Top Headlines

Burst Past Your Production Plateau

Burst Past Your Production Plateau

Source: Scotsman Guide --- As a mortgage originator, your success is often measured by a single number: how many loans you’re closing in the current month. For better or worse, this number rules your thoughts, and it often reflects how you are treated by your company...

Single-Minded Focus

Single-Minded Focus

Source: Scotsman Guide --- Two kinds of activities, reactive and proactive, keep mortgage originators busy. Reactive activities are all about putting out fires. When you’re in reactive mode, you’re playing defense.  Proactive activities are the things that bring in...

How does the FHFA 7% loan cap on GSEs affect originators?

How does the FHFA 7% loan cap on GSEs affect originators?

Source: Housing Wire --- As you probably know by now, the Federal Housing and Finance Agency has limited GSEs to a 7% cap on loan purchases for second home and investment properties. This means that lenders who sell these types of loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac...

How appraisers value homes in a hot housing market

How appraisers value homes in a hot housing market

Source: Housing Wire --- Robin Sheridan, a real-estate broker with Compass Washington, recently listed a three-bedroom home in Seattle for $795,000. The 76-year-old brick home had what Sheridan considered a “funky layout,” with two rooms added to the back that didn’t...

Volume-hungry mortgage lenders loosen credit standards

Volume-hungry mortgage lenders loosen credit standards

Source: Housing Wire --- Mortgage credit availability increased by 2.2% in April as mortgage lenders fight for borrowers in an increasingly competitive market. The Mortgage Bankers Association said Tuesday that the Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) — which...

Experts Say Home Prices Will Continue to Appreciate

Experts Say Home Prices Will Continue to Appreciate

Source: Keeping Current Matters --- It’s clear that consumers are concerned about how quickly home values are rising. Many people fear the speed of appreciation may lead to a crash in prices later this year. In fact, Google reports that the search for “When is the...

Zillow Looks Ready to Dominate the Online Real Estate Market

Zillow Looks Ready to Dominate the Online Real Estate Market

Source: Barron's --- Zillow’s first-quarter results came in strongly ahead of estimates, as Premier Agent revenue growth accelerated again, amid continued housing-market tailwinds. The Homes segment also experienced strong growth and delivered another quarter of...

Mortgage rates remain under 3 percent for third week in a row

Mortgage rates remain under 3 percent for third week in a row

Source:The Washington Post ---  At the start of the year, it looked like mortgage rates were headed nowhere but up. But lately, they have backslid. According to the latest data released Thursday by Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed-rate average slipped to 2.96 percent...

Desperate buyers are going to extremes to land a home

Desperate buyers are going to extremes to land a home

Source: CNN --- With the inventory of homes for sale historically low and prices higher than ever, the battle to buy a home has been taken to a whole new level. The number of available homes to buy in April dropped by 40% from a year ago and 50% from 2019, according...