Mortgage & Real Estate Tips and News "Better Informed & Educated Moving Forward"

Despite a Down Real Estate Market, Remodeling is Hot.

The Focus is on Comfort, not Resale

"In an Up market, people fix up the houses they want to sell and the ones they buy", said Richard Johnston, senior researcher at the Home Improvement Research Institute in Tampa, FL.  Home Improvement and moving "go together". But apparently, so do home improvement and not moving.  At least in this market.

A National survey that Fritschen's Web company; Remodel Estimates.com, conducted last fall among 5,000 homeowners found that folks are planning to spend as much as ever on home improvements in 2008 but that they plan to do so more carefully, and actually enjoy the fruits of their labor for a while. And we are talking Billions!

"A year ago, high home prices were causing homeowners to feel the wealth effect, and they were remodeling with a blank-check attitude", he said. The survey also showed that most people were planning on doing a lot of the work themselves, acting as the General Contractor. 

People are now planning and doing projects to add value, but more importantly in this down market - to Enjoy their current residence while staying put for a few years!

Are you planning any remodeling projects this year? Please share your thoughts and plans or trials and tribulations if you've already undertaken a project or two..................

Now that a  good many  of what I like to call; the "fringe" mortgage brokers and their salespeople have jumped back off the once red hot mortgage & real estate  bandwagon of 2000 to 2005 -  Forced out of the industry through attrition and the law of survival of the fittest.  Most "fringe brokers"  already having folded up their tents and gone back to selling used cars or whatever, so now, maybe the mortgage industry can start rebuilding and improving itself. Starting with the reputation of Mortgage Brokers nationwide.  The much debated and talked about National Registry (or State?) of Mortgage Brokers is a great Idea, and many States previously not even requiring licensure are now quickly passing new laws requiring mortgage brokers to be licensed. I have been a licensed broker with the CA dept. of Real Estate for many years - licensed to broker real estate and/or mortgage loans.  Many brokers however were or are still either renting a Broker License from someone else not even working in their office or the industry for that matter. Or operating under a CFL, consumer finance lenders license that can be easily (without any testing) and cheaply obtained. Caveat Emptor to you, if you choose a Mortgage Broker operating under either a Rent-a-broker D.R.E. license or CFL License.  I suspect that a good number of the "Fringe" Brokers who are now gone, were likely operating under either one or both of these examples...............

It was inevitable that many of these fast buck  types would be moving on when things cooled off. Simple reason really - they either were not properly trained in the vastly diverse types of mortgage products available  or  they were just plain Lazy and Greedy!  Probably some of both. Sadly, pre-2007 a sub-prime stated income/stated asset loan could be easily packaged by just about anybody operating on the "fringes".  All a borrower needed was a 580 credit score, didn't even need a job!!!.  I also put a large portion of the blame on Wall St. Investment Banks who sold these time-bomb mortgage backed securities all over the World and were flat out ravenous for this product at the time, obvioulsy turning a blind eye to what lay ahead.

Based on the sheer numbers of troubled sub-prime loans that were made during this "fog a mirror and get a home loan" period - many of those borrowers were greedily sold a "bill of goods" from these unscrupulous mortgage salespeople AND could've qualified for and should've gotten a Conventional 30 year Fixed rate mortgage in the first place!  This to me is the real tragedy of the sub-prime debacle.

Over the past year the mortgage industry has taken daily shots in the media. But there are still plenty good, trustworthy, customer centered and driven mortgage brokers out there.  Pinnacle Mortgage has been in continual operation since we first opened the doors back in 1986, and has never had it's license or integrity questioned.

Tom Purcell, the principal and broker of Pinnacle Mortgage Group is also a member of the National Association of Mortgage Professionals (NAMP).  In order to become a member with NAMP, the broker or salesperson must be Licensed in good standing and checked out with a thorough criminal and character background check.  They do Not just let anybody selling loans who has the money for annual dues  become a member. They do the "weeding out" for you, and I encourage everybody considering a new mortgage loan to contact NAMP before starting any loan application.  

A closing FYI - Some of the services an Expert Mortgage Advisor should offer, and of course Free of charge with No obligation, are;

Partial List of my Free Consultation  Services include;