Starts for construction of housing projects with five units or more posted a 4.9% increase to a rate of 382,000 units last month, while residential investment also saw a welcome increase for the first time in 10 quarters. With interest rates having surged over the past 20 months, homebuying demand has remained somewhat muted throughout … [Read more…]
New York-based investment firm Cerberus Capital Management has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire home equity lender Spring EQ, the companies announced on Friday. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The transaction will allow Cerberus executives to realize new opportunities as demand for home equity solutions in the U.S. accelerates. Meanwhile, Spring EQ will be able enhance its platform through further investments in technology, new commercial opportunities and growth-based operational initiatives, the company said.
Founded in 1996, Pennsylvania-based Spring EQ offers home equity, HELOCs, refis and purchase loans. It gives customers access to 95% of their home equity, at a maximum of $500,000, with terms from five to 30 years.
Like its peers, however, higher rates put pressure on Spring EQ’s business model. According to mortgage tech platform Modex, the company originated $480 million over the last 12 months, with its monthly volume declining from about $60 million in 2022 to $28 million in 2023. The company has 76 active loan officers in four branches, according to Modex.
Mortgage industry veteran Jerry Schiano, Spring EQ founder and CEO, and the current management team, will lead the company following the completion of the transaction, which is expected to happen in the fourth quarter of 2023. The deal is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
Schiano has more than 30 years of entrepreneurial experience in the mortgage industry. Before Spring EQ, he founded New Penn Financial, which was sold to Shellpoint Partners and later acquired by New Residential Investment Corp., which was rebranded as Rithm Capital.
“The Cerberus team’s mortgage expertise, technology capabilities, and operational resources will help propel our growth, better positioning us to make an even greater impact,” Schiano said in a news release.
Joe Steffa, managing director of Cerberus Residential Opportunities, said demand is rapidly increasing for home equity solutions “amid higher interest rates and record levels of untapped residential home equity in the United States.”
Morgan Stanley & Co served as financial advisor to Cerberus and GreensLedge Capital Markets to Spring EQ.
Source: housingwire.com
After high-profile acquisitions and purchases over the past month, Rithm Capital emphasized its pivot toward business diversification but offered few details regarding a potential spinoff of its mortgage operations in an earnings call Wednesday.
“While we are a mortgage REIT I like to think of us as an asset manager operating as a REIT,” said Michael Nierenberg, CEO and president of the New York-based real estate investment trust, in its second-quarter earnings call.
The company’s recent focus on new additions to the business is helping to fuel speculation about whether a separation of its home lending businesses into a new entity might be in the offing. Nierenberg’s plans to grow Rithm as an alternative asset manager was underscored in July with a deal that brought Sculptor Capital Management as a fully owned subsidiary.
In its previous earnings call, Nierenberg said Rithm had filed a confidential S-1 registration form, typically used by companies before an intended public listing, with the Securities and Exchange Commission. But Nierenberg gave no further clues on if, or when, a change might occur on Wednesday.
In 2020, the company, which was previously known as New Residential Investment Corp., filed the same form as it considered a public offering of its Newrez home lending business. Plans ended following New Residential’s acquisition of Caliber Home Loans.
While saying that no mortgage lending company is trading at a significant premium currently, Nierenberg added that “the timing is right,” based on the work done at Rithm to develop Newrez and Caliber “to bring this company out.” Earlier this year, Nierenberg had also suggested that the mortgage business’ headwinds were weighing down on its overall trading value.
“I don’t necessarily think that we’re going to turn around and just sell down the entire thing. I think it’s more to give us flexibility,” he said on Wednesday’s call.
In a post-earnings note, research analysts Eric Hagen and Jake Katsikas of BTIG noted that the timing of a spinoff “looks more optimal considering the run we’ve seen in other originator/servicers over the last three months.”
While Rithm Capital focused on diversification outside of home lending and a possible company split, its mortgage origination and servicing operations still accounted for the majority of profits in the second quarter, particularly through loan servicing.
The REIT posted company-wide net income of $357.4 million, equaling 74 cents per share, in the second quarter. The number represented a 418% increase from the $68.9 million bottom line number in the first quarter. One year ago, Rithm lost $3.3 million over the same three-month period.
The servicing unit generated $285.8 million in net income offsetting an $8.9 million loss in originations, as the mortgage industry continued to face depressed volumes and interest rate challenges. But numbers improved from the first quarter’s $192.1 million servicing gain and $24.4 originations loss. Between April and June of 2022, servicing income came in at $427.2 million, while the loss in originations settled at $21.1 million.
Meanwhile, Rithm’s mortgage-servicing rights related investments garnered it $52.5 million in profit in the most recent quarter, compared to a $29.7 million loss three months earlier. In the second quarter last year, net income from the MSR investments unit totaled $32.1 million.
Nierenberg noted the performance of Rithm’s MSR portfolios during the past quarter in helping the company grow its book value. A new mortgage spinoff would likely include a majority of that portfolio, in addition to originations and most of the servicing units, Nierenberg said.
“Some MSRs may stay back,” he said. “It’s one of these TBD things as we continue to work through it.”
Overall revenue across all segments of the company grew 27.6% to just over $1 billion from $783.4 quarter to quarter. But on an annual basis, revenue was off 21.5% from $1.3 billion.
Within its mortgage operations, funded originations grew 41% to $9.9 billion from $7 billion between first and second quarters. Rithm’s correspondent lending channel accounted for close to 63% of the volume following recent disruption within the segment.
“We think it’s likely benefited around the margins from Wells Fargo’s exit from the correspondent channel this year,” wrote BTIG’s researchers.
Gain-on-sale margins, though, shrank to 125 basis points compared to 161 bp in the first quarter and were down from 195 bp a year ago.
Unpaid balance in the mortgage company’s servicing portfolio inched up to $506 billion from $504 billion in the prior quarter.
While discussion revolves around Rithm’s near-term business moves, Nierenberg made efforts to emphasize that mortgage would still have a large presence in the company’s strategy.
“We’re still going to have a mortgage REIT. If you look at some of the some of the best run and larger alternative asset managers, they have REITs,” he said. “I think you should think of us in the same light.”
Source: nationalmortgagenews.com
One of the perhaps lesser-known, but fastest growing mortgage companies that is making big strides in the industry is Caliber Home Loans.
The national mortgage lender, which is based out of Coppell, Texas, just north or Irving, TX, has been around since 2008, which was essentially when the mortgage industry went bust.
Since then, they’ve grown into a mortgage powerhouse and are now a top-10 mortgage lender nationwide, with aspirations to be top five sooner rather than later.
And it turns out they caught the attention of suitors in the process.
In August 2021, the company was acquired by New Residential Investment Corp. (Newrez).
Back in 2008, around the time of the financial crisis, the parent company Caliber Funding went through a rebranding process and acquired the lending assets of the CIT Group, which it later renamed Vericrest Financial.
A year later, they obtained the ability to directly endorse FHA loans and received direct lending authority for VA loans, meaning lending decisions could be made in-house.
In 2012, they received Freddie Mac seller approval and began issuing securitizations. They also gained Ginnie Mae approval at that time, and loan servicer approval for both.
Caliber Home Loans Inc. was born in 2013 when Caliber Funding with Vericrest Financial merged into one brand, which coincided with their correspondent lending business and Fannie Mae seller approval.
In mid-2016, Caliber acquired First Priority Financial, expanding their footprint in northern California and the western U.S., including states like Idaho, Iowa, Oregon, Washington.
Not long after, they became one of the top mortgage lenders in the country, with over 3,500 employees nationwide.
They refer to their loan officers as loan consultants, though they also partner with mortgage bankers and wholesale lenders to originate loans through various channels.
And they pride themselves on being a mortgage-only shop, as opposed to a mega financial institution that also doles out credit cards, life insurance, and student loans. They’re mortgage-focused and only sell home loan products.
Their latest big move was in 2017 when they acquired Banc Home Loans, which resulted in an 1,800-strong sales force across 340 retail branches located throughout the United States.
Aside from retail, Caliber’s originations come via a booming correspondent channel, along with a wholesale channel, meaning mortgage brokers can offer their loan products to consumers as well.
Speaking of, they recently launched a mobile app for their broker partners that uses Caliber’s proprietary H2Online system, which allows them to price and lock loans from their smartphone.
So it’s clear their mission is to grow and become a household name in the mortgage industry, and they appear to be on track.
In fact, they now have plans to go public with a valuation greater than $2 billion, per the WSJ.
Now let’s talk about their loan programs. As alluded to in their company history, they’re equipped to provide all types of loans backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the FHA, and the VA.
You can also obtain a USDA loan from Caliber Home Loans, and they have specialty products like the 203k renovation loan if the real estate you’ve got your eye on needs a little work.
In terms of government home loans, they’ve got everything. In fact, Caliber even has a special Military and Veteran Lending division solely for VA loans. They also been recognized as a Military Friendly Brand two years in a row (2017 and 2018).
In late summer 2017, they announced the funding of their 10,000 VA purchase loan, so it’s clear they’ve got some experience in that department.
For conventional loan offerings, they have both conforming stuff (Fannie/Freddie) along with jumbo loans, and even a jumbo interest-only ARM.
You can get a HomeReady or Home Possible loan with just 3% down, and they have all loan types from 30-year and 15-year fixed mortgages to a wide array of adjustable-rate mortgages.
If you’re looking for more than just FHA loans and Fannie and Freddie stuff, they’ve got your covered.
In fact, they have some proprietary home loan products like their “Caliber 5-Star ARM” that adjusts once every five years, as opposed to annually once the first five years go by (like the classic 5/1 ARM), whose name I assume is an ode to the Lone Star State.
This 5/5 ARM can be beneficial if the associated mortgage index remains low throughout those five years, giving the homeowner another five years of safety from upward rate adjustments.
Of course, it can also backfire if the first adjustment is high and locked in for a full five years.
With regard to jumbo loans, you can get loan amounts as large as $2.5 million, which should satisfy most folks’ needs. And down payments start as low as 5%.
That jumbo interest-only ARM is one of their flexible non-QM offerings, but does require a minimum 700 credit score, which means only the most creditworthy borrowers need apply.
Ultimate Home Buying Experience
I’ve written about this technology before – in short, it allows for the digital delivery of income, asset, and employment history to speed up the loan process, similar to how Rocket Mortgage works.
If all works out, Caliber Home Loans aims to get your loan from application to closing in as little as 10 business days.
That’s pretty fast, and might give you an edge if you’re a first-time home buyer in a competitive housing market.
There’s also a Caliber Home Loans for Borrowers app that allows customers to track their loan as it moves through the process. They also can opt-in to notifications for any issues or problems that arise, and receive updates such as loan approval or denial.
Once the loan closes, they can make payments, set up recurring payments, via escrow account and payment history, and even request the removal of private mortgage insurance.
Premier Access
They also have a Premier Access portfolio program that allows loan amounts as high as $3 million with lower credit score requirements down to 650. And the loans may not require private mortgage insurance.
It’s also possible to use asset depletion to qualify for a mortgage through the Premier Access lending suite, and cash-out refinances up to $750,000 are also permitted.
Elite Access
Their newest portfolio loan program, known as “Elite Access,” is a jumbo loan product that allows loan amounts as high as $3 million with as little as 5% down payment. However, a minimum 700 FICO score is required.
It is being offered in both fixed and adjustable options to satisfy home buyers and those refinancing existing mortgages (up to 95% LTV) in high-cost markets nationwide.
Homeowner’s Access
This is Caliber’s loan suite for those who have late mortgage payments, or a recent short sale, foreclosure, or bankruptcy filing.
It features shorter waiting times to buy a home, the acceptance of non-traditional credit history, and higher DTI ratios up to 50%. You may also be able to purchase a home with nothing down by using gift funds, and credit scores go as low as 610.
Fresh Start Program
This suite of home financing solutions seems to be even more aggressive, offering home loans with no seasoning requirement after bankruptcy, short sale, deed-in-lieu, or foreclosure.
The Fresh Start program also offers low down payment options and low minimum credit scores, along with loan amounts from $100,000 all the way up to $1 million.
Investment Program
Additionally, they have a suite of loan programs designed especially for real estate investors, including low down payment requirements on loans up to $2 million.
They’ll go as low as 620 in terms of credit score and allow loan amounts as low as $100,000.
More importantly, they provide the option to purchase an unlimited number of investment properties, and offer things like delayed financing, which allows you to buy with cash then quickly do a rate and term refinance.
National Builder Program
Lastly, they have a home builder financing arm that specializes in providing mortgage loan financing on new homes.
They have a dedicated loan fulfillment team that can offer financing of all types on all sorts of properties, including non-warrantable condos.
And they allow mortgage rate locks for as long as 12 months, yes, that long. Well, for some reason 360 days, but that’s still pretty unheard of! So if it takes a while to close, they can secure your rate.
Along those same lines, they offer a service called “Doc Lock,” which secures income and asset verification for up to six months on conventional home loans.
Oh, and they recently launched a HELOC known as the “HomeAccess Your Way Equity Line of Credit.” It appears to have a 30-year term, including a 10-year draw period and a 20-year repayment period.
So they’ve got plenty of loan products and a potentially streamlined loan process to serve mortgage loans to customers nationwide across all channels.
They don’t seem to openly advertise their mortgage rates, unlike other banks and mortgage lenders, you won’t find them on their website.
However, I’ve seen some lender ratesheets from Caliber and their pricing seems to be on par (no pun intended) with what else is out there. Of course, that’s the wholesale lender channel, so results may vary across other channels like retail and correspondent.
From what I can tell, their mortgage rates aren’t necessarily any higher or lower than the average rates available. Of course, take the time to shop your rate with other lenders to ensure it’s the best it can be.
On Zillow, the company has a 4.96-star rating out of 5, which is pretty much as good as it gets aside from perfection.
That strong rating is based on nearly 6,000 customer reviews, meaning it’s not a fluke.
Since they’re a very large company, you may want to drill down and look at individual loan officer reviews for Caliber, which you can do on the Zillow website.
Many of the reviews said both the interest rate and closing costs were lower than expected, which is a good sign if your lender decision is driven by price.
On LendingTree, they have a 4.2 out of 5-star rating based on more than 700 customer reviews. While not as good, it’s still mostly positive.
They are a Better Business Bureau accredited company and have been since 2014.
Caliber Home Loans Inc. currently has an ‘A’ rating with the BBB and has just over 3 out of 5 stars based on about 200 customer reviews.
They’ve got some bad reviews, but that’s typical because people are more likely to leave a bad review than a good review. But feel free to peruse them as you see fit.
And pay attention to closing costs, which can vary widely as well.
To sum it up, Irving, Texas-based Caliber Home Loans has a home loan for just about any purpose, and the company originates loans through various avenues to suit all personality types. They’re also a national mortgage lender licensed to do business in all 50 states.
This means you can take advantage of their mortgage products via a retail branch, a mortgage broker, or even another correspondent lender.
And unlike many mortgage lenders, Caliber retains the servicing rights to their home loans, meaning you’ll make your monthly mortgage payments to them, not some other company. This appears to be their pledge to make you a customer for life.
As a servicing customer, you might be eligible for a mortgage recast if your loan type is eligible. The minimum principal reduction payment is $5,000, which when applied, will lower your future monthly mortgage payments.
At last glance, their loan servicing portfolio had swelled to over $100 billion, while monthly loan volume is nearing $2 billion.
As such, I expect Caliber to become a household name in the next decade, if not sooner.
As always, be sure to compare all your loan and lender options to ensure you receive the best pricing and service on your home loan. There are lots of choices out there, so make sure you get more than one quote.
Read more: Quicken Loans review
Source: thetruthaboutmortgage.com
One mortgage lender making a big splash of late is NewRez, short for New Residential Investment Corp.
Thanks to their 2019 acquisition of Shellpoint Partners LLC, which was the parent company of New Penn Financial, they now have a robust loan origination platform to flank their expansive loan servicing business.
They are a publicly-traded company worth billions of dollars that has quickly become a top-20 mortgage lender nationwide.
The company also has joint ventures in place, including one with Shelter Mortgage known as Homeowners First Mortgage.
It provides mortgage financing to home buyers represented by real estate brokerage First Team Real Estate in Southern California.
NewRez and Shelter also have a partnership in place with a San Francisco-based company called Landed, collectively known as Landed Home Loans, which offers down payment assistance to teachers and other school employees.
In July 2020, NewRez created its 16th joint venture with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Verani Realty, which will be known as “Home Sense Lending LLC.”
It will serve home buyers throughout New England via 500 licensed real estate agents that work at the brokerage.
In September 2020, they launched “Sanctuary Home Mortgage,” a collaboration between NewRez and Shelter Mortgage Company, and Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty.
Then in December 2020 created “Mission Mortgage,” which will be headquartered in Washington, D.C. and service clients there and in Maryland and Virginia.
The pair’s newest joint venture is called “Coast One Mortgage,” a partnership with the Schmidt Family of Companies, a family-owned real estate brokerage.
They say they’ve got cutting-edge technology and proprietary systems, including the NewRez app and “ezhub,” which is their digital mortgage offering.
It allows you to document income and assets electronically and take advantage of various automated underwriting tools.
Their smartphone app lets you to apply for a mortgage and make monthly mortgage payments once your loan is closed, assuming they service it too.
It’s also possible to get the loan process started online by filling out a short form on their website, at which point a loan advisor will make contact to guide you along.
You can also simply call them up directly or use their loan advisor directory to get in touch with someone specific if you’ve been referred.
Either way, you’ve got options when it comes to applying for a loan with NewRez.
NewRez offers home purchase loans, refinance loans, and construction loans on all property types, including primary homes, vacation homes, and investment properties.
The company’s 2019 volume consisted of roughly 85% mortgage refinance and 15% home purchase, with 37% of their loans involving cash out to the borrower.
This is probably due to their massive loan servicing portfolio that allows them to get in contact with their many existing homeowners.
They offer both conventional loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with government home loans including FHA loans, USDA loans, and VA loans.
You can also get a jumbo home loan from NewRez if the loan amount exceeds the conforming loan limit for your county.
Nearly 60% of their 2019 retail loan volume was conventional, with 25% FHA loans, 15% VA loans, and the remainder jumbo and USDA.
Those looking for a construction loan are in luck because they offer both FHA and VA construction loans, such as FHA 203k, and conventional construction loans like Fannie Mae HomeStyle.
You can get a fixed-rate mortgage, such as a 30-year fixed or 15-year fixed, and possibly other terms in between.
They also offer a variety of adjustable-rate mortgage options, including 5/1, 7/1 and 10/1 ARMs for those looking for a cheaper monthly payment.
NewRez does not openly advertise its mortgage rates, which is a shame because it’s difficult to know how they stack up relative to other lenders.
You’ll only know their pricing if you fill out a mortgage quote request and/or speak with a loan specialist. Until then, you’re basically in the dark pricing-wise.
That doesn’t mean they aren’t competitive, it just remains an unknown at the moment until more data is collected on that front.
As such, be sure to take the time to shop around – do this regardless of whether they advertise their mortgage rates. You never know if there’s a better rate out there unless you put in the time.
The same goes for lender fees – it’s unclear how much or what they charge, so compare interest rate and fees (mortgage APR) when shopping your loan.
Unfortunately, NewRez mortgage reviews are scant at the moment, perhaps because they only recently launched after acquiring New Penn Financial.
The only information I could find was on Yelp, where they had 1.5 stars out of 5, which is obviously pretty dire.
However, if you go to Zillow and search their lender directory by inputting “NewRez” into the bank name field, you’ll see lots of individual reviews for NewRez loan officers.
From there, you can sift through the many names to find the loan officer with the best reviews, then contact that person directly if you want to work with NewRez.
This might be the best way to go for any large mortgage lender because ultimately customer experiences will vary widely when dealing with thousands of different employees.
I took a look at the NewRez loan officer reviews and found that several had perfect 5 out of 5-star ratings or very close to it. Many also indicated that mortgage rates and fees/closing costs were lower than expected.
Let me add that the company has been accredited with the Better Business Bureau since 2009, and has an A+ rating at the moment.
Their customer reviews on the BBB website aren’t favorable, with a star rating just over 1 out of 5. Of course, the BBB customer review rating system is based on complaints, so the rating is typically never very good.
The Good
What to Watch Out For
Source: thetruthaboutmortgage.com
After eight straight quarters of contraction, it looks like the slide in U.S. residential investment may be finished. The nascent rebound now underway is set to remove a major obstacle to ongoing economic expansion.
With new construction activity at the highest level in more than a year, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s GDPNow tracker is projecting residential investment added 0.1% to growth in gross domestic product in the second quarter. Though it may not sound like much, that would mark the first positive contribution since early 2021.
The new-home market has been slowly coming out of the woods as falling materials costs and vanishing logistics constraints have allowed builders to work their way through pandemic-era backlogs. Limited availability in the resale market is also pushing many prospective buyers toward new construction, helping support demand even as mortgage rates remain elevated.
“Construction was at the center of the storm for the surge in inflation and the supply-chain turmoil of 2021 and 2022,” said Bill Adams, chief economist at Comerica Bank. “The recent good news for construction makes it easier to imagine a soft or at least soft-ish landing for the economy.”
Government data out earlier this week showed new construction surged in May by the most since 2016, and applications for permits to build — a proxy of future activity — also rose. The unexpected increase sent homebuilding stocks rallying to a fresh all-time high and helped explain why builder sentiment is the most upbeat in almost a year.
A growing number of prospective buyers are opting for new homes amid limited availability in the resale market, where high mortgage rates have had a big impact. Before the pandemic, existing properties made up about 90% of all homes for sale — a number that as of April was closer to 70%.
Much continues to hinge on the outlook for monetary policy. The Fed has already raised its benchmark interest rate by five percentage points in a little over a year, and further increases could start to weigh on new-home construction again, said Priscilla Thiagamoorthy, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.
“Now that the Fed has continued to signal that rate hikes are still at play, we won’t see further improvement from here,” Thiagamoorthy said. “If rates continue to rise more than one more time, that does risk the chance of a harder landing.”
Another risk is that the number of homes under construction could fall as backlogs ease and applications for permits lag the pace of housing starts. Elevated inventories of new homes could also make builders hesitant to boost output, which risks limiting upside momentum in residential investment.
Still, after subtracting from growth for the longest stretch since 2005-2009, home construction is finally poised to offer the economy some breathing room at a time when other sectors are starting to cool.
Ahead of this week’s slew of housing data, Wells Fargo & Co. economists were anticipating residential investment to be a drag on GDP growth for the remainder of the year.
“Now, I would say some of the stronger-than-expected housing data means that there’s some upside risk to that forecast,” said Charles Dougherty, a senior economist at Wells Fargo. “We’re not looking for a massive run-up in new construction, but some modest pace seems very likely.”
Source: nationalmortgagenews.com
Purchasing an investment property can be an exciting milestone for a would-be landlord or entrepreneur. The financing for investment properties, on the other hand, isnât nearly as exciting. It can be a trouble spot, though. Investment property loans arenât as easy to get as conventional home purchase financing. If you donât have the cash to […]
The post Tips for Financing Investment Properties appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
A federal judge has allowed Caliber Home Loans to move forward with a poaching suit against CrossCountry Mortgage, rejecting the defendant company’s move to dismiss five counts including misappropriation of trade secrets. Dallas-based Caliber sued CrossCountry last May for allegedly raiding over 80 workers across the country in early 2022 who accounted for more than … [Read more…]
US pending home sales rise for third straight month; loan demand … Reuters
Lower mortgage rates boost US home sales in February Reuters