New Lending Rules & the Need for "Creative" Financing

There may never be a better time for real estate investors to use creative seller financing strategies… and here’s why:

Since the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s implementation of the new >TRID mortgage loan disclosure form rules on October 3rd, 2015, the reported net gains by loans funded by mortgage banks and their affiliates sank by 60% in the 4th Quarter of 2015.
The number of funded conventional loans (and profit margins) for many smaller to mid-sized mortgage loan firms have fallen dramatically since the introduction of the Qualified Mortgage and TRID rules in 2014 and 2015.
The big banks, in turn, have increased their mortgage market share over the past several years.
My ">CRE Online Blog article from December 2015 included statistics from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and the California Association of Realtors (CAR), which reported that existing home sales fell by 10.5% nationally and 28.5% in California in November 2015 compared to the previous month.

Mortgage Professionals’ Falling Profit Margins

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) report entitled Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Report noted that the net gains on each mortgage loan funded in the 4th Quarter plummeted to an average of a $493 profit for each funded loan compared to a much higher net gain of $1,238 per loan in the 3rd Quarter of 2015 just a few months earlier.
Marina Walsh, a Vice-President at the MBA, was quoted in the report as saying:

  • “Production profits dropped by over 60% in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to the third quarter.”
  • “With the ‘Know Before You Owe’ rule going into effect last October 3rd and declining production volume compared to the third quarter of 2015, mortgage bankers saw their total loan production expenses climb to $7,747 per loan, from $7,080 per loan in the third quarter.”
  • “The average production volume per company was nearly double the first quarter of 2014, when production expenses reached a study-high of $8,025 per loan. The increase in total production expenses per loan in the fourth quarter of 2015 cannot be explained solely by volume fluctuations.”

(Sources: https://www.mba.org/ and http://www.thetitlereport.com/)

More Paperwork & Less Profits

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a financial protection entity created within the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (enacted on July 21st, 2010), wants lenders to better inform their borrowers about new mortgage loans with important details like the true interest rate, closing costs, and loan terms.
The theory behind the new TRID disclosure forms seems quite valid and understandable. TRID is also referred to as the “Know Before You Owe” rule.
TRID is a merger of the old TILA (Truth-In-Lending Act) and RESPA (Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act) with paperwork, rules and regulations, and similar acronym letters.
The two main disclosure forms from TRID are called the Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure forms .
Here is a short two minute video from the CFPB in regard to the new “Know Before You Owe” or TRID rule: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwZERLDHJf0

Can Your Buyers Qualify?

Mortgage rates at or near all-time record lows for conventional mortgages are worthless to a mortgage applicant who can’t qualify.
Some of the key items banned by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were most balloon loans, adjustable loans, and loans for borrowers over 43% debt-to-income ratios for mortgages loans under the Qualified Mortgage (QM) and the Ability-to-Repay rules (began in January 2014).
A Qualified Mortgage is also one that is saleable to secondary market investors like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. If a lender can’t sell off enough loans to the secondary market, then they will eventually run out of cash.
For more details on these Qualified Mortgage and Ability-to-Repay rules, here are the highlights provided by the CFPB website:
“Generally, the requirements for a qualified mortgage include:

  • Certain harmful loan features are not permitted, such as:
    • An “interest-only” period, when you pay only the interest without paying down the principal, which is the amount of money you borrowed.
    • “Negative amortization,” which can allow your loan principal to increase over time, even though you’re making payments.
    • “Balloon payments,” which are larger-than-usual payments at the end of a loan term. The loan term is the length of time over which your loan should be paid back. Note that balloon payments are allowed under certain conditions for loans made by small lenders.
    • Loan terms that are longer than 30 years.
  • A limit on how much of your income can go towards your debt, including your mortgage and all other monthly debt payments. This is also known as the debt-to-income ratio.
  • No excess upfront points and fees. If you get a Qualified Mortgage, there are limits on the amount of certain upfront points and fees your lender can charge. These limits will depend on the size of your loan. Not all charges, like the cost of a credit report, for example, are included in this limit. If the points and fees exceed the threshold, then the loan can’t be a Qualified Mortgage.”

 The Opportunity for Creative Financing

With falling profit margins for conventionally funded mortgage loans partly due to allowable capped mortgage fees, there may be fewer mortgage professionals willing to work on conventional loans.
Since 2014, the surge of private or non-Qualified Mortgage lenders has rapidly increased due to the need for much easier mortgage capital options.
Non-Qualified Mortgage money can still be very cheap and easy to fund, and nothing like the old private or hard money loans once in the double-digit rate ranges.
More sellers today are willing to consider creative of finance options such as lease options or wraparound mortgages like AITDs or Contracts for Deed.
It’s much easier for a borrower to qualify for a creative financing option as opposed to one funded by a bank. As a result, there may never be a better time to use creative financing strategies!
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By Rick Tobin

I have over 30 years' experience in the financial and real estate industries. As financing is what truly drives the real estate market, I provide my clients with the best forms of financing options available. I've held eight (8) different types of real estate, securities, and mortgage brokerage licenses throughout my career. I'm also an alumni from the University of Southern California. I own a mortgage company that specializes in residential and commercial lending. For residential loans, I am proud to be partnered with United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM - America's largest wholesale lender). In 2019, UWM funded over $107 billion dollars. We offer some of the best rates and terms nationwide and quickest close options that average near 15 days with completely paperless or doc-less options. I also have financial relationships with hundreds of other financial partners