Larry Bailey

If you are unsure how to read this, or why it matters, keep this in mind. We all pay for financing (mortgage rates) based upon what the traders are willing to pay for Mortgage Backed Securities. IF you have someone telling you residential mortgage rates are based on the 10 year Treasury, fire them immediately.

I offer weekly calls to help you get through all of the information and to help you share it with your customer base to help you stand out above the rest.

Please contact me with any questions or scenerios. As a reminder we offer:

Title insurance services Nationwide

Appraisal management services Nationwide (We do NOT up-charge for this)

Private Lead generation services for Refinance and Purchase leads (Did you know our documented Application Rate on our leads that we privately generate and assign EXCLUSIVELY to you is as high as 37% with our top clients?)

Membership to a private on-line group where we share our Company Secrets on important topics like: Social Networking, Lead Management, Lead Generation and SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and How to better leverage your active resources.

Weekly support calls where we share "Best Practices" on what you need support with

Endless other solutions and support to make sure that our Relationship with you is a 2-way street (it is not just about looking for the next order from you, we want to actively help you find the next deal too)

Market Update Wed, Dec 03 - 11:35AM ET

Risks favor: Locking

Current Price of FNMA 5.5% Bond: $101.22, -34bp

After touching the highest prices of the year on Monday, Mortgage Bonds have reversed lower. The recent trading activity suggests we are still seeing hedge funds and banks de-lever, meaning they have to sell anything, including valuable Mortgage Bonds in order to raise capital.

The Job market continues to look bad. The ADP Employment Report showed a loss of 250,000 private sector jobs, worse than expectations of a 205,000 job loss and the worst reading in six years. After factoring in modest government job gains, this reading suggests Friday's official Jobs Report will not be very good - in the range of 225,000 job losses. Amazingly, this would be far better than what economists are expecting...325,000 jobs to be lost in November. So if Friday does indeed bring a terrible number of 225 - 250K jobs lost as the ADP Report suggests, it may actually be viewed as good news. That would help stocks and pressure bonds. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. One thing's for sure, it will be volatile.

There is some good news in the mortgage world. As expected, the recent spike in Mortgage Bonds caused refinance activity to rise 203% while purchase applications rose 38%. But to put this in perspective, the percentage increases are from extraordinarily low levels. And our "friend" Bill Gross from PIMCO, was pounding the table this morning, telling homeowners NOT to refinance yet, as he thinks people should wait until rates hit 4.5%. Thanks for that Bill.

Productivity, a measure of employee output per hour, showed the US worker is more efficient with a reading of 1.3% vs. expectations of 0.9%. Labor costs climbed at a 2.8% rate, less than the 3.6% pace forecast. The tame labor cost reading is good for inflation and would be good for Bonds in a normal environment - but right now things aren't normal.

Fed members Randall "The Black Hand" Kroszner and Richmond President Jeffrey "The Dissenter" Lacker will be speaking and could cause a ripple in this jittery market.

Crude oil tried to rally but now lower at $46.70/barrel down 30 cents. Stocks move well into the black as investors go bargain hunting. 10:51 AM ET - Traders continue to take profits with MBS - now at lows for the day. Stocks turn positive after opening much lower. Could this be the bottom for Stocks? 10:03 AM ET - Weak data continues to hit the markets but Bonds still underwater. ISM Services comes in at 37.3 vs expectations of 42. 9:26 AM ET - MBS move lower even after the weaker ADP report. Stock futures falling. 8:24 AM ET - ADP reports -250K jobs lost in November. Non-farms call for -325K on Friday. MBS move lower after the huge rally that started on October 15. Oil at $46.76/barrel.

I am still truly confused as to why you we are not helping you with your clients' title insurance needs.

We are able to close transactions (Purchase and Refinance) in all 50 states.

We actively participate in our relationship with you by offering our basket of goods and services that include, but are not limited to:

1. Lead Generation Services (For Purchase and Refinance)

2. Appraisal Management Services for all 50 states (and we do not up-charge for this service)

3. General Support for Marketing and Sales

4. Up-to-the-minute Market updates for Mortgage Originators

5. Many other relationship support items

So, why is it that you have not contacted me to take advantage of all of these items to help your business grow?

Stop dealing with a Title Company that only "Takes" your orders.

Stop trying to squeeze pennies from your JV relationship.

Start dealing with a Title Company that helps you find more business.

A relationship is supposed to be a 2-way street, isn't it?