Newsletter

If you have any desire to buy a property in Hawaii right now you know how crazy it is. Local residents are competing against mainland and foreign buyers. We are now unfortunately seeing record low inventories of properties to buy coupled with higher than usual demand. Foreign buyers are coming into our market because the…

Despite the recent rise in rates, homes are going into escrow quicker than I have ever seen in almost 25 years of mortgage lending. Also, those late to the refinance party are still trying to get it done before rates move any higher. What that means is that lenders are flooded with mortgage applications. If…

With the rise in interest rates, everyone who has not refinanced, along with those contemplating buying a home, are now diving in to make sure they don’t miss the last opportunity on record low mortgage rates. I want to take the opportunity this week to give a quick overview of the qualification process. Because especially…

Think of the mortgage industry as a factory that makes stuff. I like the example of automobiles because everyone knows a little about cars. At the auto factory, the raw materials are brought into one side of the plant and after many predefined steps a car is produced and rolled out the other side. Within…

I wish more people asked that question when shopping for a mortgage loan. Here’s how too many conversations start with someone calling to inquire about the rates I could offer them: Caller: “What’s your rate today?” Me: “Rates are based on credit score, loan amount, equity in the property, occupancy, and a few other criteria.”…

Are interest rates going to drop further? Will Hawaii see a drop in home values? Those are the 2 most asked questions I’ve fielded recently, so I thought I would share my insight for this week’s article. Interest Rates: There are have been numerous articles published recently that forecast even further drops in mortgage interest…

People are suffering due to the economic mess we put ourselves into. It’s no more obvious than watching the local news at night seeing people line up for hours to get handouts of free food. If you noticed, these people aren’t bums. These are proud people driving nice cars – a sign that they were…

Even if you are making your mortgage payment and not electing to take forbearance, millions of others in the US are, and it will affect you. As of April 23rd 6.4% of all US mortgages went into forbearance. That represents about 3.4 million homes. But the shocker is the staggering number of newly opened mortgages…

Here Come the Overlays… Here’s a staggering statistic: There are roughly 160 million people that make up the workforce in the United States. Prior to the coronavirus, the unemployment rate was 3.5%, which represented about 5,000,000 people. Over the last 3 weeks we have had 22,000,000 first-time unemployment claims filed. That puts the national unemployment…

You are practicing social distancing. You mask-up just to go get the mail out of the mailbox. But in order to sell or refinance you must allow some stranger into every room of your house? Luckily Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government mortgage entities have been collecting home value data for years. Every appraisal…