Instead of responding to numerous emails I’m reducing my quick and dirty thoughts to this post… so please excuse the mortgage speak without detailed explanations and definitions…

Move created a mortgage ‘decision engine’ that effectively processes relative financial, credit and other risk based factors to generate mortgage rates, their costs, as well as subsequent pre-qualifications and approvals for consumers.  They simply tweaked a different loan qualification system and turned it into a mortgage specific version.   They’re a big technology company that employs smart people, so I’m sure they’re doing a good job with that.  Move then passes this neatly wrapped exclusive lead to Cornerstone Mortgage, the licensed mortgage banker who processes the rest of the required paperwork and closes the mortgage with the borrower.

I’m sure they’re are all sorts of reality TV worthy details to air, but I don’t know nor do I care about Move and Cornerstone’s internal business relationship or how their offering screws with a given real estate brokerages internal lenders (since Move is integrating this mortgage tool with listings provided from real estate brokers & their MLS’s).

Automated mortgage qualification/decision/approval engines have been around for over 10 years, initially only used internally by those in the mortgage industry.  This class of technology has increased in efficiency and ease of use to the point where a slightly tech savvy consumers can now effectively ‘qualify’ themselves for a mortgage.  As such, mortgage lead curators like Google (Comparison Ads), Zillow & Lending Tree as well as bankers like DiTech and Quicken Loans have used variations of what Move is providing for quite some time… all in the name of capturing the Internet mortgage consumer.

The main degree of differentiation in Move’s offer to the general consumer is the exclusive relationship with a single mortgage banker, Cornerstone, allowing the pairing to monitor and control the consumer experience much more efficiently.  I suppose their user interface is real nice and fresh too.  Otherwise you’re not likely to find anything new or novel about MortgageMatch.

Let me explain in terms that are easier to understand, in dollars and sense.

Below are the rates & costs for a given scenario (highest credit quality, provable income and assets, low risk loan & property factors) on Mortgage Match:

MortgageMarket Rate and Program Quote

Points to note:

• 309,000 Loan Amount
• 4.5% interest rate
• Fee for 0.750 point = $2317.50
• Lender Fees & Closing Costs = $6060.20

Next are two examples of what was available directly from the wholesale market using the exact same given scenario- High quality borrower and property qualification factors, in the same zip code for the same 30 year fixed interest rate within minutes of pulling MortgageMatch’s quote.  (I can’t tell you who’s providing the info so as not to compromise my sources, however, table B references what was available from Citibanks wholesale division earlier today… do not call Citibank and ask for their wholesale department, they don’t deal with consumers directly):

A. Large Mortgage Banker Direct Pricing

B. Direct Wholesale Rate Mortgage Pricing

Please draw your attention to the 4.500% interest rate in each table.

In table A. the price next to the rate is 100.706.  In table B. it is -0.721%.  Two different formats but similar results that state this 30 year fixed 4.5% interest rate will yield or pay .706% and .721% (respectively) of the loan amount to the borrower.

Let me make this even clearer.

The price in Table A  yields or pays $2181.54 to lock this 30 Yr-Fixed 4.5% interest rate.   Borrower must still pay 3rd party closing costs.

The price in Table B yields or pays the borrower $2227.89 to lock this 30 Yr-Fixed 4.5% interest rate.  Borrower must still pay 3rd party closing costs.

In MortgageMarkets offer, they are charging the borrower .750% of the loan amount or $2317.50 for their 30 Yr-Fixed 4.5% interest rate.  Borrower must still pay 3rd party closing costs and additional Lender Fees.

So, MortgageMatch is really making ~$4500.00 plus additional Lender Fees, not 2317.50 plus additional Lender Fees (and 3rd party closing costs).

That’s expensive.

For me, its always been about unfiltered access to wholesale mortgage rates, directly from the source, subject to no manipulation by any 3rd party… pure information of the highest integrity… radically transparent.  Good customer service is expected, I want to know exactly what rates I qualify for and at what cost.  I want to pay a fair, clear fee for value received from a mortgage professional.

Show me what I truly qualify for and set the fee to process my mortgage in simple dollars rather than ambiguous ‘points’ that have nothing to do with the interest rate.  If Joe Mortgage charges $2000 and John Mortgage charges $4000, John has to justify his larger fee with a tangible explanation and he’s gotta back it up with references.

This dynamic still does not exist in the marketplace and until it does all these ‘new’ offerings are doing nothing but increasing the velocity of the same old convoluted, untrusted mortgage model.

I really look forward to the day when the greater mortgage industry implements technology and practices that comply with true full disclosure policies rather than financial charades.  In the meantime, if you need a reference to a mortgage professional who discloses things as I’ve described, hit me up.

a

Move Launches MortgageMatch- Same Cat, Similar Spin

I guess it just sounds like the right thing to do since banks and ‘Wall Street’ are behind this, and they’re all greedy evil sons-a-bitches so they must be trying to rip someone off.

This situation is really about A. The process of paperwork, specifically establishing proper chain of title to property, and B. Having a human being actually review documents they represented they have through notarization.

In regards to A. it is vital to establish a clear chain of title when a property changes hands to insure the claims against it (in this case a mortgage evidenced by a promissory note) are properly released or transferred.  If a clear chain of title cannot be established (or is broken) claims may be rendered void, or in the alternative a property may seem to have a clear title when in fact someone has a legitimate claim against it.

The chain of title issue at hand revolves around a system called MERS, which for all practical purposes electronically facilitates the recording of title transfers. Back in May, some clever individual filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Government in California against MERS and some very large banks like Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and GMAC, alleging they bypassed local recording requirements and prohibited borrowers from knowing who really owned their mortgage.  Because of this procedural defect, any subsequent actions like foreclosure would be initiated using ‘fraudulent’ documents and thus should be thrown out.  This is called following black letter law… if you didn’t do X then the consequences are Y, period.

In regards to B… At the same time, there has been such a crush of new foreclosures entering the system that banks were essentially having notaries rubber stamping foreclosure files as fast as they could without reviewing the files to insure they contained the actual documents and figures they were supposed to.  One lender was using 7 or 8 notaries to notarize over 18000 files per month, obviously they couldn’t be thoughtfully reviewing that many files.

A bunch of attorneys who smell blood have since played pile on to the above lawsuits and in certain cases they are prevailing, thus the reason for the foreclosure pause.

Banks are going to take a month (or two) to clean up what amounts to procedural defects in their processing of foreclosures or there will be substantive precedent setting lawsuits that completely sack the housing market.  If banks were to lose their interest in properties and the ability to foreclose they would go belly up, all of them, and fast.  Our economy would implode.

This isn’t going to happen… so what will?

IMHO- Delays, Long Delays.  Then business as usual.  I for one was convinced that the market was being primed to have copious amounts of distressed property pumped into it, this puts a damper on that prediction.

Title companies are refusing to insure title on a home that was recently foreclosed on by lenders who used the MERS system or are in some way implicated in the procedural processing defects, at least until they have an acceptable remedy.  Insurance companies aren’t in the business of actually paying claims and don’t want the unnecessary risk that they may have to, so this is an issue.  Banks will not lend on a property that does not have title insurance… so the sales cycle grinds to a halt on any property thats been through the foreclosure process as the legality of such is called into question.  The real question is how far back do you go?  3 months, 6 months, 3 years?  (Looks like the groundwork to getting this issue resolved is being laid)

Being a service provider like a Realtor or mortgage professional is hard enough in the current environment, their sales cycles just got longer on any property that has gone through foreclosure or is in the short-sale process.

A common question I hear involves whether foreclosed properties that reside in a judicial or non-judicial state are more or less effected.  It really doesn’t matter, however judicial states are likely to act quicker to remedy the issues since a judge must sign off on foreclosures.

The average time to foreclose from date of first default is already over 400 days, expect this to increase.

The main reason this mess must be relatively temporary is that the housing market simply cannot afford to slow down anymore than it already has.  A protracted ‘foreclosure freeze’ would be very bad for the overall housing market (and economy) as it would further stagnate inventory thats already stuck in a quagmire.  It would also negatively effect insurance companies, pension funds and other private investors.  The cost of credit would rise as well, as banks and investors pass on the costs of holding inventory to new buyers.   Unfortunately political agendas will surely play a part in all of this, what politician or other elected official wouldn’t love to stand up to the voting public around election time and represent he/she is ‘helping to stop foreclosures’.

Consumers who are going through foreclosure did not pay their mortgage for 1 of a 1000 reasons, this mess isn’t about banks foreclosing on the wrong people.  I’d be shocked if someone can prove they’ve suffered actual material damages from ‘Robo-signing’…but that won’t stop attorneys from trying, after all- A lawsuit need have no merit to file.  This is about improper procedure with respect to certain aspects of the foreclosure process, which is very important to correct.  However- improper procedure of this sort, even if it is black letter law, cannot and ultimately will not be a remedy to a creditors claims.  If it were to be, there is no amount of money that could bail out these financial institutions, as stated, they and our economy would crash hard and fast…there aren’t enough printing presses in the world to foster a bailout of that size.

Meanwhile, enjoy the conjecture laced fireworks around this topic…It’ll be bulletin board material until people have a chance to wrap their heads around it.

a

The National Foreclosure Moratorium Robo Sign Housing Debacle-ism

To qualify for the tax-credit, borrowers had to have an approval from a qualified lender and files submitted, effectively gone to contract, by April 30th 2010. This much has not changed.

It remains to be seen if the 90 day extension to the end of September is enough time to alleviate the back log considering the extreme labor contraction in the mortgage industry. The underwriting staff that’s pushing these loans toward the closing table are either overworked or lack sufficient experience causing the delays.

With approximately 180,000 potential home buyers who met the April 30th deadline, simply waiting for their files to clear the underwriting log jam, losing up to $8000 in tax-credits could’ve caused many to walk away from the transaction. This subsequently could have caused a significant negative ripple effect on the housing market with a sudden surge in supply and decreased sales, torching professionals and consumers alike.

Demand for mortgages are already at rock bottom despite historically low rates. New mortgage applications are at their lowest point since 1997, suppressed by increasingly stringent mortgage qualification guidelines. Throw those facts in the bag with the lingering bank owned shadow inventory that needs to be released into the marketplace, and you have a recipe for protracted depressed home values.  Extending the closing deadline to September 30th was the right thing to do and surely caused a collective sigh of relief for real estate professionals and mortgage professionals everywhere.

a

Senate Extends Home-Buyer Tax Credit Closing Deadline

Well you can throw all that logical shit out the window.

There are days when stocks rise and rates fall.  There are days when rates rise and stocks fall.

I pride myself on staying pretty up to date with what goes on in the financial markets, particularly their actions subsequent effects on prevailing mortgage rates…and I have no f*cking clue where mortgage rates are going on a daily or weekly basis, no one does.  Anyone who says they do is guesstimating at best, and my guess is that even the best market prognosticators are maybe 50% correct 50% of the time.

Its pretty safe to say rates are going to trend upward at some point because they can’t get any lower.  Like any other instapundit I can tell you why they moved the way they did after the fact.  When money en masse moves into Mortgage Backed Securities, rates go down.  When money moves out of MBS positions en masse, rates go up.  Outside of that, there are so many variables effectuating the market, I hereby deem predicting the short-mid term direction of mortgage rates with any sort of consistent accuracy logically impossible.

For example, the Euro has taken a beating because its connected to the troubled economies of PIIG countries (specifically Greece), subsequently strengthening the dollar causing investors to move to the relative safety of US backed Treasuries.  Couple that with the ban on naked short selling in Germany because financial institutions were creating mortgage investments that are (secretly) designed to fail and you have market conditions to keep mortgage rates low.  Yeah, that shit was easy to foresee.

FTW!

Markets are emotionally supercharged akin to an estrogen laced PMS’ing bitch, effected by wide ranging global events and as such there is simply no logical way to predict if rates are going to rise or fall on the short and mid term.  Rational economics left with the industrial age and technical investing is quickly following.  Floors, ceilings and other traditional technical investment indicators are being shattered and/or crushed.  These are the days of behavioral economics where cognitive biases rule over rational decisions.  When emotions run high, there’s no telling what happens 4 minutes from now let alone 4 weeks.

a

Estrogen Infused Markets Equals Unpredictable Mortgage Rate Forecasting

Uh-oh.  This is kind of a big deal.

Lets reflect back for a minute…

Back in September 2008 the bottom fell out of the mortgage and housing industry, the pillar of our economy at the time, as the MBS market was more or less exposed as a fraud and subsequently deemed toxic rather than the AAA rated investments they were being pimped out as.   Former Wall Street stalwarts like Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers were heavily invested in such securities and subsequently imploded almost overnight.  Banks, lenders and the credit (mortgages) they offered disappeared like a David Blaine magic trick- *poof*

Crisis ensues and the government steps in to cauterize the gaping wound, funding the market to the tune of some trillion or so dollars in lieu of risking a catastrophic ceasing of our (and the worlds) economic engines.

Fast forward to January 2010.

The trillion dollar capital infusion coupled with keeping the overnight funds rate at or near zero has kept interest rates low and market volatility in relative check.  Well this is about to change.

First, you can’t print a trillion new dollars and not expect inflation at some point on a relative level.  Apart from the inflation dynamic, the Fed has decided that its time to cease backstopping the MBS market, and as a direct result, the housing market…preferring to hand things back off to the private sector.

Wait a minute…What private sector??  Who has an appetite for MBS’s and more importantly at what yields?

You can bet as sure as the sun will rise in the east tomorrow that the private funds, banks, lenders and their managers who do play in this sandbox will buffer margins to mitigate perceived risk in such securities, which all but guarantees higher interest rates.

The remaining banks are well capitalized for the most part (compared to late 2008, early ‘09), though they are still very gun-shy to lend except under the most pristine personal credit and financial conditions.  Ask any mortgage originator about perpetually moving underwriting guidelines.

Pundits have warned of a ‘false bottom’ when it comes to the housing market for some time.   Feel the floor shaking yet?  As interest rates rise, housing affordability decreases subsequently exerting downward pressure on housing values…again.

What happens if the bottom does fall out?

I’m sure President Obama and his staff aren’t keen on sending the economy back into a tailspin.  Surely the Fed has thought through the potential ramifications of their pending actions.  They could simply step back in at anytime to shore up the market if things got too volatile, using Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as the primary vehicles to do so…alas there are calls to abolish these GSE’s all together.

As stated, inflation has to be a big concern here too.  How does the Fed pull all the ‘new capital’ out of the market to avoid hyper-inflation in a way that doesn’t send the economy back towards a protracted recession?  One way is something called a ‘reverse REPO‘, where they sell their stockpile of MBS’s with a guarantee to buy them back in the future at a profit for the purchaser.  Seems that this obscure company called ‘Google’ (among others) may be interested in this play…

Interesting times to say the least…the stakes are HUGE and not for the faint of heart.

a

Mortgage and Housing Volatility Far From Over

Today Matt Carter at Inman News expounds on Googles ‘AdveRateQuote’ platform for the mortgage industry.  Apparently they’ve partnered with pricing engines and lead generation providers to provide a better overall Search experience for the mortgage shopping consumer as well as a potentially better ROI (via higher conversion ratios) for the paying advertiser compared to a traditional AdWord campaign.

Google stomps into Zillow Mortgage Marketplace’s sandbox by offering an anonymous contact system between the mortgage professional and the consumer until the consumer is ready to formally engage.  ZMM is far more information intensive and polished but this is definitely a shot into their bow.

Who does this potentially pinch the most?  The maligned and molested Mortgage Broker…their main value proposition was offering consumers access to choice, this same access is becoming more and more available by the day.   Mortgage Brokers have been on the unprotected endangered species list for about 6 months now, and hunting season has only just begun.

There is still alot to be desired when it comes to accurate mortgage qualification under this ad based system.  Its a sheer numbers play, doing little to improve the accuracy and efficacy of the mortgage qualification process.  The results are gross estimates based on generalized information, which often leads to confusion on the consumers behalf.  Mortgage professionals can still manipulate the data being displayed to their liking…but cleaning up the quagmire of mortgage qualification isn’t Googles mission.  Perpetuating greater ad spending is.  To this point they’re likely to create enough in new revenues to buy another small island, complete with private jet service for Sergey and Larry.

At the end of the day Google is building a bigger, badder, better funnel for comparison based products and services…like mortgages.  Its a win for Google if advertisers increase their current spend and/or more playas come to the ball.  Its a win because they don’t have to deviate from their business model and risk alienating current users.

Reading between the lines a bit: I wonder what Google will do with the valuable mortgage data they stand to collect from the participating lenders?  What happens when you cross pollinate hyper local mortgage data (yes mortgage rates and programs are very local in nature) with its real estate counterparts?  Hmmmm…

Also read:

Lead Confidential

Google Comparison Ads

a

Worlds Biggest Baddest Mortgage Lead Funnel, by Google

LendingTree filed a lawsuit yesterday against Mortech, Inc., a technology provider, for violating its contract with LendingTree. According to the lawsuit, Mortech, whose technology helps automate lender offer pricing, violated its contractual covenants by partnering with Google to launch an online mortgage loan aggregator service similar to LendingTree.

So, apparently Google is going to enter the public mortgage quote comparison arena and soon, some sources indicate as early as next week.

Google Merchant Search (old news) looks to be the initial model.  Screen shot of UK Google Merchant Search provided by rustybrick on Flickr h/t to Search Engine Land

The screen shot shows some very basic mortgage search and comparison factors, using very limited data sets and range values.  Nothing all that sexy, mainly an advertising play for participating lenders not unlike the Bankrate’s of the world. Google has stated in response to the lawsuit (From the NYT):

We’re constantly looking for new ways to help people find what they are looking for on the Internet. As part of that effort, we are currently working on a small ad unit test that will run against a limited number of mortgage-related search queries in the U.S.

Meh.  Actions speak louder than spin.  As Lending Tree and Mortech go through their legal gymnastics, lets ponder the ramifications of the 1000 pound gorilla entering the room…

Google tends to enter sectors of business on the light side (see Google Base for real estate), choosing to keep things very simple (at first).  Nonetheless Google has the power to alter the way industries function, especially when it comes to information exchange and spook the hell out of the targeted sector along the way.  Real estate as a business and listing syndication propose far more complex issues and requires a relatively high level of human interaction (physical inspection of properties, local area knowledge, property is not a commodity etc) compared to mortgage rate quoting and pricing.  Mortgage rates are commodities whose price can be accurately be delivered to a consumer entering accurate information using some relatively simple algorithms and a database…something Google is pretty good at.

So, Google is looking to license some pretty robust rate pricing software, the type which mortgage brokers and bankers use and depend on in their day to day business.  Does Google offer indigenous rate pricing software to loan originators using their service?  It makes a ton of sense as it would increase the accuracy and thus the validity of the service.  How much control they allow loan originators over the mortgage pricing data being displayed to consumers is the big question in my mind.  I have my opinions…can you hear me in Mountain View?  Give me a call, I’d love to chat

It would seem that  Zillow Mortgage Marketplace (ZMM) would have the most heartburn over this news since the similarities are obvious.   ZMM is primarily a niche advertising/publishing/search platform that allows consumers to anonymously get mortgage quotes based on financial and credit risk factors from participating loan officers.  Approved pricing engines tie into ZMM’s API to generate automated quotes on behalf of the mortgage professional using one of these systems to automatically respond to consumers.  ZMM’s auto-quoting platform is mostly a convenience/efficiency perk for participating loan officers trying to deal with thousands of voyeuristic consumer rate quote requests.

Is there a benefit in hosting your own pricing engine over tying in APIs from third party services?  I think so.  Rather than being beholden to third party data aggregators and maintaining these multiple information pipes pulling from the essentially the same resources for hundreds of loan officers, why not streamline things even further and eliminate what is an unnecessary information middle man?  I’m marginally surprised ZMM hasn’t done this yet…who knows, maybe they will. Maybe they should. Yes, they should…like right now.

Lending Tree’s primary revenue stream comes from the origination of mortgages, something that wouldn’t appear to be in Google’s wheelhouse, yet as stated, Lending Tree is maintaining via the lawsuit against Mortech that Google will directly compete with them.

a

Google Mortgage

We need to blame someone, so I ask the echo chamber: Who were the architects and engineers that created and enabled all of ‘this’? Before I answer, lets use the drug trade for my first analogy.

First loan is for free...

Who are the real criminals in the illicit drug trade? The users, the street level pushers, or the cartels who manufacture and make the drugs available aka The Enablers? One could make legitimate arguments that all are to fault for varying degrees. If users didn’t use, pushers couldn’t push and manufacturers would be out of business cause there is no demand for the product…yet that’s more tail wagging the dog. IMHO thou who enables is at the root of fault.

In theory, if the enablers didn’t produce the illicit product in the first place, there would be no pusher or user. The banks and other institutions who engineered the easy to acquire, downright addictive financial products framed an environment where unchecked growth dominated, deceit was rewarded and ethical business practitioners were punished.

Unchecked Growth is Bad, mmkay?

Follow me into more analogymnastics…What is uncontrolled growth called in the human body? Cancer. Without an internal system of checks and balances and proper detection techniques cancer manifests silently, usually until its too late when the organism has been consumed, ravaged to (near) death. You picking up what I’m putting down? Mortgage industry hell bent on growth until it consumed itself and imploded *pffft*

How is cancer treated? Traditionally with chemotherapy- an indiscriminate, very thoughtless killer of all things living. Wipe everything out and hopefully the body regenerates enough good cells to recuperate. This is effectively what’s happening to the mortgage industry- important aspects have been or are being primed for indiscriminate eradication. As nonsensical as mortgage qualification standards were just over a year ago, so are the proposed ‘fixes’ being introduced via legislation.

Self-medication is a bad idea, thus charging the same people who architected the demise of entire institutions with implementing a cure is a bad idea, mmmkay?  Medicine has evolved by studying and understanding what makes organisms tick on very (very) micro levels- further, how small thoughtful changes in the right places can cause substantial improvements. Business, industry as a whole, needs to adopt similar methodologies of implementing micro-evolutionary change rather than blow it all away, Bruce Willis-Die Hard style.

We will protect you, promise.

What is currently being proposed by law makers as solutions to the mortgage mess is incestuous at best. These changes are couched as ‘protective measures for the consumer’, which is a bunch of bullshit, seeing that the new Home Value Code of Conduct (HVCC) and H.R. 1728’s proposal to ban Yield Spread Premiums serve to do nothing of the sort. Instead they will (try to) eliminate the mortgage broker, compromise the real estate professional and ultimately harm the consumer…all for the banks gain.

Think that our policy makers in Washington wouldn’t let such things happen?  Think again…after all, they’ve invested heavily in these institutions that are ‘too big to fail’.

Next:  Review of the Home Value Code of Conduct (HVCC), H.R. 1728 and why they’re bullets designed to kill off the mortgage broker.

a

Drug Cartels, Cancerous Growth and The F*cked Mortgage Industry

When comparing mortgage quotes, most borrowers focus on two factors: interest rate and upfront fees. But it’s difficult to determine whether it makes more sense to choose a loan with a lower rate and higher fees, or a loan with higher fees and a lower rate.  The best combination depends on how long borrowers will have the loan.

….Once they narrow down to a few quotes, they can check out the lender profiles, reviews, and ratings, and then select a couple of lenders to contact.

Consumers have a hard time understanding the real financial ramifications of a mortgage and most loan officers fail to get into the breadth and depth of the potential true cost of a given loan scenario based on the unknown variable of how long the loan may actually be held.  Annual Percentage Rate, the antiquated, often manipulated, more often misunderstood measure of how much a loan will cost a borrower has been prime for replacement.

Zillow has effectively provided a cleaner method for consumers to determine real loan cost by quickly crunching the long math after the variable of  ‘loan term’ is figured into the equation, allowing consumers the ability to evaluate a loan in hard dollars rather than ambiguous percentages.  This tightens a major loophole in regards to the consumer experience on ZMM and should lead to higher conversions for the most competitive participating loan officers.

Well thought by the big Z…

Also See:

Morning Mortgage Notes

a

Zillow Mortgage Marketplace Petitions To Eliminate Annual Percentage Rate

Jay Thompson wrote about the NAR’s foray into the world of controlled finances over a year ago…Eric Stegemann brought the topic up while at RE BarCamp-Phoenix, indicating it was his understanding that after a few delays, its a go. Fascinating implications.

The largest trade organization in the United States, with all its lobbyist power, is for all practical purposes a lender.  Yes, yes, NAR and the Realtors (INSERT COPYRIGHT SYMBOL HERE) Federal Credit Union (RFCU) are separate and apart in all the right places but I love the messaging coming off the article on realtor.org:

Because operations will be on the Internet, REALTORS^® FCU will be sensitive to the work habits and lifestyles of REALTORS^®, most of whom are independent contractors who are compensated by commissions.”

All REALTORS^® and their families are eligible to become REALTORS^® FCU  members. REALTORS^® employees and staff, including NAR, state and local boards and associations, and NAR’s institutes, societies and councils are also eligible. REALTOR^® clients and customers, such and home buyers and home sellers, are not eligible.

Whats clear:

A year ago, pre-credit crisis, this was a borderline *yawn*, today its stands to be a pretty big deal.  Access to a credit union is a real benefit, yielding –>credit<– to its members using  their own underwriting guidelines, separate and apart from Big Bank or gov’t regulated programs.

Mortgages for those of self-employed and commission based income ilk don’t (really) exist in the mainstream anymore.  My opinion, which isn’t usually positive when it comes to NAR’s moves is just that, positive.  RFCU stands to provide real benefits to the member contingency, substantiating the dues to be a Realtor (INSERT COPYRIGHT SYMBOL HERE).

Whats speculation:

Right now, clients and consumers are not eligible as the RFCU is careful to not trip the line hypocritic with their hard stance against banks getting into the real estate sales industry.  But I can only wonder how ‘Americas Largest Trade Orgaization’ might choose to flex their lobbyist muscles in the future? NAR can actually compete with Big Bank lobbyists on Capitol Hill.

If the banks won’t lend in a common sensical fashion (a common theory), then consumers can’t buy…if consumers cant buy, then Realtors can’t pay NARs dues…NAR loses income and voices…

Does this ‘force’ NAR’s hands to get in the mortgage game?  The argument is compelling and someone needs to check the Big Banks actions.  The irony of NAR, recently accused of anti-competitive practices by the Dept of Justice, chipping away at The Banks increasing monopolistic nature would be great theater.

Do they push to allow clients access to RFCU mortgages?  Now that’s a neatly marketable reason of solid tangible value to use a Realtor (INSERT COPYRIGHT SYMBOL HERE).

(I know health benefits are important too…thats another subject for another day…)

a

NAR Dipping Into The Mortgage Pool?