Prime Rate was 3.5% last year at this time. Currently the Prime Rate is 4.25%. It has been climbing steadily with every increase in the Fed Funds Rate. Prime Rate is the interest rate that large companies pay to borrow funds for short periods. It matters to real estate b/c Home Equity Lines of Credit […]Read More

Recruiters from other mortgage companies constantly call our team members to lure them to their firms… and it always elicits chuckles across our office b/c the recruiters are so clueless. They don’t understand our model or why our top performers stay. Heejin and I used to be even more clueless when it came to retention […]Read More

It was June of 2011 when Heejin noticed one of our deposits was smaller than it was supposed to be. So Heejin dug a little deeper and found a bunch of accounting irregularities. She then got very worried, continued to dig and discovered over $200,000 had been embezzled from our accounts. Our officer manager was […]Read More

We recently sent requests for proposals to elite marketing firms all over the United States, and were pleasantly surprised by the reception. The firms wanted to work with us b/c they loved our website, focus, messaging, image, etc. They were happy to avoid the basics of “Marketing 101.” What was most interesting though was how […]Read More

On June 1st, when I walked into our office, everyone was silent, focused and intensely working. Also on June 1st, we had a one-hour meeting at 2 PM to go over our systems, processes and training to fix everything that needed improvement, like we do every week. I point this out b/c May was an […]Read More

I loved college and was an excellent student who tried to learn as much as I could during my academic years. My problem was that after law school, I stopped learning the things I needed to learn. I didn’t realize that my real education only started after my formal education. I continued to voraciously read […]Read More

I exchanged emails with an extremely successful friend in the mortgage business over the weekend. He was having his best month ever, but was nevertheless feeling very down. The constant grind of the business had gotten to him. His focus is on awesome customer service and on growing a great business, but he doesn’t have […]Read More

A few readers had questions yesterday about recurring and nonrecurring closing costs. Note: I was using the term “reoccurring” yesterday but according to the internet, “recurring” is the more correct term, even though the meaning is very similar. Nonrecurring closing costs include the one-time fees that buyers pay only at the time of purchase. These […]Read More

It took me two and half hours to take an Uber from Manhattan to JFK airport last week. The reason? My Uber driver had moved to NYC four days earlier and he relied entirely on his Waze app to navigate. And Waze does NOT work in Manhattan (too much traffic and too much data, and […]Read More

We constantly tout the need for effective team building as a necessity for all leaders and business owners. Hiring team members to do every task better than you can is the only way to expand free time and profits and to enhance service levels. In fact, we are planning a huge Lunch & Learn in […]Read More

Sam Zell is a famously blunt billionaire real estate investor who was recently interviewed in the WSJ. There are many fascinating things about him but his quote in regard to a $315 million LOSS he experienced was the best part of the interview. Interesting things: * He is 76 and still going full speed * […]Read More

JVM has 200 Five Star Yelp reviews, as of this morning!! This is a milestone we’ve been shooting for for some time now, and it is no small feat given how many of our reviews get filtered. We still love Yelp though b/c the reviews are 100% authentic and can’t be edited. A few very […]Read More

Here are a few reminders: Gift of Equity: When a relative buys a home from another relative (“relative” can be used very loosely), the buyer does not need any down payment funds. Buyers can obtain a “gift of equity” from the seller equal to 20% of the purchase price or more, and no down payment […]Read More

We used to navigate the broker channel with amazing efficiency b/c we knew every lender’s guidelines and systems so well, and our volume and reputation allowed us to curry many favors. Reminder: The “broker channel” is one where loan officers do not work for a specific mortgage bank but instead submit their loans to multiple […]Read More

James Altucher recently had Ryan Deiss (the young founder of a huge digital marketing firm) on an excellent podcast. They both strongly advocated not going to college, despite the fact that both are highly educated college grads themselves. They think college is far too expensive and too vague for young people with no clue what […]Read More

We often remind Realtors, Escrow Officers and Borrowers that “everyone has to be on board” if we are going to close on time, especially if we’re closing in 15 days. Realtors are often unaware, however, that they are sometimes the biggest impediment to closing on time. For starters, we need escrow information, basic contract terms […]Read More

Last week at a staff meeting, several team members called me out for being blatantly wrong about a major decision (my expansion plans were not practicable). Calling me out is common and encouraged at JVM, and it is another reason why we perform so well. I thought of this when I read a recent WSJ […]Read More

Dan Sullivan is our favorite business coach and podcaster b/c of his straight forward advice and hugely successful track record. We’ve been implementing his ideas for years and we highly recommend his very short and excellent podcasts. He often talks about the “four referability habits” that will virtually guarantee success. Everyone thinks they practice these […]Read More

As we explain from time to time, most mortgage lenders pull credit scores from the three major bureaus (Transunion, Equifax and Experian) and they correlate to the middle of the three scores. If there are two borrowers, lenders usually correlate to whichever borrower has the lower middle score, often frustrating borrowers with especially good credit. […]Read More

Interest rates fell again, surprising everyone (again) b/c rates are supposed to be going up, right? Wrong. Rates are supposed to being going up b/c the Federal Reserve has been increasing the short term Fed Funds Rate; b/c the economy is heating up; b/c Mr. Trump’s policies are potentially inflationary; and b/c the Fed is […]Read More

One of the nicest things that ever happened to me was this – a super successful real estate agent pulled me aside and said, “I have to be honest with you – your website really, really sucks. I am serious. It’s awful…” 🙂 It was so nice b/c it was the impetus we needed to […]Read More

We recently had a transaction come to a screeching halt b/c the escrow officer told our “funder” that there was a plumbing leak so she was crediting $1,000 to the buyer to cover the cost of the repair. Escrow officers and Realtors can discuss things with the JVM Team (or their loan officers) off the […]Read More

I’m going to guess you know someone just like Kim. Kim was a nurse making good money and renting in Pleasant Hill. Kim was working with one of our Realtors for over a year but had been too apprehensive to pull the trigger and buy a home. And it seemed as though that was how […]Read More

The Muse is a major online job search and career website with hundreds of major clients across the country. And recently, they published an article titled 20 Companies Transforming Industries. We were delighted and very proud to see that JVM Lending ranked #10, among some very strong competition. This is what The Muse had to […]Read More

Heejin was at a Strategic Coach event in Toronto last week among a large number of extremely successful entrepreneurs. She was amazed to see how many of them were glued to their phones and very stressed out, despite their seven figure incomes and high net worths. What all of them lacked was a trained support […]Read More