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“Life holds a special magic for those who dare to dream.” Anonymous This week homeowners and homebuyers saw home values continue to rise, and the mortgage rates dipped down for the first time since January. The seemingly unattainable dream of renovating your home to be your castle or restructuring your debt so you can retire suddenly became possible like the wave of a magical wand. Mortgage rates dipped about 5% this week for the first time since January 2021. Home values increased 15.6% year-over-year. The mortgage that the aspiring homebuyer could not afford last week suddenly became affordable this week The Collinger’s dream of getting their children through college, and retiring within the next ten years seemed impossible. This week, their home hit the highest value they had ever seen. At the same time, mortgage rates dipped back down from their recent climb. Restructuring the other debt with a…
“I watch other teams and ask myself, ‘What makes them win? Luck? Scheme? I’m constantly thinking of how to be better.” NIT Champion University of Memphis basketball coach Penny Hardaway The spring market in 2021 is running hot right out of the gate. Inventory of homes available are fewer and mortgage rates are still a little lower than the beginning of April last year. It's a terrific market for home sellers because of the ease of selling higher. It is an excellent win for homebuyers because they can lock into a fixed-rate mortgage rate that keeps their payment affordable. If you are a homebuyer in this market, get teamed up with a very reputable realtor and mortgage lender. With some persistent grind and savvy strategy from you and your realtor-lender team, you can win in this market. University of Memphis Tigers basketball coach Penny Hardaway said in an interview…
Consumers have choices, so how do you stand out as the logical choice in your market? As always, differentiation often wins the day. My friend and longtime real estate expert Steve Harney would always say, “10% different is 100% better!” Since Steve helped build a hugely successful real estate company and then founded the highly regarded “Keeping Current Matters” platform for real estate professionals, I think he was on to something! So how do we create that 10% difference? How do we win more opportunities for ourselves, our clients, and our referral partners? I think in today’s market we can do this by helping set the stage for our clients and referral partners, as well as improving the quality of the experience for everyone by doing a great job upfront. When a prospect calls, do we remember to ask them how they came to call us and to take a…
“It’s simple arithmetic: Your income can grow only to the extent that you do.” T Harv Eker The pandemic year of 2020 caused some business people to prosper, and others have had to struggle to survive. As a mortgage officer, I have heard customer stories as they describe their trek to keep home and business lights burning. Mortgage rates are low and expected to stay relatively low through the year. However, the price of those rates has been rising over the last couple of months by about a half-point since January 2021. Business owners and workers who have experienced a gap in income during the lockdown period last year have been trying to recover as the marketplace opens again. For these beleaguered borrowers, we, as lenders, need to spend some time finding ways to get them enough income to qualify for the home loan they need to move forward with…
A bit about Summer: Summer Goralik is a Real Estate Compliance Consultant and licensed California Real Estate Broker (#02022805). Summer offers real estate brokers a variety of consulting services including assistance with California Department of Real Estate (DRE) audit preparation, mock audits, advertising review, and training. She helps licensees evaluate their regulatory compliance and correct any non-compliant activities. Summer has an extensive background in real estate which includes private sector, regulatory and law enforcement experience. Most recently, she worked for the Orange County District Attorney's Office as a Civilian Economic Crimes Investigator in their Real Estate Fraud Unit. Prior to that, Summer worked for the DRE for six years as an Investigator. Among many achievements, she wrote several articles for DRE, four of which were co-authored with former Commissioner Wayne Bell. Before she embarked on her career in government and law enforcement, Summer also worked in the escrow industry for nearly…
Strong buyer activity and the rate at which listed properties are flying off the market make it important to recognize opportunities when others miss them. Right now a real untapped market for opportunities is investors! Let’s take a look at a few reasons investors are now great targets: • COVID 19 has allowed people not to be evicted for non-payment of rent. No rent, no cash flow!• Colleges and Universities are limited or empty, leaving student housing units to remain vacant. No rent, no cash flow!• Property values in many areas have risen significantly in the past few years, making properties far more valuable than thought.• Potential changes in investment property financing may make it less attractive to continue purchasing investment properties and creating the possibility for the search for other investments.• Potential changes to the tax code may also make it less attractive to hold investment property long term…
Words from a basketball coach- “Shooting means every time you catch the ball, your eyes go to the rim. By looking at the rim from any position, allows you to see everything that happens on the floor.” When you are positioning yourself to score on your real estate or mortgage deal, you need to have your eyes on what you want to accomplish. It might be buying a home in a particular neighborhood. You may want to reduce your overall monthly debt by refinancing a mortgage. Knowing your comfort level on move-in costs and monthly payments helps you keep your view of the playing field in perspective. We have experienced the lowest rates we have ever seen several weeks ago. February 2021 saw the price on rates start an upward climb due to the fear of inflation, actions, and comments by the Federal Reserve. Even though mortgage rates are not…
The mortgage and real estate industries are bound by a series of rules, regulations, laws, and hopefully by ethics. While there has always been a few that have avoided or just plain disregarded the rules, most of those in the professions of mortgage and real estate have paid attention to the rules and were likely held to task when they didn’t. The mortgage meltdown led to a huge collapse in the markets worldwide. Most responsible for the violation of trust placed with them have never been held accountable for their actions and some that were, didn’t suffer more than pennies on the dollar for their crimes, forget going to prison for a long time. Today we are facing larger and more overt violations of rules and regulations than we saw prior to the mortgage meltdown and nobody seems to care! Major companies openly violate norms that have been well established…
A bit about Jo: “Whatever YOUR personal priorities are, my job is to help you get the mortgage terms that will give you bragging rights when you talk about it and help you score on hitting your goals.” As a mortgage loan officer, my job is to help you get to the benefits you want from your financing terms. What is most important to you? I can help you find the financing terms that will help you get to what you want. What is your comfort level on a house payment? How much are you comfortable paying down,? What type of financing do you need to get the house you want to buy or refinance? Different clients have different priorities in life—some are buying their first home with very little down payment funds. Some are recovering from medical challenges, divorces or preparing to send children to college and some are…
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Change can be difficult, but it can also be an opportunity. New changes to the loan application form and the challenges that go with it are an issue for a large number of reasons. While any change in the mortgage industry is an issue, most recently TRID, you can always find a path forward. I follow a few loan originator forums and often contribute when I think I have something significant to offer. Today I just want to point out that the change is here and we all have to live with it until the next change comes along. Complaining about the changes will not resolve the issue. Complaining on how much harder it is to do your job with the new application will fall like a brick. Whining about how it is harder to use your LOS and some of the supporting loan software you may have is a…
The fall in bond prices and the rise in rates continue. Awareness of things we control and those we don’t are now significant. Seeing the opportunity of the situation is critical! We don’t control rates, but do control the process we provide and the value that process brings to those we serve! NOBODY in this market has the best price; that left a few weeks ago, now all we have is our commitment to our process and the benefits our process provides! In a rising rate environment, the ability to be correct, quick, and close in 30 days or less is the VALUE, because the cost of money rises over TIME Your fully documented pre-approval and the ability for your buyers to present an offer that will close in 30 days or less can now be worth more than a higher offer to a seller facing the cost of higher…
We have seen a real jolt to the bond market and pricing is trying to find a new level. This happens from time to time and those of us who have been at this for a while are prepared for the questions and reactions of our clients, prospects, and referral partners. A few simple things to remember: • You don’t control the rate markets! If a client wasn’t locked on their loan, or were “waiting” for the “bottom”, that was a risk they took, not you. Don’t feel guilty unless you lied!• Do the math! Take a few minutes and share the actual costs in monthly payment in a move of .25% . Sometimes rates are an emotional hurdle until they see the actual dollars.• Share offsets and strategies. Maybe we borrow less money to keep the payment where they are comfortable or maybe we buy down the rate?• Remember that car…
In 2018 I traveled the country sharing with real estate agents and mortgage professionals my concerns of pending troubles approaching our industries. I tried to share and warn people about the growing trend of buying leads and building teams of people to call and message those leads one after another in hopes of securing and potential transaction. This process was only further complicated by trainers and coaches in both professions sharing the belief that buy purchasing and chasing leads, and by building large groups of people dependent on those leads for their income, that the very skills needed to be self-reliant was in jeopardy. The matter only gets more complicated when those leads are largely purchased from companies who are not just in the lead selling business, but in the business of taking over the real estate and mortgage business. I also warned those people that once real estate agents,…
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