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Ruminations on the Scab: RIP Jack London 2007-11-21 22:31:43 Jack London, who died today on November 22nd in 1916, was an American author most famous for writing The Call of the Wild. He was a pioneer in the world of commercial magazine fiction, and he was one of the first Americans to make a lucrative career exclusively from his writing. One of London’s most famous writings is “The Scab“. What is a scab? Simply, a person who purports to do the same amount of work as another person, but for less money. According to Jack London, anyone who undercuts another person, as far as wages or compensation for labor, may be considered a “scab”. In a competitive society, where men struggle with one another for food and shelter, what is more natural than that generosity, when it diminishes the food and shelter of men other than he who is generous, should be held an accursed thing? Wise old saws to the contrary, he who takes from a man’s purse takes from his existence. To strike at a man’s food and shelter i ...

Why Plastic Bags are Gone from San Francisco Supermarkets 2007-11-21 21:04:49 I guess I haven’t been grocery shopping in a while. When I walked into my local Safeway a few days ago, I looked around and saw nothing but brown paper bags (and the few canvas and reusable plastic bags that a small number of shoppers had brought with them). There are several reasons why plastic bags are bad for the environment. Plastic bags litter the streets and choke marine life. They are not reusable. They are not recyclable. And frankly, they’re not even great for getting the groceries home. (I’ve had my fair share of mishaps when a sharp edge of some random package ripping the bag and causing my canned green beans to go rolling down a hill and into the abyss.) With three dogs, I can’t even count of plastic grocery bags to scoop the poop… I’ve been faced more than once with the hand straight through the bag trick (luckily, it’s always happened to me BEFORE scooping poop and NOT during!!!) In a nutshell, plastic bags were horrible ...

Redfin has search options!? 2007-11-21 13:15:03 While one wing of the Redfin office wrestles about changes to the home tours program the other wing of the office is up in arms over how we surface search options on the map page. When we re-designed our website in April one of the changes we made was hiding the search options. The reasoning behind this controversial design was that since users spend most of their time navigating the map and only occasionally change the number of beds or square footage that they’re looking for, we should make the map as large as possible and move the search options to an overlay. The overlay then only appears when you give focus to the search input box or click a widget. Initially to display the search overlay pictured above users would need to click the link ‘Filter Search’: However, we heard occasional stories of users not knowing they could search on number of beds or price. So our next design was to include a drop down widget besides the search button. This is reminiscent of wh ...

Why I Chose To Be A Redfin Agent 2007-11-21 13:13:58 As an agent with a traditional brokerage I was continually surprised at how much of my job was selling myself instead of selling real estate. Suddenly everyone became a potential and desperately needed paycheck (a great way to alienate friends by the way). Since clients come to Redfin, we don’t have to beg for business and I get to do what I’m best at: selling real estate, advising buyers and sellers, negotiating contracts, and closing deals. I no longer need to waste time, money, or paper sending out mailings that just get thrown away. As a traditional commission-based agent I needed the full commission in order to cover my astronomical marketing expenses and to make up for the many, many hours of driving around buyers that sometimes ended up going elsewhere to buy (ouch!). The traditional brokerage office atmosphere was dominated by competition and secrecy. Now I’m part of an office where all the agents work cooperatively, pooling resources to better serve cl ...

Canadian Banks Offset Toronto Transfer Tax 2007-11-21 05:43:00 Ever since Toronto’s municipal council approved the new land transfer tax, set to come into effect in February 2008, Canadian banks have been wooing Toronto’s imminent homebuyers with cash-back offers and promotional mortgage rates to offset the tax’s cost. Bank of Montreal, Royal Bank of Canada, TD Canada Trust and Bank of Nova Scotia are all offering various deals on home mortgages to cover the cost of the transfer tax, which can amount to several thousand dollars. Different terms apply; contact your local branch for exact details. ...

Cutting LTVs is coming to a market near you! 2007-11-20 23:30:02 Hello–Chris Johnson here, and for my first post, let’s talk a little bit about musical chairs. The phrase “Declining markets,” are going to become more and more important. Banks are being burned by the lack of appreciation in Midwestern areas like Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan, and imploded areas like Nevada and Florida. Loans aren’t performing because people in trouble can’t sell their homes for anything close to what they owe. And no bank wants to be around when the music stops, so at some point–sooner than you think–we see 25% down payments required on all conventional loans. How it will unfold. The presumption is that more problems are happening in the wholesale channel than the retail channel. This is probably true–how sane can it be to let 26 year olds control the financial future of millions of homeowners? To keep their exposure in an area low, the banks start by adding more stringent appraisal requirements. Usually, th ...

An Open Euology to the Option ARM 2007-11-20 20:29:21 My last post got me thinking about all the hearts that I have broken across the country as originators everywhere bemoan, nay mourn, the loss of their best friend the Option ARM.  In the spirit of reconciliation with the originators that I have ridiculed, lambasted and lampooned I offer this eulogy in this time of great sorrow and loss. A Farewell to My Dear Option ARM  It’s hard to articulate my feelings for my beloved friend Option ARM.  You see OA wasn’t just any other loan product I had to sell, he was a special loan.  He brought joy and happiness to so many people in my office and meant a great deal to me personally.  I know you in attendance know OA well, but lets reflect on just some of the many wonderous qualities he had that made our job so special. First and foremost, didn’t you love how he made you feel?  How he made you laugh, high-five and smile ear to ear every time he’d pay you 3 points in rebate for encumbering another unwitting borrower?  ...

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow: The Option ARM Dies 2007-11-20 19:55:48 Well, maybe I’m being a bit dramatic, but it seems to me that the Option ARM, if not technically dead, certainly joined the endangered species list today with Countrywide’s sweeping changes to program qualification. Big hat tip to Bill and Paul who alerted me to the changes. The news of the day is Countrywide’s announced changes to loan qualification which include the Option ARM: Dear Valued Business Partner: As you may be aware, federal regulatory agencies have issued joint guidance which impacts the qualifying methodology for non-traditional mortgage products. This guidance was designed to better address risks associated with non-traditional mortgage products that offer interest-only and/or negative amortization payment features and to better support the needs of those borrowers who might not understand these types of risks. In an effort to further align our lending strategy with this guidance, effective Monday, November 19, 2007 Countrywide®, America&rsquo ...

BMO offers to pay new Toronto tax 2007-11-20 16:24:12 The Bank of Montreal is offering to ease the tax burden on new homeowners by offering to spring for some of the costs. BMO announced it would pay Toronto’s new land transfer tax for their clients who close on a new home purchase by February 2008. The customer also needs to sign on to a fixed closed mortgage with a minimum five-year term. The bank will cover the land transfer tax up to 1.5 per cent of the mortgage. The Toronto Real Estate board has reported more people are rushing to close on property deals to avoid having to pay the tax, which comes into effect next year. “Purchasing a home is the largest investment most of us will ever make,” said Cid Palacio, vice president of BMO Bank of Montreal, in a news release. “It’s important that Toronto homeowners don’t feel pressured into making a purchase decision based on this new tax.” Under the city’s regulations, first-time homeowners will get a rebate on the new tax if their house co ...

In Case You Were Wondering: Countrywide Says It’s Fine 2007-11-20 12:33:54 Countrywide, whose stock tumbled to just $10 today, said in a statement that management believes the company has ample liquidity to continue operations and growth for the foreseeable future.  Rumors of another Countrywide squeeze cropped up after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shed some light in to their exposure to lending risks.  Those announcements seemed to suggest that the GSEs would need to scale back their re-purchase and securitization efforts to reign in some of that risk.  That doesn’t bode well for Countrywide who has repositioned themselves to be a GSE seller (as opposed to the private loan market which is still relatively dead). From our friends at Market Watch: “Countrywide’s survival strategy has depended on access to the secondary markets through GSE purchase and re-securitization. That strategy is less viable in an atmosphere where the GSEs themselves are capital constrained and may need to shrink,” Fox-Pitt, Kelton analyst Howard Shapiro wrote o ...

Fed Forecasting Slowdown in 2008 2007-11-20 09:43:46 I am thinking about renaming the Federal Reserve “Team Obvious” for their latest round of forecasts; which call in part for a slowing of the economy in 2008. Wow, it’s nearly December 2007 and things look pretty terrible; thanks for the heads up. This data of course is courtesy of the more “transparent” Fed with new 4-times yearly outlook statements meant to enhance our understanding of Fed decisions in the interim between brief meeting minutes. From a Market Watch article: At the meeting, the FOMC cut short-term interest rates by a quarter-percentage point to 4.5% but moved to a “neutral” stance by saying that the risks of a severe downturn and a spike in inflation were in balance. That statement shocked Fed watchers, who took it as a sign the central bankers do not want the market to get accustomed to rate cuts at every formal meeting. Several speeches from Fed officials also suggest the Fed want to hold rates steady at their next meeting ...

Intro, thoughts & Fieldstone latest victim of subprime turmoil 2007-11-20 07:58:56 Good morning fellow Blown Mortgage readers! I am very excited to write to everyone today with my thoughts and opinions. First of all, thanks to Morgan for the opportunity to contribute. I look forward to feedback from everyone as we all navigate this “crisis” together. Hot off the presses! Fieldstone Mortgage Company’s wholesale group has reportedly shut down. Surprise, surprise! The 10 year Treasury yields dropped to the lowest level since February of 2005 yesterday, ending the day with a yield of 4.08%. Does this mean mortgage rates will follow? Only time will tell. It appears many of the Wall Street firms are still clueless on how to price some of their more risky mortgage-backed assets. In a perfect world, investment banks with loans on their balance sheets utilize something called “mark-to-market”. This is fairly easy to do with spotless credit borrowers utilizing “prime” loan products deliverable to the GSEs (Government Sponsored Enterpri ... Amp

“Email Me” Icon I liked 2007-11-20 05:57:00 LOL ...

Cribfinder Facebook’s Premier Real Estate Service Will List Fizber Properties 2007-11-20 05:04:09 FSBO website Fizber.com and Facebook real estate listing service Cribfinder.net partnered on listings. MIAMI BEACH, FL (PRWEB) November 20, 2007 — Fizber.com, a leading property-listing website has partnered with the Facebook real estate listing service Cribfinder.net. Those who browse the listings on Cribfinder will be linked back to the Fizber.com website where they can find more information. The properties on Fizber can also be linked back to Cribfinder as well. “We’re excited about our partnership with Cribfinder.net and are confident that the agreement will help homebuyers and sellers save thousands on their next home or real estate investment property,” says Fizber.com PR Manager Julia Foster. “CribFinder allows you to take advantage of facebook’s social network, notifying all of your contacts (and potential clients) automatically, every time you list a new property”, says Benjamin Fleischer, V ...

Fizber.com Launches Analytics Feature as Part of Home Listings 2007-11-20 05:02:23 FSBO website creates a more comprehensive home listing page with the addition of visitors’ statistics. Miami Beach, FL (PRWEB) November 19, 2007 — Fizber.com, an innovative real estate for-sale-by-owner (FSBO) website, announces the addition of a “Fizber Analytics” feature to each home listing page. Now FSBO sellers have all the information they need about where their buyers come from and how they interact with their property listings online. Home sellers are in the dark when it comes to knowing how users (and potential buyers) are finding their property listings. One of the most helpful things sellers can have along with their listings is comprehensive, accurate and easy-to-understand traffic statistics. Such reports can show them who is visiting their listing, how they got there, how long they stay, popular times of the day, and much, much more. Fizber.com delivers powerful, state-of-the-art statistical reporting, a ...