Residential mortgage team adjusts to high volume of loan activity - bizjournals:

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Beginning about three months ago, Mike, the managerd of Little Canada-based Mortgage and Investmenrt Consultants’ Integrity Team, said interest in purchasinv and refinancing home mortgages pickedup “Personally, I’m working probably 10, 12 hoursw a day, and that’s prettg standard for most of my staff,” she said. The four offices she managees — three in the Twin Cities metro and one in WesterjWisconsin — had together been averaging aboutr 35 mortgage closings a month. “We’re about doublin g that right now,” Mike said. In the mortgagde business, Mike isn’t alone.
The residential mortgager industry has experienced increased activity the past few saidTom Musil, director of the Shenehon Centeer for Real Estate at the University of St. Boosted by bargain home low interest rates, higher consumert confidence and stimulus incentives likethe $8,000 tax credity for first-time buyers, Musil said the same mortgages companies that were recently forced to lay off employee are now scrambling to hire them back. In termss of mortgage activity, Musill believes it will be a good year. “My guess is the numbers for ’09 will be substantially higher than the lastfew years.
” Mike said the majoritu of her business is in the purchase although refinances also are up. The new business is due, in to the attention that’s been given to a number of governmen programs for new home buyers andcustomersz who’ve been struggling with adjustable-rate mortgages. “W e are seeing quite a bit of interesyt because of what people are callinfgthe ‘Obama Mortgage.’ ” While she said the qualifications for some of the programds are more stringent than have been portrayed and not everyone will qualify, her staff is able to talk to clientds about their options.
A similar period happened duringthe 2002-2003 refinancingg boom, but things were different Mike said. Underwriting guidelines are muchmore complex. In this economy there are capitalization issues, liquidity issues, she “Even though we’ve had this volume before, it’s a whole different ballgame.” No matter how busy thing get, Mike said good communication is key toher branch’s success, both in term s of working with clients and in-house. When her processorws recently became inundated, she called in contract processors tohelp out. “We’llo bring in more staff.
We’ll do whatever we need to do,” said who, at the end of May was in the midst of training several new staff After all, in this economic climate, being extremely busy is often the least of a manager’s worries. “That’s a good problem to have,” Mike said, with a laugh.