My 7 yr old, Merrick, has expressed his interest to run a lemonnade stand business this summer. He went on to mentioned that he would like the money he makes from the 1st lemonnade stand to have more lemmonade stands and cookie sales. It blew me away that this kid understands the concept of re-investing without ever hearing the term "re-invest". He then went on to tell me about his idea to give his best customers a Wii video game at the end of the summer to thank them for being such good customers.....
In 13 years of mortgage lending, I never thought about a VIP program for the repeat business partners and their clients!? My seven year old conducts one lemmonade stand and figures this out!? While I always felt that I worked hard to provide the best service I could and provide the most aggressive financial packages I could, I came to the realization that this should be implemented in my practice. 1 expect to roll out a program in the next 45 days that mirror's my son's...probably not a Wii video game though.
Financial Markets
The Dow Jones saw its streak of 8 weeks of gains snapped on Friday, as it fell over 166 pts, and ended the day at 11,823. The riots and political unrest in Egypt is deemed to be the scapegoat for sell-off in stocks. I say scapegoat because many felt that the Dow had reached a “technical ceiling” at around 12,000, and that a pullback was inevitable.
Commodities and of course the bond market reaped the benefits of the market shift, and mortgage rates generally speaking improved by about .125%. The rise in the price of oil is getting notice for obvious reasons. Oil is now trading for over $89 per barrell. As gas prices increase, the cost of shipping goods increases therefore the cost of goods we buy increases, which is a catalyst for inflation.
Local Economy and Real Estate Market
The number of foreclosures dropped in 2010 from 2009 by 19%, according to an article in the RJ. Hubble Smith and Larry Murphy contribute the drop to loan modifications, a higher success rate of short sales getting approved and the Making Home Affordable Program as viable deterrents of foreclosures.
Clark County taxable sales had a year-over-year increase for the month of November by 1%. The report is another signal that the recovery in Nevada is continuing, but slowly.
Products of mention to help you sell more homes:
· FHA Choice Plus (Now, PRMI will allow FICO scores as low as 580)
· 95% conventional financing with FICO as low as 660
· 90% financing for 2nd homes
· 90% financing for jumbo loans up to $600,000
