Rob Chrisman

You knew that Minnesota has 90,000 miles of shoreline, more than California, Florida, and Hawaii combined, right? Here at Servion’s

What would lenders do without telephones and phone calls? In 1947 area codes were created by AT&T. Metropolitan areas were given low numbers so that people would spend less time dialing them. Think New York, Chicago, San Francisco (and all of Central California), Dallas, and all of Southern California including Los Angeles, (212, 312, 415, 214, and 213, respectively). Philadelphia received 215, Detroit 313. Atlanta, originally given 404 with the rest of Georgia, has four area codes. Georgia has nine. Few people want to receive a phone call from the CFPB, but change may be afoot. Today’s Mortgage Pros 411 features the CFPB’s Mark McArdle. We’re nearing the time when LOs seem more open to taking calls from recruiters… How’s your policy regarding how long you pay an LO after they leave, or who owns the borrower’s data? They should be sound. An informal poll indicates that LOs are often paid for 30 days after they leave. Of course, the higher the origination costs are, the worse the pricing for borrowers, and secondary staffs can’t make up for everything. Today’s Capital Markets Wrap at 3PM ET, presented by Polly, will cover last week’s election volatility. (Today’s podcast can be found here. This week’s is sponsored by Floify. Floify is an easy-to-configure point-of-sale platform that allows each branch or loan officer to customize its look and feel to meet the needs of their lending team, homebuyers, and market. Today’s features an interview with Floify’s Jason Mapes on how new POS technology in the mortgage industry is providing both time and cost savings for originators and borrowers.)

"To the person who stole my glasses. I will find you; I have contacts." Here in Cleveland, much of the mortgage talk involves conjecture about where we’ll find the Agencies in a few years. If you’d like some “inside baseball” knowledge about what may happen to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, you should listen to yesterday’s interview with ex-FHFA Director Mark Calabria. What may happen with conventional conforming interest rates, gfee changes, privatization, the appointment & approval of a new director, net worth changes, capital buffers, the current strength of the Agencies, and so on. The Director of the FHFA, which oversees the conservatorship of Freddie and Fannie, is a position that the president selects and is approved. Interesting, given the spate of cabinet and other posts that are coming out of Mar Largo, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump demanded last Sunday that Republican lawmakers bypass the U.S. Constitution and allow him to appoint key officials without a Senate confirmation vote, aiming to block the little remaining power Democrats have to stymie his administration. Whether this happens, or happens with financial services posts, remains to be seen. Stay tuned! (Today’s podcast can be found here. This week’s is sponsored by Floify. Floify is an easy-to-configure point-of-sale platform that allows each branch or loan officer to customize its look and feel to meet the needs of their lending team, homebuyers, and market. Today’s features an interview with Castor Financial’s Brooks Champagne on how blended income qualifications are getting more borrowers into homes.)

“I didn't make it to the gym again today. That makes five years in a row.” I did, however, make it to the aerodrome over the weekend, which involved travel (not on Spirit) from Ohio to Nevada, and also a look in the mailbag. “Rob, are you hearing something about some states contemplating requiring audited financials from brokers?” I have heard rumblings of it, but no one seems to have any definite information. If the regulatory burden shifts from the federal government to the state level, it wouldn’t surprise me. “Rob, do you know the reason why the Agencies aren’t contemplating having lenders just use one credit bureau rather than going from tri-merge to bi-merge?” I don’t know. You should ask your Fannie or Freddie rep. The three credit bureaus certainly put lenders and investors in an interesting situation currently, especially when costs go up. There is a school of thought that says the industry should have moved from tri-merge, skipped bi-merge, and gone to a single credit bureau’s result. (Today’s podcast can be found here. This week’s is sponsored by PHH Mortgage. If you are looking for a Correspondent Lending partner or an experienced, award-winning subservicer who can manage your forward and reverse, residential and commercial, and performing and non-performing loans look no further than PHH. Hear an interview with First Street’s Matthew Eby and Amanda Johnson on climate risk modeling advancements and how those models impact borrower, lender, and investor behavior.)

“What do giraffes and zoning regulations have in common? They both don't exist in Texas.” I am not heading there for a while, but instead head to St. Louis this morning for the MBA of St. Louis event

“I thought swimming with dolphins was expensive until I went swimming with sharks. It cost me an arm and a leg.” Through the wonders of modern air travel, I find myself in St. Louis for the MBA of St. Louis event

Want a house for a dollar? Italy has them … figure out the impact on comps for appraisals! To the best of my knowledge, my cat Myrtle never lived in Italy before she was adopted, or even traveled there. Plenty of people will be traveling places during this “late in the month” Thanksgiving time, and those who use airplanes might be interested in this write up of TSA Pre versus CLEAR

“Pro tip” to start the week: Be sure to bring up politics at your family's Thanksgiving dinner. You'll save a lot of money on Christmas gifts. A tip that I posted last week received a lot of thanks: If your business is an LLC or corporation, including a single member LLC, you must fill out this form

“If there's anyone out there who has no family and is planning to stay home alone this Thanksgiving, please let me know. I need to borrow some chairs.” Kind of cute… What isn’t cute is that the MBA has reduced its production forecast for 2025

“Rob, my borrowers would be really happy with rates below 7 percent. When will we get there?” A wise economist with the MBA once told me, “If you’re going to give a number, don’t give a date. If you’re going to give a date, don’t give a number.” Probably early next year. If I could predict rates precisely, I’d be writing this from a sleepy village on a beach in Mexico. Depending on where the home is, maybe the focus should be more on obtaining homeowner’s insurance at a reasonable level. Everyone is talking about how delinquencies are following mounting insurance costs! Per