A good friend who has been in the business for many years asked a simple question of me today. It had mostly to do with credit score and what can be done. The answer was black and white - no room for gray - and his response was, "took the mortgage broker 3 months to figure that out. that's how long they tied up my listing!!!"
I have always given the truth even when the response truly does sting. When you give someone the facts and they say, "I'll just go somewhere else" or "well MY lender can ...". What I want to say is, "oh shutup you nitwit idiot" (because I'm human) but instead I say, "Best to you I wish you all the luck."
I can also tell you luck doesn't close loans. Neither do loan officers who lie to you, string you on and cost you time and resources. Not to mention end up pliffing off your customers.
I know for many years loan officers have "said anything to get the deal". I know this because I have had literally hundreds of people over the years come back to me, at or near closing or after the closing has been postponed umpteen times, saying, "You were right. They can't do what they promised." Of course the worst thing of all is when they promise you one thing, end up not being able to do it and countering with what I offered originally and you still going through with the deal ... that dignifies the way they treated you so they'll lie to the next person in hopes they'll settle for that treatment.
YOU CAN WALK AWAY AT THE CLOSING TABLE and the earth will not collapse around you. I know your agent wants their commission they have earned, the seller wants their money from the house they just skipped the last mortgage payment on and you have to be out of your rental house tomorrow. Guess what? You'll pay for that "bad" loan for many years so just calmly stand up, walk out, call the local lender who has an office you can drive to and go see them. Stop rewarding these liars for bad business.
Three common lies loan officers tell today:
I'm as busy as I have ever been
No problem I can get that done
We can close in two weeks (on a purchase)
Of course there are times when those are the correct answers. Here is a litmus test - if two or more experienced professionals give you one answer and the loan officer at mega-bank out in some state a thousand miles away tells you "sure, we can do that - we can do things nobody else can do" be very suspicious.
I have a sale closing coming up soon. Just after I locked the FHA rate at 5.25 (no dicount) on this purchase the father emailed and said "Everhome can do it for 4.75 with no discount and no origination". I knew that was not true because that rate was long gone. I also knew it wasn't true because that was about the best par rate ever and EVERYBODY gets paid. So I called Everhome and spoke with Jeff. Jeff was very helpful and curteous and laughed and said, "Sometimes the rates they advertise are a little outdated." I said, "Outdated? When did you ever do that rate with no points and no origination?" He said, "Me personally, never."
I used Everhome because I have the data to back it up in case somebody wants to challenge me on it. Not to throw Everhome under the bus because it is almost everyone who advertises (adverlieses) rates. If you see a rate or service advertised online you can almost certainly not believe it. Supposedly the FTC is taking care of that but I haven't heard anything lately. There are other names, too, who have promised the sky and couldn't even deliver a crack in the sidewalk.
BUT YOU DO IT TO YOURSELF - I know, I take the phone calls:
Me: "Thank you for calling Novation Mortgage, Georgia's FHA Loan Experts. This is Ken how may I help you?" You: "I just want to see what your rates are today." Me: "Fantastic, are you looking to purchase or refinance?" You: "Uhm refinance. So what are your rates?" Me: "Is this a home you are living in or an investment home?" You: "Uhm it's the home I live in. What are your rates?" Me: "That's great are you looking to take cash out or just rate and term?" You: "For Pete's sake, dude! Just tell me your rates!!!"
What you just did was tell me nothing more than a lie was going to help you at all. What if you wanted cash out? Waht if you're looking for an FHA streamline? What if you want to go to a 15 year loan instead of a 30 or vice-versa?
RATES ARE SUBJECT to many variables. You need to be shopping for much MUCH more than the rate. So when you're really serious about service and cost that beats anyone you can name you're ready to deal with a mortgage professional and get the quality service you deserve. Or you can keep dealing with order taking operators at some mega-bank three states away. I digress.
So how are you to know?
Find someone you can trust in your LOCAL area.
Find someone who can give you CUSTOMER references (not just agent references).
Find someone who has a LENDER's LICENSE PERSONALLY (not crucial but helps).
Earlier this year, the Memphis Area Association of REALTORS® requested that Memphis real estate agents involved in community volunteerism submit profiles of their involvement, to be published in the Commercial Appeal Real Estate Section. I was fortunate enough to have this profile chosen earlier in the year for my volunteer work with the Center for Southern Folklore.
Last week, I was featured again for my involvement with the Midtown Security Community, which coordinates citizen, business and police efforts to address neighborhood problems with crime.
I am a board member on both of these organizations, and I always enjoy my volunteer work. There is more to life than selling houses, and I believe in giving back to the community that sustains me.
Just because the real estate market is being trumpeted by bull horns, that doesn't mean it's time to retract your bear claws - http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/Bloodho...
Realtors get Web-savvy to keep up with buyers, but find personal skills still matter : Business News : Memphis Commercial Appeal - http://www.commercialappeal.com/news...Sunday Thanks to Don Wade with the Commercial Appeal for interviewing me for this story.
Real Estate For the Dazed & Confused | Real Estate Opinion MAG - AgentGenius - http://agentgenius.com/g-rants... Saturday Lightening it up with a little real estate humor
New Appraisal Rules Make Selling Homes Tougher - Housing Doom - http://housingdoom.com/2009...Saturday My last 5 sales have had appraisal-related issues.
"We are looking to attract more listings without paying a lot of advertising expense" | Real Estate Opinion MAG - AgentGenius - http://agentgenius.com/g-rants... Friday
Top 10 negotiating rules for Realtors | Real Estate and Technology News for Agents, Brokers and Investors | Inman News - http://www.inman.com/opinion...June 17
List price isn't the ‘real price' | Real Estate and Technology News for Agents, Brokers and Investors | Inman News http://www.inman.com/buyers...
Real Estate Agents Rotting Like Dinosaurs The Smell of Death Looms | Real Estate Blog Magazine Opinion Column AgentGenius http://agentgenius.com/reales...
BloodhoundBlog.com | Getting a $15,000 tax credit when you purchase your next home could be as easy as stealing candy from a baby... http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/Bloodho... Sunday
This 3 Bedroom home features spacious Kitchen, Living Room and Family Room (with wet bar), landscaped and fenced back yard.
Located on a quiet, friendly street in sought-after Pidgeon Estates, you will love the charm, elegance and convenience of this classic East memphis home.
Thumbing through a Rolling Stone the other day in the barber shop and ran across this year's list of music festivals. Memphis is probably best known for the Beale Street Music Festival which kicks off Memphis in Mud May every year, but there 3 fine festivals close by that bring in music fans from all over the world. Can Kansas or Ohio have a Blues Festival? Well sure; and they do, but Morgan Freeman and business partner Bill Luckett didn't name their Blues Club in Clarksdale, MS Ground Zero for nothing.
I don't intend to go into a musicology discourse, but if you want to see what real roots Delta Blues and culture looks like, don't miss the Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival in Clarksdale, August 7-9. This year's festival is a tribute to Sam Cook, a Clarksdale native. While the festival adds a name act or 2 that occasionally push the genre envelope, this festival experience gives you a real feel for the Mississippi Delta music and culture. Drive some backroads while you are in the area. Take Mississippi Hwy 1 to Rosedale; eat some Delta tamales and bar B-Q; talk to the locals- they are interesting folks. For Memphians, or if you have a place to stay in Memphis, it's a little over an hour drive to Clarksdale, so you can commute. Accomodations are a little sparse and book up early, but if you want to be a REAL Delta tourist, stay at The Shack Up Inn.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Tim Curry interviews Rockabilly legend Eddie Bond"][/caption]
Next up, in chronological order, a festival I have been affiliated with as a volunteer, and more recently a sponsor,The Memphis Music and Heritage. Staged by the Center for Southern Folklore in 5 venues varying from out door stages, to small club setting, to restaurant/concert hall (all within a block of each other), the festival presents the rich culture of the Memphis area with demonstrations, story tellers, dancers, cooking demonstrations, and of course music. This has got to be one of the most eclectic festivals in the world. Where else, over the course of a couple of days, could you urban gospel groups, Delta Blues musicians, Rockabilly musicians that Elvis and Johnny Cash opened for, rappers, rockers, jazz, Blues and Funk and folk. This festival is Memphis' best kept secret. It is held the Saturday and Sunday before Labor Day (September 5 & 6) on Main Street. Plenty of accomodations Downtown and around Memphis (watch out for Ole Miss and U of Memphis fans in town for the traditional football operner.) Oh, and did I mention food? Just let me know you are coming and I will tell you where and what to eat.
Also nearby to Memphis and across the river is Helena, AR, home of the Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival. This is the venerable festival that used to be known as the King Biscuit Blues Festival, until organizers lost the right to use the name. It's a 3 day festival in October, probably the Mid-South's most pleasant month weather-wise. This is a big one. Lots of acts; lots of food; lots of festival atmosphere. At this writing they are still putting together the website for this year's event, but the festival has an impressive social media presence, so follow them on Twitter, fan them on Facebook, and subscribe to their RSS news feeds.
Whether you are from the Memphis and Delta area or some other place in the world, these are truly one of a kind festivals. Y'all come see us.
There was such and active discussion on my last post, I decided to post an occasional Facebook tip.
Every time I do a presentation on Facebook, or talk with newer FB users the question comes up: "Will X know if I delete them as a friend?" They don't really want to hear from, or they somehow feel weird that they friended them, or maybe they are a competitor. The answer: while deleted friends don't get a notification, they may indeed notice that you are not on their list anymore.
If you don't mind staying friends, you can shield yourself from their annoying and inappropriate updates by using a very simple to use filter. While everyone complains when FB does an upgrade, the last upgrade, the one that opens your account with a newsfeed from all your friends, gives you a cool HIDE button
Just mouse over the offending entry, and a ghost "Hide" button will appear. Click it and then confirm you wish to hide the person's updates , or the annoying applications they want to share with the world, and you never see their updates again. They never know. And you don't have to deal with the guilt of un-friending them.
Just for the record, I didn't hide the person in the example. I support healthy debate on Over or Under.
Every day in my Facebook news stream, I am greeted with realtor updates of their new listings, listing appointments, closings and pending sales. If I click to their profiles, there is very little, if any "social" content, only postlets of listings, videos of listings, and updates about how many showing and listing appointments they have today. This is a segment of our industry that cannot let go of interruption marketing, and embrace the social in social media as a powerful vehicle for fostering permission marketing. It's hard to gauge the size ot this segment in relation to the overall real estate social community, but thank goodness for the Hide button in Facebook.
For the past few days real estate and tech blogs have been abuzz about a new Twitter app that will allow agents to automatically push out their listings on twitter continuously. I will not mention the app, because last night they RT'd me on Twitter and changed the content of my original message from something unfavorable to them, to make it look like I was endorsing them. They did not respond to my request to remove the tweet.
Body part enhancement, debt relief, and porn pitches have been supplanted in my email spam filters by Social media easy money making pitches. It's hard for some to avoid jumping on any bandwagon that shows some profit potential. Nobody can predict the future of Social Media or how Web 3.0 will look, but I hope we can somehow keep the power of engagement and permission marketing in the picture. Somehow, that just feels better to me than being slapped in the face with "Charming Tudor -$394,500"
Local news channel WHBQ- Fox 13, featured me in a piece about Twitter. Although I didn't have any editorial control, I think the product is pretty good. They didn't use any of my preaching about using Social Media as a way to engage, and not just do more push marketing, but I thought that theme came through. Hopefully the non-tweeting public learned that there is a little more to Twitter than what you had for breakfast, and where you are going for dinner.
Anyway, it was kind of cool to get in front of the camera and be featured in the story. They know how to reach me if they want more.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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I don't intend to go into a musicology discourse, but if you want to see what real roots Delta Blues and culture looks like, don't miss the 
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Next up, in chronological order, a festival I have been affiliated with as a volunteer, and more recently a sponsor, 
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