Reverse mortgage volume dropped in February compared to the month prior, and new data compiled by Reverse Market Insight (RMI) shows that the primary culprit for the month was retail reverse mortgage originations.The retail channel volume decrease of 15.7% effectively “masked” a gain of 3.9% posted

Are you tired of your text messages causing more confusion than closings in the real estate world? Wondering if you may have offended a prospect? Curious why you’re being ghosted at times?We’ve curated the ultimate guide to texting etiquette for agents. From dodging grammatical gaffes to perfecting

In a down market disrupted by the commission lawsuits, agents and LOs are considering working in a dual capacity. But it’s a tough road to hoe. (AI image generated by MidJourney.)As the engines of the housing and mortgage markets continue to sputter due to higher interest rates and fewer buyers, ind

In the wake of the recent NAR settlement, coupled with persistently sluggish home sales and high interest rates, real estate agents find themselves at a crossroads marked by uncertainty and unease.Amidst this backdrop, brokerages face a critical task; keeping their agent counts from diminishing. How

Because of certain persistent reputational challenges faced by the reverse mortgage industry, it can be challenging for borrowers to find objective informational sources about the product category. That’s what drove a listener of the podcast “The Indicator from Planet Money,” a production of Nationa

Bellevue, Washington-based real estate investment firm Legacy Group Capital announced this week that it has acquired fintech company Rook Capital, a provider of home equity investment (HEI) products through its “Shared Value Investment” brand. Legacy is privately owned and terms of the deal were not

Defendants in the behemoth Batton homebuyer commission lawsuit filed a ream of motions on Monday seeking to have the class-action allegations struck down and dismissed.The Batton suit consists of two separate lawsuits filed by the same homebuyer plaintiffs, alleging that the National Association of

Mortgage rates posted a big jump last week after Wednesday’s release of a higher-than-expected inflation report. As a result, HousingWire’s Mortgage Rates Center showed the average 30-year fixed rate for conventional loans at 7.24% on Tuesday, up from 7.16% one week earlier. That’s roughly 40 basis

Competition in the housing market is heating up heading into May and June. Home prices are surging in major U.S. metros, with coastal California cities and Seattle leading the charge in monthly home value growth, according to Zillow’s newest market report.San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego

In the late 2000s, Ryan Schmidt was a restaurant manager with no real understanding of the reverse mortgage product. It wouldn’t take long for that to change, however, and Schmidt now serves as the vice president of partner engagement at Finance of America Reverse (FAR), the reverse mortgage industr

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will not count buyer’s agent commissions as part of their allowable interested party contributions (IPCs), according to announcements from the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) on Monday.The GSEs noted that this guidance was not an update to their selling guides but

As older people increasingly express their preference to age in place in their own homes, family members will oftentimes be required to provide some semblance of care for their loved ones in later life. Caregiving challenges can be compounded if there’s only one child in the family, but a reverse mo

Wholesale lender A&D Mortgage unveiled a new and enhanced version of its partner portal, Artificial Intelligence in Mortgage, or AMI, on Monday.The AI-powered portal integrates advanced technologies into A&D Mortgage’s existing partner portal. It notably features a more intuitive user interface, sea

We saw a big jump in mortgage rates last week. The 30-year fixed rate mortgage, according to the HousingWire Mortgage Rates Center, is now over 7.2% — that’s 50 basis points above where we were at the start of the year. At that time, most of the voices in the media assumed that mortgage rates had pe

Keller Williams was named to an additional class-action lawsuit this week that takes issue with alterations made to the brokerage’s profit-sharing program. In the past few weeks, 11 agents formerly affiliated with Keller Williams — Jerri Moulder, David Bueker, Robert Hill, Kevin Ortiz, Edward Fordyc

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) has submitted a letter to President Joe Biden, urging him to decrease federal spending and to take action on affordable housing issues.“A particularly acute concern to Nevadans is the housing market, which is reeling from the combined effects of high inflation and intere

Last week’s above-consensus inflation figures brought the mortgage market back to a sour reality: The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate, an index closely watched by industry experts, may be close to or even above the 7% level for longer than previously expected.If this scenario unfolds, analysts a

Although more agents are fielding questions about the commission lawsuits than they were a quarter ago, they also remain optimistic about where the housing market is headed in the second quarter of 2024, according to the RealTrends Q2 2024 AgentPulse survey.The survey, which was conducted between th