mortgage broker: “Why a Mortgage Broker and Why this One?”
- 01/07/16 10:15 PM
“Why a Mortgage Broker and Why this One?”
I could say because I am one. I can say that it’s because I like being independent as I am not part of any franchise or that I have many lenders available to me. I can say that I can get my clients outstanding interest rates and get loans done that most banks and credit unions can’t do.
In spite of all the attempts to put mortgage brokers out of business over the last few years, we continue to thrive. Currently loan officers that work for banks and credit unions do not have … (22 comments)
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mortgage broker: “I Haven’t Heard these Words Spoken in a Long Time”
- 11/28/14 05:59 PM
“I Haven’t Heard these Words Spoken in a Long Time”
As I was getting ready to leave my office early on Wednesday, as it was sleeting, I got a call from an account rep from a lender that I hadn’t heard of before. He had a value proposition that actually brought my blood pressure up a few notches.
He told me that his company specialized in difficult loans. That their business model was expecting 10-15% of the loans would eventually go into default. He told me that each loan they approved would be priced by them based on the … (34 comments)
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mortgage broker: “Mortgage Brokers Under Attack Again?”
- 10/27/14 10:32 PM
“Mortgage Brokers Under Attack Again?”
I used to love to hear how the mortgage broker community caused the housing crash a few years ago. I love how much power we have or wish we had. This topic has been brought up to me many times and I would always ask if mortgage brokers created the loan products that were available at that time? OK, enough of that.
The other day, I read an article that quoted James “Jamie” Dimon who said something to the effect of, one of the biggest concerns of lending these days is “Non-Depository” lenders, … (20 comments)
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mortgage broker: “Competition”
- 09/01/14 10:20 PM
“Competition”
I thrive on competition, I guess it is just part of my DNA. My biggest competition is inside of me, but let me speak only to the mortgage business, personally I know very little about my competitors, that I don’t already have a referral relationship with. I have always been told, you should know what your competition is doing, I say why?
I used to attend every imaginable mortgage convention, in the states I do business and Nationally. There was just too much BS for me and much of it became Political. It was often too much … (30 comments)
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mortgage broker: “I’m in the Problem Solving Business”
- 05/26/14 10:26 PM
“I’m in the Problem Solving Business”
I was a Realtor for 15 years and then for all these years as a mortgage broker. I would never say either of these labels as too what I did for a living.
I always came from the following credo: “Solve someone’s problem and they will solve yours." I have always seen myself in the problem solving business.
I’ll share an example. An individual once came to me for a mortgage on a property that he had a tenant. 7 years earlier his tenants came to him to buy … (13 comments)
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mortgage broker: “How Lender Account Reps Help Get Loans Closed”
- 03/16/14 10:33 PM
“How Lender Account Reps Help Get Loans Closed” The mortgage broker world has a unique distinction The majority of lenders have account reps and when they are really good at what they do and you do a lot of volume with them, they do everything humanly possible to keep us happy and the number one reason, they make money on the volume we do. Every account rep is always vying for more business, for the obvious reason, they want to make more money. Along the way, true relationships are formed, as I have done business with many of these … (12 comments)
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mortgage broker: “Why Just Get Rid of Mortgage Insurance, when You can Save Thousands?”
- 02/24/14 09:51 PM
“Why Get Rid of Mortgage Insurance, when You can Refinance and Save Thousands?”
A referral from an appraiser will save these folks thousands of dollars. This appraiser was really on the ball, never missing an opportunity to refer business to her favorite mortgage broker. She asked if they had considered refinancing and lowering their interest rate and number of years on the mortgage.
The monthly mortgage insurance they were attempting to eliminate was $157 per month and presently had a mortgage payment of $2019. They presently had 19 years left and were paying 5.75% for a rate.
… (27 comments)
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mortgage broker: “They Failed, to Put Us Out of Business”
- 02/21/14 09:10 PM
“They Failed, to Put Us Out of Business” I have worked with a local credit union for many years. There are 6 employees in this one branch and I have done mortgages for 3 of the employees including the manager. She asked me to stop by to speak to a newly hired loan officer. To my surprise, I had interviewed this LO a couple of years ago and actually would have hired her, but I sensed her reluctance on her part to work for a non-bank. She had already told her manager that I had once interviewed her, so … (24 comments)
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mortgage broker: “Spending 7 Hours with Beth and Rich Witt”
- 02/18/14 01:25 AM
“Spending 7 Hours with Beth and Rich Witt”
I have been on Activerain since the end of May, 2011. I have shared many times during these nearing three years that if it was up to me, I never would have done anything with social media including AR. I came from a mindset of who needs social media when you have a 100% referral based mortgage practice.
Once I got into blogging it was a rude awakening. I originally thought it was all about getting new business in the door and referring out business folks that I sort of … (50 comments)
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mortgage broker: “Realtor Wants to Know How to Start Getting Referral from Me”
- 01/30/14 08:47 PM
“Realtor Wants to Know How to Start Getting Referral from Me” One of the strangest calls I have ever gotten. Mike called to introduce himself and told me that he was talking to a Realtor partner of mine who told him, he has been getting referrals from me for the past five years and that he has been referring mortgage business to me as well. Not sure why, but I was surprised this information was shared, but what do I know. He wanted to know how he could get in on the actions and then the kicker, how much … (61 comments)
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mortgage broker: More Strategy Meetings with Realtors
- 11/08/13 06:42 PM
“More Strategy Meetings with Realtors” In the last few weeks I have been invited to a number of Realtor meetings. The meetings have been just to chat rather than what can you do for us. The Realtor community truly understands that issues with the mortgage industry affect everything they do. Yesterday I met two Realtors for lunch, I have worked with one of them for many years, the other not at all. They are in the same office and both have been in the real estate business for over 20 years. There was no posturing, there was lets … (24 comments)
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mortgage broker: Big Push for Mortgage Brokers to Become Correspondents
- 11/05/13 10:34 PM
“Big Push for Mortgage Brokers to Become Correspondents”
I continue to get calls each week telling me that I should become a correspondent lender, which means I close loans in my name and not have to disclose my fees.
With Dodd-Frank regulations looming early next year that specifically target mortgage brokers; banks, credit unions, mortgage bankers and correspondent lenders are exempt from disclosing how much money they make on each mortgage.
Can you imagine the fear that so many have when it comes to the mortgage broker community? All banks, credit unions, mortgage bankers and … (7 comments)
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mortgage broker: Recommendations Make a Difference to Me
- 11/01/13 12:14 AM
“Recommendations Make a Difference to Me”
Recommendations like this one, is what makes me look forward to going to work each and every day. I wish I could say that each and every transaction turns out like this one, but this one makes up for a few disappointments.
Today, there are very few simple transactions when it comes to mortgages. Many good borrowers like Christina and Ryan get turned down by banks that are not willing to go the extra mile to get a transaction completed.
I love these puzzles and in most cases, there is a ways to get … (11 comments)
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mortgage broker: “Mortgage Brokers and Banks Do Not Have a Level Playing Field”
- 10/15/13 02:30 AM
“Mortgage Brokers and Banks Do Not Have a Level Playing Field”
Ken Harney, syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, has done an outstanding job explaining a major difference between these two worlds.
The CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) is in the process of putting together new regulations, as a result of the Dodd-Frank Act, that will create an unfair advantage when it comes to disclosing fees.
We have disclosed ALL of our fees for years, nothing is going to change as far as these disclosures, but Banks, Credit Unions and Mortgage Bankers … (18 comments)
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mortgage broker: “Helping a Realtor Referral Partner Grow Her Business”
- 09/30/13 10:43 PM
“Helping a Realtor Referral Partner Grow Her Business”
A couple of years ago, I met Maria a young and energetic Realtor. I had done a pre-qualification for a mutual client. Maria and the client are both Spanish speaking. I had a bit of a challenge handling the pre-qual as their English was not very good, but we accomplished what we needed.
Once Maria found the right home for these folks, I had her participate with the application process and that part went very well. The clients were delighted to find out that we have a … (18 comments)
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mortgage broker: “Realtor Says I Should Focus on the Mortgage and Not be Their Therapist”
- 09/18/13 02:05 AM
“Realtor Says I Should Focus on the Mortgage and Not be Their Therapist”
He was right I was being more than a mortgage broker. I did everything I knew how to do to talk these buyers out of purchasing this property.
They are going from paying no rent to an $1800 per month mortgage payment. They have some late payments in their recent history, nothing real serious, but a symptom of future issues. Their debt ratios work, but not by much. These folks are spenders and had no real savings, if something goes wrong with the … (17 comments)
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mortgage broker: “When the Home is 50% of the Value”
- 09/04/13 02:03 AM
“When the Home is 50% of the Value”
A couple of months ago a Realtor from MA, called saying that she had read a number of my blogs and thought I might be able to solve a problem on a transaction she was having.
The problem was that the property she was selling was small (950 sq. ft.) included a 34’ by 42’ garage and was on 6.6 acres of land. She never had used a mortgage broker in the past, only local banks, but none of them would do the mortgage. That … (23 comments)
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mortgage broker: “My Greatest Compliment as a Mortgage Broker”
- 08/21/13 10:59 PM
“My Greatest Compliment as a Mortgage Broker”
I got a call from a prospective client one day last week, his name is Roger. He told me that he was referred by a Realtor, her name was familiar. He told me that the Realtor recommended me because she only referred tougher transactions to me.
I spent time finding out all the information necessary. We could get a loan done for Roger, but needed to do a little work getting a couple of credit issues resolved the major one was an unreleased tax lien. Once the issues … (19 comments)
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mortgage broker: “Not All Banks Offer the Same Loan Products”
- 06/11/13 10:38 PM
“Not All Banks Offer the Same Loan Products”
This one bank that I have worked with for many years, a small institution does no residential mortgages. When I say no residential mortgage they do construction loans, I actually refer most of my construction loan clients to them, but once the construction is over, I do the end loan for the clients. Construction loans are their main profit center, even though they also do some small commercial mortgages.
They usually refer their end loan clients to me, if the client isn’t already committed … (2 comments)
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mortgage broker: Liquidating Stock Accounts to buy Multi-Family Homes
- 05/28/13 11:42 PM
“One Investor Decides to Liquidate Some of His Stock Account and buy Multi-Family Homes”
This investor has done this before and his timing seems to be very good. He cashed liquidated $200,000 at the beginning of the year and has been buying 3-4 family homes. We have now closed on the 6th property and there may be one more to come. From the numbers that he has shared with me, the return on investment is really amazing.
I am not suggesting folks clean out investment accounts, but a diverse portfolio that includes real … (15 comments)
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“Why a Mortgage Broker and Why this One?” 
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