Hello, LOs!
Some 3,500 mortgage industry professionals — and their regulators — are currently swarming San Diego for the Mortgage Bankers Association's annual expo.
Fannie Mae CEO Hugh Frater and Freddie Mac CEO Michael DeVito's walkout song was Santana's "Smooth," which is appropriate, since the two government sponsored enterprises buy about half of the country's $11 trillion in mortgages. You could say they're the mortgage industry's "reason for reason."
The GSEs don't just go to industry events to make pronouncements that change the way the industry works. Although the GSEs' regulator and conservator did that for them, yesterday, when the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced desktop appraisals will soon become a permanent feature of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's underwriting.
Senior executives at the GSEs often go on to the private sector. But Frater said his private sector experiences inform his role as head of mortgage behemoth Fannie Mae. Previously Frater headed up Berkadia Commercial Mortgage, which is now one of the largest servicers of Fannie Mae-backed commercial/multifamily mortgages. Before that, Frater was managing director of BlackRock.
"When I was running a mortgage bank I'd come here for two reasons," Frater said. "One was to try and poach sales talent from competitors and the other was to complain to the GSEs about something I wanted from them.
"Now I come for one reason, to have mortgage bankers complain to me about something they want from me," Frater said.
LOs, what would you tell him? What do you think about the GSEs' shift to desktop appraisals? How much of an impact on closing times could that make? Do you expect desktop appraisals will cost the same as conventional, in-person, walk-through appraisals?
Georgia Kromrei
Senior Mortgage Reporter, HousingWire
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