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The Mortgage-Savvy Realtor - 03/12/07 07:27 PM
I'm sure that your clients may have surprised you in the past with a lending question that you never expected. In this new economic climate, with Colorado topping the nationwide list of states with the most foreclosures, it doesn’t hurt to be informed on what to expect from as a buyer from a lending standpoint. As a Realtor you don't have to know everything in regards to mortgage programs, but it since most sub-prime lenders are curtailing operations or out of business, the lending picture has changed drastically. In Colorado, we had no licensing until the beginning of this year, which … (4 comments)

5 Ways to Increase your Short-Sale Closings - 03/11/07 10:34 PM
The first thing I should mention is that you shouldn't let any lack of experience in this area hold you back or intimidate you. In the preceeding 10 year period of booming real estate valuations record-low interest rates, short sales just weren't as common as they will be in this era of tightening credit guidelines and major lenders collapsing like so many dominoes. Their was no incentive for a foreclosing bank to agree to a short sale if they could wait it out, take the house back and sell it to recoup their investment completely. Now, with mounting foreclosures and record-high … (32 comments)

3 Ways to Avoid Getting Caught in the Subprime Maelstrom - updated - 03/07/07 05:16 AM
Unless you've been sleeping under a rock and avoiding ActiveRain for the past weeks,  you've probably caught wind of the meltdown that's  been happening in the subprime lending sectors, with 30+ lenders shutting their doors and many more in trouble. It's fairly obvious that rising credit guidelines and risk premiums will make it harder to get your buyers approved; far less obvious are the steps you should take to survive in an interest rate and lending environment the likes of which we have not seen in perhaps 10 years. Here's a few tips that from me on how I think the … (23 comments)

50+ Wholesale Lenders Now Belly-up or Floundering - updated - list keeps on growing - 03/06/07 02:33 AM
Realtors: be aware than pre-approval letters you may have received previously from mortgage brokers may not be worth the paper they're written on, as the wholesale lender who may have approved the scenario is likely no longer in business or tightening its guidelines. Prepare your buyers to have to come up with higher down payments, especially if their credit is shaky. The conventional wisdom is that the freefall we saw in wholesale mortgage stocks last week was isolated to subprime and would likely not reverberate throughout the capital markets. I think that assessment is wrong and this meltdown will have serious repercussions … (42 comments)

Subprime Meltdown - Why New Century is Different - 03/04/07 01:03 PM
I just got a long-awaited email from New Century announcing they are no longer doing high CLTV subprime loans. I had been expecting something along those lines (if not along the lines of an imminent collapse), and not just because of the meltdown at at leat 30 other subprime lenders. As you can see from this post from over two years ago, their conference calls with analysts had long since raised questions about their accounting being by-the-book. In addition to creating an in-house REIT to basically sell its loans to itself and book high profits from those sales, New Century would … (7 comments)

 

Jose Luis Ramirez

Colorado Springs, CO

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5 Star Mortgage, Llc

Office Phone: (719) 597-7999

Cell Phone: (719) 360-2397

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Jose Luis Ramirez's ramblings on mortgages, real estate, the Colorado Springs market, and other simple thoughts that pass through the mind.


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