Corey Armistead's Blog

Taking the bumps and bruises and loving the RIDE!

Corey Armistead Mortgage Reduction Specialist (BWMA) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:33:12 -0500

That's me in the pic (obviously) and I was at a rock climbing complex with some few friends last weekend.

It was my first time doing this sort of thing so needless to say I was a little nervous! We had to initial and sign all of these waivers that our instructor gave us before we began so my heart was really beating fast!

After we threw down some pizza (bye bye that mornings' workout) we had a couple of laughs and we were ready! We were to put these harnesses around us that is used as a safety precaution an after a wiggle here and jiggle there we finally got them on and it was SHOWTIME! So I went...not 2 minutes into the climb I was sweating already and my hands were hurting from trying to hold on to the pegs (or whatever you call them) but I was determined!

I slipped a few times, banged my elbow and knee pretty good but I was pretty damned determined to make it. Well, that plus a female friend of mine was next to me doing her best rendition of Toby McGuire...I couldn't let her show me up!

Of course those last few steps were the toughest and I was just about ready to give up! I was tired, didn't think I could do it and was just willing to write it off as "hey it was my first time ever". But NO, I did it, I got to the top and it felt so good!

Can you imagine if instead I told the instructor "Hey buddy, thats okay, will you please hoist me up and keep pulling the rope until I reach the top or better yet, how about you show me where the stairs were and I could walk up to the top and just raise my hands in victory because I don't like the bumps and bruises, I like INSTANT MANIFESTATION! I want everything to come to me I want and I want it NOW!!! And he would have said "whatever you want crazy man, but I thought you come for the RUSH... to know and then not know...the struggle and the fun of it all"

Sometimes we become so fixated on "what is" we seem to forget that its never the destination we want, its the journey! So as we face these bumps and bruises that this economy will undoubtedly bring us, just remember its always GREATER LATER! I heard this on a song an it sounded so perfect for this time that we are in right now. It said...

"Flowers need water to grow, its gotta RAIN, in order to experience JOY ya need PAIN"!!!!

Texas Longhorns vs. Oklahoma Sooners baby!

Corey Armistead Mortgage Reduction Specialist (BWMA) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 05:27:14 -0500

Hey everyone, buenos dias! Well its Wednesday, only a few more days until one of the biggest weekends in college football this year and I'm excited! Even if your not a HUGE college football fan (can't imagine that) you will be thoughly entertained this weekend if you get together with some friends and have a little watch party. Now be forwarned, it your not used to college football on a beautiful Saturday afternoon BEWARE! People usually get so hooked that they end up spending their entire Saturday on the couch and the only time they move is to get the phone to order pizza! Sautrday my 5th rankedTexas Lonhorns play the Oklahoma Sooners! This is usually the biggest game of the year because both teams are always ranked very high. Expect a big time shootout, my prediction is 41-37 LONGHORNS! Texas quarterback Colt McCoy (Man is that a quarterback name or what) is a front runner for the Heisman an so is Oklahomas quarterback. Crap, I need to get a hold of myself. I'm getting excited already! Dallas is going to be CRAZY this weekend (host city). A good friend of mine is a football coach so we may get to go. If you guys don't hear from me, don't fret, that just means my Longhorns won and I'm still trying to recover for the next couple of days! :) Take care and don't miss this game!

Do we really have SOUL MATES?

Corey Armistead Mortgage Reduction Specialist (BWMA) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 10:20:18 -0500

The age old question, is there that someone out there that we were meant to be with. This may surprise you but the answer is a resounding NO!

Now now, I know your ready to disagree with me but here me out.

Everything we want in life whether its a new house, a car, a girlfriend or wife, we want because we think in the having of it, it would make us feel better. That goes for any and everything.

Just think to yourself for a moment, what is there that we want that we believe in the having of it would make us feel better? We are all selfish in that regard and that's a good thing.

You must find a way to feel great no matter the conditions, no matter who or who isn't in your life. When you think there is that special someone out there and you won't be happy until you find him/her feel the restrictions in that. When you say to yourself "My JOY is my JOB" and I'm won't give anyone else the responsibility or duty to dictate whether I'm going to be that happy person full of abundance, you'll sense the empowerment an you'll let everyone and everything else off the hook!

I continually look for ways to feel great no matter what the conditions. I can find ways to be happy no matter what the conditions! The funny thing is when you learn to LIVE and LOVE LIFE you automatically attract the same type of people into your lives. The same way being with a woman who I adored felt good to me playing with my dog feels good, running around chasing my daughter feels good, watching football among friends and losing my voice feels good.

All these things bring me to the same level of happiness and therefor I don't allow any one person be the only avenue for my HAPPINESS.

Don't misunderstand me, if you have that special person in your life, fantastic! Just know if you don't and you don't feel great because of it your simply looking for love in all the wrong places...Its right here. Tell me what you guys think

Having the mindset of your GPS unit.

Corey Armistead Mortgage Reduction Specialist (BWMA) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 22:26:42 -0500

So I went to a charity auction about 2 weeks ago for the Star of Hope. Its a shelter for those that are disabled or victims of spousal abuse. I'm all set to go, dressed to the "9s" and I get in my car with my invite in my hand.

It was an estate of some mega rich dentist whose wife was a big time philantropist (God Bless her) anyway, I've never been to his house before but of course I had the address on the invite so I put in the destination in my GPS unit. And as usual it gives me a visual description of where I am and where I want to be. NEVER did my system say "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN"??? Not once did she say, "You've been here far longer than is pleasing to me". She was just plain and simple, "Where are you in relation to where you want to be"?

So many times in life we use excuses to manifest these limiting beliefs in our minds and we use them as our reason for why we aren't where we want to be. In actuality none of that baggage that some of us keep around like a pet even matters, not our childhood, a divorce or any other roadblocks we decide to put up for ourselves.

If you know and understand where you are and more importantly where you wanna go, nothing else matters. There is no better feeling in the world than to let everything and everyone off the hook for your success and failures. Its not the government or your boss or anyone.

I hope you feel as much empowerment as I am, just sitting here typing! The most powerful step that we have to take is to change our frame of mind! I believe that in addition to letting everyone else off the hook another empowering fact is that "What 1 person can do another can DO". This is remarkable, no matter whats going on in your life, to know that there have been someone else in that exact situation, if not worse, with more obstacles who have succeeded is greatest news of all! It gives you knowledge that ANYONE can do this!

There are Rags 2 Riches stories everyday and there aren't many differences between these people and regular people. Someone once told me that "Successful people are successful because they do the things that regular people don't feel like doing"

So now every time you use your GPS unit you will think about this and you can ask yourself "Am I heading in the direction that I want to end up at" If your not the best part is you can change your destination and start all over! Hope this inspires! God Bless!

Would having 3 times more equity than they did would've saved them?

Corey Armistead Mortgage Reduction Specialist (BWMA) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:12:35 -0500

So here we are, CNN and MSNBC is going on and on and on about this financial crisis that we're in and its 24 hour around the clock about this "bailout" that we can't seem to come to an agreement to.

I think we can all agree that this was initiated by the industry that we all peruse in...the real estate industry. Yikes!!!

I know "hindsight is 20/20" and if "if" was a fifth, we'd all be broke but lets just dabble a little bit and play around with what could have been.

Lets just imagine a family in a home that they've been in for 7 years, they have about 16k in equity built up and all of the sudden, Whamo! Those rates start adjusting and you know what "hits the fan".

Lets say they're PIMI was total around $1150/month. Well while they scramble around to find some way to account for that $300/mo. increase on their mortgage "Murphy's Law" (which I don't particularly believe in) hits them and one of the spouses get laid off.

So now its really looking bad, that's some pressure, we've all known someone whose been there.

Can you imagine if instead of having $16,000 in equity built up they would have had $39,000 in equity?!?! How much would that have helped?!?!?

What if their realtor at the time would have insisted on their clients getting on a biweekly mortgage?

For some reason or another a lot of us in this industry take this amazing system with a "grain of salt". Most of us in this business know what a biweekly mortgage is and the benefits of being in one but they would rather leave that decison to make a 1/2 mortgage payment every 2 weeks up to the new homeowner, who is already dealing with a lot on new stress. Can you imagine if right before someones house were to be foreclosed on, someone walked up to their doorstep and gave them a check for $23,000?!?!

Its pretty obvious that banks and financial institutions don't need or know what to do with all this money that homeowners are throwing away so I have a pretty unique idea... how about they KEEP IT!

Now in no way am I trying to be cynical but man that suuure would have been sweet! How many homeowners would still be in their homes? Again, I know how hindsight works but man, that sure would have been sweet if all that money banks waste would've have (at a minimum) stayed in these people's piggy bank jars at home. Help me with this crusade and stop this madness, won't you???

That's right, this doesn't ever have to happen again and we can all make some additional money that (by the looks of it) banks didn't really want anyway.

Would having 3 times more equity than they did would've saved them?

Corey Armistead Mortgage Reduction Specialist (BWMA) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:08:50 -0500