​We’ve added yet another best-in-class independent mortgage bank to our swelling lender member list with Mountain West Financial! Headquartered out of Redlands, CA they are one of the largest mortgage lenders in the Western United States. They might be large, but their focus continues to be on personalized service to their valued clients.
 
With 150 licensed mortgage professionals in more than 40 locations. Specializing in FHA and VA, assisting homebuyers with the purchase or refinance of a primary or investment properties. Holding licenses in AZ, CA, CO, NV, NM, OR, TX, UT and WA, their knowledgeable staff has a “Make It Happen!” philosophy.
 
We’re thrilled to welcome Mike Delehanty and team to the TMC Family and share the Power of the Network with them in 2020 and beyond. Let the collaboration begin! 

When it comes to maximizing secondary execution, experience matters. Since 2001, Vice Capital Markets has successfully managed interest rate risk and maximized profitability on over $400 billion of MBS trades and mortgage-related transactions for lenders of all sizes. With an average of 10+ years’ experience behind each of the traders on their team, Vice Capital has helped its clients realize, on average, a 25 to 55 bps improvement over their best effort execution.

Whether its providing full-service hedge management or simply reporting and market insight to guide internally-driven activities, Vice Capital delivers the same level of care and attention to ensuring the success of its clients, creating lifelong raving fans like TMC Lender Member Success Mortgage Partners – a Vice client since 2013. As Success’s EVP of Capital Markets Victoria DeLuce noted in a recent case study:

We took our whole loan trading in-house in May 2018, and since then, we have also taken hedging in-house. Vice was there every step of the way with us on both of those initiatives and built some new tools for us to help us perform those functions internally…One of the mottos that we have at Success Mortgage Partners is that we only work with people that we like, know and trust…For us, Vice brings all three of those elements to the table, which is why we continue to work with them to help us maximize our execution.

To learn how Vice Capital can help your organization maximize its execution, contact Chris Bennett or Scott Colclough to schedule time to meet at the TMC Winter Conference in New Orleans.

We’re thrilled to welcome Russell Cole, Lori Michaud and team at CUSO Home Lending to our growing best-in-class lender network! A subsidiary of Main Savings Federal Credit Union, CUSO Home Lending is headquartered out of Hambden, Maine. With their membership in TMC, our network now boasts 8 credit union/CUSO members!

They’ve been originating and servicing mortgages since 1993, following their mission of providing consumers, credit union members as well as non-members, with a full menu of competitively priced residential mortgage products with extraordinary courtesy and exceptional customer service. CUSO Home Lending strives to provide a variety of loan programs for both low-income and first-time home-buyers, as well as for moderate to higher income borrowers.
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We look forward to sharing the Power of the Network with our new friends at CUSO Home Lending and look forward to collaborating with the team at your first TMC event in 2020!

Focused on delivering a superior mortgage lender client and borrower experience, Old Republic provides nationwide solutions to accelerate mortgage originations and optimize the management of mortgage servicing portfolios. Their centralized title, settlement, valuation and ancillary services help mortgage lenders to quickly and consistently underwrite, close, fund and mitigate regulatory risk more efficiently.

We offer nationwide title solutions ranging from fully insured title insurance products to uninsured reports and full ALTA title insurance commitments. To create a streamlined process, they customize our title products, along with their closing, settlement and escrow services, for every loan transaction type, including home equity, refinance, purchase and even private wealth transactions.

Their full-service appraisal management company provides nationwide real estate appraisals and appraisal reviews for conventional and government-guaranteed loans, supporting both mortgage origination and servicing operations.

In addition to their full suite of title, closing and valuation products and services, they utilize state-of-the-art-technology to deliver solutions that enhance the borrower experience, like digital closings and integrations with multiple third-party portals and Loan Origination Systems. Their dedicated customer integration specialists are here to support your digital strategy and help you explore connectivity options with your platform of choice.

If you’re interested in understanding how Old Republic can support and enhance your business, connect with Eric Lapin, FVP, Corporate Development. 

We’re thrilled to announce the addition of RiverWood Bank to the TMC Family. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Great River Holding Company, RiverWood was founded in 2003. As an employee-owned community bank, they’ve been serving local customers through personal relationships since 1910.

Headquartered in Baxter, MN, Riverwood has locations across central and northern Minnesota, providing both personal and business banking services. The company has grown from the original four banking offices with $85 million in total assets to ten banking offices with more than $400 million assets today.

As a true community bank, board members and employees live, work and volunteer in the communities RiverWood serves. We look forward to having Bart Taylor and team collaborate with our growing network of community bankers and our entire TMC family, so they can share in the Power of the Network.

Don't miss our best-in-class Preferred Partners presenting at TMC's 2020 Winter Conference during our featured Lightning Showcase sessions on Monday, February 17th - live from NOLA! 

Our partners will be featured in 8 minute Live-demo and Case study sessions where our partners will show off elements or their unique platforms and hear real-world examples of how our partners are positively impacting our members businesses and first-hand perspectives from TMC lender member clients. The best part? Now you get the opportunity to ask questions of our Preferred Partners immediately following their presentations.

For our partners, next Friday, January 10th, is the deadline to lock-in your spot in the Lightning Showcase sessions, so lock in your participation today by contacting Tom or Toni!

The November data is in for the TMC members that submit to TMC Benchmark.

​Nutshell synopsis:

Volume is down from the summer and early fall months. But not nearly as down as lenders thought or expected. Q4 2019 and Q1 2020 will be far better for most lenders than they anticipated earlier this year. As volume tails off a bit, operational efficiency is taking a hit. Unlike a year ago, lenders are leaner, less in need of staff cuts heading into the winter, and leery to do so with rates low, applications still strong, and the spring buying season just a few months away.

Closed loan units were down an average of 19.3% per lender (units) in November as compared to October, almost exactly matching the 19% drop in applications we saw in the month prior. The makeup of those November closings unsurprisingly was a little bit more purchase heavy (60%, up from 57%) and a little bit more government product (30%, up from 27%) weighted. Here's the month-over-month change in closed loan units we've seen this fall:

September +1.6% over August
October -5.8% from September
November -19.3% from October

November new loan applications were down 19% (units) from October, just as October saw a 19% drop from the September app totals. Here's the month-over-month change in new applications we've seen this fall:

September +13.6% over August
October -19.1% from September
November -19.0% from October

After seeing huge operational efficiency pickups throughout the spring and summer and a leveling off in September and October, November was the first month of 2019 where we've seen a pretty big drop-off in operational efficiency, which was to be expected given the drop off in volume and lenders not making any staff cute for all the aforementioned reasons. Closed loans per FTE processor in November fell from 12.2 to 9.8, closed loans per underwriter fell from 40.6 to 34.1, and closed loans per closer fell from 53.5 to 43.9. The average loan originator closed 4.3 loans in November after closing 5.4 loans on average in both September and October. Loans closed a bit quicker in November, with the average "app to clear to close" time frame falling to 40.1 days from 41.2 days in the month prior.

The average LO comp rose slightly to 95.5 bps on November closed loans from 95.3 bps in October. The average non-third party lender fees charged rose from $1,102 in October to $1,115 in November on conventional loans and dropped from $1,096 to $1,027 on govies. Average salaries paid to processors ($51,949), underwriters ($84,773), and closers ($52,972) also increased by 1-3% in November after a similar increase in October.

This was the 7th straight record month for participation in TMC Benchmark! 55% of participants were IMB's and 45% were depositories. 45% of November participants originate $500M or less in annual production, 25% are in the $500M-$1B annual originations range, and 30% of November TMC Benchmark submissions were from companies that originate more than $1B/year.

2019 will go down in TMC’s books as a year of tremendous growth – adding new employees to our team, continued expansion of our lender member and preferred partner network, and, of course… the year that we launched our Collab Lab Summits!

In NOLA this summer and in Scottsdale just 10 days ago, we’ve brought together over 55 of our lender member companies this year at our bi-annual Collab Lab Summits to share data, information and resources - we’re collaborating on a whole new level.

Earlier this month we were honored to host 6 amazing groups at the Omni Scottsdale Resort & Spa at Montelucia – for our long-time members, you’ll remember that we held our 2017 Winter Conference here. We brought together over 60 folks from our lender member network – four groups of independent mortgage bankers, one group of large banks, and another group comprised of our community bankers.

Once this fabulous event had drawn to a close, we spent some time together to review the group's biggest takeaways from our time in Sunny Scottsdale. And here’s what ended up on our whiteboard…..
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• LOS ‘detox’ vs. restart – is it time to consider for your organization?
• LOS/POS/CRM adoption – sometimes forced, keeping LO’s out of LOS entirely
• Utilizing company-wide demo days
• Offering both the ‘Amazon’ AND brick and mortar experience
• Lead generation/purchasing
• MSA’s
• Harnessing the power of API’s with your CRM – knowing your customer
• Creating a consumer direct division – crawl, walk, “run” approach
• CFPB – TRID commentary open, make your voice heard
• JV’s – slow to set up, but huge potential for growth/additional income
• Gestation lines vs. warehouse lines – overnight savings opportunities
• Utilizing Fannie/Freddie to review process efficiency
• Banks: keep an eye on majority minority census tracts
• Offering operations incentives during peak volume times
• Bifurcating operations process by complexity of file to increase productivity
• Bot building to automate pieces to shave days off processing times
• Culture: the importance of focusing on employee engagement, rewards & recognition, branding for both LO’s and the company, and retention of employees
• Vendor HOT list

Three incredible days in the desert, two generous sponsors in Black Knight and LBA Ware, and one incredible TMC Family made our time together valuable, memorable and so very special.

We can’t wait to see everyone at our next Collab Lab Summit in June of 2020!

Congratulations to the following members of The Mortgage Collaborative for receiving the prestigious Vanguard award from HousingWire! 

Michael Jones, Chief Financial Officer, Thrive Mortgage

Tim Elkins, Chief Production Officer, PrimeLending

Aaron Samples, CEO, First Guaranty Mortgage Corporation (FGMC)

And what's this - we have some of our incredible Preferred Partners represented as well? 

Mark Hanson, SVP of Securitization, Freddie Mac

Anthony Jabbour, CEO, Black Knight, Inc.

Ben Miller, President & COO, SimpleNexus

David Parker, Chief Product Officer, LoanLogics

Kevin Parra, Co-Founder, Chairman, President & CEO, Plaza Home Mortgage

Michael Schmeiser, CEO, Arch Mortgage Insurance

The HousingWire Vanguard award is one of the top achievements for housing professionals, recognizing the top shapers, influencers, builders and leaders of the housing industry. Check out all 50 executives leading the housing industry here.