One thing that gets a lot of people in trouble with their credit scores is a past due account, also known in the industry as a collection or a collection account. These collection accounts stay on your credit report for 7 years. That is bad enough as it is, but it gets worse. Let's assume you have an outstanding five year old collection Read the rest of this entry »
I had an interesting exchange with a client that surprised me. We were discussing refinancing a loan in California. I ran the numbers and realized he could save $377 a month. We talked about how to proceed, but then he hesitated. He mentioned something about having to pay some sort of penalty when he refinanced, that he would not have to pay if he did not refinance. I finally realized he was talking about recourse versus non-recourse loans. Read the rest of this entry »
Yes, there really is a loan officer in the doughnut at times. What I am talking about is how business referrals are sourced in the mortgage industry. I'm afraid business is still referred the old-fashioned way, not by who earns it, but by who brings the freshest doughnuts to the Realtor office meeting, who picks up the tab at happy hour, who buys your Realtor tickets to the hockey game, and who hangs around the most in the realtor offices. Does this sound like a professional way to analyze a business vendor? Read the rest of this entry »
Is it time to refinance and save money? Maybe. I have a lot of clients who call me with 30 year fixed-rate mortgages and think that just because interest rates have dropped a lot they are going to switch to a 15 year mortgage and keep their payments the same, and cut a lot of years off of their mortgage. This is likely not going to happen. Take a look Read the rest of this entry »