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The point is- if I wasn’t a “good” Loan Officer, I wouldn’t qualify for a Loan Officer/Loan Originator license and most of my business is by referral and repeat business.

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” These are the folks that offer to help you get a loan modification by contacting your lender for you and doing the negotiations. These are the folks that are ripping people off by taking their money and running. The FTC and several states have formed.”

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Maybe you missed it in my post. Anyone seeking a Loan Modification whether they are calling themselves or are having someone do it for them are NOT talking to the Bank/Lender. They or their agent are speaking to a Debt Collector representing the Lender.

Since February, my office has over 75 loan modifications in to the Debt Collectors representing the Banks…To date, 3 have been resolved to the benefit of the homeowner. The rest are in Loan Modification Limbo as the link from Politico indicates and verifies as of July 17 the Loan Modification programs are a failure.

Like the so called loan officers and mortgage brokers of the sub prime frenzy, these loan modification consulting companies have call centers contacting homeowners offering their product. I once asked a loan officer on the phone what he did prior to his current job and he told me he worked at The Gap. At the time he was begging me to “Save his Loan” because the borrower was objecting to the terms of the final doc’s. They were very different from what they talked about. These are the loans needing to be modified.

Notary’s are called off loan closer data bases to go to the homeowner’s homes with the modifications apllication materials.These are mostly a contract between the homeowner and the consulting company. The notary is actually acting as a courrier. There is nothing to notarize on the documents. My feeling is that notaries are sent to give them credibility as officers of the State. The homeowners are told the notary is the company rep, often the notary is not aware of this. That in itself is illegal.
You are right, there are different levels of notary’s acting as closers. That is because many title companies utlize a middle man entity called a Signing Service to find someone to close the loan in the field. They often call the random notary to offer a low fee to close a loan while the Signing Service keeps the bulk of the fee paid by the Title company. I go and resign many refinances that these notaries have messed up. In the 10 years that I have been doing this, I have eliminated all but a few of Signing Services in my client base and work directly with attorneys and title companies. Not all notary’s are just paying a fee to do this.
There are many that concientiously educating themselves on what they are doing. Their primary role in these closings are as a notary acting under notary law for their state first. I am not shy about refusing to witness document’s under notary law.
I am a Registered Signing Agent. Not many notaries certified By the National Notary Association could pass that designation based on their coursework with the NNA for both notary education and Signing agent certification.
“Each Sub-Prime Lender was a subsidy of an investment bank you would easily recognize. This is the reason why I have taken the time to explain all this in depth for alerting you to keep your eye on the right ball. It isn’t mortgage brokers or Loan Modifiers that need watching but it is the banks you should be watching as they are the nemesis that are the real threat to our way of life.”

Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citibank and Chase are not Banks?
I can’t count how many nasty looking ARMs i closed for them over the years. It seems very few banks service their own loans anymore.
In house loans tend to cost more.
The refinances I have been closing lately have taken longer to process as the underwiters seem to be a lot more cautious. Also the borrowers seem a lot more informed. Many are asking why they aren’t seeing their HUD (settlement statement” prior to the closing as promised. In looking at my stats, 94% are still borrowing over 80% LTV and are required to have the PMI and escrow accounts. I have also closed 2 ARM’s in the last couple of weeks. I haven’t done that for about a year and a half. Both were Bank of America. They are the ones that bought Countrywide. Also BOA is using a lot of the same doc’s templates Countrywide used.

AliSilver Says:
July 17th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Question for Pumas…..Do you think you are a good loan officer and processor? Do you excel in your profession?

Reply

You’re like a politician. I asked a straightforward question and you rattled on a lot of useful information, but not an ANSWER to my question.

Absolutely worth a read:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25095.html

I am NMLS licensed in MA and RI which hold reciprocal agreements to their laws. You cannot practice in RI if you are suspended in MA and visa-versa. To be eligible for licenses in either state, you must have 40hrs of recognized training from their list of approved schools becoming knowledgeable in State and Fed Regulations. You must take a written test, be fingerprinted, submit to a Federal background check, and pass a Credit Check. A little more than paying a fee to be a notary witness to a transaction which is generally the case for Real Estate Agents.

The latest level of Federal and State regulations for Loan Officers and Mortgage Brokers are to be in compliance with the law is designed specifically to eliminate Mortgage brokers and loan originators from the financial landscape. Why? Because most of us advocate for our clients. The subject post speaks of Loan Modifications. A year ago, there were no regulations in place. Those regulations are in place now put there by Federal regulators. There is a limit to how much can be charged for Loan Modifications… not the purported waiting for the “next level of nastiness”..

When a home-owner is in danger in of foreclosure they are told via a bank letter call the bank holding the mortgage. They are not speaking to the Bank itself, they are speaking to a Debt Collector hired by the bank who has access to that bank’s customer data base and has a script for dealing with the homeowner. It is a fact, 80% of the deals made with the debt collector on behalf of the banks within the last year have failed and the homeowner is being foreclosed on.

I highly recommend dealing with a licensed Broker or Loan Originator in either MA or RI.

Banks are the entities that want to control your lives. The sooner it is recognized by the public at large, Banks are about accruing enough power to tell you if you are even eligible to work at a job.. through your credit score.

For more financial information you can go to my site, looking back to the March posts for more information at: http://pumasunleashed.wordpress.com

Fair-Issac controls your credit score (and the only credit bureau recognized by banks) … Bad Credit, sorry, the report on your job application has deemed you ineligible for this job.

Banks- The sooner you understand the dynamic going on, the sooner you will realize the jeopardy the citizens of this country are in… and it isn’t from Mortgage Brokers or Loan Originators. They were the scapegoat used by the banking industry to throw you off the sins they’ve committed with your assets.

Your stock portfolio, your pension fund, your retirement savings, your college funds under the auspice of our glad handing Congress never regulating Hedge Funds. Which is exactly where the sub-prime loans went during 2000 to 2005 and which caused this Financial Crisis by way of derivatives.

Each Sub-Prime Lender was a subsidy of an investment bank you would easily recognize. This is the reason why I have taken the time to explain all this in depth for alerting you to keep your eye on the right ball. It isn’t mortgage brokers or Loan Modifiers that need watching but it is the banks you should be watching as they are the nemesis that are the real threat to our way of life.

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Desert Sage Says:
July 17th, 2009 at 10:15 am

Predatory lending is only peripheral to the core issue… Why not expand your prose with what allowed the predatory lending to occur, namely government forced lending practices and lack of oversight?

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Desert Sage,

I’ve touched on that issue in my above response. Worrying about Loan Modifications and the Loan Originators who do them is a complete waste of time. It’s the Banks, Congress and the Fed that should be the focus.

I’m not sure who your question was directed to, myself or Wizcon. I’ll leave it up to you to continue.