FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Carol Lundgren

314-726-6111, ext. 203

ST. CHARLES COUNTY HOME PRICES RISE 4.4% OVER APRIL 2007

Average Sale Price Up Over $9,000 in 12 Months

Despite statistics in other parts of the country and across the Metropolitan Area, the median home price actually rose 4.4% over last year in St. Charles County. According to figures just released by the St. Charles County Association of Realtors (SCCAR), the average sale price of a home in St. Charles County was $220,791 in April, up from $211,450 in April 2007.

“That’s exciting news for St. Charles County homeowners and homebuyers,” says Keith McCulloh, SCCAR president. “All real estate is local, and these statistics prove that St. Charles County remains a great place to invest in a home.”

McCulloh adds, “The rise in home prices reinforces the fact that buying a home in St. Charles County remains an excellent long-term investment and means of increasing your family wealth. For example, if you purchased your home in St. Charles County in April of 2003, you paid an average of $168,123. Today, that home’s value would have increased by a full 32 percent. That’s a return that would have been hard to beat in other investments, plus it’s tax free.”

In addition, SCCAR figures show that the average home took 94 days to sell in April, up only 14 days over last year. “Again, while you read and hear dire stories about homes sitting on the market for extremely long periods of time, the St. Charles County story is unique. Three months is definitely not a long time to sell a home, so sellers should not be scared off by what they’ve heard,” McCulloh points out.

For more information, call 636-946-4022, or visit www.RightTimeForRealEstate.com.

How to start the New Year!

The last day of 2007 was a day of sadness and hope. The year was coming to an end I as I reflected upon the previous 364 days I had a chance to take inventory of the things I had accomplished in that year and identify the opportunities lost or at least not capitalized on. I also recognized the amount of time I spent on personal growth, recovering from a failed business. The decision to close that business took my heart and soul away when I did that just a little over a year ago. I don’t think that when I closed the business I realized just how emotionally devastating to me it was. When I did so, I went to work for a friend who I had played soccer with over 20 years ago and he is the type of person who is always upbeat. I used that environment to bolster my emotions while I worked through the pain and tried to plan the rest of my professional life.

As some of you may know, I spent many hours riding a bike or hitting golf balls while I tried to find what I really loved doing. I found myself mentoring and coaching loan officers and realtors, thus I recognized that being back in sales management was the calling I needed to answer. I answered that calling and have found myself enjoying the challenge each and every day. I work with a group of people that share similar vision for how to run a mortgage company. Loan officers that believe in doing the right thing and support people that truly care about taking care of the customer. We are positioned to grow if the market allows us to but will be successful if we stay the current size. If I knew what I wanted when I closed my company I could not have asked for a better set of circumstances. So again I give thanks to the people at First Integrity Mortgage; the company that hired me when I closed my company. The people there did all that I asked and gave me all the room to flourish while I found myself.

Now that I have moved on to Cornerstone I want to take the time to thank them for having the belief in my management skills to bring me back into the game. At my new company a special thanks goes to Brad Bradford for championing the concept of hiring me. Never underestimate the relationships that you form in your life. Brad was a loan officer with me at a mortgage company over 10 years ago. We never developed a friendship, but a healthy respect for how we both went about doing our business. Had I known that he would become a key part of my life 10 years later I now know that I would have done more to build that friendship. But alas, hindsight is 20/20 and unfortunately, the younger we are the less foresight we have to build those relationships. I guess that only thing we can hope is that we are smart enough to not burn bridges.

So much for the sadness, now on to the hope; As Monday’s bond market came to a close it finished the year with a strong rally. We opened Wednesday with a continuation of that rally. As of the time I write this, our pricing is within 25 basis points of our lowest point in 2007 and that was as low as we had seen since 2003. Interest rates are below 6% again and should stay there for at least the coming week. This should give me as well as the loan officers I work with an opportunity to start the year off with a few good months. With this being an election year we can hope that rates will hold steady and we won’t see any major upward movement. Although with gas going up, the only thing we know that will affect is the spending power of the American consumer. Either way, I am optimistic that the business plan that I have spent the last 3 years developing will flourish this year and all those that utilize it will reach and surpass their goals.

For comments or questions please contact ChrisScheer at cscheer@cornerstonestl.com or 314.223.9824.

Customer Service or Lack There Of!

If you have read my previous posting on Manufactured Housing you may be aware of the challenge that I had getting the appraiser to put the Make, Model, serial number and year manufactured on an appraisal of a Manufactured house. The appraisal form clearly states that this information is needed, yet the appraiser we chose to use could not find the information on the property and thus felt it was not his responsibility to locate. Over a 2 week period my assistant requested the information be added to the appraisal and each time she was told he didn’t have it or have access to it. Since this was one of my first challenges working with this assistant I let her attempt to handle the situation until it became a crisis. I recognize I should have stepped in sooner, but until you see someone perform under fire you don’t know how good they are.

At the eleventh hour I went to the internet and found the source of the information within 10 minutes. Prior to doing that I sent an e-mail to the managing partner of the appraisal company that was very direct and to the point, see the following:

We have a challenge. As you are aware, we have asked the appraiser to supply the Manufacture’s serial number, name, trade/model and date manufactured for the property on Lynch road. At this time this is the only item I need to get a clear to close, however we will not close until we have it. In the appraiser’s defense, the realtor and her clients went through the entire house tonight and could not find it. However, since there is the HUD certification label #RAD730051 as per his appraisal, this should be the basis to track down the required information. If the realtor manages to find this information then the appraiser looks bad. If we manage to find this information, then the appraiser looks bad. If HUD provides it, he still looks bad, but not as bad. If he finds it, then he gets off the hook. See the challenge? I realize that this is extra work and frustrating for everyone. However we have a client who is trying to purchase a home and helping them achieve their goal is what we do.

Feel free to call me if you have any questions or comments.

I have inserted “the appraiser” and “realtor” where the names were in the correspondence. I received no reply to this e-mail from the appraiser and when I was contacted that day by the appraiser to review the value on another property nothing was mentioned of the e-mail until I brought the situation up. The defense of the appraiser was that no other lender had ever requested this information and he felt it was not his responsibility. I reiterated that the underwriter requested that the appraiser complete this section of the appraisal, therefore at that time it becomes the appraiser’s responsibility. He continued to contend that since he couldn’t find it then it wasn’t his job to get it. When I explained how easy it was for me to obtain, he asked why I didn’t do that sooner. It became a circle of discussion with me telling him what I expected as the client and him saying that he wouldn’t do it. Later that day I addressed the situation with one of the other principals at the company whom the e-mail was sent to and he defended his partner. Going further to say that we didn’t know what we were doing.

I appreciate a business partner defending his associates, but at the point that you have a client telling you that you screwed up and that what was being requested was not out of the ordinary for out industry this is not the stance to take if you want to keep the relationship. As the lender I have a choice of the appraisers I choose and the stance this company took will keep them from getting any more of my business.

For questions or comments on this post, please contact Chris Scheer at cscheer@cornerstonestl.com or 314.223.9824.

All I Want For Christmas

So imagine if you will; you are one of the many mortgage originators who have managed to stay in this industry through the last 3 years of cutbacks, layoffs, companies going out of business and income less than you have seen in a long time. Over the last 2 ½ weeks you have seen the 30 year fixed rate drop below 6% more than once and actually get to 5.75% for 24 hours before heading north again. You have glimmers of hope of making money again; real money! Not just closing enough loans to pay off your draw and keep your job, but enough money to justify all the pain and heartache you have experienced lately.

Wall Street is in your corner. They are pushing for the Fed to continue to lower short term interest rates. They need the lower costs of money to offset their huge losses in the Subprime Mortgage fiasco that they created. Your consumers are clamoring about the most recent Fed rate cut “does this mean that my interest rate dropped?” Instead of being able to say yes you have to say no and then spend 10 minutes on economics, Wall Street, mortgage backed securities and Japanese candlesticks to try to get them to understand the difference between short and long term rates and that one moving doesn’t mean the other will move.

You are exhausted and leave the office to try to find a real estate agent to talk to in hopes of getting a deal from them only to find that you either can’t get into their office or the agents you can find spend the entire conversation telling you how bad the real estate market is and no one is doing any business. You grow weary of bad agents and bad attitudes and get back into your car only to find that no matter what radio station you turn on you hear a commercial for a mortgage company, one of the “Dark Side” lenders who continue to prey on the unknowing and confuse most of the average and below average consumers with their lies and misleading information. Thoughts of George Bailey jumping off the bridge in “It’s A Wonderful Life” dance through your head. As you think of that you realize that the story ends happily and George gets to live his life with happy endings. Where are your happy endings?

They are right where they should be! This career, this job you have chosen to continue to pursue is your Christmas wish. It isn’t about the money. It isn’t about confused borrowers. It isn’t about competitors that don’t play the game fairly. It isn’t about realtors who let others control their minds and outlook on their career. It isn’t about whether the Fed lowers or raises interest rates. No it is about each and every borrower you do get to help finance or refinance their home. Not house, but home! You get to help people live the American Dream. It is about being the person who touches the lives of everyone you meet in a positive way. You can only be measured by how you made the lives of the people around you better. Accept that as your calling and reap the rewards of a life worth having and living!

Happy Holidays!

For your questions or comments please contact Chris Scheer at cscheer@cornerstonestl.com or 314.223.9824.

New Money Available

The Missouri Housing Development Commission opened the registration window for First Time Home Buyers on Thursday with its fifth bond issue of the year. (http://www.mhdc.com/homes/firstplaceloans/index.htm ) What does this mean for you? If you have not owned a home for the last 3 years and if you earn less than the required amount per family, you can receive a below market interest rate and take advantage of a 3% grant towards down payment or closing costs.

Years ago when there was little hope for people to purchase a home without a down payment, this programs was the great hope provider. For the past 4 years this program had lost appeal with all of the 100% financing available. With what has happened in the mortgage industry this year, the down payment assistance program will be the best way for low to moderate income earners to achieve the dream of home ownership. HUD is looking at eliminating the Ameridream program (www.ameridream.org) and others that allow a charity to provide down payment assistance to borrowers obtaining FHA insured loans; http://sev.prnewswire.com/real-estate/20071002/DC0378002102007-1.html which will eliminate even more potential opportunities for buyers to get into homes. Thus, the MHDC program as well as other State assistance programs will become the vehicle of choice again for assisting buyers with down payments and closing costs.

As the State of Missouri continues to streamline the process to make it easier for lenders to get loans registered and as they continue to provide training and recognition for the individual loan officers I can see this as the answer to many people’s hopes and dreams.

For more information on this program or to register with Cornerstone Mortgage, a MHDC Top Ten Lender; please contact Chris Scheer at cscheer@cornerstonestl.com or call 314.223.9824.

FHA Mortgage Insurance May Change!

HUD has announced a proposal to change the cost of both upfront and monthly mortgage insurance for purchases and refinances. This change is based upon loan to value and credit score. Their reasoning is that they want to be able to serve more borrowers and keep the opportunity for home ownership accessible to as many as possible. They have imitated a rate system that has been in place in the private mortgage insurance sector for years. Depending on how good your credit is and how much you put down or how much equity you have, your cost of the mortgage insurance will go down.

Why is this good? As the secondary market continues to shy away from maximum financing i.e. 100% loans someone needs to step up to the plate to keep the ability to purchase lower priced homes feasible for most working class people. When they want and can purchase the starter home or the lower priced home, then the person selling that home has the chance to move up, which keeps the process moving right up the price scale.

You can view the proposed changes and get information on how you to can comment to HUD about this change at this address; http://hudclips.org/sub_nonhud/cgi/nph-brs.cgi?d=FR07&s1=FR-5171-N-01$[NO]&SECT5=FR07&SECT1=TXTHLB&l=50&u=../cgi/newsdoc_run.cgi&p=1&r=1&f=G

For your comments about this blog or any questions for Chris Scheer, please contact him at cscheer@cornerstonestl.com.

Licensing for Mortgage Originators?

As a mortgage professional for the last 14 years, I have been against licensing for originators. My logic was purely self serving. If I was doing business in a professional and ethical manner, I didn’t want to invest the time and or money into getting licensed. I was licensed in Illinois and when the time came to renew the license, I was too busy to do the little things that were required for me to keep my license. So now that you know why I WAS against it, let’s try to find out why I have changed my mind?

In a nutshell, there are still too many individuals and companies that are taking advantage of the consumer! The “Dark Side” has been reigned in by the changes in the sub-prime mortgage market, but like any bad fungus, they are regrouping and reforming to begin their next assault on the homeowners and would be home owners in our marketplace. If I, a busy professional am too busy to renew my license, how much effort do you think the minions of the “Dark Side” will put forth the get licensed or maintain their licenses? This move alone will chase many of the financial rapists out of business.

Now I recognize that a thief will always look for the easiest access. See the article by Michelle Singletary in the Washington Post; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/08/AR2007090800159.html. However, slowing them down is the key. It is in the time that they have to look for easier avenues to get into the consumers’ houses that we have more opportunity to educate the borrower and attempt to protect them. I also think that the investors who are purchasing these loans should be held accountable. Here is the Federal Reserves report on how well the Fed has done at monitoring companies who are purchasing mortgages; http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA270233 .

How do you feel about Mortgage Originators needing to be licensed? Contact Chris Scheer at cscheer@cornerstonestl.com with your comments.