![\"garrettwatts\"](\"http:\/\/mortgagenewsclips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/garrettwatts10.jpg\" "\\"garrettwatts\\"")
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To Our Clients, Colleagues and Friends,<\/p>\n
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- We have a client looking for someone to run their rate lock desk.\u00a0 This is a great company located in the heart of Beverly Hills , and we\u2019re impressed with their management and their business model.\u00a0 Please\u00a0 send resumes to Joe Garrett (jgarrett@GarrettWatts.com<\/a>). This is a great job for the right person.<\/li>\n
- We got some good captions for this photo, and the best ones were: (1) from Mike Olden up in Seattle .\u00a0 He had Geithner thinking \u201cWhy did I let him talk me into taking all those damn Big East teams in my bracket?\u201d And (2) from Susan King \u201cHow did I ever\u00a0 get mixed up in this disaster?\u201d
\n![\"j5\"](\"http:\/\/mortgagenewsclips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/j5_thumb5.jpg\" "\\"j5\\"")
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\nOur caption for what the President<\/em> is thinking: \u201cIf things don\u2019t work out, I\u2019ll just blame it all on the guy on my right.\u201d<\/li>\n- TARP dividend payments to the government were due February 15, and it looks like about 75 institutions missed their quarterly payments.\u00a0 Not good.\u00a0 Saigon National Bank in the L.A. area has now missed all five payments. In fact, once you miss six of them, the guy on the left in the photo gets to appoint two people to your Board.<\/li>\n
- We\u2019ve now successfully assisted nine banks in getting into the Warehouse Lending business.\u00a0 What\u2019s so gratifying is that with banks having a hard time finding good loans to make, these WH lines generate a good yield with very good collateral.\u00a0 And yes, WH lending is really asset-based lending, but you typically have very strong mortgage banking companies guaranteeing the lines. Almost all mortgage companies made tons of money last year, and most are flush with cash.<\/li>\n
- And a special note of congratulations to Joe Adams, Steve Haynes and Erin Burr at First Security Bank up near Seattle .\u00a0 Of all the banks we helped set up Warehouse Lending operations, First Security made it happen quicker than anyone. They called us all the time the first 3-4 weeks, and we liked it.\u00a0 It meant they not only wanted to get it up and running quickly, but more importantly, that they didn\u2019t want to miss anything, however minute. Way to go, Steve, Joe and Erin and the rest of your team.<\/li>\n
- If Erin Burr ever wants to get out of commercial banking and warehouse lending, we\u2018d love to see her go back to graduate school in American history.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t it be cool if she taught early American history, with a specialty in the life and times of Aaron Burr? And what if a rival college had a professor of early American history named Alex Hamilton, as in Alexander Hamilton?\u00a0 Can\u2019t you just see the two them having a debate? Erin Burr v. Alexander Hamilton. Just like the old days.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- Does anyone remember actor Bud Cort, who played the young fellow in the 1970 cult classic Harold and Maude<\/em>?\u00a0 Today he turns 62.\u00a0 We never quite got it, but it was one of those movies where people would tell you they\u2019d seen it 15 times and that it was the most brilliant movie ever made.
\n![\"j4\"](\"http:\/\/mortgagenewsclips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/j4_thumb7.jpg\" "\\"j4\\"")
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- Speaking of movies, don\u2019t be in too big a rush to see Crazy Heart<\/em>. Jeff Bridges won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in this movie, but the full range of his \u201cacting\u201d was acting like a drunken slob the first 110 minutes and then, post-rehab, acting like a sober slob for the last 5 minutes. The role he played didn\u2019t give the slightest hint as to why Maggie Gyllenhaal<\/a> was so attracted to him.\u00a0 A better actor could have given a hint at what she might have seen in him, but there was none of that.\u00a0 He would have clearly deserved an Oscar if they had one for Best Actor Playing a Drunk<\/em>, but they didn\u2019t have that category this year.
\n![\"j3\"](\"http:\/\/mortgagenewsclips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/j3_thumb7.jpg\" "\\"j3\\"")
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- Some of you have wondered about buying a bank, and in answer to some questions we\u2019ve gotten, yes, a bank can be an S-Corp.\u00a0 In fact, whenever we see a small bank with a really high ROA, it almost always turns out to be an S-Corp., since they don\u2019t pay taxes.\u00a0 While we\u2019re on the topic, we think that 99% of mortgage bankers don\u2019t have the temperament it takes to own a bank, but if you\u2019re in that 1%, it could make sense.\u00a0 The piece we\u2019ve attached gives some good reasons to do so, along with a concise description of who regulates which types of banks.<\/a><\/li>\n
- One big reason to own a bank is the lower cost of funds.\u00a0 Take last year\u2019s income statement and adjust it to show that your cost of funds was 2.0% instead of whatever you paid on your warehouse line. Assuming you did $500 million last year and that your WH lines were at 5%, that 3% differential would have earned you a whole<\/em> lot of money.\u00a0 And that\u2019s not counting the fees. Go ahead and do the math.\u00a0 This is a really<\/em> simplistic example and doesn\u2019t consider all sorts of other issues, but you get the point.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- Here\u2019s good place to see what banks have received enforcement actions from their regulator<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 One of these days, instead of publishing a list of banks with regulatory orders, maybe it will be easier to simply publish a list of banks without<\/em> them. It would be a shorter list.<\/li>\n
- Remember Washington State QB Ryan Leaf?\u00a0 Leaf averaged 330 passing yards per game in his junior year, was runner-up for the Heisman Trophy, and was #2 in the NFL draft. His pro career went nowhere, and he had a truly horrible career passing rating of 50.1 in his 25 games. His career and his life spun out of control, and last week this one-time can\u2019t-miss<\/em> pleaded guilty to drug and burglary charges. Sad.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n
- We saw too many companies the past year which back up their data on servers located in the same building as the company headquarters. People, it should be backed up at a site at least 50 miles away.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t understand, just think of the World Trade Towers on 9\/11. Back up at a far away site.<\/li>\n
- On this day in history, March 30, 1981, Ronald Reagan was shot in an assassination attempt by a nut who thought he\u2019d impress Jodie Foster.\u00a0 Reagan was shot less than three months into his Presidency, and it was his good humor about being shot that helped the American public decide that they really liked him. Just as the surgeons got started, he turned to them with a big smile and said, \u201cBoys, I hope you\u2019re all Republicans.\u201d\u00a0
\nAfter four years of double-digit inflation and high unemployment, plus the humiliation in Iran ,\u00a0 the new President seemed larger than life and filled with humor and optimism. His first post-hospital appearance before Congress displayed a bi-partisan good feeling that hasn\u2019t been seen since.
\n![\"j2\"](\"http:\/\/mortgagenewsclips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/j2_thumb8.jpg\" "\\"j2\\"")
<\/a><\/li>\n- From a Wall Street Journal editorial: \u201cThere\u2019s still no indication it has occurred to the Administration that less exuberant free-handedness over the past five years might have built the basis for sounder, more sustainable economic growth.\u201d Hard to really disagree with this, right?\u00a0 Well, we opened an old book and found an editorial from the WSJ, and this is from that editorial. The date?\u00a0 September 12, 1966.\u00a0 The administration they were criticizing was Kennedy-Johnson, and the five years were 1961, when Kennedy was inaugurated, through 1966 when Johnson was President.\u00a0 As the French say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.\u00a0 La plus ca change, la plus c\u2019est la meme chose.
\n<\/em><\/li>\n- Bartenders used to ask \u201cWhat\u2019s your poison\u201d and to answer that question, here\u2019s what Americans drank last year broken down by market share.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Remember Washington State QB Ryan Leaf?\u00a0 Leaf averaged 330 passing yards per game in his junior year, was runner-up for the Heisman Trophy, and was #2 in the NFL draft. His pro career went nowhere, and he had a truly horrible career passing rating of 50.1 in his 25 games. His career and his life spun out of control, and last week this one-time can\u2019t-miss<\/em> pleaded guilty to drug and burglary charges. Sad.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n
- One big reason to own a bank is the lower cost of funds.\u00a0 Take last year\u2019s income statement and adjust it to show that your cost of funds was 2.0% instead of whatever you paid on your warehouse line. Assuming you did $500 million last year and that your WH lines were at 5%, that 3% differential would have earned you a whole<\/em> lot of money.\u00a0 And that\u2019s not counting the fees. Go ahead and do the math.\u00a0 This is a really<\/em> simplistic example and doesn\u2019t consider all sorts of other issues, but you get the point.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Some of you have wondered about buying a bank, and in answer to some questions we\u2019ve gotten, yes, a bank can be an S-Corp.\u00a0 In fact, whenever we see a small bank with a really high ROA, it almost always turns out to be an S-Corp., since they don\u2019t pay taxes.\u00a0 While we\u2019re on the topic, we think that 99% of mortgage bankers don\u2019t have the temperament it takes to own a bank, but if you\u2019re in that 1%, it could make sense.\u00a0 The piece we\u2019ve attached gives some good reasons to do so, along with a concise description of who regulates which types of banks.<\/a><\/li>\n
- Speaking of movies, don\u2019t be in too big a rush to see Crazy Heart<\/em>. Jeff Bridges won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in this movie, but the full range of his \u201cacting\u201d was acting like a drunken slob the first 110 minutes and then, post-rehab, acting like a sober slob for the last 5 minutes. The role he played didn\u2019t give the slightest hint as to why Maggie Gyllenhaal<\/a> was so attracted to him.\u00a0 A better actor could have given a hint at what she might have seen in him, but there was none of that.\u00a0 He would have clearly deserved an Oscar if they had one for Best Actor Playing a Drunk<\/em>, but they didn\u2019t have that category this year.
- We got some good captions for this photo, and the best ones were: (1) from Mike Olden up in Seattle .\u00a0 He had Geithner thinking \u201cWhy did I let him talk me into taking all those damn Big East teams in my bracket?\u201d And (2) from Susan King \u201cHow did I ever\u00a0 get mixed up in this disaster?\u201d
![\"j1\"](\"http:\/\/mortgagenewsclips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/j1_thumb9.jpg\" "\\"j1\\"")
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