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Details, Details. Getting a Mortgage Loan

Posted on August 28th, 2011 by Richard. Categories: Financing, For Home Buyers


One change that happened as a result of the sub-prime mortgage meltdown a few years back is that the government reacted by tightening up the lending rules and documentation needed for obtaining a loan… or as I like to put it, they stopped all the funny business going on. The old rules were too loose and there was poor oversight and a lot of bad loans were made, quite a few of them on purpose it’s sad to say to people who didn’t deserve them. We all paid the price for that huge bailout to Wall Street who bought large portfolios of what turned out to be bad loans. Amazing what greed will entice people to do, or maybe not so amazing? But we continue to pay the price now with tighter restrictions to even the most credit-worthy individuals. The consensus is the government was too loose before but now they have gone too far the other way. Have you gotten a new mortgage lately? The process can be arduous. What’s driving that is there is tremendous oversight of every detail imaginable on lenders themselves, and at any time they can be audited for paperwork. So, the list of documents they ask from borrowers is long and questions asked are detailed. Lenders can’t take a chance on being reported for a violation. So, don’t take it personally if applying for a loan, everyone else has to do the same thing. Besides, it’s worth it. Have you seen the rates these days? My advice to borrowers, just give the lender the documents they ask for. Smile and jump through every hoop. They need it or they wouldn’t ask for it. Besides, if you don’t, you won’t get the money!

Take a look at today’s rates… updated daily.     Current Mortgage Rates

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From Here to There

Posted on August 26th, 2011 by Richard. Categories: Food for Thought


There are lots of different choices one can make. Lots of different paths that one can follow, and different ways to get from here to there. But when there’s a fork in the road and a choice to make, the path with heart is always the best choice. You smile more along the way and no regrets later.

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Mystery Challenge

Posted on August 24th, 2011 by Richard. Categories: Mystery Challenge

Does this look familiar?  This photo was taken somewhere inside a building in a central Indianapolis downtown area. If you are the first one to solve this Mystery Challenge then you win a prize. In this case a $25 gift card to a local restaurant of your choice. For your answer to be correct, please state the exact location where this photo was taken.

Entries are to be submitted by using the “Make a Comment” link in this post. Good Luck!

WE  HAVE  A  WINNER !    This Mystery Challenge photo was taken inside Circle Centre Mall.
The stained glass art is hanging in the skylight/domed windows, upper level.

Watch for a new Mystery Challenge…coming soon.

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Shop Talk

Posted on August 22nd, 2011 by Richard. Categories: Just for Fun

Stopped at the grocery on my way home as is often the case to get a few things for dinner. I was busy sorting through the veggies and someone says, “Not a bad price on peppers now, huh?” When I turned around, I was surprised to see Peyton Manning with a shopping cart. We got to talking and he confided that because of the extended rehabilitation for the neck surgery, the team would not let him participate even in practices for fear of injury through hard contact and had sent him home. You’d think he would be upset about that, but apparently he was delighted to extend the summer break for a few more weeks and had been helping out with the household chores, shopping and puttering around the kitchen. What was cool was the man knows his produce and is quite the cook, sharing an interesting recipe with me for roasted red-pepper soup. To return the favor, I gave him the specifics about a trick play that I designed to use in 3rd-and-short situations where he fakes the hand-off to his running back on his left just as his entire line also surges strong to the left, and instead he spins, cutting to the right and running up the right side with the ball all alone. He said it was a coincidense I had mentioned it because the play fit right into his plan to be less predictable, take wild chances and run the ball a lot more himself this season.

Funny, you just never know who you will run into at the store.

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Counter Offer Strategy

Posted on August 20th, 2011 by Richard. Categories: For Home Buyers, For Home Sellers

Now days, when an offer is made on a property, it feels like there are larger differences of opinion on price and terms between buyers and sellers at the start of negotiations, than what’s been typical. That doesn’t mean it’s that way for most properties, but I’ve seen and heard of some crazy-low offers being made on properties these days, even if the property is priced correctly. I guess I don’t blame people for trying to get the best deal possible. It’s a free market. But I think some have been watching too much television or taking bad advice away from articles they have read. The media enjoys making all-inclusive general statements about anything. That’s what they do. It could be a piece about a slow real estate market someplace, or comments about a financially distressed property situation here or there, and so somehow that is processed  by some to believe that every seller, every home is ripe for a low-ball offer now. It’s kind of interesting times actually. I honestly haven’t seen it quite like this before, ever.

But the offering strategy is still the same as it always was and always will be. Buyers offer what they want for whatever reason seems appropriate to them, and Sellers counter with what they would like to do or need to do. And the dialogue continues with more counter offers until they either agree, or disagree. Each home, each Seller, each Buyer has a different set of circumstances. Some Sellers don’t have any room to negotiate because of what they owe. Some do. Some absolutely have to sell. Some don’t. Some Buyers must buy a home to move into by a certain date. Some don’t. There are endless examples to give. The point is, in a national market there are millions of different situations…and every local market is made up of thousands of unique situations. Each neighborhood has homes with dozens of different story-lines and each individual home has different circumstances that effect the outcome of an offer. So…let the negotiations begin.