Rates
Well don’t look at US data, if you did, rates would be in the 6’s by now!
Bond traders are extremely focused on stuff happening overseas, and for once the focus is not at Greece, but China.
China’s stock market has been in a near free fall for about a month, after manufacturing and their economy is slowing down, quite a bit.
This has caused concern about a ripple effect to other economies, such as the US, which has caused oil to reduce. Currently a barrel of oil is below $50, which means $2.00/gl gas for us!
Now for some US reports:
-Durable good ordered 3.4% vs est. of 3.0%, very nice number.
-Pending home sales -1.8% vs est. of 1.0, but the miss is mainly due to tight inventory.
-Weekly jobless claims 267K vs est. of 272K, still lowest levels in 42 years.
-July Chicago PMI 54.7 vs est. of 50.5, very nice numbers for purchasing managers.
-July Consumer Sentiment 93.1 vs est. of 94.0, minor miss, still a huge number beyond the 50 benchmark.
We also had the Fed come out with policy statement this week, as expected no rate increase, but there is more and more people betting on a September .25 increases in the Fed Funds rate.
I am going to say it now, WATCH OUT for rates in September; they are going to be VOLITILE with huge swings until the Fed announces what they are going to do.
This week rates were pretty flat, off their highs on July 10th, then today we have had a dip in rates, we could see FHA back into the mid to high 3’s and conventional in the low 4’s again, but I suspect Monday we will be back into similar trading channel.
I am still telling people to lock them, we have been hovering between 4.00% and 4.25% since June 3rd, not worth the loss of sleep for that small of a spread.
Appraisal
I finally got around to creating a web site for Realtors on guidance on getting an appraisal Reconsidered, i.e. appraisal comes in below purchase price, what to do.
I have had 2 appraiser review it, and both said it looks good. Use it as a resource:
http://www.375loan.com/resources/appraisal_reconsideration/
I will be updating the FAQ section as they come in, enjoy!
Lead Generator for the day: Voice Message Greeting
Ok, so you are in a meeting and a very important lead comes in, you have your voice message all set up, right?
Now we all know rule #1 for self-employed people is to always answer your phone, but in the real world, everyone has to go potty some times.
Recently I have called Realtors and started to notice voice messages more and more. And some of them, obviously have never listened to their own message.
Recently 1 Realtor’s VM sounded like they were driving down the road, 55 MPH, on a motor cycle, it was truly embarrassing.
So 1st, make sure you are listening to your voice message greeting.
There here are some resources I found for proper Greeting Etiquette:
http://grasshopper.com/blog/perfect-voicemail-greetings-10-tips-for-recording-effective-and-professional-messages-plus-examples/
http://www.businesstrainingworks.com/training-resources/voicemail-etiquette
http://gawker.com/5989952/modern-mobile-etiquette-dont-leave-me-a-voicemail-unless-youre-dying