Category: Manny Kagan

Jane used to be self-employed. She recently found a great new job with a very good salary and felt she was ready to buy a new home. She had owned one in the past, but sold it without recouping her down payment. 

The problem was that she had very little left in her savings account. Fortunately years ago, she served in the Army and could use her certificate of eligibility to buy a home without any down payment by getting a VA loan. Those loans can be used for the refinance as well. 

Whom do you know who is a veteran?

John and Kim had a loan fixed for 5 years at the interest rate of 4.125% since 2011. John called me six months ago, since he wanted to buy another property. When we ran his credit report, we discovered that his credit score dropped to 625 because of some mix-up in payments. I referred him to a person who helps restore credit scores.

When we ran his credit again six months later, his score went up to 767. At the same time, I checked interest rates and we could refinance his $1,350,000 loan to 3.00%, lower his monthly payments by $851, and extended the loan life for 5 years without any out of pocket closing costs, and with no prepayment penalty. In addition, I was able to secure a line of credit for them of $50,000.

Mr. Cramer needed a pre-approval letter. He was selling a single family home in San Francisco that he owned together with his sister. The proceeds would go to buy a four unit building in the North Bay.

He and his wife own their home with $250,000 balance of the mortgage of 4.00% and 28 years left to pay it off. He is 69 years young and recently retired. His wife is younger.

After checking interest rates and realizing that conforming loans (up to $417,000) dropped to 3.25% for 15 years amortized loans, I asked him if it would make sense to pay off their current balance 14 years sooner?

It did.

He wanted to be sure that by the time he is gone, his wife will have a smaller mortgage or not at all. Their payments are increasing, but would be offset by the extra rent on the new rental property.

Whom do you know who needs to lower their interest rate?

“It’s the economy, stupid.”, was one of three messages campaign strategist,James Carville coined in Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 Presidential campaign. The other two messages were, “Change vs. more of the same” and “Don’t forget healthcare.”

As the wise King Solomon reminded us—“There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:4-11). 

“It’s the economy, stupid” was my response to a question my friend and client asked, “Would the actions of those damn Republicans help lower the interest rates?”

He missed the last refinancing wave, procrastinating in providing us with the necessary documents. This time, he would not mind if it would be the actions of the Republicans, with whom he obviously was not in agreement with, to help the interest rates go down again.

I really hope so too, since it would help millions of borrowers lower their monthly payments, whose property values increased during the last year (and it would help us pay off debts accrued from the previous economy slow down).

A new yearly cycle of reading the Torah started on Saturday, September 28^th. Five books of Moses are divided into 54 chapters, which are read every Shabbat in the synagogues around the world. The Jewish calendar follows the lunar cycle. To adapt to the days we use from the Gregorian calendar (1582) in certain weeks, some chapters are combined. Every morning, I read the chapter of the day as an inspiration and a reminder, and I would like to share some of my observations with you.

The first book and the first chapter in English are called, “Genesis”, and as you probably know, describe the story of creation of the world. Among us, there are those who take the story literally. Some believe that the narrative is the product of human imagination, while others claim that there is no God and no story.

I personally believe that there are the sources of creation and sustaining of the life beyond our comprehension—this is what some of us call God. The Torah is not a history book and presents its narrative often in an allegorical form. For example, six days of creation is an evolutionary process, which scientists have calculated took place over 15 billion years ago. But what is remarkable for us readers, is how this complicated process is described in the Torah:

“In the beginning of God’s creating the heavens and the earth—when the earth was astonishingly empty with darkness upon the surface of the deep, and the Divine Presence hovered upon the surface of the waters—God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God separated between the light and the darkness.”—Genesis 1/1-5

Upon completion of each daily task:

 “God saw all that He had made, and behold it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”—Genesis 1/26-27

The question comes to mind, how it is possible to see good! After all, as we know, good is a relative term (Good vs. Bad).

I was taking my daughter Tamar to the airport. We left a little bit late and Tamar was nervous. I was considering between either Highway 280 or 101. It was a little past 9am, so I reasoned that the traffic on the 101, which is shorter in distance, would be okay.

When we got on the ramp, we saw that the road was a sea of slowly moving cars. Since there was no way to turn back, I made the only decision I could—“To stay in the traffic and enjoy life”. The traffic turned out to be because of a small accident up ahead. Meanwhile, the damaged vehicle, the tow truck, and the police car were on the other side of the road. Drivers were slowing down and did what Tamar said in LA is called “rubber-necking”. After that, traffic gained speed and we got to the airport on time.

Looking back on my life and reflecting on the times when I was late to something, I realized that I actually do not remember missing anything. Once when we just arrived to the United States, I was driving in heavy rain to a job interview for a property manager position. I could not get there on time and as a result, I did not become a property manager. I was not late to my next appointment and became a mortgage broker instead.

A lot of us would like to be affluent. The question is, how? When you read biographies of successful people, there is often a common theme: “I was poor, now I am rich, and I like now better.”
My late mother-in-law used to say, “It is better to be rich and healthy, than sick and poor.” The road from poor to rich is not easy and only a few are willing to pay the price.
I recently spoke with a friend who used to be a loan processor in our company. Now she works for another company earning more money, but she has an hour commute, has a huge workload, and her boss is young, arrogant, and very demanding. She misses our working environment, but needs the money.

Another friend left the mortgage business and is currently selling software for a start-up. The pay is low, but he has shares. It is a fast-growing company and one day there might be a pay-off. His work is very intensive and fast paced. He misses the mortgage business and claims that if he had worked as hard in mortgages, he would have earned much more.

In the dictionary, the word “Affluent” has two meanings. As an adjective it means, “having abundance of wealth, property, or other material goods”.

It also means, “abounding in anything abundant, or flowing freely”. To sum up, in order to be affluent, one needs to be fluent (like in languages), or to “flow” in whatever one does.

Life and business can be compared to a river. It can start as a small stream, only to become a huge waterfall. As one becomes more fluent in life, it gets easier to navigate through the rough waters. As long as we stay in the flow, either physical or energetic, there is a better chance to be affluent.
In this sense, the mortgage business has all the elements of a flow. Ever changing, abundant, and diminishing. Like a river, it can quench your thirst or drown you if you will not learn how to stay in the flow.

When interest rates inched up, lenders came up with new programs. You can refinance today without losing accumulated years in any increase.

For example, if you have a mortgage at 5.50%, which you paid off for 4 years, you can get a new one amortized loan over 26 years or 24, or 21, or any number of years as low as 8 years, at the prevailing interest rate of let’s say, 4.50%. No need to start all over for 30 or 15 years. I call this fluidity.

P.S.

I was inspired by the book “The Tao of Abundance: Eight Ancient Principles for Abundant Living” by Laurence G. Boldt to write this story and I found a few images in my photo library which show the flow of the water. 

Do not keep me as a secret.

 SMILE AND PLEASE SHARE IT WITH A FRIEND

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Best Wishes,

 

I showed a friend my photo of fading roses. Her response was that she does not want to see it, as it is a reminder of her age. I understand her feelings and would not try to change her outlook on life. Nevertheless, a lot of us wear shaded glasses, which limit our ability to see beauty and opportunities in what may be perceived as adverse situations.
I received a call from a client recently, who owns her house with a partner. He wanted out and demanded his share of the equity. She wanted to keep the house and needed a new mortgage to pay him off. The first question she asked was “What loan amount am I qualified for?” Meanwhile, she also needed to know what the amount of the pay-off was going to be. It obviously depended on the value of the property—and here was the problem. She thought it was valued at around $600,000. His real estate agent claimed that if the property were sold, the listing price would be $650,000, and would probably sell for $750,000. As a result, he was demanding much more than what she thought was a fair amount, which, when she called me–mildly speaking, she was upset.

My recommendation was that instead of fighting him—to accept his position. After all, this could give her more money as well and therefore, he had a valid point.

By changing her anger toward her partner into understanding, things might turn around from approaching the transaction from a different angle.

Selling would involve a 5% real estate commission or $37,000 plus transfer tax, plus attorney and legal fees, if he wanted to force her to accept his demands. This approach would cost him about $50,000 plus a lot of aggravation. Instead, if he would agree to sell his share (without a real estate agent) for the price of $650,000, he would net the same amount. 

I also taught her Ho’oponopono, the method that I wrote about in last week’s newsletter. She was leaving my office with the words, “I wish you were my attorney.” Luckily, I am not. Being a mortgage broker is enough.
Besides, coming up with solutions for her and my other clients who go through splits in their relationships, are based on many years of experience dealing with people and their life issues—and of course some knowledge of the mortgage business.

P.S.

I had a number of beautiful flower images from which I made large prints (including the ones in this email). Some of them are displayed on the walls of my office. They look even more beautiful when enlarged. You are welcome to visit me to see them!

Do not keep me as a secret.

 SMILE AND PLEASE SHARE IT WITH A FRIEND

 

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Best Wishes,

 

While my Yoga practice has been on and off for many years, lately my wife Elfa and I have been going to a beautiful studio, called Yogasita, on Mariposa in San Francisco every Sunday morning, when we’re in town. The classes are led by a remarkable teacher and beautiful human being—Susannah Bruder, who is also the owner of Yogasita.
We received an email from Susannah recently, informing us that her landlord has raised her rent by 125% and she has no choice but to close the doors. Later on, the increase was dropped to only 75% and a second plan of action was considered to add more teachers.

Please read her email and see if you can help.

But now let’s take a look at a very strange question. What do yoga studios and banks have in common?

Apparently, at least two things—serving people and a dependence on outside forces, either economic or political.
And here is a major difference: as much as banks need customers and employees, they quickly abandon both groups under the regulatory pressure from the Federal Government.

Susannah is looking for a solution to keep serving her customers in spite of her economic challenges. Meanwhile, banks have laid off thousands of mortgage related employees when interest rates went up. Recently another mortgage bank, EverBank Financial Group, decided to leave the wholesale relationship with customers following the footsteps of Citibank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and MetLife, who did the same.
A recent article in Origination News stated that the decision was based on “the new regulatory scheme under Dodd Frank, despite the production measured in billions of dollars”. The same publication also reported that Wells Fargo ended eight mortgage joint ventures. The company’s press releases stated that it made the decision based on the current regulatory and market environment.

I am sure that with the help of her loyal students, and clients, Susannah will find a solution and we will be able to continue to stretch and strengthen our bodies in her studio.
Banks will also survive since mortgages are a very small part of their business. As far as the mortgage business is concerned, we will survive as well in spite of more new rules that will take place on January 10th, 2014, which will create even more limiting conditions for borrowers as part of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

I went through two emigrations as I described in the “The Mortgage Game: The 5 C’s and How to Connect Them”, been married for 46 years, and been in the mortgage business for 30 years. Despite all the outside challenges, the American dream cannot die.

Yours truly 

P.S.

One of the advantages of practicing yoga, after one learns with a good teacher, is that you can practice it anywhere. But one needs to start in a studio. Please join me and my wife in the Yogasita studio.

Do not keep me as a secret.

 SMILE AND PLEASE SHARE IT WITH A FRIEND

 

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Best Wishes,