Is it me, or did I miss something

I came across this and it made me wonder how they collect the statistics. Everyone uses numbers to help illustrate their point but often times they only show a part of the story that they are designed to. I wanted to see how many of you will be surprise by what the link below shows versus what your perception is. I thought about it for a while and all of the rhetoric which I hear is always so negative particularly when it comes to the State of Maryland and the Montgomery County. 10 Worst Tax States http://portal.kiplinger.com/slideshow/taxes/T054-S001-10-least-tax-friendly-states-in-the-u-s/index.html One thing I can say is that I'm glad I don't live there.....

Something Borrowed - Something New

It's been a long time since I appeared to write something which both offers value and doesn't self promote. I've been exposed to lot's of new technology and it's all very overwhelming in terms of what it takes people to engage you. We all are looking for a way to be thought of as either nice people who are helpful or someone who knows their business. Since many of us are pathological networkers, how do you know that the person has a level of competency? I believe that one of the fastest rising ways to get notice is to begin to incorporate the tools of the trade into your arsenal. One needs to deliver value, if they are unable to do so then they usually aren't around very long. I have not been an effective tweeter or facebooker but I believe that if you have something to say there is no better way to get to those people who are a potential audience. What I've been told is that you never promote yourself or even speak about the nuisances of your business. What you do is speak of things like best practices, use of technology and other things such as guidelines and new rules which effect getting a mortgage in my particular case. I've included an link to an article which is geared at some things which people need to be aware of and hopefully this will be the catalyst to use the tools which we had at my disposal for the last few years. So here goes, hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0lEzPHdfUw

Ok, It is what it is!

Now that the Federal Reserve Bill has basically gone into effect, we all have to come to grip with the realty of the situation.
It is disappointing for many of us who are originators that we have lost some of the creativity which we had and the ability to get rewarded for the level of service which we provide. However, having said that it may be a blessing in disquise.
The borrower/buyer,owner can still shop but they are limited by getting true pricing. What does that mean. Well, simply put they want a particular rate and they have two simple choices for the term that they desire - either to pay for it as a discount or get a lender credit back if the par pricing is higher than what the lender/broker is allowed to charge.
It may sound a little confusing in how I expressed it but what you really need to know is that there isn't any origination points/fees allowed any longer. My feelings or opinion don't matter becasue the banks are going to do what they want with the duplicity of congress regardless of whether they should or could.
Should they be able to make even more given the challenges that everyone is facing in the economy? That is a blog for yet another day.
As always, if you have questions or would like to know more about what impact the FRB will have on you, please give me a call, or send me tweet or email

Community Bank? I don't think so....

Don't be fool by the Marketing Messages of the Mega Banks such as Wells Fargo and others. I pick on WF because although they are second to only BOA in their size their Marketing Message states that they are a Community Bank.

But how can they be? Isn't a community bank located in that community to serve it's clients. How if you are publicly traded company, based out of SF and have acquired another publicly traded company in Wachovia can you be more dedicated to serving your customers than Wall Street.

I claim it is virtually impossible to serve two masters. In fact, if some organization is so disrespectful in their marketing message to lie to their client base, what makes you think that they will do anything more than provide idol lip service to clients the depositor rather than to Wall Street itself.

Please feel free to comment as always. Let me know what you think.

Community Bank? I don't think so....

What is a "Community Bank"? Don't let the marketing message of the Wells Fargo and others fool you. I'm going to pick on WF in this example because their most recent ad states that they are a community bank. How is this possible?

Aren't they a publicly traded company? Aren't they based on the West Coast and didn't they acquire Wachovia? Aren't they the second biggest bank after BOA? They are the proverbial 800lb gorilla in the room. They did take the TARP money where many community banks did not.

Let me put it this way. Why should you trust anyone who is willing to lie outright in their message to the public. The main mission of any publicly traded company is to their shareholders and their investors. How can they serve two masters. Afterall, if you serve Wall Street, doesn't your customer service and commitment to your clients seem secondary?

Please feel free to comment and let me know what you think.

Really Now?

I was on a conference call concerning the changes which are due to take place on April 1, thanks to “Our” Federal Reserve Board. Many of us who are originators have issues being restricted on what is the maximum compensation we are entitled to receive, regardless of how much value or service we provide. There is something so un-American, even unconstitutional about it. However, the same rules do not limit the amount of what the investors like Wells, BOA, Chase, Citi and the lot are allowed to earn.

Having said this, be aware that interest rates will probably start moving up by an .25 to .5% within the next week to the middle of April. I have no idea whether this will be temporary or not. My thought is that if you are thinking about refinancing, then move quickly. If you have an interest in purchasing then move as quickly as possible.

The real impact to you could be what you can afford and whether it will be worth your while to move forward on refinancing. Once again our government has seen to negatively impacting the competitve balance by reducing rather than fostering competition.

How counter intuitive is this?

Is Bigger Better, Really?

I say this is because all companies are looking for those economies of scale which let them centralize their operations and overhead. Herein is one of the problems with the National Lenders like Wells Fargo, Bank of America and even SunTrust. They all want a certain portfolio of client and therefore will compete real hard for Market Share. However, when the client doesn't fall into that specific hole then they are of little value to that company any longer. Additionally, because these operations centers are centralized, there is no one who has direct ownership of your file as there is with the smaller more local lender. The file can languish in underwriting for countless weeks, even months. It can be suspended for any reason and there is often no communication back to you or even the representative as to why that is.
The solution is to deal with local lenders who have in house underwriting. What I mean by this is that although they are not of the same size as the Mega Lenders they do offer to be much more responsive service and are usually much more vested in the community. Also, because they are underwriting the file directly, they can often be a little bit more creative or flexible given what the criteria is for submittal and approval.
If you really want the best deal and want to get your deal done much more quickly then seek out those who are well organized and have an operational procedure for dealing with their work flow. How do you know? Ask, because just because someone says that they have in house underwriting doesn't mean that they can do it efficiently. Do not be afraid to ask specific questions about different scenarios and how would they handle it.
Remember time is money. If you are doing a refinance and BOA gives you a .125 better rate or saves you $500 on lenders fees but it takes twice as long to close then what is the true pay off? If you save $15 per month but it cost you $2000 more to do that refinance because you were in that rate for a month longer, what was your payoff?
It’s just a thought. Remember that Value does have a price and that good is not cheap and cheap is not good.