Yosemite Vacation June 29, 2005
I’m taking a week-long vacation at Yosemite National Park, but that doesn’t mean that Rain City Guide will go on a break as well… Mary Jereczek has kindly offered to step up and write posts in my absence!
This is a great time to mention that I’m really thrilled with the response that I’ve had from my call for guess bloggers. I think that these top title representatives, mortgage brokers and real estate agents offer an interesting and useful perspective and really help round out the discussion on this site! I look forward to having more guest bloggers and welcome anyone who might be interested!
By the way, this photo of my family was taken at the top of Yosemite Falls five years ago! Obviously, my daughter has grown considerably since then! It should be a lot of fun to show her the incomparable valley again now that she is old enough to appreciate it!
Sphere: Related ContentStarbucks on Anna? June 28, 2005
I’m always interested in new marketing approaches and I recently read about two ideas that seem worthy of more consideration. The first comes from Rosa where she describes an investment banker that buys everyone coffee at the local Starbucks once a week. Here’s how Rosa describes it:
This morning Kerwin and I walked into a Prescott Starbucks and both ordered their strong-brew coffee of the day to then find it was free. The barista at the cash register motioned over to a gentleman sitting in an animated discussion with a group of about six others, and said, “Your coffee is on Mr. Perez this morning.”
As Kerwin stirred cream and sugar into his coffee, we read a poster on the wall right above the condiment station with a picture of Mr. Perez’s smiling face explaining that every Wednesday morning from 8:30am-9:30am he buys coffee at that Starbucks for all his customers and anyone else who wants to talk story with him about investment banking and Prescott’s promising future.
Another idea I find very interesting comes from Philip Greenspun who says that real estate commissions are too low!!! He recommends that agents raise their commissions to a much higher level like 25%. But here’s the catch. He recommends that the commission should be 25% over the assessed value of the home. This way, an agent who excels at selling homes for more would be richly rewarded for their effort and sellers would benefit by making sure the agent does not accept an inferior offer in order to get a quick sale.
If I was to try something like this I would want to make sure that the seller was willing to listen to my advice in terms of making cost-effective improvements in order to maximize the sale price. If that sounds like you, then let’s talk!
Thanks to Business Opportunities Weblog and grow-a-brain for pointing out these great articles.
Sphere: Related ContentToo Close for Comfort? June 27, 2005
I found a great article on the land rush in the Pacific Northwest. This article has accounts of many people and their experience trying to buy homes in a seller’s market caused, in part, by a lack of land.
What I found most interesting was a resourceful answer to the shortage of space that was highlighted in the story. Some developers have started condensing houses - and by condensed I mean building upwards of 37(!) separate homes on an acre of land (though most seem to hover around 17 per acre). The houses have individual charm and a real community feel with a shared common area for all. Some people like the closeness of the neighborhood and the high quality of the construction- though the lack of parking was an issue for some. It may not be an option for all, but what an efficient use of our hot land commodity!
Sphere: Related ContentEuropean Solutions
The Seattle Times ran an interesting commentary discussing how much the central government of Britain has been promoting redevelopment. Without a doubt our government could make vast improvements if they rearranged their priorities. However, I’m not sure enough Americans want to live in these dense “utopias”.
At a recent conference in Seattle, Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott…
described the amazingly broad set of activist initiatives that Prime Minister Tony Blair has allowed him to lead and champion — in housing, transportation, recycling abandoned industrial lands, revitalizing towns and using government power to force new malls and megastores back into downtowns.
All of this is rolling forward with tens of billions of pounds invested, pushed with little opposition in a national parliamentary system with few of the checks and balances of the U.S. system.
More links:
The Thames Gateway London Partnership
Photo Montage Diversion… June 24, 2005
This week’s off-topic site that shouldn’t be missed is the flickr montager. It is a great tool that creates a photo montage of Flickr images based on the photo’s flickr tag.
For example, type in the words “solstice”, and you can see a photo montage made of up phots from flickr that people have tagged as “solstice”. I got some great montages from the words “seattle” and “ballard”. The montages defintiely work best if you start with a simple photo without a lot of detail. But either way, it can be a lot of fun to look at.
Sphere: Related ContentHousing Bubble- To Pop or not to Pop?
Talk to anyone today on the subject of real estate and soon it turns into a discussion about the impending housing bubble and whether or not it is going to burst all over your investment dreams. How worried should we really be?
This article in the Seattle PI explained the situation both nationally and locally rather well. It seems that the question is not really whether the housing bubble will pop (if it even exists) but rather what impact that would have on your housing investment if it happened. All investments are risks. Arm yourself with knowledge and make the best choice for you and your situation and hopefully you can avoid getting “bubble” all over your face!
Sphere: Related Contentmortgage update… June 23, 2005
Mortgage rates are still quite competitive:
Sphere: Related ContentMortgage rates fell across the board over the past week, mortgage finance firm Freddie Mac said Thursday, suggesting the housing market still has room to grow.
The rate on 30-year, fixed-rate loans averaged 5.57 percent for the week ending Thursday, with an average 0.6 point payable upfront, down from the prior week’s average of 5.63 percent, according to the mortgage finance firm’s survey.
Fremont Solstice Parade June 21, 2005
Once again, Fremont put on quite a show…
I had a wonderful time at this Fremont-only parade and celebration… A bunch of people have already posted photos over at flickr, but a warning that many of the photos are not for the faint of heart.
(The same warning should probably apply to people thinking of moving to Fremont! 
).
$90 million home sets US property record
A 40-acre estate in the Hamptons - the Long Island summer retreat of New York’s rich and famous, has been sold for $US90 million, a new US record for a residential property.
The New York Post cited sources close to the deal as saying the purchase was made by a Swedish industrialist who has rented the estate for the past few summer seasons.
To answer the obvious question… Assuming standard commissions (and this was far from from a standard situation), two real estate agents just earned $2.7 million in commissions!
Sphere: Related ContentI guarantee you’re going to get this mortgage, I think. June 20, 2005
Why does the mortgage business seem so insane and unreliable?
Well, there are a couple of reasons. One reason is there are a tremendous number of loan officers who have no experience but who are pretending they do. As loan officers, our job is to make your loan work. When we look at a loan application, we examine all possible reasons we can find that could be a problem. These are things like properties under construction, borrowers who are out of work, too much debt, not enough income, complex income situations, low credit scores, title problems, and much more. Loan officers with lots of experience have seen so many different situations with such complex problems they know how to evaluate a new loan and spot potential problems. Where we run into trouble is with the underwriters. These folks work for the lenders and they review all of the information sent to them from the loan officer. They have guidelines and matrices which tell them what’s acceptable and what’s not. Underwriters will ask, or what we call “condition”, for certain things to satisfy the lenders or the investor’s requirements. These could be things like a letter from you explaining your situation, copies of canceled rent checks, proof of self employment, disability award letters, bankruptcy discharge paperwork and a whole slew of other things.
If any of the underwriter’s conditions cannot be met, we try to find a way around the condition. Instead of canceled checks, I recently used the front of the checks and 6 consecutive bank statements showing the checks had been cashed. I had a client whose house was built without any permits due to a strange building law on Orcas Island. I’ve also had a borrower who quit his job 3 days before his loan was supposed to fund. The underwriter called his employer to verify his employment, then the underwriter called me. I called the client. Oops! That deal died. We hope to evaluate your situation and to predict the underwriting conditions closely enough to guarantee your loan. The problem is, each lender underwrites a different way. Each loan has its own weird nuances. I have one client who didn’t even know he was in a bankruptcy!
When we tell a borrower we can do their loan, what we really mean is “we think”. What we would like to tell you and what I tell my clients is this…Every loan has problems. Yours is probably no exception. I’ll work hard to make your loan work but there’s always a chance the underwriter will come up with some condition which will stop us. If your appraisal passes the lender’s review and your title report is clean, that’s good. If your income, assets, employment and credit are all in good shape, that’s good too. If all the planets line up precisely at 2:23pm on the day you are supposed to sign your loan documents, that might help too. But, until the lender pushes the big red button with the word “fund” on it, all I can say is “I’m pretty sure I can do this for you”. That’s all anyone can tell you. This is one business where there are no absolutes or guarantees.
Russ Shulman is a frequent writer for the Journal Newspapers and President of Trusted Home Mortgage of Lynnwood. He can be reached at Russ@wearetrusted.com or (425) 712-0282
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