Did I miss anything while I was on vacation?
The first leg of our week long vacation at Lake Roosevelt began with two nights at a friends vacation home on Lake Chelan (fyi…it’s available for
purchase). Somehow I managed to leave the charger to my cell phone behind.
A week without…
- hourly bond market updates
- real estate and mortgage headlines
- the internet
- blogging (writing and reading my favorite blogs).
I was unplugged!
My Treo remained charged just long enough to read the head lines that 6800 Loan Originators from Countrywide (I believe it’s actually their subprime division Full Spectrum) were in jeopardy of losing their jobs and to receive a phone call from one of my preferred lenders that Greenpoint was closing down at the end of the week. This Account Executive does not work for Greenpoint, she just wanted to give me a warning in the event I had transactions pending there. Not a real fun way to start your relaxing vacation.
I know that once I’m back to home, I’ll learn of more lenders closing and people laid off. The last number I’ve heard is that approximately 40,000 people are unemployed from the mortgage industry.
I’m personally thankful that I work for a fairly conservative smaller company that’s family owned and operated. We were slow to enter the subprime market and veered away from providing option ARMs (a.k.a. negative or deferred interested mortgages). I’m also glad that our company elected to keep our FHA and VA direct underwriting status over the past few years when those of types of loans declined due to opting for alt-a and subprime products. (Often times, it would be in the client’s best interest to select a subprime program over FHA or VA due to better rates or being able to keep more savings rather than invest 3% for the down payment).
I wrote the preceding in my spiral notebook by the early morning sun while the rest of the crew (7 teens and 6 adults, including me) sleeps. Ah…reality will be back too soon!
I’m now back to work at my lap top wading through 1000 emails mixed with spam and catching up to the mortgage world. We did get in last night and I toyed with posting rates from Friday…however, these days, Monday may be so different with what programs and rates are being offered. I’ll wait to publish updated rates.
It is good to be home. :)
Posted: August 26th, 2007 under Diversions, Mortgage and Lending.
Tags: countrywide, greenpoint, house-boating, lake-roosevelt, vacation
About the Author: Rhonda Porter
- Author's website: http://www.mortgageporter.com
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Comments
2.
Comment
from Rhonda Porter
Time August 26, 2007 at 2:26 pm
Sniglet,
Since I’ve been out the past week, it’s hard for me to give a good snap shot. For me, I veered away from stated income loans too. More often than not, they were used to have people buy homes they could not afford in the first place. The few stated income loans I did were typically for self-employed were the income did not pencil but was there. If I had to do a product along those lines, I would opt for a NIV where it was up to the underwriter to decide if the client was qualified; I did not put the client in a position to lie about their income on a 1003.
I’m sure other LOs in this area did these types of loans. I may not be “typical”.
I’ll have more info for you once I’m back in the swing of things. I can tell you that this month I have less new loans than I did in July. August is normally a slower month but I can’t rule this market out… I’d be crazy too! However, with the slower month and a 9 day vacation planned in August, I did not do anything to encourage new business for August.
3.
Comment
from tj
Time August 26, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Hi Rhonda, sorry for an off-topic question. In general from your experience does a lender require both spouses on a loan to have w-2s for the last two years to make it a full doc application? If for example a married couple applies and the wife has a long w-2 history but have stayed at home a couple of years with kids and now only have 1 year continous w-2s to show? In this scenario would the norm be that only the husbands income would count when determening the credit worthiness/mortage cap?
4.
Comment
from Rhonda Porter
Time August 26, 2007 at 3:19 pm
tj, it’s actually quite possible for both spouses income to be used and receive the benefit of “full doc” pricing based on the scenario that you described. This will depend on what the AUS (automated-ie computer-response) is. Credit scores and loan to value are an important factor too.
6.
Comment
from Tim
Time August 26, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Rhonda I just got back last evening too. I didn’t miss anything. I was right in the middle of it in Manhattan/Wall Street a week ago Friday. Took the 3 subway from Wall Street/WTC up to Times Square and got some great pics of the Dow Jones ticker flashing news on mortgage fraud and Countrywide problems. First time in NYC and an amazing place to visit.
World Trade Center Site was very moving and got to speak briefly with a couple fire fighters from station 10 across the street and where a beautiful bronze mural within the station exterior brick wall of the station was placed. Interestingly when I was back at the site in the evening the station large garage door was open (it was closed earlier where you could only peer through the window) and they allowed me to take a photo of the memorial of their fallen within the station, but made it very clear they would not allow me to be in the photo by standing next to the memorial itself. It made perfect sense that they did not want to make the memorial trivial as if taking a photo with a celebrity or similar.
Sadly, the next day of my visit, Saturday, Aug. 18th, a fire broke out in an adjacent building (former Deutsche Bank)badly damaged by the debris when the Towers fell on Sept 11th, 2001, two firefighters lost their lives. The building was being demolished and dismantled floor by floor and some suspect the fire may have been started accidentally.
7.
Comment
from Deborah Burns
Time August 27, 2007 at 11:40 pm
Welcome back Rhonda!
When plowing through the 1000 emails don’t overlook the JP Patches photo I sent you last week!
8.
Comment
from Rhonda Porter
Time August 28, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Deborah, I did see the photo! Did you get my email thanking you? I’ve been having a nightmare dealing with Comcast who has decided because of all of the emails I send (between being a LO and starting a neighborhood block watch) that I’m a spammer. It’s really getting to be a headache. I think I might need another vacation! 
I loved the photo. The bill board was over the West Seattle Bridge for a while too. I always felt like JP was pointing at me. I have two Patches Pal pavers so far.
9.
Comment
from Deborah Burns
Time August 28, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Hi Rhonda,
Uh oh, my email inbox closed down Saturday night at some point because I was way over the limit and I was CUT OFF! Argh! So no emails for me until I found the time late Sunday to go through and delete “foldered” emails to make space…so I am thinking that your email is now lost in the great void of blocked emails drifting in the internet. 
Ah ha…another vacation is always good. You are a true JP Patches gal and supporter!
10.
Comment
from Voice of Reason
Time August 31, 2007 at 9:51 am
Did you miss anything on your vacation?
Yes sweety. The market is sinking, the mortgage market is in the dump and the rats are jumping from the sinking ship.
The sky is falling!!!!
11.
Comment
from Rhonda Porter
Time August 31, 2007 at 9:55 am
Voice of Reason, so it’s the same as before I went on vacation. I’m not sure I would say the sky is falling, I would agree that the sky is stormy and we need to take precautions.
1. Comment from Sniglet
Time August 26, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Rhonda,
Are you finding that most of the people who previously got 100 interest or stated income loans are just moving over to different products? Also, has there been any impacts on customers wanting Jumbo loans in the past week? From what I hear Jumbo loans are still available, just with a higher rate.
It would be very interesting to hear what is happening to the people who previously relied on negative amortization products, but I guess that you wouldn’t have much insight on this area since you don’t deal with this part of the market.
I suppose that mortgage brokers who used to issue a lot of 100% interest, negative amortization and/or stated income loans are just have their customers move over to different product categories so the over-all impact of the finance changes to the Puget Sound region would be pretty minimal.