A Better Mortgage

Fun Friday

Last Sunday's Mister Boffo:

What Did You Do With Your Summer Break?

It's a day early for Fun Friday but I couldn't let today go by without mentioning the fact that The Office season premier is on tonight. Here is a web only clip that NBC posted on YouTube to catch viewers up on what the characters did with their summer. I hope you enjoy it!

How Are We Paying Off Our Subprime Mortgages?

Our friends over at The Onion have conducted a survey and here are the results:

If none of these options are viable for you, please contact me for some legitimate financing options.

Have a great weekend!

Very Important - Guideline Changes Effective August 8th, 2007

Perhaps we'll be ok if everyone can maintain a sense of humor. This was just sent to me from our Countrywide rep:

Guidelines Changes Effective August 8th

• All borrowers must have one blue eye and one brown eye to qualify
• LTV >65% SIVA (Stated Income, Verified Asset) requires a credit score of 849
• For all LTVs greater than 65%, 360 months of payment reserves required
• Borrowers must have no bankruptcies in their family history going back three generations
• A minimum of 25 years self-employment required for all NIV (No Income Verification) at same location
• Minimum credit for subprime loans raised to 720
• All non-arm's length transaction borrowers (mortgage, real estate, and family members) will be required to provide full documentation, subject to criminal background checks, wiretapping, strip-searches, and a minimum 12 hours of interrogation by the Department of Homeland Security.

Please note that these changes will go into effect in five minutes. Any locked loans must fund by noon tomorrow.

For those of you not in the mortgage industry, please realize that we have been receiving emails of this sort with legitimate guideline changes on a daily basis from many lenders. You may not have a great appreciation of it but surely all mortgage professionals will.

Have a great weekend!

Your House

This is one of those real estate centric emails that makes the rounds ever so often, and I thought it was worth sharing.

Your house as seen by...

Yourself...

Your buyer...

Your lender...

Your appraiser...

Your tax assessor...

Have a great weekend!

18 Years in the Making...

If you have owned a tv at anytime within the last 18 years, you most likely are aware of The Simpsons. This weekend marks the release of the first (and possibly last?) feature length movie featuring the unique people of Springfield. It amazes me that the people who produce the show are still able to come up with ideas after 18 season. Several websites had the total number of episodes at 400 exactly. That's a lot of couch gags. I have posted one of the many Simpsons trailers available as the movie opens today!

Edited Monday July 30th, 2007

In case you missed this past weekend's box office figures, The Simpsons movie made almost $72 million. That was more than the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th place movies made combined. That's a lot of Krusty Burgers.

A Home Stagers Worst Nightmare (Fun Friday)

It's the end of a long work week for many folks, so I thought I would post something a little lighter today. If this ends up being fun and I get a good response, I may very well make this a semi-permanent feature.

I am not a home stager, but I would imagine some of the absolute last things that would be found on a recommended advice list for a potential seller would be:

1. Give you bathroom a Spiderman motif:

2. Tile your nickname and number at the bottom of your pool:

   

3. Paint a large mural of yourself (bare-chested, of course) in the entryway of your house:

In case you haven't figured it out, this house belongs to Dwayne Wade of the Miami Heat. This is obviously on the extreme end of one spectrum, but it is all too common to see properties sit on the market because they have one or more undesirable elements (in this case, too many personalizations by the current owner). If you are having difficulty selling, please contact your mortgage advisor and ask them for a referral to an experienced home staging professional. Also, ask your mortgage professional about what sort of strategic financing options you can use to set your home apart from the rest of the market.

If you are curious, here are some more pictures of Dwayne Wade's estate.

Have a great weekend!