A company that has made a name for itself brokering portfolios of mortgage servicing rights said it will begin acquiring nonprime mortgages.
Since the beginning of this year, MountainView Management Co. has announced nine transactions where it represented the sellers of MSRs on $12.3 billion in loans.
Most of the MSRs MountainView has handled this year have been on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or Ginnie Mae loans.
But on Monday, the Denver-based company said it will begin buying loans to nonprime borrowers through its new Peak Program.
“The company is responding to demand in the origination market that is not being met by lenders who have significantly tightened underwriting requirements and are adversely affecting consumers who can in fact demonstrate the ability to repay their home loans,” the statement said.
The loans will be purchased on a correspondent basis from traditional and specialty lenders and held for investment in the MountainView Mortgage Opportunities Fund III.
The program includes 30-year fixed- and adjustable-rate mortgages to borrowers with FICO scores in the mid to low 600s. Bankruptcies or foreclosures that are at least 12 months old are acceptable.
Loan-to-value ratios can’t exceed 80 percent, and loan amounts can go as high as $2.5 million.
Borrowers can be corporations or foreign nationals and can own multiple investment properties.
“These borrowers will be prudently and responsibly underwritten and will meet all ability-to-repay guidelines,” MountainView Capital Holdings Managing Director and Head of Sales and Marketing Art Yeend said in the news release, “but our expanded underwriting criteria allows for multiple risk layering not acceptable to prime lenders
The program is expected to go live this month.
