Okay, who turned the faucet on? Our mortgage writers came out in force this past week, churning out brilliant posts and stirring up controversy everywhere in the Rainer Nation.

Inspiration seemed to be contagious when one post hatched the next, blazing the trail for some of the most amazing (and lengthy) comments you can imagine.....posts within posts.

Even the Raingods recognized the firestorm as one mortgage post after another achieved featured status. Who needs to unearth hidden gems when my fellow mortgage writers brought to the table some of the most passionate and provocative posts of the year?

Congratulations on a great week to all of the mortgage writers of ActiveRain. These posts represent a true look at the state of the real estate industry straight from the trenches of those who are living it.

Here is what we were we thinking about as April turned to May in 2008:

LENDERS CLAMP DOWN ON BUYERS WITH DECLINING VALUE POLICIES 

When I wrote One Dead Goose and Another Loan Goes Belly Up: How Declining Value Restrictions Hurt Property Values  Joey Aszterbaum shot right back with I'm Not Whining About 'Declining' - A Contrarian's View Of The Adverse Real Estate Market. You MUST check out the comments on Joey's post....and what a great job he did of moderating a very intense discussion. Brian Brady, our thought leader, unveils a fascinating theory here...not to be missed.

Lenn "Hard Core" Harley, who also was responding to my original post about the impact of declining values policies gave us THIS "DECLINING MARKET" PRETEXT IS JUST SO MUCH BLATHER. Don't you just love the word "blather"? Do not miss Lenn's hard hitting take on this subject along with another set of passionate comments.

STOP BLAMING THE STATED INCOME LOAN

 Aaron Gordon, one of my favorite writers, argues the case for stated income loans (a subject dear to my heart) using a very creative analogy with The Scapegoat of The Mortgage Crisis : The Dastardly Stated Income Loan  

 THE ART OF LOCKING THE LOAN: TIMING IS EVERYTHING

Absolutely not to be missed is the guy in my backyard who originally  told me about ActiveRain (and obviously created a monster) when I crashed his Realtor blogging class....Mike Mueller. This post is destined to be a classic I almost gave someone $33,000 yesterday. And check out the little video he has on his blog! Mike is one of our technology leaders as well as a brilliant loan officer. 

NEXT THEY'LL ASK FOR A URINE SAMPLE TO QUALIFY FOR A MORTGAGE!

Scott Geary, who recently began commenting on my posts, has turned out to be one of my favorite writers. Don't miss the way Scott writes about some of the most ridiculous things people need to do to get qualified these days in The Tornado Known as Mortgage Lending

 GET YOUR JUMBOLICIOUS LOAN HERE (IF YOU CAN)

Hey! There is someone else out there in the Rain (besides me) who is wondering why jumbo loans are nearly impossible to snag these days. Dione Sage has a way with words, I promise you. Read Jumbo, Dumbo, Mumbo....

OUT OF THE GATE, DON'T CALL FOR A RATE

Robert D. Ashby is probably one of the smartest guys around ActiveRain. His post Big Brown Wins Kentucky Derby: Are You Winning That Rate Shopping Game?  explains why rate shopping over the phone is just NOT something that works. Robert was inspired by Mike Mueller's post mentioned above.

FHA IS THE ALTERNATIVE AND HERE'S WHY

Jeff Belonger was gracious enough last week to help me with an FHA loan I was struggling with. This caused me to go over to his blog and read some of his amazing FHA posts. Here in the Bay Area we are only getting our feet wet on FHA loans, so to really understand why an FHA loan is cost effective as compared to a conventional loan, read this FHA loans vs conventional loans -- The true story told by numbers....

ARE INTERNET LEADS TIME CANCER?

Here's a little debate you might not want to miss. Spencer Rascoff over at Zillow wonders if the fact mortgage leads are free should result in lower prices to borrowers when he wrote Less work? Then charge less.  Check out my reply Under the Weeping Zillow Tree: Internet Leads Are Never FREE

WHAT MAKES A GREAT SALESPERSON?

Jason Sardi writes like no one else and is an absolute ActiveRain treasure. I suspect he is much handsomer than his picture, however, and if anyone else can verify this, by all means do so. Meanwhile, go on over to his contribution The more you talk, the less I'm 'Sold'.

There you have it. If you think mortgage writing is dry and boring, you haven't experienced our ActiveRain mortgage community. Thank you, Jeff Belonger, for inviting me to write this. Until next week, enjoy all of the MORTGAGE MADNESS here in the Rain.

Written by Janet Guilbault, Mortgage Lending Expert Based Out of the San Francisco Bay Area