Month: March 2026

Here we are, heading into the spring planting season, and U.S. fertilizer prices have doubled. In fact, with the Iranian War, the price of oil has moved higher, and while President Trump has said that it is a price worth paying, we are reminded that anything transported has become more expensive with the price of oil, adding to inflation and impacting the price of fixed-income securities and therefore interest rates. (Having your home or office flooded is also expensive, and thousands are…

On this date, six years ago, Netflix released “Tiger King.” Say what you will about “watching a train wreck” or asking, “Is this the height of our civilization?”, we watched it. I bring this up because, while Joe Exotic (now in prison for animal cruelty) may be stuck in some people’s minds, we, as an industry, shouldn’t forget the magnificent job we did moving to a “work from home environment” and not missing a beat funding loans while people’s spending ground to a halt during the pandemic….

Let’s dive into the mailbag. “Rob, the FHFA announced that Fannie and Freddie will remove ‘certain’ homeowners insurance requirements which may reduce costs. But what are your contacts saying about where their industry-facing priorities are?” Both are focused on leveraging technology and reminding lenders of their existing products. For example, Fannie offers a construction to perm program , as does Freddie Mac , and has “ MH Advantage ” for manufactured homes; Freddie has something…

“I started hiding from my boss because I heard good employees are hard to find.” It’s not hard to find good conversations among mortgage professionals, and among the hot topics in the hallways of the ICE Experience is the evolution in data contained in each lien, along with massive appraisal change hitting our biz. I was chatting with Class Valuation’s Mark Walser yesterday about UAD 3.6. (If you’d like a primer on it, and you should, see this write up by Mike Simmons .) On 11/2/26, all…