Category Archives: education

buying, commitment, education, planning, Team work, tips

Which is better? Mortgage Pre-Approval or Pre-Qualification letter?

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This is a question I am constantly asked by buyer and sellers alike and when it comes the time to make an offer on a home I always suggested to my buyers to have a pre-approval letter ready and not a pre-qualification letter before we even start looking at a home.

 

There are some key differences between a pre-approval and a pre-qualification.

Pre-qualification is most of the time done over the phone or online by answering simple questions about the income and credit rating of the potential borrower. Many times the lender will not ask for any qualifying documentations of income and spending.

The pre-qualification is a determination on whether the prospective loan applicant would likely qualify for credit under a lender’s programs and standards, or a determination on the amount of credit the prospective applicant would likely qualify for.

Usually a lender will give a determination of pre-qualification usually with in less than 48 hours

On the other hand the pre-approval can take a little longer and it is more complete.

Lender will ask at the time of application for the last 2 years income tax returns, bank statements, W2’s, etc. You also will be asked about employment and you will have to agree to have a credit report ran. Pending on your personal income, willingness and ability to have a down payment and past credit history it could take up to 4 weeks for you to receive an answer. When approved the lender is willing to give borrower a mortgage commitment letter because the loan has already been submitted to underwriting and they are only waiting for you to find your dream home.

Difference between Pre-Approval and Pre-Qualification:

Pre-approval

Conditional approval given within 48 hours (average)

Borrower needs to issue following items after an offer on a home is accepted:

•             W2’s
•             2 Years Tax return
•             Bank Statement
•             Employment verification
•             Pay stubs
•             Additional documentation if needed maybe due to name change, self-employment etc.

Home possible needs to pass following inspections:

•             Home inspection
•             Acceptable title insurance binder
•             Certification of clear termite inspections
•             Other inspection based on area

Pre-qualification

Conditional approval given within 4 weeks (average)

Borrower needs to issue following items after an offer on a home is accepted:

•             No change in the applicant’s financial condition or creditworthiness prior to closing.

Home possible needs to pass following inspections:

•             Home inspection
•             Acceptable title insurance binder
•             Certification of clear termite inspections
•             Other inspection based on area or lender

commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, organizing, planning, Team work

Growing personal and in your business needs a plan

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We all have heard the saying “when it is not written down it is not going to happen” or the other “ make a plan, write down the plan and execute the plan” but how many of us are sometimes shooting from the “hip” and shoot at an unidentified target and miss.

Some of the plan for any company should also be company grows through personal and income. All of this should have a plan that is clear and well laid out with a certain goal in mind.

For instance a home based business could have the goal of moving into an office space within 5 years.

Here is the goal and now you need to put the action steps into place to achieve the goal.  You might have to identify coaches, mentors, or advisors you need to consult to achieve your goal. Make sure everything is written down and easy accessible to yourself for a frequent check on how you are doing.

You might have a partner who checks on you to find out if you are still on track or if you have strayed from your path.

Part of the goal should be also the internal grows of your internal sales force and I found that the article by Chris Simone titled 5 tips to building an inside sales force gave great Ideas as a recruiter or business owner on how to tackle the sales force growth.

I always said that any grows is a team sport and there is no “I” in Team and have written about this in a blog post called “TEAMWORK…a lost art?”

education, Inspiration, organizing, planning, Team work, tips

Control what you can control

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An article about 9 things that will trash your home value from Mandi Woodruff came across my desk. Some of the things they listed where loud neighbors, foreclosure in the neighborhood and hoarders. This made me think, not only about the housing market but also about running a business.

What could be the things that will trash your business?

My first thought goes immediately towards the total loss of information and documentation due to a natural disaster like fire, flood, or storm. Or possible more manmade disasters like power outage, back-up failure, you name it.

There is also the possible personal accident or medical emergency that could keep you from tending to your business when you don’t have plan B in place.

Some other internal business wreckers for some business could be the improper disposal of chemicals or cleaners or employees who are not quite as honest  and maybe taking a switch here , a gallon of paint there or eating an unauthorized free meal here or giving their friends a free lunch there.

The other thing that comes to mind is not keeping up with changes or keeping up with continues education and changes in technology or becoming just plain complacent and set in the personal way of doing things.

Some of the things we can control in in some way but there will be some things we have absolute no control over and we just need to take the bull by the horn and deal with them or ignore them when appropriate.

commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, planning, tips

Are women businesses less credit worthy?

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I don’t think so but it appears we are losing some ground.

Catching up on reading news clippings I have collected and I ran across another eye opening article about a study from Biz2Credit posted in the Bloomberg Business Week. Biz2Creidt analyzed 14,000 loams and found out that women-owned companies were 15 percent to 20 percent less likely to be approved for small business loans within the first 6 months of 2012.

They put some of the blame on the type of business a woman is planning on opening. Most of the women part of the loans they looked at where planning on opening a retail location, which normally does not have a lot of ROI and higher expenses.

Did you know that U.S. government contracts to women- owned small businesses dropped for the second consecutive year, declining at a faster rate than awards to their male counterparts?

Sure there is less contractual work to give out and the competition has increased and the government never focused very strongly on women owned businesses. It does not help that the government has a 5% cap on work given to women and minority businesses.

I am hearing the cap will be raised but I am not sure if the hiring manager will get the message to the same time.

Several things we can do as women:

  • Before you open any business, do your homework.
  • When you want to be rewarded a government contract. Educated yourself and take offered training that is for free or low cost in many cases.
Communication, education, planning, Team work, tips

New interactive course to teach you to achieve your financial and homeownership goals from Freddie Mac.

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This great new online self-guided interactive course from Freddie Mac is for everybody who is considering buying their home or who is already a homeowner. Goal of the tool is to teach new buyers on how to achieve their goal and current homeowners on how to avoid foreclosure.

The This great new self-guided interactive online training course by Freddie Mac is called CreditSmart® Consumer Online Training and has 12 separate training modules. Each module is about 20-30 minutes long.

You will learn:

  • Understand the importance of building credit to secure your financial future.
  • Gain insight into how lenders assess your eligibility for a mortgage loan.
  • Recognize the warning signs of predatory lending and scams.
  • Learn the steps to successful homeownership.
  • Safeguard your home and your finances against life’s unexpected challenges.
  • Learn what to do if you ever have difficulty making your mortgage payments.
Communication, education, tips

Cybercriminals are using our connectivity

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Just had an article coming into my inbox that moved my senses! Businesses Are Losing The Right To Ask For Customer ZIP Codes by Dominic Green.

How many times where you asked at the checkout lanes for either our zip codes or phone number at the end of the transaction and how many times did we just raddle the information out without thinking?

Several states like California and now the Massachusetts make it a federal privacy violation to collect shopper’s personal information like the phone number or a zip code.

This now leads me to the question how we keep any information, personal and private, under lock and key. Most of us deal with our and our clients personal information on our lap tops, tables and smart phones on a daily bases. How we secure this information is becoming more and more important in this age of connectivity.

Most of the Cybercriminals are using our connectivity to gain our trust and phish for our and our client’s information through twat is called social engineering. In many cases you are contacted via email and given a deal that sounds too good to be true or you are asked to donate after a disaster. Another could be from “your financial institution” threatening the closure of your account. The lottery constantly tells us we have one a certain amount of money and we have to click on link ABC to claim it. These are a few I can think of right now but I know there are more.

When you not sure that the email you have received is a true or a phishing email Microsoft has a great article on how to spot the fake. When you are still not sure if it is a true email you might call the person to find out if they have send you this message, don’t click on the link inside the email and just delete it when you still not sure.

I did this just last week and we found out that this personas smart phone was hacked.

Communication, education, Inspiration, planning, tips

It is only how you look at things

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Finished up the mandatory CE for my licenses and I am so ready to leave the room. Not because I am done. NO I truly enjoined my time for additional information, education and networking. I am so ready to leave the negative crowd behind me who was part of the audience for the last few days.

I am constantly asking myself “when you don’t like to learn, why  are you calling yourself self-employed? They reminded me of a blog I had posted in March of last year called Are you a Real Estate Entrepreneur or Employee?  and an agent I have talked with who was not aware of the new changes within the field of real estate.

Some of the “old timers” and “new comers” into the field who tell me that nothing new can be taught to them. All this ran through my mind as I read a blog post Mark G. called “No Time for Improvement? Bah! Make Time for Improvement!”

What is the old saying: When you stop learning you need to move on or out of the business.

…and anyone who tells me they don’t have time just keep in mind:

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” – H. Jackson Brown

Communication, education, Inspiration, organizing, planning, Short sale, Team work, tips

FHFA Streamlined Modification Initiative

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FHFA announced just recently the new Streamlined Modification Initiative for Borrowers and Servicers to benefit from a more simplified program to the borrower and servicer.

The New Streamlined Modification Initiative Borrowers is an additional option for borrowers who are in trouble with their mortgage in addition to the modifications options their servicer’s offers to them.

This FHFA program is offered by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and runs from July the 1st 2013 and expired on August 1, 2015 and is a program that is available to homeowners whose loan is guaranteed by either Fannie Mea or Freddie Mac. Their mortgage must be a first-lien mortgage with either Fannie Mea or Freddie Mac and needs to be at least 12 months old with a loan-to-value ratio equal to or greater than 80 percent.

Borrowers who are between 90 days to 24 months delinquent starting July 1st will receive a Streamlined Modification Solicitation Offer from their servicer and when the borrower agrees to the terms of the offer they do not have to Streamlined Modification Solicitation Offer but will need to make trial period payments on time.

Borrower should still work with their servicer to possible pursue the full range of modification options available to them like the HAMP program ever prior to being later more than 90 days.

Communication, education, planning, tips

Open invitation for burglars

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Cruising  some of the neighborhoods to look at potential homes who are listed for sale for some of my  buyers and would you not know it ………    one of the neighbors took the trash out today and is now advertising to anyone who drives by that they are the proud owner of a 55 inch Samsung flat panel TV.

How tempting it was to pull into their driveway and knock on the door and make them aware of what they are doing by throwing out their un-collapsed box into the trash for the trash service to pick up on Thursday and today is only Tuesday. It would been better for them to collapse the box , turn it inside out ,make it as small as possible and string it together for the trash service to pick up.

One way to prevent your house to be burglarized is not to throw un-collapsed boxes from recent purchases like TV or other electronic items into the trash. You don’t want to advertise what you have in the house for someone to take.

When it is an item they can quickly turn around and sell very quickly on the open market or their drug dealer down the road they will.

Just a few days ago I had posted another blog called: “Spring break but not for burglars”. Where is gave some ideas on how to make sure that your home is not an open invitation for burglars when you are out for spring break.

Is this a guarantee to 100% prevent a burglary? No …but we can make sure we have done everything we can on our end to make sure that no one knows you left the home and it is unattended during work and play time and to make sure that no one knows what you all have they might be willing to steal while you are out.

Communication, education, Inspiration, organizing, planning, Team work, tips

Not all Cities are great for Small business

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Thanks to the 6 + inch snow outside I have some time to catch up on reading. Last week I found and saved a article written by Laurie Kulikowski called “Best Cities for Small Businesses” and found that not every cities is created equally and supports small business owners especially women business owners.

Some of the few Cities mentioned in the article who are supportive of small business owners are San Antonio CA, Des Moines IA, Miami FL, Kansas City KS, and Atlanta GA.

Other cities have been very slow in reacting to the changing business field and have mainly been focusing to attract large employers and businesses to their market. Many cities are not willing to invest into their future by investing and updating their infrastructure to attacked small businesses into their town. For any small business to move into the areas they need the support.

Support from the local government is needed by providing the basic infrastructure for the business to attract qualified personal during work and play, with a well-connected transit system, over all great connectivity, parks and family friendly recreation areas.

Also the support from local already established businesses are needed as well.

Many cities and their businesses have many opportunities who are more male oriented and very seldom female. The attitude that “she “is just doing this because “she” is a bored “housewife” is still alive and well established throughout the country.

The attitude’s is slowly changing and it has taken years to get to this point.

Sure we have National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) , American Business Women’s Association and the SBA (Small Business Administration) who is focused on women. Have you noticed that most of them have groups and meetings only in the larger cities of each state? You don’t hear much about them and you have to know they exist. Some cities offer networking evens for women but you have to be in the know or know someone who is in the know to find out about any meeting that is geared to women business owners or women who are interested in opening up their own business.

Meghan Casserly, with Forbes pointed out in her article called “Why Women’s Networking Groups Fail” that when the network is balance of resources, information and good intentions to make a network not just functional, but beneficial to all members you have a good network. When one of the parts is missing you have just a great conversational group that meets for coffee.