Lenders who are fully licensed and approved to originate FHA loans are often “miffed” by companies advertising ways around full HUD approval. How should violations of RESPA be reported? HUD will accept written complaints describing the practice that you believe violates RESPA, and should include the names, addresses and phone numbers of the alleged violators. It is preferred that you include your name and phone number in case an investigator wishes to ask further questions. You may request confidentiality. Send the complaint to: U.S. Department of HUD, Office of RESPA and Interstate Land Sales, 451 7th Street, SW, Room 9154 Washington, DC 20410

There continue to be “stretches” by some lenders with regard to agents either being paid as both W-2 AND as independent contractors, depending on the loan, or working for two companies simultaneously. Neither is kosher. Such W-2 employees are presumed to be “inside salespeople”, therefore subject to state and federal minimum wage and other labor laws, whether “exempt” or “non-exempt” status. Employers must pay them for their time on the job, even if they are 100% commission.

• AmTrust announced that on an Owner Occupied, Single Family Residence Purchase or Rate/Term Refi there will be no 5% reduction in LTV! Max LTV on Purchase and Rate/Term is 95%.
• BofA retail is rumored to have gone to a maximum CLTV of 85% earlier this week, which brings Chase, Wells, BofA, WaMu, etc. to roughly the same criteria. Others, such as Countrywide and HSBC are still at 90%.
• Beginning Monday Wells Fargo Wholesale Lending will accept a maximum LTV of 97% for all eligible products and programs, regardless of automated underwriting system (AUS) response. Wells also said that the Freddie Mac 100 program will no longer be available. In addition, they will only accept non-conforming loans with Full/Alt documentation, regardless of the automated underwriting system (AUS) response.
• The Oregonian newspaper printed a story about a memo titled “Zippy Cheats & Tricks.” It is a primer on how to get risky mortgage loans approved by Zippy, Chase’s in-house automated loan underwriting system. The secret to approval? Inflate the borrowers’ income or otherwise falsify their loan application. Shocking. Read Here
  
• Zillow has entered the mortgage business. Will it have an impact? Read here
  

The Unemployment Rate shot up to 5.1% and Non-farm Payrolls, expected -50k, actually dropped 80k. So the market rallied and rates dropped this morning, right? Well, kind of… the 10-yr is still sitting in the mid-3.50’s, and mortgages are roughly .250 better in price. One would think that with that weak of an unemployment number, along with some revisions to January and February (down a total of 67k versus what was originally reported), rates would have dropped more. March saw the biggest monthly job decline in five years, the Labor Department revised the first two months of the year’s job losses to a total of 152,000 from a previous estimate of 85,000, and the unemployment rate is the highest it has been since September 2005. Hourly earnings were +.3%, but job losses were widespread and heaviest in the construction and manufacturing sectors. Independent labor reports indicate that small and mid-sized companies are continuing to hire, and some of the growth in jobs at small business is due to outsourcing from large business which can’t get thing done as inexpensively.

Rob