I know... "What Rate Lock Scam? Never heard of it." The other day I gave you the power to determine if you were being Bait and Switched on your mortgage loan. There was a lot to digest there. Yesterday, I gave you the ability to look up a Loan Officer and determine if they are currently lice...

05/29/2008

B A L A N C E

10 Comments

Last week I was in beautiful Victoria, BC. My daughter and her High School Marching Band were there to march in the Victoria Day Parade. They even made the front page of the local paper! My wife and I were there to celebrate the beginning of 20 years of Marriage in the place we honeymooned....

05/27/2008

How NOT to be one of those

4 Comments

Bait and Switch Victims Everyday there is at least one email or phone call from someone who is a victim of bait and switch on their mortgage. This may come as a surprise to you but I'm okay with the occasional complaint about a loan officer's incompetence screwing up someone's mortgage. I'm oka...

05/27/2008

Dear Mortgage Insurance Underwriter,

23 Comments

I've got two perfectly good short sale negotiations that have been shot down by your Mortgage Insurance Company and I'm not happy! I'm not talking about Mortgage Insurance that the Homeowner had. No. That would be too easy. I'm talking about a dark, sinister, evil form of MI that is killing perfe...

05/13/2008

LIBOR Liars

2 Comments

LIBOR: "London InterBank Offered Rate" It's what one London based bank will lend money to another London based bank. To us, it's an index. This is all about London - why should we care? Remember how ARM's work An index is just something that we can all point to and agree upon. It's a factor that...

05/13/2008

How to get a Rate Quote

6 Comments

There's a lot of information on the internet. Google currently lists over 1.3 MILLION pages for the seemingly simple two words, "Mortgage Rates". You'd think with that many pages, getting a mortgage rate quote would be pretty easy. Wrong! Everyday I receive a query or two on Mortgage Rates. I ca...

05/12/2008

Jumbo Mumbo Jumbo

3 Comments

Jumbo Rate Locking It's a shame that a great idea can sometimes be dragged down by others. Yes, I'm still touting Jumbo Mortgage Rates. Here's a synopsis of what happened. Tuesday, May 6th: Fannie announces to that they are going to enable lower interest rates for Jumbo Mortgages - pushing the...

05/08/2008

Did you see Jumbo Rates Today?

3 Comments

They were down dramatically. Really Dramatically. Last Friday the difference between Conforming 30 year fixed rates (loans under $417,000) and Jumbo Conforming 30 year fixed rates ($417,001 and above) was roughly 5/8ths. That was a big difference. On a $417,000 loan the Payment would be somew...

05/07/2008

Why the New Trustee?

4 Comments

Why the New Trustee? When the Lender files the Notice of Default to start the foreclosure process often times they will also assign a New Trustee. When that happens you'll receive all sorts of important registered letters announcing the New Trustee. By law they have make sure you are properl...

05/05/2008

I almost gave someone $33,000 yesterday

14 Comments

Yesterday we had a dip across the boards in interest rates. I advised my clients to lock if they could. I had three that were ready to lock. Talk about Volatility. Today interest rates are back up and don't look like they'll be dipping again anytime soon. For the rate shoppers out there. If you...

05/02/2008