Tax time advice for Homeowners

February 24, 2008 – 12:38 pm

Do something spectacular and unusual this year when you visit your tax professional: tell her you don’t want a refund next year more than $1,000!

Yes, you read correctly, NO REFUND next year more than $1,000.

Wow, this is a radical concept.

Everyone knows that we Americans love our tax refunds. That late winter/early spring windfall of cash helps out with so many different financial goals. Doesn’t it?

I don’t think so.

I think most people get that money and fritter it away. Spending it on a new flat screen television or a spring wardrobe or a weekend away at Mohegan Sun: this isn’t prudent financial planning. And, if you’re a homeowner, you need to plan your finances carefully.

There’s always work to be done on the house. Or maybe there’s the credit card bill from your purchase of new windows last fall to pay off.

I digress. Let’s return to the concept of that “windfall” of a tax refund.

The truth is this is just a repayment of an interest-free loan you made to the United States government, nothing more.

When your employer takes money out of your paycheck, what is really happening is you are making an advance payment to the government of your tax bill. But that tax bill won’t be prepared by your tax professional until next winter!

And, if you are a homeowner, then you will find your tax bill is substantially lower than the one calculated by your employer. The reason is simple: your mortgage interest and property taxes are tax deductible against your income.

That means your “taxable” income is actually lower than your “real” income!

That’s why you get the windfall, the refund. You are getting back your own money that you loaned to the government all year.

Uncle Sam repays it to you with ZERO interest! There’s not even a “Thank You!” note enclosed. Believe me, if you made an interest-free loan to me, I’d definitely say, “Thanks!”

Often that refund is a substantial chunk of change; it’s a lot more than $1,000!

Think about it: if your refund is $6,000 that’s $500 a month you overpaid your income taxes! You can do a lot with that $500, can’t you?

So, do something radical, spectacular and surprising this year: tell your tax professional you don’t want a refund more than $1,000 next year. Your tax professional—admiring your obvious financial smarts—will then calculate how to reduce your withholding on your paycheck so that money you’ve been lending the government goes into your pocket each payday, instead!

Armed with that advice, you then pay a visit to your payroll department, file a new W-4 withholding form and KEEP YOUR MONEY!

I’ll bet you can put it to better use that way in your monthly budget than waiting for that windfall next year.

If you’re not yet a homeowner reaping the benefits homeownership—of which the tax refund is only one small part—then you should contact me right away so I can help you buy your first home!

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By Trevor | Posted in First Time Homebuyers | Comments (0)

I Learned Something…

January 13, 2008 – 12:31 pm

“I learned something,” said the Realtor.

I’ve known this Realtor—and received referrals from him for about five years. He doesn’t know of the “old” old ways, wherein a Realtor has a buyer prequalified before even pointing and clicking on the MLS site to search for a home.

He’s used to the ridiculous mortgage qualifying methodology of the past six or so years. That’s the method where the mortgage “professional” places two fingers on the prospective Homebuyer’s wrist, checks for a pulse and proclaims the subject alive, well and qualified for mortgage financing.

Think: Sub-Prime mortgage debacle.

Too often the Realtors—running with the (wolf) pack or following the (sheep) herd (you choose the appropriate metaphor depending on your viewpoint) —responded to any and every prospective Buyer. The call came in and the Realtor setup an appointment to show the house. No worries about the prospective Buyer’s qualifications for a mortgage, oh no, none at all. (Think: Bobby McFerrin, “Don’t worry, Be Happy”)

Run out there and sell that buyer a house. Who cares of the Buyer’s Income, Assets, or Credit? They’ll get a mortgage! And who cares the affordability of the monthly payment? They’ll manage it, somehow!

Well, I always cared. I always stopped prospective clients and Realtors dead in their tracks by asking the fundamental qualifying questions about Income, Assets, and Credit: IAC.

I got a lot of people looking at me as if I were deranged. I got a lot of Realtors admonishing me, “Look, can you do the deal or not?” I lost a lot of prospective Buyers/Borrowers by asking too many questions and worrying if they could afford the mortgage.

After all, why should these Realtors and Buyers waste their time with me discussing the finer points of those late payments with Macys and Nissan, or responding to my queries about how long they’ve received their overtime and is it guaranteed by a contract? Why waste the time when there were plenty of other mortgage “pros” out there ready, willing and able to provide mortgage financing in a flash.

Oh, and flash it was.

And now that flash has passed, nay, exploded! And those flash in the pan mortgage losers are working for a fast food establishment asking you if you’d like ketchup with your drive-through order.

Yes, and those flashed-upon Homebuyers are in dire straits, indeed. Many of them in danger of soon losing their home.

What of the Realtors? Well, those like my Realtor-referral-guy are now learning the hard way how they should prequalify before opening the door to any house.

In the case of my Realtor, he not only showed the house, but the Buyers LOVED it and made an offer on the spot.

Why wouldn’t they love it? It was priced more than $100,000 below what the Seller owed the bank as well as comparable houses in the surrounding area!

As quickly as we qualified the Buyers, wrote the loan application and got it approved—Saturday application, loan approved by 10:40 a.m. Monday morning—the deal died a horrible death. It died because I discovered shortly after the loan was approved the truth: the Homeowner took out a mortgage in July 2007 in an amount fully $110,000 more than the offered price.

Apparently the Listing Realtor in this case has some learning to do, as well. Somehow she never disclosed this fact to my Realtor-guy, the Selling Realtor. Only the list price of $325,000 was disclosed.

The Listing agent had some crazy notion she would negotiate a “short sale” for the homeowner and make this deal happen.

Arrrrgggghhhhhh!!!!! What a waste of EVERYONE’S time. The Selling Realtor, me, my processing staff, and the Homebuyer’s. Worse, the Buyers are fixated on that price and mortgage payment.

Worse, still, there are NO houses available in the Buyers’ qualified and desired range. Homes the Buyers like are $70,000 to $100,000 more than the amount of the first house.

In other words, the Buyers are NOT qualified for the kind of house they want in the area they want. No matter we can potentially add a cosignor or find a home in a different area. Fixated on price and location, these Buyers won’t budge.

And it’s all the Realtor’s fault.

He realizes now how he wasted his time. Now he will listen to me when I say, “Let’s prequalify EVERY prospect before you invest your time.”

He learned something, alright.

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It’s Nuts out here.

January 9, 2008 – 7:58 am

It’s unusual.  Unprecedented, even.  Lenders changing guidelines mid-stream, after you have your loan approval.  You get your client’s loan approved; you collect the approval “conditions” and send them over the bank to clear with the Underwriting staff so you can schedule a closing.

 All of a sudden the Lender changes it’s “mind.”   Now, there’s either new conditions piled on top of the ones you submitted, or the loan is out and out cancelled.  And if there are new conditions, you can bet they will very unreasonable ones.   As if the Lender is looking for problems on the loan that don’t exist.

After all the lies and fraud and bad mortgage loans originated in the past few years, the kneejerk reaction is beyond precedent.  It’s as if the banks don’t want to make any loans.

The problem comes down to the state of the mortgage industry, today.  This problem is symptomatic of what’s happening industry-wide as a result of the “mortgage meltdown” of 2007.

In my opinion, Wall Street is not giving the banks any direction.  Will the Street buy the packaged loans, as they have always done, or not?  Without the ability to move loans in this way, the mortgage-lending industry is hamstrung.

While Wall Street gave our industry TOO MUCH direction in the past few years, i.e., “Give us EVERYTHING!” now the Street doesn’t seem to be answering the phone when the mortgage industry rings up.  And if they do answer the phone, it’s a bad connection. 

Frankly, it’s beyond all reason.  There’s no sense to it in that there are basic lending guidelines in place, the foundation, if you will, of the mortgage lending industry.  You would think that, in the event of such cataclysmic results from garbage mortgage loans, we would at least be able to revert to the basics and continue to approve mortgage loans.

 The fact is people still need to borrow mortgage money, regardless of market conditions or interest rates.  And those people are being told, “NO” even when they meet the basic qualifying criteria as written in the guidelines.

For instance, there is a FNMA program designed to make it easy for people of Low-to-Moderate Income purchase homes with little or no money down.  It’s called by different names at different Lenders, the most common being “My Community.”

The program guidelines allow for a borrower to have NO credit, and to provide “alternative” credit such as utility bills, phone bills, etc. to provide a credit history.  (This is a long-standing tradition with FHA loans) 

Well, while the guidelines allow for it, the FNMA loan approval software doesn’t (commonly called “DU” or Desktop Underwriter).  Therefore, to approve a loan like that, you must have a human being underwrite the loan; someone who can read the file and signoff for the approval.  The human underwriter would have the guidelines at hand, could check the loan application against those and make a decision on the loan, whether that be approval or denial.

Except, there are NO humans underwriting loans at the banks right now.  The banks say, “If the FNMA software doesn’t approve it, don’t talk to us.”

 
Whoa.  It’s nuts out here.

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The end of referrals and trust

December 17, 2007 – 9:18 am

I find myself working so hard these days to gain people’s trust so that I can do their mortgage. I find the obvious sense of professionalism I bring to any encounter is lost on most people; they’re looking at me doubly-distrustfully.

I may be thick in the head but I didn’t realize until reading the following quote from an article in today’s NYTimes.com how much my own personal reputation has been affected by the mortgage meltdown. Not only that, but I didn’t realize why I was having so much difficulty gaining a new client’s trust.

I have never minded working hard to gain the trust of a new client or referral source. I have always felt that I walk in the door at a disadvantage because there are so many people of less-than-stellar-character working in my industry. So my presentation—including this website—is designed in such a way as to overcome that initial doubt in the mind of any client. I think once I open my mouth and begin talking, the client is more than a bit relieved; they know they are in the presence of a trustworthy professional.

But that whole process has become more difficult of late. And I guess I wasn’t making the connection, either how much more difficult it is or the reason why.

I remember my wife, The Realtor, once said about a year ago, “Everyone is a real estate agent these days!” She was right; even the young woman who cuts my hair told me she was thinking of getting her real estate license. Nothing wrong with that, except for the fact the young hairdresser at the next chair said she already had her real estate license!

And, back then, everyone was in the mortgage business, too. I remember sitting with a client at his house at 9 o’clock at night to write the loan application. He was referred to me by his long-standing tax accountant. He was a business owner and a smart homeowner who had owned his home for quite a while and only refinanced once before. I was sure he would be impressed by my professional demeanor and my solid financial advice. Of course, I was recommending what I always recommend: the thirty year fixed rate mortgage.

The interview was going well until he said, “My business partner’s son is in the mortgage business and he recommended I refinance into the Option ARM loan.” Hooboy. There goes trust and reputation and experience right out the window. I wrote and closed the loan but it was a struggle all down the line. All the time that “son in the mortgage business” lurked in the background attempting to get “my” loan.

Today’s NYTimes.com article presents yet another face of the foreclosure mess. The article’s perspective is how other areas of local economies are affected by the mortgage meltdown.

The sentence from the article that struck me was the one regarding referrals. I read over it and then it hit me and I had to go back and read it again, and again for it to sink in. Then it hit me and I knew why I was having such a hard time of late.

Here’s the quote:

“This is not an easy time of year, as people trudge into Ms. Ortiz’s office carrying sheaves of financial documents. Sometimes the tears come before the words. Often, the story is the same: A friend from church or work suggested they refinance their home, or insisted they could help them buy their first home. Within a few years, they are facing Ms. Ortiz, frantic and frightened.”

Ms. Ortiz is a housing counselor for a non-profit group trying to help people stave off foreclosure. The people facing her “frantic and frightened” are homeowners soon to be in or already in foreclosure.
The part that struck me and made me realize how the era of solid referrals and the trust clients put in me are over is that bit about “friends” suggesting they could help refinance the home or buy their first home.

Was a time those “friends” were recommending the clients to professionals like me. I got those referrals from having done the right thing, having done a good job, and having helped someone realize their dreams of homeownership or from refinancing them out of financial difficulty. The referrals came to me because of the quality of my professionalism.

In the past few years these “friends” stopped referring me. Instead, they, as my wife pointed out, were “all in the business.” And what the hell did they know about the business? Nothing beyond the ability to sweet talk someone into signing and buying something they couldn’t afford.

There was nothing professional about the friends, apart from possibly a business card from some now defunct mortgage company. There was certainly no reputation; these were, after all, friends.

And where the hell are those friends today? You can be sure they’re not practicing the profession of originating mortgage loans. Nor are they selling real estate. The quick buck is no longer there to be made so those friends have returned, no doubt, to peddling cosmetics or household cleaning supplies or life insurance through those ridiculous multi-level marketing schemes. You know, living room parties on a Tuesday evening where you’re walking out with an armful of resealable kitchen containers that you neither need nor can afford.

Those “friends” took that concept to a whole new level and now it’s costing people their homes.

Meanwhile I’m left out here standing with the smoke clearing and still trying to do what’s right. It’s hard to to do and I know I’m up the challenge, but, boy, I sure miss the days when getting a referral wasn’t so filled with mistrust and such hard work.

Here’s the article:Holidays Find Loan Crisis Spreading to Businesses and Neighbors

By Trevor | Posted in | Comments (0)

I Don’t Know

December 13, 2007 – 8:52 am

Jimmy Buffett, in his song “Volcano” starts out singing, “Well, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know where I’m a gonna go when the volcano blows.”

I find myself remembering that lyric and repeating it over and over in my mind quite often lately.

I find myself saying those words, “I don’t know,” out loud often, too.  I say them to clients and to Realtors and to attorneys.

The “ground is moving under me” as Jimmy continues to sing.  Lending practices, regulations, underwriting criteria and guidelines, all are changing rapidly as the markets and the banks react to the continuing mortgage meltdown.  Where once I was so sure on my clients’ behalf, knowing exactly how to get their loans approved, nowadays I often say, “I don’t know.”

I don’t know exactly how I can get your loan request approved.  I don’t know how long it will take to approve your loan once we actually figure out how—and with which Lender—to get it approved.  I don’t know if the underwriter will suddenly develop cynical dementia and decide she doesn’t like the loan and creates “obstacles” to block the path to a successful approval.  I don’t know if the bank will dump that loan product a week before we’re due to close, thus causing a scramble for a replacement bank and product.  I don’t know if the bank will be in business by the time we’re ready to close—or even the day of the closing.

I don’t know.

I don’t know if your property value will dip, or remain steady, or decline further.  I don’t know, in the event values decline further, how much you can regain in the future when the market begins its return to vitality.

I definitely do not know where interest rates are headed—but, then again, I’ve always said that, and who the heck knew rates could stay so low for so long?

There is a lot I don’t know about our industry today, and about the varying conditions that affect your ability to sell or buy a home.

I do know one thing for sure.

I know that it is a wonderful thing to own your own home.  I know that, in several conversations with clients this past week, it’s fun to put up Christmas lights on that house you own.  I know there’s something special about arriving home in the dark of a winter’s chilly evening to see the lights in the windows of your home and immediately anticipate the warmth and comfort awaiting you within.

I know it’s nice to go to bed at night feeling a certain sense of peace that you own something as worthy, as valuable, and as life-enriching as a home of your own.

Not only do I know these things about the homebuying experience, I accept them as “givens.”

These are concepts and standards and quality of life issues that cannot be affected by crazy markets, high interest rates, falling home prices, and worrisome newspaper stories.  These are tried and true facts of life that affect each and every homeowner, and, by extension, home buyer no matter what we mortgage professionals “don’t know” about loan approvals and other such nonsense.

I like that certainty; it’s a feeling that informs how I conduct my business.  Because at the end of the day, when I tick off my long list of “I don’t knows” that one certain thing I DO know—buying a home of your own is a great thing to do—is worth the aggravation, the impatience, the uncertainty, the worry, and ultimately, the struggle, to fight for a loan approval for my clients.

So, the heck with what I “don’t know” and here’s to more of what I know.

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Foreclosures and Everyone wants to be a STAR

December 8, 2007 – 4:06 pm

I really don’t follow the statistics or the bad news in the newspapers. No, not at all.

But on average, we’re receiving at least one referral a day—that’s about 7 to 10 per week—of people in trouble. They’re one or two months down on their mortgage and they want to save their home. Pretty much there’s nothing we can do. There’s no value in most cases to refinance the client, even if it’s going to be at a terrible fixed rate. In just about every instance we’re passing on the referral.  We don’t even want the telephone number.

Many of these clients are Hispanic and they have those nightmarish I/O Option ARMS that have now adjusted to a higher rate. Once again I’m thankful of the fact that I refused to originate those types of loans for my clients—many of whom are Hispanic. Of course, in refusing to originate anything but 30year fixed rate loans, I lost a lot of business in the past three years. So much so that my originations within the Hispanic community—which has been a consistent 80-90% of my business since 1997—dropped off significantly. In fact, these originations went to less than 10% of my business.

Still, I stood firm. I knew what was waiting down the road for any client with these types of loans and I simply would not, and could not, in good conscience originate these radioactive loans for my clients. Too, I never subscribed to the “…your house will go up 25% in value and you can refinance next year…” theory, either. No, I never said that; not ever.

It’s painful to speak with these folks who are in very real danger of losing their homes. I started in the business helping people out of foreclosure in the early 1990’s. I learned a lot about the mortgage industry, people’s dreams of homeownership, and how to get loans approved through that experience. But today there’s nothing I can do to help most people in this situation.

And many Realtors are listing “short sale” foreclosure homes. This means the bank holding the loan has to agree to take less than they’re owed on the mortgage before the house can be sold to another buyer. This, then, seems to be the latest hot trend in real estate sales.

It disgusts me.

Recently I’ve been speaking to a lot of “experienced” mortgage originators. Not only speaking to them, but interviewing them to work with our company.

The common denominator with this bunch of bananas is they all have little experience with “real” mortgage loans, care very little about their originations after the fact, and ALL want to someday (soon) own their own company. They all want to be a star and the captain of their own ship.

That’s all fine and dandy to want to be a successful entrepreneur and business-owner. But there’s something amiss when you have very little understanding of the “big picture” of our industry and don’t even know the basics of underwriting even a fundamental FNMA or FHA mortgage loan (you would not believe what comes out of their mouths when we ask questions aboutf basic guidelines!).

So these “burger-flippers” (that’s where they really belong, after all) continue to screw up our industry, home buyers and homeowners, and ultimately the economy. You want to be a STAR? Put in the time, gain the experience, develop some ethical standards, and learn the damned RULES!!!

Success is long in the coming and requires the investment of your character as well as your time and sweat.

Yeah, again, I have to say, “It disgusts me.”

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By Trevor | Posted in | Comments (1)

Short Sales: A Witches Brew of Mortgage Fraud

November 24, 2007 – 2:25 pm

The smoke hasn’t yet cleared from the mortgage meltdown; trouble continues and foreclosures rise. Finger-pointing, the blame-game  and failing mortgage companies color the autumn landscape. Rampant
mortgage fraud is suspected and being investigated. Yet a new source of fraud looms on the horizon.

“Short sale” is the buzzword on the street. Realtors talk about it constantly; seminars and workshops abound for attorneys, homeowners, and Realtors.

When a foreclosure looms, a homeowner asks the bank to take less than the balance of the mortgage so the house can be sold on the open market instead of the courthouse steps. A short sale is the negotiated price on a house when the mortgage is in arrears and the bank has no real prospect of achieving a recapture of its total mortgage loss. The mortgagor—the homeowner—negotiates with the bank to take less than is owed on the mortgage.

This saves the bank the trouble of picking up yet another undervalued real property asset, allows the homeowner to walk away from a potential foreclosure somewhat whole, and provides at least some financial recompense to the lender.

Better for the Lender to get some money than none and be stuck with a rapidly depreciating asset.

I’ve heard recently this “short sale” buzzword in nearly 8 out of 10 conversations with Realtors and attorneys. I have heard of, but not attended, seminars, supposedly teaching the “secrets” of negotiating short sales with banks.

I did attend a recent seminar for attorneys dedicated—in the best legalese possible, and thus unintelligible to me, as I’m not an attorney—to foreclosures and the correct legal proceedings attendant with these matters. I attended solely for networking opportunities, of which I will say I was quite successful; but I avoided for the most part sitting through the actual seminar. The phrase “short sale” was included in the seminar invitation, but did not make an appearance during the actual seminar; nor was the process of negotiating same discussed.

I know of a California mortgage professional (from my Craigslist Housing Forum days) who now spends her time negotiating short sales instead of originating mortgages.

Last Saturday a Realtor told me about an attorney in Queens who has created a division of his law firm—staffed with something like 50 people or so—dedicated to negotiating short sales on behalf of homeowners.

I have participated in at least a half dozen conversations concerning the sale of a home with a negotiated short-pay on the mortgage. Can the potential buyer of such a home ask for a Seller’s concession for part or all of the closing costs? The overwhelming consensus is, “No,” but there are some who think it may be possible.

All of that is just background. The “witches brew” for a new form of mortgage fraud finds its recipe in the short sale process.

Yesterday a Realtor related a story that blew my mind.

He described these short sale seminars in his area—one of them, if I remember correctly, conducted by a local mortgage person (I won’t call this person a “professional.” If you read my blog with any regularity, you’ll know why).

The Realtor went on to tell me how a homeowner came in to his office proposing to negotiate a short sale with the bank, then sell the house to a relative. In this way the homeowner could, in the words of the Realtor, “…cheat the bank out of its money and still keep his house.”

As if the Sub-Prime debacle wasn’t enough of a nightmare, now we have this short sale madness threatening to create even more opportunities for mortgage fraud.

I worry when a single idea takes a stranglehold of the industry—the way 100% Sub-Prime financing and Never-Ending-Equity-Appreciation did in their time. Too many people jump on the bandwagon looking to profit in the basest ways possible.

While the banks and their depositors and the investors on Wall Street who purchase mortgage-backed securities feel the bulk of the pain when things go bad, in the end, it is the hard-working first time home buyer who is dealt the worst hand.

People who have the dream of owning a home will find the loan products, the (real) mortgage professionals, and in fact, the money sorely lacking. Their dreams will become ever more difficult to realize.

And that, at the end of the day, is the worst effect of the entire mortgage meltdown. If people can’t buy homes, so many other areas of the economy are affected.

This new short sale demon lurking in the shadows of the mortgage meltdown will provide more opportunities for fraud, more problems for banks, and more misery for homeowners and home buyers.

It’s disgusting.

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By Trevor | Posted in | Comments (0)

Happy Thankgsiving!

November 22, 2007 – 1:34 pm

I’d like to wish you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving!

 

I hope this day finds you happy, healthy, prosperous and momentarily reflective of all those things in life for which you are thankful.

 

If you own a home, I hope you are thankful for the moment when you accomplished that goal. 

 

If you don’t yet own a home, but have the dream of doing so, I hope you are thankful that, in this great country of ours, that opportunity is always open to you, no matter the circumstances of the economy, the housing market, or the latest bad news broadcast on the radio.

 

 

I’m thankful for the opportunity these many years to help families realize the dream of homeownership.  When I got my first “Loan Officer” business card in 1989 (the week after Thanksgiving!), I thought, “Wow, I’m going to help people buy homes!”

 

Instead of considering myself a salesperson—which is really what I am, at the end of the day—I saw my role as that of information-provider, problem-solver, and ultimately, a helping hand for those with the desire to own a home.

 

I come from an immigrant family.  We came here with nothing and made a life.  We lived in apartment buildings in New York City.  The dream of owning a home was always living with my Mom and Dad, but somehow never realized.  Within three years of my start as a mortgage professional, I helped Mom and Dad buy their first home.

 

That dream is something so many people hold close to their hearts.  If the mortgage meltdown demonstrates anything, it’s that the average American family wants to own a home, so much so, they’re willing to go to extraordinary lengths to do so.  The fact that so many of these families were taken advantage of is symptomatic of the basic human failing of “greed” and not the broken mechanism of the home buying experience.

 

I’m thankful, too, that there have always been and remain to be so many avenues open to families to help them accomplish the goal of homeownership.

 

The American Dream is alive and well, and, whether you now own, or will someday own, I’m personally and professionally thankful of the reality of that dream. 

 

Again, Happy Thanksgiving!

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By Trevor | Posted in | Comments (0)

I never said that

November 21, 2007 – 9:32 am

The bad news continues. More homes go into foreclosure everyday; the blame game continues. I don’t think any single group or party is to blame for the mortgage meltdown of 2007. “Too many cooks…” as it were.

That having been said, let me say this (as I’ve often said before) about the “professionals” in the mortgage business: please, please, PLEASE, if you haven’t already applied for that fast-food-burger-flipping job, please do so now, and get going on your exit from our industry. Yes, I’m talking about the quick and easy money seekers who jumped on the mortgage bandwagon in the past few years, lied to people, trashed our industry, purchased their luxury cars and expensive watches (all of which, now in hock!), and contributed greatly to the meltdown and the ever-eroding consumer confidence in all things mortgage-related. Get out.

Here’s a good example of the kind of things these slimebags said to consumers to convince them to sign loan applications. The quote is from a National Public Radio show, “Marketplace.” If you don’t listen to this most excellent business report, you should start tonight.

Before I post the quote, let me say this about me, my business practices, and my career: I never said anything so ridiculous. I will certainly have advised a client that traditionally, over time, and accounting for the cyclic nature of real estate markets, homeowners can look forward to reasonable market appreciation of say, 4% a year. But I would never advise a client to take a high-cost mortgage only to have to refinance a year later. Absurd. You cannot peg your ability to make mortgage payments based on the notion that your property will appreciate forever and you can just refinance over and over again. Yes, truly absurd concept.

Here’s the quote:

“And they would say stuff like, you know, you’re in a prime area and property is going to keep going up and up and up, and you’ll be building up equity.”

I never said that. Ever.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

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Say “Thank You” to a Veteran on Veterans Day

November 10, 2007 – 10:50 pm

November 11th is Veterans Day.

This day of remembrance began after the end of the “Great War” in 1918. A moment of silence on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month commemorated the loss of millions of young lives in a deadly conflict. That moment marked the anniversary of the end of WWI, the war to end all wars.

 

In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower—a famous Veteran—signed a proclamation that November 11th would be known as Veterans Day.

The gruesome fact is, wars have not ended. American military personnel continue to go out into the world and fight for us and for others—non-Americans. The spirit of freedom and belief in liberty required to do so too often goes un-appreciated by we “ordinary” Americans back home.

Whatever the military or political reasons why Americans go out to sacrifice their time—and some, ultimately, their lives—the fact remains that the United States has a long history of stepping in to conflicts to support liberty, democracy and just plain freedom.

Americans who serve in our military forces believe in that vision. They serve often without question and with a belief they are doing the right thing.

The least we non-serving citizens can do is support them in the smallest way possible: by saying, “Thank you,” on Veterans Day.

I have long made it a point to say “Thanks” to any veterans I know; when I meet them for the first time I will stop, shake their hands and say, “Thank you for the time you spent in service to our country.” Often, this expression of gratitude takes the Veteran by surprise.

It should not, and, on this most solemn of American holidays, while American troops serve voluntarily in conflicts around the world, a few words of thanks are most necessary.

Please take a moment to say, “Thank you,” to a veteran you know. Your gratitude doesn’t have to be expressed eloquently, nor delivered with candy or expensive gifts. Just stop what you’re doing for a brief moment and say, “Thank you.” The few seconds it takes you to express your appreciation for the sacrifices that our Veterans have made in our behalf are all that is necessary.

In so doing, you’ll come to reflect on the idea that veterans are an important component in our American way of life. The work that veterans have done is a reflection on our viewpoint of freedom: everyone should have it. Without the work they have done—and continue to do—by serving our great nation, much of the freedom and rights we take for granted every single day might not exist.

It is easy and simple—and very necessary—to say thank you to a Veteran on Veterans Day.

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By Trevor | Posted in | Comments (0)