Gloomy Monday

You know..I never have gloomy days. I try to always have "positive thinking" days. I try to always find something good in every moment of my life. Well, yesterday was not a good day for me. Interest rates are down, down, down. My phone has been ringing off the wall from clients wanting to refinance. Yes, I am thankful for LOYAL clients. Well, the RATES are great but...the home values are down...Unless you have great credit scores, lots of equity its getting harder and harder to get loans through. My clients are calling to tell me their home equity lines of credit are being closed/and or lowered loan amounts by their mortgage companies. They are getting letters saying that their credit card limits are being lowered. The interest rates are going up. I've been told Wells Fargo is the worst. I have been told Discover, Chase, Bank of America have raised some rates as high as 36%. Most rates I have heard are around 17-20%. The rates were 8 or 9% before. My clients are telling me they have NEVER been late on any payments. I have seen online and heard on CNN that YOU MUST pay more than the minimum payment. I don't know if this is true but..you might really want to watch your mail for any rate increase. And pay MORE than the minimum payment.

One of my investors Chase announced a few weeks ago that we must start using their Appraisal System. This might not sound like a big deal but it is! We used to be able to fax over a request for an appraisal. We would show OUR estimated value amount. The appraiser could use this as a basis for value. Well, now they will go out and appraise the house based on a GUESS. I had to SIGN up with this company that Chase said WE HAVE to use. Well, my computer has been locking up like crazy. Not good in a refi boom. I was on with Chase trying to get the new appraisal group linked to my Chase user and passwords, etc. Computer locked up. I had to turn off my computer and call Chase back after my computer came back up. And of course I needed Adobe 9.0..I had 8.0..of course 8.0 won't work. My computer locks up while I am trying to download 9.0 Adobe reader. Turn off computer again. Turn it on. Call Chase...I had to do this 4 times. Its a 2 minute ordeal that took three hours.

Camille calls me..I start bawling....do we really want to do loans anymore??? She was crying last month when we couldn't get Chase up and running on her computer. I start wondering why I want to do loans. It's the money. You can work for two hours..sometimes more...sometimes less and make $2000-8000.00. Never less than $2000.00. Camille and I know there isn't a job out there for us that has the flexible hours with this much income. So we keep going. The stress level is HIGH. In one year..2000 I believe, I know of three loan officers that dropped dead from heart attacks at their desk.
My sister Carol calls me, I start bawling again. She is always there for me. She listens to me cry and blubber. I feel a little better. The computer is still locking up. It's 5:00. The stock market closed two hours ago. I am still hopeful some houses will appraise for what we need. I have to pay for the appraisals UP FRONT. If I had 10 loans going this would be $4500.00 on my credit card. I am ticked that I HAVE to do this in order to broker loans to Chase. Well, I decide to go and have my dinner. I fix a salad, vegetables, etc. More water.
I turn the TV on...cable is DOWN.....unbelievable! Luckily it was only for about 2 hours. Wow..