HI Active Rain comrades, I am a mortgage broker and I have a real easy to use Mortgage and Debt to Income Calculator.  You can either add this link to your favorites or save the excel spread sheet to your computer.

All you have to do is input the numbers and it will give you the important numbers you all want to know.

I use it all the time because it is the fastest way to answer the question that you will get the most, "how much will my payment be...?

 Also it has a place where you can enter income and liabilities and it will give you the debt to income ratio.  If you are a realtor use the rule of thumb that below 40% dti will usually get you whatever you want.

 www.cookcommglobal.com/MortgageandDTIcalculator.xls

John Cookman

Still being a newbie to active rain I am trying to dedicate myself to this blog thing.  It has become more than a blog thing now because I really see the value in it.  Not only is it a great networking tool but I am getting some incredible advice and insight to the real estate side of things.  Active Rain has really been helpful in removing some of the obstacles between realtors and mortgage people which goes along way in helping both sides understand each other and ultimately makes us better professionals.

 This week I decided that I need to be more consistent in my blogging efforts, and until now I really didn't see any use for the point system but I think I will use the point system to help me keep track of my consistency.  I am trying to set goals realistically as to how many post per week, how many comments per week, and how many blogs should I read minimum?

Please comment with your thoughts on blogging goals so I can get an Idea of what the pro's do.

I am such a numbers guy that it is hard to sit down and type words, but I am finding that the more I sit down and do it the better my communication skills are getting.  Thank you all for being so kind and helping a goofball like myself become a better professional.

jc

Back in the day (1991) I started my journey as a professional basketball player.  I learned some valuable lessons about team work and role play.  As a collegiate athlete I was the big fish in a small pond and the most valuable player on my team.  In my freshman year I broke the single season scoring record and had many individual accolades as an individual, but only led my team to a 12 win - 17 loss season.  What a bummer that was.  At the end of the season I was left defeated and unfullfilled.  In the games we lost our average margin of deficeit was 3 points, so all our games were close but we just didn't know how to win.  That offseason I had a long talk with my coach.  I explained to him that I was very set on being a professional basketball player and I would do whatever it took to get there.  He told me that if I didn't make it, it wouldn't be because of the lack of ability, talent or desire but it would probably be because I didn't see the larger picture.  He said, basketball is a team sport, and in order for a team to succeed everyone on the team has to excel at their role.  The key to being a great basketball player is not only acheiving your goals as an individual but helping your team-mates acheive their goals.  So during the offseason I met my coach at his office from 6 am to 8 am monday thru friday and we watched film and took hundreds of pages of notes.  Not one day did we analyze my personal performance as an individual.  We looked at all the players that were returning for the next season and discussed what they did well and what they didn't do well.  I made notes on what I could do to help them become a better role player and how they could acheive the goals that the coach was setting for them.  Well, to make the long story a little bit shorter I will tell you that we went to the Div.II championship finals the next two years.  Because we went so far in those years, I was an easy target for the scouts.  Scouts want to scout winners not really good losers.  Once I made my transition to the pros I didn't have the luxury of working my game out, you have to be an instant asset, results are demanded when checks are being written.

 So I said all of that to say:  When putting your team together find each members strengths and understand their weaknesses.  Teach your team how to play their roles and encourage them to be the best they can be.

Examples of industry Teammates:

Realtors: Realtor, Realtors assistant, Mortgage Broker/Lender, Appraiser, Inspector, title company/attorney.  One way to get the best results out of your teammates is to give them the confidence that you will always be loyal and stand behind them and don't put fear into them that you will cut them for the least little mistake.

I contantly remind my attorney's, processors, lenders, appraisers, that they are key to my success and I will continue to give them my business as long as they appreciate my business and communicate with me how to make their job easier and more productive.  I have picked my team not based on my favorite people but based on my assessment of them being the best at what they do.

I pray much success and blessings on all my Active Rain comrades.  Have a wonderful day!

There are two types of sales people in this world.  Oh, we could give them all kinds of lables that project our feelings of negativity or acceptance upon them, such as: Passive (inside sales) or Aggressive (outside sales).  Make no mistake about it, there are two sides to this coin.  I like to call them "The Hunter" and "The Hunted".  I am actually going through a transformation in my own sales stradegy right now, I guess that is why I chose to write about this topic.

The Hunter - One that is aggressive in nature, has a self sufficient attitude and know how to gather the spoils.  One that always sees himself victorious in challenge.  One that doesn't understand the meaning of 'NO', or 'I don't want' or 'I can't do it'.  One that generally puts ability above knowledge.  Someone that only needs two feet and a mouth.  One that will say what he needs to say and do what he needs to do.  No need for the internet, no need for a billboard, no need for Radio/TV campaigns.  They know only one way, find the prey and close the deal.  Some of you might even call them comment spammers, hahaha.

The Hunted - One that is passive in nature, not lazy but considers knowledge to be their greatest asset.  One that will wait for the phone to ring rather than pick it up and dial out.  One that believes you have to spend money to make money.  One that invest their energy in being seen not heard.  Someone that tends to be deffensive rather than offensive.  One whose motto is "A referral is the best compliment you could give me".

 * By nature I have been the hunted and usually take the philosophy that I would rather be approached than the approacher.  Over the last 60 days I have changed my philosophy to being the hunted.  I have always worked with both styles of sales person but generally speaking the guys that are the hunters walk away with the biggest paychecks.  So during my switch of sales styles I can testify that my pipeline has increased 3 fold.  I have a better presence in the community than before and I haven't bought one bit of marketing.  So now not only am I making more money I am saving more money. 

In this time of belt tightening in our industries a lot of us are looking inward and finding the true sales person within.  I do believe there should be a healthy balance between the Hunted and Hunter but it is an attitude that has to be carefully nutured and tamed.

Which Style best represents you? and how has it worked for you?

John Cookman

What is really on the horizon for our real estate and finance industry?  If you have read the new AP poll article on housing today you probably had the same sinking feeling in your stomach that I did.  Also if you watch the financial news channels like CNBC or FOX BIZ and you see their desperate attempts to spin news to keep morale high so that we don't have a psychological meltdown on wall street. 

Now the Fed is telling us that the financial sector will probably be in shambles for another 10 years.  Read this Reuters article to find out more.  I recently read a well writen post by an active rainer talking about there is no doom and gloom ahead, as a matter of fact they predicted it to be the opposite.  As good as that article was I think they may have their head in the clouds.  They mentioned that the financial market has always been fluid and will always remain that way.  Well I kind of agree with that statement accept for the fact that we need to see the writing on the wall or in this case the hand on the faucet.  The fluidity is about to be cut off.  Even at this time that I am writing this article it has been cut back to 50% flow.

Is the real impact of 9/11 about to catch up to us?  Well it sure seems that way.  In 2002 the government came up with a plan to help stimulate the economy but because of the lack of responsibility of the people and the unfeddered hunger for more by the capitalist we now are finding ourselves back to square one right after the terrorist attacks.  Actually if you look at the percentage of loss we have had over the last 12 months it has been greater than the percentage of economic loss after 9/11.

There is NO BOOM!!!  As a nation our economy is out of amunition, we now are going to have to fight the good fight and depend upon one another.  Hopefully we will rally together instead of letting this crisis tear us apart.  As industry professionals we need to not only look out for our wallets and pocketbooks but we need to be vigilant in protecting our careers.  This is a time for action and a group like Active Rain can make a difference if they put their minds to it.  Let the powers that be know that we are capable of being self regulation, that we can deal with the public honestly and with integrity.  Write your congressman and senator today.  Let them know that you are concerned for your industry and you don't want to see government come in and over regulate.  The next thing you know we will all lose our jobs to the Institutional banks that have hated us all for a very long time now.

Well as strange as it may seem I have run up against some extremely dumb luck. It appears that I will have to bring a law suit against google because of it's negligence to update active rain content.  Active Rain has some incredible search engine optimization JUICE.  Active Rain is the place to be if you want to get noticed on the web.  I had no idea how powerful AR was in this manner. 

My bad luck with Active Rain and Google

I joined a couple months ago - I did the usual and started a profile page - being oblivious to how filling in certain fields on the active rain profile page would effect the title tags (which is what google shows in their search returns) I filled out a dual company name.  I can't really mention the names of the companies in this blog for it would be counter intuitive as to what I am trying to achieve by writing this blog, but one of the companies I am associated with will not allow us to have any public associations with them on the web.  They called me a little over a week ago to notify me off this and they asked me to change the information.  I complied immediately.  Google had already cached my activerain.com profile page and hadn't bothered to update the info as of this morning.  Because of this the company I am associated has cut me off which means I can't do business.  If I can't do business with them I can't make money.  Also it not only effects me but all the other loan officers that are in my company as well.  This is a huge dilemma.

I have been up all night trying to figure out how to get google to refresh the data as it sees it from my profile page.  I spoke to one of the very smart web marketing specialist here on active rain and he suggested that I change my name and all the info on my profile page and then write an article such as this hoping to draw some attention.  So if you have read this please comment because it seems that the more comments you get the more that it lures the google content information web crawler.

Comment to this question: Do you think I should try to sue google over this?  Do I have a case?  Because of their negligence to update information in a timely manner is has caused me a lot of head ache and grief and has limited my ability to earn a living.

Oh by the way this has taught me that everyone needs to google or yahoo themselves at least once a week.  What is reported by the search engines is considered viable and can hurt your business as well as help it.

Thank You,

John Cookman

Just wondering if anyone else has had a problem with google returning old content from your profile to their search engine results.  If so what did you do about it to get it worked out?

 Thank You,

John Cookman

I hope you realtors are paying attention to whats going on in Washington.  We  mortgage brokers have been fighting the greedy bankers for years, but now they are coming after you.  If you haven't read the article on Dick Gaylord's (NAR president) letter to congress trying to thwart a move by our ever so thoughtful legislators in their efforts to get into the real estate market, you should do so.  The short of it is going to be, if you work for a bank you will have free reign to put houses under contract with buyers and sellers.

Understand, there will be no educational training like all the realtors go through now.  Just like with Loan officers on the bank side you can get hired and write a loan in the same day.  This is pathetic.  Oh here is the great thing, the banks will get this legislation passed all in the name of consumer protection.

 Here is a home work assignment for you, find out how many members of congress and the senate come from a Banking or Attorney background.  Let's hope the 1.3 million realtors will stand behind Dick Gaylord with one voice and declare this piece of legislation unamerican.

Follow the links to learn more about these issues:

1. National Association of Realtors - http://www.realtor.org/press_room/news_releases/2008/realtors_say_treasury_blueprint.html

2. National Association of Mortgage Brokers -                                                                                        http://www.namb.org  -  click on "Call To Action" link

Let's make some noise and let washington know how we feel.

Just wanted to make a Note to Realtors - Don't forget that the USDA loans are still making it possible for low credit score borrowers to acheive 100% Loan to value. 

FHA - is still a great program but most lenders are capping their minimum scores to 580 for Manual underwrites.  You can still find some FHA eagle lenders that will take the risk to manually underwrite the sub 580's but they are becoming few and far between.

USDA - Always ask your lender if your client and prospective property will qualify under the USDA loan guidelines.  Generally speaking the only thing that will stop a USDA loan from going through is the fact that the property is not classified to be in a rural area.  There is a quick look up tool you can use to find out this for yourself.  Follow the link, http://eligibility.sc.egov.usda.gov/eligibility/welcomeAction.do , click on the property type for instance single family residence.  Then just click on the accept button and fill in the address, it will tell you if your property is eligable.

If your property is eligable then ask your clients lender to check into it for them.  There is no Minimum credit score qualification and they can get up to 100% of the value.  Also they get the absolute best rate available and they will NOT have to pay Mortgage Insurance. 

This is a wonderful program.

 Today's average par wholesale rate is 5.675%.  the 10 am pricing.

If you have any questions about the USDA loan please let me know.

John Cookman

I love the Active Rain community and I love your opinions.  Active Rain is the number 1 place on the internet to get good professional opinions.  I say this because my research on the articles that have been posted demonstrate a level of knowledge about our Real Estate and Mortgage industry that I can't find anywhere else on the internet.  In light of that I would like to ask a specific question concerning compensation to mortgage brokers.  Please feel free to give your deepest and most brutally honest thoughts on this issue.

 How should Mortgage Broker compensation be structured?  How much is to much?  1%, 2%,?  Should it be a flat fee instead of a percentage?  Please feel free to assign a value or worth to how much a mortgage broker should make?

 This is a general survey, please everyone express an opinion, I have been asked to write an official letter to the board of governors on behalf of mortgage brokers, the data that I receive will play a important role in my presentation.

Thank You,

John Cookman