CEO on the big issue behind NAR lawsuit

This is the advocacy angle VanFossen spoke about to MPA in wearing one of his many hats, this one as vice president of Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA), a national non-profit association of small and midsize community-based mortgage lenders with a mission of prompting mortgage programs, rules and regulations designed to treat the industry fairly.

But that’s not the only angle from which VanFossen was watching the case closely. He’s a stakeholder on other fronts, including in his role as CEO of Absolute Home Mortgage Corp., a New Jersey-based lender, and as CEO of financial technology provider Mortgage Automation Technologies.

First-time homebuyers took center stage in case

Ensconced in the full industry breadth, he suggested he had a warm spot for first-time homebuyers – a segment most affected by the commission-sharing plaintiffs successfully litigated against NAR, HomeServices of America and Keller Williams. Two other groups initially named in litigation – ReMax and Anywhere Real Estate (formerly Realogy), which is the parent company of Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Corcoran and Sotheby’s international Realty – settled out of court for a collective $140 million.

“I’ve been doing this for 20 years,” VanFossen said. “I build my career on first-time homebuyers. When I was a 20-year-old loan officer, the only person who would talk to me was a first-time buyer. And back then in 2005, I had an ample supply of 100% financing, first-time buyer subprime loans I could put them into.”

Times have certainly changed since then, he added: “Now, if we go work with that first-time buyer – think about a Gen Z first-time buyer – they already think housing is unobtainable because it’s overpriced. They already feel it’s hard to save money. So you take a first-time buyer that needs the leverage or even a low- to moderate-income or underserved buyer that now needs to leverage an FHA low-down-payment option, a VA 100% financing option, a seller concession financing closing costs. It’s not that they don’t want the buyer’s agent or see the value – they just can’t afford to. They can’t afford on a $250,000 house to have an extra $7,000 in closing costs – whether it’s financed or not – to be added to the transaction.”