Andy Tolbert: Foreclosure Training and Mortgage Training

Mortgage Update: News You Can Use!

Andy Tolbert — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:39:38 +0000

As I announced last week, I’m pitching in to help Tim & Eric with the volume of the mortgage business right now (Tim’s my husband). Tim is the branch manager for Alternative Mortgage, so I guess that makes him my BOSS! (don’t tell him that I’ve realized that…it will be our little secret!) Can you spell I-N-S-U-B-O-R-D-I-N-A-T-I-O-N?

Anyways…

Don’t forget, as of October 1st the seller funded downpayment programs like Nehemia and Ameridream will be GONE! Several lenders have already announced that they will not close them anymore effective now. They are afraid that if they close them now, they may have problems getting them insured by FHA.

IF YOU HAVE BUYERS UNDER THIS PROGRAM…GET THEM A HOUSE AND GET THEM CLOSED NOW, DO NOT LET THEM SIT ON THE FENCE AND LOSE THEIR CHANCE (and your commission!)

On a different note, Tim just got signed up with a lender that is allowing seller held second mortgages again! This means that if your buyer doesn’t have their downpayment money, the seller can hold a 2nd mortgage and get the house sold! This is a perfect situation when the seller is willing to take 5-15% less than asking price, this way they get full asking price AND a little monthly income from it! (remember, most houses right now sell for about 92% of asking price, so instead of discounting, your seller can get paid!) We are approved to close loans in every part of Florida.

If you’d like some help setting up a transaction like this, or just running a scenario by us, call 407-831-2277 or email Tim@TimTolbert.com

How ‘Bout Team USA!

Andy Tolbert — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:16:54 +0000

Are you watching the Olympics?

I’ve been watching some, and I’ve learned a few interesting things:

(first of all, you can watch EVERYTHING live and recorded at www.NBCOlympics.com)

1. In soccer, statistically, the other team is more likely to make a goal in the 5 minutes after you make a goal. Do you think that’s a technical fact? or do you think that’s a mental thing… “Oh no, they scored, we better kick it up a notch and score one on them!” So let’s apply that in our business: “Susie Realtor had 3 closings last month…I better kick it up a notch and score 4 so I can win the medal!…I mean so I get paid!”

2. Horses in the equestrian events have their own “Horse Passports” and some horses travel more on airplanes than most humans! Oh, and horses DO get jet-lag!

3. “Trampoline” is an Olympic Sport! (yes, the thing you bounce on!)

4. So is Badminton

5. One of the announcers for the Men’s Gymnastics made this comment after one of the (I think) Chinese team messed up. He said: “It matters more how you perform in your NEXT event, how you re-compose yourself, than it matters when you make a mistake.” I saw that in one of the American’s floor excercises…he messed up on one of the stunts and then he lost his focus and got shaken up and then he messed up on several other stunts AND stepped out of bounds. How do YOU react when you make a mistake?

6. Ping-Pong is also an Olympic sport.

7. Maybe Wii Games will be next! (if you’re not hip, that’s the coolest video game system EVER!)
Keep Watchin’ and learnin’ about what TRUE dedication to your craft can look like and then look inside and see if YOU are truly dedicated. If not, maybe it’s time to move on. But don’t ever give up on your dreams. This year there is a 67 year old Olympian competing in the equestrian events! by the way, the equestrian competition is one of only 2 where men and women compete together (the other is yacht racing!)

Is 99% Good Enough?

Andy Tolbert — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:04:46 +0000

Today I had a listing appointment with a client that was referred to me because of my skills in “Alternative Financing” and moving properties that nobody else has been able to sell.

Anyway, as I printed the Mapquest to his house, there was an ad at the top of the printout that was for Genuine Hewlett-Packard Ink for your printer. It said: “1 out of every 4 refilled inkjet cartridges will fail. Trust HP inks for 99% quality” or something along those lines. Their point was the they only have a 1% failure rate as compared to 25% failure rate among refills.

It reminded me of a handout that I shared with my Women’s Group a while back, and I wanted to share it with you today .

First, look at your mindset and your business, what quality level would YOU accept if you were put in charge of a product or service? 90%? 95? 98? 99? How about 99.9%? Many big companies think that a 99.9% quality rate is good, in fact, Motorola commits to acheive “Six Sigma” which is less that 3 rejects per million items produced!

Here’s some examples of what a 99.9% quality level would equal:

-12 newborns would be given to the wrong parents every day
-114,500 pairs of mismatched shoes would be shipped per year
-18,322 pieces of mail will be mishandled per HOUR
-2 Million documents will be lost by the IRS this year
-2.5 Million books would be shipped with the wrong covers
-315 entries in Webster’s dictionary would be misspelled
-20,000 wrong drug prescriptions would be written
-5.5 million cases of soft drinks would be produced with no fizz
-3,056 copies of tomorrows wall street journal would be missing a section
-880,000 credit cards in circulation would have the wrong info coded on the magnetic strip

Does that make you think a little differently about your acceptable levels in your business? Just a thought!

30 Second Infomercial Revisited

Andy Tolbert — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:25:56 +0000

You may know that I am a big proponent of having a strong “Elevator Speech” or “30 second Infomercial” basically that is how you answer the question: “What do you do?”

Today I want to revisit this topic for a few minutes and really get you to stop and think…how would YOU answer the question, “What do you do?” Really, write it down quickly on a piece of paper…go on, I’ll wait.

Got it? Good. Now look at what it says. If someone ELSE had just told you that exact same thing, would your response (with your inside voice of course) have been “Who Cares?” I’m serious! Think of how many people you meet every week that when they tell you what they do you think to yourself “Who Cares!” You’ve just made the decision to never do business with them. Ever. Do you want people thinking that way about you? Didn’t think so. So here’s some tips:

You’ve GOT to get their attention and make a good impression…you don’t have SECONDS to convince them to do business with you, but you DO only have seconds to get them to want to learn more about you (i.e. schedule an appointment!)

People do business with people that they like and people like people like them. Be friendly, smile big, vary the inflection of your voice (don’t be monotone) and be “approachable” I also like to wear a color that stands out if I’m going to be in a large crowd. This helps the visual people (like me!) find me later out of the crowd…”I’ve got to find the lady in the purple suit…I want to meet her!”

We use 30 seconds as a title, but you may have 10 seconds, 20, or 60, so be prepared to shorten or lengthen as needed. One of the worst things you can do is go over your time, for example at a networking meeting where you each stand up and have 30 seconds to introduce yourself…if you take longer, the others in the room will have just lost a certain level of respect for you, and if you go WAY over, they’ll start groaning and then you will never get business from them. Period.

And lastly, don’t tell them HOW to get in touch with you, tell them WHY they want to get in touch with you. Keep this tip in mind when you’re ordering your next business cards too!

I hope these tips are improving your business…I recently read that 60% of your business in a down market will come from networking and from your sphere of influence. I pledge to help you tap into that 60% and the next tool that I’ve found for you is coming up this Thursday at 3pm. Larry Benet has “connected” with some of the top entrepreneurs in the world and he’s going to share his secrets on Thursday. By the way, his vision is to raise $1 Billion for worthy causes through his “connections”. Isn’t that awesome?

New Laws All Over the Place!

Andy Tolbert — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:19:26 +0000

This week I have an update on the HB 643 Foreclosure Rescue Law AND an update on some BIG changes in the mortgage market that were passed yesterday. Both of these may have a HUGE impact on your business and it’s important that you become familiar with both.

First, HB 643. Yesterday I went to a meeting led by Attorney Barry Miller and The Closing Agent. Barry gave us some insights on the law as it applies to Realtors and what we need to do and know to stay out of hot water.

His overall consensus is that Realtors are PROBABLY excluded, although there is some weird wording they use in the exclusion. One biggie that you might not have thought of though is this - if you have an unlicensed assistant or a secretary in your office perform any of the duties of “foreclosure rescue” which may in a loose interpretation include anything to do with the listing of a home in foreclosure, you may be violating the law.

HIS SUGGESTION: When in doubt - disclose. There is one disclosure that you will have to give them where you spell out the services you will provide and for what fee. You will have to give them the disclosure one day before you ask them to sign it, and then they will have 3 days to change their mind. You will need to give them a copy within 3 hours of signing it (just bring 2 copies with you!) and you won’t be able to collect any up-front fees. (Please note, in this month’s Orlando Realtor Magazine the ORRA Legal Counsel, Jim Mitchell stated that the new law does NOT impact Realtors that are listing properties. With so much disagreement that I’ve seen from the MANY attorney’s I’ve talked to and read articles by, I would err on the side of caution right now and disclose even if you may not have to - you’ll never get in trouble for OVER-disclosing!)

I’ll keep you updated as I get more info.

Second, yesterday the Federal Reserve approved a measure to change some of the guidelines about what types of loans can and can’t be made. Here’s some of the highlights (or lowlights, depending on how you look at it!):

Prepayment Penalties will be restricted and can’t exceed 2 years. I’m ok with this one. I hated seeing people put in loans that would start adjusting after 1 or 2 years but had a prepayment penalty for 3 years so the folks couldn’t afford to refinance.

Lenders will have to verify both the fact that people make enough money to afford the house AND that they have the downpayment money. This means that Stated Income/No Verification loans are now a thing of the past! This is bad news for most of us in this industry that have PERSONALLY used stated income loans, myself included! No More! These loans served a very good purpose, unfortunately got abused, and now they’re gone for all of us!

Mortgage brokers and the industry as a whole got a big gift in being able to still collect YSP or Yield Spread Premium. This is the commission paid by the lender to the mortgage broker for bringing them the loan. Many people think this is a bad thing, but in truth, without it, there would be NO such thing as a Zero-point loan because brokers would have to charge all their fees on the front which means more money out of the buyers pocket.

It also looks like they are going to require you to escrow your taxes and insurance from here on out.

Most of the changes go into effect on October 1, 2009 but some not until 2010. Expect the mortgage industry to change and adapt and be ready for it - don’t worry!

Here’s a link to read a CNN article with some more details:

CNN News story to read

Marketing Lessons from the Beer Booth at the Sanford Fireworks!

Andy Tolbert — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:43:37 +0000

OK, every year Tim & I volunteer OUR 4th of July to work a beer-booth as a fundraiser for the Sanford Rotary group. Every year, we work our tails off, because EVERYONE loves an ice cold Bud on a hot July day.

Except this year. Our booth was DESERTED!!! No buyers! Lots of Sellers (us volunteers)! Felt kind of like the real estate market. The ironic thing? Out of 3 couples assigned to our booth (6 people), 4 of us are in real estate! Ha Ha :)

At first we complained a little, (ok, a LOT) and blamed it on our location. They had intended to put 2 beer trucks right next to each other (they’re like u-haul trucks with beer taps sticking out the side) but our truck actually got put kind of BEHIND the other one, so nobody knew we were there. It was frustrating because we would see 10 people waiting in line at the OTHER truck, and we had no customers. After a while of moaning (and sampling our profits!) we decided to take control! Here’s some of the lessons that might be transferable to real estate in today’s market:

1. Location! Location! Location! It is very hard to overcome a bad location (but not impossible!). If you have a listing that is in a bad location, have the discussion with them EARLY in the process.

2. Acknowledge your weaknesses and counteract them. In our case, I asked “WHY” our truck was positioned so badly and the BUD guy told me it was because he had to put it there so he could tap into the power pole. You see, the other truck ran on a generator to keep it cool. So my new “unique selling proposition” was that our beer was colder because we were hooked straight into the power grid of Sanford and didn’t need to worry about a generator kicking off and on every time the temperature got above a certain point.

3. People do business with people they like. We were very friendly, smiled at the customers, wished them a happy 4th, chatted with their children, made jokes, asked where they had come in from, sound familiar? like every sales course you’ve ever taken? Anyways, we had several people tell us they came back to us because they liked us better! One guy was FLOORED when he came back for a refill, commented on the great band playing, and I said “They don’t have anything like this in Winter Park, do they? you have to come to Sanford!” He was shocked that I had remembered where he said he was from!

4. Go Make Customers…Shout it from the rooftops if you have to! We even sometimes walked out in the crowd and drove them over to our booth, and I went to some of the other vendor booths and DELIVERED them a cold brew!

5. Don’t cut your marketing budget. We found some BUD flags and zip-tied them to the front of our tent to get people’s attention. They can’t buy from you if they can’t see you there!

6. Give the People what they want. We quickly found out that the OTHER truck didn’t have Mich Ultra, which is the low-carb beer. So that gave us an edge, and we made sure to mention it to EVERYONE!

By the way…we didn’t drop our prices. Not until the show was over and people were leaving and we realized we only had ONE LAST CHANCE to sell off the inventory we had. At that point, you cut the prices to a Buck and call it pure profit, because the beer is already paid for either way!
Hope you’ve enjoyed my little story…next year you’ll have to come visit me on the 4th!

Speculation About the Effects of the New Foreclosure Law are All Over The Place…read a few…

Andy Tolbert — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:42:55 +0000

Here are several articles that I’ve located discussing the new foreclosure law…most are written by attorneys and how they may not take cases any more that relate to a homeowner in foreclosure, including filing bankruptcys for them!

WOW! Did any of the lawmakers that voted for this ever even read it? I’ll keep you posted as I get new info!

Click Here for Article #1

Click Here for Article #2

Click Here for Article #3

Click Here for Article #4

Those articles are all from the eyes of the attorneys, but did you notice in one of them it says that the ORIGINAL text of the bill excluded attorneys, real estate brokers, and mortgage brokers, but that those exclusions were STRICKEN from the final version?

Here’s a whole ‘nother player that’s scared about the ramifications of this new law…Title Companies! First American has already circulated a memo to their companies that there may be risk involved for the title company handling the closing of any property involved in foreclosure!

Wow! If the attorney’s won’t represent them, and the title companies won’t close them, and the Realtors won’t list them, and the mortgage companies won’t refinance them, and the investors won’t buy them… I guess there’s no such thing as selling your house once the foreclosure is started!

Now, I don’t think it will really come to that extreme…I’m sure the attorneys are already working on pushing through a “fix” to the law, but stay tuned…it may only cover THEIR tails, not ours!

FHA Releases New Pricing Based on Credit Score and Downpayment

Andy Tolbert — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:41:13 +0000

On June 11th, HUD released Mortgagee Letter 2008-16 which changes the mortgage insurance premium costs for borrowers. It addresses a few other things too, such as refinances, but today I’m going to cover purchase transactions for you.

The new policies go into effect on Monday July 14th. If your buyer has a property under contract and their lender orders the FHA Case Number prior to the 14th, they will be locked in at the old terms (unless they change properties… case numbers go with the house).

Currently, buyers pay 1.5% of the loan amount in what’s called the Up Front Mortgage Insurance Premium (UFMIP) which can be paid in cash or rolled into the loan, as well as what’s called Monthly MIP that is calculated by taking the loan amount times .5% (1/2 of a percent) which gives you the annual rate. Just divide by 12 to get the monthly premium payment. (Ex: $200,000 x .5% = $1,000 annually divided by 12 = $83.33/month)

Under the new guidelines, the borrower will pay different premium rates based on 2 risk factors:

Credit Score:

-No Score / Non-traditional
-300-499 (minimum 10% down)
-500-559
-560-599
-600-639
-640-679
-680-850

Down Payment / LTV (Loan to Value):
Less than 90% LTV (10% or more down)

-UFMIP Ranges from 1.25%-1.75%
-Monthly MIP is .5%
90.01-95% LTV (5-9.99%)
-UFMIP Ranges from 1.25-2.0%
-Monthly MIP is .5%
95.01+ LTV (Less than 5% down, remember, most buyers use 3%)
-UFMIP Ranges from 1.25-2.25% (the highest, 2.25%, can be reduced to 2.0 with housing counseling)
-Monthly MIP is .55%

As you can see, for the majority of your borrowers, both the UFMIP and the monthly will go higher. Another major change is that borrowers with less than a 500 credit score will now only qualify for FHA financing if they put down at least 10%.

But don’t freak out about these increases… on a $200,000 loan, the raise from .5% to .55% will only change your client’s payment by $8.33 per month.

These changes will help to bring FHA into the current market and ensure that the program will be around for many years to come… something we all will appreciate going forward as FHA loans continue to be the loan of choice for today’s borrowers (it’s estimated that 65% of all loans closed in 2008 will be FHA insured!)

Your Attitude Determines your Altitude!

Andy Tolbert — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:46:29 +0000

This week we are going to discuss how your attitude determines your success, this takes shape in many different ways, but today we’re going to cover one of the more critical ones:

Self Talk: If a five year old child heard every day “you’re stupid, you’re worthless, you’re never going to amount to anything” do you think that would hurt their chances of being a successful adult? Of Course! So why do we do it to ourselves every single day? When someone makes a mistake they say “I’m so stupid” or when their business is not going well “I’m never going to be successful, I shouldn’t have even tried” they are setting themselves up for failure just like that 5 year old. Can you imagine if every day that 5 year old heard “You’re so smart, you’re going to be very successful when you grow up, the world is lucky to have you” Do you imagine that child might turn out a little differently? Certainly! What are you telling yourself every day? The next time you make a mistake, say “Hmmmm, that’s interesting, what can I learn from that? or better yet, the next time you catch yourself doing something right, celebrate it! Say “Wow, I’m a genius! The world is lucky to have me!” and see how your outlook changes.

Exercise: For one week, celebrate everything that goes GREAT in your life, whether it’s a big commission check, getting a great parking spot at the mall, having a good hair day, or seeing a beautiful sunset. Celebrate It! At the end of the week I think you will notice a difference and will continue to celebrate the successes forever!

House Bill 643 Passes on May 28th, 2008. Foreclosure Fraud in Florida Law. How will it change YOUR business?

Andy Tolbert — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:09:29 +0000

I’ve read through this law several times, and I’ve still got some MAJOR questions about its interpretation. But here’s the one thing that is NOT open to interpretation:

It Already Passed!

It goes into effect October 1, 2008, so that gives us about 4 months to get our attorney’s to interpret it, advise us, and get our disclosures in order for transactions after that time.

If you haven’t read it yet, at the bottom of this box I’ve given you the link. Read it and then keep your eye on my emails as I get updates for you.

Here’s some of the highlights
(I guess I should say Lowlights!):

1. A person in foreclosure on their primary residence will have 3 days to change their mind when selling their house. This also means there will be new disclosures and new deadlines to keep track of on your transactions. Also, many agents have listings they don’t know are in foreclosure…you may now be responsible to find out!

2. Some agents and investors will just choose not to help people in foreclosure because of all the extra potential liability.

3. It will limit the ability to collect any up front fees, which means some of the short sale negotiation companies that charge a fee to get started (and more of them are starting to), the seller will be restricted from paying them.

4. The way they wrote the “exclusions” is kind of weird, in one way it looks like real estate agents are exempt, but in another way it looks like they are not, so we will need to wait for some clarification.

5. It will eliminate “subject to” on a primary residence in foreclosure.
Keep watching as I keep you updated!

Click Here to read the new law.