About the Author
Karen Deis is publisher of www.MortgageCurrentcy.com, the only e-zine that explains the mortgage rules and regulation changes in plain language so you can easily understand how they affect you and your loan files.
The big news this month is the rescission of Mortgagee letter 2012-3—where FHA says they will no longer enforce the rules for collection accounts. However, the disputed account section of the rule is still in effect—which means a manual downgrade, unless
- The disputed account has a zero balance
- Or the account is marked paid in full or resolved
- Or the disputed account is BOTH, less than $500 AND more than 24 months old.
Speaking of FHA, we have had several people ask us if we have a chart showing FHA MIP changes over the last several years. So, you’ll find a brand-new chart, showing an 11-year history of FHA MIP changes at www.MortgageCurrentcy.com
If you are into USDA loans, one biggie update is how to figure student loan payments—especially those where the borrower has negotiated a student loan repayment plan based on adjusted gross income and family size. What this really means is that the student loan repayment amount could change year after year—so how do you figure the payment when qualifying for a USDA loan?
USDA has given you a couple of formulas to follow and requirements for back-up documentation. This is in effect now, so if you have any preapproved USDA loans that fall under this category, you may want to go back and re-qualify them.
Fannie recently updated their resubmission and tolerance level chart showing when you need to resubmit to DU if you have significant changes to the loan file. You’ll find the updates listed in an article this month. But we thought, wouldn’t it be cool if we created a chart where you could compare Fannie resubmission requirements to Freddie’s and viola, you can now download a comparison chart.
Review with your team so you are not rerunning DU or LP when you don’t have to—which could possibly kill a deal.
And if you are on the compliance side of the business—which starts at the time of loan application—the Federal Reserve just issued a report on the five most common compliance violations. While a couple of them refer to servicing issues, the ones that LO’s need to know about are ECOA Spouse Signature violations, RESPA Tolerance Cures and Adverse Action Notices.
Just a couple of updates from NMLS—they are revising the Mortgage Call Report forms, and released the 1st quarter stats for state and federally registered Loan Originators. You may want to read this to see if licensing and registration is increasing or decreasing in your area.
Oh, and in this issue you’ll find 6 tweets, where you can click on the link and it will automatically add the rule update to your twitter page. You’ll also find 3 Facebook posts to cut and paste—to keep your clients and real estate agents up to date on the rules.
So, here’s a recap of the Charts/Checklists published in this issue.
- FHA Total Scorecard Manual Downgrade Chart
- FHA 11-year history MIP Changes
- Fannie vs. Freddie Resubmission Comparison Chart
- Revised Standard Flood Insurance Determination Form
Why subscribe to MortgageCurrentcy.com? Because getting a loan approved and closed these days IS Rocket Science.
