CEO on the big issue behind NAR lawsuit
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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.”
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