The mortgage business has taken its toll on me lately. The guidelines, rules and regulations keep changing. It seems like they are changing as frequently as interest rates. Everything is changing so rapidly that it can be difficult to keep up.

  Recently, I had a customer that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get them qualified to buy a home. basically, what it all came down to is I couldn't get them to qualify until several months went past. One of the hardest things for me to do is to deny someone the dream of owning a home. I was pleasantly surprised when my customers contacted my boss to tell him what a fine job I had done. Fine job? I couldn't get them a loan! It wasn't my fault, but I couldn't get them the home they had wanted.

  I thought I would cut and paste the email that the sent to my Broker.

Dear Scott,

I am writing you to commend Michael Delp on assistance he recently provided regarding our mortgage needs. Michael was highly professional throughout our dealings, extremely efficient, highly responsive, tenacious with lenders and creative when it came to handling my wife & I's relatively unique financial circumstances as we sought financing. Although for reasons outside of his control we were not able to pursue a mortgage with Michael on this occasion, I would have no hesitation recommending his services to friends or colleagues in future. I hope Michael receives the recognition he deserves as he is an asset to your company.

Regards
Adam

 Nothing like a great note like this from a customer to put a little wind in my sails! it does my heart some good to know that I worked hard and got paid in compliments! I want to Keep the great customers coming!

  There is a great new loan program available for purchasing REO properties owned by Fannie Mae. A borrower needs a 660 credit score to qualify. It will allow your buyers to borrow up to 95% with no mortgage insurance. That's right, NO MORTGAGE INSURANCE!  There is no need for an appraisal!

  This is a fantastic program that can save home buyers thousands of dollars! There are very few Lenders who can offer this new program, but I am glad to say that we are one of the few! I was so excited about this program that I had to share it on here. Contact me for more details!

  Today as I had luch with my broker he brought up a great point. He said that in order to help the economy, we should be refinancing as many people as we can. Some banks came out with some great programs for mortgage refinancing. Some of them don't need an appraisal and don't even take your job into consideration. It is a new form of a streamlined loan.

  Getting back to helping the economy. If everybody who can refinance does just that, it will give homeowners hundreds of dollars a month extra that they can use for other things. The more everyone spends their money, the faster the economy picks up. the faster the economy picks up, the more jobs we create. The more jobs we create, the more money there is to spend. the more we spend.... well you understand. Let's hop on the merry-go-round!

 I had a conversation this weekend with a young gentleman when our conversation turned to real estate. Knowing that my profession dealt with real estate he asked me how he could buy a house for $100. I wasn't sure where he was going with this but I bit. "Homes for $100??" He went on to tell me he saw ads on TV saying you could buy foreclosure homes for as little as $100., and he wanted to know where to find them.

  I am not sure about most of you, but I am pretty sure I have never heard of homes selling for a hundred bucks unless it was family passing on property to relatives. There are sheriff sales for liens owed on a property. Some for tax liens, foreclosed mortgages and mechanics liens. As far as I know, most liens are more than $100. So where are these bargains?

  The media and our current economic environment is misleading a whole lot of new investors into the marketplace. I see it all the time. People looking for foreclosures and short sales. Everybody wants a bargain. In a lot of cases, a bargain isn't a bargain at all. I want to urge consumers to educate themselves before blindly trying to become an investor.

  This is, however, a good time to buy a home. Interest rates are low, inventory is high, and prices have been lowered. To top it off there is aan $8000. tax credit for first time home buyers who qualify. ( 10% of purchase price up to $8000.)

 Don't waste your time looking for $100. houses, find a trusted mortgage person and a good real estate agent and see what you can do!

P. S.- The reason I wrote this post in the first place was to see if anyone had any good bargain stories. How many $100. homeowners do we have out there?

  Covering most of Eastern Pennsylvania, I travel quite a bit. Driving from office , to appointments, to the office, to more appointments, to home. (well you get the idea) All of this driving time gives me time tothink. Time to think about what I need to do for my customers, time to think about great marketing ideas, and time to think about subjects to blog about. My problem is that once I am at my computer, I forget all of the great ideas I had while I was driving.

   I can't tell you how many great ideas have come and gone, all because I was driving and couldn't write things down. I am typically not a forgetful person, but or some reason, ideas for blogs just seem to remain un-retained . I have thought about mini tape recorders to help me remember the great ideas, but having one handy remains to be seen.

 Does anyone have any suggestions for content retention? I know I have a great post or two in my head if I can just pull it out! It is actually kind of comical. I am so glad that I can laugh at myself!

I want to wish all of my Active Rain friends a Safe, Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year. This past year has been a struggle for a lot of us. Home sales being down and the economy in general giving everyone a bad case of heartburn. I am hoping that we can keep positive and make next year a great year.

  I am finding that many of my colleagues are no longer in the business. It is sad to have contacts and friendships that I have made over the years fall by the wayside. I am trying hard to look forward to next year, working even harder to make it a good one. I am not a man that makes new Years resolutions, but if I would, I should resolve to work harder and smarter, not only making my life better, but the lives of those around me.

 My advise to you is to keep looking for ways to improve your life so you can improve others. Put a smile on your face and keep looking forward!

   I noticed that the member count here at Active Rain is over 118,000. That is very impressive. I have been here reading since the beginning. I think there were only 300 or so members when I joined this great group of people. I have spent many hours reading, writing comments and sometimes even a blog or two. I don't write for points alone, however it is great having a point system. My question is, "where did everyone go"?

  I wonder just how many Active rain members fell by the wayside, either because they were too busy to participate or are no longer in the Real Estate Business. How many Active rain Members are actually participating members. I am sure some people made accounts and never came back. Others hung their licences in escrow because of the poor business climate.

  I guess the reason for my post is to find out how we can tell if a member is current, or gone. Is there any way to tell? Do the active rain Gods just care about the numbers or are they concerned about their true members? Is there a way of tracking each persons accounts for activity. I know that some people who's blogs I subscribed to no longer write. Does that mean they no longer read? Or sign in at all?

  They say that "curiosity killed the cat". Maybe I should sit down, shut up and leave the writing to some of the talented people here.

    I enjoy playing Chess occasionally and it occurred to me that maybe I should utilize some of the principles of Chess in my career. I said that I enjoyed playing chess, however, I am not that good at the game. Average at best. The reason I don't get much better is my impatient character. I want to win yesterday. Chess is a game of strategy, moving only after thorough contemplation of the moves ahead.  Too often I see what I want to do without taking into consideration of what my opponent might do. I have to remember to keep my options open. If I look towards one strategy, my opponent will take charge and defeat me.

    How does chess fit with mortgages you may ask. In this day and age, we must keep our minds open to new and better strategies. The real estate market is getting more and more competitive. If we see only one way of doing things, we will surely be defeated. We must continually see "outside the box" for new and innovative ways of doing things.  Patience and timing is everything in the real estate world.

 Are you looking for new strategies to improve your "game"? Or are you using the same losing game plan? The world is constantly changing. Are you changing with it?     

 I thought I would try to kill two birds with one stone. As you may know, I never insert pictures or graphics in my blog. Mostly because I am not the most computer savvy person you will meet. I wanted to share some Autumn colors with everyone and at the same time play with the tool bar.

 Please forgive me for making the Active rain readers my Guinea pigs, but I have to learn somehow. The Active rain Gods have made it somewhat easier to insert pictures and graphics. I am amazed that I figured it out. (maybe I should wait to see how it turns out before I say something)

 If I encouraged you to go out and enjoy the fall weather, I have succeeded!

I recently was notified by my office that Mortgage Originators like myself will need to be licensed. Applications will be taken beginning in November of this year. This includes Loan Officers in Banks as well as Mortgage Consultants working under a Mortgage Broker.

You will need to fill out Form MU4,which is the application for a "Uniform Individual Mortgage License". There is a questionnaire to fill out, as well as a requirement for continuing education. There is also Fingerprinting and background checks involved.

  This will help the banking Industry keep track of who is doing the bad loans and make it easier to prosecute flagrant offenders. It's about time we got rid of the bad apples in the bunch!