Feb
18
No Country for Mortgage Brokers
Filed Under mortgage | 3 Comments
Over the weekend I finally caught the movie, No Country for Old Men. It’s critically acclaimed and several friends recommended that I go see it. At times the movie was boring and slow. At times it was quick witted and interesting. However, most of the time nothing about the movie made sense.
In the current mortgage landscape nothing makes sense.
I still get several refinance requests from the internet where people are shopping and getting quoted rates that haven’t existed in years. Moreover, to get a loan closed today is much more difficult than ever before. So for anyone to do a loan at the lowest possible rates doesn’t make any business sense.
Some requests are for home purchases by real estate investors. Every day lenders are limiting their risk by limiting what a mortgage broker can and cannot submit. Every day programs are disappearing. There are very few high risk loans available. It’s only a matter of time before buying a home with no money down will become extinct.
Most of the inquiries I get are questions. Simple questions such as “Is now a good time to refinance?” or “Will not paying my bills hurt my credit?” The people who ask these don’t give me any information about themselves just a name and an email. That’s like asking your optometrist (eye doc) “Do I have ocular degeneration?” without having him/her/it look at your eyes.
Just like the movie, No Country for Old Men, there is no end in sight to all the madness.
Tags: mortgage, purchase, rate, real estate, refinance, shopping, vaFeb
10
File under small victory: Colorado cracks down on mortgage brokers
File under mortgage + home equity loan + checking account : Aussie ARM can pay off
File under conforming loan limits: It’s still $417,000 in Denver and Colorado. California is a different story.
File under money from the Feds: Rebates, What you need to know
File under 16th & Court makeover: Adam’s Mark sale done
File under not a lopsided trade after all: Manning for Rivers
File under an interesting experiment: Due to Top Five Fridays I rank well for Mailman Newman
Tags: colorado, denver, home equity, home equity loan, mortgage, rateOct
22
Option Arms are in the news again
Filed Under foreclosure, mortgage, personal finance, rates | Leave a Comment
File this under: Unsuspecting borrower duped into getting a difficult loan to comprehend.
From Sunday’s Denver Post: Crushing ARMs squeeze homeowners
In 2003, 1.1 percent of mortgages originated for a purchase or refinance in Colorado were option-ARMs and another 2.5 percent were interest- only loans that didn’t pay down principal, according to First American LoanPerformance, a San Francisco mortgage research firm.
…
Many borrowers don’t understand negative amortization, how their payments are rising, and why the loans they expected to rescue them are dragging them into foreclosure, he said.
The mortgage brokers who sold these loans were (most of them are out of the industry) dumber than dirt yet were great at selling these products. If you went with a mortgage broker because they sold you on a loan products, who’s really to blame?
Tags: colorado, denver, foreclosure, mortgage, negative amortization, purchase, refinanceSep
12
Housing lenders retreat
Filed Under mortgage, real estate, rocky mountain news | 2 Comments
Mortgage article from the Rocky Mountain News:
A third of home loans originated by mortgage brokers failed to close in August as investors shied away from riskier borrowers, a new survey says.
Read the full story: Housing lenders retreat
Tags: home loan, mortgageAug
30
The Colorado Association of Mortgage Broker’s (CAMB) mission is to provide education, advocacy and networking opportunities to its members. This will result in members who are recognized service professional and will increase consumer awareness of and demand for the services provided by CAMB members.
Every September the CAMB holds a convention:
- To register, click here.
- To review the schedule, click here.
- To review the cost(s), click here.
Locations:
The Curtis Hotel
1405 Curtis Street
Denver, Co 80202
800-525-6651
Colorado Convention Center
700 14th Street
Denver, CO 80202
303-228-8000
Aug
29
Denver Homes and blogging
Filed Under blog, denver, real estate, seo | Leave a Comment
I ran a quick search in Google for the term “Denver Homes”
The top ten results that Google fetched is fairly interesting:
- The National Association of Realtor’s website, the heavyweights in the real estate game. They’ve been around for quite some time on the web circa 1997.
- A real estate agent’s site. On the web since 1998.
- recolorado.com, a consumer portal to the Colorado MLS. On the web since 1998.
- American Home Guide is 4th. Not sure what’s the purpose of this site. It’s not a real estate agent, broker, or company. On the web since 2003.
- A real estate agent’s site. Around since 2000.
- New Home Source, a site that basically allows you to search for properties with limited ads. Around since 1999.
- A real estate agent site. Around since 2004.
- House.Info allows you to search for properties. Around since 2005.
- A BLOG. Around since 2005.
- A BLOG. Around since 2006.
Conclusions:
- The real estate agents who’s site rank well, probably paid a substantial amount of money to get ranked well and to keep their rankings.
- The 9th ranked site for Denver Homes is run by Todd Carpenter, who runs a series of mortgage and real estate blogs.
- The 10th ranked site, was a blogging project of mine that I abandoned.
- Unless you’re site has been around on the web since the late 90’s or you plan on paying a ton of money to get your site optimized, plan on blogging.
- Google loves blogs!
If you’re savvy real estate agent in Denver and want to meet with me to discuss blogging and what it can do for your web presence, contact me for a consultation. If you’re a total dumbass who whines constantly and expects me to do everything, don’t bother contacting me.
Tags: colorado, denver, mortgage, real estateAug
20
Pigs get fat, but hogs get slaughtered
Filed Under mortgage | Leave a Comment
The maxim “pigs get fat, but hogs get slaughtered” came up during a recent conversation I had playing golf at Hyland Hills, a municipal course off 36 and Sheridan in Westminster. I teed off with a friend but eventually our two some became a four some as the group behind us caught up.
One guy asked what I did for a living and when I told him that I worked as a mortgage broker he looked at me and said, “looks like the pigs got fat and the hogs are getting slaughtered.” It caught me off guard considering most people usually bandy that maxim around in a board room not on a golf course. After a second I regained my senses and said “don’t pigs and hogs have the same fate?” He responded with a laugh and when I told him that I don’t eat pork, he said “I don’t blame you, they live in filth!”
While the hogs are shutting their doors, the pigs are having some challenges. Countrywide took out a loan and recently they announced layoffs along with
Suntrust. Moreover, Capitol One just closed Greenpoint Mortgage.
Ironically, 2007 is the year of the PIG.
Tags: denver, mortgageJun
6
The Mortgage Professor
Filed Under mortgage | 2 Comments
As a former professor at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business, Jack Guttentag is well known as “the Mortgage Professor“. He’s also the driving forced behind Upfront Mortgage Brokers or lenders that disclose their fees. Today, he’s a syndicated columnist.
Currently he’s running a series on the subprime crisis:
Subprime Crisis, Part I: The Causes of Default
Subprime Crisis, Part II: The Lender Role
Subprime Crisis, Part III: State of the Market
Today he posted his fourth segment:
Subprime Crisis, Part IV: What Should the Government Do?
Rather than summarize these articles, I just wanted to post the links to these articles for people to discover. For the most part these articles aren’t lengthy diatribes. Enjoy!
Tags: mortgage, prime, Subprime, vaJun
4
There are several definitions of the word BILL:
- an itemized statement of money owed for goods shipped or services rendered; as in “pay your bill“
- a piece of paper money; as in “dollar bill“
- the entertainment offered at a public presentation; as in “what’s on the bill“
- player for the National Football League team based in Buffalo, NY; as in “Jim Kelly will always be a Buffalo Bill“
- Nickname for William; as in “Bill Clinton“
- a brim that projects to the front to shade the eyes; as in “bill of a baseball cap“
- beak: horny projecting mouth of a bird; as in “pelicans have big bills“
- a statute in draft before it becomes law; as in “I‘m just a bill. Yes, I’m only a bill. And I’m sitting here on Capitol Hill.”
Bill Ritter recently signed five mortgage and foreclosure bills into law. Here’s a rundown of these BILLS from the Rocky Mountain News:
- HB 1322, MEASURE TO PREVENT MORTGAGE FRAUD
- SB 85, PROTECTS CONSUMER REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS
- SB 203, MORTGAGE BROKER LICENSING
- SB 216, MORTGAGE LOAN ACTS PRACTICES
- SB 249, REAL ESTATE TITLE ESCROW SETTLEMENT
Summary: Mortgage brokers and others involved in real estate transactions must act for the benefit of the borrower, including making reasonable inquiries into the borrower’s financial situation and using best efforts to obtain a loan that takes into consideration the borrower’s situation.
Summary: Prohibits brokers from trying to influence the judgment of a real estate appraiser through coercion, intimidation or compensation.
Summary: Brokers must be licensed by the Division of Real Estate and must get adequate training, testing and continuing education and are prohibited from engaging in 24 specific activities, including fraud and conflicts of interest. A broker who has a license revoked for violating this legislation would not be eligible to be reinstated unless he or she provides full restitution to individuals he or she has harmed.
Summary: Requires brokers to act in good faith and deal fairly, including: not to recommend the borrower enter into a transaction that “does not have a reasonable tangible net benefit to the borrower, considering his circumstances; to make reasonable inquiry into the borrower’s financial circumstances; not to make loans where there is no reasonable probability of repayment.”
Summary: The Division of Insurance is required to provide annual reports on the number of enforcement actions taken, the market trends with title insurance and real estate transactions, and consumer complaints generated by market analysis, investigation and enforcement efforts regarding title insurance.
While this is a start but there are several areas that still need to be addressed:
What about the borrowers? Aren’t they culpable? If Joe and Jane Borrower buy a house and refuse to pay their mortgage simply because they racked up a lot of debt what’s their penalty?
What about banks? In Colorado, state and nationally chartered banks are exempt from registration: bank, saving bank, savings and loan association, industrial bank, industrial loan company, credit union, or bank or savings association holding company organized under federal law, and subsidiary or employee of the above. This is a large population of the mortgage community.
What about the Account Reps? They represent the mortgage lenders who end up buying your loan. Some will say just about anything to get mortgage brokers to send them business. In other words they’re part of the problem. Somehow there’s no law where mortgage lenders have to police their own employees.
Jun
4
Hip Hop Flip Flops
Filed Under sports | Leave a Comment
I’ll be blogging about the major news regarding mortgage broker registration later today in the mean time I wanted to discuss two recent hip hop flip flops in sports:
Kobe Bryant
I can’t stand Kobe Bryant. Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s the second coming of Michael Jordan (sorry LeBron and D-Wade) I just don’t care for sports divas. He ranks up there with Terrell Owens, Alex Rodriguez, and Barry Bonds. You simply can’t root for these guys because they act more like Diana Ross than Derek Jeter.
Kobe recently said in an interview that he wanted out of the Los Angeles Lakers. That’s right, he wanted out of the marquee NBA franchise on the planet. A few hours later in a different interview he reneged and didn’t want out after all. Kobe is a phenomenal talent but I just don’t think he plays well with others. He could’ve played an individual sport like wrestling, bowling or even poker but he opted for a team game like basketball.
The NBA is a joke. The two worst teams (the Griz and the Celts) got jobbed in the NBA draft lottery. The Suns got jobbed in the NBA playoffs. The referees in the NBA are the most biased in professional sports. If LeBron and the Cavs don’t beat the Pistons their would be no interest whatsoever in the NBA finals. So who really cares where Kobe winds up, the NBA has other problems.
Billy Donovan
On the other end of the spectrum is Billy Donovan, the head coach of the Florida Gators. I like Billy Donovan. As a point guard in college, he led the Providence Friars to the Final Four in the mid-80’s. He played briefly for the New York Knicks in the NBA. He began his coaching career shortly thereafter.
After winning two NCAA championships with Florida, Donovan decided to take an Orlando Magic offer and try his luck in the NBA. However after a weekend to think about it, Donovan reneged and decided to return to Florida.
Donovan is an outstanding coach. He has busted my NCAA bracket many times. Every time I thought his teams would choke, they did well. He’s a legend in Florida. Why in the world would you leave the college ranks for the NBA and the Orlando Magic? It didn’t make any sense when they announced that Donovan was leaving for the NBA so I wasn’t surprised that he had second thoughts about returning to Florida. I hope that Donovan returns to the college game. He belongs there and he makes the college game that much more exciting.
What does this have to do with the mortgage world?
It’s okay to change your mind when it comes to your mortgage. Once the emotion involved with making a decision subsides, you return to your senses and sometimes your senses tell you to back out. There are millions of people who wished they changed their mind regarding their mortgage broker and/or their mortgage. If a deal seems fishy, you can and should back out. On a refinance transaction (assuming it’s not an investment property) you have 3 days to rescind your mortgage. On a purchase transaction, it’s a lot more complex, but you can still back out of the deal.
Tags: mortgage, property, purchase, refinance, va