There is a great deal of m&a (mergers and acquisitions) happening in the mortgage world right now.  The latest news is that Accredited Home Loans will be acquiring Aames Investment Corp. The company believes they will become the sixth largest retail mortgage originator in the country once the acquisition is complete.
Both Accredited and Aames do a great deal of mortgage origination (mortgage pros call that “retail”) and they also act as investors to smaller mortgage brokers (more commonly referred to as “wholesale”).  What’s interesting is that both Accredited and Aames specialize in non-prime loans, so their overall portfolio of loans is somewhat restricted to a higher risk category.

For consumers, this doesn’t necessarily mean a whole lot, other than if you currently have a loan serviced by Aames then you’ll probably start getting mail with Accredited envelopes and letterhead.

The FBI has reported that mortgage fraud losses in the United States more than doubled from 2004 to 2005.  The exact figures are $1 billion in 2005, up from $429 million in 2004.  Utah was listed in the top 10 states for mortgage fraud activity in 2004, per capita, according to the same report.

I’ve also heard that Utah is either number two or three for mortgage fraud in 2005, behind Florida, but I can’t confirm right now.  I will post a link to the source, once I can confirm.

Misrepresenting any information on a uniform mortgage loan application, including the source of a down payment, can be considered fraud.  Utah is considering legislation that would criminalize mortgage fraud.  So be accurate when completing your next mortgage application, whether it be to purchase a new home, refinance your existing loan, or take out a home equity line of credit (heloc).

Wow. That’s all I could think when I read the following from Inman News:

Ask most home builders these days what they sell, and they’ll say a lifestyle. In most cases, this means a house on the outer fringes of suburbia with a yard for the kids and a garden for the folks. The house has plenty of room to pursue hobbies, entertain friends, bond with the family and get away from it all in a spacious master suite.

But is this lifestyle a sustainable one for the long haul? That is, in meeting our own needs in this fashion, are we compromising the needs of future generations? The needs of our children and our children’s children? In a word, yes.

If we continue to build more than a million such houses every year, the long-term effects will not be good, so say architects, builders, environmentalists, ecologists, engineers and developers in recent interviews. Dan Chiras, an Evergreen, Colo., environmentalist, teacher and home builder was quite specific.

“We cannot keeping spreading out across the country, gobbling up farmland at the rate of 3,500 acres a day to create roads and highways, single-family houses and suburban shopping centers. We need the productive farmland to feed our growing population–as many as 120 more million people may be living here by the year 2050. In the near term we need the forests to absorb the astronomical amounts of carbon dioxide that we are producing daily, and we need the pastureland to absorb rain and reduce flooding. All the paving, roofs, sidewalks and driveways that come with every subdivision create impervious surfaces that compromise nature’s ability to control flooding.”

Not only are we gobbling up land to create new communities, but we are also using vast resources to build the houses.

“For almost every new 2,300-square-foot house, we have clear cut an acre of forest somewhere,” Chiras explained. “To produce all the metals and minerals used in construction, we have dug a hole in the ground somewhere that is equal to the entire volume of the house.”

Read the rest of the story here.

Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave, you know that suburban expansion has been widespread in Utah for many years now. I think most people understand some of the basic complications that arise from this sort of development plan, but I, for one, never took into consideration half of the “costs” that author Katherine Salant identifies in her article at Inman.

It will be interesting to see what happens if gasoline really does hit $5 a gallon this summer, as predicted. Those who are commuting will take a serious hit to the pocketbook if it happens, but will it translate into more people looking to move closer to their place of employment? Will urban real estate prices in Salt Lake rise while suburban development stalls? Could happen. Time will tell.

While I’m on the topic of websites with Utah real estate listings, I should mention the official MLS site where you can find any property listed by a Realtor along the Wasatch Front.  The site is www.UtahRealEstate.com.

You won’t be able to get addresses of homes unless you contact the listing agent, or get your buyer’s agent to pull a list of homes matching your desired preferences from the MLS, but you will be able to see what is out there, asking prices, pictures (usually), and other details.  It’s a good site to start your search from.

If you don’t have an agent yet for either buying or selling property, and would like a reference, just drop me a line.  I know several up and down the Wasatch Front that can help you out.

If you are a Utah homeowner planning on selling your home by yourself or already doing so, give me a call (801-376-2289) for a code that will get you a free home ad on one of the leading for sale by owner websites. Check out some of what you’ll get with this ad:

• FSBO3k.com is a nationwide network of homes for sale by owner
• FSBO3k.com advertises on all the major search engines and across a vast network of content related websites
• Each seller gets a unique web address, which can be referred to from other sites and offline ads
• FSBO3k.com listings run until sold
• FSBO3k.com listings allow up to four photos to be uploaded
• FSBO3k.com creates a printable color flyer for each listing

If you are not in Utah, you can still register for a free trial at the site.

This is some pretty big news in the mortgage and real estate world. The IRS decided to rescind the “non-profit” status of organizations that enabled buyers to purchase a home with no down payment on an FHA guaranteed loan. Without “non-profit” status, the funds coming from said organizations are no longer acceptable for use under FHA guidelines.

This will surely affect many would-be home buyers. There is talk from FHA, however, that changes to their guidelines may be forthcoming.

More information from RealtyTimes here.

It came earlier than anticipated (after several other delays).  I’m glad to report that I’m now officially able to originate mortgage loans in Utah again.  Actually, I’m able to originate in several states as well.

Now I’ll have to find more to post about than the licensing process… stay tuned.

While I’m twiddling my thumbs waiting for my Utah mortgage lender license to show up in the mail, I figured I’d make a quick post regarding one of the delays at the State office. You see, Utah recently introduced a new rule that all loan officers must work under a Principal Lending Manager (PLM). The PLM must take a state exam and possess the required education and experience. Now consider this:

The deadline was May 1st, and with 2,200 licensed entities in the state, there were only 68 licensed PLM’s as of March 27th. (more here)

Two possibilities arise from this scenario, each of which is holding up the processing of my licensure with the state. First, there have been many, many PLM applicants (try 1,000+) over the past 30 days, with each application being processed by the same people that are eventually going to process my application (a total of two people). Second, there have been many loan officer change requests, which are also processed by the same people who will (hopefully) process my application soon. The loan officers are submitting change requests (required by state law) because they want to be in compliance as of May 1st, and if there is no PLM at their current institution then they must look elsewhere.

So, this is all resulting in a longer-than-typical processing time for new applicants. It’s a bit of bad timing that I submitted my application while all this was going on. Anyway, two or three additional weeks isn’t that bad. It could be worse, I suppose.

Overall, the PLM requirement will be a good thing because it should help to reduce the amount of mortgage fraud in Utah over the long-run as a natural result of tiered personal responsibility.

I found a convenient little site today for the mortgage industry. It has links to all kinds of sites and services that you need as a mortgage broker.

Mortgage-B2B.com
Get listed in the web’s directory for the mortgage industry and find new contacts to grow your business.