Morning! This is MF Lending - the best mortgage newsletter you will read today. We’re the fool-proof way to serve up mortgage and real estate market knowledge without any of the guesswork. So you’ll look like the smartest agent in the room.

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

1. This 5-minute form will save your clients from 100+ scam calls 🥷

2. OpenDoor Buyers & Sellers Market Perception ⚖️

3. Builder Sentiment Rising: Why it Matters? 🐝

By the way, this article summarizing the month of April was the most clicked link in this newsletter last week, check it out if you are interested.

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Nuwave Rates Today 📈

This is a chart for the bond market sine May 8th. Remember - as this falls, rates increase. You can see how STEEP the drop-off is:

This 5-minute form will save your clients from 100+ scam calls 🥷

Tell me if you’ve gotten this call before -

“I applied with “X Lender” and now my phone is getting BLOWN up with banks calling me about buying a home…did “X Lender” sell my information somewhere?!”

It can be absolutely unbearable for clients - I have seen it firsthand. I have even heard horror stories of clients getting 50+ calls a day from lenders they do not want to speak to.

To be clear - mortgage companies do not sell your information. The information is being sold by the credit bureaus (Equifax, TransUnion, & Experian).

When your credit gets pulled (which is required for preapproval) the credit bureaus take your personal information (your phone number, name, address, etc.), and sell them to third parties like debt collectors, or in this case, other mortgage companies.

How can your clients avoid this?

Before your clients apply with a lender (…and they can apply with MF Lending here 😎…) -

Have them complete an Opt-Out Prescreen.

If they spend 5 minutes completing this form, it will opt them out of their information getting sold by the credit bureaus. This can save them from receiving, literally, hundreds of phone calls from unwanted lenders.

OpenDoor Market Perception Survey ⚖️

A new OpenDoor survey shows how both buyers and sellers perceive the current housing market.

Here are the key highlights:

• 93% of buyers think that homes on the market are overpriced - yet the market clearance (% of homes sold each day) is around 3% (extremely healthy)

• 43% of “postponing sellers” have more than 50% equity; “postponers” are less likely to own their home outright at only 20%.

  *This is more evidence of the “lock-in effect” we continue to talk about

• 77% of buyers were most worried about interest rates

• Surprisingly, only 34% of buyers were worried about “lack of inventory”

What a seller wants (I hope you sang what a girl wants in your head…) -

• 87% of sellers say the certainty of an offer not falling through is extremely important to them

• 74% of sellers want to close as fast as possible (*side note we are offering our referral partners and clients 2-week closes…)

• Only 58% of sellers say receiving a cash offer is important

Takeaways for Agents:

The visuals for agents littered through the survey can be great to set expectations for potential clients entering the market. Show them you empathize with their hesitation to list their home or to become a prospective buyer.

You can also use this survey to negotiate with the listing/buying agent better. If you can understand the wants of the other side and what they want you to bring to the table, you have a better chance of getting under contract - sometimes it’s not always about the price.

Builder Sentiment Report is positive for the first time in a year 🐝

Wtf is the “HMI Builder Sentiment Report”?

Basically, this measures the confidence of the top homebuilders in the country and provides an idea of the overall health and future direction of the housing market by tracking - current sales conditions, sales expectations, and buyer traffic.

Interestingly enough as buyer’s confidence drops to record lows (as detailed above) actual industry-leading homebuilders are growing in confidence for the housing market - rising the most in the South.

The index that rose the most was - “sales expectations in the next 6 months”.

What does this mean for the rest of this year?

If these sentiments remain accurate, it leads me to believe the homebuilders do not think inventory will explode onto the scene for the remainder of the year.

If the existing home inventory remains on the sidelines, the buyers in the market will have to turn to new builds.

Additionally - it indicates that the homebuilders do not think rates will drop substantially this year. We know the top reason for sellers not listing their homes is the “lock-in effect”. It is no wonder builders expect higher sales expectations in the next 6 months…they own over a third of the inventory.

The Cul-de-Sac

Thanks for reading - that is all we have for today 😎

Please forward this to your friends and colleagues if you found it valuable.

— Michael F DiLucchio