It really is a cash grab as the MND guys put it. It has nothing to do with risk – the GSEs just want a larger cut of the action. Once they bundle MBSes and they are seasoned, refi risk is passed to investors. Serial refinancers actually make them more money, not less.
The winner in all of this? Anyone that locked last week. Rates have been slowly creeping up and now this news hits. I suspect the week of August 3 will have the lowest rates of the year. The fed is unlikely to monkey with rates in the run-up to the election.
I’ve sent out almost ten quote request over the last 7 days or so and have only gotten two responses. Penfed and a local broker. Local broker had a better rate. Anybody can recommend someone that returns telephone calls or emails?
I swore up and down I was going to stand pat at 2.75.
Well, I bit on a fly-by-night Zillow rate after perusing late this morning. 2.25 15yr, $1800 in lender credit w/appraisal and escrow waivers “included”. Net out of pocket cost is a few hundred bucks which is easily made up for after a few months. The broker is “Blue Sky Financial” who used Quicken Loans for this particular deal.
I am always a little weary of estimates that include a “free” escrow waiver because the GSEs mandates a quarter point charge for this, but they are indeed the far and away lowest available rate that I have seen so far this year for my parameters, so I might as well take the waiver if they are including it. The broker was founded in 2020 so they are indeed a legit fly-by-nighter - exciting! We’ll see how it goes.
Yup! But these guys are apparently unaffiliated, unlike CashCall’s foray into the Mortgage business. The mortgage broker is out of downtown Boise while the payday place is on some Indian reservation in the west. Unsurprisingly, their website doesn’t divulge their location.
Edited to add - I did refinance with CashCall back in 2011. The phone calls with their staff were hilarious - the phone would “beep” audibly every few seconds to indicate the call was being recorded. I would guess that the payday loan staff was intermixed with the mortgage staff because you could tell there were some real unhappy customers dealing with other CSRs - tons of yelling and screaming in the background along with the continual beeping noises. Good times.
They were also the only company I dealt with that made a mistake in tabulating the numbers at closing. They had to come back to me after closing and ask me for more money because they had miscalculated the necessary escrow cushion and Fannie refused to buy the loan without it. I thought they had the numbers wrong initially, but bank error in your favor is a thing, right? Their payday lender training kicked in as they strongly demanded the money on the phone while I demanded they put it in writing so I had some proof where this cash was going and what the purpose of it was, so there was a paper trail documenting it.
tl/dr: Getting a mortgage from a company that deals with payday loans can be an interesting experience!
Are you sure they are unaffiliated? Is there something somewhere that says they aren’t affiliated?
I mean they have the same name. Usually companies don’t just take someone elses name an operate in the same industry.
And the location doesn’t mean its not the same business. They can have sub companies that are wholely owned but incorpated somewhere else.
The payday loan company is in a reservation because they don’t have the laws (I’d assume)
The mortgage company has no reason to do that so they could be in Boise where it might be more convenient and legit or maybe they have to be incorporated specific ways to do mortgages.
Sadly, other than the name, I can’t find anything linking the mortgage company to the tribal lender. The mortgage guys appear to be founded by this guy - he used to work for “Blue Spot Home Loans” which is where I guess the “Blue” part of the name came from.
“Blue Sky” seems to be a very popular name for loan companies. I count at least 10 different lenders on NMLS going by that name in various states that all appear unaffiliated. That, of course, doesn’t count the payday lender and a few other financial advisors I found going by that name. That said, I kinda hope they are the tribal lender… I get a kick out of stuff like that .
I was thinking if they aren’t related then they can’t share the same name or one will sue the other. But if multiple people share a name and don’t sue then it just happens.
Maybe “blue sky” is a common enough generic enough name that its not really something anyone can trademark. Like we probably have at least 20 different versions of “pete’s pizza” restaurants across the USA and they’re not all suing one another about it…
Update - I was conditionally approved with Blue Sky/Quicken about a week ago. Underwriting only took a few business days, the paperwork was the standard paystubs/bank statements/ID/etc. No crazy conditions, such as those that Provident are known for.
Unfortunately, the title company (Amrock, a subsidiary of Quicken Loans) must be swamped because they are still waiting on the title report to come back - we are about 14 days into the lock period. Amrock was used on my previous refinance with LenderFi and they were super quick… so I’m assuming the incoming volume is playing a role. The clock is ticking - no closing disclosure yet (which requires a 3 business day waiting period before signing), and with the rescission period (another 3 business days)… they have about a week to get me the closing disclosure in order to meet the lock period.
Seller (if it’s a purchase not refi) might want at least their carry costs (mortgage interest, property tax, utilities, etc) to move the closing date later. Probably they won’t even ask, though. Seems fully reasonable and expected the buyer would pay those if they change the contract to a later date.
The variable there is the Fannie adverse market fee affecting refis. Depending on the lender’s pipeline and the likelihood that the loan can be sold before December 1, rate sheets have slightly worsened for refinances.
In this case though, the lender and the title company are the same entity. I would expect that yes, extending the lock shouldn’t be an issue.
Yes, I’d also expect them to eat the adverse market fee since the delay is on them, not you. They’re probably making a killing now, so nobody is going hungry
The company you guys are thinking of was “Western Sky Financial” with their small print of, “The APR for a typical loan of $10,000 is 89.68% with 84 monthly payments of $743.99.”
.
