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As I was driving to work this morning, along Hwy 17 to West Ashley, I noticed something sad. My favorite old ivy covered home was completely gone. The lot was clean as a whistle except for a neatly stacked pile of weathered lumber near the back fence.
I actually had a tear well up. What? Well, I guess it's not so strange really to feel a little sad when such a structure disappears. How many lives unfolded under that roof. How many tragedies, mysteries and romances?
I have admired, photographed and wondered about his house for the last 3 years. Ever since moving to Charleston. Some of you know I'm a little crazy for abandoned homes, cemeteries and the like. But, this one I passed everyday and as I passed I created little stories in my head about it's history. Stories of murder, mayhem, love and politics all turned juicy and vivid when this house was center stage...in my mind.
It was beautuful. Two stories of aged grey covered in vines and berries...dark windows and doorways beckoned to the homeless, the artists and poets. It loomed over Highway 17 and one would be hard pressed to ignore it's presence...no matter how much they may have on their mind at rush hour.
But now it's gone. And all we have are the memories. Perhaps I should work for the Charleston Preservation Society.. or perhaps I should just continue to preserve history the way I always have..through my art, dreams and stories.
My goodness! I haven't blogged here at ActiveRain in a loooooong time. Sorry to all my fans...you know who you 3 are! ;)
I would rather stab my eyes out then study about the new GFE, but, guess what, I must or starve. So, I am preparing a class for my local Realtors on Friday to cover the most pertinent aspects of the New GFE and HUD-1. Teaching is always the best way for me to learn more about a topic. I have a 3 hour CD to listen to and 159 pages to scour..again...to prepare for the class.
At first I was horrified at all the changes because frankly, they are stupid (no amount for closing, no disclosure of total payment, no seller credits shown), BUT...once I settled down and began to accept my fate I delved slightly deeper into this.
Perhaps HUD isn't out to ruin my life...perhpas they are actually intelligent individuals who actually care about fair lending practices and are genuinely concerned for people and maybe, just maybe, they would like to do something (no matter how small) to try and prevent another great depression or at least keep our current depression from worsening.
So, once I conceded...I started to look for the positive in all of this and here is what I have found 12 days into our New GFE life style. I have an amazing opportunity to sit and discuss these changes and details and the TRUE cost of doing a home loan with buyers in person. It's a great way to entice your clients into actually coming to see you at your office! Novel concept. It's an amazing opportunity to be a professional and act like one and provide valuable insight, financial direction, and to educate buyers who really will dictate the future state of our economy. One on one..person to person...this misunderstood complex mess of a GFE can actually help us all.
I'm all for it. So, Loan Officers...let's dust off our collective brains and get to work. They blame us (erroneously) for ruining the economy as it is so let's help to rebuild it one happy home buyer at a time.
Wow..where is my cape!
PS: HUD is on FaceBook at http://www.facebook.com/HUD
This blog is some what inflammatory but brings up many good talking points. It's a good read. Via Chris Comberrel, Envoy Morgage, Mortgage Banker (Envoy Mortgage): The new GFE does not specify the loan product (FHA, Conventional, VA, etc.), it also does not inform the borrower the actual monthly payments in Principal, Interest, Property Taxes and Home Insurance (PITI), what their down payment is, or what amount is required for closing. These vital pieces of information will now be given to the borrower VERBALLY? The form simply addresses information pertaining to the mortgage loan. The new form appears to have been set up by someone who was only concerned with the shopping aspects should be without looking at what is important(down payment, monthly payment, etc.).
 It has no signature lines – gee, that’s helpful, I gave it to you…. no, you didn’t… yes, I did. Did they really forget that? YES, ITS THAT IMPORTANT!!!
Our compliance department has been going over this thing for in excess of 6 months and we managed to come up with over 50 questions that are not addressed anywhere within 24 hours of our first training session.
This takes us from one page to three pages, more paperwork. What ever happened to the paperwork reduction act? HUD takes a one page GFE that for years focused on breaking down all the costs in a real estate transaction and replaces it with 3 pages that lump everything up and hide it. How does this make anything transparent?
No loan officer is permitted to ask for income and asset documentation before issuing a GFE. What is the point of this? Allow a window for fraud?
We, as loan originators, can only give ONE GFE. This is not going to make many clients or Realtors happy when I tell them I can’t give them one until I have a completed application based on information given but I’m not allowed to ask for the paperwork necessary to back it up. Sounds like stated income. Didn’t that lead to problems before?
Here’s one of the scenarios that had been run. Let say I am refinancing a client. It is unsure what their home is worth (does anyone know what their home is worth anymore?) and when the appraisal comes in it’s a bit short of the value your client needed. I’m not going into the problems involved with HVCC, but now another appraisal may be required. The lender will be charged with “loan level price adjustments” accordingly. Let say the cost of the appraisal was $400 and having to order another will cost an additional $400. There is a 10% tolerance so that means we are clear for the first $440 but we will have to issue a credit for a POC-L to the borrower for $360 and a letter of explanation within 30 days of closing the loan. Due to circumstances like this, there is no doubt that companies will be issuing across the board increases to cover when situations like this occur.
Gone are the days when you may take an application over the phone and send a couple of GFE’s to a potential client within a few hours. The opening weeks of January, expect the max amount of time to be taken between application and one GFE being issued. The GFE, from the way it was explained to us, must match the HUD-1. From the originators stand point we only issue 1/3 of the information on the GFE but we are being held (legally and financially) responsible for the other 2/3 which we gather from other entities.
These are just prices for examples – none are real. This can illustrate how bad this can get:
Home Inspection Company A(HIC A) – standard home inspection cost: $500 (That’s all they do)
Home Inspection Company B(HIC B) – standard home inspection cost: $600 (They are also qualified for hydrostatic inspection, radon testing, different mold inspections, etc.) The hydrostatic, radon, mold for sake of argument run an additional $2,200.
If the home buyer selects B and gets the full range of testing done, it could be argued that he believed the extra $100 included the additional services(Yes, I’m going over board). With this being subject to the 10% tolerance, we as the loan originators are responsible for $1540. $2200 – $660 = $1540. They give a 10% tolerance on the $600.
As I get answers to the growing list of questions we have come up with, I’ll post what outside counsel has told us.
Bottom line, expect the home buying process to take longer and get more expensive for refinancing and future home buyers after Jan. 1, 2010.
I love South Carolina history which is amazing because I am a foreigner...I mean, a Yankee! And to make it even more amazing I am NOT a history buff in any way shape or form. Just ask my husband...he tries (in vain) to entice me to listen to his history on CD set while we travel and I pretty much want to scream and claw my way out of the car like a rabid caged squirrel.
We had a little extra time yesterday and drove out to Old Fort Dorchester which is about six miles South of Summerville, SC on Hwy 642, AKA Dorchester Road. What an amazing and mysterious place.
The town was established 1695 according to my on-line research (I found many factual discrepancies about the history of Fort Dorchester on-line). This is not surprising since the site is over 300 years old. I suppose some of the details may have been lost along the way. The best information I found was on the... South Carolina Department of Archives and History site. You can follow them on FaceBook and Twitter! How progressive is that!
I found some more very interesting history at http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/l/o/r/Bruce-W-Lord/FILE/0002page.html("The town of Dorchester, in South Carolina"...published in 1905) writen by Henry A.M. Smith. This is very detailed and worth reading if you are at all interested. You can also learn more about the life and historical writings of Judge Henry A.M. Smith at http://openlibrary.org
From what I gather the town was founded along the banks of the Ashley River in 1696 by the followers of Joseph Lord from Dorchester, Massachusetts. He was educated at Harvard University (which was founded in 1636 - the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States). Joseph Lord had eight children but lost one infant to malaria.
The church was built in 1719 and the still standing bell tower (shown above) was added in 1751 which I find very odd because everything I can find says the small village was abandoned in January 1751...some say 1788. The British Army invaded and occupied in 1780. Joseph Lord left with his family sometimes around 1715 and evidently the remaining families struggled with the heat and rampant disease and slowly migrated back North to Massachusetts.
I'm sure my facts are not 100% historically accurate, I hope you can forgive me for that, but I will say this; as an artist and lover of South Carolina history this place was a priceless find. A jewel. I encourage everyone to check it out and to learn more. Why, I don't really know...except that it kindles some flame buried deep down in my soul. Maybe it will do the same for you.
Our collective history holds many secrets for the curious traveler, unexplained mysterious for the writer and artist, and lessons for our political and religious leaders.
Happy New Year to all my friends at ActiveRain!
Wordless Wednesday is my saving grace. Sometimes I get sooooo sick of talking about mortgage. I don't, however, get tired of talking about my beloved South Carolina. It is a photographers, artists, writers, dream come true. If you're an artist and are thinking about moving to Charleston...come on! Oh, and I will be happy to help you finance the home of your dreams. Unless, of course, you are a starving artist. :)
Here is just one of the thousands of photos I have taken. Location: Somewhere off Hwy 41.
I headed to work at 8:00 like I normelly due and for the first time in two years I encountered....a delay. We had a little early morning rain...I didn't think much of it. But, if you combine a little rain with high tide you got yourself a good old fashioned Charleston Crosstown delay! Here are my pictures from my two hour saga...oh, the horror of it all. It really wasn't that bad..just being dramatic to sell more blogs. Oh, wait...my blogs are free..crap!
I just got out of a credit scoring class with Ken Venerables from First American CredCo. Great information that we all need to stay on top of as the new year approaches. I learned some very interesting facts from Ken today and thought I would share an abbreviated recap with you.
TOP 5 CREDIT SCORING MYTHS
- FICO SCORES DO NOT DISTINGUISH BETWEEN A FORECLOSURE, SHORT SALE OR DEED IN LIEU! (Wow...why spend months of pain and agony dealing with a short sale then?)
- Opting out of junk mail via WWW.OPTOUTPRESCREEN.COM will not improve your credit score. I'm just as guilty as anyone for recommending this...there is a ton of believable propaganda out there regarding this. I think it's a good idea to stop receiving junk mail but it wont improve your scores.
- Piggybacking on another persons good credit by becoming an "Authorized User" will no longer help your score unless: a relative has legitimately added you to their account OR you are applying for a loan via a company that has not yet begun to utilize the new FICO '08 model.
- Multiple Finance Company credit lines (AKA Pay-Day Lending loans) on ones credit...even if paid on time...do not help your score. These types of loans are usually provided to anyone who asks at very high rates. These loans are usually made to folks who all ready have bad credit so this does not indicate a wise financial strategy.
- Consumers who take the bull by the horns and apply for their own credit report and scores from online sources such as freecreditreport.com will not receive an accurate score as it pertains to the mortgage process or approval. Totally different scoring models are used for the mortgage approval process. If you want to shop for a mortgage have a local professional mortgage company pull a tri-merge report and ask for a copy.
I have much more awesome credit information to share but can't stand long winded blogs..so that's all for today folks!
Melissa Breeland
Very Interesting..wonder if anyone is utilizing this technology in SC? Via Ben Schern (Target Building Inspections LLC): Thermal Imaging for Home Inspection is here to stay, like it or not...
It is vast becoming a hugely talked about Industry. Thermal Imaging, Infrared, Thermography, Air Tightness and so much more within the Home Inspection Buisiness. I have seen many talk about it and few actually following thru due to increased costs of equipment, expanded time on the property and potential clients un-educated to appreciate the costs.
So where does the real estate agent stand? I'm hoping for some serious feedback, considering the recent purchase of some $28,000.00 in cameras and their components recently. Thermal Image tests are important quality control measures when building or renovating a house. Heat losses in buildings can account for up to 50% of the total energy consumption and comes from air leakage through chimneys, attics, wall vents and badly sealed windows/doors, stucco etc.
Moisture control problems are just a tip of the iceburg. The recent mass production of ram shakkle stucco homes thru-out the state show considerable defects in insulation, poor workmanship, amateure materials and more. Track homes were built in mass with over worked inspectors, shady trades working by "the piece" furiously trying to finish and get paid. Where does it leave us? Everything looks grand from the exterior, however when peeling back the sheets of this fiasco of building, many deficiencies are uncovered. Should we keep our mouth shut, after-all it is supposed to be "non-evasive" & "non destructive" inspecting.
Cost? Affordable! Extremely affordable. For a few hundred bucks we can show you where the house can save that and tenfold more by simply chasing the losses. Then go figure how much you save with a solar panel. I recently attended a 3 day seminar at ASU with a new start up trying just that. It is expected that savings wouldn't kick in for 20 years by going solar! What a joke. I say, invite us in and show you your losses directly. I didn't like that, I mean show you the potential gains.
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All new buildings must meet air tightness requirements of the Building Regulations. By reducing air leakage, you will obtain a better comfort in the building. The building can also be heated more efficiently to conserve energy and save money.
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Detection and Visualisation of Air Infiltration and Exfiltration
Adequate air exchange is essential for the occupants' health and safety, but most buildings have a far higher rate of air exchange than is necessary. The root cause is often poor design and/or construction which allows air leakage from the inside of outside of the building, or the opposite. The leakage pathway is often complex and, without thermal imaging, extremely difficult to visualize. This also allows the contractors to quickly identify and repair the problem areas to stop the energy loss immediately.
Improved Energy Efficiency
To identify areas of energy waste infrared imaging has quickly become a valued tool in identifying problems related to energy loss, missing insulation, inefficient HVAC systems, radiant heating, water damage on roofs, and much more. A thermal imaging camera identifies patterns of heat loss that are invisible to the naked eye. Thermal imaging will quickly indicate the air leaks within a property and measurement data are easily compiled into a report.
Professional home inspectors and energy auditors here at Target Building Inspections are using leading-edge infrared technology from FLIR to perform energy auditing of homes and buildings to improve energy efficiency, thus leading to savings on energy costs. Having too much Fun!!! Follow us on Face Book!!!
Target Building Inspections LLC
Residential Commercial
(480) 228-6165
Servicing all of Arizona 24/7/365
- Play Mafia Wars ALL DAY LONG and choose not to skip the announcements every time you wack someone.
- Post fervent scary rants about Jesus, Buddha, Allāh, and your undying adoration and love for them, it, her, him....
- Post fervent scary rants about your favorite political figure, ideology, or agenda
- Never comment on any ones posts, blogs, videos, music choices...remain selfish and self-centered as much as possible
- Comment on EVERYTHING someone posts like a creepy stalker
- Advertise your product or service with the hurricane like drive and determination of an Olympic Athlete
- Only post links...and post the ones that look suspiciously like possible viruses
- NEVER change your password or practice safe surfing after you have been hacked.
- Don't post a picture of yourself
- Go rogue and curse like a sailor...enjoy the delusion that common courtesy really doesn't apply to you.
Yes, we have all heard these before yet the message doesn't seem to be getting through...the quest for social media education continues.
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LOAN PROGRAM
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INTEREST RATE
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APR
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30 YR CONV FIXED
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4.750%
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4.843%
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15 YR CONV FIXED
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4.250%
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4.347%
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FHA/VA 30 YR FIXED
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4.875%
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4.972%
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JUMBO 30 YR FIXED
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6.625%
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6.721%
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RURAL HOUSING- USDA
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5.250% (zero down no MI)
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5.347%
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SC STATE HOUSING (CATEGORY III AND DISABILITY PROGRAM)
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5.750% $4,000 -DPA Available
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5.848%
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At Your Service,
Melissa "The Mortgage Maven" Breeland
Residential Mortgage of SC
902 Savannah Hwy
Charleston, SC 29407
Best Phone: (843) 991-6532
Fax: (843) 725-2363
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Melissa Breeland
Charleston,
SC
More about me…
Residential Mortgage of SC
Address: 902 Savannah Hwy, Charleston, SC, 29407
Office Phone: (843) 725-6004
Cell Phone: (843) 991-6532
Email Me
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