July 11, 2024
- Mid-Year Look Back
It might be hard to believe, but we are halfway through 2023! Here’s a recap of some of the highlights and accomplishments VanDyk celebrated in the first half of the year:
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- VanDyk Victories and Grateful Clients
You may have noticed some emails highlighting recent wins amongst our team. We are excited to continue celebrating your greatness and hope you will notify us the next time you have a victory!
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- Deal desk saves
- Lost an A/E and someone helped get it back
- CTC in 15 or less business days
- Happy clients, good news
Send details to productionsupport@vandykmortgage.com – you deserve to be celebrated!
Now for some shoutouts:
- This year at Accelerate, Total Expert’s annual conference, Adam Morolla was recognized as the best of the very best – winning the Journey Wizard Award. This award recognizes the work Adam has done to build out the best marketing in the industry to help our LOs grow their business. Let’s celebrate Adam on this well-deserved reward!
- We also wanted to pass along some praise for Sean Carter, sent by a grateful borrower:
- Welcome to VDM/VDM Virtual App: Story Time!
Some of you may recall June’s Iron Sharpens Iron call – we emailed a reminder with the incorrect Zoom link (oops!). But you can avoid headaches and delays by opening the VDM Virtual app, or by going to https://welcometovdm.vfairs.com/. Click Join a Meeting and you’ll never need a Zoom link again!
- Photo ID: UPDATE
Effective immediately, we will no longer be requesting a copy of any borrowers’ photo ID for underwriting. It remains a best practice to collect the photo ID for verification of legal names and data within the loan application as well as Halcyon orders.
Underwriting will continue to require verification of a borrower’s Permanent Residency or Non-Permanent status according to agency guidelines.
If it is necessary to verify a discrepancy in any of the data on our loan application and a photo ID is requested in this instance, the photo should be blacked out prior to submitting to the underwriter.
- Condo Appraisal Update
If the Condo Vault or InterIsland has a correction to the appraisal, the branch can make this revision request directly to ValueLink; however, please be sure that the documentation to support the revision is uploaded to the order / revision request.
- $2,500 Grant – Homebuyer Education Requirement
For the HomeReady/Home Possible $2,500 free money: homebuyer education is required to receive this grant. For borrowers who want to decline this money, a waiver form will be required to be signed prior to closing. The form will be available to print in Encompass, but can also be downloaded here (click the Download button to save).
- SSO Logins
To enhance our cyber security, we are currently transitioning our Encompass log-in procedures to Single Sign-On (SSO). This will allow users to sign into Encompass with a single button click instead of typing in a username and password. It will also limit password sharing between users. With this transition to SSO, we do not want job functions to be impacted. Thus, the IT team will work to adjust user access to ensure everyone can perform their job functions without needing to log in as someone else. Thank you for your cooperation during this transition.
- Bond Loans Update
We are excited to open-up Bond loan disclosures to our branches! We have scheduled 2 live training sessions to ensure you have the information you need to begin sending out your own packages beginning 8/1. Anyone needing additional training or assistance after 8/1 can reach out to Compliance@vandykmortgage.com.
- AVMs via Encompass
We are excited to announce that AVMs can now be ordered within Encompass for $8. This can be found under Services > Order Appraisal > ICE Automated Valuation Solutions.
When the order is completed, you’ll find the results in the “Appraisal” bucket. We have created an AVM bucket to move these over to: 2000 (Appraisal): AVM
The costs for your AVM can be passed on to the borrower at closing if the fee was disclosed (either as part of the initial LE or as a COC within 3 days)
When would you order an AVM?
- When conditioned for one by UW
- When you are brokering a loan and the lender accepts/requires one to be submitted
- To determine initial value of a property during the prequalification process
- AccountChek Disabled
Due to the PointServ option costing substantially less and covering more providers, we have disabled AccountChek access. If you are unable to obtain a VOA report with PointServ or run into issues, please reach out to Production Support – they can help you troubleshoot or obtain an AccountChek report as a last option.
- Loan Pipeline Automation
We are currently utilizing the “Connector” for several automated functions in our workflow. The most recent updates have been to Pipeline Management and ECOA Actions.
- Pipeline Management – For the Prospects Folder, any file that has not moved milestones in 180 days will be moved to Inactive Prospects. The LO will receive a reminder email 7 days prior to the move and can keep the file active if needed.
- ECOA Action – Per ECOA, we must issue our borrowers a Notice of Incompleteness (NOI) every 30 days until the loan is either Approved or Adversed (Withdrawn or Denied). Branches will receive an email 5 days before the ECOA action is due to trigger it (see below). If no action is taken by day 30, a generic NOI will be issued to the borrower. This process will repeat every 30 days, however at 60+ days, the ECOA action must be taken by the branch, otherwise the loan will be automatically withdrawn from active pipeline.
- New Pricing Engine: Coming Soon
We have made the decision to move on from Optimal Blue and move to Polly. Polly has been pushing to become the leader in the Pricing Engine space for the past 5+ years. They have a product that is superior to Optimal Blue and are utilizing a new integration with Encompass. Some key highlights with Polly:
- Pricing website that allows you to lock, extend, change products, and more from a mobile-friendly website – instead of the Encompass file.
- Ability to accurately price lead categories (branch vs self-generated)
- Ability to accurately price LO comp differences for Purchase vs Refi
- Capable of running Government and Conventional scenarios at the same time.
We are looking for a few volunteers to run at least a one-month Pilot to work out bugs. Please reach out to Brad and Zuzana in Secondary to request to be part of the pilot.
- Updated Mortgagee Clause
As of 7/1, we have a new mortgagee clause for insurance policies. Insurance order forms in Encompass have been updated to the following:
VanDyk Mortgage Corporation
ISAOA ATIMA
5510 Richfield Rd
Flint, MI 48506
We appreciate your help in ensuring that loans are reflecting this new mortgagee clause on all homeowners, flood, wind, and/or earthquake policies. The title insurance request form has been updated and reflects the Grand Rapids address. If you have questions or need assistance, please reach out to productionsupport@vandykmortgage.com
- Reminder: Soft Pulls in Floify
If you are ever in a situation where the soft pull liabilities don’t import from Floify into Encompass, reach out to PS to troubleshoot. Users should never manually change their Encompass log in to their soft pull credentials in the credit report section.
We are running into issues where users are obtaining the SP in Encompass (not Floify) and finding files missing the required written auth/ creating the incorrect credit buckets.
Your assistance is appreciated!
- One-Off eSign Docs: Update
We require the signature envelope page from Floify to accompany all one-off LOE/LOXs that are eSigned. Be sure to provide this additional page to UW – you will begin to see a condition from UW if it is missing from your bucket.
These certificates typically come into the eFolder as the last page of your eSigned doc. If you have any trouble locating the signature page, reach out to Production Support.
- Tax Transcripts Reminder
For loans that require transcripts, best practice is to place your order as soon as you have the signed 8821 back.
- Marketing Updates
We’d like to give a shout out to Sean Carter for winning last quarter’s Open House contest. Sean, we hope you’re enjoying your Nespresso! Want your chance to take home an awesome prize?
The New Marketing Challenge is Live!
Grow your influence locally with community events and stand a chance to win a Blackstone Grill! Want more details? Join our Teams chat to learn more: [Click Here]
New Feature Alert: Refinance In-Process Journey
A Refinance In-Process Journey has been added to your Total Expert accounts. Don’t forget to record your BombBomb videos to personalize updates for your refi clients throughout the process.
Discover the New Pipeline Views in Total Expert
Check out the new Pipeline Views in your contacts tab. These views offer a quick and easy way to sort your database and identify opportunities. Have ideas for additional pipeline views? Send us an email at: vandykmarketing@vandykmortgage.com
Agency Updates
Freddie Mac
Freddie Mac issued Bulletin 2024-9, making additional updates to their Rental Income guidelines.
- Purchase of Investment Property –
- Rental Income can now be used if the borrower rents their Primary Residence; formerly, the borrower had to own their Primary Residence.
- Rental Income can now be used if at least one borrower rents or owns their Primary Residence; this has changed from all borrowers.
- Purchase of Investment Property (or) Primary Residence being converted to an Investment Property –
- The full amount of net rental income may be used to qualify as long as at least one borrower has a minimum of one year investment property management experience; this has changed from all borrowers.
- Property owned as a Rental Property during the entire calendar year –
- The Net Income or Loss reported on Schedule E may be established based on the number of days in service based on Schedule E provided that the property was out of service for any time period during the prior year, and it is documented that there was an event such as renovation as supported by a reduced number of days in use and repair costs on Schedule E.
- Property purchased of converted to a Rental Property later in the prior calendar year –
- Rental Income may be based on the number of months after the purchase or conversation date; formerly, the net income or loss reported on Schedule E was required to be annualized (divided over 12 months).
- The Net Income or Loss reported on Schedule E may be established based on the number of days in service based on Schedule E provided that the property was out of service for any time period during the prior year, and it is documented that there was an event such as renovation as supported by a reduced number of days in use and repair costs on Schedule E.
Freddie Mac Condo Updates – Project Eligibility requirements have been updated to allow Condominium Projects to share amenities with other residential projects. Residential projects include residential Condominium Projects and PUDs.
USDA
As we anticipated based on the proposal, USDA has in fact increased the maximum PITI ratio to 34% for GUS Refer / Manual underwrites. With this update, there is no longer a ratio waiver permitted to exceed 34% on the front-end ratio, however, the waiver does remain in effect for the back-ratio to exceed 41% up to 44% for 680+ FICO scores where the borrower has at least one of the noted compensating factors. Here is the advance copy of the update: USDA Handbook 35555 Chapter 11: Ratio Analysis
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Upcoming Events and Reminders
Miss a training? You’ll find our monthly newscast and Iron Sharpens Iron recordings in the VDM Vault. Department-specific trainings are shared in their respective Seafile folders.
Don’t forget: you can find invitations on our shared calendar under What’s Happening at VDMC.net (all times posted on the What’s Happening calendar are EST)
- Deal Desk: Every Tuesday at 1:30pm Eastern
- VanDyk Mortgage Newscast: Thursday, July 11 at 1pm Eastern
- Iron Sharpens Iron: Tuesday, July 16 @ 11am Eastern
- Production Roundtable: Thursday, July 18 @ 1pm Eastern REMINDER: ATTENDANCE IS MANDATORY for all LPs and TCs/LOAs who perform TC functions.
- Bond Disclosure Training: Tuesday, July 23 @ 2pm Eastern and Thursday, July 25 @ 11am Eastern
Additional Training Opportunities
- Freddie Mac has published their training offerings available in July and August. Check out the calendar here and enroll today!
Updating Loan Status – Save Yourself an Email!
Did you know that branches can update a loan status on the Borrower Summary screen? No need to email to withdraw or close out a file!
Check out the how-to here and try it next time you have a file that needs updating.
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Best Practices: AskUW & Underwriting Scenarios
To provide the best service possible when it comes to your underwriting scenarios, it is a best practice to provide the loan number of the file that you are inquiring about. In addition, ensure that all documentation pertaining to the scenario is uploaded to the Encompass file – the underwriting managers do not have access to Floify.
Following these best practice will allow our AskUW team to provide a complete and accurate response (or request for additional information) so your loan file sails through underwriting without any issues. As a reminder, for income calculation help, please have the Prism worksheet completed prior to requesting assistance – as this helps us provide any training opportunity that may present itself.
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aiUW Updates: Enhanced Conditions
aiUW is constantly being updated with more specific conditions based on your loan program. Be on the lookout for programs-specific conditions for Vista Point loans, DPA programs, and more!
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Running DU and Credit Credentials
When you order DU, the credit credentials entered on the submission screen (pictured below) must match the credit report type.
If you are running DU on a soft pull, DU needs your soft pull credit username and password – if it’s a hard pull, it’ll require your hard pull username and password.
If you have more than one borrower pair, each borrower pair must have the same type of credit report – otherwise, DU will not run.
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VDMC: Closing Request Form Update
In case you didn’t notice, there’s a new box for Wind Insurance on the Closing Request:
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25 Points