Rates
Well after 18 days of rates worsening, rates finally gave back and improved a little this week.
Most of the trading was attributed to some economic news and a little about Greece.
I won’t go much into Greece, other than that they “kicked the can” down the road for 4 months, so in 4 months we get to do this all over again. And I thought it was just or Congress that kicked the can.
Most of the improvement came from Janet Yellen, who is, in my opinion, the most powerful person in the world!
She testified to Congress this week, and was quite dovish about the Federal Reserve raising rates. Which lead most talking heads to give up the notion of rates going up in June and pushed it back to October or even…yep…2016???
With her comments and some economic news that was kind of lame, rates improved this week.
Lets look at Economic News:
-Existing home sales 4.82M vs est. of 4.95M, Weaker than expected.
-Consumer Confidence 96.4 vs est. of 99.6, this was a head scratcher, still WAY above 50, but most people thought with lower gas prices this number would push 100.
-New home sales 481K vs est. 470K, nice number.
-CPI or inflation, 0.2 vs est. of 0.1%, pretty much ZERO inflation.
-Durable Goods 2.8% vs est. of 1.7%, VERY NICE number. Bad for rates
-4th Quarter GDP, 1st revision 2.2% vs est. of 2.1%
-Pending home sales 1.7M vs est 2.4M, big miss, not too concerning unless we see a 3 month trend.
With these numbers and Yellen’s comments, we hiked up to a better trading channel for rates, still way off 2015 lows, but moving in right direction.
Chances of us going back to 2015 lows? Only way this is going to happen is if:
-Greece comes back into the news, earliest this will happen is in 4 months.
-Russia invades Ukraine, 50/50 shot on that.
-February Unemployment numbers, coming out March 6th are bad. Which could happen if oil workers start to affect numbers.
I am in a locking mode still, lock them as soon as you can, greater likely hood of going up than catching that 2015 low.
SUB PRIME LOANS ARE BACK!!
Yep, more and more investors are coming back into the market for sub prime loans.
For you newbie’s, Sub Prime loan is a mortgage that Conventional financing will not take:
-Recent Bankruptcy
-Recent Short Sale
-Recent Foreclosure
-Stated Income
-Income Verified by Bank Statements.
And although 100% subprime financing isn’t here (Yet) we can now do:
-FHA/VA loans down to 530 FICO score. (I am actually doing a VA loan, 100% financing right now, with the borrower having a 581 FICO score!)
-1 Day out of Bankruptcy
-1 Day out of Short Sale
-Income verified for self-employed people by 24 month bank statements.
And unlike in the past, these loans are 30 year fixed (rather than ARMS) and they have NO Prepayment Penalties.
I have set up 2 web pages for these loan, check them out!!!
FHA down to 530: http://www.375loan.com/loan_products/fha_home_loans/
Sub Prime Loans: http://www.375loan.com/loan_products/non_prime_lending/
And…
It is expected by the end of the year we will have sub prime 2nd loans also!
Realtor.com/Zillow/Trulia…let the battle begin
This week the FTC allowed Zillow to absorb Trulia and form 1 company. This is causing chaos, because now ListHub, who use to feed these web sites IDX fees of your listing, cut ties with Zillow.
And there is bunch of court cases and people suing each other.
So Zillow isn’t getting accurate listings, as if they were accurate to begin with. AND I noticed that Listing Agents of homes are NOT being put at the top of the list in the Zillow Ads.
Well here come Realtor.com, who isn’t actually owned by Realtors, did you know it is actually owned by FOX News Corp!!!
It seems that Reatlor.com is getting more accurate news feeds, but they are burying the listing agents name as well.
So moral of this story is: Warn you clients about using these site until it gets all figured out. AND…
Why are your clients using these web sites, you should have your own!!!
CE Training
I am submitted my Leading Estimator and Closing Disclosure to IREC on Monday to be approved for CE classes!
Looks like most of the Information is out and the CFPB isn’t going to change any more rules.
So watch this blog for my CE class and the MOST SIGNIFICANT CHANGE TO HAPPEN TO REAL ESTATE SINCE MLS WENT FROM BOOKS TO ONLINE!!!
Lead Generator
Appreciate your “A”’s, Keep in contact with your “B”’s.
Heard that before, if not, it means you need to consistently follow up with your past clients and appreciate them and keep in contact with your current clients.
It amazes me how many of my past clients will call me up to sell their home, and can’t remember who their past Realtor was. 2 just this week, luck for those agents we are still working together, so I referred them back…but what if….
I get TONS of referrals from past clients, so how do I do this; I send them each month something of Value!
And what is that you might ask, I send them recipe cards!
Here is a link for who I use: http://sendsations.com/Default.aspx
Link for cards: http://sendsations.com/Content/Public/Gallery/SGFreshFlavors.aspx
I am currently sending out Set 15.
Get’r DONE!