I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with the story about Judge Votolato, who established a mediation program for homeowners who are facing foreclosure. Under the mediation program the lenders aren’t required to present a borrower with a modification program, but they are expected to work with the borrowers in good faith. This is the best thing that has ever happened, because the homeowners that are out there buried and feeling the desperation need to feel like someone cares. The banks still haven’t done all they can to make things right. While it is true that banks cannot completely change the situation, we are each responsible for doing what we can do. If we know that something is right and we don’t do it, shame on us.
This loss mitigation program was implemented initially in November of 2009, and will hopefully continue as long as is necessary. This housing crisis won’t end right away, or at least within the next few months. It is critical that homeowners become aware of their options so that they can ask for the modification application and go from there. While very homeowners do get approved, it is still in their best interest to investigate and review their options.
-Mayer Dallal
Monday, January 31, 2011
Save Money or Sell the House?
Retirement age means that you want to have money to use for now and in the future, so if you do have enough equity in your home to get a reasonable amount of money out of it, why not? If you don’t, you can continue to save money, and live as debt free as possible. Otherwise, if you have more house than you really need you can sell it and take that money and put it in the bank. The popular school of thought used to be that when you had extra cash to go invest it in stocks, bonds or an IRA, but with a volatile stock market that probably isn’t wise. I can’t predict it or steer you one way or the other, but I will tell you that you have to keep up with because it changes daily.
Knowing whether or not to sell can also be tough, only because values everywhere are being affected. Some states were hit harder than others, and I can see where many who are older in age would be reluctant to sell if they aren’t sure how much they can get out of it. Using retirement income like pensions and social security is hard on those who are of age too, because they aren’t getting as much as they used to make, and with costly prescriptions to pay for many seniors feel overwhelmed in this economy.
Other Ways to Make Your Home Work for You
There may be other options to making your home work for you if you don’t wish to sell, and that could be through making the home more energy efficient. More energy efficient homes can help save you hundreds if not thousands on your energy bills, which can really help during this time of economic crisis. Improvements to the home don’t hurt, so long as you are keeping the cost within your budget. Those who could buy you home in the future may really be looking for what you have, but you don’t want your improvements to cost you more in the long run. So, as always be wise and consider your budget first before you make any hasty decisions.
Mayer Dallal
Knowing whether or not to sell can also be tough, only because values everywhere are being affected. Some states were hit harder than others, and I can see where many who are older in age would be reluctant to sell if they aren’t sure how much they can get out of it. Using retirement income like pensions and social security is hard on those who are of age too, because they aren’t getting as much as they used to make, and with costly prescriptions to pay for many seniors feel overwhelmed in this economy.
Other Ways to Make Your Home Work for You
There may be other options to making your home work for you if you don’t wish to sell, and that could be through making the home more energy efficient. More energy efficient homes can help save you hundreds if not thousands on your energy bills, which can really help during this time of economic crisis. Improvements to the home don’t hurt, so long as you are keeping the cost within your budget. Those who could buy you home in the future may really be looking for what you have, but you don’t want your improvements to cost you more in the long run. So, as always be wise and consider your budget first before you make any hasty decisions.
Mayer Dallal
Decrease in Foreclosure Activity
A decrease in foreclosures is what we have been hoping for, unfortunately it just isn’t nationwide. The inventory is still growing, but there are patches of metropolitan cities where foreclosure filings are decreasing. One thing to keep in mind is that we are only at the end of January, and so we have to be mindful of what this New Year holds.
RealtyTrac just released its year end Market Foreclosure Report for 2010. There is no dispute that foreclosures are higher than they were in 2009, but the activity has slowed down significantly in certain areas. There were ten metropolitan areas in which foreclosure activity increased in states like Florida, California, Arizona, Nevada, and Idaho on the low end of that category.
Overall in 2010, foreclosures were five to ten times higher than they ever were throughout history, and this is linked to joblessness. We always see a trend when the rate of unemployment goes up, so does the rate of foreclosures. The city that reported the most foreclosures in the United States was Las Vegas, Nevada, and the numbers equal out to one out of nine homes or buildings being foreclosed on. Modesto, California was one of the metropolitan cities that experienced a decrease since 2009. Hopefully as the year progresses, we will see a slowdown in other cities.
-Mayer Dallal
RealtyTrac just released its year end Market Foreclosure Report for 2010. There is no dispute that foreclosures are higher than they were in 2009, but the activity has slowed down significantly in certain areas. There were ten metropolitan areas in which foreclosure activity increased in states like Florida, California, Arizona, Nevada, and Idaho on the low end of that category.
Overall in 2010, foreclosures were five to ten times higher than they ever were throughout history, and this is linked to joblessness. We always see a trend when the rate of unemployment goes up, so does the rate of foreclosures. The city that reported the most foreclosures in the United States was Las Vegas, Nevada, and the numbers equal out to one out of nine homes or buildings being foreclosed on. Modesto, California was one of the metropolitan cities that experienced a decrease since 2009. Hopefully as the year progresses, we will see a slowdown in other cities.
-Mayer Dallal
Defying Derivatives
The FCIC did in fact that they believe that the reason for the economic hurricane was due in part to derivatives. Using debt that was in default or at the brink of default in exchange for collaterized debt couldn’t have possibly been a good idea. Right? These two types of derivatives were contributors no doubt, but were they the only ones?
The bigger challenge was that these derivatives were not being regulated. What? That’s right, no one was watching, and what did we expect? We are all entitled to our opinions, but the truth cannot be dispelled. This is why AIG could do what they wanted without having to consider the ramifications, and so thoughtlessly this continued and turned into a bigger mess than anyone imagined. I can’t believe that no one was accounting for these derivatives to ensure that there was money to back it up.
Credit default swaps were so called insurance policies, although after hearing what I have heard I am not sure I would call that insurance. These swaps sold as securities are an interesting business, but we can all see how this didn’t work with mortgage loans. Derivatives in themselves were not the problem, but how they were being used is, as well as the fact that they were not being monitored whatsoever.
-Mayer Dallal
The bigger challenge was that these derivatives were not being regulated. What? That’s right, no one was watching, and what did we expect? We are all entitled to our opinions, but the truth cannot be dispelled. This is why AIG could do what they wanted without having to consider the ramifications, and so thoughtlessly this continued and turned into a bigger mess than anyone imagined. I can’t believe that no one was accounting for these derivatives to ensure that there was money to back it up.
Credit default swaps were so called insurance policies, although after hearing what I have heard I am not sure I would call that insurance. These swaps sold as securities are an interesting business, but we can all see how this didn’t work with mortgage loans. Derivatives in themselves were not the problem, but how they were being used is, as well as the fact that they were not being monitored whatsoever.
-Mayer Dallal
Saturday, January 29, 2011
What the FCIC Discovered
The FCIC has finished and published the Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, and has made it available to everyone to read or download directly from their website. This report contains tons of information, so be prepared if you sit down to read it. More than 650 people were interviewed, and it contains information from millions of documents. Reading it will make you stop and think; “How did this happen?”
The report addresses many of the issues that consumers have been wanting to know about from, officials said they couldn’t see it coming, to seeing warning signs and doing nothing to change it. How could anyone not know? Banks had maids taking out loans for investment homes, some owning more than three properties. There were families with multiple bankruptcies that were buying homes because they were getting approved through subprime banks with more lenient guidelines.
This report was designed to give consumers and inside look at what is going on, and to educate us all on what we can do going forward to live with more caution and purpose when we make financial decisions. You can read the report by going to www.fcic.gov, and it will give you the option to get the report.
-Mayer Dallal
The report addresses many of the issues that consumers have been wanting to know about from, officials said they couldn’t see it coming, to seeing warning signs and doing nothing to change it. How could anyone not know? Banks had maids taking out loans for investment homes, some owning more than three properties. There were families with multiple bankruptcies that were buying homes because they were getting approved through subprime banks with more lenient guidelines.
This report was designed to give consumers and inside look at what is going on, and to educate us all on what we can do going forward to live with more caution and purpose when we make financial decisions. You can read the report by going to www.fcic.gov, and it will give you the option to get the report.
-Mayer Dallal
Friday, January 28, 2011
Messing With Modifications
When mortgage modifications were first introduced, their sole purpose was to benefit the borrower. The borrower was to get information from the bank, and be able to learn more about what is going on in the market, and what they can do to get some relief for their payments. So, was the bank a beacon to those who needed it?
In the process of putting the modification program into practice, the program had some glaring issues. Was it being monitored properly? This program was thrown out the door before it was ever refined, in an attempt to get something together to try and solve bigger problems in the economy. Overall, just throwing something together doesn’t work very well, and in the long run more risks come about for mistakes.
The worst problem that borrowers faced was when they called their mortgage servicer, and the servicers were telling them that they couldn’t help them. The whole point of modification was to take the borrowers through the process of doing a home loan, so that they could lower their payment which in turn would make their overall obligations easier to manage. The Treasury Department told ProPublica that they have no control over what happens with servicers, thus not allowing them to hold anyone responsible. The Treasure not only drafted all the documents related to this issue, but they signed them. So, how is it that they now can tell borrowers that they can’t get help?
If there was anything that needed regulation, it is modification. Modifications overall were designed to help people not hurt them. Read up on modifications and how they were handled, and you decide!
-Mayer Dallal
In the process of putting the modification program into practice, the program had some glaring issues. Was it being monitored properly? This program was thrown out the door before it was ever refined, in an attempt to get something together to try and solve bigger problems in the economy. Overall, just throwing something together doesn’t work very well, and in the long run more risks come about for mistakes.
The worst problem that borrowers faced was when they called their mortgage servicer, and the servicers were telling them that they couldn’t help them. The whole point of modification was to take the borrowers through the process of doing a home loan, so that they could lower their payment which in turn would make their overall obligations easier to manage. The Treasury Department told ProPublica that they have no control over what happens with servicers, thus not allowing them to hold anyone responsible. The Treasure not only drafted all the documents related to this issue, but they signed them. So, how is it that they now can tell borrowers that they can’t get help?
If there was anything that needed regulation, it is modification. Modifications overall were designed to help people not hurt them. Read up on modifications and how they were handled, and you decide!
-Mayer Dallal
How Do We Fix Mortgage Lending?
Fixing mortgage lending is at the top of everyone’s list, and while some of us have a good idea on what we think will work, we might be wrong. Mortgage lending is not going to be a simple fix, and with all the great minds at work in our financial sector, surely we can come up with some ideas on how to regulate it better. This is in fact the word from Bill Black, but his ideas are a little out there.
Bill Black is the author of “The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One”, and while he appeals to many readers the ideas are insurmountable. He is absolutely right in his approach, but the ideas not so much. Black actually states that by having fraud regulation, it could impose greater risk of fraud. The problem for many companies was in their accounting, and accounting fraud is what potentially poses an issue in his opinion. I see what he is saying, because those that work that closely with the books are readily able to see all documentation and financials on the company, and can access more information than they probably need. Or, am I crazy?
I don’t have any answers, at least not to solve the world’s problems. I don’t know, but I believe that all people should be accountable for themselves, and that everyone probably does need an accountability partner. How much is too much? I have been told that all things in moderation is good. Is that true?
Black’s biggest mistake with the book was not that he wrote it, but that he just didn’t think through his recommendation for a solution. Thus, he really didn’t have a solution!
-Mayer Dallal
Bill Black is the author of “The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One”, and while he appeals to many readers the ideas are insurmountable. He is absolutely right in his approach, but the ideas not so much. Black actually states that by having fraud regulation, it could impose greater risk of fraud. The problem for many companies was in their accounting, and accounting fraud is what potentially poses an issue in his opinion. I see what he is saying, because those that work that closely with the books are readily able to see all documentation and financials on the company, and can access more information than they probably need. Or, am I crazy?
I don’t have any answers, at least not to solve the world’s problems. I don’t know, but I believe that all people should be accountable for themselves, and that everyone probably does need an accountability partner. How much is too much? I have been told that all things in moderation is good. Is that true?
Black’s biggest mistake with the book was not that he wrote it, but that he just didn’t think through his recommendation for a solution. Thus, he really didn’t have a solution!
-Mayer Dallal
December Sales Report
After the holiday season we all get back into our work mode, and there is so much catching up to do that it seems impossible. Can you imagine if you were the ones doing research on the real estate market? It seems that it wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but with the revising and research to keep things up to date, it can be quite a job. December was much busier than many thought it would be, and although it didn’t surpass the numbers from the previous year, December was more profitable than November.
The sales were up 17.5 percent in fact, with more than 350,000 homes sold. In November, there were approximately 280,000 homes sold nationwide. In the grander scheme of things it may not sound like a lot, but I’ll take it. I personally wasn’t as busy with purchases, but refinances were a bulk of my business and still are. I think that this would change if banks would do better advertising to let people know that right now is a great time to buy. I also know from my own perspective in owning my own business that advertising can make you or break you if you spend your money in the wrong place. So, banks while losing money are probably not pushing the television commercials like they used to.
Sales are great, and hopefully sales will remain on an upward trend. Right now, it’s still a great time to buy; the question is whether or not families are prepared with a down payment and if their credit is in order. These two things are critical to buying a home, and if families don’t have it, they should wait awhile longer.
-Mayer Dallal
The sales were up 17.5 percent in fact, with more than 350,000 homes sold. In November, there were approximately 280,000 homes sold nationwide. In the grander scheme of things it may not sound like a lot, but I’ll take it. I personally wasn’t as busy with purchases, but refinances were a bulk of my business and still are. I think that this would change if banks would do better advertising to let people know that right now is a great time to buy. I also know from my own perspective in owning my own business that advertising can make you or break you if you spend your money in the wrong place. So, banks while losing money are probably not pushing the television commercials like they used to.
Sales are great, and hopefully sales will remain on an upward trend. Right now, it’s still a great time to buy; the question is whether or not families are prepared with a down payment and if their credit is in order. These two things are critical to buying a home, and if families don’t have it, they should wait awhile longer.
-Mayer Dallal
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Eight Cities Just Reached New Lows in Housing Prices
Case-Shiller, who I refer to often, gives us some insight into what is changing with the housing market. Over time, they have been following the largest metropolitan areas in order to watch what is happening and changing with the market. In October 2010, there were 10 major metropolitan cities that showed a decrease, but oddly enough there are still four metro cities that show a year over year gain: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.
This is good news, although it is just limited to one state, and for those of us who think that our businesses isn’t any better, think of it like this; we were on the upswing for so long I think we thought that we could do anything and not get hurt. Make sense? Life was good, brokers and realtors were living large, and now look where we are. Despite the frustration, we are still doing better than other states. What does that tell you? Did you know that a friend of mine that lives in Ohio told me that the city she lives in has whole streets in foreclosure? You can even Google the hardships of Dayton, Ohio. It’s not pretty, and with GM closing down and NCR closing down it is no surprise.
No matter what, choose to work hard, and keep up with what is happening. I love that I can do business in all fifty states, it’s a real blessing. It is hard to turn someone down, but the great part of my job is if I can help them get their life turned around in terms of credit, and hopefully give them advice on what they can change, to give them greater buying power in the future.
-Mayer Dallal
This is good news, although it is just limited to one state, and for those of us who think that our businesses isn’t any better, think of it like this; we were on the upswing for so long I think we thought that we could do anything and not get hurt. Make sense? Life was good, brokers and realtors were living large, and now look where we are. Despite the frustration, we are still doing better than other states. What does that tell you? Did you know that a friend of mine that lives in Ohio told me that the city she lives in has whole streets in foreclosure? You can even Google the hardships of Dayton, Ohio. It’s not pretty, and with GM closing down and NCR closing down it is no surprise.
No matter what, choose to work hard, and keep up with what is happening. I love that I can do business in all fifty states, it’s a real blessing. It is hard to turn someone down, but the great part of my job is if I can help them get their life turned around in terms of credit, and hopefully give them advice on what they can change, to give them greater buying power in the future.
-Mayer Dallal
Friday, January 14, 2011
I'm Still Here
Since late 2009, the MBA (Mortgage Broker’s Association), and FHA have been discussing post-closing quality control, along with loan officer compensation. One of the issues that is completely relevant is lazy brokers not wanting to be responsible for the loan after it closes. In my opinion brokers haven’t taken enough time with quality control before and after closing. The fact remains that when we get somebody into something, then we should see them through it.
I was sharing with one of my colleagues awhile back that I have been in the business for more than 19 years, and I’m still here. I have been here through the good times and the bad. I have seen the good, bad, and the ugly. I have seen the fraud, the forgery, and I have just seen the bail-outs. I am still here, and I am not going anywhere.
Those broker offices that don’t want to provide proof of their quality control, beware. These are the people that fade with the seasons. They change with the wind, and are driven about by trends, and when they are afraid something isn’t going to work they just get out without another word.
I have been around for quite awhile, and I don’t intend to walk away. I am here to give guidance to borrowers everywhere, help who I can, and help them in all fifty states.
-Mayer Dallal
I was sharing with one of my colleagues awhile back that I have been in the business for more than 19 years, and I’m still here. I have been here through the good times and the bad. I have seen the good, bad, and the ugly. I have seen the fraud, the forgery, and I have just seen the bail-outs. I am still here, and I am not going anywhere.
Those broker offices that don’t want to provide proof of their quality control, beware. These are the people that fade with the seasons. They change with the wind, and are driven about by trends, and when they are afraid something isn’t going to work they just get out without another word.
I have been around for quite awhile, and I don’t intend to walk away. I am here to give guidance to borrowers everywhere, help who I can, and help them in all fifty states.
-Mayer Dallal
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Refinancing Now is Urgent
Rates haven’t been this low in years, and with rates on the increase you need to make a decision. Being able to make good decisions is crucial to life in general, especially when it concerns your family’s finances. Finances affect many other areas of your life, and when your finances are in order it seems that most other things go smoother. The 30 year fixed rate was at a slight increase, up to 4.38%; so, if you have a current interest rate or 6% you are still going to have significant savings.
If you could save $150 a month would you? I know I could find another use for that extra $150 a month, whether that meant it goes into a savings account, or it goes toward paying another bill down faster. Whatever the case may be, you can get debt free quicker, but you have to make good choices now. The longer you wait, your chance will pass you by, and when rates go back to the days of 13% you will be wishing that you had decided otherwise in the past.
The best analogy that I can think of for wasting money is opening up your window and throwing that $150 through the window. The money just floats and lands wherever it decides to go. This is how many people live, and even though times have been tough it is still this way for many. Don’t let another day go by that you live like this, and make a decision now before it’s too late.
Call me today at 310-498-2700.
-Mayer Dallal
If you could save $150 a month would you? I know I could find another use for that extra $150 a month, whether that meant it goes into a savings account, or it goes toward paying another bill down faster. Whatever the case may be, you can get debt free quicker, but you have to make good choices now. The longer you wait, your chance will pass you by, and when rates go back to the days of 13% you will be wishing that you had decided otherwise in the past.
The best analogy that I can think of for wasting money is opening up your window and throwing that $150 through the window. The money just floats and lands wherever it decides to go. This is how many people live, and even though times have been tough it is still this way for many. Don’t let another day go by that you live like this, and make a decision now before it’s too late.
Call me today at 310-498-2700.
-Mayer Dallal
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