Referral business is crucial to your bottom line as an agent. Imagine if you could bottle the enthusiasm your clients have for working with you and use it to capture new business in 2024. That’s where real estate testimonials come into play. In this article, we’ll show how to procure top-notch clien

Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) and Tim Kaine (Va.) have reintroduced their Housing Supply and Affordability Act to the U.S. Senate in the hope of establishing a new grant program that would fund local government efforts to develop and implement housing policy plans.Announced on Thursday, the

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) on Friday announced that it has published a new final rule that eliminates a current requirement for lenders to register the branch offices where they conduct FHA Title I or Title II mortgage loan originations. By removing these requirements, FHA hopes to inv

With ongoing liquidity challenges and a continuing lag in Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) case numbers, reverse mortgage business in 2024 started off with a bit of a whimper.Both HECM endorsements and HECM-backed securities (HMBS) issuance saw modest declines in January, although four of the

Today we got a jobs Friday hat trick! Better headline jobs were reported, with positive revisions and more robust wage growth, which caught bond traders off guard and sent bond yields and mortgage rates higher today. Now, we do have some quirky seasonality issues with this report, but as I have ofte

Most of last year’s top-producing loan officers at Draper and Kramer Mortgage Corp. (DKMC) are not transitioning to the company’s acquirer, New American Funding (NAF), according to multiple sources and available public data.During their departure, DKMC sales staff who are not joining NAF were inform

Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp., the nation’s ninth-largest mortgage originator, announced Friday that it would be closing its wholesale channel and pivoting entirely to retail. “The people who have run Fairway’s Wholesale Department are some of the most talented, humble people in the business an

Retired couples who are Medicare beneficiaries could need as much as $413,000 saved to cover medical expenses in the latter stages of life, an increase over the previous year’s estimate of $383,000. This is according to new findings from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).The figure is t

The U.S. economy added significantly more jobs than expected during the first month of the year. Jobs increased by 353,000 in January, up from a revised rate of 333,000 in December, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday. January’s reading far exceeded the monthly ave

Real estate brokerage eXp Realty has entered into an affiliated business agreement with Orlando, Florida-based title firm Citrus Closing Group, according to an announcement on Thursday.“We are thrilled about the prospects of our exciting new partnership with eXp Realty, anticipating a wealth of oppo

Redfin is back to offering refunds to homebuyers but this time under a new name. Launched on Thursday, the brokerage’s Sign & Save program provides buyers who sign up to work with a Redfin agent before their second home tour — and who purchase a property with that agent within 180 days of signing th

Sure, your real estate landing pages look great — but do they convert? A good real estate website includes more than just drool-worthy images of homes priced to sell. Your real estate website should serve multiple functions, almost like a digital business card with an MLS listing storefront, a booki

The U.S. House of Representatives this week passed a bipartisan tax bill that included an expansion of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program, a move lauded by housing advocates including the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and the National Housing Conference (NHC).But political observ

United Bank will consolidate its mortgage subsidiaries into one unified mortgage business amid the housing industry struggles with elevated interest rates.United Bank has been delivering mortgage services through three channels, including two mortgage subsidiaries — Crescent Mortgage Co. and George

The report on the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) book of business inside the Mutual Mortgage Insurance (MMI) Fund was another positive overall development for the program, with the estimated economic net worth of the HECM MMI at $15.368 billion, according to the Federal Housing Administratio

In a bizarre turn of events, the National Association of Realtors posted, then removed before reposting, a video featuring the trade group’s interim CEO Nykia Wright “setting the record straight” on agent commissions.The video was first posted on Wednesday around 9 a.m. ET before being removed rough

For the past 12 years, HousingWire’s Tech100 program has recognized the industry’s most innovative and impactful technology companies that are continuing to bring long-awaited solutions to the challenges that mortgage and real estate professionals have struggled with for decades. The award uncovers

Top 10 mortgage lender and servicer NewRez is restructuring its distributed retail mortgage business, which has resulted in cuts to regional and divisional managers. The restructuring also includes reduced compensation for loan officers, and sources said that many are seeking new opportunities at ri

Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler sat down with Uday Devalla, chief technology officer at Sagent and a 2023 Vanguard, to talk about his focus on transforming servicing, what really counts with data and the right approach to using artificial intelligence. Sarah Wheeler: After spending several decades lea

Stavvy is a truly comprehensive digital closing platform, the only solution to offer a SMART Doc engine that extends the savings, efficiency and security of eNotes to all mortgage documents for all loan programs and across all 50 states while supporting every type of eClosing and eNotarization. Stav