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Mortgages & Lending

Financing Real Estate

Should you Pre-Pay your Mortgage?

by Steve Heideman | February 9, 2009

To pre-pay or not to pre-pay that is the question!
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind…okay, I am not a huge Shakespeare guru, but I do fancy myself a mortgage finance guru.
Today I want to talk about whether it is a good idea to prepay your mortgage or not. I will be using some information from [...]

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Economy

Real Estate Down Payment: Gone in 60 Seconds?

by Meghan Busch | February 8, 2009

So, a few weeks back I wrote a post “How Far Down Can My Savings Go For a Down Payment” discussing just how much first-time home buyers need to have in the bank for a down payment. And I received a few great comments. One in particular asked, “What happened to 15 – 20% equity…?”
This got [...]

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Economy

Are we Moving Further and Further from those 4.5% Mortgage Rates we’ve Been Hearing About?

by Steve Heideman | February 2, 2009

Consumer confidence reached an all-time low and 100,000 Americans were issued layoff notices last week, each playing a role in the mortgage market’s relative worsening.
For the third consecutive week, mortgage rates rose and average loan fees increased, too.
Amid all of the negative economic news, however, there were two bright spots worth identifying and discussing. They [...]

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Economy

Mortgage Rates, Geithner, China and You

by Steve Heideman | January 27, 2009

Mortgage markets deteriorated last week on the heels of weak economic data and uninspiring corporate earnings.
Mortgage rates rose for the second week in a row. They’re now measurably higher than the low point set 3 weeks ago.
For mortgage rate shoppers, though, last week’s most important stories weren’t necessarily last week’s most reported stories; the [...]

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Economy

Outsized Economic Stimulus Packages can Cause Long Term Harm to Mortgage Rates

by Steve Heideman | January 20, 2009

After a strong start Monday and Tuesday, mortgage markets suffered alongside stock markets in the latter half of last week, leaving mortgage rates higher on the week overall.  Market losses were especially steep Friday and mortgage rates headed into the long weekend on a strong uptick.  Regardless, the reasons that mortgage rates rose last week [...]

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Economy

How are Mortgage Markets Responding to the Largest Job Loss since 1945?

by Steve Heideman | January 12, 2009

In 2009’s first full week of trading, mortgage bond markets traded back-and-forth, eventually closing the week improved overall.
Weekly mortgage rates fell for the first time since mid-December.

The most anticipated news of last week was Friday’s jobs report. According to government’s press release, the economy shed another 524,000 jobs in December, raising 2008’s total job losses [...]

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Mortgages & Lending

Is Private Lending Right For You?

by Rosie Nieto | January 9, 2009

More and more pension plan, IRA, CD, Stock Market investors are opening their eyes to trust deed investing because it allows them to be in charge of their money. Being a private lender is a way for someone to move from being a passive investor, which allows your stock broker or [...]

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Commercial Real Estate

Buy an Apartment Building With a Tool Chest of Knowledge

by Ted Karsch | December 31, 2008

When people first decide to buy an apartment building it is common for them to make a few easily preventable mistakes. The most common error that I see new investors make is not having what I like to refer to as the “investor tool chest”.
For example, if you wanted to build a house you would [...]

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Financing Real Estate

For Real Estate Investors, Finding Good Loans Is Tougher Than Finding Good Deals

by Steve Heideman | December 29, 2008

With home prices falling across most parts of the country, investors in real estate are finding good value in certain rental properties. Unfortunately, they’re also finding it harder to get approved for a home loan.
After getting stung by defaults, conforming mortgage standards for non-owner occupied home loans tightened dramatically last quarter.
One major change was the [...]

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Commentary

Mortgage Brokers Getting All Time Low Of Origination Market Share

by Rob K. Blake | December 27, 2008

National Mortgage News reported last week in a survey recently completed, mortgage brokers are now only receiving 18.9% of the orignation Q3 market place. This paltry percentage of originations is an all-time low figure. Mortgage broker market share reached almost 80% just a few short years ago.
Mortgage Broker Demise Premature
The report hypothesized the [...]

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Economy

Mortgage Rates are at 50 year lows!

by Steve Heideman | December 22, 2008

Mortgage markets improved last week for the second week in row. After the Federal Reserve said it would use “all available tools” to stimulate the economy, traders responded by driving mortgage rates to 50-year lows.
It didn’t last long, however.
After bottoming out early-Wednesday morning, mortgage rates trended higher all the way into Friday’s closing. It was [...]

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Economy

Mortgage Rates, The Economy and You

by Steve Heideman | November 17, 2008

In Frank Sinatra’s famous tune “That’s Life”, he penned the lyrics: “That’s life, that’s what all the people say. You’re riding high in April, Shot down in May” I am going to change them to “You’re riding high at 4:36pm on Tuesday, Shot down at 3pm Thursday” Lame intro–I know–but my point is made. The [...]

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Blogs

Mortgage Market Snapshot Week of 11/10/2008

by Steve Heideman | November 10, 2008

It’s official. As of 11:04 EST Tuesday November 4th 2008 Barack Obama is the first black president of the United States of America.  In a unprecendented move, President elect Obama moved quickly appointing a 17 person bi-partisan economic team. Members of the team include such economic titans as  former Regan fed chief Paul Volcker, billionaire [...]

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Mortgages & Lending

Reverse Mortgage Malarkey – When Equity Equals Inheritance Who’s Looking Out For Who?

by Meghan Busch | November 9, 2008

With the market’s level of volatility similar to that of a six-year-old at a candy store, it’s no real surprise that the reverse mortgage market is booming. Okay, maybe ‘booming’ is generous, but let’s say relative to the reverse mortgage market’s performance pre-market-downturn… a few more nodding heads are certainly evident.
Retirees (or should-be retirees) who’ve [...]

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Mortgages & Lending

Pertinent Tidbits on Burning Mortgages and Hiring Service People

by Tom Koziol | November 7, 2008

On Burning Your Mortgage
As you may know I co-own an insurance agency with my son. To say we have a varied clientele is to understate the characters in our portfolio. I write this first piece based on one of them.
Actually they are a couple who paid off their mortgage and were ecstatic. It turns out [...]

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