Mortgage Blog

The most recent developments economically and financially came out of Washington lately as VP Joe Biden commented over the weekend that our administration miscalculated how bad the jobless problem would be (our unemployment rate is over 10% and the effective rate is closer to 13-15%). This is causing speculation as to whether our not our government should try to work on more "stimulus" money for 2009!

Speaking of our so-called "Stimulus" money, members of Congress admitted to voting on passing the first stimulus package with out even reading through it!!! They also went on to say that now that they look back, have discovered the $800 BILLION was not earmarked in actually stimulating the economy. Is this really coming out now? Yes it is. This is such a huge story. I knew then as I know now, our politicians have no CLUE how to run our financial markets and economic development! I don't know about you, but I am writing my congressmen to voice how sickened I am of their total incompetency and what kind of impact this is going to have for generations to come! This news out of Washington can create a negative impact both economically and worldwide as investors opinions may soon change!

On another note, whether or not you are a listing agent or a selling agent, investors for mortgage back securities are now requiring appraisal square footage to coincide with what the county assessor's office says. So in other words, for homes that have additional living space, the homeowner has to provide that the proper permits where pulled and/or meet the local codes if a permit wasn't obtained. Add-ons, finished basements, etc will fall into this category. If a seller did the work themselves and they were trying to cut costs by not pulling the proper permits, your deal will blow up, because lenders won't be able to sell the mortgage on the open market. DO YOU RESEARCH now vs. later on all transactions!   

My recommendation is to lock transactions - take what we can get now. For anyone who think that rates will fall back below 5% you will be sadly mistaken. The odds of it happening are very small at this moment.  

Marketing Recommendation: We are down to our last few months of the year to take advantage of first time buyers and the tax credit. This is our number one category for purchases right now. Go FIND a first time buyer now before it's too late!

Randy Reed, Certified Mortgage Planning Specialist

303.524.9191

randy.reed@mpspecialists.com