The computer problems over the weekend, even though they were caused by hardware failure, which AR did not have any control over, still reminded me of a term that my computer “Geek” buddies use all the time “ID ten T error”.
The more I thought about the “ID ten T error”, the more I thought about doing a blog about it. Not because of the problems that AR had, because it does not apply to that, but because of some blogs I have read about involving some crazy and odd Real Estate transaction. The more I thought about it, the
more I started to realize that the “ID ten T error” does not just happen with computers, but they also apply to the Real Estate Industry. In fact given the number of blogs that I have read, the “ID ten T error” probably occurs more in Real Estate than it does with computers.
OK, I know you want to ask, what is an “ID ten T error”? I could tell you, but I think it would be more fun for you to tell me what you think it is. Everyone that takes a guess at it I will e-mail back the correct answer. Once you know the answer, I am sure that you will agree with me, that it applies more to Real Estate than computers.
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Info about the author:
George Souto is a Loan Officer who can assist you with all your FHA, CHFA, and Conventional mortgage needs in Connecticut. George resides in Middlesex County which includes Middletown, Middlefield, Durham, Cromwell, Portland, Higganum, Haddam, East Haddam, Chester, Deep River, and Essex. George can be contacted at (860) 573-1308 or gsouto@mccuemortgage.com
We are bombarded with so much of the negative everyday because that is what attracts people to read the newspapers, and listen to TV broadcasts. I particularly tune out all the negative economic news, because frankly I am just tiered of hearing about it, and frankly I don’t see it in my business. I wrote a series of blogs this past week about a seminar that I attended called CloseMore. In one of the blogs I stated that 
On Wednesday I talk to a borrower who wanted to be Pre-Qualified for a mortgage on a house that he had already found and wanted to purchase. He called me when I was in a meeting, so I returned his call at the first break in the meeting, and I set up a time to talk to him back that afternoon. When I called him back, I started my conversation with him as I always do with everyone I Pre-Qualify. I first try to fine out what they are trying to do. I then try to fine out a little bit about their situation, so that I can start to identify what direction we might be going in. For example are they a first time homebuyer or not? Why are they shopping for a house at this time? And other questions along this line. I then tell them that before we do anything else I need to look at their credit. Once I have the information that I need, I pull their credit, and go over everything on the credit report with them. If their credit is good, I go back to the application, and begin to find out about residency, employment, income, and money in the bank. I take a full application before I tell them whether or not they can qualify for the size loan that they want. I learned very early on in this business that if you don’t get all of the information, you are setting yourself up to be burnt.
proceeded to tell me that he already had a Pre-Qualification from his Credit Union (Police Credit Union), and the only reason why he was talking to me was to see if I could qualify him for a higher amount. I asked him, did he tell the Loan Officer at the Credit Union that he was paying more than $600 per month in child support, he said “No”. I asked him why not? He responded “don’t ask, don’t tell”. I told him, what do you mean “don’t ask, don’t tell”. There is no way he could qualify for this as a conventional loan with the added child support. He then tells me, that he has a Pre-Qualification Letter for the amount he needed to make an offer on this house, and he was going to use it. I told him use it if you want, but you will never get the loan. His response was why not, he wasn’t going to tell anyone else about the child support. I paused, because what I wanted to say was ARE YOU STUPID, but I didn’t. I calmly responded by just reminding him of a little thing he told me, the child support being directly taken out of his paycheck. Ok, so what. Hmmm so what is that as soon as an underwriter looks at the paycheck, you will have a big problem? You will have to explain that deduction. Not to mention that as soon as the Loan Officer at the Credit Union does what he should have done before giving him the Pre-Quall Letter, he will be asked that question. You see there are two places on the Loan Application that ask about “alimony and child support”. The first is on page 3, “Liabilities Section”, and page 4, the “Declaration Section”. It is “Fraud” if you do not answer them honestly. At this point the phone was silent for several seconds, and then he responded, I will cross that bridge when I get to it. I told him well if you want to lie, and waste your time that is your choice, but as for me this is were we say good bye, and I hung up the phone.
your personal and employment information, collects the documents that are needed, and verifies all of your information. It is then and only then that he can say for sure that you can have a loan at that rate. So let me ask you Mr. Borrower has everyone that you have talked to done this? The answer is obviously “No”. Then Mr. Borrower let me do that for you, or do you want to continue to waist your time looking for rates that you don’t have any guarantee of getting?”
iend of mine would identify very well with Dale Vermillion, because Dale refers to himself as a “Moneygiverawayer”, now that’s a mouth full. We are in the “Money Business” not the “Interest Rate Business”.
peddle to the metal” as he puts it. They keep on sending the same piece until it dies out, and then they move on to the next one.
The first speaker was Jack Davis. He made several great points, but the four that made the biggest impression on me were probably the most basic ones he made.
People want you to say what you will do, and do what you say. You have to be a person of your word. They want to know and trust that there will not be any last minute surprises. People will make their decision to do business with you, because they have confidence in you, and not in your rate or price.
It is funny how quickly the market changes. I have read blogs that predict that we are going to have hard times for a few years. That might be so, most of the people warning about this have been in the business a lot longer than I have, and have probably seen it before. I have not experience the hard times in this business, I have lived through them, but I was not in the business at that time.
business, but the same principle. If we keep telling buyers that things are bad, then they will wait to purchase, and thing will really get bad. It is a self fulfilling prophesy, more about that on Sunday to. We will stay in this longer and not come out of it, unless we take it upon ourselves to “change the attitude”. This does NOT mean that we lie to people. It does not mean that we talk them into buying houses that they can not afford, or loan that they should not be in. We need to work harder to find them the house they can afford, with the loan program that is right for them. Those houses and loans are out there, we just need to work harder to put them in them. But we are not going to do it if our first response when someone asks us how is business? We start going on and on about how bad and slow things are. They are going to stay slow, unless we help to change them around, and the way to change them around is not by telling people how bad things are.
One: Don't miss the boat.
First, very few loans are manually underwritten any more. Once a Loan Officer submits a loan through DU or LP and gets an Approved/Eligible or Accept, the loan is basically approved. At that point all the Underwriter needs to do is verify the information on the application, make sure that every thing on the Automated Systems Feedback was followed, and that the house appraised. If all this checks out the loan is done and a Loan Commitment is issued. Underwriters had a real hard time with this new concept, because they were used to certain documentation being provided, that the Automated Systems don't always ask for. Example, DU and LP some times does not require that an appraisal be done on purchase or refi’s, they waive it. These changes were not well received in their world. A lot of Underwriters would still request the documentations, this created a little bit of turmoil between them and the Loan Officers, because now the Automated Underwriting Systems Feedback controlled a major part of the Loan.
needed improvements to the house, which they plan on leaving to a daughter that still lives with them. They bought the house in 1980, and have never Refinanced.
money to pay off all their credit cards, which were mounting up. Get them enough money to do all the repairs and improvements that they wanted to do, the house was really starting to fall apart, and still lower their monthly payment.