Going dark. All salespeople have experienced this, no matter how good. You educate a potential client, you spend hours and hours with them answering questions, you create a relationship, and you truly seek to help them to earn your commission. And then it happens, they go dark. No contact. No return calls. No email reply. No nothing. It is eerie. You start to wonder what you did wrong. Read the rest of this entry »
The Good Faith Estimate (GFE) is one of the worst ways to compare lenders. I must get asked for a GFE 10 times a week, and 10 times a week I try and explain that using a GFE is the wrong way to compare lenders. Below are a few reasons why: Read the rest of this entry »
It seems we are doomed to repeat our mistakes. Mankind has been jumping over bushels of hundred dollar bills to reach the quarter in the corner, since the dawn of currency. I have a number of new stories every week, of consumers who look so very hard for the best deal, they overlook the fact that they may be dealing with a disreputable provider, or may not get what they expect, or may be getting a promise that won't be kept, or even worse; Read the rest of this entry »
When you buy a new home, or refinance, it can be a nervous and exciting time. And getting excited and nervous causes people to over analyze and sometimes make poor decisions. Sometimes a client will ask for a lower rate, by paying discount points. Each discount point is 1% of the loan amount, or $1,000 per $100,000 in mortgage. It sounds great to get a rate that is a half percent lower than what you hear about in the news or see online (and shopping for rates online is not accurate, see this story for more on that), but what about the costs? Read the rest of this entry »
A large, well known bank, who the client described as "well established with comparable rates, so we are going with them", has rejected a home buyer's loan after almost 90 days in process. The seller has already given extension after extension. Now the sellers are furious, the buyer's are literally in tears, and are asking me to take over the loan and get them to settlement in 7 days. That is impossible, no one can get a new loan done that fast. The husband told me, in tears, that he had to have this house to move into, and that he was desperate for more space for he and his growing family. This little boy should not cry just because his parents made a poor choice in mortgage lender. His parents simply need to make better choices, and not shop by price alone. 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 »
Often times a Realtor will suggest to a homebuyer that they use the real estate company's "in-house" lender. Realtors don't usually push these lenders on their buyers, but they are definitely suggested many times. Every wonder why? It is important to know how these lenders are structured, and how they operate. Read the rest of this entry »
Everyone wants to get the best deal reasonably possible when getting a mortgage. I say reasonable, because although some lending sources advertise what seem like unreal rates, most consumers are smart enough to discount what appears to be a free lunch. The reality is that even with hundreds of competitors, rates never vary by much more than 1/8% in rate. But hey, who does not want every 1/8% to be in their favor?! I do. So go for it. But here is the problem with shopping for that best 1/8% deal online: Read the rest of this entry »
Let's do a quick lesson that may take us back to our school days. I want to make sure everyone knows what a commodity is, and is not.
A commodity is a good for which there is Read the rest of this entry »
Each mortgage lender has dozens of loan programs, and there must be hundreds of lenders. We work with 50 lenders or so, and each lender may have a different interpretation or guideline for each facet of the loan; related to credit, income, appraisal, assets and debt ratios. Imagine the hundreds or even thousands of permutations, Read the rest of this entry »