Khash Saghafi Mortgage Loan Officer Cleveland Ohio Mortgages

I just came home from one of my best friends house who is a police officer and we were talking about the four Oakland Police Officers who were fatally shot by a loser in every sense of the word. Those 4 officers were John Hege, Sgt. Daniel Sakai, Sgt Ervin Romans and Sgt Mark Dunakin. This post has absolutely nothing to do with real estate, but you know what -- it just might.

First of all, God Bless those officers. I have a lot of friends who are police officers and put up with more trash and garbage in a weekend than I will listen to for the rest of my life. They are good men. They are like me -- they lose their temper sometimes a little too quick, sometimes they say the wrong thing, they don't always make everyone happy, but all-in-all, their good guys. I read an article which said that while the initial manhunt was beginning, there was a crowd of 20 people gathering around where the first 2 officers were robbed of their lives. And do you want to know the disgusting aspect of this? "About 20 bystanders taunted police" stated the Associated Press's article off of the newswire. Let me state that again, "About 20 bystanders taunted police"!

What kind of sick b*stards taunt police after some disgusting cockroach shoots and kills another man? Here are some other words which describe the fallen officers -- father...husband...brother...friend...coach, and many others that I am sure I am missing. This stuff absolutely pisses me off. Ok fine, your a loser and your life is worthless because of your pathetic choices YOU decided to make. But why do you have to take someone else into your pit of hell?

Worst of all, who were the 20 cockroaches milling around the scene who were 'taunting' the police? Those people need to learn the meaning of respect and authority. And if you do not like that, tough. I am so absolutely disgusted about this, I could not help but write something. I think, to an extent, I still have to refine my language skills for blogging and sometimes have to correct my neanderthal ways of talking; having said that, screw those losers who were 'taunting' police. Take them to jail and let them live behind prison walls for the remainder of their insignificant lives.

It is stories like this that remind me to watch my tongue when I say that I have it "tough". I get somewhat "depressed" about where this industry is going and it's sometimes "difficult" to get up and face the day. You wanna' know something -- God bless the families of those four MEN. They have it "tough". This year and the years to come will be "difficult". There is no amount of financial stress in my life which compares to the tragedy in Oakland. I can be in foreclosure, dead broke, bankrupt and do you wanna' know something -- I am blessed by God to be here. I'm not even religious, but I am blessed by God to be here.

By the way, when I left my buddies house, I told him to make sure that he is safe tomorrow while he's at work. I don't always say that to him and it's sad that it took this story for me to remember to tell him that, but I did. God bless those officers and their families...

Back in 1985, I attended my first wrestling camp put on by St. Edward's High School, a very storied high school wrestling program in Cleveland. The name of the camp was "Back To The Basics".

In 1991, I entered college at Oklahoma State University. My wrestling coach, John Smith, was the biggest name in the sport at the time. At that time, he had already won 1 Olympic Gold and 5 World Championships. He later won his 2nd Olympic Gold in 1992. I would constantly call my friends back home at the end of everyday and they would ask one question -- did he show his super duper secret move yet? About a month into it, here was my conclusion to everyone -- he just keeps it basic, he has no super duper secret move and he does the same things that Coach Flores showed us in 7th Grade.

Today, it's a battle every single day and it's hard to keep your chin up and smiling all the time. For the last four years, I have exhausted my savings and everything that I have saved to try to find the 'secret' that is going to break through in this market. Thanks to a $50 wrestling camp back in 1985, my junior high and high school wrestling coaches and my College Coaches, I have arrived at this conclusion for my business -- it's Back To The Basics.

There were so many customers four years ago, I treated everyone like a number. I was definitely preparing for a decline, but not bomb hitting. I have now re-analyzed my method of business and this is where my focus has been for the last year and this is my focus more and more everyday as I move forward (with my chin up and looking ahead).

1) Talk to fewer people more times as opposed to more people fewer times. Instead of doing seminars all over the country, I have circled the wagons here in Cleveland and I am pushing harder on the attendees at those venues.

2) Focus in on my existing database and work them more. I joined sendoutcards.com and created 7 campaigns to mail my existing database this year in 2009. It costs $1.03 per card mailed out and now my old customers will see my grill 7x this year. Hopefully, in one year from now, I will be at the top of their mind when someone they know is buying or refinancing. Right now, I have 493 people loaded in which will cost me approximately $3600 this year. I am going to pay $3600 to mail 493 people 7x this year. I used to pay $5,000 for one hotel, one time in Southern California (by the way, I put on 5 seminars a month out there). This campaign will brand me better, last longer and be much cheaper.

3) I am speaking slower, breathing deeper and looking to position myself in smaller and smaller places as the expert in my market.

4) I definitely believe that the 'old school' ways of sales are the way to go; however, they must be woven in with the technology of today (ActiveRain, blogging, email drip campaigns, etc.). Those who do not transition into today will be pushed out of the market.

5) Every single time I speak to someone, I ask for a referral. Not in a pushy way and the conversation has to be in the right place at the right time to do that, but I am now "asking" for the business. I have been told for years by agents that I need to "ask" for business. I never believed that I should have to "ask". For as dumb as it sounds, I always figured that people know what I do and if they know someone, they will send them. I was wrong. I was wrong. I was wrong.

Today, it's Back To The Basics. It only took over $400k in Southern California (some of which was spent at Fashion Island and South Coast Plaza), $200k in Florida and the liquidation of my 401k to remember the $50 that mom spent in 1985 (I love you mom :-) ). If you know of anyone refinancing or purchasing a home, I would love an opportunity to answer their questions and work with them. 100% of my business is referral business. Call me ANYTIME at 1-440-838-5291. (By the way, I had to force myself to type those last few sentences (lol))...

Are you thinking about refinancing? One of the most important things that it takes to get a new mortgage loan is getting your home appraised. Now before you say that your neighborhood has not experienced a decline in value and you just put $20,000 into upgrades of your home, you must first understand how the 'value' of your home is determined for your transaction. How a Bank perceives the 'value' of your home is SIGNIFICANTLY different than how you perceive the 'value' of your home.

There are 3 approaches which an appraiser can use to determine your property value (I am sure the appraisers on Active Rain can add more specifics to these approaches, but these are the basic, eeeeeeeasy to follow ones):

1) The cost approach -- how much does it cost to re-build or replace the house? This is where your fancy windows, countertops and other indulgences will help you out. Unfortunately, Fannie Mae does not use this approach when determining value, so throw this one out the window.

2) The income approach -- This approach is used to determine the value of a home using market rent and some other fancy schmancy words. Again, Fannie Mae does not use this approach (so do not waste your time telling me that this would be a great "income" property). Toss this one out the window.

3) THE SALES COMPARISON APPROACH -- ding ding ding. This is the approach used by Fannie Mae to determine the 'value' of the home.

The guts of the Sales Comparison Approach are these 4 key factors. Here is my disclaimer -- there are definitely other factors involved also, but these are the most important, blah blah blah.

a) Comparables 'should' be within 20% of the square footage of your home

b) Comparables 'should' be the same style as your home

c) Comparables 'should' be within a reasonable distance of your home relative to where you live (urban, suburban, rural)

d) Comparables 'should' have SOLD within the last 90 days even though it is possible to use sales from 6-12 months back. Due to the sharp decline in home values, sales from 90-180 days ago are not considered accurate sales relative to today's 'values'.

Notice that I keep using the words "should". There are no absolutes and every single person can always find an exception to the rule. As for 99% of America, those are the 4 main criteria to help an appraiser determine your property "value". On refinances, everything pretty much rides on the appraisal. Understanding the basics of appraising can help you better understand the refinancing process.

If you have questions or are wondering how home improvements help the 'value' of your home, feel free to call me anytime at 1-440-838-5291!

This is something that I am asked constantly -- is a Pre-Approval any good? Let's first start with me stating this -- you, as a buyer, want to make sure that you are as solid as possible without going through the whole process only to be declined later. As a realtor, you want to make sure that you are not driving someone all over the place only to find out that they are not qualified to rent! SO, a Pre-Approval or Pre-Qualification is going to give you the best 'idea' whether or not the borrower is qualified. Now let me state a couple of simple FACTS:

1) There is no difference between a Pre-Approval or Pre-Qualification. Maybe in 1975 there was, but there is not today. The word "Pre" is latin for "before". Knowing this, Pre-Approval or Pre-Qualification means "before" approval or "before" qualifying. Many times, loan officers will tell realtors and buyers that there is a difference because it makes them feel warm and fuzzy, but in the world that I live in (called reality), there is no difference.

2) In order to truly know whether or not a borrower is qualified, an UNDERWRITER needs to review the file. By the way, the underwriter is one individual who makes the final decision on whether or not you win the biggest debt of your life. The underwriter is ONE individual. It is not a board, a group, or a committee. There is not a bunch of people sitting around the 100th floor of some skyscraper smoking cigars debating over your $70,000 dream. Typically, underwriters are sitting in desks that you can buy at Office Max for $150. Their desks are cluttered with papers and files.

3) In order for an ACCURATE decision to be made in regards to a borrower, these are the documents which must be reviewed -- recent paystubs, 2 years of w-2's, 2 years of tax returns (in many cases), 2 months of bank statements, full verification of employment from current and previous employers, verification of rental payment history, "acceptable" explanations and verifications of any and all derogatory accounts which show up on the credit report. Oh, did I mention divorce decrees, bankruptcy papers and child support verification? Now you tell me -- when I get called on a Sunday from a buyer who needs to make an offer on a home because there are five other offers about to come in (even though the house has been listed for 3 years), do you think that I have time to do all of those verifications?

If a Pre-Approval was worth the paper it was written on, then why do I typically pick up 2 loans per month in which a Bank or Mortgage Company Pre-Approved the borrower only to find some reason to decline them which they could have figured out on day one? I will give you the reason -- THE LOAN OFFICER SCREWED UP AND THE PRE-APPROVAL NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN GIVEN.

If you are an agent, I would love for you to share your horror stories of Pre-Approvals that went bad.

There are very specific questions that one can ask in order to 'best' ensure that you will not be declined following a "Pre-Approval"...I will list those questions in Part II of Pre-Approval: Fact or Fiction?

By the way, if you are currently having problems getting answers from your current lender or have been declined and you are in contract -- call me today, tonight or whenever -- 1-440-838-5291.

Ok -

The next Federal Reserve meeting is next week and on Tuesday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke stated that he believed that the recession would be over by year's end. Now, I know that it's hard to buy into anything coming from Washington; however, the market is still controlled by the powers that be, so it is extremely important to follow what they say.

We all have customers playing the 'rate game' causing them to sit on the fence that much longer. Here are some points to keep in mind when consulting with your clients. Now no one has a crystal ball, but here are some factos for the layman to pay attention to.

1) Due to the stimulus package, inflation is projected to be running wild the next few years. Why? Simple. Let's discuss briefly a simple law -- The Law of Supply, Demand & Prices.

When there is an "oversupply" of a product (not that any of us would have known of such a situation in the housing industry (lol)), the PRICE on that product goes down.

When our beloved government is about to spend $1 trillion dollars over the next couple of years, that is going to cause an "oversupply" of 'dollars'. When there is an "oversupply" of the dollar, the physical "value" of the dollar goes down -- it gets weaker. When the dollar becomes weaker, that is called INFLATION.

INFLATION SCARES MORTGAGE RATES. WHY?

Simple, If I am going to give a customer $100,000 at 5% and make $300,000 over the next 30 years, and I know that inflation is going to be higher in the years to come, then my $300,000 that I am going to make will not buy as much "stuff" in 30 years as it will today (due to inflation). Please keep in mind that I am using nice round numbers to keep this simple.

Well, if my $300,000 is going to be worth less in 30 years, then I need to make $500,000 to buy the same "stuff" that $300k will buy. Well how do I loan $100,000 and turn that into $500k instead of $300k? Easy, I raise my interest rate to the borrower. Instead of giving a 5% rate, I will now have to give an interest rate of 6% instead.

Predicting interest rates on a day-to-day basis is almost impossible. I always tell customers this -- if you lock right now and rates go higher, your a genius and your friends will come to you for everything from marital advice to vacations to how to raise their children. If you lock today and rates go lower, your an idiot and you will be shunned from society, social gatherings and your children will be tormented by their peers at their elementary school because of their parents who "locked in too early".

The basic fundamentals of housing right now are this:

1) Home prices are unquestionably pointed higher within the next 3-5 years.

2) A 10% drop in home prices with a 1% higher interest rate actually equates to a slightly higher payment.

3) If you are buying a home because of the interest rate, you are buying for the wrong reason.

4) If you are buying because you want to day trade your home, you are buying for the wrong reason

5) If you are buying because you would like a place to call home, a place of your own, a place where you can put your signature and plant your feet and begin your legacy, this is the opportunity of a lifetime.

I don't know if my parents home is worth more or less today, but I really don't care. It is a place where I have my fondest memories and to this day, my lifelong friends from the 'neighborhood' still reminisce on playing kick ball in the Fodor's frontyard and a grand slam was hitting the front picture window of the house!

Relax, take a deep breath and know that rates are low no matter where you lock right now!