Ron Whitworth

I just had the pleasure to read a wonderful blog this morning submitted by Antonio and Alexia Cardenas of RE/MAX in Motion, San Leadro, California.

The title of their blog is:

"Lets Use The Power Of AR To Get This Economy Going"!

"Give Us YOUR Ideas About What We Can Do"!

I still consider myself a newcomer to Active Rain. I have barely begun to realize the full potential of this tool that has been provided to us courtesy of the Founding Fathers of AR. Early on, I started to think of ways I could use this forum to increase my business within my own personal Sphere of Influence. I was somewhat reluctant because the intention of the site is to be a forum for Real Estate Professionals to share and exchange information. Still I couldn't help but wonder why this shouldn't also be a great place for the general public at large to find quality and timely information on the Real Estate Industry and it's related affiliates. Plus this information was available on both the national and very local basis.

Thanks to my personal mentor, Gary Larkus with The Money Tree Training Group, I was taught that I should always offer something of value to the people I have on my data base as a valid reason to stay in contact with them on an ongoing basis; a ninety day cycle. What a tremendous source of value we have at our fingertips 24/7 in Active Rain. On my first cycle, I introduced them to AR in a very short email as a place I luckily happened upon with the urging that they too might want to browse through it. I was quick to point out that they could go to the State, County, and even the specific City where they lived and of course, where they could find me. Now that I am slowly becoming more comfortable in blogging, especially thankful for the supporting comments I receive from new found AR friends all over the country, I have on the next ninety day cycle sent them my most recent blog and asked them for a return e-mail critque. Hey, they are coming in. Now people in my data base are contacting me and I believe by this happening, they are imprinting on their mind whenever they have a conversation with someone about mortgage loans they will automatically picture me. I am now in a much better position to receive from them referrals because of that imprinting. How often on a hit and miss basis have we talked to an acquaintance and found they had bought a home or had just refinanced their home? I can also send them another person's blog, perhaps yours, that has a topic I feel would benefit my sphere of influence of past customer/clients, friends, and referral partners data base. It doesn't matter that it is not my blog, I am sending them something of value from another person's point of view that is timely to the market place we are living in today.

Now to my Point!

In answer to Antonio and Alexia's question what can WE do to get this economy going I say why don't all of us try my little experiment. Even if it results in only one transaction all of the year long, we are for the better one transaction we may otherwise have never had. I think it will produce more than that! In doing this we are:

Using the Power of Active Rain

We are Spreading the Influence of Active Rain

Providing a More Personal View of our Industry and not Leaving it to the Media

Being Proactive in our Prospecting and Referral Sources

Winning More Friends and Influencing More People

To quote a saying of Bill O'Reilly, "What say you"?

Ron L. Whitworth, The Mortgage Connection

"Your Guide on Your Oregon Loan Trail"

Didn't know there were Real Estate Planets? Neither did I, but they must be aligned because everything sure looks like it should fall into place.

Interest rates are still at a 50 year low

Residential Real Estate Values are back into the Affordable Zone

Tons of inventory to choose from

Buyers are waking up and taking notice

Our Federal Government is helping us to find our way

OK, maybe the last point may be stretching the limits a slight bit but I want to hold a positive attitude for this current edition of "Whit's Perceptions". I was emailing a quick note to a suspect, er I mean a prospect, and realized I had the makings of a Blog. This was the the second follow up email along with two previous telephone messages left on her voice mail. When someone gives me a referral, I take it seriously and out of respect to the referral partner, I make immediate attempts to reach the party referred by telephone and/or email. Having not even getting an acknowledgment from my first attempts, I sent out an uncharacteristic style email for me; it was borderline aggressive.

I did not really know but I surmised this prospect might be a referral that really wasn't in a sense, at least right now. Since she had not responded to my sugar coated versions made me decide to get a little more direct on what I wanted; a response. My email went like this:

"We are in what is known as a "Buyer's Market". This is the classic representation of the basic rule of supply and demand. There are more properties available than there are potential buyer's to buy them. So competition sets in between those available properties. Add into the mix the fact there are so many Government and Bank owned properties recently foreclosed upon, also for sale, competing for the same pool of buyers. This is nothing but outstanding news for anyone wishing to own their very own home today. The icing on this Birthday Cake is that interest rates are still at a historical low..... right now.

For the first time in a very, very, very long time, it is actually cheaper to own a home rather than rent! You may see or hear this on the news tonight or within the next few days. If you are truly the least bit interested to learn how you too can own your own home, I urge you to step up to the plate now! Once the general public comes to the realization that the conditions are perfect, a "Feeding Frenzy" will soon occur and the law of supply and demand will begin to shift to the other shoe. That fuels the fire of the feeding frenzy even more. When that begins to happen, housing prices again start on the rise, interest rates go up because suddenly everyone wants a mortgage loan and there is only a given amount of money available at the time. The inventory of homes to choose from begins to drop drastically. I have been in the residential Real Estate housing market since March, 1976 and I have seen this cycle occur several times. In 1976 I was 29 years old, a young man. I just turned 62 last Friday and believe me this old man writing you this email to you knows what he is talking about!

The ball is in your court".

Ron L. Whitworth, "Your Guide on YOUR Oregon Loan Trail"

I didn't know I could be that bold yet within eight minutes I received my response. The first thing she did was apologize for her tardiness on getting back to me. She went on to say that she was just starting to entertain the idea of owning her own home, she and her Fiancee. I apologized to her that my email may have been too forceful but I really wanted to make my point and get some sort of a reply which I thanked for doingthis time so promptly. I explained to her even if she needed to wait a year or more we could use that time to help her and her fiancee learn how to put into place everything they needed to do so they would be ready, well informed, and very confident in the wisdom of their decision when they were ready to make their first purchase. I just set up a long term, meaningful Business Relationship and a future loan for my pipeline!

Maybe, we all need to be a little more aggressive, perhaps forceful, keeping in mind that we are to always create for our customer/client an outcome of "Tangible Benefit" for them, not necessarily us.

Perhaps too, we sometimes must align our own planets

R. Whitworth, The Mortgage Connection

I wanted to title this piece, "The Importance to Be Prepared". I did not want a reader to reference this blog to Cub or Boy Scouts, their motto, so I decided to use the word, "Ready". Either word would be correct as it pertains to Wholesale Lender requirements.

I have made it habit to counsel my customer/clients the need to have all documentation to support their loan request in their file as soon as possible after loan submission, especially when we lock the rate on their loan. When we lock the loan, we set a date certain in the future that the rate we locked will be available at the closing table. If we fail to have all of the documentation required by the lender's underwriters to fund the loan by the lock end date, we are in trouble.

Today, I see one of our major wholesale lending sources submitted an important notice on their email quotes. It read that the lender would no longer lock a loan note rate without first having received a complete loan submittal package prior to locking the rate of interest. They cited the reason for this decision due to the continual changes in the Secondary Market. The Method of Operation has been to talk about loan interest rates, watch the market, snag a great rate for our borrower, and then lock in. After the fact, we would then scramble to get all of the necessary info required from the lender in on time before the locked rate expired. This strategy made things, could we say, STRESSFUL!

Realtors: I think this directive will be the norm and not the exception. It makes good sense. You too should advise your buyer customer/client about this as well

Personally, I look upon this as good news. Rates are bouncing all over the board, subject to any little piece of adverse condition that could affect the interest rate. I'll just be even more adamant about getting the proper documentation beforehand and then we will truly be ready to pounce just at the right time!

Ron L. Whitworth

"YOUR GUIDE on YOUR OREGON LOAN TRAIL"

I was just reading a post by Paul Henderson, a Realtor affiliated with Lacey & Dupont Washington Homes. It made me look back on my years as a Realtor.

The basis of Paul's Blog was his question, "Do For Sale by Owner's have S.O.T.T.? He explains this means "Sell On Their Terms". He has recently noticed an upsurge of thinking amongst the FSBO mentality. He said for a while it seemed to go away and now its back. He was wondering if other real estate agents are seeing this trend? Well his blog did garner 33 responses or actually 34 when you count mine. I was curious enough to look at the responses because I have found there is a lot to be learned from them. However, in this case, I did not see any one proffer a reason why this is happening.

I SUGGEST IT IS OUR FAULT!

I include myself even though I am not a Realtor and am a Loan Officer; closely related. However I once was a Realtor, starting back in '76 (OK, that's 1976 not 1876) and the first half of my 20 plus years in active residential real estate I was all to happy to take a listing. It was sort of an elevation to my self esteem to see a 'George Willis Realtors' sign with my name rider on it. In fact after a while, I got pretty good at getting listings, including FSBO's. One day a friend of mine, not in Real Estate, casually mentioned he noticed I had signs all over town and I must be quite a "hotshot". Well my head, with my ego stuck inside of it, got so big I couldn't get out the door. Waiting for my head to regain the proper proportion allowed me some valuable time to evaluate the balance sheet in my checking account and the balance statement on my Visa bill. Turns out they were opposite of where they should be. The light of common sense then fell upon me, not with a thump but ever so slowly because I am of the male gender and not of the female gender; they can process volumes of information while doing seventy other things at the same time.

What I had been doing was being a "Yes" Real Estate Agent and that is pecisely the problem today. I would agree to anything just to get the listing, spend tons of money on fliers, do open houses both Saturday and Sunday, feed all the other Realtors on tour, and keep assuring my seller client we would get lucky. What I got was the overdrawn checking account and a Visa statement with too many cash advances each month. The usual outcome was an expensive unsold listing. The seller's get tired of this, especially after the second or third try. That is why they think they can do just as well. We need to guide them to their goal!

MAYBE THE BIG GUY ABOVE STEPPED IN TO HELP

I started getting these strange visions that perhaps I had it all wrong. The purpose of a listing was to get it sold in the shortest time possible with as little inconvenience to the seller. The inconvenience to the seller part soon fell by the wayside. I had the comps, I had the MLS data of unsold listings, sold listings, and if sold, the percentage of the sale price to the last list price. It dawned on me that I should price 'em right from the onset. So the first thing I did was get my data together that closely related to the subject property,otherwise to be known as the listing. I brought $25.00 worth of moving boxes with me to every listing appointment. I also put two bags of ready mix cement in the trunk of my car. I may have started the Lo Rider craze in California. Imagine the surprise when I walked in the door with this big bundle of boxes and tape. "What is this for", they would ask. "Your selling your house and you might as well start packing", was the response. I called this instilling a "Mindset to Move" strategy. As I got the tour of the house, I would drop off a number of boxes in each room to reinforce the idea. Then came the arduous task of the listing presentation binder, that I left with the seller whether they listed or not. This was a standard presentation I put together but always customized to that particular listing. Oh yeah, the ready mix. Often, the seller and spouse would listen attentatively to all the reasons along with the supporting documentation as to why they should list at the price I suggested rather than their, "Let's try it at our price for a while", way of thinking. I would then push away from the table and say, "I really want to work for you". They always like that, but then I went on, "I have something in my car I want to show you, however I need some help from both of you to get into your house". Then I would stand up and go to the door, walk outside to the car and never look back. More often than not they were right behind me and yes, you feel real stupid when you open the trunk to show them your ready mix and they aren't there to gaze upon those two 96 pound bags. I can tell you they are watching from the front window. So buck up and muscle a bag to the house. Ladies, you might want to try out the new half size bags at only 48 LBS. "What are you going to do with the cement", they ponder, and you will then say, "I need this to put around my For Sale sign because it is going to take me quite a long time to sell your house at the price you want as opposed to the price I believe will bring you a qualified buyer and actually close the transaction". Yes, this is borderline rude, yet this is "Show Time" and you need to make a lasting impression. After all, if you have gotten to this point, you probably are not in the running for the listing. I can't tell you how often I became the second and on some occasions, the third Real Estate Agent to list the property. This is how I obtained a 97% listing sold to listings taken sale ratio. Sure, I didn't take the listing always, but they remembered me well from the humorous way I made my presentation. The best thing is I suddenly started making a good living selling real estate. Then it was OK if I got a little proud of myself once in a while.

Ron L. Whitworth,

Your Guide on Your Oregon Loan Trail

That has a nice rhyme to it; hope its true!

I understand that Fannie Mae, The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Association, will soon loosen the rules for homeowners in their quest to refinance their existing mortgage to a new one for the express purpose to lower the monthly payment. Of course this change will only pertain to the company's own loans or loans they guarantee. That being said, not to worry since Fannie owns in excess of 40% of the estimated $12 trillion in U.S. residential mortgage debt. Likely this could affect you and I and a homeowner near you.

The deal is: more flexibility by dropping some credit-score requirements ( well hello. FICO changed the scoring criteria so they have to), reduce the income documentation standards (shades of those old time "stated income" loans but not likely) , and in some cases actually waive the need for an appraisal ( and in these times of Appraisal Review and second Appraisals, how about that), all in attempt to get the housing market engine started again. Could this possibly be some of the first stimulus package monies really being spent where it needs to be spent?

The program's name is DU Refi Plus, and starts April 4 which is significant in of itself. If the proposed start date had been April 1 then we would know it was too good to be true.

Ron Whitworth,

"Back on the Loan Trail again"