Changes and Challenges

As many of you have come to love hearing Brooke on the other end of the phone when you call our office, one thing I’ve come to learn in this business is that change is always just around the corner, especially when you’re always looking to top what you’ve done in the past. With that […]

Interest Rates About to Dip?

An interesting thing has happened over the past few weeks since mortgage interest rates started to tick upward again… Home Buyer activity skyrocketed! Upward interest rates tend to get indecisive people off the fence. More often than that, they push people into panic mode. With that in mind, I thought it might be beneficial to […]

Finance the Purchase AND Renovation of Your Next Home

In today’s lending climate, it’s tougher and tougher to find ways to borrow the money for renovation of a home, but contrary to popular belief, the programs are still out there. The FHA 203(k) program is one such option. For more information on how you can buy and renovate a house, just get in touch […]

Who Gets TBW's Money?

The closing of TBW was sure to affect plenty aspects of the real estate business, but today I was witness to one aspect I hadn’t considered. My client bought their first home and we closed today. It turns out that the seller’s mortgage was through Taylor Bean & Whitaker and the title company was unable […]

TBW Ceases Mortgage Operations – Will This Affect Your Loan Approval???

In case anyone’s wondering if the closing of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker is for real and should be taken seriously, here’s a copy of their official press release: Take special note of the following statement: REGRETTABLY, TBW WILL NOT BE ABLE TO CLOSE OR FUND ANY MORTGAGE LOANS CURRENTLY PENDING IN ITS PIPELINE. This is […]

BEWARE – Another Big Lender Just Fell

In news that’s sure to further rattle an already-unstable mortgage industry, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) today suspended Taylor, Bean and Whitaker Mortgage Corporation (TBW) of Ocala, Florida. FHA and Ginnie Mae are imposing these actions because TBW failed to submit a required annual financial report and misrepresented that there were no unresolved issues with […]

Rates Won't Stay Low Forever

…I’ve been warning for quite some time, and today’s little rate spike probably opened a few eyes. If you’re thinking of buying a home, and you’ve been trying to time the market hoping that rates will drop another 1/8 point, it’s probably not worth the risk. If you’re asking ‘what caused rates to jump up,’ […]

More Goodies for 1st-Time Home Buyers in OK

Several months back I heard someone declare that down-payment assistance programs were dead and we’d never see them again.  Well, apparently, that someone was wrong. As of the end of this month, there will be about $31M available to first-time home buyers in Oklahoma in the form of special bond money, at 5.83%, and down-payment […]

What Happened To The Financial Market?

If you find yourself asking that question, as many of us do these days, or if these terms sound like German to you: Subprime Mortgages Collateralized Debt Obligations Frozen Credit Markets Credit Default Swaps this video may help shed some light on things: And here’s part 2: Now, while I personally believe the problems began […]

Government Intervention – Good or Bad?

In the world of real estate, there’s a lot of debate over how much the government should get involved – if at all.  At my core, I’m a less-is-more guy… the less government intervention, the better for the free market and, in turn, for us all. Even on the issue of housing bailouts, which obviously […]