The XBroker - Latest Comments

Re: Mortgage Industry Shock and Awe

swingtrading3 — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:05:33 -0000

Nice one. I have stumbled and twittered this for my friends. Hope others find it as interesting as I did.

Re: Dustin Luther, Social Internet Marketing Guru, Hits The Road

bigslowrat1 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:13:35 -0000

Interesting post. I have stumbled and twittered this for my friends. Hope others find it as interesting as I did.

Re: Dustin Luther, Social Internet Marketing Guru, Hits The Road

swingtrading3 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:10:17 -0000

Interesting post. I have stumbled and twittered this for my friends. Hope others find it as interesting as I did.

Re: Real Time Paradigm Shifting in The Real Estate and Mortgage Industries

teachtw — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:31:35 -0000

Interesting post. I have made a twitter post about this. Others no doubt will like it like I did.

Re: Survey Says…Realtors Suck

therealestateagentsca — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:30:36 -0000

Wow, this was a great post. I hate to say it but since I have gotten into this industry I have continually complained to anyone that will listen the lack of pride that is pervasive in this industry. The photos are prime examples. Unfortunately the average REALTOR just doesn't seem to understand that there is more to this than a price and a pic. It seems no wonder that the few REALTORS do the majority of the business.

Re: REMBEX Blog Fiesta. Another Todd Carpenter Production

swingtrading — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:47:26 -0000

Interesting post. I have stumbled and twittered this for my friends. Hope others find it as interesting as I did.

Re: Three Questions to ask Any Mortgage Professional

swingtrading3 — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:48:34 -0000

Interesting post. I have just bookmarked this at stumbleupon. Others no doubt will like it like I did.

Re: Google Mortgage

JeffX — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:16:21 -0000

Hey Fabio-

I'm pretty well versed on ZMM and pricing engines...

I agree that ZMM is more than rate quoting (regardless of how its primarily used) and appreciate their attention to consumer service by offering Lender reviews.

Zillow offering their own integrateable pricing engine, instead of API's that speak to other pricing engines, could actually be quite beneficial to all parties...Lenders could either tie their raw feeds into the engine, Brokers/Bankers could have the feeds of the lenders they are approved with tie directly into the engine under their specific accounts, considering relative adjustments for volume and other such variables. Brokers, bankers, retail, wholesale, credit unions, etc etc etc adjustments and margins would all be considered and as accurate as the source of the data...and consumers would get to see raw wholesale mortgage information.

By flipping rate and margin face-up, with no ability to manipulate the information, all parties would be forced to compete primarily on service.

API's provide information that is only as good as the source (or Third Party Provider) they are pulling from. If you make the source of the data the institution that is providing the loan rather than a TPP, there is actually less margin for error or other potentially egregious activity...not to mention the information could be delivered in real time. Latent information delivery is a big problem in the mortgage industry and causes alot of unnecessary grief for the consumer and professional.

A TPP (Brokers/Bankers/Lenders) could still effectively be represented, since it is through their relationships with lending institutions that they are granted access to rate and margin info they would be providing to and through a community like ZMM.

Hope that clarifies my position a bit...thx for the comment.

Re: Google Mortgage

Fabio — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:44:41 -0000

I'm extremely surprised with your comment above regarding the fact that you think Zillow should host their own pricing engine and eliminate lenders API's from tying in to Zillow. Obviously you have no idea what Zillow's Mortgage Marketplace is about in the first place and you have no idea how pricing engines work.
Zillow is not just about finding a rate quote... any robot can quote a rate, it's about finding a lender that you would like to work with as well. Lender reviews are posted from prior customers and lenders offer advice and relevant content.
If Zillow were to host their own pricing engine, then where would lenders fit in? How would lenders quote rates? More importantly, Lenders are not all pulling quotes from essentially the same place. There are different types of lenders on Zillow including mortgage brokers, mortgage bankers, retail lenders, credit unions, savings and loan, your niche direct lenders, and so many more. Each lender has their own pricing margins which is extremely important when it comes to deciding what rate the lender can offer. In a highly competitive rate pricing environment like Zillow, those margins are crucial.
Also, different types of lenders have different needs when it comes to the pricing engine that lender uses. A mortgage banker of 100+ loan officers will have different needs then a mortgage broker of 5 loan officers and different pricing engine technologies have different strengths and weaknesses and markets they focus on.
The fact that Zillow allows the lenders pricing engine to integrate with Zillow makes perfect sense for the mortgage shopping experience that Zillow is trying to create. It's not just about rate at Zillow. If Zillow were to have only one pricing engine like Google, then Zillow's marketplace would fall apart.

Re: I’m Selling Intelligence?

JoeColleen — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 18:27:15 -0000

Congratulations Jeff. According to sources, a link can be purchased from TheXBroker for "...$22 and a bottle of vodka..." I'll give ya $44. and two bottles! [grins]

Re: Drug Cartels, Cancerous Growth and The F*cked Mortgage Industry

maggy08 — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 03:55:21 -0000

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Susan

http://pay-dayadvance.net

Re: Drug Cartels, Cancerous Growth and The F*cked Mortgage Industry

JeffX — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:11:18 -0000

AAA, AA, B....C ya later! ;-)

Re: Drug Cartels, Cancerous Growth and The F*cked Mortgage Industry

Brandiei — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:15:58 -0000

Jeff - did you notice how the rating agencies seems to have slid right by without a scratch? Even when pools were repeatedly downgraded ... interesting.

Re: I’m Selling Intelligence?

jfsellsius — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:09:11 -0000

The Xtraordinary One joins with the Notorious One. Good luck guys.

Re: Zillow Mortgage Marketplace Petitions To Eliminate Annual Percentage Rate

rhondaporter — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:38:57 -0000

I don't doubt that it's better than APR (wouldn't take much to do that)...but is it legal for a mortgage originator to provide a quote without it? WOW.

Re: I’m Selling Intelligence?

JeffX — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:57:54 -0000

Thanks George...the respect is mutual. Your initiatives with SmartHippo are inspiring :)

Re: I’m Selling Intelligence?

georgefavvas — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:43:10 -0000

Hi Jeff - Though we only met once (at REBarcamp last year) I was impressed with your dedication to bringing transparency to the marketplace. Best of luck in your new role!

Re: I’m Selling Intelligence?

JeffX — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 14:02:22 -0000

Thx Trace! We got big plans :-)

Re: I’m Selling Intelligence?

tracedef — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 23:53:36 -0000

Congrats Jeff! I don't see as much as I would like in the mortgage / real estate space that gets me excited these days, but hearing about both of you teaming up is good stuff. Kill it!

Re: NAR Dipping Into The Mortgage Pool?

davidjonhston — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:42:51 -0000

you can say that National Association of Realtors are dipping a little bit in martgage pool but i don't think that a marriage have made between these in heaven.

Re: NAR Dipping Into The Mortgage Pool?

Kenneth G. Smith II — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:38:50 -0000

If someone can pay rent, that rent can be considered part of a mortgage payment. The government is providing $8,000 for first time buyers, so why can’t the government pay part of the payment and have the borrower repay the government in the future?? Here is an example of how it could work.

• Mr. and Mrs. ZZZZZ have a mortgage payment of $1,170 ($200,000 loan with 30 year payout at 5.75% interest).
• The ZZZZ’s lose their job and can only pay $470, so the government pays the difference of $700
• So the ZZZZ’s remain homeowners and work through their problem. It takes the ZZZZ’s 10 months to get back on their feet, the government paid out $7,000 and now the ZZZZ’s owe the government.
• But the government says okay, you can start paying us back in seven years and the payment will be over 10 years at an interest rate of 3%.

What the government has done is to provide assistance to the property owner (just like the bailout plans for the Financial Industry and Automotive Industry) and requires them to pay back the obligation starting in seven years. This is not a freebie, but short term assistance. Franklin Roosevelt called it Lend Lease.

This program is not perfect, but it can assist a lot of people who want to own homes. Most importantly, it is channeled directly to the property owner, not a large corporation that has other motives besides keeping the property owner solvent.
A significant benefit of this program is that payments to financial institutions will resume and cash flow will get back to normal levels, thus credit availability should improve.

There needs to be conditions such as confirming gross income via income tax statements; confirming employment and confirming current payroll. The only group of individuals who would be excluded are those who own more than one property (there should be no break to the investor who treated real estate as a business) and cases where mortgage fraud exists in the form of straw buyers and invalid sales (properties that sold more than three times within five years and the value change was greater than 150%).

This total assistance would be capped at $50,000 and could run for 24 to 36 months
In a given year up to $25,000 could be provided.
The government would be releasing the funds over 12 months, thus the federal outlay would be limited.
The total cost of $10 million loans receiving assistance would be $250 billion per year or $500 billion in total.
This is much cheaper than the TARP bailout and part of this can be funded with the current $70 billion in TARP repayments.
The greatest difficulty in implementing this program is processing and accounting. Loan Servicing companies would need to add staff (if one servicer can process 50 applications a week, 4,000 servicers would need to be hired, plus additional support staff) Wow, as many as 10,000 new jobs would be created. Add to this job creation the fact that several million homes do not go into foreclosure and more jobs are not lost due to desperate situations.

Yes it is possible and yes it can work.

The reason it can work is because real estate goes through cycles. If people are forced to sell at liquidation prices, everyone loses. Give property owners a chance to get back on their feet, get back to work and the whole economy starts to turn around.

As stated earlier, this is not perfect and many will complain about the injustice. But think about the injustice of the corporate bailouts, the injustice that first time home buyers get a break, the injustice that shareholders come before the individuals who created value in the companies by buying products. One can go on and on, or we can try.

We only fail if we do not try.

Re: Obamas Aggressive Mortgage Recovery Plan is Unveiled

P'od — Wed, 27 May 2009 23:01:29 -0000

Only $75 Bill? Hell, why not spend another trillion China will lend it to us. They giggle with glee at the prospect of owning us completely.

Re: NAR Dipping Into The Mortgage Pool?

Tom — Mon, 25 May 2009 21:06:17 -0000

I will hire you as an independent contractor to buy a home, then you can use the REALTOR FCU.

Re: NAR Dipping Into The Mortgage Pool?

JoeLoomer — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:08:00 -0000

As an agent and member of NAR, I fully support having our own credit union as a vessel to get compettitive rates for any loan product - including home loans and auto notes. Despite respectable credit scores and passive income from military retirement, tightening of self-employed lending standards in the mortgage industry prevented the succesful accomplishemnt of some personal goals - at no fault of my own. A dog in this fight with an understanding of our industry would certainly get my business.

Re: NAR Dipping Into The Mortgage Pool?

wmrice — Fri, 01 May 2009 11:51:56 -0000

This could be a little dicey. Credit Unions want to get into the mortgage business in a big way too. This could be a marriage made in heaven.