Jun. 6, 2011: Wells Fargo & MI underwriter licensing; mortgage jobs from coast to coast; NAFCU on QRM; are there loans left to refi?

Jun. 6, 2011: Wells Fargo & MI underwriter licensing; mortgage jobs from coast to coast; NAFCU on QRM; are there loans left to refi? Rob Chrisman

Studies find it takes 2,000 times more energy to produce and ship bottled water than tap water and it costs 10,000 times more per gallon. It also takes 17 million barrels of oil to produce the plastic used to create all of the water bottles – about the same amount used to fuel 1 million cars for a full year. Finally, the suggested 8 glasses of water per day costs $1,400 per year for bottled, compared to only 49 cents for the tap. Need I repeat that last sentence or it is obvious? Speaking of obvious things, no one is claiming that industry-wide, mortgage related employment is increasing. The latest example comes from Colorado, where a Denver Post article points out, “There were just more than 2,000 mortgage brokers in Colorado in 2009, down from a peak of about 5,300 in 2003, a 61 percent drop.” http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_18204732   But there are indeed residential firms that are expanding. For example,  WestStar Mortgage is expanding its retail platform in its 45 branch locations in the North and South East, as well as its headquarters in Woodbridge, VA: http://www.weststarmortgage.com/index.php/branches. For products, the residential lender is offering a variety of mortgage products down to a 600 FICO score, 100% VA cash out, VA IRRRLs without an appraisal, and the FHA 203k rehabilitation loans. WestStar is a GNMA issuer and FNMA seller-servicer which “allow the firm to eliminate many of the secondary overlays imposed by the large aggregators.” For opportunities throughout the branch system please contact Kathy Zimpel (kzimpel@weststarmortgage.com) or Bill Reichel (breichel@weststarmortgage.com). West of the Rockies, more mortgage hiring continues. Republic Mortgage and its wholesale channel, New Line Mortgage is looking for traditional retail branches and seasoned wholesale AE’s.  Republic is  a privately owned Mortgage Banker headquartered in Salt Lake City  conducting business in 11 western states offering a full menu of FHA,VA, Conventional and Rural Development product lines.  Anyone interested in more information should contact Terry Mott, tmott@repmtg.com or Gary Nielson, gnielson@repmtg.com for Retail Branch opportunities, or Shauna Reimann,   sreimann@nlmtg.com for wholesale AE opportunities. And back on the retail side, Kinecta Federal Credit Union is growing its business and is hiring Retail Mortgage Loan Consultants throughout Southern California. Kinecta has more than $3.5 billion in assets and serving over 220,000 member-owners across the country, and “offers a competitive compensation and benefits package in addition to a dynamic culture and a large product line.”  If you are interested in speaking to them, please send a resume to Sue Anne Smith at ssmith@kinecta.org. Wells Fargo’s correspondent group recently spooked the MI underwriting herd. “The clerical and support duty exemption to licensing under the S.A.F.E Act (and other proposed regulations) for loan processors or underwriters who are employees taking direction and subject to the supervision and instruction of licensed persons, does not apply to contract underwriters. For all underwriters who do not qualify for the exemption to licensing, including contract underwriters, compliance requires that anyone who is performing credit underwriting in connection with a residential mortgage loan be licensed as a mortgage loan originator. If Sellers or Third Party Originators (TPOs) that Sellers conduct business with utilize any independent contractors or third parties to perform credit underwriting tasks, each individual independent underwriter must have the applicable state license…As a result, effective July 5, 2011, Wells Fargo will no longer purchase mortgage Loans that have been credit underwritten by a mortgage insurance company contract underwriter on Wells Fargo’s behalf, or on behalf of a Correspondent’s delegated underwriting authority.” We have 4 days until the end of the comment period for Qualified Residential Mortgages. What is the latest? According to the National Association of Federal Credit Unions, “The proposed rule doesn’t directly apply to credit unions, but it has market implications that NAFCU is closely monitoring”: