Blog Archives

Preferred Partner Headlines: Week of September 28th

9/25/2020

Top Headlines...
Fannie Mae Upgrades Economic Forecast Despite Continued Risks
Stewart Title Strengthens Operations in Alaska with New Acquisition
Plaza Home Mortgage Launches New Correspondent Portal
MeridianLink® Receives 2020 High Tech Award for Best Technology Company Leadership Team
VirPack Announces New Integration to Streamline the Digital Mortgage Process
LoanLogics Whitepaper: How to Get the Most from Your MERS® Annual Review

Thought Leadership...
Loan Vision's Beth Johnson: Unlocking the Numbers - Leveraging Granular Financial Detail in Business Strategy
Black Knight SVP of eLending Solutions, Andy Crisenbery: COVID-19 Created "Quick Fix" FinTech Solutions
CBC Mortgage Agency President, Richard Ferguson: What We Can Do to Help the Homeownership Wealth Gap
Fannie Mae's VP of Enterprise Technology, Tracy Stephen: Customer-Facing Technology is a Top Priority for Lenders

Blog...
MQMR's Anti-Playbook for Servicing Oversight: The Best Defense is a Good Offense
LoanLogics - B-Logics: Small is the Big with LoanLogics® Service Delivery
Arch MI Capital Commentary: Biden-Harris Campaign Housing Policy Review
Credit Plus: The Changing Face of Mortgage Verifications During COVID-19

Media...
Credit Plus: America's Mortgage News - 2020 at the Half
Mortgage Management Playbook Podcast features Plaza Home Mortgage COO/CFO, Mike Fontaine
Mortgage Coach's Dave Savage - The Walk Podcast

Upcoming Events...
Loan Vision Industry Insights: Navigating PPP Loan Forgiveness Applications for Lenders

Personnel Moves...
Certified Credit Adds Marisol Pintado to Operations Team
CWDL Adds Industry Veterans Susan Volpe & Dustin Pfluger
ICYMI: Total Expert Welcomes Allison Netzer as New CMO

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TMC Benchmark August Data - Operational Productivity Slowing, Volume Train Speeding

9/25/2020

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August was another spectacular volume month for TMC's national network of best-in-class mortgage lenders that submit data to TMC Benchmark. We saw a pretty substantial drop-off in efficiency and productivity during the month, most likely due to operational staff vacation time and general burn-out - so there are no stops in sight for The Volume Train as we emerge from the dog days of summer and head into the fall months. Better problems to have than the problems of two winters ago, but problems lenders are faced with nonetheless as we enter the latter part of a year that looks like it could be the biggest production year ever for the mortgage industry.

Starting with closed loan production, August was a strikingly similar month to July. Closed loan units were nearly identical (-0.05%) as was the mix of conventional (75%) and government (21%) business. The purchase/refinance mix on closed loan units in August was 55%/45%. Let's take a look at that mix for the last four months, which have been the four biggest closing months we've seen in the four-year history of TMC Benchmark:

May - 42% purchase, 58% refinance
June - 51% purchase, 49% refinance
July - 58% purchase, 42% refinance
August - 55% purchase, 45% refinance

Like with the closed loan data, new applications taken were also nearly identical in August to the prior month (-1.7%), as was the production mix - 77% conventional, 19% government, 4% other.

What was not consistent from July to August was operational productivity and efficiency. On average, it took our members 2.3 days longer to close loans in August versus July, with the average "app date to clear to close date" time frame rising from 37.2 days to 39.5 days in the most recent month. And after seeing all-time highs in operational employee efficiency in June, we saw our second straight month of decline in August.

Here's the closed loan unit totals per FTE (full-time employee) for the last four months (May/June/July/August):

Processor - 16/17.2/16.8/15.2
Underwriter - 51.8/54.8/52.1/50.1
Closer - 63.8/64.8/62.7/61.8
Loan Originator - 7.0/8.1/8.2/8.1

The average LO comp on August closings came in at 96.8 bps, down 5.1 bps from July's 101.9 total but in line with the 97.1 total two months prior on June closings. We've seen this number vacillate between 95-105 bps these first eight months of 2020. We saw decreases in the average non-third party lender fees per loan our members charge their customers, with conventional loans coming in at $1,119 and government at $1,072.

On the compensation side, we saw fairly steep drop offs in processor and underwriter average annual compensation but an increase in closer compensation most likely due to lenders using more outsourcing services for processing and underwriting functions. Processor average annual comp fell from $56,790 in July to $52,992 (-6.8%) this past month while underwriter average annual comp fell from $94,294 in July to $89,104 (-5.5%). Closer comp increased from $54,212 to $55,376 (+2.1%).

The average cost per closed loan our members paid for their LOS ($95), POS ($51), and their CRM ($89) was remarkably consistent with the prior month and the monthly averages for 2020.

53% of companies that submitted August data to TMC Benchmark were depositories and 47% were IMB's. 35% originate $500M or less annually, 26% originate between $500M-$1B, and 39% originate $1 billion per year or more in total volume.

Rich Swerbinsky
Chief Operating Officer - The Mortgage Collaborative
rswerbinsky@mtgcoop.com

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Preferred Partner Headlines: Week of September 21st

9/15/2020

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Top Headlines...
Docutech is Now First American Docutech
Black Knight Completes Acquisition of Optimal Blue
Total Expert: The Experience Experiment - Undercover Shoppers Spill All
Built Launches New Disaster Tracking Tool for Lenders
Maxwell Adds Underwriting & Closing Services to Fulfillment Platform
HW Annual: Fannie Mae Chief Economist, Doug Duncan to Provide Economic Forecast
National MI Recognized in SF Financial Times Mid-Market 50 List
Plaza Home Mortgage Helps American Red Cross Deliver Lifesaving Blood to Patients in Need

Thought Leadership...
Triserv President, Joe Bryant: Dodd-Frank - Another Compliance Pitfall

Events...
Blend Forward, Sept 22 - 23: Day 1 Focused on Mortgage & Day 2 Focused on Consumer Banking

Blog...
ICYMI: LBA Ware - What Data Insights Do Mortgage Lenders Need Right Now?
Arch MI Policy Cast: Capital Commentary - 2020 Trump-Pence Campaign Housing Policy Review
Credit Plus Knowledge Hub: How to Speed Up Supplements & Closings
LoanLogics Infographic: HMDA Efficiency - Switch Gears from Manual to Automatic
Blend Blog: Providing a One-Stop Shopping Experience for Digital Lending Tools

Personnel Moves...
Certified Credit Announces the Addition of Melissa Kass to Operations Team

Media...
HW Daily Download: ICE Completes $11B Acquisition of Ellie Mae
Sales Boomerang: Bourbon & BS Episode 9 with Stephen Barton from Eustis Mortgage

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TMC Members & Partners Recognized in 2020 HW Insiders List

9/11/2020

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This year, HousingWire compiled a list of 50 operations superstars that have been integral in keeping their companies afloat throughout 2020, and we were thrilled to see the Power of the Network represented in such force. Congratulations to each and every one of these unsung heroes that kept their organization and our industry on track!

Lender Members:

Brenda Colter - Director of Branch Advocacy, Planet Home Lending
Brendan Curley - AVP of Post Closing Loan Administration, First Guaranty Mortgage Corporation
Angie Roman - Director of Secondary Marketing, PRMG
William Staples - Director of Secondary Marketing, First Guaranty Mortgage Corporation
Rich Tucker - COO, Waterstone Mortgage Corporation

Preferred Partners: