Have you seen the new Date Night movie?  It is pretty hilarious.  My wife and I went to see it on our anniversary and thought it was pretty funny. 

Tina plays a bored suburban house wife and real estate agent.  In one of the opening scenes she is showing an amazing home to a young couple.  You see them walk out front and the couple makes some remark about how nice the home is and Tina says that the price has been reduced.  The home looks like a mansion.

I can't remember the exact number but I think she said the initial list price was around $1.2 million and now it is priced at $300K!  The young couple look back at her and say, "Yeah, we think it'll go a little lower so we're gonna wait."  The look on her face says it all!  She looks back at them and says a VERY sarcastic, "Smart move!" 

This is a little extreme but I work with agents that are running into this type of buyer every day.  I had an agent tell me the other day that they were getting sick of buyers that wouldn't buy a good deal because they were afraid they would miss out on some unbelievable deal.  Unfortunately public perception lags behind reality and that is what makes just about any type of sales difficult.  People are typically operating on last week or last months information and the market has changed... we tell them the market has changed and they get suspicious and think we are holding out on them!

What is the answer?  I think it is education and information delivered in the right way.  That is why I think blogging has gotten so big because consumers are looking for updated information put into a format they can understand and apply. 

Olan Carder
www.charlottemortgageonline.com

I have been a loan officer for over a decade, so needless to say I have handled a lot of forms.  Loan officers have many responsibilities and one the most important is helping propective homebuyers understand the costs and fees of buying a home.

Does the new Good Faith Estimate make it easier for a homebuyer to understand what they are doing? 

Like most questions the answer is not 100% yes or no.  There are some definite advantages to the new form, but let me point out a few shortcomings that lenders, realtors and homebuyers should be looking out for...

#1.  It is longer and more wordy... the bottomline with loan disclosures is the longer you make them the less likely people are to read and understand them.

#2.  It doesn't provide a comprehensive breakdown on the fees, credits and totals that borrowers look for in order to know how much money they need for closing.  A borrower can thoroughly read this form and still be clueless as to how much money they need at closing!

#3.  It makes lenders more reluctant to serve the customer.  I already have a loan in processing becuase the customer's credit union would do a pre-qualification due to confusion over the new form.

If you have questions about the new form, please give me a call anytime at 980-721-7478.  You can visit my website at www.charlottemortgageonline.com to start the homebuying process.

I wanted to write a follow up post to the one I wrote last month about Bank of America and their useless wonderful subordination department.  For those of you who read it, you remember my clients were forced to cancel their refinance (which saved them $300) because Bank of America would never respond on their subordination and finally denied it.  We have appealed the decision and here goes...

After fighting with Bank of America to reconsider, we finally got them allow me to write a "Benefits Letter" that outlined the potential savings and therefore lower Debt-to-income ratio for them as the 2nd lien holder.  They have sent us approval now to do the subordination, except we have to reduce the loan amount by $2000!  Now the clients are going to have to bring and extra $2000 to closing and as you can imagine they are not excited about it.

This whole ordeal has taken almost 2 months.  It has been a real nightmare to say the least.  So, even though this might end up with a happy ending (sort of) my advice to anyone that needs to subordinate a Bank of America 2nd mortgage... BEWARE!

Olan Carder
www.charlottemortgageonline.com

People say some crazy things when they get upset. 

We all know that ALL Realtors aren't liars.  Just like we know ALL lenders, politicians or attorneys aren't liars either.  ALL Bank CEO's aren't greedy con-artists, but it sure makes us feel better to have someone to blame for our problems in life!  When a crisis like this happen people want someone to blame, someone to punish.  I think as a country we have to very careful NOT to become one big lynch-mob.

I have noticed lately that our political leaders have become very populist in their reactions to this financial meltdown, but before we lynch everyone in the financial industry maybe we should take a second to think about this, after a "crowd" was responsible for...

• Crucifying Jesus
• Empowering Hitler
• Allowing Slavery

Following the "crowd" is something most of us are taught NOT to do growing up.  The problem is that most people do it anyway and it is just too easy to jump on board the "Hate-Train" and make accusations at people we don't like or understand.

I realize that a lot of people have done some horrifically dishonest things to cause this mess, but I also am smart enough to realize a significant portion of the problem is the news media acting as the Pied Piper leading the general public to their financial doom.  I hear comments all the time like, "Well everyone knows..." and "I heard on the news..." and those statements are typically followed by something completely false.

There are a lot of people to blame for the mess we are in, but casting blame at generalized groups of people  is just plain dumb.  It took a combination of stupid and dishonest people on all sides to cause a mess this big and to single out one group and "make them pay" is not the answer!

I think it would be better if we took aim before firing our finanical weapons of mass destruction!  I talk to hundreds of people about this mess and I find almost no one actually understands what caused this crisis.  I hear Fannie Mae, the government, liberals, Bank CEO's, Mortgage Brokers, Realtors, Builders, Appraisers, all blamed for this mess.  If you don't have a clue, you really shouldn't make accusations against people.  That's my policy.

Olan Carder
www.charlottemortgageonline.com

Everyone has heard about the first time homebuyer tax credit but many people still have questions.  There are several important changes made that make the new credit a lot better than last year's model.  If you would like to learn more about the new credit you can click below to read a full article on my outside blog.

Please comment on either site if you have questions.  I would love to find you the answers!

Click here to read full article!

Northern Trust, an investment bank that has remained profitable even through the last year, sponsors a PGA golf event.  Their event just received an enormous amount of criticism from certain members of congress becuase they help client events at "fancy hotels" and provided live bands at parties, etc.

Barney Frank wrote the CEO of Northern Trust a letter stating, "We insist that you immediately return to the federal government the equivalent of what Northern Trust frittered away on these lavish events."

"At a time when millions of homeowners are facing foreclosure, businesses and consumers are in dire need of credit, and the government is trying to keep financial institutions - including yours - alive with billions in taxpayer funds, this behavior demonstrates extraordinary levels of irresponsibility and arrogance,"

GIVE ME A BREAK!

This is just stupid.  Northern Trust is a profitable bank that didn't need or pursue the bail-out money.  To tell them they can't host an event that helps them market their business is just plain dumb.  Do we want banks that took bail-out money to FAIL????  You can't stop doing business!  That's not the answer. 

Northern Trust should be praised for managing their business so well that when mega-banks are failing they are still making profits!  Instead we bash them for appreciating clients, hardworking employees and giving millions to charity... is this really where we headed?

Olan Carder
www.charlottemortgageonline.com

Click here for the link to the CNBC article.

As a loan officer and Charlotte native this article really caught my interest.  It is basically connecting the overall impact on the economy with the sub-prime meltdown and showing how this has a huge effect on Charlotte as a banking center.  Charlotte residents have bragged for years about being #2 in the U.S. in banking, but that is not so good when the financial system is in crisis.

I think some things people need to consider before making a rash judgment on Charlotte's future is the fact that this area has become too large and diverse economically to be crippled by one company or even one industry.  Many large corporations have relocated to Charlotte or are planning to in the near future.  Businesses that have nothing to do with banking view Charlotte as a great place to be.

Kannapolis is home to the new NC Research Campus which is bringing thousands of high end workers to the Charlotte area.  Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is now headquartered here and the article mentions GMAC Financial Services and Morgan Stanley are looking to move to Charlotte.  There is a lot going on here and even though Charlotte is certainly going to lose some jobs and take a severe hit with the weakness of Wachovia and Bank of America, I think in the long run we will be just fine.

Olan Carder
www.charlottemortgageonline.com