The Utah Association of Mortgage Brokers annual conference is coming up in October (the 25th, to be exact). It’s a free event for loan officers and brokers and should be a good time. Here’s a link to more info and registration.

If you are planning on going drop me a line so we can say hello.

I recently posted about the IRS rescinding tax-exempt status from several non-profits acting as down-payment-assistance (DPA) charities, and how this would hurt buyers with low down payment money and some bumps in their credit.  Well, there’s still at least one DPA organization that is conducting business as usual, with full endorsement from the IRS and the FHA.

Buyers Fund is actually based in Utah - Provo to be exact.  They have issued a news release confirming their status as non-profit, with a link to the IRS website where you can lookup their charitable status on your own, if you like.  I did the search and sure enough, there they were.

(As a sidenote, you can look up the status of any organization that claims to be a charity on that page.  Might come in handy the next time you want to donate to a disaster relief fund of some kind.)

So what this means is that Borrowers who qualify for FHA loans are still able to also qualify for a 3% down-payment-assistance grant from Buyers Fund, making it easier to purchase a home.  FHA is a great program for many borrowers because it allows for dings in credit, has low down-payment requirements, and much better rates than subprime mortgages.  And believe it or not, FHA is one governmental organization that is completely self-funded and has been for many years.

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).

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 met with Envision Lending Group today and really liked everything about the situation. The CEO, Jerry Anderson, seems like a nice guy and the company seems like they have their stuff together. So, I’m going to be hanging my license with them.

I’ll be taking my license application into the State offices tomorrow, after which I’ll finish up some paperwork with Envision and then I’ll finally be ready to originate home loans in Utah once more.

One of the nice things about Envision is that they are licensed in 26 states already (with more to come soon). I don’t foresee a lot of active marketing in other states on my part, but you never know when you’ll get a referral from a client that lives outside Utahor perhaps a client will move out of Utah themselves.

There was no shortage of relief on my part upon hearing the proctor announce I had successfully passed the Utah Mortgage Lender Exam.  It was a little more in depth than I was expecting.  Anyway, I’m glad it’s over.

It turns out I can’t submit my application to the state for seven days so I’ll be biding my time for yet another week.   In the meantime, I continue my search for a brokerage…

It’s finally my turn to take the State Exam, tonight at 6:30 in Murray.  After passing this, I’ll just need to finalize my decision on a brokerage from which I am going to originate mortgages and send in my papers to the state.  I’ll then be legal to once again conduct mortgage business in Utah.

Apparently there are a bundle of people seeking a Utah mortgage license right now.  I called to schedule my state exam and the soonest I could get was nearly two weeks out.  I asked the reservationist why there was such a long wait and she indicated there were just that many applicants, and added that Utah was the only state that currently had an abundance of them.

I thought that was interesting, but to be honest I can’t think why that might be.  Anyway, my exam is scheduled for next week.

For those who aren’t familiar with the process of becoming licensed to conduct mortgage business in the state of Utah as an individual, you need to complete 20 hours of education, take an exam, pay an application fee, and submit to an FBI background check.  These are all good improvements in Utah and I’m sure they’ve helped cut down on the amount of fraud since implemented a few years ago.