In this month’s issue on page 6, our compliance expert, Jonathan Foxx of Lenders Compliance Group, takes a deeper look at the Federal Reserve Board’s ability-to-repay Rule, breaking down the options we have under the Rule and providing insightful comments on this very hot button topic. Jonathan also provides a handy reference chart highlighting scenarios where the ability-to-repay Rule is applicable and how to maintain compliance with the Rule.
Moving ahead to page 20, John Walsh of Total Mortgage Services shares his insightful thoughts on the need housing has for products that are more risked-based and how the industry should price the products accordingly. He’s far from saying we should make a “Return to Sub-Prime,” but John thinks that all factors should be looked at for a return back to common sense underwriting.
September’s Mortgage Professional of the Month is crushing it!
This month’s Mortgage Professional of the Month is Mike Cox, director of sales and marketing for Clear Home Loans. Mike has been very successful in the mortgage business over the years, but not too long ago, was given a copy of Gary Vaynerchuck’s book, Crush It, and took on the responsibility of doing an online daily video show called Rates in Motion with insights for borrowers, real estate professionals and even mortgage professionals. I learned about Mike by stumbling upon one of his shows, providing easy-to-understand housing news in a fun, yet professional, format. We all know that it’s hard to talk about video in the mortgage space and not mention the work of Frank Garay and Brian Stevens from Think Big Work Small, but I think Rates in Motion is a great example how you can effectively connect with borrowers and real estate agents using this medium.
A new direction for ValueNation
First off, I want to thank a long-time supporter of our publication, Charlie W. Elliott Jr. He’s been writing insightful articles about appraisals and valuations for publications I’ve been involved with spanning two decades. He championed the ValueNation monthly column since the inception of National Mortgage Professional Magazine and is now allowing us to give the opportunity to another organization. For this endeavor, we tapped into a long-time leader in valuation, property and risk analytics, Veros, to carry the torch of the ValueNation column. Each month, a high-level executive from Veros will share their insights on what’s going on in the world of valuation, and we begin this month on page 18 with a piece on valuation management platforms from Veros SVP of Operations David Rasmussen.
Back to school! A look at education as we face CE renewals for the first time under SAFE Act.
As students nationwide are making their way into classrooms to begin a new year of learning, we are faced with an unprecedented situation where an entire industry (at least on the non-depository side … don’t get me started here!) has to send all of its mortgage loan originators (MLOs) for continuing education (CE) renewal. We figured this issue would be an ideal one to focus on “Certification, Education and SAFE Act Compliance.”
This section starts off on page 32 with a piece from Tycho Rosenfeld, CEO of MortgageEducation.com, talking about how LO compensation rules and other regulations now place more structure on the MLO. Following Tycho on page 33 is a piece from Paul Donohue, CRMS who challenges mortgage professionals to not only make CE something you must obtain, but something you can benefit from and enhance your career with. There’s also a great piece on certification on page 34 where CMPS Institute Founder Gibran Nicholas discusses the benefits of adding some initials beyond your name and obtaining an industry designation by expanding your education. Later in the section on page 36 is a contribution from our in-house FHA expert, Jeff Mifsud, discussing how he has embraced furthering his education and knowledge base by becoming an expert in FHA loans. In the final article of this section on page 37, George Duarte discusses the significant impact and hindrance that the SAFE Act has had on small business and how the high-cost of education is shutting many out of the business. The section wraps up with a list of the 20 Top SAFE Act Continuing Education Providers as told by our readers through polls taken via our social media outlets, Facebook and LinkedIn.
We bring all this and much more to the September 2011 issue, so don’t let me keep you back, keep reading and enjoy yet another amazing month of National Mortgage Professional Magazine.
Until next month …
