First of all, I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. We have a lot to be thankful for and we should certainly take time and cherish it with our families and friends.
I'd like to hightlight some of the mortgage related posts I've written here as I figure out ways to re-engage with the Active Rain crowd. Here are the three that stand out the most:
Now that subprime loans are a faint memory of the past, we often look to the FHA loans to fill in the void. Not that we miss those ugly sub primes all that much. But alas, FHA does provide a hearty loan for those who may have had a shaky credit past. So, here are a few fun facts and figures on the famous FHA loan.
1) You do not have to have perfect credit to qualify for an FHA loan! Yes, this is great news. In fact, even with a bankruptcy or a mortgage late, it is easier for you to qualify for an FHA loan than a conventional loan.
2) FHA loans have a low 3.5% down payment. This money can come from a family member, an employer or even from a charitable organization as a gift. Most other loan programs do not allow this unless you have a much larger down payment or 5% of your own money invested.
3) FHA rates are competitive! Believe it or not, because the Federal government insures these loans, they offer comparable rates. Your rate won’t be sky high if you opt for FHA instead of a conventional mortgage. The government makes sure of this!
In an era of the credit crunch a common belief among borrowers is that they can no longer get zero down payment loans. While the free wheeling days of yesterday is certainly past us, there is still one loan program available that has a zero down feature. This zero down mortgage is available with a USDA Guarantee Rural Housing Mortgage.
This loan is not available to everyone and there are restrictions, but there are plenty of borrowers out there for whom this can be a great fit. The USDA Guarantee Rural Housing program is available to homebuyers purchasing a home in a rural area. The area must be defined as rural by USDA Rural Development and eligible properties cannot produce income (so no investment properties allowed). To determine if a property is within an approved area the USDA website has tools to help you identify them. So, if you have a property in mind, go ahead and enter it in and see if the property is located in an eligible area.
For those of you who are looking to purchase your first home in 2010…with a little extra work, you could find yourself with $15,000 in down payment assistance. Newtown Community Development Corporation (CDC) is a nonprofit corporation begun in the 90s to address concerns about housing, neighborhood preservation and sustainable development. The vision of CDC is to increase affordable housing and support homebuyers through innovative programs.
Today I want to hone in on the down payment assistance CDC has to offer. It is called an Individual Development Account. Essentially, eligible homebuyers can receive $15,000 toward the purchase of a home, matching up to $3 for each $1 saved by the participants.
Now…the key with this program, as with any assistance program, is to read the fine print.To know if you should even consider applying, you must know the specific requirements of the program.
Now that I am the NEW Arizona Mortgage Guru, I am taking matters into my hands. *I feel like the new James Bond*. And at least for the time being I have decided that one person can only handle so much. Two is always better! So…in light of this revelation – well…and also being 9 months pregnant and about to go on maternity leave — I have decided to partner up with the Senior Mortgage Professional in our office, Mike.
Mike is THE MAN Shailesh and I have gone to for mortgage loan advice, input, information, help and coaching in the last fe years. Mike is simply amazing. Not only does have a TON of experience and knowledge (over 20 years in the industry), but he is actually a great guy. Someone you’d want to hang out with after work and have a beer with.
I saw this article about a broom company located in Tokyo, Japan that has not had a customer since 1972! First of all, how do you stay in business all these years without customers? Aside from that issue, I have other concerns. First to put it in perspective, in 1972 Richard Nixon was President (Watergate was yet to happen); Godfather was Best Picture; the first female FBI agent was hired; the very first female was admitted to Dartmouth and the first scientific handheld calculator, the HP-35, was introduced. So, a lot has happened since this store had made a sale.
As I said aside from the question of how they've managed to stay open all these years, I wanted to explore other aspects of this interesting news. The article claims that perhaps the store receives little business because the product is not needed anymore. Now, I haven't lived in Tokyo, but I've been there and I'm pretty sure I saw people using brooms. I know Gilbert, and Tokyo are very different places, but I have two brooms in my home, one for outdoor use and one for indoor. Also, not to forget, Home Depot and Wal-Mart seem to stock plenty of them. So, I'm pretty sure there is a market for brooms.
The larger question then becomes is the store not attracting customers because of the product or because of the lack of marketing? At the end of the day you could have the most amazingly useful product/service but if you're marketing it properly then you won't sell. Marketing of course means understanding your core customer segment and delivering your unique selling proposition to that segment as a means to maximize sales conversion. To me the story of the broom store reminds me that no matter how useful your product is, if you don't have the acumen to market the product to your customer you won't succeed. Even a retail store in one of the worlds largest metropolitan area.
What do you think? Why do you think this store has not had a customer since 1972?
Is it the product or the marketing? Or both, that drives sales.
As you know, we made changes to our business practice recently. I am now with PrimeLending and no longer with CTX Mortgage. Also, Shailesh is no longer in the industry. Most of you have only known Shailesh but let me introduce myself to this community. Here is a bit about me from my "About" page on my website:
To me, being a loan officer is all about people and education. This is what I love about my work! I have such a passion for helping people. Since I was very young I can remember, even on the way to school on the train, assisting confused American tourists find their way in Vienna. Read more...
My five year stint in the mortgage industry has officially come to a close. With the recent down turn in the industry many mortgage companies are downsizing and making changes to what they expect from their loan originators. CTX is no exception. Its parent company Centex is closing all CTX retail branches and only keeping the builder financing part of the business. While there was a concerted effort from Centex to find CTX Mortgage a home with a different lender, given the volatile mortgage market this never transpired. Last month, it was announced that all retail branches and loan officers were on their own effective August 31, 2008.
Fortunately for the Arizona retail branches they will all be moving to PrimeLending effective today. Aimee is moving over with the rest of the loan officers from the Mesa, AZ branch (and all other AZ branches). As for me, Aimee and I decided that I would not be moving over with her, and she would run the business on her own. So, Friday was officially my last day in the mortgage industry. I will continue full time with AIR Marketing as the Director of Interactive Marketing, assisting companies understand and integrate social technologies into their overall marketing strategies.
I will continue to follow the mortgage industry and blog about my opinions and thoughts for what its worth. I may even re-brand this blog to reflect the free agent nature of the content, but that is up in the air at the moment. Nonetheless, it will be a personal journal of sorts and will be written more so from the customers perspective than a lender. I plan on staying on top of major lending practices and developments in the industry, so my regular readers should not see a noticeable difference in the quality of the content on this blog.
Over time, I do not anticipate updating this blog as often. That doesn’t mean I will not be blogging at all. In fact I will be active on the web as the Social Media Wiz and will be a contributor on the AIR Marketing company blog. Be sure to subscribe to both of these two blogs to stay updated and informed on social technologies and its impact on business - large or small.
In the mean time, feel free to contact Aimee Ghimire at Prime Lending for all your home financing and mortgage needs. She’s the best loan originator in the world and will take very good care of you! Her mortgage website will remain as AimeeLoans.Com.
The mortgage market is dramatically different these days. As an agent you can not be caught off guard when you're working with potential buyers. There have been so many (literally every week) changes to loan programs that you owe it to your business to stay on top of it. That is why you must attend the Hot Mortgage Topics Class next Wednesday April 23 at 9AM.
I, a.k.a. The Arizona Mortgage Guru will be covering the latest issues regarding home mortgage financing. I will discuss the hot mortgage topics to help you get more buyers and sell your listings!
FHA Loans - how this is keeping the market alive and what you need to know about seller contributions, down payment assistance grants and gifts
VA Loans - there are a lot of borrowers who qualify for this and as an agent you need to know the details of this program so you can negotiate on behalf of your buyer and get them the deal they deserve
Foreign Nationals Program - the what and how!
Declining Markets - did you know that Arizona is for all effective purposes classified as a declining market? Do you know how this can affect your next transaction?
Latest Fannie/Freddie News
Credit Crunch Update
When: Wednesday April 23 (9 Am to 10.15 AM - with light breakfast)
Watch this video and let me know what you think....
Questions to ponder:
Is it fair to have tax payers pay to bail out people who made poor financial decisions?
What about the fact that some of the people who are in trouble didn't actually realize what they were getting into and just jumped in on the bandwagon?
My full take is at AzMortgageGuru.Com.
The mortgage market in Phoenix, Arizona changes all the time. If you are a Canadian national seeking some mortgage information to purchase a home in the US then things can get pretty confusing really fast. At the Arizona Mortgage Guru Blog I try to maintain the most current information for you the consumer. In that spirit here are links to some very important articles for Canadians seeking to purchase real estate in the United States:
Curious about obtaining a mortgage as a Canadian citizen? Well I've written two mortgage financing related articles on different blogs. Both of these articles provide you with the information you need to obtain a loan to purchase US real estate either as a second home (vacation home) or as an investment property.
Please do not hesitate to contact, Aimee or Shailesh at the Arizona Mortgage Guru Blog for all your mortgage loan needs. Whether purchasing a home, re-financing a home loan or wanting to look at investment properties, Aimee and Shailesh at CTX Mortgage can do it all. You can reach the Phoenix home mortgage lender at (480) 516-1819.
Anticipating a rate cut, the dollar lost ground to the Euro today - reaching it's lowest point ever. The US dollar also continues to lose ground to the Canadian dollar - reaching a low it hasn't seen since 1974.
It may not seem good news to many, but for those in the export business, this is very good news. And Real Estate is an American product which can be "exported". Canadians and Europeans have shown that they love to buy a little piece of the Untied Stated. And today, American real estate is much cheaper when you look at it from their eyes.
Below, I have graphed what the value of a $250,000 American home would cost in different currencies. This is from the beginning of 2007 until last week.
For those not familiar with the Carnival of Real Estate - the basic idea is for one blogger to evaluate blog posts and then present the top entries for that week. It is a weekly "competition" of sorts and offers a great venue for learning about other bloggers and imitating their success. At the basic level, CoRE is a great way for the host to learn about new bloggers and a wide range of topics. For the writer, it offers exposure to a a whole new audience and if you are selected that week, the link love can be priceless! A win win for all parties.
I would encourage any serious blogger to participate in the CoRE on a regular basis and also to host one. Visit the Carnival of Real Estate website for details.
The Carnival of Real Estate rolled into town again in Phoenix. From Super Bowls, BCS Championships and numerous other sporting championships, our area is very familiar with hosting big time events. Heck we’ve even already hosted multiple carnivals! Now how many cities can say that?
This time the carnival arrived in a most interesting holiday - Halloween. While the theme is not entirely Halloween related, I did include a “scary” category to my selections. There were exactly thirty entries and the quality of posts were very good. I have selected my top three picks and then provided honorable mentions by category.
Visit the blog for the complete list of this weeks winners!
I am a mortgage professional serving the Greater Phoenix market. This includes Phoenix, Mesa, Gilbert, Scottsdale, Chandler, Tempe and surrounding communities. I am with PrimeLending.
When it comes to Arizona mortgage loans I have the expertise, the experience and the professionalism you should expect. I have been working in the Arizona home loan market for almost five years and have a history of satisfied borrowers.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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