Is THIS really who represents mortgage banker/broker interests in Washington???

Mortgage rates in Illinois, and the nation, have hit a new low. Purchase or refinance… It may be time to make that move that you’ve been putting off!

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This video, from our friends Frank and Brian at TBWS, is an eye opener! As the regulators continue to try to “fix” what they think is broken, does anyone find it as interesting as I do, that the large majority of legislation affects the mortgage broker negatively and affects the banker in virtually no way, what so ever?

TBWS Daily Thursday May 13, 2010

Oh… and the “Single Lady” segment is pretty funny!  Frank and Brian… you guys make pretty good “lounge lizards”

March 31, 2010 is the scheduled end to the Fed’s multi-trillion $$ purchase of Mortgage Backed Securities!!  While the exact impact is uncertain, most economists expect rates to increase, at least on a temporary basis.  There’s a nice explanation in the Think Big Work Small video below…

TBWS Daily Monday March 15, 2010

Having worked for B of A for 13 years, while I find this segment funny, I also find it quite disturbing!

A valuable mortgage tool to help troubled homeowners has been extended!  See video below…

According to statistics from Fannie Mae, “more than 329,000 loans have been delivered to Fannie Mae through the Refi Plus flexibilities.  Of those loans, more than 100,000 were refinanced under the HARP with loan-to-value ratios between 80% and 125%!!

My question is:  How many of those loans had LTV’s between 100% and 125%?  They must have all been done by the existing servicer of the loan, since I have yet to find a lender who will go above 100% LTV on a loan coming in from another lender.

Regardless… this is welcome news to existing mortgage holders and mortgage originators!

View this video by clicking here and, from the perspective of the lender, what do you think is the most financially beneficial course of action… helping the homeowner out with a loan modification OR pushing them into a short sale???

The numbers proposed in this video are purported to be true!  If that is the case, we have yet another reason to be very angry with the government and the structure of their “bailout” plan!!

Thoughts?  Opinions?

In recent weeks, I have discussed the glut of new guidelines and their effect on the consumer’s mortgage application.  I have also discussed some of the adverse effects that credit cards and their rule changes have had on the consumer’s flexibility in obtaining a mortgage.  Well… there are a few new changes that are coming that actually might benefit the consumer and there’s actually been a bit of advance notice, for once.

There will be some key changes that you can look forward to from your credit card company and they will be enacted on February 22, 2010.

Two of the biggest changes to expect are:

• You must be notified within 45 days prior to any increase in interest rate.
• There must be some form of disclosure as to how long it will take you to pay off your balance, given certain payments made.

There will be more changes occurring in August of 2010… I’ll go into those in the future.

If you’d like to read more about some of the changes coming on February 22, please click here.  This will lead you to the website for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

Have a great day!

As we have explored in an earlier post, one of the basic rules of improving your credit score is to NOT close a credit card account when you pay it off.  This process applies to the “Credit Saturation” threshold that we’ve previously investigated.  This is a procedure that I try to impress upon all of the borrowers that refinance and use proceeds to pay off credit cards.

Well… the banks have caught on and are now beginning to see profits dwindle as consumers no longer want to be saddled with credit card balances, and have now compensated by creating new fees.

As unpleasant as opening the mail might be for some individuals, you must do so with a renewed awareness now.  Within those mailings, whether they be statements or addendums to your contract with the company, you must be vigilant of the following:

• Items you may have already seen…
  • Increased interest rates
  • Increased minimum payments
  • Increased fees for exceeding your limit
  • Increased penalty fees for late pays (be very careful in reading your contract… some companies can increase your rate if you make a payment late at ANOTHER company!!)
• NEW charges that you may be seeing soon…
  • Annual fees on cards that might have previously not had an annual fee
  • Inactivity fees on cards you hold, but don’t use
  • Processing fees (basically a junk fee disguised as a fee for sending out a paper statment)

To sum this all up… OPEN your mail… STUDY your statements for changes and anything out of the ordinary or different from what you signed up for… OPT OUT of any changes that are being proposed, if given the option (you may have to search for the ability to opt out)… CALL your provider and verbally negotiate out of the changes… if all else fails, go to one of the credit card resources such as www.lowcards.com to find a replacement card.

IMPORTANT:  If you are forced to replace a card that just will not give you what you want, DO NOT close the existing card prior to opening the new account!  This will almost certainly result in a credit score hit.  Additionally… DO NOT replace more than one card in a 60-90 day period of time.  Also, DO NOT do anything that will result in an additional inquiry to your credit… applying, en masse, to a number of credit card companies WILL result in inquiries!  Do your homework first and apply to one company at a time!

As always… please feel free to contact me should you have any questions or comments.

A petition containing 117,000+ signatures to end HVCC (Home Value Code of Conduct), is being presented by Brian Stevens and Frank Garay from Think Big Work Small, to  Andrew Cuomo, today in New York.

According to HVCCpetition.com, the signing statistics were as follows:

• 39.6% if the petition signers were mortgage originators
• 29.8% of the petition signers were real estate professionals
• 17.4% of the petition signers indicated they worked in some other facet of the industry
• The  remainder of the petition signers were primarily home owners or potential home buyers

For those unfamiliar with HVCC… this bit of legislation stopped the ability of mortgage brokers to order appraisals from the sources that they are familiar with and put the appraisal process in the hands of the ultimate lender the loan would be placed with.  The HVCC procedure has resulted in appraisal delays and additional costs to the borrower and has all but eliminated the borrower’s ability, without incurring the cost of another appraisal, to have their loan placed at another lender, once the appraisal has been ordered.

Stay tuned for further news on this very important issue affecting the mortgage and real estate industry.