Financial, and Jonathan
Mettel, former vice president of sales
for Silver Hill Financial, join Boggiano,
rounding out a team with decades of
industry experience through multiple
market cycles and billions in commer-
cial loan transactions.
GSF Mortgage
Continues Expansion
in Wisconsin Market
GSF Mortgage has
announced the
addition of its
newest Wisconsin
branch in Fond du Lac, Wis. The new
location will be led by Branch Manager
Brady Onsager, Sales Manager and Fond
du Lac native Lynn Farr, Production
Assistant Tammy Kilsdonk, and Loan
Originators Laurie Jarvenpaa and Kelly
Diny.
We are thrilled to offer our portfolio
of services to the Fond du Lac commu-
nity and are pleased with the tremen-
dous amount of expertise our veteran
team brings to the table, said GSF
National Sales Manager Mike Maida.
Onsager added that the marketing
focus includes networking business
relationships with real estate agents
and other business referral sources
driving mortgage applications for pur-
chase businesswith an emphasis on
first-time homebuyer financing through
the Federal Housing Administration
(FHA) and USDA Rural Development.
Our entire team is committed to
educating customers when it comes to
the dynamic mortgage industry, Maida
said. Our value proposition includes
extensive experience and success in our
trade, along with our commitment to
responsible lending and responsible
homeownership.
Gateway Mortgage
Launches New Default
Services Division
Gateway Mortgage Group has
announced that it has developed an in-
house subservicing unit focused on the
specialty and default servicing of
Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
(VA) loans, and has hired Kevin Osuna
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By Ginger Bell
Another home
that just wont
sell!
The home had been
on the market for
more than six months without a single
offer. The sellers were anxious, and
their agent wasnt sure just what to do.
Remodel the kitchen and replace
your countertops and cabinets, their
real estate agent instructed, trying to
come up with a solution that would
help the house move.
Yes, the kitchen was dated, but
could the stressed sellers be sure theyd
select colors and styles that the perfect
potential buyer would like?
Luckily, the listing agent shared their
dilemma with a friend who was experi-
enced with Federal Housing Administra-
tions (FHAs) 203(k) Streamlined Loan.
Have the owners pick up a few
countertop and cabinet samples, and
place them in the kitchen for your next
showing, the 203(k) expert said. Post a
sign that says, You Choose!
The agent and sellers followed
instructions. Not only did they get a full
offer, but they received several!
The 203(k):
Not just a rehab loan
The bottom line is that buyers want
choices, and the 203(k) delivers. FHAs
203(k) loan program allows potential
homebuyers to locate a great home
with a shockingly good price in a won-
derful neighborhood, then select their
own upgradesin addition to what
may actually need to be repaired. This
opportunity makes the FHA 203(k) one
of the most important loan programs
available. Real estate agents need to
understand this valuable loan!
What is a 203(k) loan?
Across the nation, agents and homebuy-
ers are finding that many properties
currently on the market are in dire need
of upgrades or repairs. Short sales, fore-
closures and properties that have been
on the market for some time make for
dated, distressed and ignored inventory
that needs some TLC.
The ability to upgrade with new car-
pet, paint, cabinets and appliances
immediately renders many listings
more marketable. The biggest challenge
is that stretched borrowers often cannot
afford to remodel right away, if ever,
and the owners and banks offering
short sales and foreclosure inventories
are unable to dedicate funds to rehab
or upgrade. Basically, buyers do not
have enough money to cover the cost of
home purchase and take on a renova-
tion of their recently purchased proper-
ty at the same time.
Great news: They dont have to! The
FHA offers a fantastic loan program, called
the FHA 203(k) Renovation Loan, which
was specifically designed to help borrowers
purchase (or refinance), and repair,
remodel or renovate the homeall at the
same time, with a single loan. Dont be
misled, though, the 203(k) is not just a
rehab loan. The 203(k) program allows
your buyers to buy their dream home and
swap out that 1980s-era kitchen they dont
have the cash to tackle.
9
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Change to...
Ability to bank your loans in house or broker them
#1 USDA Rural Development lender in multiple states
Nationally recognized for our quality in FHA/VA lending
World-class, back-room service with direct access to your underwriter
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If you are a seasoned professional ready for a change and desire
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heard on the street continued from page 7
ble for enhancing and expanding
Gateways default management divi-
sion. Prior to joining Gateway, Osuna
spent 15 years in the default manage-
ment department of a top five FHA ser-
vicer. He has managed each of the func-
tions within default management, most
recently overseeing collection and loss
mitigation strategies while serving as
senior vice president of default and
credit risk management.
In speaking to various industry par-
ticipants, it became clear that tradition-
al sub-servicers and small community
banks were struggling with FHA default
servicing requirements, said Osuna.
Gateway has the knowledge and
proven processes to remove this burden
from small servicers and mitigate the
risks, such as findings and penalties on
FHA claims or audits. I am happy to
lead Gateways Default Services Division
and look forward to the impact it will
have on the market.
CampusMBA Extends
Educational Partnership
With Insurance Advisors
CampusMBA, the edu-
cation division of the
Mortgage Bankers
Association (MBA), has
announced that it has extended its part-
nership with Stamford, Conn.-based
Insurance Advisors LLC. Under the agree-
ment CampusMBA, in conjunction with
Insurance Advisors, will continue to
offer live online workshops addressing a
variety of insurance issues for commer-
cial/multifamily real estate loans.
We are proud to continue to join
Insurance Advisors to offer valuable indus-
try education, especially in this challenging
economic environment, said David H.
Stevens, MBAs president and chief execu-
tive officer. Commercial insurance issues
continue to be vital for our commercial
and multifamily members, and we look
forward to continuing to offer relevant
courses to educate industry professionals
on important and timely insurance related
issues.
Each workshop will cover both broad
issues as well a specific topics that
industry professionals address on a
daily basis. The workshops are designed
to provide practical information that is
useful to commercial loan originators
and underwriters, loan closers, drafting
attorneys and loan servicers. Course
topics will include: Self-insurance, cap-
tives and fronting arrangement. The
workshops will also cover terrorism
insurance, flood insurance and the
principles of property insurance.
We are very excited to continue our
work with MBA and its members on
such relevant issues facing the indus-
try, said Bernie Brown, president of
Insurance Advisors LLC. By working
with MBA and its education division,
CampusMBA, Insurance Advisors is able
to educate industry professionals on
vital and timely insurance related issues.
We are committed to providing superior
educational assistance to MBA members
and we are proud the MBA has chosen to
continue our partnership with them.
Radian and LoanSifter
Reach Rate Quote
Agreement
Radian Guaranty
Inc., the mort-
gage insurance (MI) subsidiary of Radian
Group Inc., has announced a partner-
ship with LoanSifter, where LoanSifter
will include an MI rate quote or esti-
mate from Radian as a part of its MI
Best Execution Pricing Platform.
We are very excited to announce our
integration with LoanSifter, an industry
leader known for helping lenders save time
and money by managing their mortgage
process workflow more efficiently, said
Brien McMahon, chief franchise officer at
Radian. Although this is a first for Radian,
this relationship marks the beginning of an
extensive connectivity strategy for us. By
expanding our exposure through a variety
of notable product and pricing engines,
were making it easier than ever for cus-
tomers to do business with uswhich is
always our number one goal.
Inlanta Mortgage Adds
New Wisconsin Branch
Inlanta Mortgage is
pleased to announce
Tracy Anderson and
her team in Hales
Corners, Wis., has merged with Inlanta.
Branch Manager Anderson brings more
than 20 years of experience to Inlanta,
along with a highly experienced team
of mortgage professionals. Anderson
chose to partner with Inlanta due to its
strong and positive reputation in the
industry and helpful support staff.
Local underwriting, state-of-the-art
mortgage origination software and a
reliable pricing engine are just added
bonuses to the reasons why we decided
to join Inlanta, said Anderson. We felt
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Inlanta Executive Vice President
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11
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Blueberry Systems and
Advantage Credit Partner
to Streamline Credit
Reporting Tools
Technology provider Blueberry Systems
LLC has announced a strategic partner-
ship with mortgage credit reporting
company, Advantage Credit Inc. where
Advantage Credit customers will now
have preferred access to Blueberry
Systems suite of scalable technology
solutions designed to give lenders max-
imum flexibility in securely managing
their entire loan production pipeline.
Providing a very high level of service
has always been the focus for us at
Advantage Credit Inc., said Jim Kaiser,
sales director of Advantage Credit.
Through this integration, our customers
will experience enhanced workflow inte-
gration while lowering technology and
overhead costs. We are excited to partner
with Blueberry Systems and look forward
to the benefits it will provide the mortgage
industry.
Users of Blueberry Systems RELAY
loan origination system (LOS) can now
seamlessly access credit reporting prod-
ucts provided by Advantage Credit,
enabling them to more effectively make
loan decisions and more efficiently
process and close loans.
For 18 years, Advantage Credit has
provided extraordinary credit reporting
tools and resources to the mortgage
industry, and we at Blueberry Systems
are excited to be working with them,
said Lloyd Booth, president and chief
operating officer of Blueberry Systems.
Providing our customers access to
industry-leading credit reporting services
will enable them to streamline processes
and increase efficiencies, which will ulti-
mately result in greater productivity.
Mortgage Professionals
to Watch
I Scott Houp has joined Kinecta
Federal Credit Union as director of
national correspondent wholesale
loan production.
I Lyle Lasky has been named AVP,
national underwriting and credit com-
pliance manager for First Guaranty
Mortgage Corporation (FGMC).
I Valuation Partners has added Clint
Reinhardt as vice president of and
national account executive.
I Mortgage Contracting Services (MCS)
has added Tod Phelps as chief infor-
mation officer.
I Rob Smith has joined zIngenuity Inc.
as head of the mortgage analytics
team.
I Veros Real Estate Solutions has
announced the addition of Charles
Rumfola, former VP of single-family
at Fannie Mae, as senior vice presi-
dent of strategic initiatives.
I Real Estate Mortgage Network Inc.
(REMN) has added Anthony Durso and
Roger Del Giorno as account executives.
I TMS Funding, the wholesale residen-
tial lending channel of Total
Mortgage Services LLC, has named
Domenic Melillo its new vice presi-
dent of wholesale lending. Total
Mortgage Services has also
announced the addition of Neil
Bader as the firms new national
retail sales manager.
I NewDay USA LLC has added Rear
Admiral Thomas C. Lynch as chair-
man of its board of directors.
I John F. Macke has joined Stonegate
Mortgage Corporation as executive
vice president of capital markets.
I Sherry B. Apanay, former executive
vice president of Generation
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I
f you would have
told me that in the
first 90 days of
being president of the
National Association
of Mortgage Brokers
(NAMB)The Associa-
tion of Mort-gage
Professionals, that I would have written a
letter to the President of the United
States, a letter to our Senators and
Congressmen, and had a meeting with
Richard Cordray, the current director of
the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau (CFPB), I would have been
amazed. But if it is one thing that I have
found out, there is never a dull day being
your president.
I must admit that this job definitely
takes more time out of my day than
anticipated. The phone calls alone have
prompted one of my loan officers to
come into me and ask me to hire some-
one to just take calls so he can call his
customers and write some loans. I am
currently using about 25-30 hours a week
on NAMB-related business and another
30 hours on trying to write loans myself.
But we are in the most challenging times
that we have had in the mortgage busi-
ness, and I am invigorated to be able to
do this and my real job of closing mort-
gage loans.
As we look forward to our 2012
Legislative & Regulatory Conference com-
ing up in March in Washington, D.C., this
is the event that, if you ever felt that you
can help to make a difference, this is the
one to attend. To make yourself available
to go to Washington, D.C. and walk up
and down the floors of Capitol Hill, stop-
ping in the offices of your congressional
reps and senators and speaking directly
to our legislators is one of the biggest
thrills you can ever have as a citizen of
these United States. It is as basic as you
can ever get. Yes you, a citizen of the
United States, walking in these halls and
stopping to speak to someone that repre-
sents you and all of your fellow citizens is
as great as it gets. So log on to
NAMB.org/LegConference and make your
reservations to join us Sunday-Tuesday,
March 18-20. It will be well worth the
time and money to be there. And then
you can join us on the night of Tuesday,
March 20 in the Capitol Visitors Center for
a reception with some of the most influ-
ential congressional reps and senators,
and share your experiences with other
NAMB members. I hope to see all of you
there. And please, if you see me, stop and
introduce yourself to me. I would be hon-
ored to meet you.
Membership is my true vocation for
this year. I am working with our new
Membership Committee Chair Kay
Cleland and her committee to get the
information out to everyone about the
intrinsic value of NAMB membership and
why you should become a member. We
need everyone who is a member to go out
and sign up five of your friends and let
them know that membership has its
rewards and now is the time to join. The
real question is: Why not join?
I think all of you know that I umpire
high school and little league baseball. The
state of Indiana requires me to join the
local association to make sure that I am
receiving the required information that
keeps me up to date on all of the new
rules and interpretations of umpiring and
that I understand them. Whether I am a
rookie or a seasoned veteran, I have to
belong to assure the state that I am get-
ting the required hours of instruction and
on-field experience. My association even
goes to the extent to require two manda-
tory on-field clinics that we must attend
and be graded on how well we do. And
every year that I want to umpire in the
state tournament, I have to take a test and
score at least 90 percent to be able to
qualify to work the states. In addition,
every two years, I am required to attend a
state-sponsored meeting to review all of
the rules and rule changes. At every game,
we are graded on how we do and that
report is kept for the whole year on your
progress. In little league, we have an
umpires registry that we join to get all of
the information and rulebooks and such.
I also have to attend our District Umpires
Meetings (eight of them annually), an on-
field clinic, and take a test to make sure
that I know the rules, just to be able to
umpire. And with little league, it is a vol-
unteer situation where we do not get paid
to umpire. I find it ironic that with all of
the regulations we have in the mortgage
business, it is not a requirement that you
have to belong to a state or national asso-
ciation, and we just have to attend eight
hours of continuing education to renew
our licenses every year. There are more
demands on me to umpire baseball than
to conduct the largest monetary transac-
tion in peoples lifetimes. So, my hats off
to all of you who belong to your state and
national association. That tells me that
you care about what you do, and you
want to make your job and life better for
those whom you call your customers. Just
a little perspective!
I hope by the time that you are reading
this, we will have rolled out and jump-
started our NAMB blog through Think Big
Work Small, as the states are also putting
their state blogs together as well. This is a
great opportunity to make sure that you
are reaching out to get more business.
Brian Stevens and Frank Garay of Think
Big Work Small, along with NAMB
Communications Committee Chair Fred
Arnold and I have spent numerous hours
getting this out and you should spend just
a few minutes seeing how this can
improve your business right now. Both
Frank and Brian will be in D.C. at the
Legislative Conference to go over this one
more time for all of the attendees.
As I end this months letter, I want to
thank all of you who have sent me an e-
mail or have given me a phone call. I am
motivated to make this association grow
and thrive, and every time I get one of
your notes, it makes me work a little
harder to make this happen for you and
for our members. I am still looking for
people who want to make a difference.
Go get you professional designation, a
Certified Residential Mortgage Specialist
(CRMS), a Certified Mortgage Consultant
(CMC), or go and get your Lending
Integrity Seal of Approval, and help me
make a difference. We need members
and the only way we can get them is by
you talking about the difference that we
can make as an association together. So e-
mail me at president@namb.org and let
me know what you want to do.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Frommeyer, CRMS,
President
NAMBThe Association of Mortgage
Professionals
The Presidents Corner: February 2012
By John P. Hudson
Last March, more than
200 mortgage profes-
sionals from across the
country convened in
Washington, D.C. to
participate in the
National Association of
Mortgage Brokers Legislative & Regulatory
Conference. Not only
did the attendees
learn the latest news
on issues affecting
their business, they
passionately advocat-
ed on behalf of all
mortgage profession-
als, small business,
and the preservation
of consumer choice on
Capitol Hill. From
S unday - Tues day ,
March 18-20, NAMB will rally the troops
once again and your presence is imperative!
The year 2012 is already proving to be a
significant one for mortgage professionals,
consumers and small business. With the
appointment of Richard Cordray as director
of the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau (CFPB) and more elements of the
Dodd-Frank Act coming to light, mortgage
professionals MUST be ready, willing and
able to get involved in
the legislative process
along with NAMB to
ensure that our indus-
try and consumers are
protected from the
unintended conse-
quences of ill-advised
regulation and legisla-
tion. Loan originator
(LO) compensation,
appraisal portability,
the Qualified Resident-
Now More Than Ever,
Your Participation is Needed
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By Donald J.
Frommeyer, CRMS
When I first started to
think about what to
say here, I was torn
between several top-
ics. But it seemed to
always lean towards
having a PASSION. I thought that every-
one who gets involved in any volunteer
association has to have a certain type of
passion. And then I walked away from
the computer and was working with sev-
eral customers and realized that this job
that I have as a licensed mortgage origi-
nator requires a somewhat different type
of passion. Having to go through all of the
steps to qualify customers and gather
their documents and then submit the
information to our lenders requires you to
love what you do. If you dont, it will eat
at you from every angle and then all you
get is frustrated.
Passion can be defined by Websters
Dictionary as an intense, driving or over-
mastering feeling or conviction; an ardent
affection; a strong liking or desire for or
devotion to some activity, object or con-
cept. Could you imagine not having a
strong liking to talk with customers, gather
their docs, and get the loan approved?
Believe it or not, some originators do this
job every day, and do not have the passion
to move this forward.
I have spoken with numerous origi-
nators over the last year, and yes, some
of them think this is such a complicated
business, that they only do it for the
money. However, I have been doing this
for 36 years. And I can tell you that it is
a PASSION. Back in the Good Old Days,
ial Mortgage (QRM)/Qualified Mortgage
(QM), loan limits, Nationwide Mortgage
Licensing System (NMLS) license portabil-
ity, new Good Faith Estimate (GFE)/Truth-
in-Lending Act (TILA) are just some of the
issues currently facing thousands of
mortgage professionals and millions of
consumers. So what are you going to do
about it?
YOUR members of Congress and the
U.S. Senate were elected to represent YOU.
Now is your opportunity to work with
NAMB to get face time with influential
legislators and decision-makers to not only
let them know how their decisions have
impacted small business and consumers,
but to educate them in order to improve
and help save the housing industry and
the overall economy of this country.
Special thanks to Provident Funding for
sponsoring the 2012 NAMB Legislative &
Regulatory Conference. Provident Funding
has once again demonstrated their com-
mitment and loyalty to mortgage brokers
and all mortgage professionals in the
housing industry.
Support YOUR
industry and let
YOUR voice be
heard
NAMB has organized a tremendous pro-
gram for the 2012 Legislative and
Regulatory Conference. Here is a break-
down of the event.
Monday, March 19, 2012
8:30 a.m.-8:45 a.m.
Opening Remarks From Provident
Funding, 2102 NAMB Legislative &
Regulatory Conference Sponsor
8:45 a.m.-11:45 a.m.
Opening Session: Working Together
for Housing
Housing Panel Discussion: The Future of
Housing, QRM/QM, the Three Percent
Rule, G-Fees and Beyond
Listen and learn the latest legislative
news from the National Association of
Mortgage Brokers (NAMB), National
Association of Realtors (NAR), Mortgage
Bankers Association (MBA) and the
National Association of Home Builders
(NAHB).
Noon-1:30 p.m.
Luncheon and Keynote Speaker
1:45 p.m.-2:45 p.m.
Loan Originator Examination Guidelines
Guest Speaker: Peggy Twohig, Team
Lead, Non-Bank Supervision for the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Learn exactly how the CFPB plans to audit
your company. Please read the CFPBs
Examination Procedures for Mortgage
Origination before attending this session.
3:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m.
Ten Things You Should Know Before
You Get Examined by the CFPB
Guest Speaker: Larry Platt, Partner with
K&L Gates
Now that you know what the CFPB
Examination will entail, Larry Platt will
teach how to be prepared.
4:10 p.m.-5:00 p.m.
Lobbying Tips and Tools for Effective
Advocacy
Guest Speaker: Roy DeLoach, NAMB Chief
Lobbyist of DC Strategies Group
Get prepared to visit your representatives
on Capitol Hill with a briefing from NAMBs
Chief Lobbyist Roy DeLoach. You will get
NAMBs talking points and materials for
your meetings, senators, members of con-
gress, and staffers to promote and educate
them on the benefits of your profession to
consumers and the overall economy.
5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.
NAMB Blog/State Blog
Guest Speakers: Brian Stevens & Frank
Garay of Think Big Work Small
We are very excited to work with Brian
Stevens and Frank Garay to help NAMB
and our state and local mortgage pro-
fessional associations better communi-
cate our message to our members, con-
sumers, and all hosing professionals.
6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
2012 NAMB Legislative & Regulatory
Conference Opening Reception
Network with your peers and prepare
your strategies for Lobby Day!
Tuesday March 20, 2012
7:00 a.m.-Noon
Lobby Day Registration
Confirm your scheduled visits and head
to The Hill
9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Lobby Day Hill Visits
When you march the halls of Congress,
you will have the satisfaction of know-
ing that you were part of the legislative
process and represented your industry!
5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
Capitol Visitors Center: Come and
Meet Key Legislative Members
The grand finale of the 2012 Legislative
& Regulatory Conference is the oppor-
tunity to hear directly from key mem-
bers of Congress and the Senate. We
have a very impressive lineup of spe-
cial guests, including House Financial
Services Committee Chair Spencer
Bachus, Rep. Gary Miller of California,
and more.
For more information, please visit
NAMB.org/LegConference or e-mail us
at governmentaffairs@namb.org. Also,
be sure to visit us on Facebook for reg-
ular updates as our conference gets
closer.
Here is the bottom line NAMBs
advocacy has been effective over the
years because our members get
involved. NAMB members are leaders
within the mortgage business because
of their experience and expertise. They
are widely regarded as leaders within
their communities because they recog-
nize the importance of getting involved
and making a difference. In order for
NAMB to continue to be an effective
advocate for mortgage brokers and
mortgage professionals, you must par-
ticipate in the political process.
Your involvement ensures that
members of Congress hear a perspec-
tive that they care most abouta con-
stituent who can communicate the
impact of potential legislation on the
marketplace, homebuyers and the gen-
eral public. We must continue to look
out for the interests of the customers
we serve and for the general good of
the American people.
We continue to face enormous
change. You need to know the issues,
learn about whats on the horizon and
what you can do to protect your inter-
est through political action.
The number one reason you should
attend this event is the satisfaction of
knowing that you are doing your part to
ensure that mortgage professional
issues are heard on Capitol Hill. You are
the best spokesperson for our issues.
Your participation benefits you, mort-
gage professionals and our clients as a
whole by strengthening our presence in
the halls of Congress.
See you in March.
John P. Hudson is 2012 Government Affairs
Committee Chair for NAMB. He may be
reached by phone at (817) 247-4766 or e-
mail jhudson@pnlending.com.
Passion
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we used to have to do a lot of what the
computer does for you manually. We
would have to put together Good Faith
Estimates (GFEs) and Truth-in-Lending (TIL)
statements using our calculators and com-
pute them manually. And back then, you
did it because of the true love of the beast.
I had so much fun working up deals for
customers and showing them how much
money could be saved with consolidation
loans, paying off their cars, and getting
extra cash for college tuition. And when
you were working on a purchase, wow! We
used to work 10 hours a day and not even
think twice about it.
I can remember the first few days when
I became a mortgage broker. Our hours
were 10:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m., because we
had to be available whenever the cus-
tomer wanted us. We would take a lunch
at 2:30 p.m. in the afternoon so we could
make ourselves available as the customers
were going home. We used to have inter-
nal contests to see how many times we
could ring the bell when you got an appli-
cation, and back then, we have 20 loan
officers in our small office and it was a
PASSION to make the bell ring! You did-
nt want everyone else ringing the bell and
you not being able to participate. There
was that word again PASSION!
Now we are in 2012 and much has
changed in this industry. Everything done
in the mortgage business is scrutinized by
your bosses. The look to make sure that
you have not only completed your paper-
work correctly to comply with all of the
laws, but when it comes time to get paid,
we are all making 30 percent less because
of the loan officer (LO) compensation rule
from April 2011. Each broker company is
also making less than what it did back in
2010 because the rules and laws have
changed, but you are still around because
of your PASSION.
My dad once told me that if you are
going to do something, make sure that
you do it right, and by all means, love
what you are doing. I love being in the
mortgage business and seeing customers
faces as you save them money, getting
them their first house or their next house,
getting them the money they need to pay
for their childrens college tuition, or just
making them happy that they are going to
be saving money each month now that
they have refinanced. I feel this burst of
energy in my life as each and every loan
closes because I know that I did my best
and gave them 110 percent of my experi-
ence to make their dreams come true
PASSION!
I also have this passion when it comes
to NAMB. I have this passion when it
comes to my entire life, because I wont do
anything unless I can give it my passion.
So each one of you should probably look
at your lives and realize that the one thing
that you cannot get back is time. Once it is
gone, you cannot get it back. So make sure
that everything going forward that you do,
do it with PASSION. You only have one life
to live, make it worth living! If you relate
it to being a mortgage originator, mort-
gage broker, account executive or are just
working in the mortgage business, what-
ever you may do, make sure that each and
every day, you do it with PASSION!
Donald J. Frommeyer, CRMS is president of
NAMBThe Association of Mortgage
Professionals. He may be reached by phone
at (317) 575-4355 or e-mail dfrommey-
er@amtrust.net.
T
he National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB)the
Association of Mortgage Professionals, applauds the Obama
Administration in its efforts to seek out ways to address the
nationwide housing crisis. NAMB supports three areas in the Obama
Administrations recommendations that will help bring solutions to
the current mortgage crisis and assist the U.S. economy in its return to
normalcy.
When this plan is implemented and homeowners are given the
opportunity to refinance their homes, it will create capacity issues,
said Donald J. Frommeyer, president of NAMB. It is imperative that
any refinance program that is created, revised and offered to responsi-
ble homeowners is available to all origination channels so that they
have the ability to help consumers with their loan. This initiative will
not only allow the industry the capacity it will need to process the
increase in refinances, but it will allow the consumer to shop the most
competitive lender with the best service in their own neighborhood.
First, NAMB supports the Administrations recommendation to help
responsible, qualified homeowners with non-government-sponsored
enterprise (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) loans who cannot refinance
their home because their current balance exceeds the value of their
homes to take advantage of historically-low rates. This portion of the
plan will help responsible homeowners save an estimated $3,000 per
year, according to the White House, and this money can be used to help
stimulate the economy toward a full recovery. NAMB is concerned that
relaxed underwriting requirements will be needed to refinance these
homes.
It is important if we use the Federal Housing Administrations loan
programs for these refinances, that we make sure the new loan is suit-
able for the consumer and the consumer has the ability to repay, said
John H.P. Hudson, NAMB Government Affairs Committee chairman.
This will ensure that the FHA program remains strong for future home-
owners to utilize fixed-rate financing as a tool in purchasing their
future home and as a refinancing option for their current home.
Second, NAMB enthusiastically endorses the Administrations
Homeowners Bill of Rights protecting the consumer, and helping to
clarify and streamline the mortgage process for the consumer in
obtaining a loan. As many homeowners have experienced, this process
can be confusing and rigorous. The proposed Bill of Rights will help
homeowners complete their home loans efficiently.
And third, it is important, as the Administration recommends, that
more homes are made available for sale to investors. These homes can
be made available for rent to those displaced by the current economic
environment, an environment that has created a shortage of affordable
housing in some areas of our country.
NAMB looks forward to working with the Obama Administration and
the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in advising on the
sound implementation of the Administrations recommendations to
address the housing crisis.
NAMB Supports Obama
Administrations Housing
Crisis Solutions
The premier conference on mortgage risk
Keynote from
FREAKONOMICS CO-AUTHOR
STEPHEN DUBNER
June 4-6 in Dana Point, CA
PMC2012.com
Hosted by
The Predictive Methods Conference, PMC and Veros are registered trademarks of Veros Software. 2011 Veros Software - All rights reserved.
J
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Trigger Lead Complaints on the Rise
By Terry W. Clemans
A nemesis to the first
mortgage originator
who takes an appli-
cation from a con-
sumerand the
source of a hot lead
to other mortgage
originatorstrigger leads are regaining
popularity. Based on complaints surfac-
ing about them over the last couple of
months, the resurgence of trigger leads
is due to low interest rates. The com-
plaints seem to be more about the mis-
use of trigger leads and the sometimes
deceptive practices of the users, rather
than the common complaint of a few
years ago regarding the very existence
of trigger leads.
So what exactly are trigger leads?
Trigger leads are zip code, credit
score and other mortgage qualifica-
tion filtered leads that are compiled
on a daily basis by the national cred-
it repositories. They do this by assem-
bling all of the names and contact
information for consumers who have
had their credit reports accessed for a
mortgage application within the last
24 hours. These leads are then sold
by the national credit repositories to
other mortgage originators based on
the specific type(s) of consumer(s)
who fit the originators lending
parameters. The purchasers of the
trigger leads then offer the consumer
another loan offer to compare with
the original mortgage quote, often to
the dismay of the original mortgage
originator.
Trigger leads have been around for
a long time. Between the years of
2006-2008, there were a flurry of
attempts by a few states and private
individuals to regulate or stop trigger
leads, all without success. After the
Minnesota General Assembly passed
legislation to prohibit trigger leads in
the land of 10,000 lakes, the
Consumer Data Industry Association
(the trade association for the national
credit repositories) sued the
Minnesota Attorney General and won,
stopping the law from ever going into
effect. Trigger leads are allowed
under guidelines in the Fair Credit
Reporting Act (FCRA), which preempts
all but very specific laws passed in a
couple states prior to 1971, and there
is very little that the individual states
can do to regulate them. There has
also been no success in the private lit-
igation attempts to stop trigger leads
to date, leaving the practice alive and
well in 2012.
The position of the federal regula-
tors has been that trigger leads are
good for consumers as they promote
competition. The Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) has defended the
use of trigger leads in Congressional
hearings and has publications on
their Web site to explain and defend
their use. At
www. f t c. gov/ bcp/ edu/ pubs / con-
sumer/alerts/alt171.shtm, you will
find the FTCs consumer alert on trig-
ger leads, and information on how to
opt out of receiving pre-screened
offers of credit. Basically, a trigger
lead is that a prescreened offer of
credit, just like those pre-approved
credit card offers that fill the mail,
but only for a home loan. Opting out
is the only current way for consumers
to avoid being part of the trigger lead
program and exercise their rights to
cease any types of pre-approved
offers.
From a non-governmental perspective
on trigger leads, log on to About.com at
http://homebuying.about.com/od/finan-
cingadvice/qt/0407TriggerLead.htm for
more information about the opt-out pro-
grams, as well as a look into the darker
side of trigger leads and the manners in
which they are abused. Some users of
trigger leads apply a little misinforma-
tion regarding how the caller knows the
consumer has recently applied for a
mortgage to get into the loan process,
instead of offering a competing bid.
The recent complaints about trigger
leads have claimed that some mortgage
lenders using trigger leads are currently
stretching the rules and using deceptive
acts to try to persuade the consumer
into a loan with their company. Pre-
screened offers of credit come with spe-
cific rules about their legal use, and it
seems that some recent reports are well
outside of those rules.
The new Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau (CFPB) has a leader
with the recent appointment of
Richard Cordray, and the CFPB has
vastly improved authority to provide
rule-making in this area, should they
deem to use it. Its too early to tell if
that is a possibility, but the CFPB has
a special process for obtaining con-
sumer complaints and taking actions
based on the issues it hears about the
most. This opens the door to a poten-
tial action by the CFPB if there is
enough consumer outrage over these
practices, an action not likely at the
FTC if they were the only regulator on
this issue. Could this be one of the
first tests to see if the new watchdog
is the same as the old one? Stay
tuned
Terry W. Clemans is executive director of
the National Credit Reporting
Association Inc. (NCRA). He may be
reached at (630) 539-1525 or e-mail tcle-
mans@ncrainc.org.
The position of the federal
regulators has been that trigger
leads are good for consumers
as they promote competition.
By David Rasmussen
In wrapping up this series on valuation management, I
wanted to review the most important components to be
considered when selecting a valuation management
platform. The implementation of such a system has
given lenders, servicers and investors the ability to
effectively coordinate and audit a number of valuation
processes. As stated in previous columns, a valuation
management solution allows for better control of business operations by
providing a deeper level of organization and tracking over the entire loan
lifecycle. Below is a recap of the most critical attributes among the core
functionality of a platform.
Order module
An order module should be an effortless interface for placing
single/batch orders and connecting users to valuation providers, and
should lend naturally to a number of tangible business benefits. The
foremost benefit is provided through needed layers of objectivity by giv-
ing the ability to set up rules that fall into place for every order
processed. Users are assured that their orders are routed to the most
appropriate providers and the necessary steps are taken to eliminate the
type of subjectivity that can result in regulatory infraction. The system
should also provide business efficiencies and speed of processing by
keeping orders from getting lost, mixed up or stuck in the course of ful-
fillment, as well as ensuring scalability by distributing orders to providers
in a management flow.
Quality controls
Quality control (QC) procedures surrounding valuation management
are critical for safe and successful lending practices. The most com-
prehensive practice requires a combination of a platforms pre-
defined, automated QC checks, along with a manual review where
qualitative assessments are necessary. The platform can ensure essen-
tial compliance standards, including conformance with the Uniform
Appraisal Dataset (UAD), known Uniform Collateral Data Portal (UCDP)
hard stops and underwriting requirements. A strong platform should
remove subjective decisions and protect against human error.
Reporting
A platform should include a comprehensive selection of standard reports
with access to frequently retrieved data. While these reports may fulfill
common business objectives, a standard report suite will not encompass
every possible combination of data points desired. Ad hoc reporting gives
users the ability to configure output by utilizing available data fields to
immediately generate a user-created report.
SPONSORED EDITORIAL
A Review of What to Expect
in a Collateral Risk
Management Solution
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I Prioritize purchase u/w times by contingency or closing dates
I Provide touch points throughout the process to ensure on time closings
I Encourage direct access to all underwriters, internal processors, closers & your
Account Executive
I Order your appraisal online without submitting the credit package no delay
I Offer diverse line:
At CBC National Bank we:
Conventional loans up to 97% LTV
Agency High Balance
FHA loans down to 640
VA loans down to 640
(100% LTV/105% CLTV)
USDA loans
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By Dave Hershman
Sales management is
one of the most diffi-
cult jobs within the
mortgage industry.
Most sales managers
are personal produc-
ers and produce at a level which consti-
tuted a full-time job before they became
managers. After 50 percent of their time
or more is taken by their personal case-
load, how much time is left to dedicate
to great management skills?
Unfortunately, the majority of the
rest of a sales managers time is quickly
absorbed by fighting fires. It is said that
80 percent of a managers supervisory
time utilized by 20 percent of the poor-
est performers. This leaves precious
time for a managers most important
taskrecruitment.
Why is recruitment a managers most
important task? A manager can possess
the best management skills in the world,
but if that manager hires the wrong peo-
ple, their life is going to be a supervisory
nightmare. The most significant rule of
great leadership is to hire the right people.
Most managers cannot hire the right peo-
ple because they do not have the time to
dedicate to a great recruitment plan. This
is because they are spending their time
trying to fix the wrong people. Sound like
a vicious cycle? You bet it is!
The question remains: How do we
break out of this vicious cycle? We could to
outline a recruitment plan that would
absorb 10 hours of a managers time each
week. The actions would look great on
paper. In reality, there would be no imple-
mentation of such a plan. Our sales man-
agers do not have an extra 10 hours per
week to expend, no matter how much
time and stress it will save them in the
long run. The only solution is to find syn-
ergies between the managers present
activities and our recruitment objectives.
We have already identified what activi-
ties occupy the greatest portion of a man-
agers working day: Personal production
and supervision of present employees. We
must identify actions which will help us
meet recruitment objectives and increase
personal production. We must also identi-
fy actions which will help us increase our
supervisory capacity and help us meet
recruitment objectives.
To illustrate this point, let us take a
few examples:
Most sales managers hold
periodic sales meetings
Far too many managers complain that
these meetings degenerate into com-
plaint sessions such as: Why are our
rates too high or why does processing
take so long? Consequently, many origi-
nators complain that these meetings do
not help further their sales objectives
because we are spending too much time
focusing on problems and products.
A Great Recruiting Plan is Not
Rocket Science
pursuing excellence continued from page 4
How much time in the meeting does
the manager spend focusing on the
companys most important objectives
increasing production and attracting
top notch sales and operations per-
sonnel? Is each originator asked to
help recruit every meeting and enticed
with incentives? When your sales force
becomes part of your recruitment
plan, they are also enticed to start
focusing on the positives within their
environment. This strategy also helps
solidify their own support and loyalty
to the company. Why recruit alone
when you could have a recruitment
team of several members working in
concert to meet your objectives?
Finally, this strategy can also help
you achieve additional objectives. An
incentive plan may also be combined
with a mentorship program to enable
your originators to facilitate the transi-
tion of new originators, especially those
with limited experience. This relieves
additional time pressure from the man-
ager and helps their loan officers obtain
experience in basic management skills
which may prepare them for another
step in their career. It is our responsi-
bility as leaders to further the careers of
those we lead. I will cover more regard-
ing mentorship in a future column.
One of the major goals of
producers is to learn
about their competition
Your objectives for interviewing targets
should always include several questions
regarding whom they are presently
using, whom their peers use, what level
of service they receive and more. What
better way to benchmark potential
recruits than through in-depth inter-
views with your targets. If their report is
glowing: You have a potential recruit-
ment target. If their report is not so
glowing, you have a great opportunity
to obtain more business. Ask the target
to set up a meeting with you and their
favorite originator, just to network. You
will be surprised at how you might ben-
efit. Many producers report that the
majority of their production comes
from loan officer sources, rather than
real estate agents or builders. Of
course, not everyone can handle every
deal. Talk about real synergy!
Take a look
at your pipeline
Within every loan is a sphere. This
sphere can lead to more business and
opportunities for recruitment. It is a
matter of opening your eyes wider to
opportunities which are in front of you.
The CPA preparing tax returns for your
client, do they know a loan officer? If
they dont, you have an important
referral prospect. If they do, well you
get the picture
These examples sufficiently illustrate
how we can link the two most time con-
suming elements of a managers day with
the number one objectiverecruitment.
Of course, before we go about implement-
ing these solutions, we must have a clear
idea of our recruitment objectives. All too
often, we blindly recruit anyone who is
available and wind up adding bodies
instead of upgrading our staff.
When we open our eyes to take full
advantage of the concept of synergy, there
will be no end to the possibilities. Any
action which helps us meet more than one
objective will decrease our stress levels
because they help us conserve our most
precious resourcewhich is time. Any
upgrading of our staff will also help
decrease our stress levels. More productiv-
ity and less stress? You bet!
Dave Hershman is a top author in the
mortgage industry with seven books pub-
lished, as well as hundreds of articles.
Dave has delivered hundreds of keynote
speeches, seminars and schools for the
industry as well. He may be reached by
e-mail at Dave@HershmanGroup.com or
visit OriginationPro.com.
Web: www.appraisalsanywhere.com
rarely used, you have a huge opportunity
in building your relationships.
As you begin to compile a couple of
years under your loan originating belt,
you will begin to compile a database of
too many people, and by too many, I
mean too many clients, referral sources,
prospects and industry partners to market
to on an individual or personal basisat
least not with any real effect. Either due to
the size or due to the cost involved, you
will need to find a way to make an impact
on the folks that matter and who are
those folks? Think of the Pareto Principle,
Its the principle of time versus results and
it holds true with your database. Twenty
percent of the individuals currently in
your database yield 80 percent of your
referrals. They are the cream of the crop.
They are your elite group. They are your
Platinum Club (XINNIX terminology).
The Platinum Club clients are the refer-
ral partners, family, friends, etc. that are the
backbone of your operation. Most good
originators I know have a database of any-
where from 2,000 to 20,000 people in it.
Even on the smaller scale, an effective mar-
keting campaign to 2,000 people is virtually
impossible. I highly recommend you mar-
ket to them all generically, while the
Platinum Club receives more personalized
attention. Whittle the group down and trim
the fat. Designate the members of your
database that create closed loans time and
time again. Find your 20 percent and estab-
lish your own Platinum Club!
Casey Cunningham is president of XINNIX,
a provider of mortgage sales and leader-
ship development programs. She may be
reached by phone at (678) 325-3501 or
e-mail casey@xinnix.com.
FHA Announces Measures
to Better Protect Itself
From Possible Bailout
Acting Federal
Housing Admini-
stration (FHA)
Commi s s i oner
Carol J. Galante has
announced the latest in a series of steps to
protect and strengthen the FHAs Mutual
Mortgage Insurance Fund. The newly-
announced regulations seek to
strengthen the process by which the
FHA requires certain lenders to indem-
nify the U.S. Department of Housing &
Urban Development (HUD) for insur-
ance claims paid on mortgages that are
found not to meet the agencys guide-
lines. In addition, the final rule requires
all lenders with the authority to insure
mortgages on HUDs behalf (Lender
Insurance mortgagee) to meet stricter
performance standards to gain and
maintain their approval status. More
than 80 percent of all FHA forward
mortgage loans are insured by Lender
Insurance lenders.
Taken together, the changes
announced today will protect FHAs
insurance fund from unnecessary and
inappropriate risks while offering clear
guidance to lenders regarding HUDs
underwriting expectations said Acting
Commissioner Galante. FHA must con-
tinue to strike a balance between man-
aging risks to its insurance funds and
ensuring that FHA products are offered
as widely as possible to qualified bor-
rowers. We hope that the added clarity
and certainty provided through these
rules will enable lenders to extend
financing opportunities to larger num-
bers of American families as the
nations housing market and economy
continue to recover.
For those loans insured by Lender
Insurance lenders, HUD may require
indemnification for what they deem
serious and material violations of FHA
origination requirements and for fraud
and misrepresentation such that the
mortgage never should have been
endorsed by the lender. Additionally,
the regulation changes the basis under
which lenders qualify for Lender
Insurance authority.
A Lender Insurance mortgagee must
demonstrate a two-year seriously delin-
quent and claim rate at or below 150
percent of the aggregate rate for the
states in which the lender does busi-
ness. Further, FHA will also monitor
lender performance on an ongoing
basis to ensure that participating
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lenders continue to meet the programs
eligibility standards. Finally, the regula-
tion establishes a process by which new
HUD-approved lenders created through
corporate mergers, acquisitions or reor-
ganizations may be considered for
Lender Insurance authority.
In a separate Federal Register
notice soon to be published, the FHA
will propose to reduce the maximum
allowable seller concession from its
current level to one more in line with
industry norms. The current level
exposes the FHA to excess risk by cre-
ating incentives to inflate the
appraised value. The revised proposal
reflects public comments received on
an earlier proposal published in a
Federal Register notice on July, 15,
2010. The revised proposal calls for a
30 day comment period. Following an
analysis of the public comments
received, a final rule will be issued.
Freddie Mac to Grant
12-Month Forbearance for
Unemployed Borrowers
Freddie Mac has
announced that it is
giving mortgage
servicers expanded authority to provide
six months of forbearance to unem-
ployed borrowers without Freddie
Macs prior approval and up to an addi-
tional six months with prior approval.
This means unemployed borrowers
may be eligible for up to 12 months of
forbearance. Freddie Macs forbearance
options are being expanded at the
direction of its conservator, the Federal
Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), and will
take effect on Feb. 1, 2012. According to
the latest statistics, nearly 10 percent of
delinquencies on Freddie Mac mortgages
were tied to unemployment.
These expanded forbearance peri-
ods will provide families facing pro-
longed periods of unemployment with
a greater measure of security by giving
them more time to find new employ-
ment and resolve their delinquencies,
said Tracy Mooney, SVP of single-family
servicing and REO for Freddie Mac. We
believe this will put more families back
on track to successful long-term home-
ownership.
Delinquent borrowers in an existing
short-term forbearance plan can be
evaluated for an extended forbearance
under Freddie Macs new policy.
Previously, Freddie Mac allowed ser-
vicers to grant up to three months of
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Tax time is here again or at least it will
be soon. With 2011 in the rearview mir-
ror, all thats left of it are the forms and
paperwork to file with the Internal
Revenue Service (IRS). Checking the profit
and loss (P&L) and the balance sheet
should be a regular occasion to confirm
youre in the black and growing.
Hopefully, no one is surprised by year-end
figures or trying to play catch up now
while your focus should be on 2012. If you
own a business or not on paper, youre
still a business owner if youre a mortgage
loan originator (LO) and need to track
your progress. The name of your business
is YOU Inc., and your shareholders
include those in your client database and
your referral partners. The main focus for
2012 is to keep the stock hot at YOU Inc.
so no one sells or downgrades the value.
Each day is like a fresh balance sheet at
YOU Inc., and the chief executive officer
(You) are on one side or the other as an
asset or liability to the business. Look back
at your behaviors yesterday or even last
week. How often were your actions proac-
tively and intentionally ensuring that
youre an asset to YOU Inc.? What unin-
tended actions or reactions caused you to
become a liability? Was it for a day, for a
week? Lets face ita person is an asset
because of the proactive efforts they
make to generate results. Its easier to go
through the daily motions or complain
than it is to proactively seek advancement
and growth. Never take the path of least
resistance as a liability if your plan is to
grow YOU Inc.
So, how do you improve your balance
sheet and become an asset to the busi-
ness every day? There are many different
ways to accomplish this, but lets focus on
K.I.S.S for 2012 (Keep It Simple Stupid):
I Decrease debt (stress, pessimism,
fear, and things that are holding you
back)
Pay attention every day to focus on
Its Time to Check the Balance Sheet
at YOU Inc.
SPONSORED EDITORIAL
By Raymond Bartreau
A
re you excited about the potential behind HARP 2.0? I know I am! It
finally gives many of our fellow Americans the chance to refinance
their underwater loans and take advantage of currently low rates.
Ever since the news was released last year, I have been looking forward to
2012.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have not released projections on the num-
ber of Americans who will qualify under the new HARP 2.0 guidelines.
However, a quick count through the bureaus shows that there are roughly
eight million Americans that may benefit for HARP 2.0. Although this is a
rough estimate, the thought of eight million refinance loans being
processed in the next two years shows a sustainable model for any broker
or loan officer.
Early beta test numbers have shown above average responses from cur-
rent HARP direct mail marketing campaigns. It makes sense too lets
think about who we are targeting and why responses are expected to be
higher than your traditional refinance marketing campaign.
We are targeting a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac homeowner who is up-
side down, but still making their mortgage payments on time. Many of
these homeowners tried to refinance recently, but were denied due to
owing more than what their home is worth. They have seen their neigh-
bors and friends struggle to make their payments only to later modify their
loan or short sale the property. At this point, the mindset of most of these
homeowners is, Why cant I get help when I am making my payments on
time? On top of that, very few of these homeowners have seen a mort-
gage offer of any kind in quite some time.
All of this combined equals high responses from all types of HARP mar-
keting. The key is marketing to right list of homeowners. In short, you
want to target current Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loan holders who are
upside down on their mortgage and have not been late on their payments.
If you focus on this group of homeowners, you will be talking to the peo-
ple who have been saying, Why cant I get help when I am making my
payments on time? You now have the answer with HARP 2.0. The only
question now is: How are you going to take advantage of it?
Raymond Bartreau is chief executive officer of BestRate Referrals, and
founder and chief executive officer of www.harpmortgageleads.com. He may
be reached by phone at (800) 811-1402 or e-mail RBartreau@BestRateRe-
ferrals.com.
the tasks that reap the greatest
reward. Understand that you have
control over your mind and your
actions to proactively seek excel-
lence in production and growth.
Eliminate negative thoughts and
remove pessimistic people from
influencing your life.
I Increase assets (vision, focus, relax-
ation, determination, and the things
that move you forward)
Always have a plan in writing and
always seek knowledge and continu-
ing education. Water the soil every
day to grow and learn in your career,
while taking the time necessary to
relieve stress and keep balance.
There are no limits other than the
limits you put in place yourself.
So, if youre surprised by your bal-
ance sheet this year, dont be next year.
Always have a plan and monitor your
progress during the year to confirm that
you are always in the black.
Tip of the month
Qualify prospects quickly. Dont drag
clients or potential clients on. Its a
waste of their time and a waste of your
time. Place and prioritize quickly to
ensure they get in the pipeline as soon
as possible, or that they are provided
with the best recommendations should
now not be the best time to move for-
ward. Saving time means youll have
more to prospect for new clients and
close more loans.
Andy W. Harris, CRMS is president and
owner of Lake Oswego, Ore.-based Vantage
Mortgage Group Inc. and 2010-2011 presi-
dent of the Oregon Association of Mortgage
Professionals. He may be reached by phone
at (877) 496-0431 or e-mail
aharris@vantagemortgagegroup.com or
visit AndyHarrisMortgage.com.
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For Your Branch
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CALL US TODAY AT
888-606-8066
By Beverly Frase
Like the perfect wave that begins building long before anyone near shore
can see it, the Certified Military Housing Specialist (CMHS) Course has been
gaining momentum with the timing of a perfect storm. The free CMHS
course (funded by a grant from Fannie Mae) was created and launched to
a public who is eager to help our military in any way they can during this
time of economic turmoil in communities everywhere.
Word of mouth and media attention have helped hundreds be-
come certified and work with this underserved niche market. Ris-
ing to the top of this effort is a group of individuals who believe
so strongly in helping our military heroes that theyve undertaken
volunteer responsibilities as regional and state coordinators. We
deeply appreciate and salute these industry leaders:
KAY CLELAND
Board of Directors, National Association of Mortgage Brokers
(NAMB) & USA Cares Rocky Mountain Coordinator
I am very excited about the possibilities for this program, and I am hon-
ored to be a part of it. Anything I can do to help, I am ready.
CAROL GARDNER
President, Illinois Association of Mortgage Professionals (IAMP)
& USA Cares Midwest Coordinator
I chose to donate my time to the efforts of USA Cares for two reasons: First,
my husband is a Vietnam veteran and second, I saw the need to help and
assist our heroes from Iraq and Afghanistan. I know how difficult it is for our
military to return to everyday living, and USA Cares most definitely helps fill the gap towards
their assistance. I thank these men and women for helping us keep our freedom since free-
dom does not come without a price. USA Cares help fills that gap.
MARY ANN PINO
President, New York Association of Mortgage Brokers (NYAMB)
& USA Cares Northeast Coordinator
As soon as I heard about the USA Cares initiative to educate financial
industry professionals, I knew it would be tremendously important to
spread the word so our entire industry could be trained to help military
borrowers everywhere. I am extremely grateful for the sacrifice our service members
and their families make to protect and maintain our freedom, and I am honored to be a
part of the USA Cares initiative.
VICKI WHITE-SKLARK
Government Lending Training Consultant & USA Cares Southeast
Coordinator
I have been very grateful throughout my lifetime for the freedoms and
opportunities afforded to me in our great country. This has motivated
the vision behind my drive to serve our veterans, old and young alike,
as we work to find solutions to satisfy their needs. I look forward to working with each
of you in 2012 in identifying opportunities to grow this effort.
RICHARD BOOTH
Certified Mortgage Banker (CMB) and Faculty Member, Mortgage Bankers
Association (MBA) & USA Cares New Jersey State Coordinator
As an independent mortgage lender, I have a deep admiration and re-
spect for those who are protecting my family. Unfortunately, I am well
past the expiration date of being able to put on a uniform and raise my
right hand, so, I have decided to join the fight to assist and protect our service mem-
bers. I enlisted with USA Cares. I offer my residential mortgage lending experience to
any service member who needs help in navigating the maze of lending rules, and I call
on all of my colleagues in the residential lending community to help educate our serv-
ice members about their mortgage rights.
Before theyre finished, these volunteer coordinators will help be responsible for
thousands of trained housing professionals from sea to shining sea, ensuring that
skilled services are available to all military personnel, whatever their location.
Everyone who commits their time to make a difference in their respective commu-
nity is a hero in the challenge to help those who serve our country. To do your part,
please contact CMHS Program Manager Beverly Frase by phone at (270) 319-3688
or e-mail beverly.frase@usacares.org.
USA Cares
Mortgage Heroes
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nmp news flash continued from page 19
forbearance with no payment and with-
out prior approval, or six months at a
reduced payment with prior approval.
Longer forbearance required prior
approval and was generally restricted
to events such as natural disasters, per-
manent disability or long-term medical
emergencies.
Missing Docs Account for
40 Percent of QC Issues
Interthinx has
a n n o u n c e d
that it has
identified two
major defects in the outsourced quality
control (QC) programs of lenders that
affected residential mortgage loan files
in 2011 and may pose significant risk in
2012. According to Interthinx, 40.9 per-
cent of its QC findings relate to missing
documentation or data integrity issues.
Eligibility and credit issues account for
only 18.3 percent of 2011 findings.
Many in our industry will be surprised
to learn that more than 40 percent of our
findings last year were related to missing
documentation or data integrity issues,
said Connie Wilson, executive vice presi-
dent of Interthinx. Its significant when
comparing this recent data to data from
2006 to 2009 when missing documenta-
tion only accounted for 7.1 percent of all
findings. If lenders are not outsourcing
their quality control processes, they
should at least consider having someone
from the outside take a look at their
processes. If a lenders internal quality
control process mimics their internal orig-
inations process, the lender could easily
miss documentation or data integrity
issues.
The QC process provided by
Interthinx includes learning how each
client does business to assist in identi-
fying critical issues from application to
close. Interthinx provides lenders valu-
able statistics on the individuals who
deal with their loans on a daily basis to
identify training and process needs and
to help lenders gain more confidence
about the loans they originate.
If lenders havent used outsourced
quality control in the past, 2012 may be
the year to try it, said Wilson. To
reduce repurchase requests, most
major government-sponsored enter-
prises (GSEs) recommend having an
independent source back up internal
processes. The shift towards manufac-
turing defects in 2011 from historical
borrower eligibility issues is a signifi-
cant finding. Todays borrowers are
very well qualified for the most part.
However, a well-qualified borrower
does not always protect lenders from
elevated defect rates or even repur-
chase issues. The lenders loan manu-
facturing process needs to be sound in
all areas to avoid potential repurchase.
A simple breakdown can leave the
lender on the hook for a loan that
should have been bulletproof.
MetLife Bids Farewell
to Forward Mortgage
Business
MetLife Inc. has
announced that
it is exiting the business of originating
forward residential mortgages. MetLife
Home Loans, the residential mortgage
division of MetLife Bank NA, will no
longer accept new loan applications for
forward mortgages. MetLife Home
Loans continues to originate reverse
mortgages. MetLife Home Loans will
continue to service its current mortgage
customers. In addition, MetLife Home
Loans will honor all contractual com-
mitments for loans in process and
expects the majority of loans to close in
90 days.
MetLife expects $90 to $110 million,
after tax, in costs related to exiting the
business to be incurred over the next
year, with no expected impact on the
companys operating earnings.
On Dec. 27, MetLife announced that
GE Capital Financial Inc. had agreed to
acquire most of MetLife Banks deposi-
tory business, including certificates of
deposit and money market accounts.
MetLifes entire retail banking business,
including mortgages, represented
under two percent of MetLifes 2011
operating earnings as of Sept. 30.
REOs and Foreclosures
Make Up 20 Percent of
Q3 U.S. Home Sales
RealtyTrac has released
its Third Quarter 2011
U.S. Foreclosure Sales
Report, which shows
that sales of homes
that were in some
stage of foreclosure or real estate-
owned (REO) properties accounted for
20 percent of all U.S. residential sales in
the third quarter of 2011, down from
22 percent of all sales in the second
quarter and down from 30 percent of
all sales in the third quarter of 2010.
Third parties purchased a total of
221,536 residential properties in some
stage of foreclosure or REO during the
third quarter, down 11 percent from a
revised second quarter total and down
five percent from the third quarter of
2010.
The average sales price of homes in
foreclosure or in REO status was
$165,322 in the third quarter, up one
percent from the previous quarter but
down 3 percent from the third quarter
of 2010. The average sales price of
these foreclosure-related sales was 34
percent below the average sales price of
homes not in foreclosure, matching the
34 percent foreclosure discount in Q2,
but below the 37 percent discount in
the third quarter of 2010.
While foreclosures continue to rep-
resent an excellent bargain-buying
opportunity for many buyers and
investors, foreclosure sales accounted
By Mark Greco
Supply and demand is the most basic economic model for
determining price in a market. Demand is the amount of
product or service that is desired and supply is the amount of
product or service that is available. When either side falls out
of balance, price is directly affected. This model has become
more apparent than ever in todays mortgage industry.
A simplified description of the players in the mortgage industrys sup-
ply chain includes the originator, the aggregator and the agencies. The
originator is self-explanatory. The aggregator, which sells paper to agen-
cies and retains or sells the servicing rights, is the heart of the secondary
market and has become dominated by large banks. The agencies buy the
notes and guarantee the mortgage-backed securities (MBS).
Over the last four years, there has been a constant contraction of the
secondary market (supply) in the entire mortgage supply chain. While
the contraction has been across the board in all channels (retail, whole-
sale and correspondent), the industrys third-party origination (TPO)
channel has been most affected within the industry.
Since the meltdown first began, we have witnessed bank after bank
exit the wholesale business and eventually vacate the mortgage business
altogether. Since the decrease of supply channels began, we have seen an
increase in administration fees, secondary market margins, and agency
level g-fees. I believe this is only the beginning.
The first bank to send the shot heard round the industry was Chase
when, in 2009, they announced they would no longer accept business
through their wholesale channel or correspondent division that was orig-
inated through a third-party. This created a huge vacuum in the whole-
sale market and many aggregators followed suit in the coming months. In
September 2011, when Bank of America announced its decision to exit
the correspondent channel, which supported TPO through correspon-
dent lenders, it almost pushed the wholesale segment of mortgage lend-
ing into the abyss. The industry is just beginning to recover.
In recent months and as a result of the latest exodus wave, we have seen serv-
ice-release premiums (SRPs) dwindle and margins increase. Historically, the
pricing model for the secondary market uses agency (FNMA, FHLMC or
GNMA) prices plus an SRP of 100 to 125 basis points (BPS). Today, we are see-
ing SRP values ranging from a negative factor to 25 BPS at the highest. This sec-
ondary margin and the government mandated g-fee increase at Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac is going to drive mortgage prices even higher. If other large
secondary market lenders exit the space, then margins will continue to widen.
The void created by big banks vacating the secondary market is now
being filled with smaller mid-level mortgage banks with direct agency
approval. Direct agency approval, which only a fraction of the mid-level
mortgage banks currently have, is crucial for a mortgage bank to be a
continued viable entity. The likelihood and viability of moving forward
in the industry will become grim without agency approval. With the in-
crease in net worth requirements and the protracted turn times to get
through the gauntlet of the agency approval process, those who have not
started this process have a steep incline ahead of them.
The reality is that no one likes to see an increase in prices, but the fact
is that if there is going to be a mortgage industry in the future, the par-
ticipants have to be profitable. If a business model is not working, there
must be a change that, in effect, creates revenue that exceeds expense.
Those who can adopt this perspective will find the changes in the sec-
ondary market more palatable.
Mark Greco founded 360 Mortgage Group LLC, a privately-owned whole-
sale lender, and seized the opportunity to service the underserved wholesale
segment of the market. As president of 360 Mortgage, he has overseen more
than 50 percent growth every year. With more than 15 years of personal
experience as a mortgage banker, Greco truly understands the business, and
knows the issues facing the industry today. He may be reached by phone at
(512) 418-6000 or visit www.360mtg.com.
SPONSORED EDITORIAL
Supply & Demand
in the Mortgage Industry
23
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for a smaller share of the total market
in the third quarter. That trend is not
too surprising given the continued
ambiguity surrounding proper fore-
closure proceduresand the ripple
effect that has on sales of foreclosed
properties that might have been
improperly foreclosed, said Brandon
Moore, chief executive officer of
RealtyTrac. The sooner the market
gets more clarity about accepted fore-
closure procedures, primarily through
the long-promised settlement
between multiple states attorneys
general and major lenders, the sooner
the market can more efficiently dis-
pose of these distressed properties.
A total of 92,824 pre-foreclosure
homesin default or scheduled for
auctionsold to third parties in the
third quarter, a decrease of nine per-
cent from the previous quarter and
nearly identical to the 92,967 pre-fore-
closure sales in the third quarter of
2010. Pre-foreclosure sales accounted
for nearly nine percent of all sales, the
same as in the second quarter, but
down from 12 percent of all sales in the
third quarter of 2010.
Pre-foreclosure sales increased more
than 30 percent on an annual basis in
Michigan (up 68 percent), North
Carolina (up 44 percent), Ohio (up 43
percent) and Georgia (up 35 percent).
Pre-foreclosure sales outnumbered REO
sales in several states in the third quar-
ter, including Colorado, Florida, New
Jersey and New York.
Pre-foreclosures, which are often
sold via short sale, had an average sales
price nationwide of $191,119, a dis-
count of 24 percent below the average
sales price of homes not in foreclosure.
That was up from the 23 percent dis-
count in the previous quarter and
matched the 24 percent discount in the
third quarter of 2010. Pre-foreclosures
that sold in the third quarter took an
average of 318 days to sell after receiv-
ing an initial foreclosure notice, up
from an average of 245 days in the sec-
ond quarter and average of 236 days in
the third quarter of 2010.
A total of 128,712 REO properties
sold to third parties in the third quar-
ter, down 13 percent from the second
quarter and down nearly eight percent
from the third quarter of 2010. REO
sales accounted for nearly 12 percent of
all sales in the third quarter, down from
13 percent of all sales in the previous
quarter and down from nearly 18 per-
cent of all sales in the third quarter of
2010.
Nationally, REOs had an average
sales price of $146,437 in the third
quarter, a discount of nearly 42 percent
below the average sales price of homes
not in foreclosure. That matched a 42
percent discount on REOs in the second
quarter, but was down from a 45 per-
cent discount in the third quarter of
2010. REOs that sold in the third quar-
ter took an average of 193 days to sell
after being foreclosed on, up from 178
days in the second quarter and 161
days in the third quarter of 2010.
Foreclosure-related sales accounted
for nearly 57 percent of all residential
sales in Nevada during the third quar-
ter, the highest percentage of any state.
Third parties purchased a total of
13,992 homes in foreclosure or bank-
owned in Nevada during the third quar-
ter, nearly identical to the 13,858 fore-
closure-related sales in the previous
quarter, but up 24 percent from the
third quarter of 2010.
Justice Department
Releases Report
to Assist Foreclosure
Mediation Programs
The Access to Justice
Initiative has released
Foreclosure Mediation:
Emerging Research and
Evaluation Practices, a
report resulting from a March 7, 2011
workshop with dozens of foreclosure
mediation program stakeholders and
researchers. The report summarizes the
workshop proceedings and compiles
the most recent foreclosure mediation
research and resources.
The loss of a home to foreclosure
can be devastating to a family, said
Senior Counselor for Access to Justice
Mark Childress. The report released
today compiles the best available
research on foreclosure mediation pro-
grams and serves as an important
resource for existing programs around
the country as well as for jurisdictions
attempting to establish foreclosure
mediation programs. Well-structured
foreclosure mediation programs may
offer the millions of families at risk of
foreclosure a way to stay in their
homes.
The March 2011 workshop at the U.S.
Department of Justice (DOJ) and the
newly-released report build upon a
Nov. 19, 2010 event co-hosted by the
Middle Class Task Force and the Access
to Justice Initiative at the White House.
At the event, Vice President Joe Biden
and Attorney General Eric Holder
unveiled a series of steps designed to
help middle class and lower-income
families secure their legal rights and
announced new resources to help bring
stakeholders together, share knowledge
and expertise, and highlight the most
effective new strategies for foreclosure
mediation.
The March 2011 workshop was
designed to achieve two goals in sup-
port of the development of mediation
as a foreclosure intervention:
I To illuminate best practices for
research and evaluation of foreclo-
sure mediation programs and relat-
ed interventions; and
I To build and strengthen relation-
ships among program administra-
tors, researchers, advocates and rep-
resentatives from government agen-
cies and the lending community.
Several key findings emerged from
the workshop and are expanded upon
in the report:
I In a tight budget climate, foreclo-
sure mediation programs survival
Appraisal Quality Control
Is No Longer Optional for AMCs
By Jennifer Frank
The recent lawsuits filed by the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
against two appraisal management compa-
nies (AMCs) highlight the need for AMCs to
be performing thorough quality control
(QC) reviews of their appraisals. In early
May, the FDIC filed lawsuits against both LSI
Appraisal and CoreLogic Valuation Services
alleging that these two companies per-
formed sloppy appraisals, which led to loss-
es at Washington Mutual of several hun-
dred million dollars. The FDIC is still evalu-
ating many more claims against AMCs for
appraisals delivered during that same time
period to other failed lending institutions.
There is little doubt that at some point in
the not too distant future, the FDIC will be
filing additional lawsuits against several
more AMCs who delivered faulty appraisals
to failed lenders. It is also reasonable to
anticipate that several AMCs may discover
the professional liability insurance policy
which some of their appraisers carry
excludes claims made by the FDIC. In late
2010, in response to the failed lender-bad
loan crisis a few errors and omissions (E&O)
insurance providers began limiting apprais-
ers coverage for prior acts.
Given the current climate, pending lit-
igation and other issues, it should be
obvious that if AMCs are to survive and
thrive in the future, they will need to
become proactive in terms of obtaining
quality appraisals in order to reduce their
risk, and hopefully their liability, for poor
quality appraisals.
A proactive AMC appraisal QC program
starts with a thorough vetting of an
appraiser prior to adding him or her to
their appraiser panel. Currently, many
AMCs hold the mistaken belief that vet-
ting an appraiser means visiting the
Appraisal Subcommittee (ASC) Web site to
ensure that the appraisers name with its
current license status is listed.
Unfortunately, even if an appraiser has
committed repeated multiple Uniform
Standards of Professional Appraisal
Practice (USPAP) violations in their home
state and even if those violations resulted
in thousands of dollars of fines unless their
license was revoked, more often than not,
that appraiser will be listed no differently
than an appraiser who has a perfect record
on the ASC site. It is worth noting that
many of the eAppraiseIT appraisers whose
appraisals serve as part of the basis for the
current FDIC lawsuit had prior disciplinary
histories with the Florida appraisal board
prior to undertaking their work for
eAppraiseIT. AMCs must therefore take the
time to thoroughly check each states
appraisal board records even though it fre-
quently means reading each states
appraisal board newsletters month by
month or quarter by quarter for the last 10
years in order to be able to pull the indi-
vidual appraisers disciplinary history. After
an AMC has completed the initial vetting
for an appraiser panel candidate, the AMC
needs to continue to monitor that apprais-
ers state appraisal board disciplinary activ-
ity to ensure that appraisers competency.
QC at an AMC also means that the AMC
will not pay its appraisers unreasonable
compensation because doing so precludes
its access to a large pool of good apprais-
ers. While I concede the definition of a
reasonable fee varies depending upon
who is defining it, I think we can all agree
that the $250 or $275 which some AMCs
pay is unreasonable. Is it really all that
surprising that LSI, one of the worst offend-
ers in terms of appraiser compensation, is
one of the first AMCs to be sued for poor
quality appraisals by FDIC? When Francois
Gregoire, a forensic appraiser, was asked
about the appraisers employed by the
AMCs whose appraisals were the basis of
the FDIC lawsuit, he responded, I dont
think the AMCs can claim they have the
cream of the crop.
QC for an AMC also means ensuring
that an appraiser has adequate time to
prepare a quality appraisal report.
The most important aspect of an AMC
QC program is performing a review on
each and every appraisal prior to delivery
to the lender. While at first sight, review-
ing every appraisal might seem like a sig-
nificant burden to an AMC, in actuality, it
is not. Quality Mortgage Services, a
nationwide company that provides QC
and compliance solutions, has recently
introduced Appraisal Defect Detection
and Prevention or ADDP. ADDP is an
automated appraisal review report which
can provide an AMC a thorough appraisal
review at a low-cost per transaction.
Lets look at one of the specific exam-
ples cited in the FDIC lawsuit against LSI
in which an appraiser valued a property
at $2.3 million resulting in Washington
Mutual approving a $1.8 million loan on
which the buyer defaulted and WaMu was
left charging off $1 million. Among its
many issues, the appraiser failed to
address whether the 6,000-sq. ft. home
was overbuilt for the neighborhood
which consisted entirely of homes rang-
ing from 2,500- to 3,500-sq. ft. An ADDP
report would have flagged the homes
non-conformity because ADDP provides a
homogeneity and conformity report on
not only the Gross Living Area (GLA), but
the price per square foot, lot size and
bedroom count. ADDP then provides a
comprehensive breakdown of those same
categories, so you know exactly where in
that range the property falls.
With the proper tools and technology
available to AMCs, there is no excuse for
delivering a non-reviewed appraisal
report to a lender, now or in the future.
Jennifer Frank is director of valuations and
collateral solutions for Brentwood, Tenn.-
based Quality Mortgage Services LLC. She
may be reached by phone at (615) 724-4100,
ext. 125 or e-mail jenny@qcmortgage.com.
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depends on rigorous research and
evaluation to determine which pro-
gram models and program charac-
teristics produce the best outcomes.
I The creative collaborations repre-
sented in the workshop, such as
those between programs and aca-
demic institutions, foundations,
legal aid organizations, think tanks
and government partners, can lead
to efficient use of resources and
quality evaluation.
I In order to conduct the kind of
research and evaluation that is
needed, there must be consensus
regarding which data points and cat-
egories of data must be collected.
I The federal government should take
an active role, both in helping to
develop program and evaluation
guidelines and in providing
resources for mediation programs
and research.
The Access to Justice Initiative, head-
ed by Senior Counselor Mark Childress,
was established in March 2010 to
address the access to justice crisis in the
criminal and civil justice system. The
mission of the Access to Initiative is to
help the justice system efficiently deliv-
er outcomes that are fair and accessible
to all, irrespective of wealth and status.
The Access to Justice staff works within
the U.S. DOJ, across federal agencies,
and with state, local and tribal justice
system stakeholders to increase access
to counsel and legal assistance and to
improve the justice delivery systems
that serve people who are unable to
afford lawyers.
Homebuyers Steering
Clear of ARMs
Freddie Mac has
released the results
of its 28th Annual
Adj us t abl e- Rat e
Mortgage (ARM) Survey
of prime loan offer-
ings, which was con-
ducted Jan. 3-5 of this year. The results
show ARM initial-period rates are at his-
torically low levels and hybrid ARMs
remain the most common adjustable-
rate product in the market.
The 5/1 hybrid ARM continued to be
the most popular loan product offered
by lenders. Nearly all of the ARM
lenders participating in the survey
offered such a loan. The next most pop-
ular products were the 3/1 and the 7/1
hybrid ARMs. Less than one-half of
lenders offered the one-year ARM, and
only four percent of lenders offered a
3/3 ARM, which adjusts once every
three years.
Homebuyers have shied away from
ARMs, particularly traditional one-year
ARMs, because they are wary of the risk
and uncertainty, said Frank Nothaft,
vice president and chief economist,
Freddie Mac. The potential for much
larger payments if future shorter-term
interest rates are significantly higher
and the high delinquency rates that
borrowers have experienced with ARMs
in recent years have led consumers to
prefer fixed-rate loans over ARMs. In
addition, fixed-rate loans currently are
at near historic lows, and initial ARM
rates are only slightly lower than fixed-
rate loans.
In early January, the interest rate sav-
ings for the popular 5/1 hybrid ARM
compared to the 30-year fixed-rate
mortgage (FRM) amounted to about one
percentage point, about the same as
during January 2011. There was little
difference in the initial interest rate for
the 1/1, 3/1 and 5/1 products. Longer-
term hybrid products, such as the 7/1
and 10/1 ARMs, were also available from
63 percent and 38 percent of the survey
participants, respectively. Because of the
long initial fixed-rate period (seven or
ten years), the initial interest rates were
priced closer to the rate on a 30-year
FRM for these products.
Borrowers who have taken out
ARMs generally prefer hybrids,
because these products include an
extended initial period where the
interest rate is fixed, said Nothaft.
ARMs today are financing just over 10
percent of new home-purchase loans.
In June 2004, ARMs hit a peak share of
40 percent of the home-purchase
market but by early 2009, that share
had fallen to just three percent,
according to the Federal Housing
Finance Agency. We are expecting
ARMs to gradually gain back some
favor with mortgage borrowers rising
to a 14 percent share of the home-
purchase market in 2012.
Among 121 ARM lenders, 65 percent
offered loans tied to constant-maturity
Treasuries, down from 71 percent in
2011; the remaining offered products
tied to future rates indexed to the
London Interbank Offered Rate
(LIBOR). With the onset of the debt cri-
sis in the Eurozone, the one-year
LIBOR rate less the one-year constant-
maturity Treasury yield peaked over the
week ending Jan. 6 at over one percent-
age point, compared to around 0.5 per-
centage points over the same week in
2011. As a result, one-year LIBOR
indexed ARMs may have adjusted up or
did not adjust materially down com-
pared with Treasury-indexed ARMs. The
uncertainty over LIBOR movements may
have led some current borrowers to
avoid LIBOR ARMs.
Report Finds U.S. Seniors
Have $3.19 Trillion in
Home Equity
Data released by the
National Reverse
Mortgage Lenders
Association (NRMLA)
shows senior home
equity increased $46
billion in the third
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(800) 262-3783, ext. 701 or visit
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What Do We Provide You?
When you have your own ShortSaleSpeedway, we provide you with the
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A Bright Spot in
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Wholesale Lending
quarter of 2011. Seniors have $3.19 tril-
lion in home equity available according
to the most recent NRMLA/Risk Span
Reverse Mortgage Market Index
(RMMI) report.
This data further demonstrates
that the home must be considered as
part of the funding longevity equa-
tion. Reverse mortgages are a creative
tool to help seniors better use the
assets they have to safely fund retire-
ment, said Peter Bell, president and
chief executive officer of NRMLA.
The NRMLA/RiskSpan Reverse
Mortgage Market Index (RMMI)
showed signs of stabilizing in the
third quarter of 2011, increasing by
1.5 percent to 152.0. In Q3, housing
prices in 69 percent of the 395
Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs)
(including eight of the 10 biggest
MSAs) tracked by the Federal Housing
Finance Agency (FHFA) and RiskSpan
saw quarter-over-quarter increases,
sending aggregate senior housing val-
ues up one percent to $4.2 trillion.
Senior mortgage debt levels fell for
the 10th straight quarter to $1.02 tril-
lion, leaving seniors with $3.19 tril-
lion in equity.
The home is, by far, the largest
financial asset most families have for
use in retirement, said Bell, Reverse
mortgages have evolved from a cir-
cumstance-based product to an
accepted forward looking tool used
for financial planning.
Housing Starts Rise 4.4
Percent in December
Nationwide produc-
tion of new single-
family homes rose 4.4
percent to a seasonal-
ly adjusted annual
rate of 470,000 units in December,
according to newly released figures
from the U.S. Commerce Department.
This marked a third consecutive
increase and the fastest pace of sin-
gle-family housing starts since April of
2010. Meanwhile, the overall number
of housing starts for the month
declined 4.1 percent to a 657,000-
unit rate due to a 20.4 percent dip on
the more volatile multifamily side.
Looking forward, NAHB is forecasting
gains of approximately 17 percent in
both single- and multifamily housing
production in 2012.
This report adds to the growing
evidence that demand for new, sin-
gle-family homes is finally starting to
firm up in an increasing number of
markets nationwide, said Bob
Nielsen, chairman of the National
Association of Home Builders (NAHB)
and a home builder from Reno, Nev.
This emerging trend is allowing
builders to put more crews back to
work, and could be even stronger if
not for the overly tight credit condi-
tions that prevail for both builders
and buyers, as well as the continuing
foreclosure crisis and the challenges
of obtaining accurate appraisal values
on new homes. Policymakers should
be doing everything possible to allevi-
ate these problems and nurture the
fledgling housing recovery in order to
promote job and economic growth.
Combined single- and multifamily
housing starts fell 4.1 percent to a
657,000-unit rate in December due to
the multifamily side retreating 20.4
percent from a big gain in the previ-
ous month, to a seasonally adjusted
annual rate of 187,000 units.
However, for the year as a whole,
overall housing production was
pegged at 606,900 units, which was
3.4 percent better than the overall
number of starts in 2010.
Regionally, December housing
starts rose 54.8 percent in the
Midwest following a big decline in the
previous month. The Northeast posted
a 41.2 percent decline that offset a big
gain in the previous month, while the
South and West also posted declines
of three percent and 17.6 percent,
respectively.
Permit issuance, which can be an
indicator of future building activity,
held virtually flat at a 679,000-unit
rate in December. Single-family per-
mits rose for a third consecutive
month, by 1.8 percent to 444,000
units, while multifamily permits
declined 3.7 percent to 235,000 units.
Regionally, permits rose 5.8 percent
in the Midwest and held unchanged in
the West, but declined 6.5 percent in
the Northeast and 0.6 percent in the
South in December.
This report is in keeping with our
expectations for slow but steady
improvement in the single-family
market, where production hit its low-
est yearly rate in over 50 years in
2011, said NAHB Chief Economist
David Crowe. Meanwhile, it should
be noted that the decline in multi-
family starts in December was coming
off a dramatic increase from the pre-
vious month and simply brought that
sector back closer to trend. Apartment
production generally continues to
gain strength heading into 2012 after
posting a more-than 50 percent gain
in 2011.
Nearly One Million
Loan Mods Granted
Through November
HOPE NOW has
released its Novem-
ber 2011 data show-
ing that permanent
loan modifications totaled almost
84,000 for the month, bringing the
total for 2011 to approximately
969,000. Since HOPE NOW began
tracking foreclosure prevention data
in 2007, member mortgage servicers
have completed 5.13 million total
permanent loan modifications for
homeowners nationwide. Additionally,
HOPE NOW Executive Director Faith
Schwartz announced the cities for
homeowner outreach in the first quar-
ter of 2012 that include expanded
efforts to assist at-risk military home-
owners as well.
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The mortgage industry and its
partners have worked hard for home-
owners nationwide, said Schwartz.
With almost one million loan modifi-
cations completed in the first 11
months of 2011 and over five million
since 2007, it is clear that efforts to
assist at-risk families via all available
channels are bearing some fruit.
Homeowner events are already in
the advanced stages of planning for
Charlotte, N.C.; Miami, Fla.; Tampa,
Fla.; Las Vegas; Sacramento, Calif.
and Los Angeles in the first quarter of
2012.
There are more alternatives to
foreclosure than ever before for
homeowners through federal pro-
grams, proprietary modifications,
and state level initiatives such as
Hardest Hit Funds, said Schwartz.
Mortgage servicers and non-profit,
housing counselors are using all tools
at their disposal to find options that
fit each individual homeowners situ-
ation whenever possible. The empha-
sis continues to be on improving the
customer experience through
enhanced technology, single point of
contact and leveraging all tools avail-
able to assist with foreclosure preven-
tion, which in some cases includes
graceful exits.
Since HOPE NOW began reporting
data in 2007, the mortgage industry
has completed 5.13 million loan mod-
ifications for homeowners. This
includes approximately 4.22 million
proprietary modifications and
909,953 completed under the Home
Affordable Modification Program
(HAMP). From January through
November 2011, there were approxi-
mately 969,000 modifications,
639,000 proprietary and 330,303
completed under HAMP.
As we move into the heart of the
first quarter of 2012, HOPE NOW, its
government, non-profit and state
partners have already planned multi-
ple face to face outreach events in
key markets, said Schwartz.
Additionally, HOPE NOW has worked
with several military partners to
implement events geared towards a
specialized segment of at-risk mili-
tary homeowners who have a unique
set of mortgage challenges.
Of the 84,000 loan modifications
for the month of November, approxi-
mately 57,000 were proprietary and
26,877 were HAMP modifications.
According to the survey data, the
inventory of 60 day plus delinquen-
cies is 2.77 million for November
2011, up from the 2.65 million
reported in October. Foreclosure
starts for November 2011 decreased
from the previous month166,000
compared to 209,000. Completed
foreclosure sales increased for the
month71,000 compared to 64,000.
Poll Finds 75 Percent of
Voters Believe in Tax
Incentives to Promote
Homeownership
By an overwhelm-
ing margin, Ameri-
can voters strongly
value homeowner-
ship and would
oppose efforts to
weaken or elimi-
nate the mortgage
interest deduction
or diminish a federal role to help
qualified homebuyers obtain afford-
able 30-year mortgages, according to
a new nationwide survey gauging
likely voters attitudes towards
homeownership and housing policy
issues.
The American electorate is send-
ing a clear message that owning a
home remains a cornerstone of the
American Dream and preserving a
federal commitment to homeowner-
ship is essential to maintain a thriving
middle class and get housing and the
economy back on track, said Neil
Newhouse, a partner and co-founder
of Public Opinion Strategies.
Conducted Jan. 2-5 on behalf of the
National Association of Home
Builders (NAHB) by the Republican
and Democratic polling firms of
Public Opinion Strategies in
Alexandria, Va., and Lake Research
Partners in Washington, D.C., the
comprehensive survey of 1,500 likely
voters includes data from key political
swing areas, including National
Journal political analyst Charlie
Cooks swing House and Senate seats
and Stuart Rothenbergs presidential
swing states. The survey, which has a
margin of error of 2.5 percent, is a
follow-up to a similar national poll
conducted last May.
The poll shows that three out of
four voters, both owners and renters,
believe it is appropriate and reason-
able for the federal government to
provide tax incentives to promote
homeownership. This sentiment cuts
across regional and party lines, with
84 percent of Democrats, 71 percent
of Republicans and 71 percent of
Independents agreeing with this
statement. Also, two-thirds of
respondents say that the federal gov-
ernment should help homebuyers to
afford a long-term or 30-year, fixed-
rate mortgage.
Nearly three/fourths, 73 percent, of
voters oppose eliminating the mort-
gage interest deduction. These figures
held firm across the political spec-
trum, with 77 percent of Republicans,
71 percent of Democrats and 71 per-
cent of Independents against doing
away with the mortgage interest
deduction.
Meanwhile, 68 percent would be
less likely to vote for a congressional
candidate who proposed to abolish
the deduction, a figure that was virtu-
ally identical across all party affilia-
tions (69 percent of Independents and
68 percent of Democrats and
Republicans).
A majority of voters are also
against proposals to reduce the mort-
gage interest deduction, eliminate
the deduction for interest paid for a
second home, limit the deduction for
those earning more than $250,000
per year, scale back the deduction for
homeowners with mortgages above
$500,000 and do away with the
deduction for interest paid on home
equity loans.
With the 2012 election season in
full swing, candidates running for
the White House and Congress would
be wise to heed the will of the
American voters, who have expressed
broad support for government poli-
cies that encourage homeownership
and oppose efforts to make it more
difficult to get a home loan and to
tamper with the mortgage interest
deduction, said Celinda Lake, presi-
dent of Lake Research Partners.
The survey findings are consistent
with the results of other public opin-
ion surveys. In a New York Times/CBS
News poll conducted in June, 89 per-
cent said that homeownership is an
important part of the American
Dream and more than 90 percent
indicated that it is important for the
federal government to continue the
mortgage interest deduction.
According to a Pew Research Study
conducted last March, 81 percent of
respondents agree that buying a
home is the best long-term invest-
ment a person can make and 81 per-
cent of renters surveyed said they
would like to buy a house.
Even in a down housing market,
homeownership remains a core
American value, with the vast majori-
ty of citizens who do not currently
own a home saying they want to buy
a home, said Bob Nielsen, president
of NAHB and a home builder from
Reno, Nev. Those running for office
in November need to understand that
voters will not look kindly on any can-
didates who seek to dismantle the
nations long-term commitment to
homeownership.
Your turn
National Mortgage Professional
Magazine invites you to submit any
information on regulatory changes, leg-
islative updates, human interest stories
or any other newsworthy items pertain-
ing to the mortgage industry to the
attention of:
NMP News Flash column
Phone #: (516) 409-5555
E-mail:
newsroom@nmpmediacorp.com
Note: Submissions sent via e-mail are
preferred. The deadline for submissions
is the 1st of the month prior to the target
issue.
recognizes the support of those Mortgage
Professionals who have stepped up to pay tribute
to the men and women who have fought to
preserve freedom for our great country.
We will be featuring these Mortgage Professionals in our Mortgage
Heroes feature in National Mortgage Professional Magazine.
We want to hear from you if you:
#Make signifcant donations to any veteran's organizations
#Hosts or sponsors events recognizing and paying tribute to veterans
#Provides support for the families of veterans
#Any other noteworthy assistance to help improve the lives of
veterans and their loved ones
To be considered for Mortgage Heroes, visit
NMPMag.com/mortgageheroes.
27
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By Leif Boyd
As new hires enter the
loan origination busi-
ness each day, there
are five key tips that
can help them trans-
form a job into a
thriving career. Although this is prima-
rily geared toward those who are just
getting into the industry or have
entered within the last five years, many
of the tips can be utilized by even the
most seasoned loan originators (LOs).
1. Always ask for referrals
Seems like common senseSales 101.
That being said, most LOs fail to realize
the importance of simply asking their
clients for a referral. Happy clients will
rarely automatically refer others to an
originator. However, if they are asked
for referrals, they are more likely to
search through their rolodex, tell their
Facebook friends and share the contact
information of their LO freely with
many others. These potential new
clients are already very warm leads
since they trust what their friends say.
LOs have an intense and intimate
relationship with their clients for 30-60
days as they work together on a loan.
After this relationship is built, some LOs
dismiss the client and forget about
them. Successful originators continue
to work with the client, keeping in
touch with them on a regular basis and
always asking for referrals.
Here is an example of a basic script:
My business is built on service. If you
think I do/have done a good job, please
give me a referral. If you have been
unhappy with any part of the service I
have offered then please let me know
how I can continue to improve. Saying
this once at the end of the process is
helpful, saying it throughout the
process is even more effective. At the
beginning of the relationship, when an
originator first meets a client, the
expectation of a referral should be
clear. Towards the end of the initial
conversation, say: Throughout this
process, I am going to ask for a refer-
ral, and go on to talk about the service
they should expect from you during the
loan process. Then, at each high point
in the loan process, remind them about
the need for referrals. These high points
include loan pre-approval, preparation
for document signing and the final
funding.
Finally, even after the loan has
closed and the client has been asked
for a referral, the relationship does
not end. Utilize a drip marketing strat-
egy to follow up with the client every
six to nine months after the loan clos-
es. Call them to see how they are
doing and ask, How do you like your
new home?, Do you have future
plans that may require a move or
remodel to your current home?, or
Do you have any new referrals?
2. This is a 55-60-plus-hour a week
career
Being successful takes time. Being a suc-
cessful LO is a minimum 55-60-hour
work week. It takes additional time to
read blogs and articles like this one in
while youre at home in the mornings,
after work or on the weekends. Every
originator needs to be able to do their
job with clients and stay informed
about the industry, and keep up with
new regulations and economic trends.
All of this cannot be done without com-
ing in early and leaving late. The only
exception to this rule is if youre an
hourly employee.
This is a career choice. It is not just a
job where you clock-in and clock-out.
There will be a lot of phone calls, a lot
of in-person meetings and a lot of keep-
ing clients, potential clients and past
clients informed on mortgage rates, the
status of loan documents and checking
on referrals. The bottom line is the
more time an LO is willing to invest in
their career, the more income potential
there will be. Remember nothing
happens without hard work.
3. Put the customer over the com-
mission every time
Oftentimes, LOs, especially young LOs,
think that a $450,000 loan deserves
more of their attention than a $60,000
loan. The reality is that both are cus-
tomers and both deserve the same
attention to detail and wise counsel. It
even pays off to provide counsel to
prospective clients who might not cur-
rently qualify for a loan. Working with
these clients early to help them get
their financial footing grounded will
make them a good client in the future.
These people, and those who have
lower loan values, will see the quality
service that the originator provided
them, and in many cases, could give
some of the best future referrals.
Remember that taking an extra few
minutes to help everyone is worth a lot
in the long run and helps to pay it for-
ward. After all, there is a little bit of
good karma that comes along with
doing the right thing.
4. Everyone you know should know
what you do
There was a running joke on the NBC
television show Friends of people
guessing what the character Chandler
really did for a career. It was not until
season nine, when he quit, that his
friends and wife Monica, finally learned
he was an IT procurement manager. If
the people originators are closest to do
not know or understand what they do,
they cannot be a source for referrals or
come to the originator when they need
a loan. It is the successful LOs job to
ensure that every single friend and fam-
ily member know what they do and
how they can help send referrals in
their direction.
This does not mean making a sales
pitch during every conversation. It does
mean using basic conversation tech-
niques to ensure that the loan origina-
tor gets to briefly describe what they
do. When at the gym, hanging out at a
backyard family barbeque and getting
dinner with friends, ask them what they
do. That question and the subsequent
answer will almost always end with
and what do you do? This is the per-
fect opportunity to give a 45 to 90 sec.
elevator pitch on what an LO does, how
they can help, and close with, Im
always looking for referrals, so if you or
someone you know needs a loan, con-
tact me.
Facebook and Twitter also offer
opportunities to let others know what
an LO does. This does not mean posting
I need referrals every day for friends
and family to see. It does mean posting
useful information that friends and
family may find interesting about your
industry. Then, every few weeks,
remind friends and family about send-
ing referrals if they or someone they
know needs a loan.
5. Take every mistake and challenge
as a learning opportunity
Some of the best lessons come from
mistakes made while on the job. There
will be a time when an LO forgets to ask
The Top Five Things to Know
to Start Your Career as an LO
The bottom line is the more
time an LO is willing to invest
in their career, the more
income potential there will be.
Remember nothing happens
without hard work.
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the fha 203(k) loan continued from page 8
FHAs mandate
The FHAs primary goal is to assist
homebuyers with a purchase they may
not otherwise be able to afford, by pro-
viding mortgages with favorable loan
terms, higher loan limits and flexible
downpayment options. The 203(k)
Standard and Streamlined loan pro-
grams are unique because they facili-
tate homeownership for borrowers and
properties that may not be able to qual-
ify for a conventional loan program.
The popular 203(k) Streamlined loan
can be used to purchase a home or refi-
nance an existing mortgage, and at the
same time, cover the cost of a remodel
or necessary upgrades, up to $35,000.
Although this is a great program for
first-time homebuyers, it is not a
requirement under the program.
Buyers dont have to be a first-time
homebuyer to obtain an FHA 203(k)
loan.
Basically, a 203(k) loan is just like a
regular FHA loan with an added com-
ponent that allows for repair, remodel
and renovation. All 203(k) programs
allow borrowers to finance the pur-
chase price of the home along with
the extra funds needed for repairs and
closing costs. Once the purchase trans-
action is closed, renovation funds are
held in escrow and released through a
draw process to pay for pre-deter-
mined renovation work completed by
approved contractors.
FHAs low downpayment require-
ments help borrowers obtain an
affordable loan that allows them to
upgrade, repair or rehabilitate a neg-
lected or distressed property. The
203(k) loan is an important tool to
increase homeownership, as well as a
significant community resource for
neighborhood revitalization.
203(k) and green lending
The focus on environmentally con-
scious and green lending has been
receiving a lot of attention nation-
wide. We are aware of the role energy
improvements play in significantly
lowering the cost of homeownership
through lower utility bills. FHA also
offers an insured Energy Efficient
Mortgage (EEM), which allows home-
buyers to cover some or all of the cost
of qualified energy-efficient improve-
ments in both existing homes and new
construction. Not only that, an EEM
can be combined with the 203(k) loan
to provide additional funding for the
borrower.
Renovation funds and
permanent financing
in a single loan
Most mortgage financing programs only
provide permanent financing. This
means lenders will not close a loan or
release mortgage funds unless an
appraisal demonstrates that the current
condition and value of the home pro-
vides adequate security for the loan.
If a property requires repair or reha-
bilitation, the majority of lenders will
stipulate that the improvements be
completed before they will offer a long-
term mortgage. This means banks are
not able to fund a conventional home
loan until repairs are complete, and
repairs cant be made until the house
has been purchased.
FHAs 203(k) renovation loan is dis-
tinctive in that it allows the borrower to
purchase the home and provides addi-
tional funds to cover the costs of the
proposed remodel or rehabilitation.
Prior to the 203(k)s inception, borrow-
ers interested in a distressed property
were forced to obtain separate loans to
cover purchase, construction, and long-
term financing. The 203(k) loan pro-
grams have filled an important void by
providing affordable financing for
poorly-maintained properties, such as
foreclosures and short sales, and for
potential homeowners who may not
have the adequate funds for a conven-
tional downpayment plus the addition-
al rehab costs this type of distressed
property often requires.
Discover how you can help your real
estate agents sell more homes and
make more homebuyers and sellers
happy. Discover the value, opportunity
and potential that FHAs 203(k) loan
program provides.
Ginger Bell is an education specialist
who develops training programs for
many companies, including Plaza Home
Mortgage, Rehab Loan Network,
OnlineEd and Mortgage Success Source.
Formerly with Dale Carnegie Training,
Bell has more than 20 years of experi-
ence leading workshops in public speak-
ing, leadership, customer service, sales
and continuing education. Bell is a
Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System
(NMLS)-approved instructor and has
been awarded the Presidential Award by
both the California Association of
Mortgage Professionals (CAMP) and the
Oregon Association of Mortgage
Professionals (OAMP) for her commit-
ment to bringing quality education to
the mortgage industry. She may be
reached by e-mail at ginger@go2train-
ing.com or visit www.go2training.com.
FHAs 203(k) renovation
loan is distinctive in that it
allows the borrower to
purchase the home and
provides additional funds
to cover the costs of the
proposed remodel
or rehabilitation.
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By Christopher G.
Brown
W
hat trends
will shape
the mortgage
foreclosure landscape
in 2012? As I look
towards the next 12 months, Im expect-
ing that the most influential trend will be
a recent Connecticut Supreme Court rul-
ing that could have a significant impact
on who can sue to foreclose. As the fore-
closure defense attorney who represent-
ed the borrower in this case, I had a front
row seat on Connecticuts recent Supreme
Court decision, and Im expecting it to be
something that will give lenders pause.
Only a few months into 2012, Im already
seeing how its been rocking business as
usual when it comes to who has the right
to foreclose. Before this decision, lenders
claimed that being a holder (the legal
term for possessing the note) meant that
they had the right to foreclose. The
courts decision confirms that only the
owner of the debt has a right to foreclose.
Holder status is not enough. I would
expect lenders to be slow to change their
procedures to account for this decision,
which could very likely mean more dis-
missed foreclosures in 2012.
I also foresee a number of other
important developments in the foreclo-
sure arena in 2012:
Lenders will continue to
have problems proving
they are holders
Even though mere holder status is still
beneficial for lenders, establishing that
they are holders of the note will contin-
ue to be difficult for lenders. I recently
had a case dismissed for a client
because the party that started the fore-
closure suit failed to prove that it was
the holderhad possession of the
noteon the date the action started.
Borrowers will be more
proactive in their defense
By recognizing that only the owner of the
debt can foreclose, the Supreme Court
decision gives borrowers a 10-pound
sledgehammer to fight a foreclosure.
Before it, borrowers had only a three-
pound hammer because they were effec-
tively limited to challenging holder sta-
tus. But no hammer is any good unless its
swung. Borrowers should not expect the
decision to mean that the courts are
going to swing for them in the upcom-
ing year. They will need to take part in the
foreclosure and make sure theyand
their lawyerspush institutions to prove
ownership of the note. It will continue to
be up to the borrowers and their legal
counsel to make sure that happens in the
coming 12 months.
Continued low
interest rates to have
limited effect
The Federal Reserves promise to keep
their rates low in 2011 and 2012 wont
necessarily have a dramatic impact on
the number of people falling behind on
their mortgages. These rates do have an
impact on adjustable-rate mortgages
(ARMs), but it wont be significant. A lot
of the problems that would have been
associated with ARMs have been ame-
liorated by keeping interest rates low.
Thats good news, because the rates
arent going to explode next year. But, a
lot of those ARMs were fixed rates for
five years or less and many of them
were interest-only for the fixed period.
The bulk of these loans are past the five
year period, and its time for those bor-
rowers to pay back principal. Even
though the interest portion of the pay-
ment might decrease because of the
low interest rates, the overall payment
may increase because it now includes a
principal payment.
Longer mediations with
little impact on loan
modifications
A number of state and federal programs
were aimed at getting banks to work
with borrowers on loan modifications.
Many arrived with a lot of fanfare, but
they havent really impacted the num-
ber of loan modifications the way they
were intended. This is why President
Barack Obama made it part of his
recent State of the Union speech, but I
dont think even that will have much of
an impact on the foreclosure scene. The
fundamental problem that no one has
been able to fix is that lenders dont
seem capable of processing modifica-
tion requests promptly. They frequently
claim that packages are incomplete and
request documents or information that
the borrowers have already provided.
When the same information is re-sub-
mitted, they often claim that other doc-
umentation has become outdated and
needs to be resubmitted. This cycle can
be repeated multiple times. There was a
lot talk that the banks were striving to
make modifications, but there has been
extreme criticism that these plans have
done nothing and that few loans are
getting modified. But, I do see some-
thing of a silver lining on this cloud. The
foreclosure process generally does not
move forward while mediation is ongo-
ing and the mediation generally contin-
ues until the bank says No. Borrowers
who may not ultimately qualify for a
modification benefit from being able to
stay in their homes.
Government Report
Cards could impact the
modification process
In 2011, the Federal government began
monitoring loan mods and began issu-
ing Report Cards on lenders. These
Report Cards suggest areas in which the
lenders need to improve. Im going to
be an optimist here and suggest that
the lenders are going to take these sug-
gestions to heart in 2012 and actually
try to meet the standards they advo-
cate. I dont expect the government to
go away on that front. I think theyll
put pressure on lenders to get their acts
together. We recently had a case where
the bank agreed to modify, told us
what the new payment would look like
and promised to send a written modifi-
cation agreement. We had to send the
written agreement back twice to be cor-
rected because the numbers didnt
match what they told us. I dont think it
was intentional. It was the kind of
bungling that has become part of the
loan mod process. Its not uncommon
for these modifications to take over a
year. Im hoping that these
Government Report Cards will show
lenders just how often these kinds of
things occur and encourage them to
change their processes.
Courts to order lenders
to send representatives
with real authority to
mediation sessions
The law requires borrowers to be physi-
cally present for mediation, but permits
lenders to send only their lawyers.
These lawyers are supposed to have the
authority to agree to a resolution. In
addition, theres supposed to be a
lender representative available by tele-
phone. In practice, that almost never
happens. The lenders lawyers often do
not have authority, and rarely does the
telephone representative. Without
someone at the table with real decision-
making ability, its tough to get things
done. It also makes it easier for the
lenders get away without making a
decision or to ask for the same infor-
mation repeatedly. When lenders do
not have to take the time to be there in
person, its easy for them not to take
mediation seriously. Lately, borrowers
have been asking the courts to direct
someone with real bargaining power to
attend mediation and the courts have
been granting those requests. I expect
that trend to increase. I am cautiously
optimistic about banks changing their
ways. The more they are ordered to
come to mediation sessions in person,
the more likely they will be to rethink
how they are doing things.
Commercial borrowers to
benefit from changes on
the residential level
I believe that the Connecticut Supreme
Courts decision will also help commercial
borrowers. Commercial loans were
bought and sold on the secondary market
just like residential loans. Plus, the loan
documents for commercial loans can
often be exotic when compared with res-
idential loans. I would expect to see own-
ership of the debt issues applied to com-
mercial loans, forcing commercial lenders
to re-think their procedures and assump-
tions here as well. I know that I am doing
just that in a number of commercial fore-
closures I am defending.
In general, I expect the foreclosure
environment in 2012 to look very much
like 2011 with a few glimmers of hope
for borrowers. The economy is still not
on the upswing, as joblessness is still a
significant issue. Nevertheless, I am
hoping that the influence of the courts
and an understanding of the need to
change will bring banks to the under-
standing that they have to make adjust-
ments to the ways they deal with mort-
gage holders.
Christopher G. Brown of Begos Horgan &
Brown has represented defendants in a
number ground-breaking foreclosure
cases. His practice concentrates on fore-
closure defense and debtor-creditor law.
He has been litigating financial cases for
19 years, representing borrowers in resi-
dential and business foreclosures and
parties on either side of a debtor-creditor
or other financial dispute. He may be
e-mail cgb@begoshorgan.com.
The Foreclosure Landscape in 2012
Recent court ruling expected to have a dramatic impact throughout the year
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By Drew Waterhouse
I
was recently fortunate
enough to have my 2012
mortgage industry hiring
forecast published online at
NationalMortgageProfessional.com. Two of
my forecasts were that the movement of top
originators among firms would accelerate during
2012 and that consolidation in the industry would
continue resulting in mid-tier originators gaining
market share. I want to delve a little deeper into my
reasoning behind those forecasts in this article.
In some ways, 2012 represents the rebirth of the
mortgage industry. The ground rules have been and
are being reformulated. Old dominant teams and
players are becoming less successful, while younger,
more nimble teams and players are making their
mark, and even some former stars are returning from
rehab to stir things up. Let me take a brief detour to
illustrate my point.
Like many of you, I have watched a lot of football
recently. During the NFL conference championship
games, I began to see a parallel between this years
playoffs and the mortgage industry in 2012. Two of the
most dominant teams in the history of the NFL, the
Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers,
who happened to be last years
Super Bowl representatives,
found their dominance
overcome this year by teams
that rank in the middle-tier of
NFL history, the Denver Broncos and the New York
Giants. In the cases of both the Broncos and the Giants,
talented quarterbacks made all the difference.
A Deeper Dive Into
2012s Mortgage
Industry Hiring
Forecast
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The Broncos relied heavily on the
heroics delivered repeatedly by second
year quarterback Tim Tebow. An
unconventional and widely critiqued
draft choice by the Broncos in 2010,
Tebows play this year, leading the
team to the second round of the play-
offs, justified the teams decision to
trade their second, third and fourth
round draft picks to move up to get him
in the first round. Josh McDaniels, the
Broncos coach at the time Tebow was
drafted, explained his choice this way:
Tebow has all the traits you are look-
ing for in terms of toughness, competi-
tiveness, hes intelligent, hes won a lot
of games, hes a leader, he works hard,
hes got all the intangibles you look for
in a player at that position. In other
words, Tebow fit their team and what
they valued in a player. He was a
Model-Match.
The Giants depended this year, as
they have for many years, on quarter-
back Eli Manning. Already a Super Bowl
champion, Super Bowl MVP and NFL
MVP, Manning led the Giants back to
the Super Bowl with one of his best sea-
sons to date. But the story of his coming
to the Giants is one of the most inter-
esting in NFL draft history. In 2004,
there were two top quarterbacks com-
ing out of college, Eli Manning and
Phillip Rivers. The San Diego Chargers
had the first overall pick in the draft
and needed a quarterback. Their first
choice was Eli Manning, but Mannings
representatives informed San Diego
that he would not sign with them if
they drafted him because he did not
believe that he was well-matched to
their style of offense. Still needing a
quarterback, the Chargers negotiated a
deal with the New York Giants for the
Chargers to draft Manning with the first
pick, the Giants to draft Rivers with the
fourth pick and for the players would
be traded for one another. In other
words, a top talent quarterback chose
the team with which he believed he was
best Model-Matched.
What does any of this football trivia
have to do with the mortgage industry
in 2012? Both football examples illus-
trate how mid-tier football teams used
the acquisition of Model-Matched talent
to displace first-tier organizations in the
battle for supremacy. The mortgage
industry is witnessing a similar phenom-
enon of mid-tier firms gaining market
share from first-tier firms by careful
acquisition of origination talent. The
fact is, in football, the talents of your
quarterback will, in large part, deter-
mine the success of your team. In the
mortgage industry, the talents of your
originators (those who figuratively
touch the ball on every play) will deter-
mine the success of the lender.
Where our analogy suffers, however,
is that it has been primarily through
free-agency that the mid-tier in the
mortgage industry has grown, rather
than through the hiring and training of
brand new originators (the draft).
A free agent in professional sports is
an athlete who is not under contract
and is free to sign a new contract with
any team with which they can reach a
deal. The recent courtship of LeBron
James when he became a free agent
after the 2010 NBA season is the high-
est profile example that comes to
mind. Football is likely to see a similar
free-agency, free-for-all this spring
when Indianapolis Colts quarterback,
first-ballot hall of famer, and Eli
Mannings older brother Peyton
Manning will likely be available to sign
with any club he chooses.
In the mortgage origination industry,
free-agency exists because available tal-
ent is often not satisfied with the execu-
tion provided by the biggest lenders. For
top originatorslack of execution
equals a negative Model-Match and a
reason to seek a new team.
The decline of
the mega-lender
In the wake of the sub-prime lending
and banking capital crisis, we saw the
largest banks in the country emerge far
stronger than their mid- and smaller-
sized competitors. The billions of tax-
payer dollars that stabilized the largest
banks, combined with their national
footprints, gave them a significant
advantage in the mortgage origination
market between 2008- 2011. However,
things are beginning to change.
According to industry reports for the
third quarter of 2011, the four largest
originatorsWells Fargo, JP Morgan
Chase, Bank of America and Citihave
seen their combined mortgage origina-
tion market share drop to 54.99 percent
from 58.40 percent a year earlier.
Why are the mega-banks losing mort-
gage origination market share? There
are two primary reasons for this
changecosts and effective competi-
tors. According to a recent report from
Paul Miller of FBR Capital Markets,
these large banks are suffering from
high costs and distractions associated
with the servicing of previously originat-
ed loans and repurchase requests from
the government-sponsored enterprises
(GSEs). Secondly, smaller competitors,
particularly those without legacy servic-
ing or technology constraints, have
been effective in scaling up their opera-
tions, providing better loan closing exe-
cution and reaching out to prospective
customers, thereby taking market
share.
The declining operational conditions
at these mega-lenders have cost them
many of their top originators.
Throughout the fall of 2011, the indus-
try news outlets were filled with report
after report of leading originators
leaving these large firms for other
firmssometimes to other mega-
lenders, but often to mid-sized or
smaller competitors.
The emergence
of mid-sized lenders
While the mega-lenders were losing
market share, mid-sized firms were
gaining. Second-tier lenders, including
PHH Mortgage, U.S. Bank, Quicken
Home Loans, Provident Funding, BB&T
and Fifth Third, have seen a doubling of
their market share from 2007 to the
third quarter of 2011 according to Paul
Miller.
This is a diverse group made up of
three regional banks, one online lender
and two non-bank lenders. These firms
share two primary attributes that have
helped them grow during these chal-
lenging times in the industry. First, they
all emerged virtually unscathed and
financially secure after the mortgage
and banking crises. Second, they have
grown their businesses by investing in
technology and talent.
The rehab of brokers
These emerging mid-sized lenders had
better not get too complacent, because
2011 origination data also indicates
that small lenders, brokers, are picking
up market share as well. After hitting
an all-time low of 6.8 percent in the
second quarter, brokers saw their mar-
ket share grow to 7.9 percent and 9.2
percent respectively in the succeeding
quarters of 2011. As the regulatory
environment clarifies in 2012, bro-
kers competitiveness may increase
further as their ability to offer a more
entrepreneurial environment and
their proximity to customers entices
top origination talent. Moreover,
rumors of major investors looking to
begin to invest in wholesale lending
operations, coupled with the big
lenders need to reduce costs, may
create favorable conditions for bro-
kers. The once dominant players in
mortgage origination may revitalize
the industry after three-plus years of
being essentially out of the game in
rehab.
Free-agency
of mortgage talent
The decline of the big boys, the emer-
gence of the upstart mid-sized firms
and the rehab of the former dominant
players has created what amounts to
almost universal free-agency for talent-
ed mortgage originators. Originators,
with the stats to back them up, can find
a home wherever they want. The fact is
that all lenders will have to compete to
retain and attract the best originators
in the business. Much like a star athlete
evaluating their options about where to
take their talents, star originators will
be evaluating the entirety of offers pre-
sented to pick the one that offers the
best Model-Match.
Anybody want to start a Fantasy
Origination League?
Drew Waterhouse is managing director
of Hammerhouse LLC, a national recruit-
ing and strategic growth firm for the
financial services industry with mortgage
sales and leadership placement at its
core. Drew may be reached by e-mail at
Drew.Waterhouse@TeamHammerhouse.
com or visit TeamHammerhouse.com.
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Mortgage Company, has joined
Urban Financial Group as head of
wholesale and retail sales, and
Kristen N. Sieffert has joined Urban
Financial as director of corporate-
wide project management and coor-
dinator of call center operations.
I Peter J. Grace has joined the
Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA)
as vice president of strategic plan-
ning and internal technology.
I Herb Suvaco has joined Calyx
Software as the newest member of
the firms new account sales team.
I MountainSeed Appraisal Manage-
ment has added Lisa Scott to its
sales division.
I Mark J. Sadlek has joined AssociaTitle
as its new director of business devel-
opment.
Your turn
invites its readers to submit any informa-
tion, events, passages, promotions, per-
sonal or professional occurrences that
seem appropriate and/or other pertinent
data to the attention of:
Heard on the
Street/Mortgage
Professionals to Watch
column
Phone #: (516) 409-5555
E-mail:
is the 1st of the month prior to the tar-
get issue.
heard on the street continued from page 11
Zillow Launches Social
Media Homebuying
Assistance Tool
Zillow has announced
the launch of
Neighborhood Advice
on Zillow.com, a social home-shopping
experience that helps buyers and
renters learn about neighborhoods
from their Facebook friends. While
shopping on Zillow, users are prompted
to activate Facebook Connect and then
see locally where their Facebook friends
live or check-in the most. As shoppers
search for homes in a specific city or
neighborhood, Neighborhood Advice
will recommend Facebook friends con-
nected to the area to contact for per-
sonal tips and advice.
For example, if a user is searching for
homes in the San Francisco neighbor-
hood of Noe Valley, Neighborhood
Advice will identify friends who have
shared that they live in Noe Valley, or
who frequently check-in to places in
Noe Valley. The home shopper can then
send these friends a private direct mes-
sage on Facebook to ask questions
about the neighborhood.
When people are looking to rent or
buy a new home, they always ask
friends, family and co-workers ques-
tions about different neighborhoods.
Neighborhood Advice takes this further
and deeper by allowing shoppers to
quickly and easily tap into their broad-
er online social network as they shop
for homes on Zillow, said Spencer
Rascoff, chief executive officer of Zillow.
Integrating social media tools and
friend networks into the core Zillow
home-shopping experience is yet anoth-
er way we are giving our users access to
previously hard-to-find, yet sought-
after, information.
LendingQB Releases
Companion Android
and iPhone Apps
LendingQB has announced
the availability of mobile
app companions to their
cloud-based, end-to-end
loan origination system.
The LendingQB apps are designed to
enhance the loan closing process by keep-
ing loan officers in constant contact with
their loan origination system.
Mobile applications need to be
more than a gimmick, said Binh Dang,
LendingQBs managing partner. The
LendingQB mobile apps provide useful
functionality that helps loan officers stay
on top of their loans and foster better
communication with their customers.
Available for free on both Android-
based smartphones and Apples iPhone,
the LendingQB mobile app is linked
directly to the full LendingQB mortgage
loan origination system (LOS) and pro-
vides mortgage professionals with the
ability to view real-time status updates
of loans in their pipeline, as well as
track when loan milestones have been
achieved.
The LendingQB mobile app also
includes a loan pre-qualification and
pricing tool that is linked to
LendingQBs built-in automated under-
writing engine, PriceMyLoan. Users can
enter in loan scenarios and instantly
view eligibility and real-time pricing
results. Loan scenarios can be saved for
quick access at a later time.
Our mobile apps are designed to lever-
age the best features of our full loan orig-
ination system, but in a way that makes
sense, said Linn Cook, marketing director
at LendingQB. Providing loan officers a
snap shot of their loan pipeline not only
keeps them informed, but it cuts down on
the amount of calls that loan processors
and underwriters have to field.
Additionally, using a smartphone to get
instant quotes on loan eligibility and pric-
ing lets loan officers make a powerful
impression on prospects and generate
more leads.
New DataQuick
Tool Analyzes
Distressed Properties
DataQuick has
announced the
release of Risk-
Finder Distress, a tool that provides
investors, lenders and servicers with the
ability to search and analyze the risk
levels of distressed properties nation-
wide. RiskFinder Distress enables users
to track and analyze key distress events
throughout the life cycle of the loan.
This provides investors and lenders the
information needed to evaluate risk,
determine the impact of distress sales
on loss severity estimates, drive loss
mitigation strategies and identify mar-
kets that are starting to recover.
There is a significant opportunity in
distressed properties if companies
understand the risks and potential loss
severity of each loan, said John Walsh,
president of DataQuick. For buyers,
the low cost of distressed properties
provides attractive investment value,
while servicers and owners need to
understand how to mitigate their
potential losses.
DataQuicks RiskFinder Distress pro-
vides unprecedented capability to track
foreclosure, short sale, real estate-owned
(REO) or for sale by auction trends. The
trends can be analyzed by geographic
level and time period, with coverage
available nationwide and by ZIP code.
The biggest challenge in clearing out
the inventory of distressed homes is in
identifying the best strategy for limiting
losses or for a profitable acquisition,
Walsh said. RiskFinder Distress gives users
the information and analysis needed to
not only track distress trends, but analyze
their influences on home prices and pre-
dicting loss severity.
Your turn
invites you to submit any information
promoting new niche loan programs,
new products or any other announce-
ment related to the introduction of a new
program, to the attention of:
New to Market column
Phone #: (516) 409-5555
E-mail:
is the 1st of the month prior to the tar-
get issue.
top five things to know continued from page 27
for a financial document, misses an
important deadline or even gets two
clients mixed up. Making a mistake is a
difficult realization for anyone, espe-
cially in a detail-oriented career field
like this one. Mistakes do happen and
can be learning opportunities.
It is not enough just to fix the mistake.
LOs need to go back and look at why the
mistake was made in the first place. Is
there a process that could be in place to
prevent this mistake in the future? Since
the LO business is a process-oriented
business, the same factors that con-
tributed to one mistake or challenge will
be in place again. Learning how to spot
those factors and identify the issues that
lead up to the challenge will be one of
the most helpful things that an LO can
do throughout their career.
Jim Harbaugh, head coach of the San
Francisco 49ers said it best when he
said, Were trying to improve in all
areas. [We need to] see where the heck
we can get a mile and half faster and
one percent better each day. Thats the
way we go about things (Inside the
49ers, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, Nov.
9, 2011). If each LO becomes one per-
cent better each day, in a month they
will be 30 percent better. There is
always room for improvement. Being
an LO is about learning from mistakes,
creating new, more accurate ways of
completing processes and always asking
for new referrals.
Leif Boyd is senior vice president of pro-
duction for American Pacific Mortgage.
Since joining American Pacific Mortgage,
Leif has taken an active role in oversee-
ing all aspects of mortgage origination,
including the oversight of the production
department and 114-plus branches. He
may be reached by phone at (916) 960-
1325 or e-mail lboyd@apmortgage.com.
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Visit www.NAMB.org/legconference
for details!
The number one reason you should attend this event is
the satisfaction of knowing you are doing your part to
ensure that mortgage broker issues are heard on
Capitol Hill. You are the best spokesperson for our
issues. Your participation benefits you, the industry and
your clients as a whole, by strengthening the brokers
presence in the halls of Congress.
Highlights Will Include:
I Mortgage industry trade association panel discussion featuring representatives
from NAMB, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), the National Association of
Realtors (NAR) and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)
I A closer look at the powers of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
(CFPB) and what they will be looking for in their audits
I Loan originator (LO) compensation and the impact of HR 2509, the Preserving
Consumers Mortgage Origination Choices Act of 2011, sponsored by Rep.
Gary Miller (R-CA)
Hotel Accommodations
Capitol Skyline Hotel
10 "I" Street, Southwest Washington, D.C. 20024
Phone #: (202) 488-7500
www.capitolskyline.com
Special "NAMB" rates will be available for a limited time only. Book early!
You must be registered for the conference in order to book your room.
Monday-Tuesday,
March 19-20, 2012
Be prepared to go to the Hill!
Includes Advocacy 101 training:
General synopsis and "Question & Answer"
on the best ways to communicate NAMB's
talking points with your congressional leaders
in an effective manner.
Headlines and breaking news from
NationalMortgageProfessional.com.
Headlines and blogs from
around the web.
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Marketing 101: Its the Message That
Makes the Difference!
By David Lykken & Jon Traver
This month, you will find a variety of arti-
cles in this magazine covering a number of
ways in which to market yourself and your
company. While there are many great
options out there, especially with the
world of social media taking off, we want-
ed to focus on a different part of the mar-
keting process: The message. No matter
where you decide to spend your time,
money and effort, if the message doesnt
work, your success will not be there.
Marketing is everywhere, in every busi-
ness, and in every media type possible. As
we sit here writing this article, we are one
week away from the 2012 Super Bowl. We
all know that the Super Bowl is as much
about marketing and advertising as it is
about football, if not more. Now unfortu-
nately, by the time you read this, the Super
Bowl and its commercials will have come
and gone, but we want to give you a little
homework before you start to move forward
with your marketing plans for 2012. What
we would like you to do is the following: Go
to YouTube.com and search for Super Bowl
2012 Commercials and watch each of
them. While watching them, you need to be
making notes about each one. Here are the
questions you should try and answer:
I What is the primary message? (Hint:
Not what are they selling!)
I Was there a call to action? (Did it
make me want to go do something?)
I Can I relate to what they said?
I Did they set themselves apart from
their competition?
The goal of this exercise is to get your
mind zeroed in on the most important part
of marketing, your message. No matter
how much effort and research you put into
finding the best place to market yourself,
without the proper message, it will be a
complete waste of time and money. It
always amazes us when we sit down with
our clients, how much time they have
spent deciding where, when and how
much to advertise and market themselves,
and how little time they have spent, if any,
on the message.
Lets take a look at two different very
specific areas that mortgage professionals
might look at when formulating a market-
ing plan. The first topic we will look at is
the tough job of generating loans or refer-
ral sources. This can be the toughest mar-
keting job in the mortgage world, because
every single loan officer is working towards
the same goal. Any time we are faced with
a great deal of competition, the message
we are delivering becomes so much more
important. So, after you have decided
where to market yourself (Google, direct
mail, social networks, pay-per-click adver-
tising, etc.), you must begin to formulate
your message.
There are two main objectives when
building your message. The first objective
you need to achieve is, what sets me apart
from my competition? Be sure not to fall
into the simple trap of I have the best
rates or we provide the best service.
There are two problems you will encounter
when using either of those messages. The
first is that everyone says they provide
great rates and great service, so how can
you differentiate yourself when using
those lines? The second issue is that, even-
tually, you will not be able to back those
statements up, and then what?
When trying to generate business for
yourself, you must have a solid reason for
whoever has seen your marketing to feel
that there really is something that differ-
entiates you from the competition. And
while we cannot go into details about how
we help our clients achieve this goal, there
are many different ways to do this it just
takes time and creativity. The second
important thing about your marketing
message is you must include a call to
action. McDonalds spends millions of dol-
lars a year building name recognition, but
you dont have millions of dollars to spend!
You must get through to your potential
clients the first time. Readers or listeners to
your message must be given a reason to
reply or respond to your message. Dont
just assume they will see your name and
decide to call. You must give them a rea-
son to call, and more importantly, a reason
to call NOW!
Now, lets look at things from a compa-
ny point of view. Many companies are look-
ing to increase their production through
either branch or loan officer acquisition.
We all see these ads in so many different
places. When we sit down with our clients
and begin to build a plan to increase pro-
duction through talent
acquisition, we always
remind our clients to list the
reasons why someone
would choose their compa-
ny over the hundreds of
other quality options in the
marketplace.
Depending upon your
companys name recogni-
tion, the task of maximizing
your marketing dollar can
either be hard or really
hard. When trying to attract
attention from those within
the mortgage industry, you
not only have to adjust
where to market, but the
message you market with. It
always amazes us how
many companies use fast
turn times or low rates as
the reason someone might
want to join their firm.
While that message may
have worked a few years ago, most origi-
nators and branch managers left in this
business are just too smart and experi-
enced to fall for such a mes-
sage.
Companies must now
provide solid concrete rea-
sons as to why becoming a
part of their team is advan-
tageous. We always ask our
clients the following ques-
tion: How will your compa-
ny help me grow my own
personal production? If you
struggle to answer that ques-
tion about yourself, how can
you effectively answer that
question from someone who
actually answered your call
to action?
Any good loan officer or
branch manager would
want their company to pro-
vide them with help in
growing their business.
Finding the answer to that
question above, and then
getting that message across in a marketing
message (including a job posting) can be
tough but crucial to your success.
In an industry with so much compe-
tition, differentiating yourself from
everyone else can be tough. But if you
want your marketing to succeed, you
must find a way to accomplish this, with or
without help. In our past experience 50
percent to 70 percent of all advertising and
marketing in the mortgage
industry fails to achieve the
success desired. We believe
this is because the message
included simply did not
persuade those who were
targeted to respond.
Remember, you must
find a way to set yourself
apart and you must have a
call to action in all market-
ing messages. Learn all you
can about the many options
out there, including social
networking. Dont forget
your homework, and dont
ever stop trying to grow and
succeed. The business is out
there, you just have to go
and find it!
David Lykken is president of
mortgage strategies and
managing partner with
Mortgage Banking Solutions.
He has more than 35 years of industry expe-
rience and has garnered a national reputa-
tion, and has become a frequent guest
on FOX Business News
with Neil Cavuto, Stuart
Varney, Liz Claman and
Dave Asman with addition-
al guest appearances on
the CBS Evening News,
Bloomberg TV and radio. He
may be reached by phone at
(512) 977-9900, ext. 10, or e-
mail dlykken@mortgage-
bankingsolutions.com or
dlykken@mbs-team.com.
Jon Traver is production
consultantbranching,
recruiting and LO training
for Mortgage Banking
Solutions. Jon has spent 12
years forging referral rela-
tionships with builders and
realtors for his own mort-
gage company. He has
extensive experience work-
ing with branch companies
to grow their businesses
through branch and LO acquisition, as well
as building long-term business development
plans. Jon trains executives, branch man-
agers, and loan officers how to redefine
who they are and what they do. He then
helps them build a game plan for taking
that new knowledge to the streets, including
the execution. He may be reached by phone
at (512) 977-9900, ext. 112, (972) 467-3990
or e-mail jtraver@mbs-team.com.
It always amazes us
when we sit down
with our clients, how
much time they have
spent deciding where,
when and how much
to advertise and mar-
ket themselves, and
how little time they
have spent, if any, on
the message.
David Lykken
When trying to gen-
erate business for
yourself, you must
have a solid reason for
whoever has seen your
marketing to feel that
there really is some-
thing that differenti-
ates you from the
competition.
Jon Traver
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Do You Have a Marketing Problem
or a Branding Problem?
By Patrick H. Seroka
There is a traditional and unchallenged
approach to brand development that, for
quite some time, seemed airtight and struck
all the senses of logic, yet is flawed and has
lost its effectiveness.
Before we begin, take a few minutes to
jot down the names of four or five lenders
you compete with, and make sure to include
your own. Next, visit your competitors Web
sites and your own through the eyes and
minds of your customers. Read through the
About Us pages and peruse through loan
programs and services. Question after
looking through three or four sites, did you
happen to detect any messages on any of the
sites you visited that differentiated one
mortgage company from another? Or, did
most sites pretty much say the same things,
just in different ways? If you found this exer-
cise underwhelming, confusing and maybe
even exhausting, you can understand how
customers feel when trying to select a lender.
The fact is, most people will not take the
time to dig and unearth the differences
between competing mortgage companies as
they navigate through their decision-making
process. A companys failure to communi-
cate a clear, meaningful and relevant dis-
tinction leaves could-be customers with lit-
tle choice but to base their decisions on vari-
ables such as rate, price and location. Word-
of-mouth may influence some, but nowhere
near enough to build a strong company and
propel sustainable year-over-year growth.
Given the competitive landscape within
the mortgage industry (and in any industry
for that matter), most companies dont suf-
fer from a marketing, advertising or public
relations problemthey suffer from a
branding problem.
The traditional method
of brand development
Brand development is typically initiated at
the C-Level when a company is suffering
from diminishing returns on marketing
investments, when a competitor builds a
better mousetrap, or when corporate initia-
tives (such as a merger or acquisition) require
a branding effort.
The process usually starts with the market-
ing director who drafts and submits a Request
for Proposal (RFP) to branding companies, con-
sultants and ad agencies. When brand devel-
opment proposals start rolling in, they typical-
ly include a heavy emphasis on the need for
the company to invest in external qualitative
and quantitative research to measure brand
equity, brand awareness and the process by
which customers search for and select mort-
gage companies.
Once the external research is complete,
the chief executive officer and other key
executives get together to analyze the find-
ings and begin to think in terms of becom-
ing the mortgage company people are ask-
ing for. It seems to be the most intelligent
and logical approach. After all, everything
the CEO needs to know is in his or her hands,
and its simply a matter of changing a few
things internally to meet the wants and
desires of the customers who participated in
the survey. The next step? Building an
aggressive and robust marketing plan cen-
tered around the new brand.
The problem with this method is that too
many competitive companies approach
brand development in similar ways; they also
acquire intelligence from external research
and subsequently change their brand and
messaging to resonate with their customers.
Is it any wonder why so many competi-
tive companies say the same things, just in
different ways?
Your brand must be built
from within
Ask any CEO what their most valuable asset is,
and they will most likely tell you that its their
employees or their brand. They are the
samea companys brand is its employees.
Therefore, employees must learn the brand,
live the brand, become the brand and deliv-
er the brand before marketing can be
employed to communicate the brand.
Three brand development
clarifications
Clarification number one:
The definition of a brand
If you look up the word brand in a diction-
ary, youll see definitions synonymous with
identifying and claiming. While this may be
an appropriate definition for marking cattle
and identifying property, it is insufficient for
branding a company or organization.
The reason is because any company can
claim to be anything it wants, and many do
in the spirit of retaining and
attracting customers. But how
many of those companies can
prove their claims to be true?
Next time you are on hold for
20 min. with a company that
boasts stellar customer serv-
ice, youll understand exactly
where Im coming from.
So, for your purposes, the
definition of a brand must be
evidence of distinction. In
other words, if you say it, you
must be able to prove it. Do
you tout _____ (fill in unique
selling point) _____? Youll
need to prove it. Do you claim
_____ (fill in unique selling
point) _____? Youll need to
prove it. You can prove claims
through certifications, testi-
monials, reviews and other
factual supporting references,
and highlight them on your
Web site and in sales collateral.
Clarification number two:
The definition of brand development
Brand development is the process by which a
companys evidence of distinction is
unearthed and communicated internally and
externally. Again, employees must be the
brand before marketing can launch the brand.
Clarification number three:
Brand development must be discovered
and adopted at the very top echelons of a
company or organization
Brand development is not and cannot be a
marketing initiativeit must be aligned
with your business strategy. Brands are the
reason companies exist. Therefore, brand
development must start at the top.
The three most
important brand
development questions
As we have already established, brand devel-
opment must start from within, youll note
that the answers to the three most important
brand development questions cannot be
found through external research. Answering
these questions will require a meeting with
key people in your company (C-Suite, senior
management, human resources, sales and
operations). Youll need their perspectives as
you answer these questions:
1) Who are we? What type of lender are
you? What type of loans do you offer? Do you
specialize in any loan programs?
2) How are we different? There is a reason
why your company was
startedyou had some-
thing to offer that was better
and/or different from your
competitors.
3) What are we capable of
becoming? If youre stuck in a
situation where your original
unique selling proposition is
no longer relevant or has
been diffused by competitors,
you must identify what your
brand is capable of becoming.
Of the three questions, this
may be the most important,
as it will determine how you
will grow and emerge with
new, improved and enhanced
unique selling points.
How to avoid the
biggest brand
development
mistake
Going through a brand development process
will require a significant amount of time,
thought and energy. The biggest mistake a
company can make is to allow that momen-
tum to coast to a crawl once the new brand
has been defined. It is critical that the CEO
drive the internal brand adoption while the
enthusiasm is still boiling and see to it that
progress is made every day. This can best be
accomplished by creating momentum
groups, assigning them tasks and deadlines,
and establishing expectations.
Internal brand adoption requires much
more than a meeting and supporting e-mail
to communicate the new brand.
Employeesall employeeswill need to be
engaged in a fun, interactive way to encour-
age bonding and collaboration. This will not
only build their enthusiasm for the new
brand, but also boost morale. Again, brand
development must start from within.
Once your brand has been thoroughly
adopted by everyone in your company, it will
be time to identify all of your brand touch
points (sales, human resources, operations,
customer service, etc.) and promote your
brand with relentless enthusiasm.
Now go and crush your competition!
Patrick H. Seroka is president and chief execu-
tive officer of Seroka, the only Certified Brand
Strategists in North America specializing in
the mortgage industry. With Seroka, youll
experience unique, second-to-none client serv-
ice and benefit from compelling marketing
communications. Plus, we guarantee your
growth. For more information, call (262) 523-
3740 or email pat@seroka.com.
Given the competi-
tive landscape within
the mortgage industry
(and in any industry
for that matter), most
companies dont suffer
from a marketing,
advertising or public
relations problem
they suffer from a
branding problem.
Dont You Forget About Me
Make marketing matter
By BJ Bounds
Everything we do as business owners is
designed to keep our company at the fore-
front of any potential clients mind. But as
we spend our time developing the perfect
slogan, taking the perfect picture or
designing the perfect flyer, we often forget
the most important thingthe client!
Remember the song titled above by
Simple Minds from the 80s? Thats what
Im talking about. What may be perfect to
us may not resonate the same way with
the clients we seek. We must always keep
the client in our minds as we seek to mar-
ket to them. Its not about us.
Reaching out to your audience and
marketing your business is not complicat-
ed, but it starts with developing an overall
look and feel for your business that will
attract the clients you seek. Once you have
figured out what you audience wants, the
next step is to begin the marketing
process. Marketing doesnt just happen.
Its a process that requires a strategy
even a simple one, and it can encompass
any number of methods and tools. Today,
were just going to talk about those things
you can do with your main business tool,
your loan origination software (LOS), coor-
dinated with an Internet presence, to
make your marketing strategy matter.
Know your audience
Marketing contacts can come to you from
many different sources. A primary source of
contacts will come from applicants in your
LOS. You LOS enables you to capture many
more personal details in addition to the
required application data. Get to know your
applicants and build your database with
relevant marketing information. Birthday,
childrens names and ages, interests, alma
maters, etc. will be significant to you when
you begin your marketing efforts.
Along with your applicant contacts, you
can and certainly should maintain a data-
base of vendor contacts. Your LOS is more
than likely your most secure system and
keeping your contacts here would ensure
the integrity of your database. Keeping
your vendor and referral partners in one
consolidated database makes targeted
marketing easier and less time-intensive.
Determining your audiences likes and
dislikes, along with developing your over-
all marketing objectives, you can begin
marketing to your contacts. Begin by sort-
ing your contacts by any number of fields
to target your messaging. Your LOS allows
you to export contact information with fil-
ters that suit the message you choose.
Tailor your messages
Your LOS is not just a loan processing sys-
tem. It is so much more than that. It can
serve as your database for marketing con-
tacts and store your marketing materials for
whenever you need to produce or send
them. Because you can categorize your con-
tacts in to segments that work best for your
messages, your marketing materials can
become the type of targeted communica-
tions that mean the most to your audience.
Now that you know who your audience
is, you can more easily develop your mes-
saging accordingly. Different from the
mass marketing techniques of a large cor-
poration, with a one-size-fits-most mar-
keting campaign, your campaign should
be targeted to the audience categories you
have created in your database. This tech-
nique allows you determine the messages
that resonate best with your contacts and
are more likely to make an impact.
I mentioned before that personal infor-
mation is important to capture for your
database contacts. This is where sending
simple birthday wishes comes into play.
Use that opportunity to ask for referrals or
maybe even send refinance rates if it
makes sense. You could also select the
realtors in your database and can create a
marketing campaign just for them,
whether or not you typically do business
with them. It would be a great way to get
referrals from new sources or solidify the
relationships you have with your favorites.
Establish your
online presence
Fundamental marketing techniques
can establish your business as a true
contender in your space. Turning your
companys vision into a decided look
and feel is the first step in making mar-
keting matter for you and your clients.
Once you have the overall brand for
your company that speaks to your
strengths, your commitments, and
most importantlyyour intended audi-
ence, you have the blueprint with which
you can begin drawing your
marketing plans.
As you develop your
plans to promote your
brand and company offer-
ings, keep in mind two of
your strongest tools. Your
Web site becomes the
face of your company and
must reflect your business
strengths and vision. You
can have the most fun and
use the most creativity
when choosing the overall
look of your site and the
content you post.
Your Web content must
be relevant to your audi-
ence, particularly the audi-
ence you most want to
speak to. Put yourself in
their shoes what would
they most like to see or what would be the
most helpful to them? You want your Web
site to solidify their decision to look deeper,
bookmark your site to return, or even make
the decision to click your Apply Now but-
ton. Once they apply, they join your other
contacts in the database of leads you have
in your LOS with a seamless integration
between your site and your LOS.
Freshen up
your marketing
If you want to jump on the bandwagon,
there is always a tremendous amount of
retail hype surrounding the holidays.
Why not take advantage of that and
market your services to your database
contacts, past clients or even those
dead applications that never went
anywhere? Even those contacts could be
viable leads. What about having a
Black Friday event or Presidents
Day extravaganza? You have plenty of
options, and you can fit your holiday
messaging to suit your business.
One of the benefits of using your
LOS for your marketing efforts is that it
gives you the ability to truly target
your audience with mail-merge capa-
bilities and one-stop storage. If youre
lucky, your LOS will work easily with
Microsoft Word to import and export
your fresh marketing materials. Using
Word to create your documents gives
you hundreds of design options with
the templates you can find within the
software and online.
If you are creative, your designs,
even modified from a template, are a
great way to transport your messages in
such a way that they
evoke the response that
you are looking for. Thats
why knowing your con-
tacts personal informa-
tion to the extent possi-
ble is crucial. You might
have to use several t em-
plates/designs to accomp-
lish this, but it will be worth
the additional effort. If you
are lacking the information
for your industry partners,
its time to up your net-
working game so that your
communications to them
can be just as targeted.
Make it matter
to them
There is absolutely no rea-
son why you should spend
an exorbitant amount of money to design
your marketing materials when there are
so many templates available. Easy-to-use
templates can be modified to represent
your companys look and feel as well as
your designated messaging per category.
This applies to your Web site as well as
your printed pieces. Further personalize
your materials with the mail merge option
in your LOS so that each piece becomes
more suited to your intended audience.
Youll find that even your e-mails can
become a template, and yet still be cus-
tomized and meaningful.
Meaningful marketing does matter in
your businessparticularly in a down
economyit is important to maintain a
presence in the marketplace. There are
clients who can qualify for mortgages and
refinance loans. You just need to dig a lit-
tle to find them and market to them. Use
the tools and ideas that work and ones
that work for you. Today it is not enough
to produce mass marketing materials that
try to speak to everybody but often remain
silent. You must determine what truly
speaks to your audience and make your
marketing matter to them.
B.J. Bounds is senior marketing commu-
nications specialist for Calyx Software. In
addition to media relations and copy-
writing, BJ is a contributing author to
the Calyx Software blog, CalyxCorner.
She has more than 10 years of experience
in sales and corporate marketing with a
focus on technology that spans several
industries. She may be reached by phone
at (800) 362-2599 or visit www.calyxsoft-
ware.com.
What may be perfect
to us may not res-
onate the same way
with the clients we
seek. We must always
keep the client in our
minds as we seek to
market to them. Its
not about us.
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Think for a moment
about how you are
spending time today ver-
sus two years agohow
much time is spent clos-
ing a loan? Where does
that extra time come
from? If you are like most
loan originators (LOs),
you are spending less
time focused on market-
ing. An automated, sys-
tematic approach would
make a tangible differ-
ence in your results.
Customer retention in
the mortgage industry
averages around 25 per-
cent, which is too low to
ensure long-term success.
Looking forward, it is likely that con-
sumers will get a new mortgage every
five years, implying a very purchase-ori-
ented (not refinance) environment. By
not keeping in contact with past cus-
tomers, originators lose an average of
75 percent of the revenue each cus-
tomer relationship represents. You
dont need an MBA in finance to see
that originators need an easy way to
build and maintain relationships with
clients, prospects and referral partners.
Total originations in the market are
forecast to fall for the fourth consecu-
tive year. Combine this with increased
competition from the top end of the
market, and we may see originators
income decline as well.
But not every originator will see their
income plummet. In fact, during the
past few years, some originators have
seen their income skyrocket. What was
the secret to their suc-
cess? The top producers
have continued to inno-
vate in their marketing,
taking advantage of new
technology, sophisticated
database management
techniques and variable
digital printing to execute
new marketing strategies to
their prospects, existing
customers and referral
partners.
When utilizing technolo-
gy, even classic marketing
tools like direct mail can be
enhanced to achieve strong
results. Although the bene-
fits of marketing seem obvi-
ous, many originators either use generic
marketing that isnt effective or they dont
market to past clients at all. Top origina-
tors have always used marketing more
effectively to produce greater loan volume
and profit than their peers.
The most successful originators have
three components to their direct mail
campaigns. Relationship marketing needs
be regular and automated. Targeted mar-
keting needs to be precise in list develop-
ment and messaging. And, most impor-
tantly, reputational marketing should be
relevant to the consumer. Incorporating
all three of these elements will increase
results and ensure long-term success.
Relationship-building
marketing
Direct mail campaigns that are continu-
ous remind customers, prospects and
referral partners who their originator is,
so they will return to you when its time
to close another loan. An example is
holiday cards.
When used con-
tinuously, holiday
cards make it
easy to keep your
name and picture
in front of your
target group.
While the mes-
sage is the same
to all recipients,
we know that fre-
quent communi-
cat i on hel ps
maintain a relationship.
Regular communication, even with a
mass message, is the first step to a suc-
cessful marketing campaign. It increases
the chances that when a homeowner
realizes it is time to conduct a transac-
tion, they will think of you.
However, too many originators think
that this is all their marketing needs to
accomplish. Sending the same message
to everyone, while important, has two
key flaws. It doesnt demonstrate that
you are continuing to manage the con-
sumers accountin fact, it takes your
relationship from a detailed and impor-
tant financial advisor at the time of the
loan, and reduces it to an acquaintance
who remembers birthdays. And, it isnt
targeted to the homeowners individual
needs. Instead, it treats all of them the
same. You provide a lot of personal
service when finding the right loan
product and tailoring a loan to meet
individual needsyour marketing
should demonstrate that this level of
personal service still exists, long after
the initial transaction.
Targeted marketing
The next critical upgrade is to make
your direct marketing efforts oppor-
tunity-driven for a specific audience.
Whether it is a new product launch, a
refinance opportunity, or simply
advice on how to help someone who
cannot qualify for a loan today, tar-
geted marketing requires that you to
analyze your database to find those
who would benefit from a specific
opportunity. Then, tailor the message
specifically to them.
How does this apply todaythink
about HARP 2.0 or HARP Phase II. This
program will be available for home-
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e-mail: sales@calyxsoftware.com
visit: www.calyxsoftware.com
Direct Mail Marketing Best Practices
By Jim Blatt
Dont be satisfied
with the simplest or
cheapest marketing.
Invest in marketing
that delivers the best
results.
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Jumping Onto the Social Media
Bandwagon and Reaping the Profits
By Ray Eickhoff
owners based on loan date and other
restrictions. You need to target the
right group of borrowers with a mes-
sage customized to them. Mass post-
cards to all homeowners will work,
but why waste the money sending a
notice to someone who is not eligible
and not interested? In addition to
wasting resources, it also demon-
strates that you are not paying atten-
tion to them and their situation
which is not a desirable outcome from
a marketing piece.
Reputation-building
marketing
The third and most important compo-
nent of direct mail marketing is to
enhance your reputation by making
the message both relevant and impor-
tant to the consumer you are target-
ing. A study conducted by the direct
mail industry revealed that when mar-
keters used more personalized mar-
keting messages, response rates from
consumers increased tenfold. In short,
the more relevant the marketing, the
better the results will be.
Relevant marketing will maintain
the trust and credibility built when
you helped that consumer through the
maze of regulations and red tape that
is our current closing process.
Marketing should have the goal of
positioning you as a lifetime financial
consultant, not just another salesper-
son looking to make a commission. To
consumers, salespeople are pushy,
self-serving and easily replaced.
Consultants are trustworthy.
Think about your past customers
you know a lot about them. You know
the details of the last loan, why they
chose it, and what they are trying to
do in the future. Sending out Happy
Fourth of July cards is nice, but if you
want them to truly remember the pro-
fessional and detailed service you pro-
vided, you need to do better.
Take this message for example:
Andrew, your loan closed in September
2011 at a rate of 4.25 percent. Todays
rate is 4.5 percent, so my recommenda-
tion is to not do anythingyou have a
great rate! If your situation has changed,
call me, and lets talk about it.
The next time rates do drop, or new
products come out, and you call him,
Andrew will return the call. He will
remember you helped him through
the loan process, and then kept track
of his loan after the sale. When he has
a friend ready to buy a house, he will
recommend you.
If you have been a successful origi-
nator in the market for more than
four years, you probably have 300 or
more customers in your database. If
homeowners do a transaction every
five years (a purchase market), then
60 people you know are likely to do a
transaction this year. How likely is it
that they are coming back to you?
What are you investing in that rela-
tionship to get them back?
You also know a lot about your
prospectsyou also know a lot. You
know who is qualified, who is looking
now, who is rate shopping and more.
Shouldnt your marketing demon-
strate that you know these things? If it
does, you will make it much more
likely that the prospect will close
their next loan with you.
Originators need a marketing
engine that truly maximizes the value
of existing relationships, rather than
trying to survive with a series of one
time transactions. You have a lot of
information at your fingertips about
your customers and prospects; make
sure you use it to enhance your repu-
tation. Dont be satisfied with the
simplest or cheapest marketing.
Invest in marketing that delivers the
best results.
The difference in results between
good marketing and great marketing
is easily measured. Are you satisfied
with a loan or two from your past cus-
tomers, or, do you want to truly capi-
talize on customer retention?
Remember the three keys to market-
ingbuild relationships, target effec-
tively and build your reputation. Any
marketing program that doesnt
include all three elements will lower
your results. It would be like putting
bicycle tires on a Ferrariit may
work, but you wouldnt be satisfied
with the result.
Jim Blatt is chief executive officer of St.
Louis, Mo.-based Mortgage Returns. Jim
co-founded Mortgage Returns in 2004,
bringing consumer and database-driven
marketing expertise to the company. He
may be reached by phone at (314) 989-
9100, ext. 102 or e-mail jimblatt@mort-
gagereturns.com.
Most people in sales
remember their first cold
call as pretty scary stuff.
You could practice your
approach until your face
turned blue, but you
never knew what was
going to happen once you
were on the phone with a
borrower or meeting
them face to face. The
more you did it, however,
the more comfortable it
became.
Getting over that initial
fear of putting oneself out
thereto be scrutinized,
disrespected or ignored
is tough. Today, I think the same fears
apply to social media. We all sense the
potential for lead generation, but the
Internet continues to evolve so quickly
that it is hard to put ones head around
what to do and how to do it. Meanwhile,
we see our competitors blog, Fan Pages
on Facebook and videos on YouTube and
we say, I wish I could do that.
Last spring, I took the plunge and
began using Facebook for my mortgage
business. I created a personal page and
then a Fan Page, Ray Eickhoff Mortgage
Coach. I wanted two pages because I
wanted my business content separate
from all my updates about my grandkids
(this was my personal choice, however, to
each their own). Of course, I invited all my
friends to join my Fan Page, and many
did. I began posting surveys, polls, ques-
tions, and bits of news about the mort-
gage industry on my Fan Page.
Since then, Ive gotten eight qualified
leads off my Fan Page that turned into
closed transactions. So far in 2012, I
have four more loans in process based
on Facebook leads. So I know it works.
Still, so many people in our industry
havent bought into it. And the number
one reason, in my opinion, is fear
fear of lost time, fear of expense and
fear of the unknown.
The biggest fear is that theres not
enough time. But I was able to generate
and convert my Facebook leads by
investing just a few hours a week. Of
course, I did not spend
my business hours build-
ing my contacts on social
media when I could be
networking in person,
meeting borrowers, tak-
ing loan applications and
closing transactions. I pri-
oritized personal meetings.
But when I had down time
here or there, social media
became a great use of my
time. Blogging and video
blogging on YouTube may
take slightly more of a time
investment because there
is more to produce, but not
much. Twitter, with a max-
imum of 140 characters per tweet, takes
even less.
The second fear is expense. And yet
with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and most
blogging sites, this issue is moot as these
services are entirely free to use. In fact, not
only are they free, but they also come with
analytic tools that allow you to see which
posts, videos or keywords are drawing the
most attention. The instantaneous feed-
back from these social media outlets
allows you to tailor your message for the
greatest effect.
The one exception is video blogging,
which involves some startup costs. Ive just
recently become involved with YouTube
and linking up video posts with my
Facebook Fan Page. As a musician, I have
some experience working with video, so I
spent money to create a studio in a dedi-
cated room in my branch where I can bring
in real estate agents, builders, partners and
other loan officers. My total investment,
however, was only $500, and this is on the
high end of the scale. Today, video cameras
and editing software have become so inex-
pensive that loan officers can get a classy,
high definition Webcam, a clamp-mounted
light and video editing software for under
$100. At that cost, one closed loan would
give you an immediate return-on-
investment (ROI) and then some.
The last fear is probably the biggest,
and thats the fear of embarrassment. It
seems to be a pretty popular fear in our cul-
ture, this innate dread we have against
The instantaneous
feedback from these
social media outlets
allows you to tailor
your message for the
greatest effect.
doing something new for risk of humiliation
or failure. It starts when youre in kinder-
garten and the teacher tells you to draw a
horse. Everyone in the class draws a horse.
When the same thing happens in fourth
grade, maybe 10 kids in the class will actu-
ally draw it. In junior high, just one kid will
do it. Why? Because by then, all the other
kids have been told they cannot draw.
We all regularly come up against this
fear, the one that says we cannot do it. But
overcoming that anxiety is so critical in this
business, because those who do are able to
blow through production walls. Everyones
first attempts at using social media for mar-
keting are bound to come out a little rough.
One way to get over this fear of embar-
rassment is through preparation. We have
all heard that taking advantage of social
media tools requires planning. I recom-
mend taking a month to research which
social media strategy would work best for
your line of work. Many mortgage and real
estate professionals still prefer to blog, but I
prefer video content versus the written word
as its immediate and personal. More profes-
sionals today are leveraging multiple plat-
forms, and borrowers today are likely to find
loan officers on any one of these platforms.
Once the fear is overcome, the next ques-
tion is obvious what do you post? For me,
its humor, some personal tidbits, mortgage
news and information about the econo-
myanything that entertains and/or brings
value to people. If it gets your attention,
theres a good chance it will get the atten-
tion of others. And by the way, even though
my Facebook fan page is my business page,
it doesnt mean I dont share some personal
stuff. For example, this winter I created a
video highlighting a non-profit called
SpendForOthers.org, a site that invests a
portion of your order to Amazon, Home
Depot, and other approved vendors to six
non-profits listed on their Web site. And it
costs the consumer no more than if they
had gone directly to the vendors site! I put
a video up on Facebook and 74 people
watched it. Its not related to mortgages, but
it certainly kept me on everyones radar.
Ill also post information about the kinds
of things we can do at my company, Fairway
Independent Mortgage, that our competi-
tors cannot or will not do. For example, Im
preparing a post now on our escrow hold-
back policy, which allows money to be held
in escrow even after the loan closes for
repairs that cannot be immediately made.
For example, the deck or roof on an existing
home needs to be replaced, but the seller is
unwilling to repair it prior to closing. Or per-
haps the seller does not have the funds to
complete the repair prior to closing.
Typically, an escrow holdback will only
allow for this in winter due to snow on the
roof or deck, for example. Not everyone
knows this is available, but I can easily
inform them via social media. When I do, I
solidify myself as the expert and someone
looking out for their interests.
What about those stories about people
getting in trouble for using social media for
work? Certainly there are examples of this,
just as there are many state and federal reg-
ulations that dictate how we can advertise
rates and products in print and online. Many
companies go a step further and draft poli-
cies for loan officers to comply with when
using Facebook, Twitter, or other social
media platforms. Some simply ban their use
altogether. At my company, we have a new
social media agreement that talks about the
things we can and cannot publish online.
Fortunately, Fairway allows for a lot of vani-
ty and personal branding and believes the
originators value lies in how he or she builds
relationships. Regardless of the company
they work for and their market area, loan
officers should check with their companys
compliance office before jumping on the
social media bus.
Speaking of jumping on the bus, keep in
mind that social media is still in its infancy
and its not too late to get started. I person-
ally believe that if you want to extend your
reach, generating leads through social
media will separate the real performers
from everyone else. Those in this industry
who have well-crafted social media initia-
tives are starting to rise above the crowd.
The truth is we can only physically talk
and visit with so many people in one day.
Each of us gets only 24 hours. In exchange
for a small investment of my time, however,
a social media presence allows me to com-
municate with many people at onceeven
when Im asleep. And just one closed trans-
action justifies the very meager expense.
Just like cold-calling, marketing through
social media may you feel a little uncom-
fortable at first. I strongly suggest giving it a
chance. Especially in this market, why
wouldnt you want to use all the tools that
are available to grow your business? The
results might just surprise you.
Ray Eickhoff is the Northwest regional vice
president for Fairway Independent Mortgage
Corporation in Edmonds, Wash., a nation-
wide mortgage banker. Ray has 27 years of
experience as a mortgage originator, branch
manager and educator. He may be reached
by phone at (425) 318-1299 or e-mail
raye@fairwaymc.com.
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Finding Success for Your Brand
in Social Media
The top five online personas to avoid
By Chris Clothier
Social media and social networking are
terms that have blown straight to the
top of the list of over-used and over-
analyzed techniques to build buzz for
businesses in recent years. But why
have they become so powerful in
todays marketplace? Its simple
because they work. Unfortunately, pre-
senting the wrong online persona and
using these tactics incorrectly makes it
easy to develop a hard-to-reverse nega-
tive trend about your brand. Every com-
pany and, in fact, every businessperson,
should be online embracing new tools
for networking, marketing and public
relations, but it is essential to have an
effective plan to be successful.
Regardless of your line of business or
situation in life, we are all in need of a
Web presence simply for the ability to
manage our image and the
story that others hear
about us. When used effec-
tively, a sound social
media strategy can not
only establish and build
credibility and expertise,
but it can also increase the
awareness of your particu-
lar expertise and company
to traditional media.
Most of my experience
in marketing has revolved
around my career in real
estate investing. Buying
properties wholesale each
month, determining budg-
ets for repairs, assisting
mostly out-of-state
investors with purchasing
those properties at a dis-
count, overseeing the
rehab and then managing
the property after the
rehab and marketing are
all core components of my business.
Through the years, I have slowly picked
up additional marketing skills, operating
a thriving real estate investing business.
Its vital to underscore the impor-
tance of being very careful with the
image that one creates in the online
world. The pace of growth for social
media and marketing is expanding rap-
idly and most new programs designed
to teach you how to market on the
Internet or through social media only
tell you where to go and how to possi-
bly monetize it. Very few actually tell
you how to be successful when telling
your story.
I have been lucky enough to learn
about social media and social market-
ing from some expert marketers who
have helped me go from a dark shade
of green (completely new) to a much
lighter one. Without being too self-dep-
recating, I know just enough to be dan-
gerous and learn a little more every
day. Here are five types of habits or per-
sonas to absolutely avoid in online
social marketing and the best ways to
avoid them:
1. The Shameless Plugger:
Someone who posts noth-
ing but spam. Every Tweet,
post, blog, video or press
release is endless, pointless
garbage.
How to avoid this:
Communicate about your-
self, your company and
your community to build a
relationship with your
audience. Everyone has a
story to tell, and everyones
story is original.
2. The Online Troll:
People who sabotage any-
thing you do and attempt
to ruin your image among
potential clients.
How to avoid this: Talk
nice and forget your
competition. Remember,
everything you place
online stays online. There will always
be a record of it somewhere.
Today, a legal precedent exists that
dictates what you say online about
someone else can be used against you
in a court of law when facing suits for
When used effective-
ly, a sound social
media strategy can
not only establish and
build credibility and
expertise, but it can
also increase the
awareness of your
particular expertise
and company to
traditional media.
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libel and defamation of character. Be
cautious with the words you choose and
the subjects you write about.
A mentor of mine once told me
that the worst thing you can have for
your marketing strategy is an enemy.
I naturally assumed that he meant
someone out in the online communi-
ty printing false or damaging things
about me, but he quickly set my
thinking straight. I had already
learned to control the message about
myself and my business and be the
dominant voice online when it came
to my company. It did not matter
what my competition said about me,
because I was going to bury that mes-
sage. The real problem was that when
I focused on my competition and gave
them any of my online space by
addressing them in my social market-
ing, I was losing focus on what was
really important.
3. The Chronic Re-Tweeter: Twitter
accounts that consist of nothing but re-
tweets.
How to avoid this: Online social sites are
like a big party. Get in and party! Then
do business. Tell people about yourself,
about your day, about your company or
about your plans. And when they are
interestedsell, sell, sell!
4. The Self-Proclaimed Expert: This
describes anyone who cannot back up
what they say and do not think prospec-
tive clients will notice.
How to avoid this: Just be honest.
We surveyed our clients who pur-
chased real estate with us and found
out that they visited, on average, 3.5
sites before they purchased from my
firm, Memphis Invest. The reason
they bought from us was because of
the genuine message and our refusal
to use the word Expert. Instead, we
prefer to say we have a lot of experi-
ence, both good and bad. That mes-
sage resonates with most prospective
clients because they know we are real.
5. The Clip & Strip Advertisers: These
types are unable to be original in their
marketing, so they choose to clip other
sites or marketing pieces and use as
their own.
How to avoid this: Spying on your compe-
tition can be a good thing if you know
how to use what you find. Find out what
works, but do not copy anyone. Be origi-
nal and it will pay dividends.
Your social media focus should be on
getting online and being involved every
day in promoting your brand and your
image to stimulate activity for your
company. Many times when I speak to
prospective customers or peers in the
industry, the audience is made up of
real estate professionals and investors
that may or may not have a particular
company to brand or promote, but by
the end of the discussion they under-
stand the need for an online presence.
Protecting your image, your name and
even your day-to-day story is more
important now than ever.
When the focus shifts to real estate
investors, its important not only to tell
your story in your own terms, but to also
be aware of what stories your actions
tell. We all like to talk about ourselves.
That desire is inherent in human nature.
Unfortunately, many of us also like to
talk about others and when you do that
online it leads to trouble in more ways
than one. How does this scenario play
out online? There are real estate
investors in my native city of Memphis
who constantly talk about their competi-
tion (and its not always in glowing
terms). Talking about your competition
in a negative manner not only makes
you look bad in the eyes of those that
may want to do business with you in the
future, but it also distracts you from the
positive message about you, which
should be your focus.
There are only three results that
can come from you discussing your
competition, and two of them are
negative. You can turn off potential
clients, you can spend time talking
about the negatives of others instead
of the positives about you or you
could win a client. I havent met many
people who were won over by the
smear campaigns of others. When
using social media, its imperative to
keep the conversation on you and
your brand and keep it positive.
Its also important to recognize and
focus on the trail you leave online each
day at social networking sites. Many of
the latest fads at these sites are games
and they make up a huge and thriving
revenue stream for these sites so you
can bet they are all good with soliciting
members to play. However, if your
Facebook page shows you have a thriv-
ing little patch of green and are
excelling at Mafia Wars, how much time
can someone assume you are playing
online relative to the amount of time
youre working? As we move further
into 2012, the footprint of our daily
actions that we leave behind is going to
be more and more important and not
just on social networking sites, but
across the Internet in general. Every
comment, every picture, every article,
every video and every Like we have on
Facebook and every group we join on
LinkedIn becomes a piece of online his-
tory and every bit of it is searchable.
It is becoming more and more com-
monplace for banks, lenders, insurance
companies, hiring firms and colleges to
run the names of those wishing to do
business with them across several social
sites and through an online name search,
just to see what comes up. If you are not
in control of your image and your mes-
sage, you leave yourself vulnerable.
Whether its having a presence on a sim-
ple media tool like YouTube or
Facebook, or something more elaborate
like hosting your own blog, controlling
the message about you personally or
about your company is vitally important
for 2012 and beyond.
Social media and the use of social
networking sites for business and brand
development are here to stay and will
only grow stronger as more people
gravitate to best practices while devel-
oping online habits. Being aware of
how to best position your brand while
using these marketing mediums to your
advantage can help you move to the
forefront of your industry.
Chris Clothier is a partner at Memphis
Invest, a comprehensive real estate
investment services company that
acquires, renovates and manages prop-
erties on behalf of long-term investors
who own rental homes. He may be
by e-mail at chris@memphisinvest.com.
Multiple National Lenders
580 FICO FHA
Local Underwriting
VA-USDA-203k-Reverse
Onsite Migration Assistance
If you would like to learn more about our
BranchPartner business model, please inquire:
http://FrostMortgage.com/NMP
Regulation and Licensing Department, Financial Institutions Division #621 Branch License #00621
Youre in Good Hands, and
after reading this article, you
wont Just Do It and will
Think Different when it
comes to rolling out your
marketing strategy. Hope-
fully, you will think that this
article is The Real Thing
and it will leave you thinking
You Can Have it Your Way
and now Impossible is
Nothing. If you can you get
through the poor grammar
and sentence structure in
the first few sentences, you
will probably recognize
these slogans and quickly
name the companies they
are associated with.
There a plethora of arti-
cles, blogs, and books about
creative marketing tech-
niques and how you can increase sales and
build brand awareness through search
engine optimization (SEO) or social media.
The authors will dazzle you with great ideas
and plans that can help your organization
get to the next level. You will see the bril-
liance of each plan as you are presented
graphs showing how inexpensive it is in
relation to your skyrocketing sales. In fact,
while reading these articles, I found myself
ready to embark upon a whole new strate-
gy that involved multimedia marketing,
SEO, and pay-per-click advertising without
credence to my company brand.
It is easy to get lost in the myriad of
available information and caught up in the
excitement of an extensive and expensive
marketing campaign in an effort to capi-
talize on the social media revolution. I
firmly believe that you should budget for
various marketing mediums and spend
time and energy working to create a mas-
ter marketing plan that includes social
media as it can be successful if approached
with great forethought. To be truly suc-
cessful, you must have an organizational
culture that can successfully execute The
Plan. The ability of the company or indi-
vidual to execute on marketing plans will
not guarantee success; however, I am quite
certain that the greatest plans and ideas
will meet your expectations without dili-
gent and consistent execution of your plan.
The slogan is also an
important and inseparable
part of your brand. Before
creating your slogan you
need to ask the most basic
question: What do you have
to offer to consumers, other
than them buying your
product or service and
making you rich? Most peo-
ple would agree that the
following organizations
have successfully integrated
their slogan as an insepara-
ble part of their brand.
I Lexus: Relentless Pursuit
of Perfection
I McDonalds: Im Lovin
It
I Apple: Think Different
I Coke: The Real Thing
I BMW: The Ultimate Driving Machine
I Nike: Just Do It
I Allstate: Youre in Good Hands
I Addidas: Impossible is Nothing
The most expensive aspect of marketing
is acquiring new customers and maintain-
ing visibility. This means gaining awareness
and providing relevancy to affect a sale or
conversion. The difficulty in maintaining
awareness is exasperated when you offer a
product or service like mortgages because
they are not needed on a regular basis. So
before you embark headfirst into an expen-
sive marketing plan, it is imperative that
you create a brand that matches your cul-
ture and you have a team that is dedicated
to executing that plan. Remember it is eas-
ier to create a brand or message that
matches the company then vice versa. Our
slogan is Big Enough to Matter, Small
Enough to Care was only the first and easi-
est step. The real work is executing a vision
that matches the message so both market-
ing and branding is relevant. Many organi-
zations create catchy phrases and elaborate
mission statements only to fail because it
not relevant to their organization.
Consistency
Do not advertise that you are the low-cost
provider for a couple of months and then
change your message to being the service
leader as it confuses people and may not
match your vision. Also, avoid the mistake
of trying to change the branding when you
cross demographic lines. You can maintain
the same brand and message while adver-
tising to first-time homebuyers and super
jumbo borrowers in different media out-
lets, as long as the value proposition is rel-
evant to the audience. Consistency will
build awareness and help you gain long
term success if you can execute and bring
your slogan to life.
Patience
Think about the slogans you know. In most
cases, the companies associated with them
have been building their brand for decades.
This does not mean new companies cannot
build brand awareness quickly, but it is
highly unlikely as it takes time and patience.
The excitement created by flashy mar-
keting campaigns that can be created by
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The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection and
the Ultimate Marketing Machine
By Joy Beam-Burns
before you embark
headfirst into an
expensive marketing
plan, it is imperative
that you create a
brand that matches
your culture and you
have a team that is
dedicated to executing
that plan.
leveraging todays technology, combined
with the infinite possibility presented
through the Web, are quickly tempered
when I think about the proverb: The
more things change, the more they stay
the same. Remember, no matter how
brilliant the plan is, it is doomed to fail if
you cannot execute the plan. One com-
mon thread amongst all truly great organ-
izations is the ability to consistently exe-
cute, while maintaining a message that is
relevant. Of course, some companies get a
few lucky breaks while carrying out their
plans, and as Benjamin Franklin once said,
Diligence is the mother of good luck.
Joy Beam-Burns has enjoyed a successful
20-year career in mortgage banking as a
sales leader. Currently, she is a regional
sales manager at CBC National Bank in
Alpharetta, Ga. She may be reached by
phone at (877) 700-4427 or e-mail
RetailMortgage@cbcnationalbank.com.
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Where Will You Enroll:
New School or Old School Marketing?
By Chris Nordby
Over the past several years, there has been
a significant increase in interest in the New
School of digital marketing. This New
School focuses on e-mail and social media
to deliver messages, whereas the Old
School uses printed letters, postcards and
newsletters. This New School looks especial-
ly attractive to salespeople by offering the
ability to reach large numbers of clients and
business partners with visually appealing
messages, at a low perceived cost per mes-
sage. It is also not as messy as the Old
School, and is without the hassles of print-
ing and mailing.
This New School sounds cool. Its hard to
believe we havent shut down the Old
School. Tough economic times have only
made the Old School look worse. It seems so
costly and time-consuming to use the Old
School when you can usually go to the New
School without leaving the comfort of your
easy chair. These days, the Old School ways
of marketing just seem outdated, but if you
take a minute to really think about what
your marketing is actually delivering, in
terms of impact and revenue, the Old School
is cool.
You may be surprised to learn that even
with the growth of social media and e-mail
marketing, direct mail has been hurt less by
the economy than many other forms of
advertising. How is that possible? If e-mail
and social media are less expensive and eas-
ier, why would anyone want to use direct
mail? The reason is ROI, return-on-
investment. This may sound crazy, but the
actual ROI on direct mail is higher than both
e-mail and social media. It may seem cheap-
er to reach a potential borrower using e-
mail, Facebook or Twitter, but to win the ROI
race, a big return can overcome the low
investment.
Lets look at the real figures: A recent
Direct Mail Association (DMA) report
showed the response rate of e-mail at 1.73
percent when sent to a list of clients, com-
pared with 3.42 percent for direct mail.
You are warned to expect a lower
response rate from e-mail campaigns to
financial services clients because of
recipients security concerns and junk
mail filters. You may be thinking that
1.73 percent isnt bad when you consid-
er all the advantages of e-mail. Lets look
at this as objectively as possible. For
mathematical comfort, lets assume our
two hypothetical loan officers have
1,000 past clients. Ernie uses only e-mail
for marketing messages and Dale uses
only direct mail. Both are going to exe-
cute a sales message to their clients.
Ernie is the ultimate New Age marketer,
both thrifty and dynamic. Even his
thrifty side sees the value in a profession-
ally-designed e-mail template and he hap-
pily spends $400 to get his campaign off to
a professional and fast start. Dale is firmly
enrolled in the Old School, and while not as
colorful or dynamic as Ernie, he is still wise
enough to have his letter professionally
written and printed for $900, including
postage. We will assume that both Ernie
and Dale convert 10 percent of their
responses to sales, generating an average of
$3,000 in commissions per transaction. We
now have both the investment and return
for this example.
Before we pull out the calculator, we
have a small reality check for Ernie. While
Ernie has 1,000 clients and as has been
slavishly devoted in collecting client e-mail
addresses since he started e-mail market-
ing a couple of years back, prior to that he
wasnt as diligent. As a result, only 50 per-
cent of his client database has any e-mail
address (across all of our clients, the aver-
age is 25 percent and the highest is 58 per-
cent). Before you begin an e-mail market-
ing campaign, you need to
think about the percentage
of your database that con-
tains an e-mail address.
Both Ernie and Dale will
have return mail from bad
addresses and their DMA
response rates reflect the
averages for e-mail and let-
ter returns.
You may still consider
the ROI of e-mail very
attractive considering
how much easier it is to
manage. Current statistics
say that an estimated 100
of both Ernie and Dales
clients were involved in a
mortgage transaction in
2011. It is important for
Ernie to consider that
when he chose to use e-
mail, those other two loans captured by
Dale were still done by his clientsonly
not with him. Phone calls and direct
mail should form the foundation of
your sales plan. E-mail and social media
can significantly enhance, but not
replace, fundamental sales activities.
Dale is out there showing us that Old
School is still cool.
Many loan officers choose e-mail
because they are focused on the per-
ceived appeal of e-mail (and the lower
upfront cost) and fail to realize that
they have to spend the $400 three
timesa total of $1,200to generate
the same revenue.
Choosing e-mail is an emotional
decision, not a rational business deci-
sion. If the ultimate goal of your mar-
keting efforts is to maximize your net
income and retain your hard earned
clients and referral sources, direct mail
is the clear choice.
This math will help you understand
why large financial services companies
are still choosing direct mail over email
when they are trying to sell products
and services. These large institutions
understand that clients are expensive to
acquire, but can provide many years of
income if properly managed.
E-mail is deceptively attractive, but
is not a venue where most people
wish to receive sales messages. This is
particularly true when it comes to
financial services messages. Cloaking
e-mail as financial services messages
from known financial institutions is a
popular tool employed by a range of
internet miscreants. Because of this,
many borrowers are
reluctant to follow links
or respond to unexpect-
ed email sales offers.
Borrowers and busi-
ness partners want e-
mails that add valued
knowledge or entertain-
ment. They will happily
read what they know are
sales messages if those
messages consistently
provide knowledge or
entertainment that they
value. In a marketing
context, e-mail is a great
channel to deliver infor-
mation, service and rela-
tionship messages. E-
mail particularly excels
in generating referrals
where it has been effec-
tively used to deliver valued knowl-
edge or entertainment during and
after the initial transaction. All studies
stress the importance of having inter-
esting, professional messages that are
targeted (relevant) and add value to
the recipient.
Why does direct mail work? Why is
the response rate almost double that of
e-mail? There are several reasons. First,
you can tailor different messages to dif-
ferent mail formats:
I Postcards are suited for quick
announcements and seasonal greetings
I Letters are suited for sales messages as
the give more room to build your case.
They have the best response rate.
I Newsletters are a strong branding piece
that demonstrates size, professionalism
and security
Second, the delivery alone conveys value
even if your client does not read the piece:
I Your client sees your brand on the front
I You can transmit a message to the
recipient on the outside of the piece
I Your clients knows you communicated
Third, the perceived value of pro-
fessionally prepared, personalized
direct mail is higher than that of
email. Your client knows you took the
time to prepare and customize a mail-
ing for them.
Many loan officers shy away from
direct mail because of the effort and
complexity. The letter has to be written,
each mail piece has to be personalized
A recent Direct Mail
Association (DMA)
report showed the
response rate of
e-mail at 1.73 percent
when sent to a list
of clients, compared
with 3.42 percent
for direct mail.
ERNIE
Clients Messages Out Responses Sales Revenue Cost ROI
1,000 500 9 >(500 * 1.73%) 1 $3,000 $400 $2,600
DALE
Clients Messages Out Responses Sales Revenue Cost ROI
1,000 1,000 34 >(1,000 * 3.42%) 3 $9,000 $900 $8,100
When the economy was
booming, everyone was
willing to spend money
on advertising to stay
ahead of the competition.
But when the economy
began to slow, the most
common cuts were in the
marketing and advertis-
ing budgets. Do the deci-
sion-makers now under-
stand the impact of the marketing
efforts on the bottom line? Maybe
some dont! Whose responsibility is it
to educate them? While these are
valid questions, the real question that
should be addressed is: Where has
most of the business in the past three
years come from?
As a rule of thumb, the majority of
sales can be attributed to marketing
efforts. So why would a company cut
back on the one thing that has made
them money in the past? With less
marketing, the competition can start
gaining more traction, and potential
customers will be lost to those who
have been pounding the advertising
channels during slow months. Direct
marketing is one of those need to
have portions of a marketing budget.
Unlike other forms of advertising,
such as radio, TV or online marketing,
a direct mail campaign can focus on
targeted data lists that are narrowed
down to your optimum client.
Mass mailing isnt the
key to a successful direct
mail campaigntarget-
ed campaigns are. Why
spend money marketing
to every homeowner,
when you could be mar-
keting to the exact bor-
rower who needs your
services? Most direct
marketing companies
will have you believe that, in order to
get the results you want, you should
send bundles of mass mailings until
you get the response rate you are
looking for. They want you to think
that the more mail you send out, the
better response you will get. While
this has some truth to it, keep in mind
that it is also important to target the
market that needs your services and
then mail to that targeted demo-
graphic.
The success of a mailing is directly
correlated to the quality of the data
list being usedquality is more
important than quantity. Lets say
you need a Federal Housing
Administration (FHA) borrower who
has a 620-plus FICO and no delin-
quencies on their loan. Some vendors
will sell you a list that they say meets
your target criteria, when in reality,
you are getting a list of college stu-
dents located in Boston. Counting on
your data provider to ensure your list
is going to qualified candidates is as
important as mailing your piece.
When selecting a company to handle
your direct marketing campaign, it is
important to find one that has a
proven track record in your industry
with references to back it up.
Having a successful direct mail cam-
paign is as simple as following a few
guidelines:
I Find a reputable vendor that has the
experience, capabilities and insight
to handle all aspects of your cam-
paign in-house (data lists, advertis-
ing design, printing, mailing and
postage).
I Create a data list with criteria for
your target market. Your advertising
firm should have the experience to
help you select the best possible cri-
teria for your target.
I Allow your direct mail provider to
guide you to the best type of mail
piece for your target market. Ask
to see other successfully proven
mail pieces.
Why settle for less when youre
choosing a company to market your
business. Dont send a message in a
bottlesend your message using a
proven technique that gets results.
Justin Restaino is vice president of Titan
List & Mailing Services Inc. He has been
with Titan List & Mailing for more than
12 years, specializing in targeted data
and direct mail campaigns primarily for
the mortgage industry. He may be
reached by phone at (800) 544-8060 or e-
mail justin@titanlists.com.
As a rule of thumb,
the majority of sales
can be attributed to
marketing efforts.
So why would a
company cut back on
the one thing that has
made them money
in the past?
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the industrys leading
marketing company.
Leading
the Industry with
Intelligent
Marketing Solutions
8ZZ.P38.11Z * www.loyollyexpress.com
How Mortgage Brokers Find
Customers in a Bad Economy
By Justin Restaino
and addressed, the address database
has to be maintained and updated. This
is time-consuming.
There is, however, a new generation
of direct mail that dramatically simpli-
fies things for the loan officer. These
new direct mail systems automate
direct mail so the loan officer literally
need do nothing other than close the
loan using the loan origination system.
Automated marketing systems extract
client data directly from the LOS, store
the data in the marketing database,
and execute regular direct mail cam-
paigns using digital printers for com-
plete personalization.
Direct mail has entered the digital
world and is more effective than
ever. With direct data connection to
the loan origination software (LOS),
print mail has never been easier,
faster, cheaperand more timely
and professional. We suggest you
think hard about which school you
will enroll in.
Chris Nordby is president of Protelus, a
provider of marketing automation and
data services exclusively for the mortgage
industry. He may be reached by phone at
(800) 585-0207, ext. 100 or by e-mail at
chris@protelus.com.
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For more information, visit www.streetlinks.com.
StreetLinks Lender Solutions
(800) 778-4920
www.streetlinks.com
sales@streetlinks.com
We help you Meet & Exceed UMDP enforced by the GSEs
We Improve your evaluation of collateral with REALview
TM

Appraisals submitted in a MISMO/XML or PDF format.
Weve raised the bar for Appraisal Management Services!
HVCC Appraisal Ordering
National Appraisal Management Center
www.HVCCAppraisalOrdering.com
Please call 866-396-6260
Accounting and Audit
A full service CPA firm specializing in the needs of the mortgage
industry. Providing monthly bookkeeping services,FHA and
financial statement audits , corporate tax preparation and con-
tract CFO services. Contact us today to learn more.
Branch Manager
iServe offers a complete product mix - aggressively priced, with
hassle-free service & turntimes. Branching & Loan Offcer
opportunities available nationwide. For a change, focus on
production, quick closes & a good night's sleep!
iServe Residential Lending
www.iservelending.com
afriedman@iservelending.com
415-298-2500
United Northern Mortgage Bankers......888-600-8808
Limited room available for established Team Leaders and
Licensed Mortgage Originators. Become part of an established
30-year Mortgage Banker with a proven track record and success.
Mortgage Branch Employment Opportunities
We work with some of the top mortgage branch companies in
the industry!
With hundreds of branch employment opportunities out there,
making a choice on who to sign up with is not an easy task! We
are here to help!
Hiring Licensed Mortgage Originators for branch management
and loan origination.
Bank and Broker status to choose from, multi-State lending and
more...
Visit our site or call us today to speak to one of our representatives.
Mortgage Brokers Network Corp, Inc.
1-888-589-7048
The Mortgage Industrys Matchmaker
http://mortgagebrokersnetwork
Mark Wilson Certified Public Accountants
9455 Ridgehaven Ct, Suite 101 San Diego, CA 92123
619-649-0712
www.markwilsoncpa.com
CENTERED ON YOUR NEEDS - FOCUSED ON YOUR SUCCESS
NO File Fee or Monthly Fees
Get a BPS payback from our volume incentive that your loan
officers cant see
You have the ability to control your loan officers pricing
Create, Customize and Optimize your branchs compensation
plan
Recruiting Support Our network of recruiters place producers
in your branch!
Full Eagle Lender and were currently looking for high-quality
Producers in TX, GA, AL, TN, FL, MS, and SC
Hometown Lenders
(888) 606-8066
moreinfo@htlenders.com
www.hometownbranch.com
Does Advertising in the Resource Registry Work? It just did!
Call 888-409-9770 ext. 4
to Register your company.
Compliance Consultants
The first full-service, mortgage risk management firm
in the country, specializing exclusively in mortgage compliance.
Pioneers in outsourcing solutions for mortgage compliance.
Our Compliance Team Will:
Leverage your existing employees.
Improve your productivity.
Collaborate on projects.
Make the most of your current technology.
Bring innovation to your company.
Be a strong cultural fit.
Free you to focus on your core competencies.
Give you access to world-class expertise.
Lower your total operational costs.
LENDERS COMPLIANCE GROUP
167 West Hudson Street - Suite 200
Long Beach | NY | 11561 | (516) 442-3456
www.LendersComplianceGroup.com
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Direct Mail
Specializing in Official Snap Packs for Greater Open Rates
Envelope Mailers, Business Reply, Postcards and Much More
Targeted Mortgage Lists with Many Selects
Complete Design, Printing and Mailing Services
Your Complete Mortgage Marketing Solution.
Call Us Today!
(800) 922-9860
www.envisiondirect.net/catalog/mortgage.htm
Document Preparation
Document Preparation (SaaS)
ProClose provides compliant closing documents and software for
Residential Mortgage Lending. Created with closers in mind,
we help make a lenders staff more efficient and supported.
Mortgage Banking Systems - ProClose
1360 Beverly Rd. Ste 200, McLean, VA 22101
800-783-2283 sales@proclose.com
www.ProClose.com
Mortgage Loan Closing Document Preparation & Compliance Services
Fulfillment Services Including Pre-Funding Review & Post-Closing
Interfaces with Leading Loan Origination Software Systems
Foreclosure Loss Mitigation Services
Robertson | Anschutz
800-343-7160
sbertrand@radocs.com
www.radocs.com/info.html
Mortgage Loan Closing Document Preparation & Compliance Software
Loan Documents and Compliance Web-based/SaaS Easy to Use
Intuitive Secure and Reliable Integrates with Leading LOS
Free Setup and Support Extensive Compliance Audits
Docs on Demand
800-343-7160
stephen.bertrand@docsondemand.net
www.docsondemand.info
Errors and Omissions Insurance
Doc Management
DocVelocity is an end-to-end paperless solution designed to
simplify the loan origination experience. Imagine having all your
documents in the loan process as electronic files, all online, from
pre-approval to closing. DocVelocity provides: Fast and easy loan
delivery to any lender Automatic doc sorting, naming and filing
Real-time online document sharing for anyone you choose
Friendly and intuitive user interface No start-up fees, and free
training and support. DocVelocity addresses important
compliance issues while giving your office the competitive
advantage of being paperless. It streamlines all aspects of the
mortgage process and most important, it does so in one easy-to-
use and inexpensive package. DocVelocity is the flagship product
of Paperless Office Solutions, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of
Flagstar Bancorp. Visit www.docvelocity.com to find out more.
DocVelocity
www.docvelocity.com
(877) 362-8356
sales@docvelocity.com
CB Malaga Insurance Services LLC......877-245-5887
Insurance broker providing errors & omissions (E&O)
insurance to mortgage brokers and bankers. All loan types.
Available in 22 states. www.CBspecialty.com
Best Rate Referrals ............................................800-811-1402
Mortgage marketing company with decades of combined expe-
rience providing quality leads, mailers, lists and dialer products.
www.bestratereferrals.com & www.mortgageleads.org
Contact Management/CRM
LoyaltyExpress, the leading mortgage marketing company in the
nation, delivers high-impact marketing that substantially increases
production levels. Direct mail, e-mail, and intelligent alerts are
combined to deliver unprecedented results. Learn more today.
LoyaltyExpress
877.938.1175
start@loyaltyexpress.com
www.loyaltyexpress.com
Continuing Education
NMLS approved 20 hour Prelicensing Education
NMLS approved Continuing Education
Live Classroom Instruction, Web Delivery and Private Events
The SAFE-Smart ExamCram, Powerfully Innovative Test Prep
Abacus Mortgage Training and Education
PO Box 780
Summerfield, NC 27358
888-341-7767 www.GetYourEd.com
Time is running out...are you ready?
Pass the S.A.F.E. Act Test, meet your 20 hours of Pre-licensure,
and complete the 8 hours of Continuing Education you need
The Ultimate Test Prep Kit and Test Prep Boot Camps Cover
everything to pass the S.A.F.E. Act Test on your frst try.
20-hour Pre-licensure - Packed with everything to successfully
complete your pre-licensure requirements.
Continuing Education - Exciting, NMLS approved courses that
meet your Continuing Education needs and build your business.
MSS Learning Center
(800) 963-1900
www.MortgageSuccessSource.com
Email: info@MortgageSuccessSource.com
Events
The Expo for Real Estate Professionals"
For ongoing Networking Events throughout the year please visit
www.nycnetworkgroup.com.
NYC Real Estate Expo LLC
Anthony Kazazis - Director
apkazazis@optonline.net www.nycrealestateexpo.com
646.210.2545 914.763.8008
FHA Audit and Licensing
First National Compliance Solutions Inc.
1-800-400-4134
www.firstnationalcompliance.com
Bonnie Nachamie & Jonathan Pinard have assembled a team of
experts to assist Mortgage Brokers, Mortgage Bankers, Federal
and State Chartered Banks & Credit Unions with their mortgage
compliance needs.
Hard Money/Private Lending
ACC Mortgage, Inc.
932 Hungerford Drive #6 Rockville, MD 20850
240-314-0399 240-314-0336 fax
WeApproveLoans.com
We are doing traditional subprime lending, fix & flip lending and
hard money lending.
Windvest Corporation ............................877-285-0777
Specializing in rehab loans for property investors in So. CA.
Up to 60% ARV, 12.99% fixed rate, 3.5-5 points, 1 yr. term.
Fast & professional service since '94! Visit windvestcorp.com!
Franchise
LenderCity Home Loans
888.880.2489
www.LenderCity.com
LenderCity Home Loans is now offering individual franchises. This
is perfect for the L.O. who has always wanted to open their own
brokerage but didn't know how. Benefits include:
Growing with a recognized brand
Local and National marketing and advertising
Online search engine marketing
More aggressive lender pricing based on volume
incentives
A proven system that generates more revenue than
average broker shops
Ability to retain your license, existing corporation, and
autonomy
Lead generation
Processing and closing services also available
Call 888-409-9770 ext 4,
to register your company.
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Leads
Leads
Our network attract over one million visitors per month. Our paid
lead program as well as our free lender directory will help you con-
nect with targeted new consumer traffc from with high-intent con-
sumers searching online for the right mortgage lender.
MortgageLoan.com
SM
www.mortgageloan.com 877-390-4750
MortgageLoan.com is the largest online directory
for mortgage professionals and a favorite of
consumers shopping for mortgage loans.
AAA Refi Leads.....AAA Refi Leads.....AAA Refi Leads
Learn how I went from failure to success by mailing cheap refi
letters from home, closed 71 loans & made $248,954.62 last yr.
Ill show you exactly how I did it. Go to: www.Refi-Leads.NET
Income Verification Services
Advanced Data
(800) 537 - 0458
www.advanceddata.com
verifications@advanceddata.com
Advanced Data is a leading national provider of data services,
streamlining income and employment verification with proprietary
software. Clients can submit 4506-T directly through Encompass360.
Also ask about our AVM and flood services!
Loanbright helps mortgage companies capture and close more
business through its marketing and software tools. An INC. 500
awardee, Loanbright has helped thousands of companies since
1999 by providing them with well over 3 million qualified sales leads.
Loanbright
27902 Meadow Drive, Suite 375
Evergreen,CO 80439
866-391-2709 www.Loanbright.com
Reach affluent and creditworthy consumers who are in-market and
ready to transact. Bankrate is a consumer direct Web site, NOT a
lead aggregator. Qualified leads for every sized budget, and pay
only for performance. No set up fees! No contracts! No risk!
Reach self directed, highly qualified consumers that are actively
searching for mortgage loans
Geo-targeting reach the right consumers in the right markets
Our proprietary Advertiser Portal gives you complete control
over your campaigns, budgets, and performance reports.
YOU determine your daily/weekly/monthly budget
Pay only for consumers who click on your listing
NO cancellation fees
Try us risk-free! Call 561-630-1257
or visit www.bankrate.com/cpcprogram/ for more details.
Internets Leading Consumer Mortgage Marketplace
Attracting over 8 million unique
consumers every month
www.Bankrate.com 561-630-1257
Loan Origination Systems
Calyx Software, the #1 provider of mortgage solutions is dedicated
to offering reliable and affordable software that streamlines, inte-
grates and optimizes the loan process. Find out how PointCentral
can streamline your business and create compliant processes today.
Calyx Software
800-362-2599
sales@calyxsoftware.com
www.calyxsoftware.com
Mortgage Forms
HUD Settlement Cost Booklets
CHARM Booklets
Uniform Residential Loan Applications
HUD Case Binders
www.LendingForms.com
Same Day Shipping (orders placed prior to 3pm et)
24/7 Secure e-Commerce Site
Save 33-50%
Income Verification Services
Platinum Credit Services, Inc.................631-299-2084
Tax return vertification (4506 tax transcript done in less than
24 hours in most cases). Call Lorenzo Pugliano, President
and CEO at 631-299-2084.
Regulatory/Compliance
Comergence Compliance Monitoring is the mortgage industrys only
Complete broker desk management software and outsource solution
for TPO management and monitoring. We can supplement lenders in-
house management and monitoring resources departments.
Comergence Compliance Monitoring, LLC
630 The City Drive South, Suite 205 Orange, CA 92868
Office: 714-740-9000
www.ComergenceCompliance.com
Are you a broker/owner or current branch manager looking to
expand your business into Mortgage Banking with FHA capabilities?
Then our PARTNER BRANCH ADVANTAGE program is perfect for
you. We are offering you all the benefts of partnering with an estab-
lished lender while still enjoying your independence. US Mortgage
Corporation is a nationwide FHA Direct Lender with a 16 year long
reputation of excellence.
YOUR SUCCESS IS OUR SUCCESS!
For more information contact THOMAS R. SIRICO, Vice
President of Business Development at (917) 923-1472 or email
at tom.sirico@usmortgage.com.
We look forward to sharing our services with you!
(800) LOANS-15
www.usmortgage.com
Retail Branch
#1 USDA RD lender in multiple states with strong FHA/VA/CONV
product lines as well. Don't be held hostage by a captive branch
arrangement. Bank it or broker it. Have a business name/identity
you don't want to give up? We allow DBAs (subject to state rules).
Polaris Home Funding Corp.
616-667-9000
timeforachange@polarishfc.com
www.polarishfc.com/timeforachange
Reach affluent and creditworthy consumers who are in-market and
ready to transact. Bankrate is a consumer direct Web site, NOT a
lead aggregator. Qualified leads for every sized budget, and pay
only for performance. No set up fees! No contracts! No risk!
Founded in 2005, Best Rate Referrals has grown into one of the
fastest growing marketing firms in the nation. By combining new
technology with traditional direct marketing methods that produce
profitable results.
Best Rate Referrals is the direct marketing leader in the mortgage
and banking industry.
Mortgage Direct Mail & List Services
Mortgage Live Transfers
Mortgage Internet Leads
Mobile Marketing
Best Rate Referrals
The Leading Direct Marketing Company
for Mortgage Professionals
800-811-1402 www.bestratereferrals.com
Sign-on weekly at
nmpmag.com/lykkenonlending
The Lykken on Lending
R A D I O P R O G R A M
Wholesale/Residential
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Wholesale/Residential
Wholesale/FHA
Icon Residential, a wholly owned subsidiary of Grand Bank N.A.,
is one of the nations leading Conforming, Jumbo, FHA and VA
wholesale lenders. Our strength, success and longevity is
derived from delivering customers service that exceeds our
valued business partners expectations. With deep industry
knowledge, financial stability and innovative technology we
provide the solutions for our business partners to fund loans
while avoiding risk.
Direct Access to Underwriters
Competitive Pricing
Innovative Technology
Paperless Solution
Bank Funding
Icon Residential Lenders
(888) 247-4207
www.iconwholesale.com
Wholesale Reverse Mortgages
Veros Real Estate Solutions is a premier technology leader in the mort-
gage industry and proven leader in enterprise risk management and
collateral valuation services. Veros combines the power of predictive
technology and data analytics for advanced automated solutions.
Veros Real Estate Solutions
2333 North Broadway, Suite 350 Santa Ana, CA 92706
(866) 458-3767
www.veros.com @verosres (Twitter)
Arizona Nevada Texas
California New Mexico Utah
Colorado Oregon Washington
88 Kearny Street, 3rd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94108
Phone: (415) 632-5150 Fax: (925) 226-1938
www.bayeq.com
Now Wholesale Lending in:
Wholesale/Correspondent
BankFinancial ..........................................800-894-6900
We have money to lend for apartments, $250M to $2MM, up to
75% LTV. We offer competitive rates, fees & terms. Were com-
mitted to helping you and your clients close the deal. Call us.
AMX/Land Home Financial ..................800-349-4172
AMX/Land Home Financial Services Wholesale Lending
Division - Great Rates, Great Programs, Great Service.
Offering fnancing options that work in today's market. Paperless! Quick and Easy!
Top Tier Account Executives
Committed to Wholesale
Operations that Earn Your Business
TMSfunding Wholesale Lending
326 W Main Street Milford, Ct. 06460
888.371.2989 WWW.TMSFUNDING.COM
Your Partner in Success!
We offer competitive pricing and fast turn-times for FHA, VA,
Conventional, and USDA programs without having a retail pres-
ence in the industry. We are a wholesale lender with 22 years of
experience and believe in exceptional service.
Terrace Mortgage
4010 W. Boyscout Blvd., Suite 550
Tampa, FL 33607
866-934-4631 www.terracemortgage.com
CBC National Bank is one of the nations fastest growing
wholesale lenders offering Conventional, FHA, VA, and USDA.
The most important aspect of being a leader in todays market is
the ability to build and maintain a meaningful relationship with
each customer. We understand that these meaningful relation-
ships coupled with competitive pricing and efficient technology
are the pillars of todays lending environment.
We are now hiring Account Executives in AL, TN, KY, VA, & MD.
Contact Stu Ehrlich in our HR department at
sehrlich@cbcnationalbank.com for further details.
Big Enough to MATTERSmall Enough to CARE
CBC National Bank
3010 Royal Boulevard South, Ste. 230
Alpharetta, GA 30022
888-486-4304
If your ad was here,
you would be seen by
191,181 Mortgage
Professionals looking
for resources to help them
in their business.
The Resource Registry
is a directory of lenders
(wholesaler or retail that
are recruiting), affiliated
services and resources
that is seen by more
than 191,181 active
Professionals.
Call 888-409-9770 ext. 4
to register your company.
Bookmark this!
Access these listings
online at
nmpmag.com/directory_list
Flagstar Wholesale Lending, a division of Flagstar Bank, is one of
the nations largest wholesale and correspondent mortgage
lenders, providing the technology, products, service and support
that independent mortgage brokers, correspondents, and bankers
need in todays mortgage arena. In the ever-changing environ-
ment of mortgage banking, Flagstar takes pride in accommodat-
ing the specific needs of each customer. At Flagstar, we under-
stand that you need every available advantage to stay ahead of
the competition. This is why we provide multiple technology
options to meet your needs to register, lock, underwrite, close,
fund and deliver your loans. Our wholesale website
(wholesale.flagstar.com) and the loan processing tool Loantrac
provides our customers with the functionality that make it easier
and faster to close loans, saving you time and money! Visit whole-
sale.flagstar.com to learn more.
Flagstar Wholesale Lending
www.wholesale.flagstar.com
(866) 945-9872
WLSC@flagstar.com
For Licensed Mortgage Brokers in NY, NJ, CT, PA and FL
No HUD Approval Required Live Help Desk
Will Provide Training at Our Office or Yours
48 Hour Underwriting - Get Paid Within 48 Hours of Funding
NATIONWIDE Equities
Nationwide Equities Corporation
201-529-1401
www.nwecorp.com
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FEBRUARY 2012
Tuesday-Friday, February 21-24
The Mortgage Bankers Associations
2012 National Mortgage Servicing
Conference & Expo
Orlando World Center Marriott
8701 World Center Drive
Orlando, Fla.
For more information,
call (800) 793-6222 or visit
MortgageBankers.org.
MARCH 2012
Sunday-Thursday, March 11-15
29th Annual Regional
Conference of Mortgage
Bankers Associations
Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort
1000 Boardwalk at Virginia Avenue
Atlantic City, N.J.
call (732) 596-1619
or visit MBANJ.com.
Wednesday, March 14
Florida Association of Mortgage
Professionals Broward Chapter
2012 Annual Trade Show
Broward County Convention Center
1950 Eisenhower Boulevard
Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
call (850) 942-6411
or visit FAMB.org.
Sunday-Tuesday, March 18-20
2012 National Association of Mortgage
Brokers (NAMB) Legislative
& Regulatory Conference
10 I Street, Southwest
Washington, D.C.
call (972) 758-1151
or visit NAMB.org/LegConference.
Wednesday-Friday, March 21-23
National Association of Hispanic
Real Estate Professionals
(NAHREP)
2012 Real Estate
& Policy Conference
Four Seasons Hotel
2800 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C.
call (858) 922-9046
or visit NAHREP.org.
Thursday, March 29
Maryland Association of Mortgage
Professionals 2011 March Mortgage
Madness Convention
Martins Crosswinds
7400 Greenway Center Drive
Greenbelt, Md.
For information, call (410) 752-6262,
or visit MDMtgPros.org.
APRIL 2012
Wednesday-Thursday, April 18-19
2012 National Policy Conference
Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill
400 New Jersey Avenue Northwest
Washington, D.C.
call (800) 793-6222
or visit MortgageBankers.org.
Sunday-Wednesday, April 22-25
2012 National Technology in Mortgage
Banking Conference & Expo
Arizona Biltmore
2400 East Missouri Avenue
Phoenix
call (800) 793-6222
Sunday-Wednesday, April 22-25
2012 National Fraud Issues Conference
Arizona Biltmore
2400 East Missouri Avenue
Phoenix
call (800) 793-6222
MAY 2012
Sunday-Wednesday, May 6-9
2012 National Secondary Market
Conference & Expo
New York Marriott Marquis
1535 Broadway
New York, N.Y.
call (800) 793-6222
Friday-Wednesday, May 18-23
2012 Mortgage Bankers Association of
Georgia Education Forum & Expo
Sandestin Hilton Golf Resort & Spa
4000 South Sandestin Boulevard
Destin, Fla.
call (478) 743-8612 or visit MBAG.org.
To submit your entry for inclusion in the National Mortgage Professional
Calendar of Events, please e-mail the details of your event, along with
contact information, to newsroom@nmpmediacorp.com.
2012 Commercial/Multifamily
Servicing & Technology Conference
Hilton Anatole
2201 North Stemmons Freeway
Dallas
call (800) 793-6222
2012 Legal Issues/Regulatory
Compliance Conference
La Quinta Resort & Club
49-499 Eisenhower Drive
La Quinta, Calif.
call (800) 793-6222
JUNE 2012
Sunday-Wednesday, June 3-6
Mortgage Bankers Associations
2012 Chairmans Conference
The Breakers
1 South County Road Palm Beach, Fla.
call (800) 793-6222
JULY 2012
Wednesday-Saturday, July 11-14
Florida Association of Mortgage
Professionals (FAMP) 2012 Convention
& Trade Show Stay on Track
The Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay
2900 Bayport Drive Tampa, Fla.
call (850) 942-6411 or visit FAMB.org.
SEPTEMBER 2012
Monday-Wednesday,
September 10-12
2012 American Mortgage Conference
Raleigh Marriott Crabtree Valley
4500 Marriott Drive Raleigh, N.C.
call (919) 781-7979
or visit NCBankers.org.
OCTOBER 2012
Sunday-Wednesday,
October 21-24
Mortgage Bankers Association 99th
Annual Convention & Expo
The Hyatt Regency
151 East Wacker Drive Chicago
For more information, call (800) 793-
6222 or visit MortgageBankers.org.
valuenation continued from page 16
UCDP and UAD compliance
Lenders, specifically those with significant volume, are focused on ensuring they
have a defined path to deliver compliant appraisal data to the government-spon-
sored enterprises (GSEs) via UCDP for the March 19, 2012 deadline. Todays top
platforms provide:
I The ability to convert appraisals in a first-generation PDF format into compli-
ant electronic data;
I The ability to resolve UAD compliance issues and automate exceptions sur-
rounding UCDP review prior to appraisal submission; and
I The ability to track and evaluate appraisers or organizations whose perform-
ance or product is lacking.
Moving ahead
In closing this article series, I want to emphasize the need for efficiency and qual-
ity in making valuation decisions. Organizations that understand the importance
of automation have a clear advantage over those that are slow to embrace it.
These systems have been tested and proven to provide benefits that are immedi-
ate and long-lasting.
Todays lending, servicing and investment managers are tasked with doing
more with fewer resources. They must increase volume, while ensuring that risk
oversight and review controls are in place and consistent. It can be a daunting
task, but one that can be accomplished through the power of the valuation man-
agement platform.
David Rasmussen is senior vice president of operations at Veros Real Estate Solutions.
For more information, call (714) 415-6300 or visit Veros.com.
NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL
calendar
OF EVENTS
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The BEST Branc h Sol ut i on, Peri od.
Nat i onwi de FHA Lender
This information is provided to assist business professionals and is not an advertisement extended to the consumer,
as dened by Section 226.2 of Regulation Z. Freedom Mortgage corporate ofce is located at: 907 Pleasant Valley Ave.
Suite 3, Mount Laurel, NJ 08054. Lender NMLS I D: 2767. Licensed by the NJ Department of Banking and Insurance,
License #9100861. All Rights Reserved.
EOE
www.Fmbranch.com
800.220.9498
Info@Fmbranch.com
Icon Residential, a wholly owned subsidiary of Grand Bank, N.A., is one of the nations leading
Conforming, Jumbo, FHA and VA wholesale lenders. Our strength, success and longevity are derived from
delivering customer service that exceeds our valued business partners expectations. With deep industry
knowledge, financial stability and innovative technology, we provide the solutions for our business partners
to fund loans while avoiding risk.
I 90-Day Seller Seasoning Not Required
I No Credit Qualifying FHA Streamlines
I DTI Subject to DU Findings
I Appraisal Transfer Accepted
I FTHB Allowed for Non-Owner Transactions
I 125% DU Refi Plus 620 FICO Unlimited CLTV
I Maximum 10 Financed Properties Allowed
I 640 Minimum FICO for FHA
I 1 Year Income Required (with DU Findings)
I 6 Months Seasoning NOT Required for Cash Out
For additional information regarding Conforming, Jumbo,
FHA and VA lending, call us at
888-247-4207
or visit us at
www.iconwholesale.com
See guidelines for any product restrictions.

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