Loan Underwriters

The loan process starts off with a person called the loan originator. This is the only person you ever real deal with. Unfortunately, they are not usually the final say on the loan. I've seen plenty of approved loans get shot down just a day or two before closing because of the underwriter. The underwriter has final say on the loan. We are lucky to have in our office a loan originator, Katie Mahoney, who is also an underwriter. We just had a buyer last week use Katie to obtain their loan. The buyer needed to close in less than a week on an FHA loan. Her first mortgage broker told her that it couldn't be done. But Katie came in and took over the loan and got it done very smoothly. It's a hugh advantage to have a loan originator who is also an underwriter. Katie's website is www.katieshomeloans.com

Tipping Point

Wow! It's been a month since I blogged. Shows how busy I've been. Jackie and I have closed 8 homes in the last 2 months!! That's just incredible in this market. 4 of our most recent listings have gone under contract in less than 30 days and have sold for more than 95% of the list price on average. The key seems to be in pricing them right. I have turned down listings that refused to trust me on the price. They simply won't sell. That's not going to do anyone any good.

As busy as we've been, the market in Charleston has really slowed. The number of transactions is way down so far this year. It's about 35% below last year and last year was about 20% below 2006. I think we've reached a tipping point in the housing market. Either all the fence sitting buyers are going to wake up and realize how great the opportunities are or they're going to completely stop buying and drive our injured economy into a depression. We've been following a scenario laid out by Japan in the 1980's. I was hoping that we would veer off that ill fated path at some point, but so far, we have followed it step for step. Japan still hasn't completely recovered. I was really hoping that our Federal Reserve might save us somehow, but I really knew better.

If buyers continue to wait for prices to go lower, they may drive the national economy into such a depression that only the richest will be able to take advantage of the bargain basement prices.