Happy Friday! Rates are still low by historical standards. Tell your clients/friends/family that have mortgage loans with a rate of over 5.5% that they might qualify for the Making Home Affordable Refinance. I can certainly talk with clients that have their loans serviced by Bank of America; we have purchased many loans to service from other companies and it takes me just a few seconds to look up client info to determine if they qualify for the Making Home Affordable Refinance Program. It's a great program in that there is typically no appraisal requirement and the process is very streamlined.
I've been called "outrageous" on numerous occasions, both on and off the job. You can be sure that I'm willing to try most any marketing angle and I've had pretty good success over the years. One of my favorite authors/motivational speakers is Harvey Mackay. I've included an article he wrote on some great ideas on advertising. Get out of your comfort zone, think outside the box and step back to watch what happens! One of my best campaigns was when I sent a balloon in a card to clients with a message that their current rate might be "inflated" and it's time for a mtg checkup.
Have a great weekend - contact me when I can be of service.
From Think Big, Work Small
Treasuries traded better overnight but gave back the gains at 8:30 when June CPI came in at a higher level; than expected on the core reading, +0.2% against +0.1% expected. The overall CPI however was down 0.1%. Consumer prices rose 1.1% in the 12 months ended in June, following a 2% year-over-year gain the prior month. Economists had forecast a 1.2% rise in the 12 months to June, according to the survey median. The core rate rose 0.9% from June 2009, matching the smallest year- over-year gain since 1966. There is no inflation now, nor will inflation be a problem for a long time; the worry now isn't inflation its deflation. Mortgages at 9:00 this morning were trading better, up .09 bp. Stock indexes were lower at 9:00, the DJIA -28, the S&P -3. At 9:30 the DJIA opened -50, the 10 yr note at 9:30 +4/32 at 2.98% -2 BP and mortgage prices +1/32 (.03 bp).
Late yesterday the DJIA rallied in the last 30 minutes of trading when the SEC announced it had a settlement with Goldman/Sachs for a fine of $550 mil and the BP oil cap was holding. Traders did their usual knee jerk, buying BP stock and all other stocks with oil connected to it and jumped on financial stocks led by a big increase in G/S's stock. This morning the equity markets are starting lower on lower-than-estimated revenue at General Electric Co., Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. Putting it in perspective the fine for G/S is about two weeks of revenue; meantime the SEC is being lauded by some as getting "tough" on fraud cases. G/S was accused of deliberately mis-leading investors to buy the junk sub-prime securities while it was buying credit default swaps betting that the securities would decline.
The dollar continues to weaken against the euro with the euro now at some of its best levels since May; the dollar is at its lowest this year against the yen as the US economic outlook is deteriorating, at least based on the wild and unreasonable bullish outlook earlier this year. The dollar has lost 2.6% against the euro this week and fallen 2.1% versus the yen.
The passage of the FinRegs legislation, 2300 pages, is now complete. Maybe, maybe not; 2300 pages and no real specifics now left to the regulators to figure out how to implement the bill that in the long haul will likely have a lot of unintended consequences----think Sarbanes/Oxley. The legislation is well intended but it was rushed through with millions of dollars of lobbyists dragging legislators around by the nose. Big banks now will try to figure out the eventual costs associated with the sweeping bill that Pres Obama will sign next week in a major media event.
At 9:55 rounding out the data this week; the U. of Michigan mid-month consumer sentiment index was expected to be at 74.5; as released sentiment fell hard to 66.5 frm 76.0 at the end of June. We noted in the 4:30 report yesterday that the sentiment index that was expected at 74.5 would likely be a lot weaker. The index is now at an 11 month low. The 12 month out index also fell, to 65.0 frm 79.0 two weeks ago. The reaction sent the DJIA down another 50 points, pushed the 10 yr note price up 6/32 and mortgage prices from unchanged to +5/32 (.15 bp).
From Freddie Mac
Mortgage Rates Stable This Week
30-Year Mortgage Rate Ties Last Week's Record Low
McLean, VA - Freddie Mac (OTC:FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®).
News Facts
•· 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.57 percent for the week ending July 15, 2010, unchanged from last week when it averaged 4.57 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.14 percent. This rate ties the all-time low reached last week in Freddie Mac's 39-year survey.
•· 15-year FRM this week averaged 4.06 percent down from last week when it averaged 4.07 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 4.63 percent.
•· 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 3.85 percent this week, up from last week when it averaged 3.75 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 4.83 percent.
•· 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 3.74 percent this week down from last week when it averaged 3.75 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 4.76 percent.
Quotes
Attributed to Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist, Freddie Mac
•· "Fixed-rate mortgages continued to hover at 50-year lows, thereby supporting homebuyer affordability and refinance activity. Over the past month, about four out of five conventional loan applications and more than one-half of FHA and VA loan applications were for refinance. Compared to the recent peak in 30-year fixed interest rates 13 months ago (week of June 11, 2009), current rates are a full percentage point lower. With today's rates, homebuyers would save about $1,500 in payments each year on a $200,000 loan compared to rates last June."
Outrageous advertising for outrageous results
By Harvey Mackay 7-15-10
"Outrageous" is rarely a way we'd like to be described. It implies that we are way over the top, attention-seeking, bold, wild, defying convention, and a few other descriptions that we might prefer not to be called.
Apply that term to your advertising, however, and what you have is an over-the-top, attention-grabbing, bold, wild, unconventional message that people notice -- and that gets results!
Bill Glazer, one of the most sought-after marketing strategists in the world -- clients routinely pay more than $25,000 -- is offering his outrageously successful system in a new book, "Outrageous Advertising That's Outrageously Successful" for a tiny fraction of his usual fee. It's one of the best bargains of the year.
Bill wrote this book for the "99 percent of small business owners who are dissatisfied with the results they get from their current advertising." He summarizes his system in six points:
- Outrageous works. Why it does is irrelevant. It does.
- Outrageous works in any media for any product.
- People are bored and overwhelmed and want to be amused.
- People love outrageous advertising.
- Always be on the lookout for the next outrageous idea.
- Discover that outrageous advertising is the number one most fun thing you'll do in your career.
Building on these ideas, he has built a system that works on ads in a wide variety of media, including websites, email, newspapers and magazines, yellow pages, business cards, signs, voicemail, trade shop marketing, help wanted and direct mail. He offers hundreds of examples as well as resources for even more ideas.
Bill has a very distinctive business card that I'm guessing few people file away and never look at again. It looks like a folded hundred-dollar bill on one side. The card folds out to reveal six quick selling points about what he offers. Even if the recipient never uses Bill's services, that card gets shown over and over again because it is so novel. Perhaps one of the people who see it will require Bill's services. Sure, it's outrageous, but it works!
Where do these outrageous ideas come from? It all starts with a headline, no matter what the medium, he says. Print ad headlines are obvious. In radio, the headline is the very first thing you hear. Bill warns not to jump at the first headline you think of: "When writing a marketing piece, I will never write less than ten headlines. I have written as many as 100 headlines before I have chosen one I wanted to use."
Bill says whenever he is stumped on an idea or just to get his brain working, "I look at a list of 350 of the best headlines ever written. These are great to turn into templates and create your own ideas. They serve as an Outrageous shortcut." So convinced of this inspiration, he includes 100 of his favorite headlines to get the reader started.
In addition to a killer headline, the ad also must contain an offer and a deadline. Bill's examples are clear, easy to follow and plentiful. He covers the importance of photos and illustrations, graphics and testimonials, which he says are "at least ten times more believable than what you say about yourself."
I was already pretty convinced that Bill knew what he was doing when I read his views on envelopes -- and how outrageous mail advertising starts with the outside of the envelope. The man must have been reading my mind! Everyone gets mail, he reminds us, and unusual-looking mail gets noticed.
In addition to all the good advice and outside resources to study, there's even a list of holidays (like National Hat Day) to connect your advertising to. National Hat Day? That is pretty outrageous. But if it helps you sell your product, would you still think it outrageous?
Bill describes his system this way:
- More outrageous gets more attention.
- Know your audience; don't be offensive but never be boring.
- You can advertise really outrageously in some really outrageous places.
- You can be really outrageous without spending a lot of money by identifying opportunities you already have such as an on-hold message, vehicles, signs, etc.
- You can be really outrageous by using the senses of hearing, seeing, feeling and even smelling.
Mackay's Moral: If you want outrageous results, you need to try outrageous advertising.
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