All of our clients – past and present – want to know two things right now: (1) what is really happening to mortgage interest rates; and (2) what is happening to home values – particularly their own.
I know this b/c we are getting so many inquiries from clients, and, more significantly, b/c so many clients are responding to our Homebot updates.
So yes, I am going to push Homebot once again. Homebot emails updated amortization, home value, interest rate and investment opportunities to clients every month (after agents or lenders share contact info from their databases).
The cost is minimal ($25 per month at most) and agents can get discounts through JVM. We get nothing from Homebot if our agent partners sign up; we only tout Homebot b/c it helps agents grow their business.
Not only do we get an amazingly low number of “unsubscribe” requests, we actually have people asking to be subscribed when they hear about Homebot from subscribers.
For agents who still don’t want to sign up for Homebot, this is a reminder that their clients want to know about home values and interest rates right now – making for great social media fodder.
WAGE INFLATION TOO
I have been touting real estate as a great inflation hedge recently b/c some market watchers are predicting inflation as a result of the massive amount of monetary stimulus in place right now.
In response to my comments, however, an agent asked me how inflation makes it easier for clients to pay off their low-rate mortgages after inflation sets in.
The answer is wage inflation.
Both prices and wages go up during times of heavy inflation, as the value of a currency decreases.
If a borrower making $100,000 per year today gets a $400,000 mortgage at 3.125% and finds himself making $200,000 per year in 2025 b/c of wage inflation, he will easily be able to pay off his mortgage.
This is b/c his mortgage payment and interest rate will remain the same no matter how much inflation pushes up prices and wages.
This is exactly what happened in the 1970s; homeowners across the country, who saw their inflation-influenced wages shoot up, were suddenly able to easily pay off their 3%+ mortgages that they obtained in the 1960s.
They were using much less valuable 1970s inflation-ravaged dollars to pay off 1960s debt that was taken on when dollars were worth a lot more.
Inflation hurts a lot of people (savers and creditors especially) but it can be very beneficial to debtors/borrowers.
Jay Voorhees
Founder/Broker | JVM Lending
(855) 855-4491 | DRE# 1197176, NMLS# 310167
