Colleen Craig

I was in a meeting with about fifty realtors the other day who had not even heard about the hvcc petition!

We can't assume that everyone has heard about it - as a matter of fact it's obvious the word has not gotten around since there are less than 50,000 signatures. OR have you heard about it but chose not to take the two minutes to sign it? I personally have forwarded the petition to all my current and past clients and asked them to sign it.

So for those of you who STILL have not heard about it, I will make it simple:

HVCC stands for Home Valuation Code of Conduct.

It was put into place to help curb the potential for fraud with respect to the valuation of residential properties.

This has changed the entire process for banks and mortgage companies to order the appraisals from the professionals that they have trust in from their proven track record and have built a relationship with over the course of their career.

1. We can NO LONGER order conventional appraisals from our trusted appraisers. We now have to go through a third party company that will order the appraisals from appraisers who are willing to work for less b/c the middleman (third party company) takes 40% of the fee. Honestly, don't we get what we pay for? I don't know any experienced appraiser that would be willing to cut their income by 40%. Alot of them are now froced to get out of the business.

2. The appraiser does not have to be located anywhere near the property that needs to be appraised! Would you feel comfortable with an appraiser coming from 200 miles to do your appraisal? This WILL affect your transactions people - don't just assume that it's the mtg company's problem.

3. We can NO longer have ANY contact with the appraiser! WHAT? Ok an appraisal comes in low with inaccurate information and we can't fight it? I personally had one where the appraiser knocked the value down 15,000 b/c he was using comps for a condo that sat right on the 101 freeway with DOUBLE windows (not double paned) and was in a far inferior neighborhood when there were plenty of comps supporting the property my buyer was buying. I sent emails and voicemails to try and discuss this inaccurate information and was completely ignored. I then found out that he never even went to the property!

4. If the loan needs to be submitted to a second investor for any reason, a whole new appraisal has to be ordered - resulting in additional fees to the consumer.

Ok this is just a brief overview of what the hvcc is -As of now because of all the problems, there is legislation requesting an 18 month moratorium on the hvcc. But we need more signatures to have it permanently reversed.

PLEASE GO TO WWW.HVCCPETITION.COM and help YOUR future business.

I have had this conversation more often lately due to the recent tightening in credit score requirements. If you look online there are numerous differing answers to the question "How many times can I have my credit checked without it hurting my score". I have even asked several lenders in the business this question to see what they were advising their clients and I got as many different answers as people that I asked!

So what's the deal? How many times can someone have their credit checked?

Well............ it depends on WHO is running it and for WHAT purpose

Not all credit inquiries count towards lowering your FICO® score.

Inquiries that may appear on your report but DON"T count towards lowering your FICO score.

* Your own credit report requests from any of the 3 credit bureaus or www.myfico.com to monitor and ensure accuracy.

* Credit checks from businesses that are offering you goods or services.

* Credit checks from businesses that you already have established accounts with.

* Credit checks by potential employers.

Inquiries that DO count towards lowering your FICO score.

When you applyfor a mortgage, auto loan or any other credit, you authorize the lender to request a copy of your credit report. These types of inquiries, prompted by your own actions, appear on your credit report and DO effect your FICO score.

HOWEVER! What about Rate shopping?

This is where most people get confused. A few years ago, they made the change that people are allowed to rate shop without it hurting your score.

If you are shopping for a mortgage or a car, you have 30 DAYS to have lenders check your credit and it only dings your score ONCE. (The old version was 15 days)

Now, why are customers still confused about this?

ANSWER: Because lenders are telling clients NOT to let anyone else run their credit b/c they want to scare the client so that they don't shop around and they end up with the loan. OR because they are just plain ignorant to the new rules. (My personal belief is they don't want to lose the loan).

Buyers need to know that they have to start somewhere to get an approval letter. So much is based on credit scores from program requirements to interest rate options and we can not give accurate information without running a credit report and knowing the score. If a client already had a TRI-merged credit report run, and has a copy, we can work with that to temporarily give an idea of interest rates - but we need to pull our own when we run it through the system to be able to give an approval letter.

Please share this post with anyone who doesn't feel comfortable having their credit reports pulled when applying for a mortgage loan.

More information can also be found at........

http://www.myfico.com/CreditEducation/CreditInquiries.aspx

www.colleencraig.com

President Obama unveiled his plan to help stabilize the housing market and keep millions of borrowers in their homes.

The Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan includes two initiatives to help struggling homeowners. One is a refinancing program for homeowners with less than 20% equity in their homes, or who owe more than their home is worth. The second program attempts to lower monthly payments for homeowners at risk of losing their home. In addition, the plan includes a third initiative to support low mortgage rates by strengthening confidence in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Many of the plan's details are still being worked out and will not be announced until March 4, here is an overview of the plan's main components.

Refinancing Initiative
Under current rules, those families who own less than 20% equity in their homes have a difficult time refinancing and taking advantage of the historically low interest rates. Therefore, the refinancing initiative in the new plan provides refinancing help for homeowners with less than 20% equity in their homes or who owe more than their home is worth. This initiative is open to homeowners who have conforming loans which are guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and who owe up to 5% more than their home is worth.

According to the plan, "credit-worthy" or "responsible" homeowners can refinance their mortgage into a 30- or 15-year, fixed-rate loan based on current market rates. The refinanced loan, however, cannot include prepayment penalties or balloon payments. For many families, this low-cost refinancing may help reduce their mortgage payments by up to thousands of dollars per year.

As with the rest of the plan, details about this initiative will be released at a future date-including what, if any, credit score requirements will be included.

Stability Initiative
This initiative aims at providing help to individual families as well as entire neighborhoods by helping reduce foreclosures and stabilize home prices. It is intended to help homeowners who are struggling to afford their mortgage payments, but cannot sell their homes because prices have fallen significantly.

The goal of this initiative is simple: "reduce the amount homeowners owe per month to sustainable levels." To accomplish this, lenders are encouraged to lower homeowners' payments to 31 percent of their income by lowering their interest rate to as low as 2% or by extending the terms of the loan. In addition, lenders can also lower the principal owed by the borrower, with Treasury sharing in the costs.

Homeowners who are current on their mortgages but are struggling can still apply for this program. As such, this is one of the few programs designed to help homeowners who may face delinquency soon, but are current at the moment.

Since the focus of this initiative is on helping families and neighborhoods, investment properties do not qualify. This initiative also includes a number of additional elements and incentives that benefit homeowners and lenders alike, including:

• Incentives to Help Borrowers Stay Current: To provide an extra incentive for borrowers to keep paying on time, the initiative will provide a monthly balance reduction payment that goes straight towards reducing the principal balance of the mortgage loan. As long as a borrower stays current on his or her loan, he or she can get up to $1,000 each year for five years.
  
• Reaching Borrowers Early: To keep lenders focused on reaching borrowers who are trying their best to stay current on their mortgages, an incentive payment of $500 will be paid to servicers, and an incentive payment of $1,500 will be paid to mortgage holders, if they modify at-risk loans before the borrower falls behind.

Supporting Low Mortgage Rates
As part of the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan, the Treasury Department is increasing its funding commitment to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ensure the strength and security of the mortgage market and to help maintain mortgage affordability. This portion of the plan will use using funds already authorized in 2008 by Congress for this purpose.

The increased funding will enable Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to carry out ambitious efforts to ensure mortgage affordability for responsible homeowners, and provide forward-looking confidence in the mortgage market.

Again, the government plans to unveil the final details of the plan on March 4, 2009. For now, you can download a sheet of common Questions and Answers produced by the government at: www.treas.gov/initiatives/eesa/homeowner-affordability-plan/ConsumerQA.pdf

Let's hope this helps some of those who deserve the help and is not just smoke and mirrors

http://activerain.com/blogsview/857442/Smoke-and-Mirrors

Yes it's true. I have a habit of retaining clients that the original referring agent has lost because they did not keep in touch, simply forgot about them or have no system to follow up. Why is this? What do I do to keep that client for years after our original conversation? At this point in my career, 22 years later, I thought it would be so silly to even mention (common sense) but after having lunch with a realtor friend of mine today, I decided to share what I do. She listened to my phone conversation and started to take notes on her napkin which took me by surprise. Sometimes we take things for granted and assume everyone does this or that - but to those of you who would like an old idea that some have taken for granted, I'm going out on a limb.

First let me start by saying that if a client is referred to me by a realtor, I will ALWAYS speak to the client "as if" they are still using that realtor for their purchase. And then I will let that realtor know that Mr. X is back in the market and that they might want to contact them to follow up. It has amazed me at how many clients I have sent BACK to my realtors after months and years that they didn't even remember giving me the lead in the first place. Thanks to my Database, I keep records of every referral.

That being said, what do I do to RETAIN my client?

Immediately upon speaking to them the first time, And after I have pre-qualified them, sent them my "mortgage coach spreadsheet of options", I let them know that I have a weekly mortgage update that I would like to add them to if they want to get weekly updates on what the rates are doing. (www.colleencraig.com) Click on weekly update for a sample.

I have NEVER had anyone who is looking to buy a home say No - that's ok, I don't really want a free weekly update on what mortgages and rates are doing. And they don't feel spammed because I asked for their permission. I also add them to my OUTLOOK contact group based on their criteria. HOT CLIENTS, CREDIT REPAIR, or FUTURE CLIENTS. And every monday morning I shoot an email of the weekly update. I try and do more than this, but in the busy times, this alone has kept clients coming back after months and even years.

I then send them a thank you card which I pre-stock from cardstore.com - thanking them for the opportunity to work with them along with my picture business card refrigerator magnet. Now I know this sounds maybe a little corny and tedious - but when is someone going to be looking for your phone #? When they are SMACK IN the middle of looking for a home. And if you are on their frig DURING the process - even if it takes 12 - 24 mths. Who's picture and # did they see everyday in their kitchen? And couple that with a weekly update with something the WANT to know about? You've got them on the forefront of their mind when they are finally ready.

I'm sure many of you have campaigns and email blasts that you send, but you would be surprised at how many realtors/loan officers still do NOT. ANd when times get busy - that 5 minutes it takes, will pay for your mortgage when times are slow and they have been forgotten in the busy times by the too busy for me Busy bees.

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EWWWW ok i know that was wrong......but don't get TOO busy that your client doesn't remember your face when they are finally ready!

A database is worthless unless you WORK it. And after many years of working it, it becomes priceless.

Good Luck RETAINING every possible lead you can!