Countrywide Financial Corp. lost $1.2 billion in the third quarter

October 26, 2007

clipped from www.11alive.com

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Countrywide Financial Corp. lost $1.2 billion in the third quarter, but its shares soared Friday after the nation’s largest mortgage lender said it expects to be profitable this quarter and next year.

It was Countrywide’s first quarterly loss in 25 years.

But the Calabasas, Calif.-based company said it will [...]

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Michael Vick’s Atlanta Mansion Up For Sale

October 23, 2007

clipped from www.therealestatebloggers.com

The Atlanta Journal Constitution is reporting that Michael Vick, the former Atlanta Quarterback and nortorious dog fighter, is selling his Duluth, Georgia home for 4.5 million dollars.

The home located at 2927 Darlington Run Duluth, GA has 7 bedrooms and 8.5 baths. The home is located in the Sugerloaf Country Club, an [...]

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Sub-prime mortgages not protected by bankruptcy laws

October 23, 2007

clipped from www.responsiblelending.org

Under current law, subprime homeowners have two choices: they can get a loan modification, or they can lose their home through foreclosure.? Bankruptcy – the traditional option of last resort– is virtually useless, because current law prevents bankruptcy courts from assisting with the very debt that is causing the problem today [...]

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Countrywide Refinance Program for Adjustable Rate Mortgages

October 23, 2007

clipped from www.wlox.com

CALABASAS, Calif. (AP) – The nation’s largest mortgage lender will begin offering refinancing or modifications on $16 billion in loans whose interest rate is set to adjust by the end of 2008.

Countrywide’s president and CEO David Sambol says “unprecedented times call for unprecedented remedies.” He says Countrywide is determined to help [...]

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Dallas Cowboys Punt Cowboys.com after Withdrawing Auction Bid

October 19, 2007

This is not headlines yet but quite an interesting story from the domain space is taking place.
Last Friday the domain name Cowboys.com was purchased for $275,000 by the Dallas Cowboys via phone during a live domain auction held by Moniker.com, a domain name registrar. Apparently in a case of big time buyer’s remorse the [...]

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Steve Forbes on Sub-prime mortgage mess and The Fed

October 18, 2007

Steve Forbes speaks at TRAFFIC in Miami, FL – shot from a phone so quality is not too great. Mr Forbes seems to think that the Fed waited a little too long to act but he sees the risk as being spread across many investors and portfolios therefore not a huge blow to any [...]

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Mortgage History

October 8, 2007

clipped from www.mcall.com

The evolution of the modern mortgage

Most people assume home mortgages have been around forever.

But it wasn’t until the 1930s — and then thanks to insurance companies and the Federal Housing Administration — that long-term mortgages for home purchases came to be.

Insurance companies, not banks, started mortgages. And it wasn’t because [...]

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Countrywide Launches America’s Open House Campaign

October 3, 2007

Real Mortgage People at Open Houses

clipped from www.prweb.com

Countrywide Launches America’s Open House Campaign

[...]

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And you thought Mortgage Blogs were complicated

October 2, 2007
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How Mortgage Rates Work

October 2, 2007
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Home Sales Slowing

September 28, 2007

clipped from www.wisn.com

New Home Sales Hit 7-Year Low
Report Comes Week After Interest Rate Cut

POSTED: 4:32 pm CDT September 27,
2007
UPDATED: 4:37 pm CDT September 27,
2007

WASHINGTON — The government reported Thursday that new home sales fell more steeply than expected last month. The decline of more than 8 percent took home sales down to the [...]

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Senators blame Credit Agencies

September 27, 2007

Sub-prime mortgage woes are blamed on conflict of interest by credit agencies says Washington Senators…

clipped from www.bradenton.com

Several members of the Senate Banking Committee questioned rating agency executives about whether they provided advice to investment banks that issue complex mortgage securities tied to subprime home loans.

“It seems to me that credit rating agencies are [...]

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More Mortgage Widgets

September 27, 2007

Get great free widgets at Widgetbox!

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Mortgage Widgets

September 27, 2007

Widgets are taking over – here are some I found today
Get great free widgets at <a href=”http://www.widgetbox.com”>Widgetbox</a>!

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Alan Greenspan's Bestseller

September 26, 2007

clipped from news.yahoo.com

A fascinating dispute on modern economics — and the dominant role it plays in our politics – is currently taking place in America’s bookstores.

On one side is [...]

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Mortgage and Real Estate Marketing

September 25, 2007

Anyone that knows me knows that I am very bullish on the idea of small companies and individuals using the internet to compete with companies of any size – the great thing is that on the internet everyone has the same amount of monitor screen size as everyone else….
What the smaller companies are lacking [...]

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Why Lending Tree is Expensive for Consumers

September 25, 2007

This breakdown shows that the the cost per funded loan paid to lending tree is over $1900. That is nearly double the amount paid by most mortgage companies that buy leads.

clipped from leadcritic.com

LendingTree
cost per lead $65
success fee $850
conversion rate 6%
cost per [...]

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Home Finance Tips

September 25, 2007

clipped from www.kcra.com

(ARA) – Rates are up, rates are down. It’s a buyer’s market, it’s a seller’s market. If the housing market seems like a roller coaster for would-be buyers, that’s because it is. But understanding the most current trends can help buyers know when to get on — or off — the [...]

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Fed Chairman Remarks

September 25, 2007

clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com

WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Thursday the credit crisis has created “significant market stress” and offered fresh assurances that regulators would take steps to curb fallout related to the mortgage mess.

 

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Home Sales

September 25, 2007

clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com

NEW YORK – Sales of existing homes, depressed by turmoil in credit markets, fell for a sixth straight month in August, pushing activity to the lowest point in five years an industry trade group said Tuesday. A separate report showed that t
he nationwide decline in home prices accelerated in July, posting [...]

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Mortgage Wall on Mortgage Rates

August 17, 2007

News about Countrywide.

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Mortgage Blogs – MortgageBlogs.com

July 6, 2007

A new service has been launched called MortgageBlogs.com. MortgageBlogs.com is a visual directory of Mortgage Blogs – allowing users to find Mortgage Blogs by the author’s location.
Using a map of the United States or the ability to click on a state name category shows the mortgage blogs listed by author’s location or use a state [...]

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Walmart Mortgages : Wal-Mart to offer Mortgages

June 20, 2007

Wal-Mart to offer Mortgages
Walmart Mortgages
Note: click on movie below to launch player.

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Phone Management

June 12, 2007

Just found a great new resource for managing your telephone via the web. GrandCentral.com allows you to create a *NEW* phone number and then manage where that phone number will ring.
As an example I can create a local 404 area code phone number and then have that number ring my office and cell phone [...]

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Buying Mortgage Leads ?

June 10, 2007

Found a great site discussing mortgage leads and the pitfalls of certain companies within the industry….
http://leadcritic.com

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Coldwell Banker releases corporate Blogs

April 11, 2007

http://blogs.coldwellbanker.com
Coldwell Banker has release a corporate blogging platform for their real estate agents to use.
The Real Estate Tomato has covered most of the bases in their writings:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/881137/17288604
I am not going to pass a judgement on the site at all but I think that is shows the importance of blogs to to realtors and to mortgage [...]

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Feds propose a Mortgage Contract

March 28, 2007

Mortgage Contract in the works?
In testimony on Capitol Hill yesterday the idea of creating a 1 page disclosure document signed by both the borrower and the loan originator was proposed by Alex J. Pollock, Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute.
From an article on BrokerNewswire
To educate borrowers, Pollock introduced the idea of a one-page disclosure [...]

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Bueller, Bueller, Bueller -

March 22, 2007

Ben Stein says there is no sub-prime crisis
Watch here…
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2582087n

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Celebrity Mortgage Bloggers and Real Estate Bloggers

March 22, 2007

This is not what this was intended for but what the heck…. these are mortgage bloggers and real estate bloggers from the Active Rain community. Mouse over them for a zoom and then click the photo and then see this item online to see their profile… this was designed for shopping sites but you [...]

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Scandalous tales of Sex, Lies and Thievery

March 22, 2007

No this is not a blog entry about a new CBS drama series but instead a lurid tale of New Century the poster child of abuse for the sub-prime mortgage industry. Writing in his blog a supposedly ex-employee of New Century writes of sexual harrassment, mortgage fraud, Las Vegas hot tub parties and the [...]

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Adjustable Mortgage Resets

March 21, 2007

Mortgage Reset Data
Looks like a busy year for sub-prime adjustable to fixed. This will probably boost the use of 40 year and 50 year fixed mortgages as the exotic products are removed from the market.
This chart is from a blog but the original is from
Credit Suisse Fixed Income Mortgage Strategy

http://www.autodogmatic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1226#1226

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Fingers Point as the Sky is Falling

March 20, 2007

Reading many of my favorite mortgage blogs lately it seems everyone is pointing fingers regarding the “sky is falling” attitude of many mortgage industry participants and pundits. National news media and the channels like CNBC mention the subprime mortgage crisis every 15 minutes….
perhaps this could be a new drinking game – chug [...]

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Free Mortgage Blogs

March 13, 2007

I recently offered free mortgage blogs on my site www.mortgageblogs.com. Unfortunately things didn’t work out that well.
Most of the people that took advantage of the free service set up spam sites filled with keyword stuffing for all the various non-sense that is the world of internet spam and junk. I should have known [...]

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Real estate blogging event

March 6, 2007

Bloggers Connect
Tuesday, July 31 – Wednesday, August 1
San Francisco (where else?)
Real estate bloggers from around the globe are gathering in San Francisco for a two-day real estate blogging networking event. Enjoy face time with your colleagues in the real estate blogosphere including ample party and networking time along with sessions that will help you gather [...]

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Have a Mortgage Blog without having to blog

March 5, 2007

A new service called BringTheBlog promotes the ability to blog without blogging!
From their web site
“Stop Worrying About “Having Time To Blog”
Every business day, we post new, consumer-focused content to your blog for you. That way, you never have to worry about your blog going “stale” when you don’t have time to write. Heck, you never [...]

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Mortgage Blog Search Engines

March 2, 2007

The newest thing I have heard is the development of a special search engine just for Mortgage Blogs. This is a meta search that will search all the mortgage blogs out there and return results that match the search criteria…. sounds like a nice tool if this works.
I will research this and report the [...]

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Mortgage Contract – Coming Soon?

February 1, 2007

Mortgage fraud, predatory lending and bad conduct by mortgage originators remains a hot topic amongst politicians, regulators, consumer watchdogs and the media. It would appear that the ultimate conclusion is the requirement of a legal mortgage agreement, a mortgage contract or loan contract, signed by both the borrower and the lender.
This mortgage contract would [...]

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Why a Mortgage Blog is a good idea

January 29, 2007

Mortgage brokers have a tough time. Rate changes, legislation, virtual lenders , massive banks competing with them, realtors adding in house mortgage services – hey its tough and getting tougher.
A mortgage blog may be a great way to break through the noise and allow the mortgage broker to create an edge over all [...]

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Historical 30 yr Rates

November 29, 2006

Interesting chart from Freddie Mac shows historical 30 yr mortgage loan rates since 1971 -
For those of you that think rates are high this might help with some perspective – note Fall of 1982 and Winter of 1982
http://www.freddiemac.com/pmms/pmms30.htm

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