Page 18 - Broker Software News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Think mortgage math is complicated? Many in the nation are focused on air conditioning. Why is it measured in tons? It harkens back to the days of using ice, and a “ton” measures how much heat, removed by the system, would be needed to melt 2,000 pounds, or one ton, of ice in a 24-hour period. The result is then expressed in BTUs per hour. It takes 288,000 BTUs to melt a ton of ice in 24 hours, or 12,000 BTUs per hour. 1 BTU/hr. = 0.00029307107 kWh. And the average residential electricity rate in the U.S. is about 23 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh). When you see your utility bill i...

There’s a definite shift going on in banks as continued layoff rumors in jumbo and portfolio divisions are rampant. At the other end of the job chain, people’s circumstances about how they entered our business are often fortuitous, or interesting. A good conversation topic at mortgage gatherings is how someone got into the business. Santa Rosa’s Brian Goulding, for example, has a solid accounting background which morphed into being a loan officer. I was a food science major. Another good conversation topic is how LOs use rent, and rent increases, to prompt buyers. Since 20...

I am often asked about the jumbo segment of our business. Frankly, aside from the coasts and a couple cities in-between, much of the nation is not overly concerned with it. Paying $1 million or more for a house may seem excessive to most Americans, although that doesn’t mean million-dollar homes aren’t prevalent in some parts of the U.S. Per LendingTree, only an average of 6.68 percent of owner-occupied homes in the nation’s 50 largest metros in 2021 were valued at $1 million or more. The share of million-dollar homes has grown: That’s up from an average of just 4.7...

“If they raise the interest rates one more time, you're going to hear Janet Yellen.” Much of the talk in the hallways here at the California Association of Mortgage Professionals event near San Francisco revolves around the Federal Reserve likely raising short term rates on July 26th due to the need to raise interest rates further to bring down inflation that is still too high. But the end to its current monetary policy tightening cycle is close. Compliance may be the new focus. “Tawny Johnson gave me the best mortgage I’ve ever had!” We’ve all...

“The world is going to come to an end tonight at midnight. Tune in tomorrow to see if it did!” Sensationalist headlines or bad predictions are tiresome at best, misinformation at worst. There is actual news, however. For example, thank you to the Knowledge Coop’s Ken Perry who sent along the latest in the Matter of ICE and Black Knight. LOs and underwriters know that the Supreme Court overturned the Biden administration’s student-debt forgiveness plan which would have wiped off $430B in loans from the government's books, and people who worked hard to pay off...