Archive for February, 2010
The above video was created by my partner-in-crime over at edgevolution; Dustin Hughes. The concept of following Dave (a fictional borrower) through the process of buying a home came up during a brainstorming session, and Dustin brilliantly put the idea to video.
This video is a perfect example of the stuff we do here at The Lending Journal and at edgevolution – highly visual and concrete depictions of complex lending topics. If you like this video check out more at www.edgevolution.com, and stay tuned … the story of Dave is far from over.
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Nick Mallory is an active loan officer in Portland, Oregon. Have any questions or comments about this post? Visit the contact page and drop Nick a line.
Shortly after building and launching The Lending Journal, my boss/mentor/coach Dustin Hughes and I started edgevolution.com, a company focused
on developing dynamic, highly visual content for the lending industry. Armed with these two platforms (thelendingjournal.com and edgevolution.com), Dustin and I set out to make an impact on the industry, and to bring alive the vision of edgevolution – making being a mortgage lender cool again.
This vision caught a giant boost a few days ago with some nationwide exposure thanks to the folks at Mortgage Success Source (MSS) and Mortgage Market Guide (MMG).
Dustin and I developed a video via edgevolution for MMG; a 7min narration entitled “How Interest Rates Move.” The video covers the intra-day movements of mortgage rates – how and why they happen – and some recent efforts by the Federal Reserve to hold interest rates artificially low.
The video was a hit with MSS and MMG, and they recorded a 15min interview with Dustin and I where we discussed our approach, the idea for the video, and why we decided to release it to the MMG membership (if you’d like to listen to the interview, shoot me a note). The video and interview was then released across their nationwide network of member loan officers, and the resulting traffic to The Lending Journal and edgevolution has been phenomenal.
So take a look and let us know what you think. Also, feel free to check out Mortgage Market Guide, edgevolution (also on facebook and twitter), and some other videos on our edgevolution YouTube channel.
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Nick Mallory is an active loan officer in Portland, Oregon. Have any questions or comments about this post? Visit the contact page and drop Nick a line.
Four HUGE reasons to buy or refi RIGHT NOW!
With the economy rebounding (albeit slowly), and housing markets coming to life (hopefully), many borrowers are choosing to 
sit on the sidelines and wait out the final convulsions of the credit crisis/mortgage bubble/housing slump. Strategically speaking, is this the right decision? Is it better to adopt a wait-it-out mentality, and make a move after we’re on the road to a full and complete recovery?
In a word….no.
Why is it a good idea to jump off the fence and purchase or refinance right now? Well, there’s a good reason for that…in fact, there are FOUR huge reasons to purchase or refinance right now.
Reason #1: The Fed is taking their ball and going home.
The Federal Reserve has been purchasing mortgage bonds over the past year, all in an effort to keep mortgage rates low and help spur the housing market. Know what? It’s worked…beautifully in fact. However, this mortgage bond purchase program comes to an end March 31st and there is an enormous amount of speculation in the lending industry surrounding how rates will respond come April 1st (ironic date eh?). Some think rates will bump up 0.50%, while others see an immediate 1%+ jump into the low to mid-6’s.
What will happen? We don’t know. What we do know is that rates will begin to rise sometime after that cutoff date, making now the perfect time to capitalize on an artificially low interest rate environment for would-be purchasers and refinancers.
Reason #2: No more free money.
The home-buyer tax credit for first timers and current owners ($8,000 and $6,500 respectively) will expire on April 30th (you need to be under contract by then to qualify for the credit), and as of 2/10/2010 the IRS has released no word on whether or not it will extend the program. Anyone looking to capitalize should speak with their Lender and Realtor immediately. Don’t have a Lender or Realtor? Feel free to contact me – I’m an active loan officer lending in OR/WA/CA and would be happy to help.
Continue reading the rest of this article…