⏱ THE MORTGAGE MINUTE

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Ah, July. When absolutely nothing of interest ever happens. So glad nothing of interest happened this month, right? Absolutely nothing. Nope. Nothing at all…

If you were sleeping on the news, we’ll leave a lot of the reporting to those other guys, but if you’ve been sleeping on real estate and mortgage news…

…well, we’ve got you, boo. 

Market Sentiment & Economic Calendar

If you are a loan officer active in the market today, that makes you among the small but mighty few.

Fortunately, that also puts you at an unfair advantage when the market turns!

In 2023, 4.4 million mortgages were originated in the U. S. and 240,000 loan officers completed at least one loan. With those stats, LOs averaged 18 loans for the year.

Compared to year-to-date, there’s 174,000 loan officers that have closed at least one loan this year. Based on current trajectories, that will average to 25 loans per LO for the year. 

Are you on target?

Hopefully, we can help you match and exceed those stats!

What to Watch This Week:

Friday July 26^th 

8:30 AM EST – Core PCE (year-over-year)

The Core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index for June 2024, which measures inflation excluding food and energy prices, is expected to be released this Friday. 

Forecasts suggest a modest increase of 0.2% month-over-month. 

This measure is closely watched by the Federal Reserve as it reflects underlying inflation trends and helps guide monetary policy decisions. If the data aligns with these expectations, it could support the Fed’s considerations for future interest rate cuts later in the year. 

This means rates should drop on Friday.

This Week’s Survey

Results posted next week. 

Pipeline Save of the Week:

This week’s pipeline save comes from a loan officer who nearly dropped the ball on a beautiful VA loan.

The LO had a lead call in who needed a jumbo loan, but only had ten percent down. Unfortunately, the LO had to turn away the potential borrower because of the requirements of a 25% down payment for VA jumbos.

According the the LO, they had turned away the borrower and then went to lunch with a colleague.

Guess what the colleague knew that the LO didn’t?

New guidelines!

Informed that there was no longer a down payment requirement for jumbo VA loans, the LO paid their bill faster than you can say “antidisestablishmentarianism.” (I mean, the LO had to finish their lunch, come on.)

Not only did the LO get a great client out of this near-miss; the borrower got the loan and the purchase that they wanted.

This is really a great change for veterans, and one you should not soon forget.

Previously a 25% down payment has been reduced to 0% for VA loans – up to jumbo! 

Not only does this lead to access to higher loan amounts for VA borrowers, but also leads to more options for both them and the loan officer! 

Win-win!

Reminder to send in your Pipeline Saves of the Week to be featured in future newsletters!

Loophole Spotlight: 

Auto Loan Exclusions

This week’s Loophole Spotlight is an easy tool that loan officers and real estate agents often forget:

Auto Loan Exclusions

Have too high of a debt-to-income (DTI) ratio? Double-check that credit report!

Oftentimes, it’s forgotten that an auto loan can be dropped from DTI if there are 10 or fewer payments remaining (as long as it’s not an auto lease).

That can be HUGE if you’re on the border from getting a deal approved!

Don’t just glance – check those details!

At The Mortgage Minute, we recognize that we’re all learning at different paces. Sometimes, professionals reading this are learning for the first time, and other times we’re being reminded of simple tricks that have lost us deals in the past.

While we get a smile at teaching readers of a loophole that is brand new, we get just as much of a kick when readers write in telling us of a loophole that they had completely forgotten about. 

(Like this one – thanks for writing in!)

So, here’s to those, both old and new, who are finding this newsletter as a beacon for closing more deals and making more meaningful connections.

We hope you like and share both far and wide.

Searching for Pennies, Grabbing a Pound

Pennymac’s CEO said in a recent interview that he believes the “origination market is resetting.” 

He also touts the stat that $2.5 trillion in mortgages have been originated with a note, in recent years, at 6% or higher.

We’ll let you read that again.

And again.

Oh, and also if you’re scrolling here it is again:

$2.5 trillion in mortgages have been originated with a note, in recent years, at 6% or higher.

The time is coming and we want you to be ready. Rates might not be dropping rapidly now, but as long as money is being borrowed, the opportunity to borrow it cheaper is always there.

As we have said before, you are your borrower’s best and strongest advocate.

Learn. Stay informed. And be ready.

Rocket takes HELOANs to the moon!!!

Rocket Pro TPO, known by many as the wholesale and business partnership arm of Rocket Mortgage, is running a promotion for the ages.

Set to run till August 18th, this program is waiving the origination fee for HELOAN submissions, full-on waiving the $795 origination fee.  

Honestly, we shouldn’t have buried it this deep in the newsletter, but this is for the real ones.

IF there is not a first lien with Rocket, with no tenure or volume requirements from other participating mortgage brokers, then this is a deal with “NO STRINGS ATTACHED,” per Rocket’s statements.

But that’s not all!

Because Rocket Pro TPO also added an automated valuation model component that goes up to $400,000 for it’s HELOAN product, with waived appraisals up to 80% CLTV as long as the AVM tool on Rocket’s home page shows value equal or less than the value listed on your 1003.

Still reading? Great, because also if you list the property value under Rocket’s value tool inside their “Property Hub AVM tool” then they are also waiving appraisal fees.

This makes aggressive pricing and rapid closing extremely possible (in some cases, 15 days or less - per the Rocket article), which makes Rocket’s competition fierce. 

(And a tool in your toolbag when you’re trying to compete with other lenders).

You might be asking yourself if you feel lucky. 

It’s probably because you read this newsletter. 

We’ll see you next time.

Stay Connected

See! We told you! Five minutes or less!

Crazy how much we packed in there, right?

Thank you for being a part of The Mortgage Minute community. Stay tuned for next week’s insights and tips!