Mortgage News:

 

Appraisals.  As many of you are aware, Loan Originators are not allowed to talk with appraisers per the HVCC guidelines.  Did you know that realtors and home owners do not have this same limitation?  

 

I have had several clients provide appraisers with critical data such as comparable sales and a list of improvements of the subject property.  I cannot guarantee the appraiser will look at the information you provide, but my experience is that most appraisers want to know as much about the property as possible including information from the realtors and home owners. 

 

Economic News:

We need some hope in this nation, something that urges us forward a bit--makes us continue to seek needed employment, expecting to find it, and makes employers believe it's time to start hiring again, expecting growth in demand and resulting sales. Sadly, we've been sand-blasted by a steady flow of numbingly uninspiring economic data for weeks now.

We also need to look at our position a bit more realistically. For a great example of unrealistic thinking, note the way European finance ministers avoid saying the obvious--that Greece is insolvent and other nations are close--as if not saying they're in genuine trouble would somehow make things better. It won't.

In America, though, many have been saying our own fiscal situation is far more dire than it actually is. Yes, we need to do all we can to pull ourselves out of debt over time, but the REAL problem right now, as last week's employment report makes clear, is that our jobs market is catatonic. So we must act, keeping both problems in mind