Here are a couple of opening thoughts. Fannie & Freddie between them are funding about 80% of all new loans. But according to Inside Mortgage Finance, "nobody in the lending business seems to be patting them on the back for keeping the mortgage market afloat. Instead, lenders are criticizing the two government-sponsored enterprises for dramatically tightening underwriting and hiking a variety of fees in the current liquidity-starved mortgage environment. “We are making better loans than we have in years. If so, what’s the need for higher fees [from Fannie and Freddie]? What does their charter say they [the GSEs] are here for?” asked David Kittle, the incoming chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, and president of Principle Wholesale Lending. MBA reportedly is actively engaged in discussions with both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac regarding their tighter underwriting and higher fee structure. And there is speculation that lenders may soon see some relief."  

Relief may or may not be on the near horizon, but there are a couple of ways to turn these lemons into lemonade:

1. Fine-tune your Customer Care System to address any last-minute problems you may be having getting loans to the closing table. Every month, you should be analyzing any problems with your closings (and the loans that didn't make it to closing) and asking yourselves this question: what change or step should I put into my System so that this doesn't happen again (or at the very least, allow me to identify the problem sooner so I don't waste time).
2. If you don't have a Customer Care System. contact me and I'll help you create one. It will streamline your process, make it more efficient, and at the same time, dramatically improve communication with all stakeholders and create clients who aren't just "satisfied", but are Raving Fans. Satisfied Customers don't refer; Raving Fans do.
3. Communicate with Realtors about the implications of tighter underwriting, and make the point that now, more than ever, they need to send their buyers to you early so they don't waste time on someone who can't qualify to buy a home. You can also show Realtors your Customer Care System -- many of my clients have told me that this really impresses agents and proves to them that you know what you're doing.
4. This would be a good time to reach out regularly to agents you don't work with, because chances are a lot of them have just had a frustrating and disappointing experience with a loan officer who doesn't have a Customer Care System and consequently messed up their deal.