Survey Question

As loan volumes slow this year, will brokers benefit as big retailers move to cut costs and opt to use the wholesale channel instead?

Most Popular Stories

These were the past week's most frequently emailed stories on our site:

1. Foreclosures Get Trickier In Florida
2. Due Diligence Firms Boom, But Questions About W-2s/a>
3. Illinois AG Sues Two Reverse Mortgage Brokers
4. California DRE Revokes Record Number of Real Estate Licenses
5. Fannie and Freddie Foes No Longer

Quote of the Week

“If Ginnie Mae is to fulfill its mission in the years ahead, it requires a structure that provides for its independence and the ability to respond to the always changing secondary markets.”

Joseph Murin, managing director, The Collingwood Group, Washington, and former president and CEO of Ginnie Mae

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Making Sure Wrong Home Isn't Seized

By Sara Lepro

Reports of lenders repossessing the wrong home are further tarnishing the banking industry's image, already bruised by bailouts and bonuses.

The mix-ups have been perpetuated by the sheer number of foreclosures being processed today as well as the various layers of communication involved. Addresses and other information passed from one department to another, or from a contractor to a subcontractor, can get garbled along the way.

"It's what you call a new weakness," said Joe Bada, chief executive of Five Brothers Mortgage Co. Services and Securing Inc., a Warren, Mich., company that inspects and manages foreclosed properties for lenders. "There's just so much happening at the same time. The means of communicating haven't been refined. Information is not moving fast enough from one department to the other."

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Two top officers in charge of the fast growing MetLife Home Loans, Memphis, have departed the bank-owned residential lender/servicer, National Mortgage News has learned.

Commercial banks will be big buyers of agency MBS this year and help keep mortgage rates in check after the Federal Reserve withdraws from the market, according to the head of securitization strategy at Barclays Capital.

Bill Petersohn, director of bulk acquisitions and capital market sales for Residential Capital Corp., Horsham, Pa., has resigned from the mortgage banker to take a job with an analytics firm.

Appraisers Warn About BPOs and Property 'Flopping'

Appraisers are raising alarms that the Treasury Department's decision to use broker price opinions (BPOs) for its new short sales program will exacerbate mortgage fraud and property "flopping."

The Government National Mortgage Association should be given its independence from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, its former president said.

The homebuyer tax credit has been a dud so far this year, but the National Association of Realtors is hoping it will kick in this spring and drive home sales higher before it expires at midyear.

Phoenix Capital, Denver, is working on bringing an $800 million package of servicing rights to the auction market, according to one advisor familiar with the transaction.

Defunct FHA lender Lend America and its "chief business strategist," Michael Ashley -- who controlled the company -- have effectively been barred from the mortgage industry, according to newly released court documents.

The creation of an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency would not impair safety and soundness regulation of banks, according to a majority of business economists.

Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp., Sun Prairie, Wisc., funded $720 million in residential loans in the New England area last year, a 244% jump from 2009.

The entrance of a new firm, Essent Guaranty, into the mortgage insurance space is a positive for the sector as a whole, but could spell bad news for some existing players, according to a report from Moody's Investor Service.

More than 1 million U.S. consumers have lost their homes to foreclosure since the end of 2008, according to new figures compiled by RealtyTrac, Irvine, Calif.