Today I posted a tongue in cheek glimpse into the RESPA reform which touched the mortage and real estate industry today. The new HUD1 and GFE were released and, per normal, nobody seems to give a hoot unless they get 2 CE's for learning about it. (Good news, we will be CE licensed in Georgia on the topic very soon.)
Nevertheless and I love you guys anyway the BTR show on Thursday, 11/12 at 10:30AM will touch on the subject again as well as take a very brief snapshot look at what is available today in the form of mortgages.
One thing to remember is that the media is not in the real estate business or the finance business. We all know there are literally hundreds of thousands of great deals available in real estate today. Some of you may not, however, know that there is 100% financing available for qualified borrowers at conventional, conforming guidelines and rates - (fixed 30's in the 6's) and real estate investors are NOT limited to four properties on credit.
THE OPINIONS IN THIS COMMENTARY ARE STRICTLY KEN COOK's PERSONAL OPINION AND NOT REFLECTIVE ON ACTIVE RAIN, NOVATION MORTGAGE, or ANY SPONSOR OF THIS WEBSITE.
EDUCATION BEATS LEGISLATION EVERY TIME. Get your clients, friends and family members to a LENDER RUN home mortgage seminar as soon as possible.
The first thing you will notice about the GFE is that it is totally redesigned. It's not just Windows Vista with a new name it is actually a different set of documents! Easier to understand? Let's see:
First section Got that first sentence - the average borrower will skip right over the further information blah blah blah.
don't you know they refer you to page three ... ya, okay - so there's no shopping cart. Oh CHART. Ya, you want ME, Mr. Borrower to fill this out? I'll just trust the bank - after all they are HUGE - they wouldn't lie to me. And they have been so kind to provide their competitor's costs for me right here online. Where do I sign?
#1 uhm this interest rate is good through ... heck, is it even locked yet? It's good through about the time we hang up the phone. You want every loan locked at application time? Talk about firing some loan officers! (I wonder if people realize that locking a loan means the lender will be paying the daily interest on that amount of money whether or not the loan closes?) #2 All other settlement charges? Uhm okay that's a given. #3 "After you lock your interest rate" .... infinite loop with #1 #4 that would be uhm 0?
- I have my tongue in my cheek by the way -
So here is what I do like about the new GFE on the front page (A) there's no TIL - it is on the GFE (B) I do believe it will make it easier to explain to short attentioned borrowers (C) There is no space on there for YSP (come on! This is either really good for customers because it won't confuse the crap out of them or really bad for customers because it means on 1/1/10 there will be no YSP - yikes.) (D) It has a tally column that will let people separate numbers from gobble-de-guk (E) The tally columns have bottom lines just like real people do!
And the HUD1
Probably the best change is that it has the line numbers from the GFE to match up GFE numbers with HUD numbers. Of course if you are lucky and get wonderful borrowers like mine they will want forty-eleven GFE's to match the umpteen houses they are looking at so they are bound to show up at the closing with a GFE for a $199,000 loan to close on a $349,000 loan and then go berserk because their payment and closing costs doubled. (I kid you not, this WILL happen.)
All in all I think the changes are good. I still don't think they are going to save the ignorant from the unscrupulous but that's not my job. I'm not unscrupulous and I actually take the time to explain everything in painstaking detail to my clients ... and probably yours too.
THE OPINIONS IN THIS COMMENTARY ARE STRICTLY KEN COOK's PERSONAL OPINION AND NOT REFLECTIVE ON ACTIVE RAIN, NOVATION MORTGAGE, or ANY SPONSOR OF THIS WEBSITE.
EDUCATION BEATS LEGISLATION EVERY TIME. Get your clients, friends and family members to a LENDER RUN home mortgage seminar as soon as possible.
Totally free, nothing to buy: no books, no DVD series, no expensive mentoring groups to join. This teleconference is for agents and buyers alike. Many people do not know a self-directed retirement account and buy and hold real estate. Even fewer know that an IRA can get a bank loan to purchase real estate and hold it. Even fewer know how it is done, what it costs and what the advantages are of doing so.
The mistake most IRA investors make is thinking they can just put property in their IRA. Not true. The purchase must be made completely with retirement funds. Many people don't know they can purchase not only single family residential properties but also multi-family properties like small, midsized and large apartment complexes.
This conference call will last about 30 minutes and as an agent can open doors for you and your clients that can make the difference between watching others grab the massive investment opportunities and being a leader in the move. Fannie Mae limits do not apply. Qualification is very simple.
Combine this power with the massive availability of short sales and REO's and you can make yourself as an investor or your clients as an agent very successful in real estate investing! Currently available in every state except Arizona (short time out there).
Ken Cook - Georgia - FHA, USDA, VA and Conventional Home Loans (678) 439-8683
First of all there is 100% financing available, that's no down payment, on primary residences to buyers who demonstrate the ability and willingness to repay. Second of all these are not dangerous subprime loans but are completely conventional, bank issued loans from one of the largest names in banking with a good reputation.
WE CAN'T BELIEVE THE NUMBER OF CALLS FROM PEOPLE WHO WHO ARE ASTONISHED! So were we when the funder came to us and asked if we, known for our higher quality of borrower, had any clients who could use this. YES WE DO!
Investors are NOT limited to Four properties - only Fannie and Freddie limit them:
THE OPINIONS IN THIS COMMENTARY ARE STRICTLY KEN COOK's PERSONAL OPINION AND NOT REFLECTIVE ON ACTIVE RAIN, NOVATION MORTGAGE, or ANY SPONSOR OF THIS WEBSITE.
EDUCATION BEATS LEGISLATION EVERY TIME. Get your clients, friends and family members to a LENDER RUN home mortgage seminar as soon as possible.
This is a very simple question to answer and it is all based on need (demand) and choices (supply). Let me see if you answer yes to all five of these questions. If you answer yes to all of them then immediately call me to get qualified for a loan then call one of these great Active Rain real estate agents in your area.
1. Do you have a need to move to a new home? (Tired of renting, growing family, closer to work, big/small yard)
2. Can you afford to make the payments on a new home?
3. Would getting the new home improve your life in any way?
4. Do you understand that the future is uncertain in many ways?
5. Are you aware the value of the home *could* go down at least a little after you buy?
Listen, friend, if you answered yes to all five of those questions and you aren't already pre-approved for a mortgage and connected with an Active Rain associated real estate agent then you are waiting on water to get wet, ice to get cold and fire to be hot.
Here are some facts:
Sales prices in most areas of the US have dropped at least 5% in the last year. This is an anomaly that happens from time to time. Other areas have seen drastic drops but they also saw skyrocketing appreciation in the preceding years.
There are more homes available on the market today than there are buyers looking to buy. Part of this is because of a very short-sited move on the part of Fannie Mae to not let qualified investors buy more than four homes (Novation mortgage can finance more than four homes for investors by the way). The biggest problem is people are terrified even to buy when they NEED to buy and it is mostly because of massive mountains of misleading information from the media. Their job is to sensationalize. Things are bad but not as bad as the media says. You do NOT have to have a down payment if you qualify for a solid, well priced, low interest, long term, fixed rate, 100% financing home loan for a home purchase.
Closings are usually fast because loan officers, underwriters, appraisers, insurance agents, title agents, and closing attorneys are all blogging instead of closing your loan.
Here is the secret: Forget what the media says. Call a local professional. For mortgage questions call Novation Mortgage at 866-946-0120. Especially if you are in the southeast - that's our "stomping ground". Do NOT call Countrywide, Ditech, Wells Fargo, Bank of America or any of those behemoths who hold the majority of the responsibility for making trillions of dollars worth of "crooked loans". Why would anyone even THINK of calling Countrywide anymore? Try this, ask somebody to name the three biggest banks who put us into this situation with bad loans and see who they name first!
Ken Cook - Georgia - FHA, USDA, VA and Conventional Home Loans (678) 439-8683
Let me put this simply: I have access to over $1.1 billion dollars to lend and that does not include Fannie and Freddie. I can do loans up to 97% of the sales price for people with a credit score down to 580. I can loan 100% of the sales price to people with a 680. My rates beat most of the advertisers on Bankrate and my closing costs are market palatable. I never engaged in much sub-prime lending, am an outspoken opponent of people getting loans who don't deserve them, I hate mortgage fraud and I have trained thousands of real estate agents and investors - mostly for free.
Now, since I also am not a whiner I am making some changes in order to continue supplying our industry with the services it needs but I'm not changing as much as it appears. Novation Mortgage will continue to offer services for as long as we can. We have downsized by 75% and our gross revenue is down 90% so it's obvious we cannot continue without some major changes. For the last 4 weeks I have been interviewing with a large mortgage servicing company and may have the job on a consultative basis. It does not pay enough to make my mortgage and car payment so I need more. I have not taken a paycheck from the mortgage company for nearly 24 months so my employees could continue to have a job.
What may appear to you to be a big change is not: I have taken a consulting job with a large client to handle all of their web presence and content development and production. What makes me qualified for this? It's a long story but my first college education was in technology and I have built on that and used it. All the way back in 1982 I was using BBSNET to "get on-line" and gather and share information. In 1988 I developed content for clients for Prodigy and AOL.
By 1992 I had purchased a server and connected it to a dial-up bank and provided shell account access through my company UWDO. In 1994 I purchased a bigger server and started offering a new thing called HTTPD which was a document formatted "page" with click-able links. In 1995 I downloaded something called Linux to replace my GNU and it came with something called Apache. This was my first real "web server" and I was hooked.
Being the entrepreneur I am I immediately started learning the HTML code and soon discovered Java. Later came PHP and MySQL and off we were to the raced. By 1998 I had a 3200 square feet office just off I-75 and was hosting over 300 websites for local small businesses from all across the nation. That was the year I learned to connect my on-line customers to credit card processing and bam. I soon quit using the bulky Miva and developed a proprietary system that could be used for drop ship ordering.
My Drop Ship program was great for product providers to join forces with on-line retailers. It would allow a user to order from the on-line retailer who received the pay but would automatically order and pay for the order from the supplier. My first client was a small knife manufacturer then a brewing supply company then an art supply company and on and on. Eventually I was found by a company which embroidered shirts and hats and screen printed other items as premium incentives and branded apparel. Then it BOOMED. I did on-line stores for the National Rifle Association, Sharis Restaurants, Hunter Engineering, The Canadian Poolplayers Association, SiGARMs, CrossGen Comics, SuperSmokers BBQ, and dozens of other national names.
Also in 1997 I discovered web indexing which was really the precursor to today's search engine. I even built an experimental site to link Christian organizations called christian-exchange.com and it took off like a rocket. I needed some way to automate because checking the 200 links per day was taking far too long. So I developed a database and a single hit robot to verify that the site existed and the URL was input correctly. Later I made the robot grab the page title while it was there and then plug it in.
Then I found Gossamer Threads. GT was a project that was doing the same thing on a much larger scale. I took the GT project and connected it with a way to pull a subset of words and search the web for them. It would take days to "crawl" the web and find just a few pages that matched what I was looking for because I also had to exclude certain terms. Then I found WebCrawler - much faster - not hosted by me and delivered exactly the raw information I needed.
Then along came Google and sat down on top of us all and the rest is history.
The reason I am taking the time to tell all of this is because even though I have been the Director of Operations for NovaStar Home Mortgage and more recently Novation Mortgage I have still kept my small client base going of people who want real results without throwing money down the drain on Pay Per Click campaigns. And, while I'm not giving up my day job I am looking for people, preferably in the real estate and finance or related industries, who want to dominate their market. I seriously challenge any SEO SERP consultant to match my knowledge, experience and pricing and will prove it when given the chance.
Let me add that I am not now nor have I ever been a graphics wizard, a design guru nor have I ever had the desire to be a webmaster since my years with the Swarovski Crystal people. No thanks. I understand the science of web searching, I can create a reverse heuristic algorithm and plot the eigenspace of any website given enough data. I know how to create or edit content and web pages to make the search engines love them and tighten up the results so the right people find you and you don't waste time and money on unwanted visitors.
Pay Per Click campaigns are for amateurs and well prepared campaigns. I know how to create the latter. For 8 years my mortgage companies have relied on my expertise in bringing them to the top in their niches without spending a penny on buying links from any site, any where. Even though I do recommend it for vertical market acceleration you better be prepared to receive the traffic and convert them immediately or as quickly as possible through an automated system or you can kiss that money goodbye. I can do custom automated, data harvesting landing pages to match your existing web presence. I can work with you to massage your content or create content that employees the techniques I have perfected over the last dozen years and I can do it all for much less than you expect - but certainly not free. Like I always say, "It's not so much how much you invest but how much you get back."
THE OPINIONS IN THIS COMMENTARY ARE STRICTLY KEN COOK's PERSONAL
OPINION AND NOT REFLECTIVE ON ACTIVE RAIN, NOVATION MORTGAGE, or ANY SPONSOR OF
THIS WEBSITE.
EDUCATION BEATS LEGISLATION EVERY TIME. Get your clients, friends and family
members to a LENDER RUN home mortgage seminar as soon as possible.
Fear is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, motivating factors for mankind. We are born with it as a natural defense to danger and other fears are input into us by our parents or others close to us during our developmental periods. My mother, for example, had a terrible fear of heights. When I was younger I was afraid to be three feet off the ground. To combat it my father, an Army Ranger, stood me on the top ledge of a 900 foot wall and held me by my waist. I was fine until my mother panicked and then I got terrified. Fortunately I was later able to overcome that fear - it's amazing what having fun in a treehouse will do for that fear!
The media is more like my mother. Hopefully our leadership will be more like my father - the jury is out as to whether that will work but here is one thing you, the everyday Jane or Joe reader can do: learn the facts for yourself. The media is going to highlight and even exaggerate the fear causing negatives. It's about time we learned most news programming and most printed news is just an extension of Hollywood style entertainment. Now they are embattled for their very existence because the web has already eaten massive numbers of subscribers and advertisers. They calculate, with good experience, if they sensationalize the reports you will be more likely to buy and subscribe. Mainstream media has become more like The Enquirer every year because they discovered you don't have as much of an appetite for the truth as you do reading about and seeing photos of marrow sucking aliens who run the government.
When it comes to purchasing or refinancing a home the one thing your decision should never be motivated on is any emotion. You should never buy a new home just because it has cute pink shutters and you should never delay buying a home because you don't know if the world will collapse tomorrow. Pink shutters will eventually rot or fade or you will tire of them and if the world crumbles tomorrow what difference will it make if you finally got the home you need for your family?
THE OPINIONS IN THIS COMMENTARY ARE STRICTLY KEN COOK's PERSONAL
OPINION AND NOT REFLECTIVE ON ACTIVE RAIN, NOVATION MORTGAGE, or ANY SPONSOR OF
THIS WEBSITE.
EDUCATION BEATS LEGISLATION EVERY TIME. Get your clients, friends and family
members to a LENDER RUN home mortgage seminar as soon as possible.
Please excuse me if this short article gets a little technical but I believe it is important to emphasize the difference between someone who calls herself an SEO SERP expert and someone who actually is an SEO SERP expert. Also excuse the cut if you belong to the first group but here is a chance for you to learn. SEO is Search Engine Optimization and SERP is Search Engine Ranking and Placement.
The average SEO consultant knows that key words are important to SERP and they are correct. They may even know that html document (web page) titles are important. Most novice or casual web users are easily amused by an SEO consultant showing them the page source and pointing out the meta-tags. And, indeed, these are important to most major search engines. The really good SEO consultant will even know about link titles, image descriptions and the importance of like content cross linking.
This is where the line is usually drawn between good SEO consultation and scientific Search Engine Optimization techniques. In the next couple of paragraphs I will try to give examples that are easy to follow while being accurate in the description of how eigenspace is examined and used to leverage the search engines' heuristic algorithms to maximize Search Engine Ranking and Placement. I know, don't worry, this is just a demonstration and I don't expect you to fully understand. I don't even expect you to continue reading - but you can look at the pictures ;)
Eigenspace is a mathematical term used to describe the 3 dimensional area created between the points of a series of eigenvectors. Right, okay let's put that in english: Stand in a point and throw two stones - one facing one direction and the other facing another direction. Now throw one up and record the highest point. This is a very VERY simple explanation of eigenspace but it is, none-the-less, an example. The eigenspace is all of the space between the lines and curves created by the arcs and distance the stones traveled. Eigenspace is the entire space with boundaries defined by the travel of the stones.
THE STONES ARE YOUR KEY WORDS - sort of. Because heuristic algorithms are used to compare the key words within the eigenspace defined by the cyberspace within your realm. Then there are variant data recognition and regularization and .... STOP!
Here is a whiteboard representation of a simple eigenspace created by points, vectors and arcs in a best world scenario of search engine optimization:
Okay, if you are a math student this is like 2+2 but if you aren't it can be daunting. The above illustrates the perfect world eigenspace of an optimized search. This would be where all key words had equal value, all cross links were of the same weight, all searches were equal - this would be, for example, if "BLUE" always meant the color blue in the same shade and hue as well as in the same application (enamel paint sprayed in 80 degrees Fahrenheit at 20 percent humidity ...) and so on.
The top of the point is the highest and best results. This is where you have information about the exact search terms, linked to and from the most popular sites with the most relevant information about the same terms and the searcher is exactly the person who wants exactly your information. Whew! To simplify we call this VERTICAL PENETRATION. At the very pinnacle of this highest arc is your best prospect. To them it is their very best source. The goal of your online presence is to maximize the relevancy of that point or the proximity of that point to provide you the best return on your investment of resources.
Now, look at the bottom "ring" of that eigenspace. It is shallow but wider than the pinnacle. This represents search results which less specifically want your specific information. Staying with blue paint these results are just blue, just paint, just spray, just enamel, etc. This is quite often what you get when you use Pay Per Click PPC campaigns without making the best possible use of your key words, key phrases, cross linking, and dynamically morphing eigenspace.
If you didn't make it to this point, I understand. But I hope you at least skipped to this point to know that we understand all of these scientific principles and how to operate within these ever changing spaces. We do not sell PPC campaigns, we deliver precise content to your webmaster or make the changes on your behalf to ensure your web presence makes maximum vertical penetration into your specific market.
P.S. I don't speak like this on the phone - call me at 678-946-0101 or email me at ken.cook AT icobb.com - most of you know me as an outspoken representative of the lending world - which I am. I studied finance and economics. Before I joined the mortgage banking industry I developed online solutions for some big names. I kept that business even after I entered the mortgage banking industry and have recently moved back to be more active than just advising. My goal, still, is to provide the best version of the most needed services to my friends and counterparts in the real estate world.
I still own a hosting company, still have some of the best content developers on my team and still know as much or more about the real estate and finance industry than most online service providers and consultants. We will create and host your own personal blog, provide content for your blog, optimize all of your web presence for the best possible use, cross market your content and bring you as close to number one in the major search engines as you can get without ever spending a penny on a PPC campaign.
Ken Cook - Georgia - FHA, USDA, VA and Conventional Home Loans (678) 439-8683
The Holidays are one time when you get one shot to get people to open mail from you who would normally toss it. Do not blow this opportunity with Holy Spam. While I can share 27 years of sending Greeting Cards as a way to establish or rekindle professional relationships please share yours for the readers, too. There is no need for anyone to have to learn it the hard way like I did!
You are probably like me and get seasonal cards from all types of relationships including local and national retailers. I must admit I do not display the blatantly identifiable business greetings like the bright orange HD card but I do display the platinum embossed AmEx card.
The goal of your Holiday Greetings is three-fold: 1) Demonstrate you or someone in your company found the receiver worthy to be included on your mailing list. 2) Keep your name at the top of the receiver's mind. 3) Introduce your services to the receiver's visitors when they display your card with the others.
With these in mind you will only want to exercise a little common sense in choosing a design and message in your card. Cost, really, is unimportant. You can send dollar store cards, cards you've printed yourself or custom printed gold leafed cards. What matters is how the card is received and perceived.
Two years ago we had a fantastic response to our seasonal cards and a way of tracking people who received them. First my wife ordered some cards that had a photo "frame" on the front just the right size for a 3"x5" photo. Then I did a little Photoshop work to the group photo and added a greeting to it. Inside we simply said, "Happy Holidays to you and those you love. This is just a short greeting let you know we are thankful for you and you are on our minds." Inside we put a business card which on the back had a URL for the receiver to sign up to win $100 in Sears gift cards. We sent out around 1500 cards and nearly 900 people signed up for the Sears cards!
Every year when I or we send out greetings we immediately get a return. Someone who has been thinking of calling us is spurred to do so. Since this year is a great time to buy and my Novation Mortgage is one of the only lenders in the nation with 100% conventional financing for homeowners to purchase AND there is a $7500 first time buyer's tax credit we will have a good response this year. Again I will make use of lead harvesting landing pages to capture leads and deliver further information. Best of all we will make sure, as will you, to choose a design and a message that won't go into the trash bin but stay in plain site for the next 6 to 8 weeks or even longer!
iCobb.com will create and host a branded landing and lead harvesting page for you for $99 which will be active from now through the end of February. It can be custom tailored to match your existing web presence or logo branded whichever you need. For more information my iCobb posting Branded Landing, Contact Management and Lead Harvesting Online
Ken Cook is a real estate investor, mortgage banker, and instructor in the REI Institute at Emory University. He is founder of iCobb Media Group and has 28 years of business leadership and management experience. It doesn't make him better than anyone else, just more familiar with the mistakes almost everyone makes. Be sure to read the article in December's Real Estate Report about the recent and upcoming changes in the mortgage industry effecting real estate investors and agents who cater to them (article is in the December issue).
Ken Cook - Georgia - FHA, USDA, VA and Conventional Home Loans (678) 439-8683
While it is true every person in America does not read my blog(s) it is also true they should. For example the clients who we will be denying today, after weeks of dragging documentation from them, adding a co-borrower, waiting on credit disputes, and other tedious labor, listed the home for sale after the loan was submitted and after we received the appraisal. Best news of all? It is listed for $20,000 less than the appraisal value which we were using to determine LTV.
Refinancing or selling is an either/or. While it is possible to refinance a property one day off listing the investors who will purchase those loans are extremely rare - thus making the loan difficult to impossible to achieve. So either you are refinancing or you are selling. You are not doing both.
*There is a work around - it will cost you. Private lenders will fund your refinance whether the property is listed or not. These are called hard money loans and they are expensive to get into and expensive to repay.
THE OPINIONS IN THIS COMMENTARY ARE STRICTLY KEN COOK's
PERSONAL
OPINION AND NOT REFLECTIVE ON ACTIVE RAIN, NOVATION MORTGAGE, or ANY
SPONSOR OF
THIS WEBSITE.
EDUCATION BEATS LEGISLATION EVERY TIME. Get your clients, friends and family
members to a LENDER RUN home mortgage seminar as soon as possible.
