Photo by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash
My biggest fear for the B.R.A.W.L movement was that without any real call to action the “good guys” would use this initiative to market themselves and that the “bad guys” would rev their engines to turn this into a he said, she said scenario… well it looks like my fears have come true. Both loanDepot and Quicken Loans have now come forward to deny the claims that they are stealing customers from their broker counterparts. Quicken Loan’s COO even went as far as calling the entire premise of B.R.A.W.L “flawed”. loanDepot, who was the 5th largest wholesale lender in 2016 went on to say that not only are the claims false, but they have specific policies and procedures in place to recapture the loans for their broker partners (insert cat fight noise here).
I’d like to know what you think the call to action should be… what should wholesale lenders being doing for their brokers to feel comfortable sending them loans? At Princeton Mortgage Wholesale we’re committed to the same marketing and retention efforts as the other larger lenders, but is that enough? I don’t know… that’s why I’m asking. I think as a collective we should start listening to our brokers and they should drive this call to action (whatever it may be) forward… it’s one thing to throw the first punch, it’s another to stand in there and take a few yourself. I want to see this initiative create some sort change in our industry, but you can’t do that without realizing this “brawl” is not just a 1 round fight.
In other lender news… Movement Mortgage is getting bit by the ‘fine’ bug that’s going around this holiday season. They’ll be paying out $1.1mm in penalties and refunds for servicing violations. This is the second time since 2012 that Movement Mortgage has dipped into their pockets for violating the California law that states, the borrower cannot be charged interest on a mortgage for more than one day between the time the loan closes and the funds are disbursed from escrow. It seems like this is a tricky law to understand… as a few other lenders (both wholesale and retail) have been fined for this violation as well. For those of us lending in CA let’s use this as a lesson and double check how we’re charging these borrowers.