Margaret not only finds time to blog, she has taken the time to become a published author.  If you want something done right, give the task to someone who's busy.

Mike in Tucson

~ Ancient Ironwood at Sunset ~

While Seattle is dealing with an unusually snowy winter, Tucson is basking in glorious warmth, and today will be in the mid-seventies.

This sunset photo, taken at the Ironwood Picnic Area in Tucson Mountain Park, is a visual blanket to wrap around yourself as you're pouring the morning cup of coffee.

Come visit!  We have great home prices, world-class real estate agents, and some of the best interest rates available since you were born.

Oh!  And I forgot to mention that Tucson has the lowest gasoline prices in the nation!

...and world-class golf resorts.

...and world-class birding.

You get the idea!  Good morning!  Plan a visit soon.

_____________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson Arizona Mortgage Lender

NMLS #223495

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE LLC ~ Correspondent Mortgage Bank
Offices in Mesa, Tucson, Sierra Vista & Nogales

I don't copyright my photos. It's okay for you to use them.

Right click on my image, copy and use it!

The Federal Reserve will fine 14 mortgage servicing companies, according to Fed Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin on January 7th at the annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools.

"We should not forget that effective enforcement of our laws can animate our efforts as policymakers, regulators, business innovators, legal educators, and lawyers in creating the conditions that must exist for the emergence of an improved mortgage-servicing model that hinders neither economic growth nor homeowners' legal security.

If a law is worth having, the law is worth enforcing."

The irony of that last remark is that Raskin was nominated to the Federal Reserve Board by President Obama, whose administration seems to take issue with that remark.  But I digress.

Why Should You Care as a REALTOR?

Included in the 14 companies threatened by the yet-to-be-announced fines are Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and other large banks. These mortgage servicers receive and process mortgage payments, and make decisions with respect to issues such as

• Mortgage servicing practices
• Mortgage Principal reduction
• Mortgage forgiveness, and
• Foreclosure 

You care about this issue because what happens in the foreclosure arena directly affects property values. 

Banks are foreclosing properties and selling them at a loss which is sometimes greater than the loss which would be realized if a bank allowed the property owner a principal reduction so that the owner could avoid foreclosure.  This practice seems counter productive, and raises the question of motive.  Why would a bank intentionally displace a homeowner when it could be cheaper to let him/her stay put and keep another foreclosure from driving down home values? 

The reason we've seen such intransiegence with respect to principal reduction is the fear that such an action will create a new "run on the bank."  Mortgagors (borrowers) who would otherwise keep on paying their mortgages for fear of foreclosure are likely to line up and say "Me, too!"

Will monetary sanction on the banks work?

Here's the problem with fining the banks: they will pass on the cost of the fine to you and me.  We've seen this time and again over the past three years as politicians seek to impose their will on the banks.  Make one fee illegal, and another fee pops up somewhere else. 

And that's a subject for another blog post...

photo Reuters/Brian Snyder

_____________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson Arizona Mortgage Lender

NMLS #223495

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE LLC ~ Correspondent Mortgage Bank
Offices in Mesa, Tucson, Sierra Vista & Nogales

~ Looking East From Gates Pass at Sunset ~

Days are getting shorter, so I planned to be at Gates Pass for sunset.  Off in the distance, the city of Tucson is painted in blue shadow, highlighted by the pink Rincon Mountains at day's end.  The last rays of the setting sun paint the Tucson Mountains where I stand a deep ochre-red, and the contrast punctuates the peaceful quiet of the desert floor at the end of day.  I expect an amazing sunset!

And I'm not alone in my expectation!  My zoom lens captures a couple silhouetted against an amazing sky.

~ Looking West From Gates Pass at Sunset ~

Life is good!  Enjoy each moment!

_____________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson Arizona Mortgage Lender

NMLS #223495

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE LLC ~ Correspondent Mortgage Bank
Offices in Mesa, Tucson, Sierra Vista & Nogales

I don't copyright my photos. It's okay for you to use them.

Right click on my image, copy and use it!

Just saying...

This was a great Thanksgiving weekend, and I'm back in the saddle as far as lending goes, but I've got the blogging blahs.

I went to the internet for inspiration, and decided that it's time for a new venture in my life.  A new hobby.  A new avocation.

I'm going to take up the sport of dolphin racing.  It looks like I'll need minimal gear, and once I find the right dolphin, I'll be set.

Underwater Training
The hardest part is going to be the next step after what you see in the photo--the underwater part.

But hey!  I live in a house that's underwater, so I figure that I have nearly three years experience.  (I'm going to put that on my resume for the application to the Association of Dolphin Jockeys.)

Stick around.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

_____________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson Arizona Mortgage Lender

NMLS #223495

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE LLC ~ Correspondent Mortgage Bank
Offices in Mesa, Tucson, Sierra Vista & Nogales

From time to time, I'll have to deny a purchase money loan application where the borrower's documentable income is insufficient for a loan approval.  Self-employed borrowers often find themselves in this situation, especially in the last two years as underwriting guidelines have tightened up.

It's understandable that taxpayers want to minimize their taxable income.  The rub comes when the borrower asks "if there's any way" to bump up the income.  My standard reply is to ask if they want to show more income on the current year's Tax Return and put off the purchase until such time as that can be done.

It's never fun to deny a loan, and since everyone in the transaction has an iron in the fire, so to speak, I get some heated phone calls as a result.

 Here's why it's important to play the game by the rules.

~ FOCUS ~

Isn't this an amazing visual to illustrate what it means to focus?  This Great Horned Owl generally has only one thing in mind when she launches into the air like this: food!

For the owl, survival can never be taken for granted.  If the hunt is not successful, its very existence hangs in the balance.  That's sort of like where many of us find ourselves in business today.  We're grateful to still be standing, but its a desert out there.  Deals are fewer and farther between, and the competition is fierce.

Still, I know you'll succeed today!  I believe in you!

~ Victory ~

_____________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson Arizona Mortgage Lender

NMLS #223495

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE LLC ~ Correspondent Mortgage Bank
Offices in Mesa, Tucson, Sierra Vista & Nogales

I don't usually copyright my photos, but I'm making an exception for these two. They're copyrighted.

Still, you have permission to use them as screensavers.  Enjoy!

Terri was dumbfounded.  Literally.  Words failed her. 

She showed up for work - the graveyard shift - just as she had for the past eight years.  Terri hung her coat in the locker and put her lunch in the breakroom refrigerator.  Yawning, she made her way down the dingy hall to the mailroom where old Annie would be gathering her things and getting ready to go home. 

It had been a rough week.  The new postal sorting machine had been delivered on the first of the month, and the mailroom was a beehive of activity for the three days it took them to put it together and get it up and running.  It was amazing to watch, but everyone knew that jobs were on the line.  Annie had confided to Terri that she didn't want to be the first to learn to run the machine, but the company had a rule about seniority, and Annie certainly had that!  She had been working the mailroom longer than anyone could remember.

"Annie?" Terri called.  "Annie, are you okay?"  "Annie! Oh, no..."

             Annie Grift

It put her in her grave, it did,
This drive to automate;
It never should have come to this,
But that's the hand of fate.

She haunts the mailroom yet. I know!
I work the graveyard shift,
And often in the wee small hours
l'll hear old Annie Grift.

I hear her walking up and down
The halls, when no one's there
And belts fly off the new machine.
It's Annie Grift. I swear!

She died right yonder, sitting up,
Her eyes, a flinty green
Still staring, sightless
At her nemesis--that damn machine.

The new machine's not difficult;
The job's not hard to do.
But Annie harbored deep mistrust
Of everything that's new.

You see, she never was the sort
To handle change with grace;
She hated it, you understand,
And now she haunts this place.

Just little stuff. Not scary-like,
But still, I'd like to know
Why can't she rest, like others do;
Why can't she just let go?

I prob'ly shouldn't oughta said
That stuff about new tricks,
And older dogs--you know the line.
She's getting in her licks.

Or maybe it's that she's come 'round
And now she want's to learn.
Yeah. Right. And l'm a millionaire,
With lots of cash to burn.

Well, l just settle in at night
And work the graveyard shift.
I sort the mail when it comes in,
And talk to Annie Grift.

copyright, Michael Jones

If I had the luxurious gift of three extra hours every week, just for me, I'd spend them writing poetry.

I'm thankful for having been raised in a family where reading was valued--where literacy was considered a gift of the highest worth.  You see, I was raised as a teenager in the jungles of Suriname, South America, with a tribe of Indians who were the first generation of their people to have the gift of written language.

"This post is a submission to the DocuSign/ActiveRain Thankful Contest. It's possible I will win a prize for writing this post. You could win a prize too by going to the Contest Announcement and sharing your own story"

_____________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson Arizona Mortgage Lender

NMLS #223495

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE LLC ~ Correspondent Mortgage Bank
Offices in Mesa, Tucson, Sierra Vista & Nogales

~ Dust Storm Sunset at Saguaro National Park TMD~

They're called Haboobs ~ rolling dust storms that suck the dirt from the face of the earth, throw it high into the atmosphere, and move it miles away before dropping it back down again.

We're not talking a dust devil or two.  A haboob can move hundreds of tons of earth, and when it rolls over you, the sky becomes black as night.

I took the photo on the right last Friday afternoon at 5:00 pm, the end of the day for Saguaro National Park's Red Hills Visitor Center.  You can see that the wind was whipping the flag as we lowered it.

Fifteen minutes later, I took the photo above.  I had no problem pointing my camera straight into the sun.

Remember seeing cowboys in the old western movies carrying bandanas?  They're still a western fashion accessory.  Bandanas served a utilitarian purpose when a cowboy was caught out in the open in a dust storm--they made it possible to breathe.

There's a stretch of Interstate 10 just north of Tucson near Picacho Peak where the open desert stretches for miles to the west.  Other places have tornado warnings and severe weather warnings.  We have dust storm warnings, and the visibility can go from severe clear to zero in a matter of minutes when one of these storms rolls across the desert.  Here's one recent story from last month:

Fatal accident closes I-10 at Picacho

_____________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson Arizona Mortgage Lender

NMLS #223495

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE LLC ~ Correspondent Mortgage Bank
Offices in Mesa, Tucson, Sierra Vista & Nogales

I don't copyright my photos. It's okay for you to use them.

Right click on my image, copy and use it!

"It's the Mother of all No Doc Loans," says John Capp, one of Sunstreet Mortgage LLC's principals. 

In this interview on this evening's KOLD News, Capp talks about the proposed new HARP (Home Affordable Refinance Program) rules proposed by President Obama.  Click the link and take a listen.

CAUTION:  Just because the government says it's okay doesn't mean that the banks will go along...

That said, if the banks go along with this, you just may be one of the million homeowners that this could help.

That's a BIG if...

_____________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson Arizona Mortgage Lender

NMLS #223495

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE LLC ~ Correspondent Mortgage Bank
Offices in Mesa, Tucson, Sierra Vista & Nogales