To be approved by the Board for participation in the program, a mortgage lender shall:

1. (1) have maintained a loan origination office in the state for at least one year. Operation through brokers, correspondent institutions or other agents must be approved by the department;

2. (2) be either:

   1. (A) a Federal Housing Administration ("FHA") approved mortgagee;
   2. (B) an eligible lender in good standing for Veteran's Administration ("VA") guaranteed mortgage loans;
   3. (C) an eligible lender in good standing for Rural Housing Service's ("RHS") guaranteed rural housing loan program; or
   4. (D) a lender currently participating in the conventional home lending market for loans originated in accordance with Fannie Mae's Mortgage-Backed Securities and/or Freddie Mac's requirements;
3. (3) have a minimum net worth as required by the program's master servicer;
4. (4) have a minimum warehouse line of credit as required by the program's master servicer;
5. (5) agree to originate mortgages and assign mortgages and servicing to the department's master servicer;
6. (6) originate, process, underwrite, close and fund originated loans in the mortgage lender's own name; and
7. (7) be an approved seller/servicer with the program's master servicer.

Source Note:The provisions of this §7.4 adopted to be effective December 2, 2007, 32 TexReg 8436.