Trevor Curran

My Master of all things WEB, Gary, told me to get hooked up, synched up, registered, included, mentioned, linked, and otherwise connected with Technorati.

Mission Accomplished today!

It’s a Brave New World.

By the by, I get a lot of compliments from folks about my site, especially from other mortgage and real estate professionals. I can’t take the credit for the excellent look and feel of the site beyond the copy and blog entries I’ve written. Gary AT HATrack.net is your man if you’re looking for a cool, professional-looking website. His service is superb and prices very reasonable—in fact, I’d be so bold as to say his prices are about the best you’re going to find for website development.

I’m suddenly excited by the prospect of a “Subway Series” here in NY as the Yankees continue their rocket launch into the post-season. The other NY team leads the National League. Woot! October, here we come…!

And, as George Will and so many others have learned, there is much wisdom to be gleaned from the game of baseball that we can use in our daily lives.

I came across two quotes today that I’m certain can be applied to the [tag]homebuying[/tag] experience and the [tag]mortgage[/tag] business.

The first, from a NYTimes.com article about A-Rod and Warren Buffett, features mighty words from the world’s second-richest man about investing:

“The most important thing in investing,” Buffett said, “is what (Red Sox hitting star, Ted) Williams said was the most important thing in hitting” — waiting for the right pitch.

“What’s nice about investing is you don’t have to swing at pitches,” Buffett said. “You can watch pitches come in one inch above or one inch below your navel, and you don’t have to swing. No umpire is going to call you out. You can wait for the pitch you want.”

Those folks familiar with my viewpoint on [tag]negotiating[/tag], including the ability to get up and walk away from the bargaining table, will see where I’m going with this.

The “[tag]dream house[/tag]” exists in your mind. You can make just about any house into that [tag]dream home[/tag]. Therefore, you should never “fall in love” with any given [tag]house[/tag]. The bottom line of negotiating the purchase of your home should be your comfort level with the [tag]monthly payment[/tag], and that’s based on the price you pay. If you can sit tight and wait for “the right pitch” then you will find not only that your negotiating skills have improved, but you will find the right house.

The second baseball bit is also from NYTimes.com today. Mariano Rivera, the famed closer for the Yankees, is still going strong after 13 years in the majors. And he’s still confounding hitters with his brilliant “cutter” pitch.

And ever year fans and journalists and other Major Leaguers speculate on whether or not “Mo” still has what it takes.

Here’s his response: ” “It happens every year, so I don’t get offended,” Rivera said. “People have the right to say what they want to say. That’s not what I feel, but I cannot tell people what to do or what to say about me. I always know who I am and what I’m capable of doing.”

I LOVE that! Confidence in your abilities is what brings any professional to the top of the field.

Often I have met resistance from folks on the ‘net for my opinions on things like recommending 30yr [tag]Fixed rate mortgage[/tag] loans instead of [tag]ARMS[/tag] and other “exotica.” I’ve stood my ground no matter the weight of popular opinion against me—especially from other mortgage professionals.

That’s difficult to do when the business world around you is moving fast and furious with crazy loan offerings like Neg-Am I/O 2/28 [tag]ARM loans[/tag] and potential clients focus on what they want to hear instead of advice that has their best interest at heart for the long term.

In the end, like Mo and his cutter, I managed to keep coming back and closing loans. Where are the other mortgage pro’s now?

Go Yankees…!
[tags]WordPress, WordPress Plugin[/tags]

Blatant scamming by a mortgage professional. I don’t care how the correspondent for the Times reads it, I see it for what it really is: a scam.

This is my opinion, of course—my IMHO—but one based on what I know of this biz in which I work and the many less-than-scrupulous “pros” who’ve been prowling like hyenas these past couple of years.
The article at NYTimes.com focuses on the despicable ARM loan, specifically those short term fixed ARMS (2/28’s being the most notorious) with low teaser rates fixed for a while before a conversion to an adjustable rate. Many, many, many of those loans are adjusting now. Many more will adjust in the fall according to statistics cited in the article.

But, I digress; back to the scam part.

The blatant scamming mortgage slimebag part is the story of the California business consultant who, when contacted by the Times correspondent for a background interview with homeowners with ARM loans, doesn’t even know she has an ARM loan! The Times correspondent received this woman’s name from aforesaid scamming mortgage slimebag when queried as to a list of ARM customers.

Sorry, but I don’t believe the mortgage person for a second when he responds sheepishly that she just didn’t realize the fact she had an ARM not a fixed rate mortgage.

WHAT!?!

How could a business consultant misunderstand something so basic, so important and so apparent in the black & white of the closing documents?

By way of answering that question, I provide the following background:

I heard a story recently from a paralegal who closes loans for banks. The story was of a closing where the borrower was signing docs for an Interest Only ARM loan. The borrower asked the paralegal if what he was reading on the Note was correct because he was told by his mortgage “professional” that he was getting a fixed rate, regular amortizing loan.

When the paralegal acknowledged the truth apparent to the borrower’s own eyes, the mortgage person put his boss on the phone with the paralegal. The boss proceeded to tell the para to “shut the hell up.”

The para was then asked to leave the room. After a fifteen or twenty minute conference behind closed doors between the borrower and the mortgage “pro” the documents were signed and the closing completed. Apparently the mortgage pro convinced the borrower that he was in fact getting a fixed rate loan, NOT an I/O ARM!

What do you think of that? I’d say it is pretty obvious how that business consultant “didn’t realize” she had an ARM loan. She was told by her trusted mortgage advisor that she was signing for a fixed rate loan.

The Times correspondent puts the whole mess down to an “…honest misunderstanding in which the broker believed that he had explained the terms of the loans more clearly than he had.”

Oh, rubbish!

The borrower has her closing documents, including the Note. Did she not ever READ the Note at the closing? Or was she just told, “Sign here, here, here, and HERE.”

I’ll bet dollars to donuts she didn’t have an attorney representing her at the closing. Oh yes I would.

I’ve just read a funny article at NYTimes.com written by a self-confessed “information addict” and her quest to discern—several times a day, apparently—the value of her home and thus her potential wealth (or lack thereof) at any given moment in time using a myriad of internet resources. (I know that sentence is cumbersome, but so are the activities of our information-seeking heroine!)

At one point she likens the activity to party tricks, “… by announcing to our friends all kinds of delicious snippets that once were considered intimate, known mainly to brokers or people with enough time to drive to the courthouse to flip through musty files.”

IMHO, I’d have to agree with the party tricks bit, but I’d have to disagree with the notion that this information was “known” to brokers.

Certainly property value information has long been available to brokers, but that doesn’t mean they were either aware of it or using it on a daily basis. I don’t know how many times in my 18 year career I have seen a house listing that was beyond the scope of reasonable or how many times I’ve had to explain to a broker that the house didn’t appraise only to be met with a blank stare (on the other end of the telephone).

While this information has been more readily accessible to real estate and mortgage professionals, that doesn’t mean we all walked around accessing the info; certainly not to the degree the NYTimes.com correspondent does for her own home using the ‘net.

As for the “party tricks,” yah, that’s about the best way to categorize such an activity. I mean, what else can you possibly hope to do with this information? How does this help you unless you are about to make a serious decision about whether to sell your home or buy one?

I don’t even think it helps you in determining whether or not to refinance. As the correspondent points out, “After looking at the most recent comparable sales, Mr. Raful said my house was worth $100,000 more than the highest online estimate.” Mr. Raful is the appraiser who appraised her house when last she refinanced.

Read the article and have a good chuckle. And keep your “slightly-cynical” hat firmly positioned on your head as you read: this “readily available” information isn’t useful to most folks on most (if not ALL) days of the week, most of the time, most every year. Like a lot of stuff on the internet, there’s accurate and then there’s just plain silly.

My favorite quote from the article is by a Professor Shiv, an associate professor of marketing at Stanford University: “The Internet makes it easy to get too much information, from too many conflicting sources, and all it’s going to do is to give you ecstasy on some days and pain on others.”

Here, here.

Anyone have any better party tricks?

I haven’t written for awhile as I’ve been busy searching for, and making a transition to a new company.

Lots of NEW things soon to happen, and I’ll keep you posted when they do.  So, watch out for NEW!

You spend enough time chatting on the Craigslist Housing Forum, and you get to “know” the regular folks by their handles. There are a lot of smart, decent people who contribute to the many and varied conversation threads there.

Here are some witty Limericks from one of my Craigslist pals, “Pelham Bay.” Enjoy.

There once was a man from Hempstead,
Who was known as a real Bubblehead.
He held on to his money,
Which was really quite funny,
Cause the house he lived in was rented.

*****************************************************
A lady named Cindy MaGee
Sought an apartment without any fee.
The broker said okay,
But first she’d have to pay,
$2500 up front for the key.

******************************************************
A friendly young guy named Bert,
Wanted to buy without getting hurt.
An ARM zero-down subprime,
From the lender, I.M. Slime,
And now our friend Bert is eating dirt.

****************************************************
FSBO she read in the ad.
“Well”, she thought, “This can’t be all bad”.
So she went out and bought,
Without giving it a thought,
She’s now living in a condemned leaky pad.

***************************************************
Housing prices are falling each day.
If you wait, then the less you will pay.
I decided to wait,
For the very perfect date,
Now I sleep in a barn on the hay.

**************************************************
Old-world charm, a real “must-see”.
Hurry now and you’ll get it “no fee”.
Leaky windows and doors,
Chipped paint on the floors,
How lucky can a poor renter be ?