[David] Thank you much, Matt. Appreciate it very much. Be sure to check out Matt’s website, MBSLive.net, for the up to nanosecond facts on what’s going on. It’s… ‘Cause commentary, and it’s also interesting, there’s an MBS Live chat feature in this website that is really interesting, where you start gaining, he’s got different leaders in there that are quoted, and just anyone there. There’s different threads. Th- even one called Off Topic. But it’s all really good. So the way I have it organized on here, you quickly see what’s happening, but also can get some commentary. The other feature that’s really nice is live news stream. So like he just published something, is watched the NBC’s full interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. There’s so many powerful tools that you can get. I’m looking for one solid place I could go to get all the news I need to, and I got to tell you, Matt’s crushing it with what he’s doing there. So be sure to sign up, and when you do sign up, put in LOL for Lickend on Letting to get an extended trial period where you don’t have to put in a credit card. And you should, because it’s worth it, and it’s very affordable. All right, let’s get into talking about this. Unfortunately, Bill Corbett isn’t here with us, but we certainly have a lot to talk about and very able to do so. Love Bill’s contributions. So wish you well, Bill, on what you’re dealing with there in Florida. Thanks for being here at a regular part of the podcast. Mr. Kittle, thank you for being here. All y’all for being here, as they say here in the South, all y’all. But thank you for being here. Let’s talk a little bit about what this latest we’re seeing rates get up to the highest levels we have in over a year. And we’re really seeing clear indications this isn’t changing. We’re gonna be continuing to move up or at least there’s the pressure, more upward potential of moving up. Love to get your thoughts.
[Kittle] I’ll give a perspective from TMC for a second, all right? Because the attitude there is still very strong. We’re gonna be 14 years old coming up this spring. We’ve had 12 conferences out of the 13 years, right? The first one didn’t go it wasn’t very well attended ’cause we were brand new. But we have the second-highest number of lenders coming, not individual people, but companies that we’ve had, and the highest was during when rates were manipulated low down at 2 or 3%. So the appetite to attend the conference, the appetite, the fact that people are still feeling good about where they are is still very high, at least inside TMC.
[David] And so- I think that the participation in your conference, the same thing with one of our sponsors it’s very much the same thing. People are attending conferences, and I can’t encourage them.
[Kittle] If you got good content and you have good speakers people are gonna come. Yeah. And we got the same the high percentage. We just brought on two more preferred partners in the last week that- Yeah … pay substantially to be a member of the mortgage Mortgage Collaborative. The hunger for being around quality lenders with quality content is there, and when you’ve got a high percentage of your lenders attending the conference- Yeah … because some conference attendance are down, quite frankly. Some are. And spending the money to come, that’s a good sign. Yeah.
[David] Lenders One having the same thing. That’s one of our sponsors, give them a shout-out. Lenders One is also seeing good attendance at these conferences, especially from IMBs, so which is that’s not a statement against the MBA. The MBA’s doing their job as they should, but some of these independent it’s smaller and more intimate when you’re going to these things. That’s very, it’s very encouraging to see what’s going on. Alice, when you listen to Scott and we listen to Matt talk about the Treasury buyback program and how disappointing it is, I found that a bit surprising because I think once Treasury steps in to do something, it would move the needle. I’m sorting that out right now. I’d love to get you, your thought processes. When you have the markets weighing in and almost countering what Scott Bessent’s trying to do as the Treasury Secretary by the Treasury buyback is there anything that you read into that, that you would care to comment on?
[Alice] For me, I was never personally in secondary, so what I’ve done is I’ve spent a lot of time listening to people. I’ve been in loan delivery and all the processes around them and I’ve always been fascinated by in listening to Bill, listening to Les and listening to David Kittle here over the last several weeks, w- this isn’t a surprise, right? When you read up on doing the buybacks, that’s not a surprise, and it’s something that they should have known, that they can’t control the market. The market is its own animal. Investors will decide what is going on. And to David’s point, he mentioned, I think the key statement he said is, rates were manipulated to be low all those years in order to sustain what was going on in the economy. But these buybacks are not the same as that. So I go back to what David Kittle brought up about going to conferences. Don’t let rates be your focus. Dave, where is the TMC conference? Austin, Texas. And it’s, is it coming up? What’s the date? What are the dates? 19th. Three weeks. Thank… in three weeks. This month, yeah. And then MBA has theirs somewhere in October usually. So this is conference season to get out and go focus on something else, because the government isn’t gonna fix this that way. There, we’ve, like we’ve talked about, it’s housing supply. That’s the bigger focus. Yep.
[Kittle] Again I’ll pile on. Alice is right. There’s really, again, no housing policy with this administration. And I hate to say it, but there isn’t, and the focus isn’t on, on housing at all they got… Certainly, in their defense, they certainly have some significant other issues that they’re trying to deal with.
[David] What they’re trying to do fundamentally I agree with, and the it’s gonna settle things down eventually globally, and the global markets are getting a little out of hand. It does, but he’s got a HUD secretary, and people with Ginnie Mae and everything else. There’s things we’ve talked about it numerous times that they could be doing that- Oh, yeah. We’re we’ve been disappointed in the housing policy. I’m not dis- saying anything to the contrary. I agree. We’ve been very disappointed. And Pulte is a favorite of Trump’s. It’s because he’s been added and given more responsibility, not less. But his effectiveness there, I know. That’s exactly the way it is. Anyway, the non-verbal that Alice does is sometimes so perfect. All right. Jackson Hole’s c- the conference w- concluded there. Again, we are seeing just some… it’s interesting watching Warsh talk, and as he talks, it is definitely, there’s a new sheriff in town there, and he’s signaling less and less, and the markets are gonna try to anticipate. We can just stay tuned. Folks, we’re in for higher rates most likely, very likely. If we can keep at these levels, great. This market’s good. But it is bringing about a lot of consolidation. I g- I’m getting regular phone calls saying, “Dave, there’s a number of companies that are getting tired. They’re getting fatigued, and they’re wanting to roll up.” And so there is opportunities out there. It’s who you choose to do a roll-up with. Rolling up under somebody, there’s some great companies. Alice worked for one for a number of years. She just retired out from Union Home. They’re picking up a lot of them. There’s a number of others, leaders out there picking up more and more growth. But there’s, it’s how it’s being done is so important. The most important thing is to consider culture. So we could talk a lot about, we’ll do some special podcasts on that separate from this general overview of the market podcast. But thanks everyone for your comments.