Pamela Marron: Industry More Prepared Now For Crisis Than In 2008

Pamela Marron, a mortgage loan originator with Innovative Mortgage Services Inc., joined Andrew Berman, head of engagement and outreach for National Mortgage Professional magazine, on May 5 for another installment of the Mortgage Leadership Outlook series.

Marron spoke about her background, helping short sellers get back into the market in 2008, being part of the Department of Housing & Urban Development’s Housing Council Federal Advisory Committee, her concerns for borrowers with loans in forbearance, and more.

As the COVID-19 continues to pose challenges for the mortgage industry, the Mortgage Leadership Outlook series looks to help you, the mortgage professional, navigate through these times of uncertainty.

Marron has been working at Innovative Mortgage Services for six years. However, she has 34 years of experience as a mortgage broker and is highly experienced with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac automated underwriting system details and the differences that aid in getting customers approved. She also specializes in helping borrowers who have just exited a tough financial situation and are looking to secure a new residential mortgage.

In 2008, Marron started trying to help short sellers get back into the market and realized that their credit was coded as a foreclosure. That resulted in a denial in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae services.

As the number of those cases rose, she worked with the National Consumer Reporting Association (NCRA) to introduce the short sale credit workaround in Fannie Mae. She would later figure out that these foreclosure codes would appear on loans in lieu and modifications and is also concerned that they may pop up in in the future for folks who are currently in forbearance.‍

More Highlights Of Marron's Appearance On The Mortgage Leadership Outlook Series

►“Whenever a mortgage credit payment goes past 120 days, most likely you will see a foreclosure code show up when you run a loan through an automated system," said Marron. "You can only see it if you have a MeridianLink platform with your credit bureau where you can break out the three bureaus or, you can also see it on Freddie Mac in their raw crediting file if it is ordered online.”

►“On a payment history where it can be one through nine, if you’ve got any numbers that are five or above, you’re most likely going to get a foreclosure code," said Marron. "If loan originators knew that people that had a past short sale or a lot of delinquencies on their mortgage payments in the past, if they just knew to run those loans through automated Fannie and Freddie upfront, although, Fannie has the workaround Freddie does not, that would solve a lot of the problems at the very beginning.” She says she is concerned about this becoming an issue again with forbearance and other options available for those who are unable to make a loan payment.

►“We are very astutely aware of our market," said Marron. "We know the problems that occurred before and hopefully we won’t make the same mistakes again. We were in the Wild Wild West in 2008 and we’re not now.”

‍You can watch the complete interview between Marron and Berman below.