Panic! at the brokerage: Industry leaders plan next steps after NAR settlement

In the 24 hours after news broke of the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) settlement agreement in the commission lawsuits, Doug Danzey, the leader of the eXp Realty-brokered teamerage The Cobalt Group, said the most pervasive emotion among his agents has been panic.“I don’t think they really u
Read MoreLennar Mortgage signs on with ICE’s loan servicing system

Lennar Mortgage, a financial services subsidiary of Lennar Corp., will move its servicing operations to the industry-leading MSP loan servicing system from ICE Mortgage Technology, ICE announced on Monday. With Lennar already leveraging ICE’s loan origination system, Encompass, the company will bene
Read MoreICE unveils two new property valuation solutions

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Mortgage Technology introduced two new tools, Validate ROV and Validate Selector, to its growing suite of property valuation solutions, the company announced on Monday. The newly released tools are designed to complement other ICE tools, including automated valuation
Read MoreDigital lender Better.com launches one-day HELOC product

Digital lender Better.com launched its One Day Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) product that will provide approval decisions to consumers within 24 hours of locking their interest rate. Better launched its first HELOC product about a year ago. The One Day HELOC product is the latest upgraded versi
Read MoreData breach at Nations Direct Mortgage impacts 83,000 borrowers

Nevada-headquartered wholesale lender Nations Direct Mortgage revealed that an unauthorized third party obtained access to the data of more than 83,000 customers on or about Dec. 30, 2023, the lender disclosed on March 14 in a notice shared with the Office of the Maine Attorney General.An investigat
Read MoreIs the spring housing market ready for the Fed’s déjà vu?
It’s spring 2024 and we have a Federal Reserve meeting this week. The 10-year yield is at the same critical point as last year before the Fed went hawkish and sent mortgage rates to 8% and the 10-year yield to 5%. Could this happen again? This is the week the balls are all in the Federal Reserve’s c
Read More‘Find buyers before agents!’ Mortgage industry reacts to the NAR settlement

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) settlement of commission lawsuits nationwide is expected to force mortgage lenders and loan officers to find new ways of approaching listing agents and borrowers, give LOs a more significant role in the home-buying process, and encourage housing professiona
Read More-

While many in the real estate industry were surprised by the news Friday morning that the National Association of Realtors had agreed to a nationwide settlement of the commission lawsuits for $418 million, Marty Green, a principal at law firm Polunsky Beitel Green, was not one of them.“It’s been evi
Read More David Peskin to purchase ownership stake in HighTechLending

David Peskin, formerly from Senior Lending Network and Reverse Mortgage Funding (RMF), has purchased an ownership stake in top 10 reverse mortgage lender HighTechLending (HTL) and will lead the company’s new pursuits alongside co-owner and COO Erika Macias.Peskin spoke to RMD about the move. He shed
Read MoreNew listings surge as the spring buying season approaches

Prospective homebuyers have more options to choose from in the housing market, which could help spur sales this spring. Mortgage demand has been on the rise for two weeks in a row.Inventory has been trending upward for the last two years despite persistently high mortgage rates, Mike Simonsen, presi
Read MoreSenior-held home equity falls to $12.84 trillion in Q4 2023

Homeowners 62 and older saw their collective home equity levels drop in the fourth quarter of 2023 by roughly $119 billion to $12.84 trillion, the third quarterly fall in the last year.This is according to the Reverse Mortgage Market Index (RMMI), a measure of senior-held home equity from the Nation
Read MoreOpinion: Why aren’t more commercial brokerages seeking affiliated arrangements?

Let’s face it: joint ventures (JVs) and affiliated business arrangements (ABAs) are all the rage in the residential real estate space right now. And why not? In times of depressed revenue, it makes sense to seek any and all reasonable paths to revenue.In fact, there aren’t many mortgage lenders, bui
Read MoreIs your real estate database a dumpster fire or lead gen machine?

Study after study has shown that nurturing your database should yield you at least a 10% return. This means that when you have 100 people in your database, and they’re hearing from you regularly with something of value, at least 10 of those contacts should either transact with you or refer someone t
Read MoreAverage IMB lost $2,109 per loan in Q4 2023

Independent mortgage banks (IMBs) and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks reported an average net loss of $2,109 on each loan they originated in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The loss is almost double the reported loss of $1,015 per loan in the
Read MoreFreddie Mac names president Michael Hutchins interim CEO

Freddie Mac on Friday announced that its president Michael Hutchins has been appointed interim CEO, effective March 16, but the company continues its search for a permanent appointment. He will replace Michael DeVito, who is retiring after three years in the job. Hutchins, who is a member of the com
Read MoreICE Mortgage Technology’s Sara Holtz joins Optimal Blue as CMO

Optimal Blue has brought on Sara Holtz, former vice president of demand marketing and communications at ICE Mortgage Technology, as chief marketing officer (CMO).Holtz will drive unified marketing and communications strategies to advance Optimal Blue’s business priorities and further extend the comp
Read MoreBlend narrows loss in 2023, projects confidence in achieving profitability this year

California mortgage tech firm Blend Labs narrowed its loss in 2023 by expanding its consumer banking footprint and growing its mortgage consumer base. The San Francisco-based company reported a non-GAAP net loss of $101.3 million in 2023, down from a non-GAAP net loss of $182.2 million in 2022, acco
Read MoreTight inventory and frustrated buyers challenge agents in Virginia

No matter where you are in the state, real estate agents in Virginia are facing low inventory conditions that are creating frustrating scenarios for their buyers.“I think people are getting used to the interest rates where they are now, but there is just a huge lack of inventory,” said Chelsea Newco
Read MoreRising home insurance costs are adding pressure for buyers: Insurify

The dream of homeownership is becoming increasingly elusive for many Americans as both home prices and insurance premiums are on the rise. Over the past decade, home prices have nearly doubled, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national index. Homeowners insurance premiums are climbing too
Read MoreLisa Moriello talks tech, 2024 HECM limit and openness to reverse mortgages

Lisa Moriello, the national retail reverse mortgage sales manager at multichannel lender loanDepot, recently spoke to RMD about how business in 2024 seemed to be off to a promising start.Diving deeper into the current reverse mortgage business environment, she offered additional perspectives on mult
Read More
Categories
Recent Posts











