Entries from Searchlight Crusade tagged with 'macro'

How Loan Providers Make Money

In an attempt to debunk some of the slanders that are floating around out there, this article is an itemization of how lenders and brokers make money on loans. The first method is obvious: Origination or discount points charged to...

Buyer's Markets Are A Great Time For Moving Up

I have said repeatedly that buyer's markets are not the time to be selling a property if you have any choice. There is one exception: People looking to turn around and buy a more expensive property. If you're looking to...

Fear and Greed, or How Did The Housing Bubble Get So Big?

(This was originally written February 16, 2006, but it's relevant still) One of the occasional questions I get from people has to do with why the housing bubble got so big (or if you're one of those still in denial...

How to Avoid A Repeat of the Housing Market Mess

Scapegoating mortgage brokers or anyone else is not the answer, nor is prohibiting yield spread. We've been here before (in the early 1990s), congress did something remarkably similar except a little bit more sane. It didn't work then. Why would...

Who Has An Interest That Should Be Protected In A Real Estate Transaction?

I've been answering this question for a long time. Whose interests do we need to be concerned about, in a "If they are harmed, we've got a problem" sort of way? Who has a primary stake in a real...

Confusing Past Performance and the Present Situation with Future Planning

The most common mistake in real estate (and every other aspect of financial planning, for that matter) is to assume the situation now is going to continue indefinitely. In the stock market, people chase last year's returns. They "wait for...

There's No Real Way to Take The Complexity Out of Real Estate

Every so often I get e-mail asking why real estate transactions are so complex. Matter of fact, I have this discussion with most clients at some point. The answer is, "Because real estate transactions for a lot of money, and...

Why You Should Not Walk Away From Real Estate Because You Owe "More Than It's Worth"

I keep reading stuff on the internet advising people who are upside down to just walk away if they are a upside down on their mortgage. This has got to be right up there with the worst financial advice...

What Do Loan Qualification Standards Accomplish?

If you don't know the answer to this, don't be embarrassed. Lots of alleged professionals forgot the answers to these questions for several years, if indeed, they ever knew. It seems like quite a few still don't know the answer...

Who Does Creating Barriers to Growth Hurt?

For at least the last thirty years, I've been hearing "affordable housing" advocates yammer about the high cost of housing, and how working families can no longer afford "decent" housing, which they apparently consider to be the three or...

Selling In Buyer's Markets: Do You Need to Sell Or Are You Part of The Problem?

One of the things that sticks out about buyer's markets is that there are two sorts of listings: Those who are willing to do whatever it takes, anything it takes, to get the property sold, and the other who apparently...

The Push Towards Bigger Loans: Why It Happened and How Consumers Suffered

One of the consumer attitudes I encounter constantly is the feeling that if you cannot afford the loan, the lender will not loan you the money. This safety zone common sense sort of reliance upon lender policy as a backstop...

The Perfect Time To Buy Real Estate

There is no such thing as the perfect time to buy. The perfect time to buy would mean that you have all kinds of leverage, and can make sellers give you pretty much the deal you want, but prices are...

FHA Loans: Salvation For First Time Buyers

I want to state that I am in no way shape or form an FHA loan guru. Between my general knowledge of loans and this information from someone who is an FHA guru, I think I can make some...

The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Lender Fear

Most people, particularly first time buyers, want 100% financing or as close as they can get. Actually, most first time buyers don't have a down payment and couldn't put a significant down payment (5% or more) if they had...

What Drives Loan Rates?

Supply and Demand. Now that I've given the short answer, it's time to explain the macro factors behind interest rate variations. But I'm going to keep referring to those first three words. It is a tradeoff between the supply of...

Fixing The Real Estate Mess - Describing the Situation

Lots of folks have offered lots of different proposals for fixing the real estate markets and the mess we were in (and continue to be in to a less obvious degree). All of the ones I have seen have...

Low Price: "Quantity Has A Quality All Its Own"

This saying comes to us courtesy of our military. They use it in the context of ten million peasants armed with stone age weapons will swarm one man, no matter how well armed or how well supported. In my work,...

Good Intentions and Over-Extended Homeowners

(I do use one piece of non G-rated language below. I hope you'll agree with me that it was necessary to convey the proper sentiment) USA Today had an oped, "3 ways to help borrowers without bailing them out" Their...

Fixing The Real Estate Mess - My Grunt's Eye View - Describing the Situation

Lots of folks have offered lots of different proposals for fixing the real estate markets and the mess we're in. All of the ones I have seen have suffered from one or more of about three problems. First, the...