Blog - JVM Lending

Still No Housing Bubble – Because Rates Are 3% Lower Than In 2006!

September 13, 2021/in Homebuying, Our Blog

MBS HIGHWAY HITS HOUSING BUBBLE AGAIN Barry Habib, Founder of the MBS Highway, hates it when the media spreads irrational fear about a housing bubble. He also shares marketing materials that subscribers to his content are allowed to share without attribution to him, but that is anathema to me. Below is a script he recently […]Read More

Americans Can No Longer Move To Hot Job Markets; Does It Matter?

September 10, 2021/in Mortgage Industry, Our Blog

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES SAVES ECONOMY? Southwest Airlines and the proliferation of nationwide newspapers (like USA TODAY) were a major reason we saw so much economic growth in the 1980s. So said an economics professor I had in the 1980s. Airlines had recently been deregulated and Southwest was the first to offer dirt cheap flights – that […]Read More

Proving Taxes Are Real & Filed; IRS Form 4506-C

September 9, 2021/in Financial Planning, Homebuying, Our Blog

Mortgage lenders are required to get the last two years of tax returns for almost every borrower – and then prove that the tax returns are authentic and actually filed with the IRS. IRS FORM 4506-C This is why every borrower has to sign an IRS Form 4506-C (formerly called a 4506-T) as part of […]Read More

The #1 Reason Renters Want To Buy A Home

September 8, 2021/in Homebuying, Our Blog

FIXED HOUSING PAYMENT IS NOT THE BIGGEST INCENTIVE TO BUY In August I blogged about Rent Vs. Buy Comparisons In the Age of Inflation, pointing out how comforting it is to buy a home and lock in a fixed housing payment when rents have been climbing as much as 30% per year in some markets. […]Read More

Is The Fed The Wizard Of Oz (Powerless)? Why It Matters

September 3, 2021/in Interest Rates, Our Blog

In the iconic movie The Wizard of Oz, all of the characters thought the Wizard was an all-powerful being who controlled everything and everyone. But, in the end, we found out that the infamous Wizard was really just an old man behind a curtain playing tricks with loudspeakers, smoke and mirrors. RENOWNED RESEARCH ANALYST SAYS […]Read More

Change Jobs, Lose Bonus Income & LOSE HOUSE!

September 2, 2021/in Homebuying, Our Blog

It is usually 100% OK to change jobs at any time IF … borrowers are NOT dependent upon bonus, overtime or commission income to qualify. If, however, borrowers are dependent upon bonus, overtime or commission income to qualify for a loan (very common in today’s world), changing jobs can be a deal killer! This is […]Read More

Don’t Finish Your Basement (or Garage or Patio) IF…

September 1, 2021/in Appraisals, Our Blog

“Your godda***d appraiser only gave $7,500 to my basement after I spent 85,000 f**king dollars finishing it! Go f*** yourself!” So said a borrower to me years ago after he reviewed an appraisal of his home that he clearly did not like (to put it mildly). Knowing that “the customer is always right,” I tried […]Read More

The Most Valuable Advice Agents Can Give Clients! (MOST VALUABLE FOR ALL OF US)

August 30, 2021/in Our Blog, Self Education

HOUSE FLIPPING GONE WRONG When I used to flip houses back in the day, I often worked with an extremely experienced agent who would help find the homes and write the contracts. He was also a master at the art of the “quick fix” (new floors, cabinets, counters, appliances, fixtures, paint and a bit of […]Read More

Bedroom Counts And Home Values – A Very Big Deal!

August 27, 2021/in Appraisals, Our Blog

WHAT CONSTITUTES A BEDROOM? I wrote a blog last year called What Constitutes A Bedroom? in response to an agent who was angry b/c our appraiser refused to deem a 42 square foot (sf) room “a bedroom.” The appraisal came in low b/c the house was correctly deemed a two-bedroom instead of a three-bedroom, as […]Read More

6 Reasons Why Refis Are SO MUCH EASIER Than Purchases

August 26, 2021/in Our Blog, Refinance

We often see borrowers who are reluctant to refinance into a lower rate – even when the new loan will be “no cost” and save them hundreds of dollars every month. Unfortunately, this reluctance is sometimes fostered by the stress those borrowers endured during their purchase. As a result we like to emphatically remind everyone […]Read More

Is Yelp Dead?

August 25, 2021/in Marketing, Our Blog

USING YELP IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE My kids, brothers, nephew, and I take motorcycle trips every summer, and I just got back from our recent excursion through the Colorado Rockies. Everywhere we went, no matter how remote, my nephew would pull out his phone to search Yelp for places to eat – and Yelp […]Read More

Conventional vs. Conforming vs. Gov’t vs. Jumbo Loans; Bias For Action

August 23, 2021/in Our Blog, Real Estate

CINNABON STORY – BIAS FOR ACTION I heard this story on a podcast a few months back and just had to share it. When Cinnabon first started, they could only afford to lease very small spaces that required them to place their ovens in front; as a result, passersby could easily smell the aroma when […]Read More

Why Appraised Values Have To “Season” After A Purchase

August 20, 2021/in Appraisals, Our Blog

“I just bought the property for $800,000 but it is worth $1,000,000 now, and I would like to refi using the higher appraised value…” We get emails like the above all the time, and sometimes we can garner the higher appraised value. But often we can’t. This is why. APPRAISERS CORRELATE TO PURCHASE PRICE This […]Read More

#1 Trait Super Successful People Share

August 19, 2021/in Our Blog, Self Education

CAR DEALER SELLS TO… ANYONE AND EVERYONE In the late 1970s, when I was in high school, I was hitchhiking on Tatum Boulevard in Phoenix, AZ b/c… I had just totaled my car and b/c people still actually hitchhiked then. Anyway, a brand-new Toyota Supra stopped to pick me up. The driver was extremely friendly, […]Read More

When “Big Bank” Purchases Die And Come To JVM; What We Learn

August 18, 2021/in Mortgage Industry, Our Blog

A listing agent we know well called us recently b/c one of his listings died at Chase at the 11th hour – and he wanted us to salvage the deal. I am not trying to beat up on Chase either, as we sell a ton of our jumbo production to them and we also know […]Read More

Learning From Amazon’s Many Failures; Failing To Succeed?

August 16, 2021/in Our Blog, Self Education

We try various initiatives all the time at JVM – and often fail spectacularly. A few things that come to mind are a team competition we set up in 2012 that utterly destroyed morale; a profit-sharing program we set up in 2014 that turned out to be blatantly illegal (our attorney panicked and immediately made […]Read More

Missed Rent Payments Are OK – Or Are They?

August 13, 2021/in Mortgage Industry, Our Blog

WOULD YOU DO THIS LOAN? It was sometime in 2006 when a rep I knew well from the now defunct Washington Mutual (WaMu) called me to ask if I personally would “do the loan” that I submitted. My answer was of course not. It was a 90% combined loan-to-value (LTV) loan (1st and 2nd mortgage […]Read More

Inflation Up; Rates Up; Explained In Terms of Porsches; All About “Buying Power”

August 12, 2021/in Interest Rates, Our Blog

THE REFI BOOM THAT WASN’T When rates plunged a few weeks ago in response to renewed COVID concerns and weak economic news, the entire mortgage world was gleeful b/c we thought we had another refi boom on our hands. But alas, it was not meant to be, as strong employment numbers AND INFLATION crashed the […]Read More

Rent Payments & Rental Income To Qualify

August 11, 2021/in Homebuying, Mortgage Industry, Our Blog

Here is some important info about using rental payment history and rental income to qualify. GREAT NEWS: “DU” USES RENT PAYMENTS NOW On the good news front, Fannie Mae announced last month that its automated underwriting system (DU) will now take into account rental-payment-histories, to make it easier for renters to become homeowners. Here is […]Read More

Lending In The Age Of Lying; “Reframing” Is OK; Fraud Is Not

August 9, 2021/in Mortgage Industry, Our Blog

MORTGAGE BANK OWNER EXITS BUSINESS PRIOR TO 2008 Heejin and I were chatting recently with one of the few major mortgage bankers to have the foresight to get out of the mortgage business prior to the 2008 mortgage meltdown. He knew the end was near b/c he was playing golf at Pebble Beach with a […]Read More

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