We all knew values were increasing at such a wild pace. We all knew there was a bubble. So now we see the adjustment. Very good times for some, being able to purchase homes in areas and at prices that were out of their reach a year ago. We really should look at the bright side, it isn’t as bad as it could be for many, and it is very good for some. For those who are enduring hard times, hopefully the pain and frustration will be shore lived.

Purchasing: Last month, the Chicago branch of the National Association of Purchasing Management (now known nationally as the Institute for Supply Management or ISM) said that its Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) came in at 49.6. Any reading below 50.0 reflects a general contraction of activity relative to the previous month. June’s reading was stronger than the 48.5 that forecasters had predicted and stronger than the 49.1 posted in April, but it was still a fifth consecutive contraction indicator. So our purchasing is are better than what was predicted.

Now is a great time to purchase a house or investment property - I am helping many first time buyers who haven’t been able to afford purchasing in the past several years. But now they can afford a nice house in a nice neighborhood. Houses that were selling for $700k 2 yrs ago are now selling for $450k. That is a big drop. Many of these homes are foreclosures or bank owned homes. But in all markets, there are winners and losers.

Investors are now able to purchase properties that easily debt service. It was tough a couple years ago, values were going through the roof, but rents weren’t, so investors had to put huge downpayments down on properties to make the rent to payments make sense. Now, lower downpayments are ok, because although house prices have dropped, rents haven’t dropped. In fact rents will probably continue to increase. Now is a good time for new investors to pickup good rental properties. If you need me to run some numbers for you regarding purchasing investment properties, just call or email me.

The banks don’t like mortgage brokers, why??

The big banks would like to eliminate the mortgage brokers. The banks would like the consumers to go directly to them. The banks don’t think mortgage brokers are needed. What do you think?

I worked for 2 banks before I started Atlantic Security Financial back in 1991. The below are some reasons why I left the banks:

• What I didn’t like about the banks was it was all about the money, they cared more about the banks profits vs the customers wellbeing
• The bank had limited programs, so out of every 10 customers, I could only help 3.
• Most of the staff, really didn’t know mortgages, which was very frustrating for me, because if forced me to practically underwrite and process my client files..
• They tried to force me to sell their adjustable loan programs, because they said the bank will always make a profit on the customer.
• They didn’t like me selling fixed rates to my customers because the bank didn’t earn as much money on the fixed rate programs.
• They preferred only full income and full asset doc loans, so my self employed customers were told to go elsewhere.
• They preferred high credit score borrowers, so the undesirables were told to go elsewhere.
• Since I came from a mortgage broker background I told them “why don’t we broker some of our loans to other institutions, so we can help more clients?” They said no, because the profit margins weren’t high enough.

I have no regrets leaving the bank. I like being able to study the market and find the best loan programs for my customers. Sometimes it is like finding a needle in a haystack, searching to find a specific program that will satisfy my clients needs and circumstances. But because of the variety of my clients needs, my days are never boring. It’s exciting to meet the challenges that my clients present to me.

Financing dreams since 1987. I’ve been working in the mortgage industry since 1987, since I was honorably discharged from the Army. I have spent almost half of my life in the mortgage business, although the present market is challenging, it is also exciting.

Mortgage industry problems

There are many problems that we in the mortgage industry are facing. I will describe a few problems and also a few good solutions:

There is a website that tracks all the major US lenders that have closed since 2006. The count is at 257.

Stated income HELOC’s - they are gone, with exception of some private investors that I have who will issue HELOC’s to borrowers with stated income. Remember, many self employed business owners need the stated income loans, so this hurts a big segment of the population. In fact I know many contractors who use the HELOC’s to fund portions of their building projects, some of these contractors have had their HELOC’s closed for future withdrawals. This has stopped many developments dead in their tracks. There are also many other small businesses who use HELOC’s to cover inventory purchases and salaries etc. As mentioned we have solutions to this problem, we are providing fixed private investor second mortgages and HELOC’s.

100% financing, NO downpayment purchase loans - they are gone. The closest we can get is 3.5% and 5% downpayment on a purchase. Credit scores have to be good and income is full doc.

100-95% cashout refinances - they are gone. Credit has to be pretty good to get high loan to value cashout now, but we can still go up to 90% for cashout.

What we can do:

Rehab loans - with 10% down we can finance up to 65% of future value. Investors are starting to move into the rehab market, buying homes from foreclosure sale, rehabbing them, then reselling them for profit.

Low credit scores can work - but the loan has to make sense. We can allow bank statements for self employed to verify income based on 6-12 months of deposits.

Stated income loans still available - credit scores need to be higher than before, but we still have many purchase, refi, and 2nd mortgage stated income programs. Rates are a little higher, so call for details.

Credit Card Usury - Do you know what the credit card companies are doing to make more money? They are arbitrarily raising rates on their customers accounts. Every week I hear the horror stories. Hear are some samples:

1. Customer Jones has never made a late payment on his BofA credit card, but he has used over 50% of his available credit limits on other credit cards. So BofA increases his rate from 3% to 24% because BofA doesn’t like the fact that he is using so much credit..
2. Customer Bilbo is having trouble paying his credit card payment because his business has slowed down. So he calls Capital One to see what can be done. Capital One reviews his credit and notices that he was late on some other accounts, so they increase his rate from 6% to 30%. So Customer Bilbo says, so if I can barely pay the 6% how can I pay the 30%?? Capital Ones tells him that he better try harder.

Maybe you have witnessed this yourself. I think this is crazy. Fortunately the Bush administration has pressed the Fed Chairman to tighten this up. The Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke has proposed new regulations for the credit-card industry that “are intended to establish a new baseline for fairness in how credit-card plans operate.” The new regs will limit the arbitrary increase in interest rates and other games that the credit card/banking industry has been playing lately.

The solution to refinance and consolidate the debts into your mortgage, is still an option to consider, at least with a fixed rate mortgage you don’t have to worry about arbitrary interest rate increases. If you want me to run the numbers to see if it makes sense, call or email me.

Recent Success Stories

CREDIT REPAIR SUCCESS -  Yes, CreditCleaners.net continues to negotiate collections for 50-60% of their balances. This is saving customers huge amounts of money. It is allowing debts that normally wouldn’t have been paid off to now be paid off, to allow for credit repair and credit recovery. If you have outstanding collections, consider www.CreditCleaners.Net

Some people don’t really know what credit repair can do. So below is a real recent example from www.CreditCleaners.Net [this is from one clients 35 day credit status report]

1. Corrected - XP: FRIEDMANS JEWELERS, was a charge-off
2. Corrected - XP: CAP ONE, was a collection
3. Corrected - TU: CAP ONE, was a collection
4. Corrected - TU: COLLECTION, was a collection
5. Corrected - TU: MIL STAR, was 120 days late
6. Corrected - EF: CAP ONE, was a collection
7. Corrected - EF: HSBC/BSTBY, was several 120 day lates
8. Corrected - EF: MIL STAR, was several 120 day lates
9. Deleted - XP: CORE COLLECTION COMP, was a collection
10. Deleted - XP: LVNV FUNDING LLC, was a collection
11. Deleted - XP: LHR INC, was a collection
12. Deleted - XP: BUREAU OF COLLECTION, was a collection
13. Deleted - XP: CIT BANK/DFS, was a collection
14. Deleted - TU: CORE COLLECT, was a collection
15. Deleted - TU: FRIEDMANS, was a collection
16. Deleted - TU: LVNV FUNDING, was a collection
17. Deleted - TU: LHR INC, was a collection
18. Deleted - TU: BAY AREA C S, was a collection
19. Deleted - TU: BUR COL RECO, was a collection
20. Deleted - EF: LHR,INC., was a collection
21. Deleted - EF: CIT BK/DFS, had several 60 day lates
22. Deleted - EF: WFFNATBANK, had lates 30 & 60 days
23. Pending - XP: VERIZON WIRELESS, still working on this
24. Pending - XP: VERIZON WIRELESS, still working on this
25. Pending - XP: HSBC/BSBUY, still working on this
26. Pending - XP: MILITARY STAR, still working on this
27. Pending - TU: CIT BANK/DFS, still working on this
28. Pending - TU: TIGER GLD CD, still working on this
29. Pending - EF: FRIEDMAN’S, still working on this
30. Pending - EF: LVNVFUNDG, still working on this
31. Pending - EF: BAY AREA CREDIT SERV, still working on this
     

Need help with…Credit Problems?

If you have late payments, paid or unpaid collections, charge-offs, bankruptcy or repossession, you may need the help of a good credit-cleaning program. Try http://www.creditcleaners.net/ this service can clean or correct credit problems, remove lates and raise FICO scores. It can even fix problems caused by a Bankruptcy. Call me for details.

If you have any questions regarding purchasing, refinancing or investing in Real Estate just give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to offering you candid advice with facts and figures, to help you feel confident when you make your Real Estate Finance related decisions.

Any questions just call or email me.

The Transfer of Power - Remember in 1992, after the real estate market dropped, that was another time such as this time. Where massive amounts of real estate were bought up by new real estate investors. We are in a similar time. Good deals, great rates. Don’t miss the boat. If you want to purchase investment property, call me, I may be able to find you a good deal, as I have access to foreclosure lists, and I can certainly provide you with a nice low fixed rate. Fixed rates are perfect for investment properties whether for commercial or residential. Having a fixed expense is good, knowing that rents can increase, that just puts more money in your pocket in the future, provided you have a fixed rate. Having an adjustable rate on an investment property is a fast way to to go upside down regarding expense to income. I look forward to helping you enter this exciting market as a Real Estate Investor.

Recent Success Stories

CREDIT REPAIR SUCCESS STORY - Jaimi had some collections that were nagging her. So after she sold her home, and had some money to pay toward her collections she asked CreditCleaners.net for help with the debt negotiation. She was worried, because she only had enough money to pay for about 60% of the debt balances. So CreditCleaners.net went to work on negotiating and settling her debts. In fact all debts were settled to meet her budget of available funds. Below are a few of the actual settlements, there were a total of 10 settlements in all:

As you can see, Jaimi saved a big chunk of money. If you have collections that need to be settled, CreditCleaners.net can help you save money. The credit repair program is a great way to improve your FICO scores..

HARD MONEY LOAN: These loans are great for if you have bad credit. Because with a regular refi, the lender normally will require that all derog credit is paid from the loan proceeds. So if you have $20,000 in collections, there isn’t a way to get the creditor to discount the balance payoff if they know the funds are coming from a refinance, because they know they have leverage and will refuse to discount, forcing you to pay full payoff price. Whereas with a hard money loan, the debts many times don’t have to be paid at close, thus allowing you the flexibility to have CreditCleaners.net negotiate your debts after your loan has funded. An example of a hard money loan payment for a $50,000 loan is $500. That doesn’t look that bad, because $50,000 in high interest credit card payments would total about $1,000 to $1,200. If you need money to pay off bad credit, call us, our hard money loans are pretty good.

REHAB - PURCHASE A FIXER: We still have investor rehab loans, for fixing and flipping. So if you want to make money in Rehabs, call us for the financing. We look forward to helping you in this exciting market.

FIRST TIME HOME BUYER: We still have 100% financing programs, with less than perfect credit and low down payment programs stated income buyers. There are some really good deals on homes right now, with very affordable prices. 

INVESTMENT IN MORTGAGES: Also if you have small chunks of money laying around in low interest accounts I arrange private investor mortgages which allow the investor a 10-12% return on his/her money. Sometimes our borrowers have good credit but just don’t fit within normal underwriting guidelines. So I match up an investor with $30,000 to 100,000 to fund the loan. The investor receives a monthly payment from the borrower of 10-12% and the borrower is happy to have the use of the money to solve whatever problems. As long as there is a good 30-50% equity,  the investor is pretty safe. if you have questions, call or email me. I can explain the details. Investors are provided full disclosure of investment risk and opportunities.

Need help with…Credit Problems?

If you have late payments, paid or unpaid collections, charge-offs, bankruptcy or repossession, you may need the help of a good credit-cleaning program. Try http://www.creditcleaners.net/ this service can clean or correct credit problems, remove lates and raise FICO scores. It can even fix problems caused by a Bankruptcy. Call me for details.

If you have any questions regarding purchasing, refinancing or investing in Real Estate just give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to offering you candid advice with facts and figures, to help you feel confident when you make your Real Estate Finance related decisions.