Phil Grossfield's Blog

My Market Watch:  LOOK OUT BELOW!  The bond has fallen below an important floor of support and that is NOT a good sign.  If it falls even a wee bit more we could see a drop until it reaches the next lower Floor of Support and that my friends would not be a happy thing.  Rates are worse again by 0.125 this morning and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a mid-day price worsening today.  DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!  It’s a downward spiral as of late.  Our only hope for better rates is some economic news or weather surges or something to give traders a reason to buy bonds, and let us all pray…..  WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T LET YOUR LOCKS EXPIRE WITHOUT CONSULTING ME FIRST!   Disclaimer

My Mystery Lyric:  I saw my baby early one morning…She was walking on down the street — I saw my baby early this morning…She was walking on down the street — You know it hurt me, hurt me so bad…Made my poor heart skip a beat  — Answer

My Schedule: I am working from home all morning and then out this afternoon but available….

UPDATED FREQUENTLY:                                                                                 

My Guideline Guidance to get a clean underwriting decision resulting in happiness and adulation, or, you could Ignore This and find yourself with a long list of conditions, a huge hassle, and massive frustration

My Procedures are updated daily – check it out…

My Schedule…and A Little Extra:  DON’T LET YOUR LOCKS EXPIRE WITHOUT CONSULTING ME FIRST!  Read My Market Watch below

California LTV restrictions are gone!  CA is now grouped with most of the other approved states meaning LTV restrictions have been lifted.  Matrices on the portal have been updated.  Here are some common highlights:

• Purchases now 90% (previously 80%)
• Condos now 80%/90% (previously 70%)
• NOO now 70% (previously 60%)
• Cashout now 80% (previously 70%)
• No restrictions on max DTI (same as before) 

My Market Watch:  Rates are worse again and prices have dropped about 0.500 in two days.  DON’T LET YOUR LOCKS EXPIRE WITHOUT CONSULTING ME FIRST!  Pricing dropped below an moving average indicator and as such continues to drop.  Let me explain.  Traders look for signals in the marketplace to anticipate what pricing will do in the future.  Accordingly, they trade trying to capitalize on the information.  That certainly makes sense, right?  Well, one of the indicators traders look at Day Moving Averages (DMA) of bond prices over time.  Based on trends in the past and present, they try to predict what will happen if bonds fall below “floors of support” or go above “ceilings of resistance”.  Why is this significant right now?  Because the 30-year bond is trading below a previously established DMA.  So, most traders will not start buying bonds until some news or report gives them reason to buy bonds or the bond hits a lower floor.  This is a bit technical but it is logical and for those of you that are interested, I’m happy to discuss more…just reach out to me….  Disclaimer

My Schedule: I am working from home all morning and then out this afternoon but available….

My Schedule…and A Little Extra:  I missed you!  Now put ‘em up!  My daughter and 4-year old son hadn’t seen each other for 4 days…they missed each other.  My son said often during the last 4 days that he missed his best friend…his 7-year old sister.  She’s the one that gets down on the floor and plays with him all day.  Sure, me and the wife get down on the floor and play with him occasionally but we’re not as dedicated as his 7-year old sister is.  So then, why do they fight 2-minutes after being reunited?  I’m not exaggerating…TWO-MINUTES!   ||   This is cool…flipping cats has absolutely nothing to do with the mortgage business but it’s still interesting…ever wonder why a cat always lands on his feet?   |||   You guys see this?  Millionaire Snatches Up 650 Foreclosed Homes For $4.8 Million.

My Market Watch:  Rates are unchanged from Friday and with little going on today, there is no reason to expect volatility.  And stocks seem to be struggling in the early going which bodes well for sustained low rates.  Of course, any political or geopolitical news could always change things.  Weather is also something that can affect the markets.  Why you ask?  I’ll tell you why.  Because if there is a big weather surge that causes damage in a certain part of the globe, then trading can be affected by everything the part of the world contributes to the global economy.  How do you like me now?  Not exactly sure why I’m so spicy this morning, but I am!   Disclaimer

My Schedule: I have to pick up my car from being fixed but otherwise available all day….

UPDATED FREQUENTLY:

My Guideline Guidance to get a clean underwriting decision resulting in happiness and adulation, or, you could Ignore This and find yourself with a long list of conditions, a huge hassle, and massive frustration

My Procedures are updated daily – check it out…

My Schedule…and A Little Extra:  It wouldn’t start.  This week I’ve been a single Dad for the most part.  Well, today’s schedule included getting my son to school and then getting my car to the dealership.  Unfortunately, when I tried to fire it up this morning the battery was dead.  Lovely.  Well, stuff happens, eh?  Looking on the bright side (1) I have my wife’s car since she is out of town so I could still get my son to school on time, (2) I called Geico and they sent over a truck to jump it for free – part of my policy, (3) I already had an appointment to get my car serviced so I guess if the battery is going to die on you it might as well be today, right? and (4) I have a service membership with my dealership so my loaner car is free.  🙂

My Market Watch:  Bonds are performing better and rates have improved.  I implore you DON’T LET YOUR LOCKS EXPIRE WITHOUT CONSULTING ME FIRST.  We need to analyze your lock against the current market and develop a strategy to either extend the lock or discuss the option of letting the lock expire and relocking with our Relock Policy in mind.  However, it is your responsibility to extend your lock…if you let your lock expire, your options become very limited…don’t let that happen.  Call me or email me so we can look at it, got it?  Good.  Let me know if you have any questions, okay?   Disclaimer

My Schedule: Just getting to my emails now and have one noon appointment…then available the remainder of the day….

UPDATED FREQUENTLY:

My Guideline Guidance to get a clean underwriting decision resulting in happiness and adulation, or, you could Ignore This and find yourself with a long list of conditions, a huge hassle, and massive frustration

My Procedures are updated daily – check it out…

My Schedule…and A Little Extra:  Streetlinks is our AMC and although we still plan to add more to the list, I think Streetlinks has done a pretty good job for us to date.  Consider these numbers for the month of July:  5,150 completed appraisal orders;  5.6 business days average turn-time;  8.4 miles average proximity;  12.2% post-complete revisions and each performed on an average of 5.8 hours; and 2.1% completed appeals each performed an average of 14.3 hours.  All in all, not too bad.  We had a conference call with them yesterday and the AE’s addressed several issues.  The one I was most interested in was the proximity of the appraisers to the subject property…I do not want an appraiser who lives 30 miles from the subject and has no idea about the area, you dig?  I was happy to learn that average proximity was under 10 miles.  More importantly, Streetlinks told us that they are happy to approve more appraisers.  In fact, if you know an appraiser that should be hooked up with Streetlinks, I can help you get it done and Streetlinks does not charge the appraiser to enroll.  If you know an appraiser interested, please email me.

My Market Watch:  Bonds and rates stabilized this morning.  If you read my email yesterday then you know the 30-year bond fell through a floor of support.  Without any geopolitical news or other report to influence bonds higher, we could see it fall further and if that happens, rates would get worse as well.  Moreover, there is an auction today for 10-year notes and if it goes poorly, I wouldn’t be surprised to see bonds fall further meaning rates would suffer.  Of course this is all speculation, but it’s not a comfortable spot we’re in at the moment.  That being said, I’m seeing some positive activity with Bonds right now and they are trading higher between 6-12bps since rates were published this morning.  Let’s think positively and hope it shoots even higher!   Disclaimer

My Schedule: Working from home this morning.  I will be running around this afternoon and somewhat unavailable but will have plenty of time to return all calls and emails before the end of the day….

UPDATED FREQUENTLY:
Guideline Guidance to get a clean underwriting decision resulting in happiness and adulation, or, you could Ignore This and find yourself with a long list of conditions, a huge hassle, and massive frustration

My Procedures are updated daily – check it out…

My Schedule…and A Little Extra:   Happy 80^th Birthday Dad!!!!!!

My Market Watch:  Pricing is down with minor reporting and European news.  However, there is a more alarming thing to consider…according to the Mortgage Market Guide, the bond has fallen through a floor of support.  Let me explain.  Traders look for signals in the marketplace to anticipate what pricing will do in the future.  Accordingly, they trade trying to capitalize on the information.  That certainly makes sense, right?  Well, one of the indicators traders look at are Moving Averages of bond prices.  Based on trends in the past and present, they can predict what will happen if bonds fall below “floors” or go above “ceilings.”  Why is this significant right now?  Because the 30-year bond is trading around and below a floor as I type…if it goes further south, then traders might not start buying the bond again until it hits a lower floor.  If that happens, you’ll see pricing get worse.  This is a bit technical but it is logical and for those of you that are interested, I’m happy to discuss more…just reach out to me….  Disclaimer

My Schedule: I was in a conference call with Operations all morning…now available throughout the day until 4:15p and then out with kids….

My Schedule…and A Little Extra:   56 Years!  Yes, my Mom and Dad just celebrated 56 years of marriage.  Seeing that I am very similar to my Dad, you have to admire my Mom!  Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!  |||   Such is the life of a man with a traveling wife.  My wife is a travel writer and as such, I often times get to gladly pick-up additional parental obligations. 🙂

My Market Watch:  The Market has bounced back from the fall on Friday where we started lower and experienced a mid-day rate change for the worse.  Not much else to report today but I’ll be behind the computer all day and periodically checking economic news…I’ll do my best to let you know if I see any volatility….  Disclaimer

My Schedule: Behind the computer all day…done at 4:30p….

UPDATED FREQUENTLY:

Guideline Guidance to get a clean underwriting decision resulting in happiness and adulation, or, you could Ignore This and find yourself with a long list of conditions, a huge hassle, and massive frustration

My Procedures are updated daily – check it out…

My Schedule…and A Little Extra:  The first guy wanted $350 to fix my bike.  I would have paid it too but he was kind of a punk about it.  My kids are 7 and 4 and neighbor kids are about the same age and as a result biking is becoming a big deal.  Well, I haven’t ridden my mountain bike for about 12 years.  In fact, it’s been collecting dust from at least 4 different residences since I rode it last.  So, I took it to a bike shop to get an estimate on getting it functional or maybe even trading it in.  The first shop had a kid (early 20s) working the repair area and was clearly put-off by the mere presence of my dinosaur.  “Hey man, that bike was a mac-daddy ride in its day,” I said.  He wasn’t impressed.  He quoted me $350 dollars to fix it up.  Again, I probably would have paid it if he wasn’t such a punk.  But I took my mac-daddy ride to a bike shop in Solana Beach where Dan the Man quoted me $100, fixed it up in perfect working condition, and even put on a new kickstand.  How do you like me now punk?!

My Market Watch:  The market is all over the place.  Yesterday there was some suspicious activity on the markets and transactions are being investigated.  Both stocks and bonds were down yesterday which is unusual…although not the rule, typically stocks and bonds have an inverse relationship.  The European Central Bank “ECB” didn’t enlighten us on their plans and the Fed didn’t mention anything either.  As a result traders pulled money from stocks and invested in bonds this morning…rates bounced back from yesterdays mid-day change for the worse.  The big Jobs Report is tomorrow, Friday.  I anticipate the report will come in better than expected and as a result we might see bonds falter.  But I’ve been wrong before.  Lord knows if I could predict the future I wouldn’t be working with all of you…no offense.  Make your own decisions based on your own research when deciding to float or lock loans.  If the report comes in better than expected giving traders the strong economy vibe, then they will invest in stocks and not bonds and we’ll see rates get worse.  If it comes in worse than expected, then rates will stay strong…but to the extent they get better…there isn’t much room for improvement.  Let me know your thoughts….  Disclaimer

My Schedule: Today I’m in L.A. for a couple of appointments and will be available in-between.  My first appointment is at 10:30a and the other is at 2:00p.  I’ll be driving back to San Diego later in the early evening….

My Schedule…and A Little Extra:  I had a great month for July, thank yoU.  I hope your month was equally great.  I don’t have the official numbers but I’m pretty sure Interbank put up a big number.  |||  Are you aware our 30-year product is the same pricing for our DU Refi Plus/HARP 2.0 program?  |||  I received a fair amount of comments on our new Incomplete File Submission Policy, and most of the comments expressed concern.  This new policy is a good idea…Interbank needs to ensure processing takes their time and gets it right the first time so we can keep our turns fast and work to make them faster.  We have way too many sloppy submissions…trust me!  And the Policy does not really hurt you.  To be clear, if you fail to release the DU, we reject the submission so your punishment is you need to re-upload, that’s it…you don’t lose the lock or anything else…you just lose time.  And if you fail to upload the required disclosures, documents, etc., we give you 24-hours to correct it which is plenty of time.  Only if you ignore us do we cancel the file and the lock.  I think that’s fair.  Let me know your thoughts….  The policy details are below….

My Mystery Lyric:  If you feel like leaving, you know you can go…but why don’t you stay until tomorrow?  and if you want to be free, all you have to do is say so — when you feel cold, I’ll warm you, and when you feel you can’t go on, I’ll come and hold you — it’s you…and me, forever….  — Answer

My Market Watch:  Today the Fed announces their policy changes, if any.  Depending on what they say, or don’t say, the markets might move in a couple hours….  As of right now…bonds are flat.  Also, this morning ADP released its private jobs report which was better than expected…this is not a critical report and doesn’t weigh that heavily, but it does increase anticipation for the big Jobs Report on Friday.  Make no mistake about it, there’s a lot of stuff going on this week that could move the markets drastically.  As I say often, there is more downside to upside…rates are likely to inch towards better but leap towards worse.  Let me know your thoughts….   Disclaimer

My Schedule: Today I have two appointments, one at 10:30a in San Diego and another at 2:00p in Irvine.

NEW POLICY FOR INCOMPLETE FILE SUBMISSIONS:  We receive way too many incomplete submissions…it’s hurting our turns and creating backlog.  These are the top culprits:

• DU has not yet been released to Interbank.
• Missing required documents/disclosures at submission.
• GFE Issues:
  • There is no locked GFE when the loan was pre-locked.
  • Net buy on GFE doesn’t match lock.
  • The GFE does not reflect correct escrow (shows escrows are required but lock shows they are waived, or vice versa).
  • Subordination fee should be in box 3.  Subordination escrow fee box 4.
  • Providing all borrowers on GFE when borrowers are unmarried or separate.

This new policy is a good idea…we need to ensure processing takes their time and gets it right so we can keep our turns fast and work to make them faster.  The Policy still gives you time to correct the issue without penalty – other than you get delayed.
EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY: 

1)      if the DU is not released to Interbank at the time of file submission, the loan will be REJECTED and if the file has not been submitted within 10-days of the pre-lock, then the lock will be cancelled as well; and

2)      if our Receiving team notifies you of problems with the GFE or other missing/inaccurate documentation in the file, then you have 24-hours to resolve the problem or the loan will be REJECTED and if the file has not been submitted within 10-days of the pre-lock, then the lock will be cancelled as well.  Let me know if you have any questions, okay?

Click here for My Procedures and Guidance

BUCKET-LIST CONTEST:   What’s on Your Life’s Bucket-List?  How about a $5,000 vacation to make your bucket-list wish come true from Hilton Garden Inn around the globe?!  Watch the video…its awesome and enter the contest at my wife’s TravelMamas website!  Enter by August 5, 2012