The Top 10 Reasons Why We Knew Modified Mortgages Were Not Going To Work
1. Over the past year there has been a big push from the U.S Government and organizations like Hope Now to slow down the amount of foreclosures going on. The goal is to help people stay in their homes and continue making payments to mortgage companies so they don’t go completely broke which most of them are doing.
2. The Detroit News ran an article today talking about how over 50% of the people who had their loans modified this year are again 30 days late on their mortgage payment. John Dugan, head of the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (Really, is such a long title necessary? Sounds like a made up position) said “The results, I confess, were somewhat surprising, and I say that not in a good way.” Why were you surprised John?
3. It does not surprise me at all. When I worked at Quicken Loans I saw a
Click here to continue readingThe Top 10 Reasons Why 4.5% 30 Year Mortage Rates Will Not Fix The Housing Crisis
1. In a article written at CNN today it talked about how the treasury is throwing around the idea of lowering 30 year mortgage rates down to 4.5%. If the Treasury Department steps in and does this it does nothing to fix the down turn in the housing market. The amount of homes on the market are not going to decrease.
2. The old saying of “Good Ain’t Cheap And Cheap Ain’t Good” could describe what will happen if this goes through. Remember last time interest rates were lowered. Wasn’t it in 2002 after 9/11? Didn’t Alan Greenspan and the rest of the ass clowns at the Federal Reserve lower rates on things like home equity lines of credit to historical lows to spur the economy. It worked, right? Well it did for about 5 years and look at where we are at now. Is going back to low mortgage rates the answer? No!!
3. I
Click here to continue readingThe Top 10 Reasons To Not Text Message
1. Over the past couple of years text messaging has become the new “in thing” for communication. I have not fallen into this trap…yet. Sure its only another $5 on my cell phone plan with T-Mobile but I already pay $50 a month to be able to communicate with people. Why would I want to pay more to be able to accomplish the same goal of sending communication.
2. How many times have you seen people who get in a text-a-thon with their friend and that same conversation ends up lasting 15 minutes waiting for them to respond when a quick 3 minute or less phone call would suffice.
3. What about when the message you are trying to send to your friend gets misinterpreted. The problem with this form of communication is that it is meant to be a short message but sometimes it can come off as being…short. We all
Click here to continue readingThe Top 10 Reasons To Drive The Speed Limit
1. Last week I was driving to Detroit Metro Airport for some out of town business. Driving on I-94 I noticed a bunch of police cars. It was a little strange to me because it was around 11:30am. I am use to the early morning speed traps and the after noon ones but not at 11:30am. It was a little much. Four Michigan State Troopers were parked about 1/4 of a mile away from each other. Of course one was sitting behind a guard rail far enough back where you could not see him until you past him. The next one was the chase car. He was pulling people over that the first police car had radared. The classic hide and go seek tactic.
2. Getting back from my trip the other day my girlfriend picked me up at the airport around 7:30pm. Driving back on I-94 the same thing was going on. We
Click here to continue readingThe Top 10 Reasons Why Unemployment Compensation Should Be Eliminated
1. The State of Michigan has decided to raise the unemployment tax rate to all of the businesses in the state. The Detroit News reported it and it just shows how messed up things really are in Michigan.
2. Some 40,000 businesses all received a letter stating that they need to pay more into the fund to help cover the amount of money going out to unemployed workers. I know if I was a business owner how pissed I would be. They already own a business in a state where the economy is the worst in the nation.
3. The unemployment debacle is only going to get worse over the next year or so. GM, Ford, and Chrysler are all on the brink of going bankrupt and do you know how many more people are employed by them?
4. Interestingly enough, the Detroit News had another article interviewing the Mayor of Warren James Fouts. He
Click here to continue readingThe Top 10 Reasons Why I Wrote In My 2008 Presidential Election Vote For Ron Paul
1. After doing lots of research in who I thought would be the best pick for President this year I was able to come to a clear choice. Some of the major issues to me were taxes, the economy, the War thing going on in Iraq, health care, and foreign policy.
2. I have never considered myself a Democrat or a Republican. In the last election I voted for John Kerry mainly because I did not like George Bush. Last time I voted I was making $8 an hour busting my ass off for nothing just so I had enough money to make it up into the mountains in Colorado every weekend to go and “Shred the Gnar.” I did not care about anything else. I was 23 and just wanted to live. The only issues I had in my life was deciding to get a growler of microbrewery beer from Rock Bottom or picking
The Top 10 Reasons To Have A Voter Education Course
1. With the 2008 Presidential election around a week away it is starting to come down to crunch time for the candidates and the United States. This is being built up to be one of the biggest Presidential elections of all time. I really do not know why this one is any bigger than any of the past elections at all. Is it because of the economy? Is it because of the war in Iraq? Or is it that there is a person running for office who looks a little bit different than the preceding Presidents?
2. My friend Dave and I were at a bar this past weekend with some of our friends and their wives watching the Michigan/Michigan State Football game. The topic of “who are you voting for came about” while Michigan State was starting to beat up on Michigan. He replied with “I don’t vote.” His point was that
Click here to continue readingThe Top 10 Reasons To Not Buy A Home In Michigan Until 2010
1. First off, I really do not think anybody should be buying a home for any reason until 2010. There is nothing stopping home values dropping around the country. What needs to happen first is we need to have a leveling out period.
2. Home prices are expected to drop in the greater Detroit, MI area another 8% by May 2009. CNN wrote an article analyzing data and what home prices should be doing. In there you will see Detroit, MI going down 8.6% and Farmington Hills going down 5.9%. This is one of the first charts I have seen that I agree with. Its probably because it was not written by the National Realtors Association. Realtors will always tell you its a great time to buy…mainly because its how they get paid.
3. Shouldn’t this be the time that you want to buy? Prices are dropping at a alarming rate and you have
Click here to continue readingThe Top 10 Reasons Why You Cant Refinance Your Mortgage After The Home Was Listed For Sale On The Market
1. People trying to refinance their home after having it listed for sale are about to run into a big road block. Refinancing a home after being listed is one of the biggest underwriting guidelines that has to be passed. This is not about you, its about the mortgage company.
2. Most mortgage companies like Quicken Loans for instance have very particular guidelines when it comes to this. With all of the homes listed for sale around the country this is one that can become a real deal breaker. Depending on the company, many have a 12 month delisting period. Some will have a 6 month but for the most part its 12.
3. What does this mean? You need to be able to show the mortgage company that you have taken your house off of the market. You can do this by getting a de-listing ticket from your realtor. On the “De-Listing Ticket”
Click here to continue readingThe Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Give Up Trying To Refinance Your Mortgage If The Appraisal Comes In Low
1. Let’s say that you are trying to refinance your mortgage. It does not matter if it is because you are trying to refinance from a adjustable rate mortgage to a 30 year fixed rate mortgage or if you are just looking to take cash out of the equity of your home. Every single mortgage company in the United States is probably going to be following almost identical underwriting guidelines.
2. One of the main guidelines is that all mortgage lenders must do an appraisal on the home. There was a time during the refinance boom that sometimes you could get away without having to do an appraisal. The only times you could do this was when you were doing a “rate/term refinance” or doing a second mortgage like a home equity loan. A “rate/term refinance” is one where you just change the terms of the loan, i.e, change from a 30 year fixed to
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