We are excited to announce the addition of BestMoney, a Natural Intelligence company, to our list of marketplace partners. Through this integration, our mutual lenders will have the opportunity to advertise their mortgage offers live to millions of potential borrowers leveraging BestMoney’s platform, and to specifically be matched with home buyers in need of home financing.
During the pandemic, many people moved to a work-from-home structure and those that had the means to do so, began looking for a new place to call home and hold on to their current residence as an investment property. The demand for second homes increased during 2020 until the amended PSPA was announced in March of
this year.
This week on Meet Mortech we want to introduce you all to our Product Manager, Natasha Toor!
Favorite part of the job: The people I get to work with! They are intelligent, encouraging, friendly, and even funny. They can make work (especially from home) feel less like work. Zoom calls feel less awkward and emails and chats feel more like open conversations. The easy collaboration allows us to kick butt and deliver a great product!
Favorite things to do on days off: I love to cook, sip on a drink, and listen to music to relax, preferably outside and with family and friends! I enjoy reading fiction and watching movies, and I have been trying to get into gardening but the little critters in the ground are making it an itchy process.
Favorite places to travel include: The Staples Center in LA! I love the buzz around the building and have many wonderful memories there and feel giddy just being near it! If I need a vacation, then I'd travel anywhere in the mountains or in Hawaii. If I need to see a familiar face, then I'd travel to see family in Canada, England and India.
On May 26th, Fannie Mae sent out an announcement informing that the High LTV refinance program will temporarily be halted beginning Thursday, July 1st, 2021.
Background on this refinance program
Back in November 2018, Fannie Mae High LTV and Freddie Mac Enhanced Relief Refinance programs were an alternative to the HARP program (Home Affordable Refinance Program). These programs were designed to help borrowers who were looking to refinance their mortgage but didn’t have enough equity in their home due to a decrease in home value since it was purchased (owing more than the home is worth). To qualify for a High LTV program, a borrower with a Fannie Mae-backed mortgage would need to have less than 3% equity in their home, (or their loan-to-value will need to be over 97%).
Last week, Mortech announced the addition of private mortgage insurer, Essent, to their growing list of industry-leading mortgage insurance (MI) providers. Through this integration, lenders can now quote MI premiums through Essent’s risk-based pricing engine, EssentEDGE®, within Mortech’s product and pricing engine platform.
Mortech’s enhanced pricing integration with Encompass® streamlines and automates secondary desk and lock processes by securely passing pricing data between Mortech’s pricing engine and the Encompass platform. Loan officers leveraging the integration are able to create a custom, detailed workflow that fits their business needs.
On April 28th, FHFA announced the launch of a new refinance option program specifically for low-income families.
Earlier this month, Fannie Mae introduced the new program under the name RefiNow which will be available on June 5th. Freddie Mac version of the program, Refi Possible, will be available on August 30th.
This week on Meet Mortech we want to introduce you all to our Senior Manager of Product Management, Gowri Sivanathan!
Favorite part of the job: The people. Being in product management, I engage with stakeholders, engineers and customers often. I love working cross-functionally.
Favorite things to do on days off: Read, cook, evening walks and travel. I cannot wait to resume travel once again!
Speaking of travel, favorite places to visit include: Canada, Switzerland, New Zealand (on my wish-list). I prefer spending my time in the wilderness - mountains, greenery, lakes - over busy towns/crowded tourist spots. Not much of a beach person though, given I cannot swim (fun fact).
On March 11, 2021, Fannie Mae announced in Lender Letter LL-2021-08 that they are implementing a tighter restriction on Second Homes and Investment properties.
This restriction came about after a recent agreement between FHFA and the U.S. Department of Treasury jointly deciding not to restructure the government-sponsored enterprises (GSE’s), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and allowing the entities to retain more of their earnings. However, FHFA is stating this still may not be an adequate amount of money to avoid failure if there is another housing crisis. Some see this as a great risk for the market, predicting the GSE’s will focus on raising profit margins rather than helping serve the underserved communities, first-time homebuyers, and properties such as second homes and investments.
Earlier this week, Mortech announced a new integration with National MI® Rate GPS that will allow lenders to quote live mortgage insurance premiums from National MI’s Rate GPS within Mortech’s product and pricing engine.
By using our pricing engine platform to quote live MI, lenders can confidently compare scenarios in a single location for a more efficient workflow that:
