Some agents and loan officers need to just say, “No.” August 29, 2008
There is a lot about the real estate industry that needs improvement. But, there are some very stand-up hard working salt-of-the-earth real estate agents and loan officers that are working in a challenging market and who are literally bailing out financially challenged homeowners. They are making things happen and are doing what they can to [...]
Need cash flow? Don’t be afraid of unpopular sales and… April 9, 2008
……..selling uncoventional listings otherwise known in the real estate world as “Mobile Homes.”
You think to yourself…pshttt. Yeah, you laugh. You say, “whatever. That’s not going to make me a listing star or a top producer!”
Guess again. You may find this hard to believe, but one of the top two producing [...]
Purchase Implosion: Pre-approval letters worth the ink? March 30, 2008
Nearly everyone has had a personal experience of a deal falling through via the other side of the transaction not performing. It is hard to swallow when you have no control over the other party or their financing efforts. Especially bad, the call to your client who is in boxes and ready to [...]
Does it matter who you list with, who you close with or who your loan officer is? March 8, 2008
Being in the escrow business is really fascinating. You see lots of things. You hear lots of things. You get to observe what is efficient and what slows down transactions.
Escrow can be confusing too. We really serve two masters: those that are our clients (the principals such as the seller or [...]
The Northwest: blessed with water,mountains, settings and views. How do you value views? February 21, 2008
How do you value views? I don’t know.
Growing up on Capitol Hill is a far cry from acreage, cows, chickens, Llamas and horses. To say my current environment is different from where I grew up is an understatement. The house I grew up in had what I thought was an excellent view [...]
Yikes, that was close. Or, was it? Convicted felon making loans. February 19, 2008
Man convicted as being a key player of “swindling” $50 Million likely to begin serving 15 yrs. in prison and reportedly has been selling “reverse mortgages” to senior citizens while waiting for date to report to prison.
Evidently, The Washington State Dept. of Financial Institutions (DFI) denied his loan originator license on Dec. 17th of last [...]
The Dustin Luther factor: Where it all began, sprinkled with blogging surprises January 18, 2008
First, I don’t know about other’s experiences in blogging, but stumbling upon Rain City Guide over a year ago or so and Dustin’s introduction to me of the world of moving away from a static glorified business card (called a website) to that of the dynamic and interactive world of Blogging has had a tremendous [...]
CNN Money.com: Appraiser sues WaMu January 17, 2008
The intersection of ethics and real estate meet again
As if WaMu didn’t have enough on its public relations plate, CNN Money reports:
Jeniffer Wertz, who is seeking unspecified damages, says WaMu stopped accepting her appraisals in mid-2007 a month after she reported that her local housing market in California was “declining.”
Evidently, Wertz claims that Washington [...]
What I love about this business: the people January 10, 2008
Escrow is one of the toughest jobs in real estate, for a lot of different reasons. But, it is by far the most interesting from our experiences in that both Lynlee and I have sold (circa 1990) as licensee’s, bought and sold homes as homeowner’s and today as owners of an escrow company.
For example, [...]
“Hope Now” program to curb delinquency/foreclosures fraught with problems December 4, 2007
The Hope Now program currently being proposed in the other Washington is designed to assist current homeowners with Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARM’s) in which their ARM’s may adjust upward causing financial hardship. An issue of immense concern is how do you sift through the thousands of homeowners and qualify those who’s mortgages are [...]
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