Blog - JVM Lending

Housing Data Remains Strong – Despite “Imminent Crash”

January 20, 2023/in Interest Rates, Mortgage Industry, Our Blog

Steven Van Metre is a macro analyst and financial planner who has been predicting an “imminent housing crash” for over a year, including here, here, here, here, and… here. Despite Steven’s constant “sky is falling” rhetoric, I actually enjoy his videos, as they are data-laden and always interesting. I am bringing him up today because […]Read More

Will Artificial Intelligence (AI) Take Over Mortgage Lending? So We Can Push A Button & Get A Loan?

January 19, 2023/in Mortgage Industry, Our Blog, Self Education

Knock knock. Who’s there? Real Estate. Real Estate who? Real Estate the perfect home for you Yeah, I didn’t get it either… BUT – that was the result when I asked an Artificial Intelligence (AI) engine to tell me a knock-knock joke about real estate agents. So, AI is clearly not ready for prime time, […]Read More

The Fed Does NOT Control Interest Rates! Follow the Data Guys!

January 18, 2023/in Interest Rates, Our Blog

The Fed raised “rates” last year at the fastest pace in history! There were 7 “rate” increases in total: 0.25% in March 0.50% in May 0.75% in June 0.75% in July 0.75% in September 0.75% in November 0.50% in December BUT – DESPITE INCREASES TOTALING 1.25% OVER NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER, 30-YEAR MORTGAGE RATES HAVE […]Read More

Wells Fargo Is Exiting Mortgage Lending & Why It Matters; Hate & Love for WFB

January 13, 2023/in Mortgage Industry, Our Blog

Embessler Stole $300,000 From Me And Heejin In 2011, Heejin and I caught our bookkeeper embezzling money from us. It was over $200,000 we knew for sure, but we never figured out the exact amount because of … Wells Fargo. As soon as we got suspicious of our bookkeeper, we went to Wells Fargo and […]Read More

Rates Fell 1/2% … Almost.

January 12, 2023/in Interest Rates, Our Blog

The Most Important News Report Of The Year Dropped Today! The most important news report was today’s inflation data, as depicted in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report. It is extremely important for those of us in the mortgage and real estate industries because almost nothing drives interest rates more than inflation news. And, as […]Read More

How To (& Why) Buy a $1.1MM Home With Only $39,000 Out of Pocket

January 11, 2023/in FHA, Homebuying, Our Blog

Marketing Rate Buydowns: This is a quick reminder that we love to help listing agents market temporary interest rate buydowns with their listings. We are still seeing agents offer buydowns as very enticing incentives with tremendous success. Please reach out if you’d like more info. How To Easily Buy A $1.1 Million Home With Only […]Read More

January Lead Season and Weather

January 9, 2023/in Mortgage Industry, Our Blog

Hockey in -25 F Weather; Peddling Through Blizzards; Working When It Is Raining Outside 😊 When I was a kid in rural Minnesota, we played hockey at an outdoor rink. The games were supposed to be called when the temperature dipped below -25 F, but I remember playing anyway on one of the occasions when […]Read More

Is the U.S. Dollar Going to Die? Does It Matter?

January 6, 2023/in Financial Planning, Our Blog

At some point the U.S. Dollar will likely crash and lose its reserve currency status – sending the entire U.S. economy into a tailspin. Throughout history, the world’s most powerful country (economically and/or militarily) has usually provided the world’s reserve currency. Since the 15th century, Portugal, Spain, The Netherlands, France, Great Britain (1815 – 1920), […]Read More

1.5% Lower Rates For First-Time Homebuyers! Please Understand How HUGE This Is!

January 5, 2023/in Interest Rates, Our Blog

In late October, Fannie Mae eliminated most of the fees (that effectively increased the interest rates) for first-time homebuyers (FTHBs). I blogged about it in November – Fannie Mae Made Rates Way Lower for First-Time Homebuyers – and I strongly recommend re-reading that blog, as I want to make sure readers know how HUGE this […]Read More

Waiting for “Housing Bargains” Never Works

January 4, 2023/in Homebuying, Our Blog

Bargain Obsession Costs Buyer $200,000 I have blogged numerous times about a client we had who was obsessed with getting the absolute best deal on the planet when it came to buying a house. She at first refused to buy at all, waiting for the market to “bottom out.” When she did finally start to […]Read More

Southwest Airlines and Mortgages; BEWARE!!!

December 30, 2022/in Mortgage Industry, Our Blog

WHAT KIND OF LOAN NEVER DEFAULTS? In the 1990s, I had one destination for borrowers with a lot of equity and savings, and excellent credit: First Nationwide/Cal Fed. The lender required only an appraisal to prove there was a 25% equity cushion, proof of liquid assets equal to 6x “stated income,” and a credit score […]Read More

Why Did Rates Shoot Up 3/8% Over the Last 10 Days?

December 29, 2022/in Interest Rates, Our Blog

Dear Congress, Please stop spending money. I know it helps your careers… but it really hurts the rest of us. Sincerely, Jay That was the letter I wrote to Congress, but they ignored me – again. It was unfortunate too because the $1.7 trillion spending bill Congress just passed is just one of the reasons […]Read More

Inflation DOWN; Rates UP; What Gives? Housing Inventory Still Tight

December 23, 2022/in Interest Rates, Mortgage Industry, Our Blog

15 DEGREES LAST NIGHT IN AUSTIN, TX This has nothing to do with mortgages, but I have to share it because I find it so interesting. Austin saw a low last night of 15 degrees – which is amazing given that Austin is hundreds of miles SOUTH of cities like Phoenix and Los Angeles that […]Read More

83% Of Homebuyers Believe It Is a Bad Time to Buy; What To Do?

December 22, 2022/in Homebuying, Our Blog

* 83% of homebuyers in a recent University of Michigan survey believed it was a bad time to buy a home right now….. the lowest in 60 years! Has social media made our world more quickly, more unanimously inadequately informed? It appears so. The volume of bad and misleading information about markets is at a […]Read More

House Hacking On Steroids!

December 21, 2022/in Homebuying, Our Blog

CLOSING 300 TRANSACTIONS PER YEAR – FOR INVESTORS We work with an agent who plans to close 300 transactions in 2023 – focusing exclusively on investors. He is extraordinarily focused and disciplined (former D1 athlete on his way to the pros before getting injured) and he has yet to miss a goal – so we […]Read More

Loan Buybacks Are Surging and DANGEROUS!

December 19, 2022/in Mortgage Industry, Our Blog

RUSSIAN MOBSTER SENDING ME LOTS OF BUSINESS Around 2004, an agent referred a Russian gentleman to me for a purchase. He was very wealthy, very well-dressed, very polished, very serious – and very intense. His first purchase went well, as he had a “trading company” that we used for his employment verification and he had […]Read More

6 Reminders for Depressed Real Estate Agents

December 16, 2022/in Mortgage Industry, Our Blog, Real Estate

A prominent loan officer who has been meeting with multiple real estate agents recently told me that he has never seen so many “depressed real estate agents.” They are depressed he says because their business is way down; their phones aren’t ringing; the clients that they do have are apprehensive about buying; the easy deals […]Read More

Why DEFLATION Is Now Likely and SO SCARY!

December 15, 2022/in Financial Planning, Interest Rates, Our Blog

HERE’S WHAT’S SCARY: MY NEIGHBOR WAITING TO BUY HIS MERCEDES! You have no idea how scary that is! My neighbor grew up poor in Boston, played college football at the highest levels, and is now a very successful enterprise software salesman. He is also very cheap – so cheap in fact that he went without […]Read More

Inflation Down; Rates Down & More To Come; The Fed Does NOT Control Interest Rates

December 14, 2022/in Interest Rates, Our Blog

Inflation (CPI) reports came in lower than expected yesterday – and that pushed rates lower because inflation expectations are probably the biggest single driver of interest rates. According to this tweet by MacroAlf, the lower-than-expected inflation report surprised 65 out of 67 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. It did not, however, surprise Barry Habib or Jeff […]Read More

Commercial Banks Pulling Out Of Jumbo Market; Why & What It Means

December 12, 2022/in Mortgage Industry, Our Blog

Commercial banks are pulling out of the jumbo market rather suddenly – after dominating it for the last year or so. The question is why and what does it mean? When Service Matters We have always been able to crush every commercial bank when it comes to service, as we are far more responsive, we […]Read More

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