Peggy Deane, VP of Mortgage Services at UVA Community Credit Union uvaccu.mortgagewebcenter.com/Default.asp?bhcp=1 and Member Options, LLC (plus CVaMP’s secretary) suggested, correctly I believe, that we have an awareness problem, that community programs are needed and an informed borrower is a powerful borrower…. Valid point and that should be presented to a client, but a potential home buyer should make that decision, not the loan officer.Phil d’Ornozio, President of Pilot Mortgage and President of CVaMP was invited as a local loan officer and one who actually originates high cost loans on a daily basis…. If there are issues that are specific to Virginia, like Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Tidewater and Richmond landing in the top 30 MSAs in this study, we need to act in Virginia.Finally Dana Wiggins, Responsible Lending Coordinator for VaPerl/Virginia Poverty Law Center www.virginiafairloans.org/pages/AboutUs/CoalitionMembers.htmlpresented…. Bell or a supervisor was asked.Next up, I will provide the perspectives from our table, during the roundtable discussions.Ed Note: This is part two of a multi-part series of posts authored by Matt Hodges, a mortgage broker in Charlottesville.
Date Archives October 2007
Upgraded to WordPress 2.3
And I think everything is OK. Huge thanks to this automatic upgrade plugin. If anything’s screwy, please let me know.
Charlottesville Community Forum on Lending – Why do African Americans pay more in Central Virginia?
43% of all mortgage loans made to African Americans were high cost, but only 11.1% were high cost for whites.For a community that prides itself as a great place to retire, boasts 2006’s best new major concert venue and has health care options sought out for hundreds of miles, this report came as quite a shock.Why did this happen?Racism is offered as a cause. No doubt – whether you consider us Mid-Atlantic or South, a higher percentage of communities in those areas appeared high on the list.Also, Virginia is open for business, meaning out-of-state predatory lenders can open up a virtual business here, without building the relationships necessary for local loan officers to achieve long-term success…. What matters is how the industry and community addresses the future.On Saturday, the perspectives from participants on the panel…Ed Note: This is part one of a multi-part series of posts authored by Matt Hodges, a mortgage broker in Charlottesville…. That so many members of the community are talking is surely a positive sign.For more information, see this story from July when the report was first released and this one from late last month, notably this quote from the NCRC report itself:The disparities discussed in this report reflect a number of factors including income, wealth, credit rating, and many others.
Open houses in the Charlottesville area this weekend
PDF of Charlottesville/Albemarle is here.PDF of Fluvanna/Greene/Louisa here.Don’t forget about the Parade of Homes this weekend as well – go see all the cool new “stuff” being put into homes today.
Does community involvement matter to consumers?
Well, does it?One of the (many) points of discussion at the Virginia Real Estate BloggerCon this week was community involvement by Realtors. The consensus in the room was generally that Realtors who are involved in their communities likely are better Realtors. One perspective is that if a professional has investment in his or her community, he is likely going to be more informed and educated about that community; another is that involvement is irrelevant so long as he knows the market. From a consumer’s point of view – does a Realtor’s involvement in his or her community matter to you?
Top Real estate bloggers named by Inman
It’s all over the RE.net. Inman News has named the 25 most Influential Real Estate Bloggers. If you’re not reading these blogs and you’re a Realtor and/or in a leadership position within the real estate profession, you need to be.If you’re a real estate consumer – buyer/seller/voyeur – you can can tremendous insight into how some of the best minds in the real estate world think.Kevin provides nicknames for many of the bloggers.Update 4 October 2007: Jay posts his 26-50, and I couldn’t agree more other than the fact that he excluded himself from the list.
Realtors working against themselves
Look no further than this, on the Virginia Association of Realtors’ page (I didn’t see it yesterday because I use Adblock Plus on Firefox)…. However, they are generally of a higher quality than the referral I received yesterday through my office – all it contained was a name, email address and phone number. For that, the company is going to charge my company a 35% referral fee.If you’re a consumer using one of these relocation companies to find a Realtor, ask the company what they give you in return for them putting you in contact with a “qualified Realtor” – and what requirements they place on you for the privilege of using their company. Chances are, the referral company has done zero research and zero vetting of the Realtor or company to whom they are sending you.Related reading:Go to Hell, Relo CompanyTransparency in real estate commissions.