My New Blog

While many of our competitors are downsizing, closing offices or just imploding, TrueCompass Lending Corporation is growing. Since we are a new company being "built from scratch" we carry no trailing liabilities.

We started eight months ago with four branches and are currently licensed in nine states. We have licenses pending in six more states and are adding branches weekly.

Our ownership has decades of successful brokerage and branch experience and plans on expanding our company nationwide while retaining our autonomy.

We offer branch opportunities and broker advisory packages as well as employment opportunities through our branches or in our main office in Tualatin, Oregon.

TrueCompass Lending is dedicated to the highest level of honesty and integrity. We believe in treating our clients, employees and partners with respect and, as our name implies, TLC.

We offer fair and competitive wage and commission packages.

Our broker packages have no hidden fees.

If this sounds like a business you want to be a part of please contact;

Brian Pierce Jr. 1-888-342-7713 Brian@TrueCompasslending.com

Brian Pierce Sr. 503-913-2620 BrianSr@TrueCompassLending.com

Lou Fifield 503-620-0935 LFifield@TrueCompassLending.com

Or 1-888-432-6101

Dear Homeowner,

Everyday the cost of living goes up. Fuel prices are through the roof and the cost of consumer goods has increased. Prescription drug prices and medical care costs are astronomical and yet Medicare and Medicaid funds are shrinking.

However, there is one government sponsored program in effect and working for millions of senior citizens; the reverse mortgage. The Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) allows seniors to tap into their one greatest single asset; the equity they have in their homes. This helps seniors maintain a truly dignified style of living. By using the HECM program, you can access funds without giving up your home. You can pay off existing loans, do home improvements, cover the cost of home health care or transportation, enjoy a vacation, help grandkids with college tuition, or just pay the grocery and utilities bills without wiping out the checking account. Many seniors who do not need the additional funds use a reverse mortgage as a tool in their estate planning.

The reverse mortgage business had a bad reputation in the past, but strict government regulations and the influence of the AARP has made the reverse mortgage a fantastic tool that has helped millions of American seniors. We are required to provide counseling, through an independent third party, like the AARP, to all borrowers before your loan is completed. We recommend that you include all interested parties; including heirs, or financial advisors.

HECM loans are easy to qualify for with: no credit and no income requirements. You must be over 62 years of age, have a valid SSN, have photo ID, live in the property as the primary residence and maintain the insurance, taxes and physical property. There are no out of pocket expenses for the borrower all costs can be paid from escrow. Then the best part of this program: as long as the borrower lives in the home they never make any payments and a reverse mortgage does not affect your Medicare or Social Security benefits.

Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? To find out more call or e-mail us today.

Please feel free to contact us even if you just have questions.

Thank you,

Lou Fifield LFifield@TrueCompassLending.com

Brian Pierce Brian@TrueCompassLending.com

Toll Free 888.432.6101 888 HECM.101

TrueCompass Lending Corp

8215 SW Tualatin-Sherwood Road, Ste 200-35, Tualatin, OR 97062

1.) Counseling changes. All files will be required to have signed counseling certificates prior to ordering appraisals and original counseling certificates prior to funding. In addition, important to note that all counseling certificates must be signed by the borrowers and dated the same date as the counselors dated signature

2.) Many of you have heard that the FHA Modernization Bill has passed the Senate Banking committee and will be debated on and votes on in the very near future. There will be a number of changes that will take place when this Bill is finalized and passed into law. Some of if not all of the following will probably take place

a. FHA County Lending Limits raised to 417,000 nationwide

b. HECM funding limits abolished

c. HECM for purchase program introduced

d. Origination fees capped at 1.5%

3.) The infamous Fixed Rate HECM is moving forward. Financial Freedom has recently joined the bandwagon, but the product itself still has a lot of work that needs to be done before we all start selling them. I will let you know as there is progress.

4.) The HECM 100 program is not going away. Although many lenders have pulled the plug on this program, there are still a small amount still offering them and we are guaranteed to have the product through the end of the year. I don’t see this going away altogether till long after that, if it goes away at all

5.) The new LIBOR based HECM will be rearing its head in the next few weeks. Right now there is no lender offering them, but we have the inside track with a few lenders to test drive them when they are available. I will let you know as this unfolds.

That’s all the news that’s new and interesting.

Product Innovation Creates New Challenges

 By Atare E. Agbamu, CRMS

Reprinted with permission from the NRMLA

It wasn’t long ago that consumers had three reverse mortgage products to choose from: the FHA HECM, the Fannie Mae Home Keeper, and The Financial Freedom Cash Account. Now Seattle Mortgage Company, Generation Mortgage Company, Countrywide Home Loans, Virtualbank and Sun West Mortgage Company have all introduced competing Programs, and later this year, BNY Mortgage Company and Vertical Lend (dba Lender Lead Solutions) will be following suit. In addition to these private sector programs, new multiple-margin HECM products have been introduced, as well as a fixed rate option by BNY Mortgage. All these developments are good for customers and healthy for originators. But there is another, more complicated, side to this explosion of choice that bears greater scrutiny. To discuss these issues, NRMLA put

Together a panel of industry leaders at our recent Western Regional Conference in Newport Beach, CA. Moderated by NRMLA’s General Counsel, James Brodsky, the panel featured Sarah Hulbert of BNY Mortgage (Renton, Wash.), Pamela Henderson of

Countrywide Home Loans (West Hills, Calif.), Jeff Lewis of Generation Mortgage Company (Atlanta, GA), Bart Johnson of Financial Freedom (Irvine, Calif.), and Erik

Anderson of Seattle Mortgage Company (Seattle, WA) The following article is based on comments Made during a Q&A with audience members.

SIMPLIFY , SIMPLIFY , SIMPLIFY

Some in the audience expressed concern that these generally positive developments could come at a significant price—that is, greater complexity for customers and loan officers.

Sarah Hulbert agreed that product innovation adds a distinct layer of complexity, and that keeping abreast of new products, new features in existing products, and simplifying them for customers will become “absolutely critical” for loan officers. Bart Johnson declared that complexity can and will come. He invited the audience to imagine a Reverse mortgage world with 150 products, including many proprietary programs. “No single salesperson in any company can pretend to explain every product,” he told audience participants. “So it looks very much like the forward industry, where you have brokers that pick the best from each of several lenders until they think they have a menu that represents all needs. That’s what they show. That’s where we are going to end up.

There is no way any single company is going to be able to explain the full breath of what exists here.” Pamala Henderson added that third-party counseling and education can help breakdown product complexity for customers.

TRANSITION JUMBO REVERSE WITH NO UPFRONT COSTS

Hulbert indicated there is some talk about developing proprietary loans with zero closing

Cost options that could be used to help refinance customers into better products.

“If you have a borrower who is in a reverse mortgage and another plan becomes available, and there are no upfront costs for moving into that plan, that’s a pretty easy transition,” said Hulbert. Brodsky quipped that we’re not talking about a “free lunch” and said the forward marketplace struggles with these issues too. “That’s why I think a

Refinance may be an analogy here,” he added.

SUBORDINATE LOANS

The industry leaders were asked if they are planning to add subordinated loan products to “fill the gap if there isn’t enough money to pay off an existing loan.” Jeff Lewis said such a product may be possible if the capacity of the first mortgage is curtailed. “If you’ve got a first mortgage that is going to take up all the borrowing capacity, then no (we can’t

Offer subordinated financing),” he said, “but if you somehow limit the capacity of the first, then you can have a second. But as of now, no one has introduced a first that has a limited capacity.” Brodsky said subordinate financing presents “some statutory issues” on the FHA side. (For more information, please refer to FHA Mortgagee Letter 2006-20, which can be downloaded from Nrmlaonline.org.)

Evolution of Reverse Mortgage

Market Bringing New Opportunities

By Atare E. Agbamu, CRMS and Darryl Hicks

Reprinted with permission from NRMLA

In just the past five months (January thru May 2007), the reverse mortgage business has witnessed a rapid evolution not seen in over 17 years of existence. The reverse mortgage industry is finally beginning to mirror the traditional “forward” mortgage market, as more lenders have launched a wider variety of products and pricing options designed to fit the needs of our Senior customers. The years of slow growth (1990-2002) led to a period of rapid growth (2003-2006), which created the ‘critical mass’ necessary to reach the point

We’re at now. Whereas the entire industry funded a total of only 14,000 loans in 2002, just under 90,000 loans were funded in calendar year 2006. No one was particularly interested in our industry or product at low volume levels, but the recent attainment of ‘critical mass’ has created a whole new level of interest and activity. Much of the growth can be attributed to Financial Freedom’s decision in 2003 to expand its wholesale operation from roughly 55 percent to 80 percent of its total business, thus paving a way for many lenders and brokers to enter the business. Other market drivers included

Wells Fargo, which built volume and distribution through its own retail branch

system, and Seattle Mortgage Company, which expanded its wholesale business.

(Note: Seattle Mortgage’s reverse mortgage operation was acquired by Bank of

America.)

The pricing wars that we’ve seen of late started last year when Financial

Freedom (and Lehman Brothers) reduced the margin on its “jumbo” Cash Account

Products to compete more effectively against the FHA HECM in the mid-size

Home market ($450,000-$550,000).A second major development occurred when

Financial Freedom and Seattle Mortgage Company, with the ‘critical mass’ described above, created an auction on Wall Street that recognized (for the first Time) the true asset value of the traditional HECM 150 margin product.Once these companies started securitizing HECM loans, Ginnie Mae woke a few more people up on Wall Street when it announced plans in the fall to develop a platform to expand the secondary market

For reverse mortgages.All these factors contributed toward what we’re seeing now. But that was just the beginning. It was right around the time of NRMLA’s 2006 Annual Meeting last September that Seattle Mortgage introduced the first, new private sector reverse mortgage In over six years, The Independence Plan. Since Then, Countrywide Home Loans, Generation Mortgage Company, Sun West Mortgage Corporation and

Virtualbank have all launched competing products. BNY Mortgage Company jarred the market earlier this year by cutting the investor margin on the HECM monthly adjustable product by 50 basis points, announcing the move would increase customer proceeds and lower overall costs of a reverse mortgage. Within weeks, Financial Freedom, Wells Fargo, and Seattle Mortgage followed suit by creating their own versions of the so-called HECM 100, as well as other multiple-margin HECM products designed to address a

Variety of customer needs. On March 5, BNY launched a fixed rate version of the HECM. Banco Popular, the dominant provider of Reverse mortgages in Puerto Rico, has

Offered a fixed-rate HECM for years, but BNY is now the first continental U.S.-based lender to do so. In response, the Department of Housing and Urban Development is working on a mortgagee letter that will help clarify how certain features, such as the note rate, principal Limit lock, and payment plan options should work for a fixed-rate HECM.

However, that has not deterred BNY and its correspondents from originating fixed-rate loans in the interim. To gain some additional perspectives on these major developments, NRMLA put together a panel of Industry leaders at our Western Regional Conference

In Newport Beach, CA this past February moderated by NRMLA’s General Counsel, Jim

Brodsky, the panel featured Sarah Hulbert of BNY Mortgage (Renton, Wash.), Pamala Henderson of Countrywide Home Loans (West Hills, Calif.), Jeff Lewis of Generation Mortgage Company (Atlanta,GA), Bart Johnson of Financial Freedom (Irvine, Calif.), and Erik Anderson of Seattle Mortgage Company (Seattle, Wash.)

DIFFERENT HECMS FOR DIFFERENT FOLKS

Brodsky expressed curiosity over the driving Forces behind these industry developments.

Our business, said Hulbert, is witnessing a Transition from a “one-size-fits-all HECM product to One that has an infinite number of variables” and That customers will have “real choices based on an Evaluation of their needs.” 

LONG-TERM PERSPECTIVE

Brodsky questioned whether the HECM will continue its dominance or whether it will be overtaken by the proprietary Programs coming to market. Johnson replied that the reinvention Of HECM, with multiple pricing and closing- Cost options, has secured its

Longevity, noting, “What we are seeing Now is a variety of HECM products; Therefore, I think it will be around for a Long time.” Hulbert agreed that the HECM has a “long-standing” future, but she advised that the industry has to make education of counselors and loan officers a key priority so that consumers are able to make decisions regarding which products meet their needs. Hecms and proprietary products can co-exist, Henderson added, but “we are going to have a lot more proprietary products, because one or two products Do not meet the needs of every senior out there.”

JUMBO PRODUCT ENGINEERING: IT’S ALL ABOUT PROCEEDS

Brodsky shifted the discussion to proprietary products. Brodsky wanted to know the criteria and the factors influencing product designers’ thinking. Just as forward product design is all about getting the borrower the right monthly payment, Lewis said the key factor in reverse product engineering is the amount of proceeds the borrower is eligible for. “The number one component in this marketplace is proceeds,” added Lewis. “We’re trying to come up with a responsible way to generate as much proceeds as possible.”

MARKET SEGMENTATION BY NEEDS

Still on proprietary product design, Brodsky asked the panel about “market segmentation.” Are lenders putting senior customers in neat little marketing baskets— younger seniors, older seniors, married, unmarried, high-net-worth, low-net-worth? He also asked if there are programs designed to “split the marketplace into subsets in ways that are not there now.” Hulbert said market segmentation is coming. “We are not necessarily going to be looking at age segments, but we are going to look at our clients’ needs. If you have a borrower who wants cash for a shorter term, wouldn’t it make sense to go with an option that lowers upfront costs versus one that lowers overall costs over a

longer life?” Whereas if you’ve got a customer who plans to stay in his home for a longer period of time, it might make sense to go for a product that has a lower rate, hence lower life of loan costs, she said.

THE ROAD AHEAD: A DIFFERENT CREDITMENTALITY

Brodsky steered the discussion to the future. He asked the group what a similar panel discussion would be like in three to 10 years. Anderson predicted that with more industry data available to inform decision-making by all industry participants, Wall Street would become more comfortable with reverse mortgages, and we could see more money flowing into the business. Henderson foresaw more Boomers with a “different credit mentality” that may be “more leveraged” than today’s customers. She added that their presence would inspire new products and force changes in existing product features. As a result, better pricing would be available for future products. Brodsky forecasted changes in the “legal environment” Commenting that the “set of laws” which has given the industry special cover would have to be updated. Lastly, Lewis envisions reverse mortgages as core life-cycle financial tools that people are more comfortable with, similar to traditional first and second mortgages. “They’ll be common,” added Lewis, “and they won’t require much education and the process of originating them will be a lot faster than it is today.”