A few questions regarding Flagstar Bank

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danieljmoletz66

3 Posts

Posted - 05/12/2008 : 4:13:48 PM

I know a little about FS(very little). Overall FS seems to have a good rating w/in the mtg industry. However, I know Moody's downgraded FS back on 1-30-08 (due to losing deposit accounts). Anyone know they're current Moody's rating? Are they worth signing up with (for brokering loans)? Seems as though a lot of the same items are being requested for their broker signup package (these have already been submitted btw).

Some of these issues may be related to how the required info is being requested from my staff. Not sure if there's a possible mix up on their end, or if this is not a good sign? Hoping it's not the later.

Thanks!

P.S. A few more questions:

1). How is their pricing? Is it awesome, competitvine, or sop so? What about rate buy downs (an available borrower option)?
2). What are they're turn times like?
3). How are they on jumbo loans (in high cost areas) such as Southern California (still doing/ pricing)?
4). Do their underwriters tend to overstip? I am thinking of utilizing them primarily for FHA lending. Presuming their UWs are DE?
5). Do they have a lot of loan kicks? We (LOs and processors) plan on complying with the FHA requirements and guidelines. There's always a concern about this given current industry conditions.
7). Does FS ever tend to hold up loan funding or hold any portion of broker fees?

Thanks again!

MBG

257 Posts

Posted - 05/12/2008 : 4:50:14 PM

I am interested, also. Good post.

bbost

34 Posts

Posted - 05/12/2008 : 5:29:24 PM

1) Pricing is competative
2) Turn around times like everyone else but they are posted on the web page to you can check
3) No idea on Jumbo's, don't have to many in the Northeast
4) Stips are what on the DU approval
5) No idea on FHA, don't do them
6) If you get Final approval, clear to close, you get the funds when needed. I've never had BF held back.

Overall, I have been using them for 10 years and have never had a problem with them. But I have a great rep who can get things done. I like the fact that everything can be done online. You even pull your own docs (takes about 5 minutes to do)

khoiey

1583 Posts

Posted - 05/12/2008 : 5:38:38 PM

I thought Flagstar rates are just mediocre?

quote:
Originally posted by bbost

1) Pricing is competative
2) Turn around times like everyone else but they are posted on the web page to you can check
3) No idea on Jumbo's, don't have to many in the Northeast
4) Stips are what on the DU approval
5) No idea on FHA, don't do them
6) If you get Final approval, clear to close, you get the funds when needed. I've never had BF held back.

Overall, I have been using them for 10 years and have never had a problem with them. But I have a great rep who can get things done. I like the fact that everything can be done online. You even pull your own docs (takes about 5 minutes to do)

financebiz

670 Posts

Posted - 05/12/2008 : 7:08:48 PM

Taylor, Bean & Whitaker have better rates, but FSB has a better paperless system.

ehm3

979 Posts

Posted - 05/13/2008 : 06:25:32 AM

quote:
Originally posted by danieljmoletz66

I know a little about FS(very little). Overall FS seems to have a good rating w/in the mtg industry. However, I know Moody's downgraded FS back on 1-30-08 (due to losing deposit accounts). Anyone know they're current Moody's rating? Are they worth signing up with (for brokering loans)? Seems as though a lot of the same items are being requested for their broker signup package (these have already been submitted btw).

Some of these issues may be related to how the required info is being requested from my staff. Not sure if there's a possible mix up on their end, or if this is not a good sign? Hoping it's not the later.

Thanks!

P.S. A few more questions:

1). How is their pricing? Is it awesome, competitvine, or sop so? What about rate buy downs (an available borrower option)?
2). What are they're turn times like?
3). How are they on jumbo loans (in high cost areas) such as Southern California (still doing/ pricing)?
4). Do their underwriters tend to overstip? I am thinking of utilizing them primarily for FHA lending. Presuming their UWs are DE?
5). Do they have a lot of loan kicks? We (LOs and processors) plan on complying with the FHA requirements and guidelines. There's always a concern about this given current industry conditions.
7). Does FS ever tend to hold up loan funding or hold any portion of broker fees?

Thanks again!

I've worked with Flag for about 6-7 years now, as a broker, correspondent and retail. I would highly recommend them for many reasons, they are one of the best if not the best as far as FHA, they have by far the best turntimes for conventional, and the paperless UW, online lock, and online doc draws are second to none. You can literally draw and send the docs within minutes of CTC, and order the funding wire almost immediately thereafter. As far as ratings, I'm not sure about Moody's but Flag has a very strong portfolio and was recently received a very prestigious award from Freddie Mac for outstanding loan quality and servicing. They never got mixed up in Option Arms or subprime and Alt A, what little they did was tightly regulated. They are tough on appraisals and overall they will find irregularities in files so beware. They are VERY tough on fraud and have a comprehensive set of checks and balances in place to verify 3rd party info.

to address your other questions:

1) Rates are fair. Not great but competitive. FHA rates right now are high because they have increased FHA biz roughly tenfold over the past few months.

2) Turntimes: conventional are sick, mere hours. FHA should be down to about 7 days shortly, as of yesterday it was at 13 for new subs and 4-5 for conditions. They have hired about 100 new UW and UW assistants in the last month with teh goal of getting times down to 24 hours.

3) Jumbo is a very weak area IMHO. Flag is good at FHA and Conforming but once they get outside the box they aren't that good.

4) Not really. The FHA UW can be a bit tedious because they have been hiring like mad so you have a ton of new UWs, but the supervisors are great so it is pretty easy to get ridiculous stips overruled. Conv UW has always been solid. Also they are awesome at FHA manual if you know how to present a good file, and the head of FHA UW is quite possibly the most knowledgeable FHA mind in the business.

5) Not sure what you mean by that

6) (your 7) No they never hold up funds that I have seen, in fact you control most of it....almost too much, because if you EFF up they will come back and charge you a fee. What does happen is E&O, if you miss something during the paperless close and do not correct it quickly they will take it out of your YSP on future loans. Should not be a problem, basically the back-end E&O can be a hassle but its better than front end hassles that hold up closings. If you do your paperwork diligently it should never be an issue.

let me know any other Q's, or if you would like to speak with a rep, one of my best friends in a wholesale rep in the midwest. I think he has a "visitor" password for the rate sheets too.

aftc

28 Posts

Posted - 05/13/2008 : 06:40:01 AM

From the title end, I say Flagstar is worth doing business with. Packages are a reasonable size and fundings are easy and on time.

ccorica

183 Posts

Posted - 05/13/2008 : 06:42:41 AM

Flagstars underwriting does a great job. web site simple to use. You see your stip sheet, fax it in, next day it is gone off the sheet. Avoids any confusion. Rates are ok, homecomings seems to beat them more times then not. I do still use them because of how smoothe UW works.

FLProcessor

429 Posts

Posted - 05/13/2008 : 07:08:12 AM

I can say that if I could get by with a .3 average less YSP (against other lenders, not the top three such as PFG which would be a bit higher delta) then I would use Flagstar exclusively. Great company, IMHO.

hmorales007

227 Posts

Posted - 05/13/2008 : 07:13:53 AM

They suck. The company has no integrity. Blew up many a loan I closed elsewhere and their pricing can almost always be beat. Got a clean file send it to Provident - faster turn time, better rates, period. Not to say that Flagstar will take anything with hair on it.

quote:
Originally posted by ccorica

Flagstars underwriting does a great job. web site simple to use. You see your stip sheet, fax it in, next day it is gone off the sheet. Avoids any confusion. Rates are ok, homecomings seems to beat them more times then not. I do still use them because of how smoothe UW works.

lukeallison

1409 Posts

Posted - 05/13/2008 : 08:46:22 AM

Okay, I guess I'm gonna have to respond to this one. Let me say that prior to coming to work here I was with a brokerage and we pretty much had 2 conforming lenders we used for the majority of our files - Countrywide and Flagstar. Whenever I was quoting rates I would always use countrywide because they always seemed to have a slightly better rate and a better yield a the same rate. However, since I always had to lock the loan when I sent it into UW, I was stuck. Since their turn times were crap and they would condition my file to death I ended up most of the time having to extend my lock and get right back to the same rate I could have started with Flagstar.

I know I'm a tad biased here, but the paperless system is the best I have seen as far as UW goes and I love the level of control that the system gives the user. Some people don't like it because they like having the AE do all their work and Flagstar is not really set up like that but I'm a fan.

By the way, working retail I get many products not available wholesale, like Lot loans, HELOCS and 2nds. Plus our FHAs go down to 550 (I think wholesale is 580). So in answer to the question before:

1) Pricing = fair.
2) Turn Times - Long for FHA but very quick on Conventional.
3) I think we have great pricing on Jumbos but I don't shop the market.
4) I've seen a couple of stips that didn't make sense but for the most part, they are common sense. Plus Flagstar has a policy that if an UW forgets to stip for something, they cannot go back and add it as a condition.
5) You mean price adjustments? No more than anyone else.
6) I've not seen funding ever held up for anything. We forward the funds at closing so the funds tend to come in just after the HUDs are agreed upon.

Good Luck.

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