Like most people about to take over the top post at a major trade association, Robert Armbruster had some trepidations about becoming the new president of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers. After all, it's a big responsibility to represent your industry, not just in the Nation's Capitol but also in the nation's capitals.

Fortunately, Armbruster's anxiety was largely laid to rest three months ago when Sec. Alphonso Jackson of the Department of Housing and Urban Development withdrew a highly controversial plan by his predecessor, Mel Martinez, to rewrite the Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act.

The day was March 22, and it "will be a day long remembered" by both him and his fellow loan brokers, the Lawrenceville, Ga., broker said last week at the NAMB's annual convention in Salt Lake City, where he took over the reigns of the now 24,000-member organization from Kansan A.W. Pickel III.

For brokers, he said, the event marked "the biggest political victory in our history." And for him personally, it was as though "two tons of pressure was lifted from my shoulders."

Indeed, other than the day he married his wife Annette 38 years ago, March 22 was "probably the biggest day in my life," he said.

Armbruster is still a little nervous about taking on such a demanding post. But now, at least, the pressure of having to deal with a new set of rules brokers believe were totally unworkable is off, and he will be able to concentrate on a wide-ranging agenda he calls "my wish list for the coming year."

Not that mortgage brokers can forget about RESPA reform. They can't, the 40-year housing finance veteran warned the 2,000 or so NAMB members who gathered at the Salt Palace Convention Center.

"We must still be proactive, watchful and vigilant," he said in his inaugural address. "A new rule will be proposed and we must be ready to act when it is."

To make sure whatever comes out next is more broker-friendly, Armbruster, a former U.S. Navy air traffic controller who once crewed on hurricane hunter planes and is no stranger to stormy weather, has already met with the new HUD secretary. And he came away feeling better about the industry's prospects the next time around.

The meeting with Sec. Jackson "was a great milestone" for NAMB in two ways, according to the new president. It was the first-ever face-to-face sit-down with a HUD secretary for the relatively young trade association, he said, and the secretary "assured us that the past is behind us."

With that pledge, Armbruster is now free to concentrate on the issues he believes will take the mortgage broker nation to an even higher plain.

The business is already giddy that brokers have come from relative obscurity only a decade or so ago to become the dominant force in loan originations. But their new leader, who started his own Atlanta area mortgage company in 1984, says there's "nothing to stop" him and his colleagues from boosting their share of the loan production pie from 66 percent to 75 percent.

One of his primary goals for the coming year is to persuade state attorneys general to speed up the prosecution of brokers and others accused of fraudulently bilking consumers and lenders out of millions, if not billions, of dollars annually.

Armbruster told reporters at his initial press conference as NAMB president that it now sometimes takes five years to get someone charged with abusive lending practices into a court room, if they ever see the inside of a court at all. And that, he said, is much too much time to keep federal regulators at bay.

To "lubricate" the process, the Georgia broker would like to create industry-government alliances in every state. Though he admits his idea is still a little sketchy and says he's not sure just yet of all the legal whys and wherefores, he sees the alliances as self-regulating entities, deputized perhaps by the state, to act as an investigative and possibly even a prosecutorial body.

"It's a little visionary right now, but something has to be done to grease the judicial process and bridge the gap on enforcement," Armbruster said of the concept, suggesting that federal regulators will step in if their counterparts at the state level don't do a better job of policing the mortgage business.

"The states need to act more effectively and more quickly. Once a few examples are made, I think is will have a major impact on what's going on. Otherwise, we will be getting into preemption issues because federal regulators are loading up to take control."

The new NAMB president also intends to attack the predatory lending problem on a second front by continuing the effort rekindled under his predecessor's stewardship to create a national registry that would allow the business to report, track and ultimately remove bad actors from its ranks.

The outgoing president told reporters that interest in such a clearinghouse is growing. "I think more people than ever favor it," he said, noting that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Administration and even the Federal Trade Commission have indicated their interest in a self-policing system to eliminate the business's rotten apples.

Armbruster told the convention he intends to elevate and formalize the NAMB's effort within association's governing system.

He also accepted his predecessor's challenge to lead the brokerage business into emerging markets, places Pickle said brokers must be willing to go when others in the mortgage business are not.

Noting that many of his goals are aimed at ending abusive lending practices and reducing fraud, the new NAMB leader, meanwhile, warned that brokers need to be seen as part of the solution as opposed to part of the problem.

"We cannot -- and must not -- sit back and wait for legislation to be imposed upon us," he cautioned. "We need to make sure that any laws enacted are fair to both our industry and our consumers."

Toward that end, Armbruster hopes to continue bonding with other industry and consumer groups "so that we can work through our differences."

"There is known strength in open dialog and common positions," he said.

Published: June 16, 2004

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When Lew Sichelman first started writing about housing in 1969, he was the youngest real estate writer in the country. Now, 37 years later, he's one of the oldest -- and most decorated. He has been rated the top housing columnist in the country by the National Association of Realtors as well as by his peers in the National Association of Real Estate Editors. Indeed, NAREE has recognized his work on numerous occasions. One year - due to his advancing age, he can't recall which one - he earned top honors in the annual NAREE Journalism Contest in three out of the four major writing categories. It was the first time one writer has won so many NAREE awards in a single year. Known for his ability to make even the most difficult topics understandable, Sichelman also has been honored by the National Association of Home Builders and the Mortgage Bankers Association. He began providing in-depth coverage of and consumer-oriented information about housing and housing finance at the Washington Daily News, where he was real estate editor. He held that same position for nine more years at the Washington Star, which purchased the News in 1972. The Star, a so-called "writer's newspaper" which also had the misfortune of being an evening paper, was put out of its misery in 1981, and Sichelman, who had begun self-syndicating his column in 1978, decided to become a full-time columnist. Today, his column, "The Housing Scene," is distributed by United Media to newspapers throughout the country. He also is on the staff of National Mortgage News, an independent newspaper which is considered the bible of the mortgage business. And he writes for numerous other publications, including MarketWatch.com, where he answers readers questions once a week, Sports Illustrated (don't ask), RealtyTimes.com, BigBuilder and others. Sichelman is married, the father of five and grandfather of eleven.