Annual CAMB Show, Housing BIll, eMagic News

In the past week, I traveled to eMagic headquarters in Milwaukee for meetings, and then to the annual CAMB Convention in Sacramento. By the time I drove home yesterday afternoon, I felt quite deserving of the week of vacation I have coming up next week. Before I check out, however, I thought I'd recap both trips, and leave you with a good story I found online about the new housing bill's tighter restrictions on originators.

eMagic Meetings
Two or three times each year the eMagic sales managers (there are eight of us) travel to the home office to get updates on product development, share experiences, and participate in sales exercises of questionable usefulness (ha-ha, just kiddin' boss!). This time we had a get-together with all the other people that work hard at building the cool eMagic tools, and I was impressed. It takes a big room full of folks to make what just a few of us in the field get to tell you about, so please- give our stuff a try. You don't want to let 'em down, do you?

CAMB Show
The tradeshow was as expected- that is to say poorly attended compare to past years, with less exhibitors, and a sense of camaraderie amongst the industry 'survivors'. The highlight for me, however, was my participation on a panel discussion on technology. The other two panelists were from Ellie Mae and Calyx, both past employers of mine, and makers of the two traditional LOS's used by most third-party originators. The discussion ended up focusing on three areas where eMagic excels- cost, security, and the paperless office, so I felt we fared quite well. An attendee recorded the session and gave me a copy, so I'll have a quasi-transcript up here soon (after my vacation!).

Finally, for your reading pleasure, here is a story re-cap (and link to the full story) about the housing bill, and how it will mean increased scrutiny of originators. As long as the new regulations apply to retail as well as wholesale originators I'm okay with the changes, but I fear thatTPO's will continue to be unfairly singled out.

Housing Law Cracks Down on Loan Originators
Investment News (08/04/08); Morrissey, Janet

The housing bill that President Bush signed into law last week includes a provision that requires licensing and other strict standards for all loan originators, including background checks, fingerprinting, continuing-education courses and listing on a national registry. The new rules are long overdue, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association in Washington. "As house prices appreciated and mortgage originations jumped to record levels, a lot of people got into the business who didn't have a lot of experience with it or a lot of formal training," says Josh Denney, an associate vice president at the organization. Education and qualification will serve as barriers of entry for the industry, and the fingerprinting and tracking system will help prevent bad actors from moving to other states and committing fraud there, Denney adds.
http://www.investmentnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080804/REG/708271615