Refinancing Home Mortgage
In: Mortgage Lending
28 Jan 2010If you had a chance to tell mortgage brokers, originators, lenders, and other professionals what you consider unethical, what would you tell them?
I am preparing a class on Ethics that will be offered to mortgage professionals throughout the country, and would like some additional input. We have the framework of the class, but I’d like to hear what ideas customers and other lending professionals might have that could be included.
Is there anything you want them to be sure to hear and discuss? Any specific examples of ethical or unethical behavior? Anything else you think should be covered?
Bill – I agree with you. But Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac require the appraiser be given a copy of the contract before the appraiser visits the property. I agree, that’s wrong. But it is the rule everyone has to follow!
Wow. There is so much good information here. I like the MortgageProfessor.com web site, but had not looked there for ethics info. Great idea.
And it seems to be concern about the appraisal process, so I’ll be sure to include a piece on that.
The common sense reminder is also worth mentioning in the class. As is reminding them that they are not advocates to get a home sold or to get a loan closed, rather they should be advocates for getting people into the right financing for their home.
This is about mortgage information questions.
10 Responses to Mortgage Lending Ethics: What do you think?
darkridr
January 28th, 2010 at 7:16 am
Yes. Offering reverse mortgages to non-investors for the sole purpose of “getting them into a house” is completely unethical, and it should be the responsibility of the Realtors to ask the appropriate questions prior to offering the propositions to the lenders. The same holds true for stated income loans — self-employed families can benefit greatly from these, due to the difference in income made vs income reported on their taxes, but “Joe Worker” who gets a stated income loan which is literally lying about what he makes is also unethical.
In tax preparation, the preparers are required to perform “due diligence,” which means we have to ask all questions of the taxpayer necessary to make certain that the taxpayer knows what’s in his/her taxes. If they lie, then it’s their fraud, not ours. The taxpayer and tax preparer signs a paper stating that due diligence was performed. I believe that mortgage lenders should require such a statement to be signed by Realtors requiring them to perform these same measures. Failure to comply with this act would then result in fines, disbarment, and, if proven to be willful and malicious, criminal prosecution.
If the mortgage lenders force the Realtors to take responsibility for their actions, I think there would be much fewer foreclosed homes on the market today — which is a good thing overall, since it means people actually adhering to the guidelines set by the lenders in the first place….
origamimark
January 28th, 2010 at 7:16 am
Put the customer first rather than themselves.
Think about the long term nature of mortgages, and the changes that can happen during its life.
bill_in_charlotte_nc
January 28th, 2010 at 7:53 am
I think that appraisers should NOT receive a copy of the contract. In fact, I think it is unethical that they do receiving one in most states in which I’ve bought or sold real estate (CA, NC, SC).
I understand their interest in keeping the appraisal at or below the sales price, but to me, that negates the objectiveness of the appraisal.
godged
January 28th, 2010 at 7:58 am
How much space do I have?
What I hear, especially from my FTHB, is lenders promising what they cannot deliver. For example, “clean up this and this on your credit report, no late payments, and we can get you into a mortgage by December” then when December rolls around, they still don’t qualify. This is heartbreaking to young couples starting out and the lenders say things like “I thought we could get it done” – rubbish.
Talking the jargon with folks. Break it down in terms consumers understand, especially things like points, widely misunderstood. Sure, we talk a million miles an hour amongst each other, but that doesn’t work when you are talking with clients.
MISSING CLOSING DATES. Don’t call me the day we are supposed to close and tell me we don’t have docs. That sucks. I have stayed at the office way later than I have intended many times to get everything done, I expect you to do the same. You should have known a few days ago that you were screwing this up, call me then. There is escrow money at stake here, and I don’t want to be scrambling around last minute trying to fix this because you are not ready.
Those are my big three problems with lenders, and unfortunately, I encounter them too often.
Thanks for the opportunity to vent.
Shanky
January 28th, 2010 at 8:01 am
To the Broker’s/Lender’s and Originators : Their motive should not be to “sell” houses but “help their customer’s buy”. We are in such a deep mess because of insane selling. There are provisions in various laws like RESPA,FCRA which should be applied as is and not “interpreted” in a way to lure someone to sign the contact and make them suffer for the rest of their lives and conveniently sell the loan off to somebody else.
All the best with your class.
christine b
January 28th, 2010 at 8:41 am
Hello,
Funny, I’ve taken many ethics classes, as required each year for continuing education for Pennsylvania Mortgage Brokers, and to me it is all common sense. There was no shock in what what taught.
I believe you either have ethics or you don’t. They can’t be taught in a 2 hour course. They take a lifetime to learn, from a young age.
Ethics are related to honesty. I always try to make sure my customers will be repeat customers and refer others to me. If you have ethics, that is what will happen. If you don’t, you won’t succeed and may end up in jail real quick in this climate.
Good luck.
Christine Bell, CRMS
PA Mortgage Pros
http://www.pamortgagepros.com/
Leo F
January 28th, 2010 at 9:05 am
First they have to stop using est values and make it a big fine if they do. Stop trying to get appraiser to tell them a value before we appraises the prop. I always get quote ” what do you think it will come in at?” do you think you can get more? Yes we need a copy of the purchase sales contract but without the sales price. Stop calling appraisers for free comp checks, do you know how long it takes. If I did comp checks for every mtg company that called thats all I would do, and they don’t even say thank you. Stop getting pissed off when the value is not there. Start putting their money where their mouth is, they want appraisers to bill them for the appraisal because the homeowner does not the the money and when the value does not come in where they want it, then they stiff us on payment or they just dont pay even when the loan closes. The LO need to pay out of his pocket COD and he would think twice about putting a crapy loan together for someone who should not be buying a home in the first place or someone who is trying to refi with bad credit and owes more not their home than it worth.
lendingwhiz2008
January 28th, 2010 at 9:09 am
There are so many things, but I will talk about a few things we have done to improve the market place.
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This is not a pitch, but an example of how some lenders are leading the pack against predatory lending
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A big complaint is predatory lending practices; this could include charging someone a higher rate then they qualify for (understanding that banks do have to mark the rate up to a point, because the spread is how they make their money, but once that rate is established lenders/banks then can mark it up a second time (usually left up to the loan originator) and this is where we see some abuses.
In fact, YSP has been in the forefront of conversation lately. I don’t think it should be eliminated, because some folks benefit by being allowed to increase their rate in return for “Rebate” to help them with closing costs. The concern is when the loan originator does this strictly for their profit.
We have implement a policy (I’m going to keep the name private here, and you can contact me for the name privately) that no matter what rate we provide the client we get paid the same. This is to ensure that the rate and closing cost scenario is based on the borrowers needs and not our financial gain.
Secondly, the MortgageProfessor.com (a great site) has also handed out 5 Certified UpFront Mortgage Lending designations. This is for the entire nation. This is huge. What this says is, the lender has provided all the “Inside” information to this “REAL” university professor and consumer advocate and disclosed mark ups and maintains full transparency.
In addition, predatory lending laws ARE coming down the road, so we got ahead of the game.
We don’t just give a Good Faith Estimate, because these can be manipulated to say whatever we want. Some lenders/brokers allow the originators to fill them in themselves with no standardization. In fact the #1 complaint is the “Docs” (the final loan documents to be signed and notarized) are always different from the initial disclosures and from what the originator told them. Most borrowers still end up signing because they have no choice, closing on the house, our they are just so tired from the process they just sign out of exhaustion.
We guarantee our rate and fees in writing up front and guarantee they won’t change. How much stress is taken off the borrower if they know; A) the originator isn’t making a commission based on the rate they give them, B) They have the peace of mind that the terms won’t change on them when they get to the signing table.
Our challenge now is having to compete with the lenders/brokers that promise the world to these borrowers.
We tell the borrowers exactly what they can get up front and don’t sugar coat it and play the “Bait n’ Switch” game so rampant in this industry. I know of broker shops where they teach this as a selling tactic. It’s dispicable.
The only way we have been able to compete with “Lier” lenders is to offer our potential clients a guarantee that our fees and rates will be the same at close. We provide a cash guarantee, so some of our clients have run our loan simultaneous to the lender/broker that promised the moon and at the closing table, they found we were the honest ones and signed our docs and not theirs.
Anyways, I hoped this added to the conversation.
Good luck
Dustin H
January 28th, 2010 at 9:24 am
Good finance question! I know of an organization that gives up to $1500 to people to help them with their rent or mortgage. It’s available in most US cities, I highly suggest you check it out.
http://www.help-my-rent.org
Best of Luck.
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