What are YOU saying to your customers, Lori, and what are they saying to you?

The Final chapter!

Wall Street implodes continues,

Wall Street stumbled mightily over the weekend with the simultaneous sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America and the bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers Holdings, according to The New York Times.

The Great Recession of 2009 Ahead        

Buckle up we all have a front row seat watching Wall Street financial institutions and our Federal Government go down with the ship, lets just print more money that should do it.... Not

Lets face it America is Flat Broke,

when Americans no longer own America,

Barclays to buy Lehman

http://www.economyincrisis.org/

Honestly, I try not to advise anyone about the ups and downs of the mortgage market.   I leave that to the pros.  

My upper tier-buyers are not affected (job history, great credit and more than 20% down).   There are some great rates out there, but at the same time limitations on qualifications.  

FHA loans are, or have been very popular and the qualification criteria is lower than when I bought my first house many years ago (with adjustments for inflation being made).  Still need 3% down, but there are some options; varies state by state, I'm sure.

I advise my potential buyers not to lose hope and to speak with a reputable lender to find out the true potential of a loan qualification for them.

Good luck to you, Lori, and good luck to us all!

Phil

This outrage will pass with the next outrage.

Perception is reality may be the base of the terror that flows through the market place. I don’t intend to try and place the blame in this communication although I certainly feel much of the problem has been caused by over regulation in some areas and under regulation where actually needed.

A good example of how perception clouds the reality is in the falling dollar. Although the dollar has fallen and its fall has hurt certain areas of the economy it has helped in others. It makes exports cheaper which helps manufactures sell their goods. It makes imports more expensive which actually helps to slow the flow of wealth to our trading partners.

In the Real Estate industry it brought foreign buyers into the market but with the new regulations in place on lending rules, we decided that was too good of a thing so we said if you are a foreign national you must put 40% down in order to obtain a loan. This bit of over regulation had the effect of curtailing an influx of foreign buyers that did not have enough cash to cover the new lending requirements.

Regardless of the ups and downs of Wall Street or the financial markets people will always need a place to stay, a place they can call home, albeit rented or owned. So my perception is that if we have made it through the Depression, Recessions, and other so called ends of civilization as we know it, we will move through this bump in the road and will have another crisis to struggle with in the future.

So perhaps Phil is correct, this outrage will pass with the next outrage.

Gary, you are right Perception is reality

The Reality next shoe to drop is below

https://www.wamu.com/personal/default.asp

Shoebox productions

Vance stop reading the New York Times! They are evil!!

Gary

Feel the Whoo hoo Yet?

Wamu is one the countries if not the largest mortgage holder and we all know about how Real Estate and Mortgages  nowadays.

Not from the New York Rag (Times)

Vancebankonit

Well all, I must say if you want the STRAIGHT SCOOP on what is going on in the country I have found South Park to be the most accurate so far.  

Ignore the news, encourage your competitors to buy into all the gloom and doom, keep you head down and scoop up market share on the way back up.

Remember, take a "mental health day" if you need one---we work hard and need them from time to time!

Gary You've got news :)

Ha ha

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080926/ts_nm/us_washingtonmutual_jpmorgan_news

Crystal ball News !!

I tell them it is a great time to buy...NOW, however, waiting to see what happens may be a big mistake. Loans/credit may become more difficult to obtain. Inventory is high, credit is still available...BUY! Quickly!

The most positive thing I have seen in the past week is, some investors I worked with previously called, interested in investing again in the months to come. They see this as a great time to buy rental properties. They feel there will be a greater need for rental properties in the next few years and now is a good time to get some bargains. I reminded them I could not only help them buy rental properties but could manage them for them as well. We (my broker/uncle and I) have always done some property management as well as investing for ourselves. I see this as a larger part of our business plan for the next few years. Traditional brokerage may be a little slower in the next few years, but managing our own investments and other people's rental properties should help keep us going strong.

I'm thinking this is a great time to buy real estate, Lori. :)