INCLUDED TODAY:

1. Loan Origination – Yea, I took the test

2. Morals and Ethics Revisited

3. Tax Refunds From IRS

4. Social Media Thoughts For The Day

5. Foreclosure Radar

6. Help Your Clients Save Money

7. Movies - It’s Oscar Time

8. Thoughts on Food and Food for Thought

9. Commercial – Grow Your Company

  LOAN ORIGINATION: 

My last email contained an update on Loan Origination.  If you missed, it go to my blog at DuaneGomer.info.  It contains lots of important information.

The National 100-question test is now available in California.  If you want to know where and how you can register and pay your $92, send an email to info@DuaneGomer.com and tell us who you are, where you are and list your questions.

The California 55-question test is not currently available.  More information will be released on February 22^nd.  We will keep you posted, if you send us an e-mail.  Be sure to put our e-mail address (Duane@DuaneGomer.com) in your e-mail directory so that your spam controls know that you want our emails.

It is strongly suggested by D.R.E. and me that you wait before you take the 20 hours NMLS course because:

1. D.R.E. is trying to get the requirement waived for California D.R.E. licensees who have completed statutory education classes to get their license.

2. In my opinion, D.R.E. could establish a rule that we can only take California D.R.E. approved courses for the 20 hours, and you would have to take courses twice.

3. At the present time the cost for the NMLS courses can be as high as $699 or more.  I’m in the online education business, and prices will start falling soon when California providers start operating.  Patience is sometimes a profitable virtue.

I TOOK THE NATIONAL TEST MONDAY.  First, let me inform you that I did this for research purposes only.  I have never originated a loan and never intend to originate a loan.  Last week I didn’t know a 1003 from Hud-1, Reg. V from Reg. Z, V, C or B or anything about TILA, EOCA, FCRA, HMDA, RESPA, HOEPA, FACT, HOMDA, SAFE, Gramm-Leach, HOERA, FHA, VA, USDA, MID, FTC, 31-43 or how to do Loan Origination Math, but I do now.

The test is 100 multiple-choice questions, and 75% is a passing grade.  The day I was there some people were really angry about their 74% grades.  The monitor said that over 30% of the people were failing, and these were the early test-takers in beautiful downtown Orange County.  It’s an interesting grading system as they grade only on 90 questions and 10 questions are experimental, but you don’t know which ones.

Other facts from the front lines:

1.         The cost is $92.  “No shows” pay full price again, and there are no excused absences.  I know, I tried.

2.         The time allowed is 150 minutes.  Way more than enough time.  You will have lots of extra time to check all your answers and do the math problem backwards the second time.  You should take a small battery powered “simple” calculator (no Blackberries, etc.), as there are many questions with numbers in them.  You have to lock up your wallet, watch, any papers, etc before the test.  Out of habit I was ready to hand them my shoes and belt.

3.         The test is on a computer with a very long tutorial.  Checking back and reviewing or changing my answers made me apprehensive.  Good things:  the computer keeps track of your remaining time, questions left unanswered, and your test is graded immediately.  Tense waiting for that number to come up.

4.         Did I just go in and “wing” it?  No way.  I bought an outstanding crash course and studied or should I say crammed one long weekend.  Just like back in Bloomington, Indiana.  The test is divided into four parts:  Regulations, General Knowledge, Loan Origination and Ethics.  The Regulation section is extremely difficult to keep straight for a probie. 

5.         I highly recommend the crash course I used.  Over 500 study questions with explanations, 19 (yes 19) practice-timed exams with 100 questions each, glossary, etc.  Great electronic gadgetry to check answers, definitions and grades.  Obviously, it doesn’t cover all the questions but if you expect everything in a neat package for this endorsement, you better change your thinking. 

6.         Listen to me one more time.  Experienced, successful loan brokers are failing this exam because they think that they can breeze in, breeze out.  If any of you readers have taken the tests, let me know what you think by e-mailing your experience to Duane@DuaneGomer.com.  Final note:  I did pass but when I was waiting for my grade to come on the screen, I would not have bet either way.  By the way, I love tests.  I wish test-taking was my full-time job.

  MORALS AND ETHICS REVISITED: 

Many, many readers responded to my question about morals and ethics in a Foreclosure in my last e-mail.  Many outstanding, well-written answers were appreciated.  Lots of passion from everyone.

After reviewing my e-mail and the responses, I want to add a little more detail to my question, as people really got involved.  I was asking about a specific situation and not the whole present chaotic real estate mess.  I agree with everyone on so many points.  I do believe that there is enough blame to go around to everyone.  Want to read my past email?  Go to my blog at DuaneGomer.info. 

Yes, some people bought homes they couldn’t afford and lied to get the loans.  Some agents wrote the offers, some loan brokers brokered their exotic loans, some appraisers inflated appraisals, some underwriters ignored the risks, some banks made the loans and dumped them immediately, some investors bought them and AIG insured the loans.  That is a long chain of blame and now we’re at a crossroad.  Let’s evaluate where we are now and try to forget the past.

My question was not about people who bought homes they couldn’t afford on ridiculous sub-prime loans with no documentation.  My rhetorical couple bought a home on a document-approved solid loan.  They are both still working and have funds but because of factors not of their doing the $500,000 home they bought is now worth $300,000.  They offered the bank a deed in lieu of foreclosure and were refused.  The bank offered an adjustment in interest rate, but as in almost all loan modifications that I have seen, there was no principal reduction offered. 

If they leave the property to foreclosure, they are doing what is now termed a “Strategic Foreclosure”.  The Investor who owns the loan will have to foreclosure in California and will do a Trustee Sale.  With these facts the lender can only look to the property, and there can be no deficiency judgment.  Those are the conditions the lender agreed to when they approved the California loan; the investors knew these conditions and so did AIG.

So now, I have a few more questions.  When you respond to Duane@DuaneGomer.com please include the phrase, “You may post my email on your blog with the other comments.”  The comments are good reading.  I don’t want to post anything without your knowledge and consent. 

1.         Is a Strategic Foreclosure in this specific case unethical, etc.?

2.         Is filing a bankruptcy by a person or a company unethical or immoral?

3.         Is there ever an ethical time to break a contract for service, listing, marriage, etc.?

4.         If so many homeowners are going through foreclosure and their credit will be damaged for up to seven years, where will our needed buyers come from when our market is ready to return?  An Orange County Register article recently quoted an economist who said that we should allow homeowners one “mulligan” (like in golf) if in a few years they are financially stable again.  So much to think about and so little time.

5.         Have any of you ever heard of a legal concept called “Efficient Breach” fostered by Judge Richard Posner?  Worth a Google for deep background.

IRS REFUND:

Have you heard anyone with excitement say, “I’m getting a great IRS Tax Refund?”  Isn’t that an interest free loan to the government for most of the year?  If any of you want to send me a check each month to hold for your future IRS tax refund and return the money to you next year, please send the checks payable to Duane Gomer.  There would be no charge for my service.

  SOCIAL MEDIA THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: We would be honored if you would check our social media; my blog at DuaneGomer.info,  my Twitter, my Face Book page, my ActiveRain, and my videos on You Tube.  Every once in awhile I might include some facts of interest and I hope you become a follower.   

What should be your first priority to grow your social media? 

Phase 1:  Start building a list of e-mail addresses from your past clients, future clients wherever they may be, friends, associates, relatives, neighbors, everyone you wrote a check to last year or paid with a credit card, service providers, medical people, Christmas card list, anyone who ever sent you bulk mail, etc., etc.  Start building now and start planning to get content for them.  Some key words for how to prepare content:  recommended links, cut and paste, Google and Bing, etc.  My plan for this year after I finish projects 1 through 29 is to start marketing quick, pertinent, interesting, sales provoking content for you to send to people at a small fee.

Phase #2:  Start a blog even before a website if you do not have a website.  Pick a name for your blog that will turn up in organic search engine optimization.  Your blog and website should be the core of your Social Media program. Twitter, Facebook, You Tube, etc. should be used to get people to your core.

Phase #3:  Check out blogs, tweets, Facebooks and read and listen to everything and then start small.

FORECLOSURE RADAR REVISTED:

Want a 7 day Free Trial of Foreclosure Radar?  Go to www.DuaneGomer.com.  Many of my readers have registered here and they are amazed at the content and professionalism. Free and no strings attached.  By the way, it is a 7-day trial if you go through our site, not a 3-day trial.

ForeclosureRadar (http://www.foreclosureradar.com/), the only website that tracks every California foreclosure and provides daily auction updates, issued its monthly California Foreclosure Report for December 2009.  Foreclosure activity dropped dramatically in December, especially when looked at on a daily average basis.  For example while Notices of Default dropped 17.5 percent in aggregate, they actually dropped 32.5 percent on a daily average basis due to the fact that December had 22 days on which documents were recorded, versus 18 in November. Click here to download the full report

  IDEAS FOR YOUR CLIENTS: 

1.         Learn the property reassessment procedures in your county.  All the counties have Tax Assessor websites.  Recommend to your clients that they consider reassessment and you will be there to provide the “comps” needed.  They might remember you if you save them money.

2.         If you live in an area where there are age 55 and over homeowners, restudy Proposition 60 and tell them that they could take their low Prop. 13 assessment to a newly purchased home.  Great Q & A at C.A.R. on Prop. 60.  Also, go to my website and check our reference materials on the subject.

  OSCAR TIME: 

Ten movies picked this year not five, but remember that Best Director and Best Movie have a tendency to go together so only five movies have any real chance.  One solid bet:  I will take Christop Waltz for “Best Supporting Actor” and give you the other four actors in an even-money wager.

  RESTAURANT TIME: 

Palm Desert came through again on my trip to the famous California Desert Association to do some seminars with great turnouts.  Thanks, Palm Desert students.  Dinner at Firecliff on a rainy night was outstanding.  Happy Hour food at Pacifica on another rainy night was suburb and even better, half-price.  My new go-backs in the desert.

Valentine’s Day is approaching.  A good rule:  only amateurs go out on Valentine’s Day and pay the inflated prices for dinners, flowers, cards, etc.  On the 14^th rent a movie like “Somewhere In Time” or “Notebook”, buy some good champagne and home delivery food.  Then on the 15^th go out and have a great less costly evening.

  MY SHORT COMMERCIAL: 

Someone wrote to say, “I loved your email even if long.”  Everything now must be in 140 characters.  If you know me or ever heard me speak, you are quite aware that I have trouble staying in short sound bytes so be aware in my e-mails and seminars I sometimes digress and sometimes cover topics in which only I have any interest.  However, please bear with me for my short closing commercial

1.         Go to my website and check “Why I Believe You Should Become a Broker.”  First reason – you will make more money.  Second reason – read number one again.

2.         Also, checkout “Why I Believe You Should Become A Notary”.  You will get more referrals which when translated means, “You will make more money!”

3.            Broker-Owners and/or Managers – Give Gail Clairmont in my office a call and ask how we can furnish your office with a turnkey program to get your prospects licensed.  Why should you Brokers and Owners consider doing this?  You will make more money.

4.         Check out the list of our live courses that follows.  By the way, I will be doing the License Renewal Courses live this month in Sacramento, Antioch, Oxnard, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, and San Diego.  Call my office to register and get your materials.  Love to say hello live and in person.