IT IS OCTOBER 9TH…. ARE WE ALIVE?
This then is the Million Dollar question: How did October 3rd go?
Well, first of all, it was Saturday, so we didn’t have to come in to work, so we lived through that.
Kidding aside, I have to admit that October 5 was a regular busy, crazy Monday, but as the days go by and the first transactions go through its closing process, I am sure that white and/or thinning hair will be the norm.
I expect to have a full report to you all by around November 10-15, when the first of all the post October 3 transactions start to close.
Meanwhile, the world is still turning, the sun is still rising, the Blood Moon is done for another 18 years and life tentatively goes on.
YELPING THE GOVERNMENT AGENCIES:
Ever want to post a complaint or a (hate) comment about a particular federal agency (like the CFPB)?
Yep, now you can Yelp them online. The federal government will allow a review and post of any government agency on Yelp.
Hey, they figured that if you can get it off your chest this way, so much the better for your blood pressure. They never said anything about reviewing or caring about the posts.
What, you’re going to go down the street to the other IRS office if you don’t like the service at this one? Psst.
Let me make it easier for you – click here for the link to the CFPB Yelp page.
BEC ALERT!
One of my gals just got hit with a BEC – Business E-mail Compromise. On a transaction that she was closing that day, she received e-mails from a purported Buyer in which the purported Seller was cc’d.
First, this purported Buyer’s wife sends an e-mail saying she wants her net proceeds to be wired to a corporate account.
When we sent an e-mail back saying that as a Buyer, her refund check was so small it didn’t make sense to wire it anywhere, another e-mail was received from this person asking for the amount of the refund AND the total for the Seller’s net proceeds.
Eyebrows hit the hairline as our escrow officer had never received any e-mail or communication previously from either the Buyer’s wife or the Seller.
The glasses came out, the e-mail addresses were scrutinized which had their names spelt out __________@mail.com.
Really?
Our eagle-eyed staff instantly realized that this was a BEC and brought it to my attention.
Here is the scoop: anyone, but particularly entities that are known to handle money are subject to such hackings.
Mind you, they had everything correct: name of Seller, Buyer and property address. The hackers could have picked up the information from any e-mail floating around from any one of the numerous parties that has communication with us on any file.
The FBI issued an Alert for this type of hacking at the beginning of this year and I have again cautioned my staff to be very, very careful. With hundreds of real and spam e-mails a day, we are barely able to keep a handle on the volume of reading and responding. It becomes very easy to overlook the “To” and “From”.
McMANSIONS IN L.A.
For those of you in the Los Angeles/Bel Air area, the city is fighting for premier extravagant home status with Silicon Valley, Newport, Rhode Island, and other areas of the nation where homes and conspicuous consumption denotes the status of financial strength.
News is that JP Morgan Chase’s private banking arm will be making available 3 lots to build your dream home.
All you have to do is plunk down $45 million for one of the lots and a little bit more to build. According to this article.
This is your chance to buy a 60,000 square feet home for a measly $115 million (that translates to $1,917 /sq ft).
I don’t think it includes interior decorating and gold bathroom fixtures.
I am sorry, but all I can think of are the starving and dispossessed children and families in Africa and the Middle East.
… AND THE FIXER UPPER TO END ALL FIXER UPPERS:
On the other end of the spectrum, but for just a little less price per square foot ($463), you have this house in California’s Bay Area which is selling for $350,000. Outhouse is included.
HOT SPOTS:
But if you are looking for the really strong housing market areas in the nation, it isn’t Bel Air or San Francisco.
Those are areas that only a very few choice uber-wealthy people can afford.
To find the area with affordable but strong housing markets you have to go where jobs are found and opportunities for income and career advancement are found.
Here are the zip codes for the top 10.
Probably not places that even crossed your mind….. Fargo, North Dakota?!?!
HOUSEPURCHASE TRENDS FOR MILLENNIALS:
We all know that Millennials – those who are around 18-35 – will be the next target market.
Apparently, there are about 83 million of them hanging around. A huge percentage of them live at home, but sooner or later, they will be making tentative forays into buying their own place and getting into mortgage debt.
For those of you who are graph and statistical minded, here is one interesting article about their property purchase demographics and another here.
Needless to say, to capture this market we will need to shift gears from working the traditional way with our elderly clients (70 and up) to working smart and fully utilizing technology with the Millennials.
Freddie Mac does caution that when marketing to Millennials, you need to remember that as many live at home, they will look to their parents, grandparents first, then they ask their other relatives and friends.
Realtors and loan officers come last.
Here are some numbers from the Census Bureau from 2014:
There are 83.1 million Millennials compared to 75.4 million baby boomers. 44.2 percent of them are part of a minority race or ethnic group.
The five states with the largest minority population include Hawaii (77%), the District of Columbia (64.2%), California (61.5%), New Mexico (61.1%) and Texas (56.5%).
No surprises there.
Are we ready for them?
STUDENT LOAN CONSOLIDATION:
Student loans will be the biggest block of individual consumer debt for the Millennials.
This debt amount will be rising to $1.1 trillion, which will affect everything from consumer spending to the housing market for them.
Decision to buy and take on mortgage debt will all depend on how much student debt the prospective Buyer will be carrying on their shoulders.
Remember that student debt cannot be eliminated through bankruptcy.
Now, where there is money there is bound to be a scam and this is no different.
California Attorney General came out with a consumer alert to caution us that there are scams out there of companies wanting to help consumers “consolidate their student loan debts”.
The AG states in their news blast that “Consolidating federal student loans is FREE and can only be done through the Federal Direct Consolidation Program”.
Everyone is trying to make a buck, at the expense of those who can ill afford it. Further information can be obtained in the alert, pass the news out!
….AND THE PARENT BANK
Many of the Millennials’ parents will be acting as the Bank as their children start setting up their own homes and families.
Do we actually expect them to pay us back?
This report says not to hold your breath. Our kids’ financial world will be much different and the ability to save sufficiently while establishing their own families will be tough.
FINALLY, after years of back and forth on the forms and months of education and media information, there are still many Loan Agents and Real Estate Agents who have not heard about the TRID. I present to you a “10 Commandments on the TRID implementation” that I am taking off of a blog that I subscribe to:
This is put together by Gregg & Valby, PC, as published on the Rob Chrisman blog on October 5, 2015:
- Thou shall not require verification documents from consumers before issuing an LE.
- Thou shall obtain consumers’ consent to receive electronic loan disclosures and documents, and have contingency plans for alternative delivery methods.
- Thou shall provide an LE within three business days after receiving the six pieces of information constituting an application.
- Thou shall prepare the LE with reliable data and information collected based on good faith efforts (no padding fees).
- Thou shall know the new 0% and 10% tolerance buckets.
- Thou shall issue revised versions of the LE within three business days of receiving information constituting valid changes of circumstances in order to reset tolerance baselines.
- Thou shall not issue any revised LE after issuing the CD.
- Thou shall ensure that consumers receive the last revised LE and the CD at least 4 business days and 3 business days before consummation, respectively.
- Thou shall communicate effectively with thy settlement agent, service providers, consumers, and any party involved in any loan transaction to ensure all changes and revisions to the CD are timely and correctly made before consummation.
- Thou shall ensure the final CD is signed by all the required parties and that all errors on the final CD are cured within the required deadline after consummation.
“As a rule, he or she who has the most information will have the greatest success in life”
̴Benjamin Disraeli ̴
