With so much in the news regarding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac potentially ending the conservatorship, I wondered how long Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been around. To stimulate my curiosity, I did some quick digging to see how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac came to be.

To start let’s talk Fannie Mae, also known as the Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA). Fannie Mae was founded in 1938 by the U.S. government. This was during the Great Depression and the creation of Fannie Mae was part of the New Deal program. With the funds Fannie Mae received from the government, the goal was to have Fannie Mae buy the mortgage loans from private companies and local banks who were struggling financially. With the private companies and banks having more capital and the ability to finance home loans again, the government hoped this would inspire more lending during the economic crisis. 

With 56% of buyers putting less than 20% down on their home mortgage, according to Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report 2019, providing low down payment programs to borrowers who are shopping online can help you get ahead in 2020. We are excited to announce that we are now offering HomeReady Conforming 15- and 30-Year Fixed products for online quoting across our Marketplace partners.

What is a HomeReady mortgage?

A HomeReady mortgage is a first mortgage, purchase, or limited cash-out refinance transaction that is specifically designed for creditworthy, low-income borrowers who are looking to put down as little as 3% on their home mortgage. They can be used for both first-time home buyers and repeat borrowers. These products also allow for co-borrowers on the mortgage and contributions made from others living in the home. This is a great benefit for millennials who are looking to buy a home with friends or family members and do not have enough money to fund the loan themselves.

This week on Meet Mortech we want to introduce you all to one of our new Customer Success Managers, Dustin Giddings! 

Favorite part of the job: The best part about working for Zillow is the culture and how they take care of their employees. Mortech is in the Midwest and has a lot of the Midwest values. My favorite part about the job is building the relationships with the customers we interact with on a daily basis.

Favorite things to do on his days off: My favorite thing to do is spending the day at our lake/cabin where the girls can swim all day long.

Favorite places to travel: Ireland

Your loan origination system is already a great tool to keep you organized with your borrower requests and help them move from lead to close in an efficient way. Why not add in another layer to make your life easier and to keep moving through borrower leads faster than ever? By integrating your current loan origination system with our pricing engine, Marksman, you will see less manual work, be provided with one central location where you can move through the mortgage process with ease and stay relevant within the digital age.  

We are excited to announce that we have released an improved model for our predictive analytics platform, Mortech Protection. With this platform you can leverage Zillow’s data of more than 195 million unique website users to better align yourself to be the first lender to reach out to potential home sellers. Our new model will allow Mortech to identify a population of addresses within your customer database that are very likely to list for sale, of which 1 in 4 homes will list in the next 90 days.  

With 61% of today’s home sellers being synchronous sellers (sold a home and bought another in the past 12 months), according to Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report 2018, being able to flag properties in your customer database that are currently listed for sale, or are very likely to list for sale in the near future can lower the chance of these properties dropping out of your mortgage loan portfolio.

It’s that time of the year again. On November 26, 2019 the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced the new adjusted 2020 loan limits. With these adjustments, most of the U.S. counties will see an increase, while 43 counties will remain unchanged. Loan limits did not decrease anywhere in the U.S. or its territories.

For Contiguous States, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico the maximum conforming loan limits for 2020 are as follows:

1-unit     $510,400

2-unit     $653,550

3-unit     $789,950

4-unit     $981,700

This week on Meet Mortech we want to introduce you all to our new Product Manager, Abhi Sahu! 

Favorite part of the job: My favorite part of the job is being able to play multiple hats at Mortech such as shipping the best products, having empathy for the customers, and constantly finding new ways to innovate. I joined Mortech as it is one of the most innovative companies under Zillow Group. I get a lot of leadership and ownership opportunities. The culture here is also amazing!

Favorite things to do on his days off: I love photography, working out, watching sports and planning spontaneous trips.

Favorite places to travel: Scotland Highlands and Seattle

With 53% of buyers using online resources when looking at financing options, according to Zillow Group’s 2019 Consumer Housing Trends Report, having mortgage rates from Mortech’s pricing engine integrated into your digital point of sale platform is a great way to present a consistent experience throughout the loan process. With point of sale integrations, Mortech is looking to improve the digital mortgage experience not only for lenders, but home buyers too.

Singular platform throughout application process

The mortgage application process can be daunting for many, especially for new buyers. Millennials specifically, are looking to do everything online including researching mortgage rates. 

The signing of the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2019 brings changes to VA home loans for the year 2020. The bill extends disability benefits to a larger number of veterans who served in the Vietnam War and were potentially exposed to disease linked chemicals. The Veteran’s Administration will be looking at claims from previously denied veterans as well as new claims that are submitted. Budget estimates for the expanded disability coverages could be as high as $5.5 billion. To account for the budget increase the VA is implementing changes on home loans for veterans.

Quoting rates online through our Marksman platform has never been easier! You are able to quote the products you want, when you want to the industry’s top online marketplaces. There are many positives to online quoting and when integrating all or most of the below strategies into your current workflow you will be setting your business up for the most success when it comes to lead management and brand visibility.