Watch New Years Around The World ONLINE! - 12/31/07 06:07 PM
I've been doing this since 1999 and it's pretty fun. It gives me the opportunity to celebrate New Years multiple times until about 4 AM when I can't do it anymore!
Go to http://newyears.earthcam.com/ts/index.html?currentcam=multiview
There you will be able to track New Years throughout the remainder of the Western World all the way back to the International Date Line where New Years rang in around 19 hours ago!
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!
When you get to the sight just click on the link to go to the cam you want to watch. The camera in this screen capture, obviously, is Edinburgh Scotland. 
… (8 comments)

Conspiracy Theories - Why The Government Tanked Real Estate - 12/30/07 01:45 PM
It's true, I read it on the Internet how the FHA, HUD, Fed and even "the White House" drew up a master plan and conspired with the media and Wall Street to abruptly terminate the rapid growth in real estate because the stock market needed those investments so the capital could be put to work to perpetuate the evil Republican money machine that even Bill and Hillary depend on to fund their socialist facade they use to keep the sheeple in line.
"The money-grubbing lawyers are about to wipe out the money-grubbing bankers." That must be one of my favorite quotes from … (8 comments)

Beware of the Trickery of the One Stop Shop - 12/28/07 10:56 PM
Since the beginning of the boom there have been many "one stop shops" to spring up across the nation. Not surprisingly many of these originated out of California, Florida and Texas where real estate investing was the largest. It is possible that this posting is moot with the sudden decrease in real estate investments and real estate investment lending guidelines being cut to the bone.
There is one group which appears to still be growing but I doubt their sustainability based on their business model even though their founder and CEO is an experienced financial industry participant. What disturbs me is that … (22 comments)

I Love The Smell of Commission in the Morning ... - 12/28/07 12:37 PM
... smells like ... victory.
What is victory? Is victory when only one party wins and, if so, is that true victory or is that just domination? To achieve true victory is not to annihilate or dominate one's opponent through utter and mass devastation. To achieve true victory is to give the appearance the other party has won through assisting them to reach the goals best for their situation and purpose.
There are people in the world, in our industry, even reading this who see victory only as complete and total dominance over the other party. "Ha! That gal didn't know what she … (7 comments)

Hung Out To Dry--Denied At the 11th Hour - 12/27/07 12:54 PM
This is a true saga of a very kind real estate agent who is purchasing a "nest egg" for she and her husband. It's a HUD foreclosure with a true and accurate equity of $60,000 with a very conservative appraisal in a neighborhood where there aren't many foreclosures. In other words this is a "no brainer". The problem? She's a real estate agent, her husband is self-employed. Neither get paychecks and they need to state their income because at 90% LTV the lender wants either full doc or stated--no bank statements to prove income.
This very nice lady has been under contract … (15 comments)

Do You Resist Change or Embrace It? - 12/26/07 08:56 AM
Consider one of the best known and most often referred to little lizard called the chameleon. Most of us already know the chameleon from her most famous ability of changing colors and even patterns to match the environment. While as real estate agents our goal is to stand out the chameleon's goal is to blend in. Nevertheless the lizard, out of necessity to survive, changes colors to visually camouflage into the backdrop. The change is almost instant so that one moment you see this little iguana and the next moment she is very difficult to spot.
Change can be painful and costly. … (9 comments)

Wanted: 23 Prolific Bloggers With Drive and Passion - 12/25/07 03:00 PM
We all know among the best reasons we blog are to share our experiences, our ideas, our viewpoints, and to lead others out of their darkness and into our light. Another truth, not so well known, is that blogging creates awareness and awareness can translate into business and real dollars. How many of you have multiple blogs? It doesn't matter if you do most of your writing on Active Rain, having other blogs strengthens your SEO results (search engine placement) and having those blogs be relavant to your industry is key.
Not too often do new invitation only blogs come along that … (25 comments)

Merry Christmas to all! - 12/23/07 10:42 AM

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of my Active Rain family, friends and acquaintances. You are all a big part of my day and some of you (like my little sister Susan McClure who is NOT a blogger ;) but she is a fantastic writer ) are a part of my life. 
 
In case you don't know we are licensed for residential home loans in Georgia and Florida, we are FHA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Alt-A (some BC) with a specialty in real estate investments, jumbo home loans, home improvement loans and I personally handle small commercial mortgages nationwide.
… (6 comments)

Open Challenge To Countrywide: Show Me ONE LOAN You Closed That No-one Else Can Do - 12/22/07 10:23 PM
Your ads seen by millions of people very explicitly say, "No one can do what Countrywide can do."  PROVE IT. Show me a deal that you can do that I cannot. Show me ONE DEAL you can do that no other lender can do. Until you can prove otherwise I'm calling your advertisement a LIE, or at least into serious doubt. Yes, I am saying your advertisement is apparently misleading and exactly the kind of advertisement we don't need in our down and out industry and I am saying I believe you cannot stand behind your statement "No one can do … (5 comments)

Dear Head Underwriter, Here Is Your Lump Of Coal, Signed ~ Santa - 12/21/07 03:35 PM
My wife will not like me today just for the title. She's a head underwriter, you see. But she's not the only one we deal with. There are others and we know their names. We even know their habits. But let's look at the oft maligned underwriter in just a snapshot from a normal day. (Honey if you read the entire post you'll appreciate me--and recognize some stuff, ahem.)
8:20 Arrives at work. Nobody else in office so I check my email first as I always do. While my 260 messages are downloading I glance to see there are 14 voice messages … (11 comments)

Why Active Rain Can Save Real Estate - 12/20/07 06:35 PM
- When other blogs may not be able to.
Active Rain is truly community. The open forum has a great friend for real estate agents, loan officers, home stagers, title agents and attorneys, appraisers, inspectors--the list goes on. Not only do all of these people and the groups they represent have an equal voice here they each get to see inside the other's world.
It saddens me that still, outside of AR pretty much, agents and loan officers seem to be at each other's throats trying to lay blame. But here on AR we get this:
Blog post by agent: "Last month my closing … (78 comments)

It's Over, There's No Hope, Close Up and Go Home--Or Play Along And Be Accused of Discriminating - 12/19/07 11:34 AM
Have you watched the news lately? Have you been following what is happening in almost every division of the Federal and in many State governments? The housing market is toast. It's only half as bad as it is going to get. These mortgage defaults aren't even after the resets - the resets are coming in 2008. 20% of the people who purchased homes over the last 4 years should not have.
Everyone who bought, bought too much home for their budget.
The evil lenders forced people into loans they couldn't pay back and those devilish mortgage brokers put A credit borrowers … (7 comments)

Feds Kill Liar Loans And More - 12/18/07 11:45 AM
Okay. Here it is. If you are self-employed and mingle your funds you probably have 90 days left to get a loan. If you are retired and have no income but plenty of assets you, too, may be out of the running. We're talking across the board--investors included--on all loans.
restricting lenders from penalizing certain subprime borrowers -- those with tarnished credit or low incomes -- who pay off their loans early. The restriction would apply to loans that meet certain conditions, including that the penalty expire at least 60 days before any possible payment increase.forcing lenders to make sure that subprime … (7 comments)

Did The Media Cause This, Fuel This or Just Report It? - 12/17/07 05:38 PM
I was greatly chastised a few months ago over a YouTube video I posted. Actually I was personally attacked--not physically--just called some of the silliest things I have seen in years. The responses had absolutley no value toward addressing the situation or reaching a higher plain in our efforts to calm the storm and turn the market. Essentially I posed that prior to September 2006 there was only future problem. We knew it was there--looming in the morrows like a volcano groaning in the earth--and we, the industry, had begun making corrections internally.
The media hammered it every minute of every day … (10 comments)

Who Predicted What and When? Looking Back From The Bubble. What's Next? - 12/17/07 04:15 PM
"It's unlikely, however, that the housing market will come to a screeching halt." Was one quote from FORTUNE in December 2005. It was only part, however, of the article which also included, "Indeed, at some point in the next two years, according to the forecast, a third of the nation's 100 largest metro areas (accounting for 60 percent of the U.S. population) are expected to see modestly falling house prices." The article was posted on December 16, 2005
AOL and Bankrate got together and created a pretty little slideshow. They showed Albuquerque, NM with an increase in average sale of 30%, Atlanta … (6 comments)

Realtor® Or Just a Plain Old Agent, What's The Difference? Who Cares? - 12/13/07 08:41 PM
You've probably seen the advertisements claiming a Realtor® is to be the best choice to represent you in your real estate transaction. If you visit their website you will see a list of 12 things a Realtor® can do for you. Does that insinuate that if a real estate professional is not a member of the Association they cannot, or worse do not, do these 12 things for you? Members of the National Association of Realtors are quick to point out things like:
A Realtor® is bound by a code of ethics that provides extra protection to clients who choose to work … (10 comments)

When A Deal Is A Deal - The Smoke and Mirror Saga (Cue Violins) - 12/13/07 01:56 PM
Once upon a time a deal was a deal at the time of the handshake. That is precisely why I shake hands when the deal is completed. I just got off the phone with a real estate broker who brought a deal to me out of Florida. It sounded like a really great deal but she could not understand why I was not jumping up and down. 
Purchase price $25million. Value (so "they"say) $53million. It is 53 condo units in Florida. Could be accurate. Her partner said, "it's a lay down". The buyer is a foreign national bringing $12.5million to the closing … (5 comments)

It Says To Love ... Not To Be Loved - 12/13/07 11:04 AM
Giving is a strange thing. I used to think that to enjoy giving I had to be there and see the reaction on the person's face or people's faces. Once I found the true joy of giving things changed. I learned my lesson this way:
I was on staff as Director of Outreach and made very (did I say VERY) little salary. I actually didn't even ask for any salary at all but someone on the board insisted they had to pay me minimum wage. That particular year I had spent thousands of hours on the street with children, in the alleys … (5 comments)

Workshop: Buy, Sell and Hold Strategies for 2008 (Pro Level) - 12/12/07 10:02 AM
When: Thursday, January 3, 2008, 7:00 PMWhere: Innova Center 2501 E Piedmont Road Suite 111 Marietta , GA 30062 678-946-0100  Description: AGENTS, INVESTORS, BUILDERS, SPECULATORS DO NOT MISS THIS!
20 years of data and market projections designed to give you the best chance for success in real estate in 2008 and beyond. There will be an analysis of all 5 major market areas in metro Atlanta as well as statistical data and market projections of commercial investments.
In addition we will brief you on expected changes in the financial marketplace to help determine your strategy for 2008 based on available funding … (0 comments)

Be Yourself As You See Yourself - Key One: Confidence - 12/11/07 07:05 AM
It is possible to be more successful one thought at a time.
When I was younger my mother would always say to me, "I know you can and you know you can you just need to prove it to others." Well, I did think I could but I didn't fee confident enough to do anything about it. Could what? Whatever it was I wanted to do. I had two obstacles to overcome: Knowing what it is I wanted to do and truly feeling confident enough to do it.
There were friends in my neighborhood and school who knew exactly what they wanted … (9 comments)

What Does "Sub-Prime" Really Mean? - 12/09/07 12:47 PM
Attention earth: Ken Cook has a sub-prime loan on his primary residence. -------------------->
Have you ever noticed how words change meaning over time? Have you ever noticed how the wrong word gets used for the wrong thing and sticks? Take the word "random" for example. In the new vernacular random is used at random for random things that happen at random. Sorry, couldn't resist.
The phrase "sub-prime" instantly sounds like "below" prime or "not worthy of" prime. In part this is a correct statement but not always. There are many people with "sub-prime" loans who personally could have qualified for a "prime" loan … (8 comments)

Five Sales Killers Anyone Can Use Immediately - 12/08/07 10:15 AM
How many books have you read which demonstrated how to perfect sales techniques while agreeing with everything you read only to never use the techniques? Having spoken at hundreds of workshops and seminars seeing hundreds of heads shaking the right direction at the right time only to learn later the people agreeing most had used the least techniques I know this happens. I've been guilty of it myself!
Some of the examples I teach are "4 business cards a day - every day", birthday cards every birthday to everyone in the family who's birthday you know, join and attend your local business … (16 comments)

This Is Going To Hurt - The Paulson Plan - Wall Street Smackdown - 12/06/07 01:35 PM
Also could be titled "We Saw The Enemy And He Was Us" or "What Goes Around Comes Around" - either way a lot of you really aren't going to like what I am about to write. I don't like Paulson's plan but the investors in the MBS's are the ones who brought this on. I call them the nuevo-riche, candy ass, pansie pants little yellow bellied cry babies and in spite of the fact that I need them for my business to survive I think they are all whiny little wusses.
The media giveth and the media taketh away.
I know I … (8 comments)

Supercharging Your Market for 2008 (Part 2) - 12/06/07 11:49 AM
Continued from Supercharging Your Market for 2008 (Part 1)
Success Is A Numbers Game
In 2001 we had exactly 0 clients. My wife's first question was, "How do we get people to call us?" Ah, good question mi querida. There was no craigslist, at least not in Atlanta, so I was going to have to actually work for a living! I did have a plan and that plan worked something like this ...
Warm Market First
At that time I had several contacts through the various non-profit and charitable organizations with which I had associated as well as a few dozens of friends and family … (1 comments)

Supercharging Your Market for 2008 (Part 1) - 12/05/07 01:35 PM
"Yes you can" is neither joke nor gimmick to me. You can and I know you can. Even if you never have you can now. You can what? You can do whatever you plan when you plan to succeed. You may need a little help - we all do. You'll almost certainly need some network partners - we all do. You may need education or experience but since you're going to do things in the right order and the best step for the next move that's okay, too. Now if you already have some experience, some education and a functioning business … (4 comments)

Why To Buy NOW - 12/04/07 10:12 AM
Reasons to buy can easily be separated from market conditions. For example even in a war torn world or impoverished nation it really doesn't matter the stability of the economy, the condition of the government or the value of housing, people need shelter and land. They need land to grow food or keep livestock. They need shelter to stay out of the elements. These are key basic human needs. 
In America, most urban and suburban areas, we simply need shelter. How prestigious that shelter depends on our personality and ability to acquire. If we have cash we have the best bargaining tool … (10 comments)

How Much Longer Until We Hit The Bottom? - 12/03/07 03:14 PM
It is the question of the day for most people I speak with. Rare is the time, in fact, when I get with a group of people in or out of the industry when I am not posed this question in one form or another: "When will the housing market stabilize?"
I will give the three key factors I watch in a moment but first I want to say there is not one person nor is there a group of people who can with 100% certainty say exactly when it will end, turn or stabilize. We can all hope for a specific … (8 comments)

What Is A "Non-Recourse" Loan and Why Would You Need One? - 12/03/07 11:46 AM
Non-recourse loans are nothing new. In fact they have been around just about as long as loans have been around. IN a nutshell a non-recourse loan is a loan in which the lender may only recoupe their investment/losses from the collateral. In other words they can only take the property back and they cannot go after the borrower's other assets.
Non-recourse loans are more widely available for commercial property financing where the borrower is corporate but certainly are not limited to just that scenario. Our most widely used non-recourse loan is very rare and is in need nationwide for one particular type … (0 comments)

Very Cool! Online Document and Image Tools - 12/02/07 12:14 PM
It may be rare but it happens. You find yourself at a friend's home or office or just anywhere away from your computer but you really need to create a word document and PDF with images but all the software you need is miles away. What do you do? If you're lucky enough to have a Treo with Docs to Go and a PDF driver you can create it an send it via email from your cell phone. I must confess I do this too often but not many people know!
So you don't have a Treo and you need to make … (6 comments)

 
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Ken "Yes You Can" Cook

Marietta, GA

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Ken Cook, Brand Strategist

Address: Marietta, GA, 30062

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