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According to Redfin, the National Association of Realtors' (NAR) recent rule changes regarding commission have had varying impacts across the country. The new rules, which went into effect on August 17, prohibit listing agents from unilaterally offering compensation for the buyer agent's commission on NAR-affiliated multiple listing services. As a result, fee negotiations have increased in some areas, while others have not seen significant shifts. In slower markets, sellers are still willing to cover the buyer agent commission, while in cities with low inventory and high demand, fee negotiations are more common. The typical buyer's agent commission was 2.55% in July, slightly lower than before the settlement. The new rules also require listing agents to disclose their fees upfront, making them more transparent. Buyers are now more cautious about signing paperwork before touring a home. Some real estate brokers are even requiring buyers to sign a full buyer agency agreement before touring, committing them to work exclusively with that agent for a certain period of time. The biggest change so far has been negotiations between buyers and sellers over who pays the buyer's agent and how much. While negotiations are becoming more common, most sellers are still willing to help cover the buyer's agent fees. Removing the offer of compensation from the multiple listing service has led to more communication between agents when scheduling showings, with buyers' representatives contacting listing agents to inquire about compensation. Some listing brokers have found creative ways to communicate the seller's willingness to pay buyer's agents, [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the increasing influence of women in the wealth management industry. It highlights the fact that women investors prioritize their goals and aspirations before considering investment options. The author emphasizes the need for financial firms and advisors to adapt to this shift and provide tangible, consultative advice to women clients. The article also emphasizes the importance of building diverse, female-led teams and creating educational resources that empower women and foster confidence and independence. The author concludes by stating that advisors who embrace this change will thrive, while those who cling to outdated models will be left behind. [Extracted from the article]

The war in Ukraine has had a divisive impact on U.S. housing professionals and their relationships with clients. Real estate agents and mortgage industry participants from post-Soviet states have experienced strained dialogue and complications in their business due to the war. The Russian language, once spoken by all 15 member states of the former Soviet Union, has become a symbol of the invasion, leading to communication difficulties. Some professionals are now avoiding the use of Russian and focusing on Ukrainian and English instead. The war has also led to skepticism and reputational risks for those with Russian affiliations. However, not all participants in the mortgage industry feel that the war has changed interpersonal dynamics. The war in Ukraine is just one example of how global crises can impact relationships and perspectives. [Extracted from the article]

While consumers pay for mortgage insurance policies, carriers like Arch MI are forging new relationships with real estate agents and strengthening lender partnerships to reach the growing segment of millennial and low-to-moderate-income homebuyers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A survey conducted by Floify, a point-of-sale system, found that many top producing loan officers would consider switching to a competitor for better technology, just as they would for a higher salary. The survey revealed that 89% of high performing loan officers would consider joining a competing lender if they did not have access to digital mortgage platforms or tools. Additionally, 95% of loan officers stated that the ability to customize their own technology stack was vital to their success. The survey also highlighted the importance of document collection tools and the desire for a faster and easier way to obtain necessary forms from clients. The Mortgage Bankers Association expects business to increase in late 2024, further emphasizing the need for efficient technology in the industry. The survey also identified poor work-life balance, limited advancement opportunities, and poor commissions or splits as factors that could lead loan officers to leave a company. Effective communication with clients was found to be crucial for success, with 49% of loan officers emphasizing the importance of communication during the loan application process. Many loan officers also partnered with real estate agents and other businesses to find new clients. [Extracted from the article]

The state, with the support of its Realtors, will be mandating that real estate salespeople have a contract with the home seekers they are representing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The state, with the support of its Realtors, will be mandating that real estate salespeople have a contract with the home seekers they are representing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While real estate agents have softened their opinions on the National Association of Realtors commission settlement, almost two-thirds remained opposed, a Clever RE survey found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While real estate agents have softened their opinions on the National Association of Realtors commission settlement, almost two-thirds remained opposed, a Clever RE survey found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real estate agents and loan officers from post-Soviet states say the war has altered relationships between one another and made dialogue with some clients strained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real estate agents and loan officers from post-Soviet states say the war has altered relationships between one another and made dialogue with some clients strained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Association of Realtors was looking to reverse the April decision from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that allowed the Justice Department to reopen its probe into the group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Association of Realtors was looking to reverse the April decision from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that allowed the Justice Department to reopen its probe into the group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patty Arvielo, co-founder and CEO of New American Funding, is so closely associated with promoting the inclusion of two racial groups that typically lag in homeownership that E! I think we do a really great job delivering the loan products but there is a fear in delivering the loan products for the aftermath of the regulators coming in and saying you did it wrong, you have a higher default rate. [Extracted from the article]

The April 26 update came two days after the group received preliminary approval for the Sitzer/Burnett agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multiple listing service settled a lawsuit challenging Realtor commission rules for $3 million, a possible harbinger for several ongoing actions by home sellers alleging listing requirements are anticompetitive. They will also require brokers to inform buyers that they can negotiate the buyer-broker fee and inform sellers that they can elect not to pay it. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses private mortgage insurance (PMI) carriers by referring to the efforts made by former U.S. President Barack Obama administration to bring PMI into the housing finance market to offset taxpayers' exposure to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Topics discussed include the views of David Gansberg, president of Arch Mortgage Insurance Co., on selling an insurance policy, Gansberg's career, PMI business of Arch Capital Group, and the mortgage insurance rate.

Homebot, a finance portal designed to facilitate ongoing communication between customers and lenders, acquired Menlo Park-California-based Quo Finance, a mobile app that provides financial guidance for first-time home buyers. "Later this year, Homebot's customers will have the ability to offer a Homebot native mobile app to their millions of engaged clients and attract more first-time homebuyers to their pipelines.". [Extracted from the article]

Job as chief innovation officer at Quontic Bank, Patrick Sells was stymied. "Patrick actually is the one that came in and not only worked on completely overhauling the bank's digital presence, whether it be customer facing or even internal, but also changed the bank's corporate culture 180 degrees." Within 30 days of Sells' arrival at Quontic, the bank deployed a solution from its core provider to enable a digital onboarding process for deposit products. [Extracted from the article]

The program sponsors licenses for real estate agents, insurance professionals and others to help buyers obtain mortgages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly half of sellers and buyers in a recent LendingTree survey said they didn't know what commission percentage their agent received in their most recent transaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FSOC report One of the main assignments given to financial regulators by the Biden administration in May's executive order was a major report from the Financial Stability Oversight Council. October 20, 2021 WASHINGTON - How the Biden administration's focus on climate risk will affect regulators' oversight of the U.S. financial system is, slowly but surely, coming into view. SEC climate disclosures The Securities and Exchange Commission emerged as one of the most active financial regulators in trying to measure climate change risk in the U.S. financial system, even before Chair Gary Gensler's arrival at the agency in April. [Extracted from the article]

"As an industry, we are not doing a great job answering those questions", said Ginger Bell, CEO of edumarketing.com, a Beaverton, Oregon-based company that produces and edits branded online video explainers and podcasts for mortgage and real estate businesses. While housing agencies and community organizations have mandatory counseling and education coursework used to qualify for specific grants or down-payment assistance, many informational, typically free, educational programs presented by lenders or realtors are open to a wide set of consumers at various stages of mortgage preparedness. [Extracted from the article]

Former director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Mark Calabria said the uptick raises a question about what role Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be playing in the home investment market, particularly amid a spiraling housing affordability crisis. As a greater share of single-family homes are being purchased as investments, a debate has emerged about what government-backed mortgage providers can or should do about it. [Extracted from the article]

Of the top five factors influencing a home buying decision, an Assurance IQ survey of real estate agents said price and affordability was at the top, followed by financing & mortgage options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A complicating factor is that many consumers do not understand how their real estate agent – on either the buy- or sell-side – actually gets paid, Clever Real Estate found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bost gives the example of two real estate agents meeting a client in a '92 Honda Accord. These clients, Holloway says, "are very worried about things like climate change, wealth inequality and similar issues, and so the main planning [task] is [to determine] what they really need and how much they can give away.". [Extracted from the article]

Cybersecurity professionals are urging mortgage firms to tread carefully in making difficult balance sheet decisions. Mortgage firms weighing painful and public layoffs in response to the market's downturn are quietly reckoning with another essential, rising expense. [Extracted from the article]

Gregg Schoenberg is an investor and board member in a stealth mode startup comprised of 3D animators, musicians and blockchain experts. Of course the prices associated with some successfully auctioned non fungible token (NFT) artworks are nutty. [Extracted from the article]

The loan officers' primary clients are the borrowers, the real estate agents and the other referral partners, "but that's not my client", said Bringol. In an industry hit by the pandemic and now by a shifting interest rate environment, leadership at several of the Best Mortgage Companies to Work For said open communication is what keeps their staff engaged. [Extracted from the article]

Jeremy Schachter, a producing branch manager for Fairway Independent Mortgage in Phoenix, can recall the "A-ha moment" in 2018 that got him hooked on app technology. SimpleNexus' Westra, whose team builds apps for over 400 lenders representing approximately 45,000 loan officers, said that even though they might have the same code base underneath the hood, app design is highly customizable. [Extracted from the article]

The lender has cut over 80% of its workforce since late 2021 and posted an $889 million net loss in 2022, it revealed in a financial filing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consider partnering with a respected credit counseling firm to conduct in-house or virtual workshops or allowing employees time off to attend approved credit counseling seminars outside the workplace. It's a win-win situation: employers help employees make the most of homeownership - even in small ways - and workers may feel even more loyal to them. [Extracted from the article]

But the company expects positive margins in the first quarter from Bay Equity Home Loans and increased cross-sell capture from real estate agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For lenders like Fairway or Revolution Mortgage, mobile apps serve primarily as a way of streamlining and automating the application process, through document uploads or scanning. With technologically adept younger consumers now approaching prime earning years, and mobile use surging among mortgage customers in the COVID era, lenders are looking for ways to serve them with speed and simplicity in the digital space. [Extracted from the article]

With the qualified mortgage patch expiring and a recession likely, wealth inequities that have hurt black and millennial homeownership could worsen, according to the National Association of Real Estate Brokers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

: United Wholesale Mortgage set off a brawl in the press when it forbade brokers from doing business with Rocket and Fairway. "Any good LO who's going to do their research is going to realize that this is three out of 100 companies that are sort of having their little spat, and that there's still opportunities for choice", Morrison said. A line in the sand What is happening between UWM, Rocket and Fairway is not unique to the mortgage business, said Grant Moon, the CEO of mortgage fintech firm Home Captain. [Extracted from the article]

Since Quicken Loans launched its Rocket Mortgage platform five years ago at Super Bowl 50, the industry has sought to emphasize a speedy, high-tech experience when funding homebuyers' time-sensitive loans. Shrinking the appraisal process Another opportunity for shrinking loan timelines may lie in the appraisal process, especially since there's new flexibility this year. [Extracted from the article]

: A few key indicators could reveal whether the second spring with COVID-19 marks a longterm shift in the housing market's selling patterns Home sales activity in 2020 was far different than any year in recent memory, as the pandemic forced changes to traditional patterns and practices. "The housing market is unseasonably hot - it's behaving like it normally does in the spring, with plenty of demand from homebuyers", Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather said in a Jan. 15 press release. [Extracted from the article]

November 26, 2021 The pandemic created conditions that led many to seek out home renovations, and as refinances dry up and purchase loans are harder to come by, lenders are leaning into the trend. While renovation loan products have existed for decades, some mortgage banks recently ramped up their efforts with these products, creating specific new roles or teams to tap into their potential. [Extracted from the article]

The article focuses on various training courses for housing industry brokers on selling real estate owned (REO) assets. Cheryl Travis-Crawford of Vendor Resource Management says that VRM University was established in 2008 due to increasing foreclosed properties. Sharon Barlett of Freddie Mac mentions that they offer REO Training Solution (RTS) web-based module to brokers. Julia Dugger of Fannie Mae adds that the offer REO sales guide for government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs).

Using culture to battle mortgage industry headwinds: When the economy inevitably slides, leaders with a culture based on the mantra, "Treat people like family, and the money will take care of itself", won't need a miracle to survive An employee-first culture, one that rewards them for always taking great care of clients, will ensure your teams embrace new products and services that will help them make more customers happy. In short, the best holiday gift that mortgage lenders can give themselves is a culture that prioritizes relationships above everything else. [Extracted from the article]

Lenders "layer up" with extra security measures in 2021: Getting ahead of the next wave of mortgage fraud calls for rock-solid systems with several protective tools deployed at once. Successful fraud efforts on mortgage lenders rose to an average of 721 per month in 2020, up from 460 in 2019, based on a study by LexisNexis (see full story on page 5). Because of staggering unemployment and an increased likelihood of borrowers providing false information according to a study by First American, next year's tech could center on improved employment verification software. [Extracted from the article]

The coronavirus disruption caused March's pending home sales to fall and the losses will reverberate through the rest of 2020, according to the National Association of Realtors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purchase mortgage loan closings in particular have more people involved because both the buyers and sellers are present along with their respective attorneys, as well as the settlement services provider representatives and even the lender's attorney and the real estate agent. "As more companies implement travel bans and work-from home options we anticipate lenders and title agents to seek convenient remote closing options for their customers.". [Extracted from the article]

Johnson prefers to work with CPAs and accountants to mitigate any tax consequences of the investment. There's an estimated $6.5 trillion-plus currently locked in investment property in the U.S. Unfortunately, investment property wealth typically isn't managed with the same discipline as investments such as stocks, bonds or other traditional asset classes, according to Rob Johnson, head of wealth management at Austin-based Realized, an investment property wealth management firm. Individuals who are at or nearing retirement face the challenge of having wealth trapped in investment properties with no real strategy to maintain their wealth and create passive income, nor a plan to ease the steep taxes on capital gains when their investment properties are sold. [Extracted from the article]