Yesterday morning in Palm Desert, CA a number of technology startup companies were shown to the public for the first time at the DEMO Conference. One of these new companies was an Internet mortgage startup called home-account.com (don’t forget the dash). Home-Account was born in my kitchen in Charleston just over a year ago – long before any of us realized the housing crisis was going to be as bad as it has become. Just to be clear, I am a co-founder and shareholder in Home-Account.com.
People with ideas are always seeking me out. In this case my visitor was a mortgage broker from Charlotte, NC. He knew that lenders weren’t helping homeowners own their homes as quickly as they might. Simply put, it was in the interest of the lender to keep mortgage holders owing as much as possible for as long as possible, with each refinance generally starting the game all over again. There had to be a better way, but that way also had to still support the broker and his family.
So he created a subscription service with a flat $1500 fee. With that payment up front the broker would work with homeowners as long as he was needed, helping them to refinance their homes again and again at little or no cost as their fortunes improved and interest rates could be driven down.
And it worked. Gaming the mortgage system by planning several refinance events ahead, it was possible for those homeowners in Charlotte – 600 of them over seven years – to save an average of $400 per month on their mortgage payments, own their homes quicker, and pay an average of $175,000 less in mortgage interest as a result.
Remember this is real money we’re talking about. $175,000 is more than the average American personally saves for ANY reason. It is more money than they save for retirement and more than they invest in the stock market. This means that taking this new approach to buying their home can be the most important financial decision of most people’s lives.
Home-Account just takes that analog process developed in Charlotte and makes it digital and national. And because it is cheaper to use computers than telephones and Home-Account has a chance to serve all of America’s 52 million mortgage holders, that one-time $1500 subscription payment could be dropped to the present $10 per month.
It’s a heck of a deal.
And it’s also a lot harder to do than it looks. Home-Account is effectively a customer-driven automated mortgage underwriting system – the first such system EVER built. If you’ve shopped for mortgages on the Internet maybe you thought you were using such a system, but you weren’t. The difference is key: while those guys say you MAY QUALIFY for a certain mortgage at a rate that somehow later always goes up, at Home-Account we say you ARE APPROVED and the rate is LOCKED. There are never any added broker points or Yield Spread Premium – a term for extra interest payments that go to the broker.
Loans recommended by Home-Account are the cheapest you can get. If ours looks more expensive than theirs it is because theirs aren’t real.
Where those other Internet mortgage sites hand you over to 25-50 banks or brokers who are paying for your lead, Home-Account doesn’t sell you to anyone, instead offering-up to the homeowner or home buyer a handful of real mortgages that we know are the best you can qualify for based on your situation. The lenders get pre-packaged loan applications ready to be funded and they get them FOR FREE, because Home-Account takes no money from anyone except its subscribers.
The service was announced yesterday morning, gaining some press and a lot of interest but also two important questions were asked again and again:
1) Why should homeowners or those about to buy a house subscribe to Home-Account for more than one month?
2) How do you make enough money charging only $10 per month?
That first question is pretty compelling. Why not pay $10 for the first month, finance or refinance your house saving an average of $3500 in broker fees and closing costs, then just drop the service, saving that $10 per month in the process?
The answer starts with the fact that many people in the current economy won’t qualify AT ALL for a loan. If you already own a home and have a mortgage, keeping the one you have may be the best advice. And it is the advice you’ll get from Home-Account if that’s the case. But don’t expect the same from any other Internet mortgage site because they will ALL try to drag you into some kind of transaction whether it is in your interest or not. That’s because they work for the lenders and only Home-Account works for you.
If you don’t qualify we’ll tell you that, but we’ll also tell you what you need to do to become qualified. The more financial information you give us the more we can help. We’ll teach you how to improve your credit score, literally telling you which bills to pay off first and how much to pay each month. Home-Account monitors your progress and keeps you on-track. It’s precisely the kind of service I wish my parents had bought me as a gift when I was first on my own a zillion years ago.
People with better credit who qualify immediately for loans at Home-Account then drop out can’t take advantage of the strategic advice that’s at the heart of the service. THEY WON’T save $175,000 in interest charges. That requires following a multi-year strategy. They may not even get the very best deal on that initial loan because we might be able to help them quickly improve their credit score enough in a month or two to get a lower rate.
Listen, a big reason we’re in this global financial mess is that people took on more debt than they could handle, at least in part because they really had no idea how much debt they could handle. Most people don’t know where they stand financially. At least half of what Home-Account does is help subscribers get a handle on their largest expenditure, their mortgage, after which the rest of a subscriber’s finances just tend to fall into place. Who — once they had that clarity about where they stand financially — would give it up just to save $10 per month?
If that’s not enough reason to maintain a subscription maybe it would help to know that services very comparable to LifeLock (ID theft prevention) and MyFICO (credit score management and optimization) come as part of the subscription for no extra cost. We don’t add them on: they are part of how we do what we do.
It is our hope that enough people recognize the long-term value of this service to subscribe and stay subscribed.
Yeah, but how do we make money? Home-Account appears to be disintermediating the entire mortgage broker business and $10 per month seems a poor trade for $3500 per loan in lost fees.
That depends on who you are. Home-Account is loyal to homeowners and would-be homeowners and for that group the $10-per-month trade for $3500 in fees is GREAT. And it’s not all that bad for Home-Account, either. What we do is complex but it scales well. We have costs, but they go down with volume. There are 52 million potential customers in the U.S. alone so we have plenty of room to grow.
The best way to understand the Home-Account business model is in light of a comparable business. Our preferred comp is PayPal. Both are Internet financial sites serving markets of comparable size. And where PayPal’s gross revenue per customer last year was $14.17, Home-Account’s revenue per subscriber is $119.40.
We can live with that.
I like this idea and business. I would think you could take a small percentage of the savings the customer is getting, no? For example, if the customer saves $100 per month after refinancing, I would think it might be reasonable for Home-Account.com to get back $1 per month or something along those lines. If you never save me money, I still get your other services and don’t pay a dime more. If you save me money, then I pass a very small amount to you guys every month. If you continue to save me more money then I pass on a little more each month.
Fascinating, Bob. But wasn’t the recent success of the program just a reflection that interest rates have been dropping for years? What if they start climbing again (as they must)?
It sounds like the service may work better, but it doesn’t sound like you save on fees.
$10/month x 12 months x a 30-year mortgage = $3600. Which is $2,100 more than the old telephone-based method in Charlotte.
Would it be possible to pay a lump-sum up front rather than this lingering subscription model? When there are so many drains on your monthly paycheck (mortgage, phone, Internet, electric, water, etc.), why add one more?
Very cool. I think the subscription model is the way to go given that rates and
credit score are variables. Plumb in your data and let Home-Account do the
analysis.
So Bob what is involvement in this? There is no who we are on the site.
Answer as noted in the piece: “I am a co-founder and shareholder”
The difference is paypal has zero customer service to provide, thus can scale infinitely. Customers looking for mortgages could take a lot of your time.
@cvosman: PayPal has a LOT of customer service overhead handling disputes between buyers and sellers.
A buyer’s agent for the mortgage itself.
DAMN that’s smart.
I don’t need one (have a wife with a degree in finance who does bank regulatory consulting. Trust me there’s nothing quite as comfortable as having your spouse whip out the HP12c and recalc your mortgage payment during the close)
but I would recommend that to EVERY single person I know who’s buying a house.
Sounds great Bob. Are you going to go global? I’d love to have this service available in Australia.
Any plans on expanding to the UK?
Hi. Allow me please to grab a couple of details from The Triumph of the Nerds:
1) you have a mortgage on what seems to be an expensive house
2) that house seems to be in California… not in Georgia, or is it a place in California named Charleston ?
Besides, you advice (in Accidental Empires… (very clever indeed)) not to start a “Me Too” business… I agree with you on that. Now (after that shaming last week’s article about Steve Jobs… oh, yes, yes, you ARE entitled to write on whatever you choose… it is a free world… sure) you are moving from IT to financial services ?
Anyway, Bob, you are not explaining ANYTHING on how you make the money, you are just saying it is tooooo complex. ANYWAY, let me remember this: money is a representation of energy. And, according to the Thermodynamic’s Second Principle, ENERGY CAN NOT BE CREATED, it can only be TRANSFORMED and ENTROPY is ALWAYS GROWING in the Universe. So the ENERGY (read money) never comes from nowhere neither anybody had ever and certainly will never create it Mr. Cringely.
So, it seems to me that we (your readers) deserve a little more detail to believe in what seems to be a convincing smart way to get a house and spare some costs. (I have my own house in Buenos Aires, and I had a mortgage, and hell… it’s no way to live to have something like that (a mortgage) hanging on the neck, specially living in Argentina).
Anyway, thanks for the ride.
Anibal (reporting LIVE from Buenos Aires, Argentina)
What’s wrong with you?
Bad weather in Buenos Aires? Or are you just upset you didn’t come up with the idea?
I don’t think that Bob is forcing you or anyone else to like the article or startup he’s involved in?
It’s his site, he can write whatever he wants. He’s at least creating something, on contrary to you who is just wasting bandwidth of yours or your employer’s.
Have a good day ….
Money may represent energy, but it does not equal it.
It is created every day (hint: fractional reserve system):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy-fD78zyvI
Follow the “This is a video response to….” at the bottom of the video.
I think it would an amazing boon to our general society if we could lessen the burden/profit of banks.
Charleston is in North Carolina.
Bob is definately all aboard with this venture. They are even sharing servers! Look where https://www.cringely.com redirect to!
Hi Bob,
This sounds like an amazing service. I just went through the evaluation wizard. It looks like it is just the thing for me after I pay down my credit card debt.
I appreciate that it doesn’t do some of the obfuscation that regular mortgage companies do. However there’s one oversight that has been made here that most “mortgage calculators” also do.
My mortgage payment is one monthly payment to my lender. It INCLUDES payment into an escrow account to pay homeowner’s insurance and property taxes. But when “mortgage calculators” tell me what my “amazingly low payment” will be with their new rate it never includes this money. Having just had to find the breakout amounts for property taxes and insurance to put on my federal income tax return forms I would suggest that Home-Account.com’s evalutation wizard ask for those annual amounts so that it can subtract them from the monthly mortgage payment I put into the form and then when showing me possible mortgages I could refinance to ADD back in the property taxes and homeowners insurance payments to show me the REAL AMOUNT I’d pay out each month.
If your UI designers and programmers don’t want to make that change, at lest be clear in the instructions for the input field for current monthly mortgage payment that they’re asking for ONLY the principle and interest portion of the monthly outlay.
Make that change and I’ll sign up in June when I’ve got my credit card debt payed down. Heck, it looks like there’s so much service involved in Home-Account.com I’d probably sign up sooner just to have access to the advice.
or you could just use the calculator on your desk…sheesh
This is an interesting idea and definitely different, but it is not the first pro-consumer mortgage site. SmartHippo launched in beta in Sept. 2007 and officially in Spring 2008 and our mission is to help consumers find the best rates and lenders to work with anonymously.
Lenders are able to join and post rates free. Consumers can also post rates they are quoted as well as write reviews about lenders they have worked with.
Home-Account.com is different and we wish you good luck, but just wanted to clarify it’s not the first pro-consumer mortgage site.
Thanks,
Kelly Rusk
Community Manager
SmartHippo
Good luck with your new venture Bob. I own my home so I am not in the market for this service, but there are many who are.
Tab 4 on the How It Works page says “Insure” where there is not content talking about insurance. I think you mean “Ensure” instead…
How about linking to quickenonline so that we don’t have to enter all our account information again?
seriously?
I signed up. Seems like a good idea and a service I can use. Still a few quirks but I look forward to those being fixed (I submitted a comment about problem I had) and all the features being finished.
Alright Cringley, I signed up. I just bought a house in late November (too bad for me that I don’t get the $8000 by 1 month and 5 days) and even then everyone involved from my agent to the loan officer to even the sellers agent (happened to be there when he was retrieving his sign) kept on going on about what a great deal I got and how lucky I was to get into the house and blah blah blah. I knew all along that people just say those things because with the biggest transaction of a person’s life sometimes you need to feel like what you are doing is a positive thing and maybe it was but it sucks that there is no motivation for anyone in the “front lines” to tell the truth to people. Sure, the underwriter has motivation . . . but I never talked to the underwriter! The “motivation” part is why I signed up for the site and I hope the site is really on my side and I don’t end up regretting this!
Ok Bob, I take a leap of faith and I’ve signed up. I currently don’t own a home (I sold it last year), I’m house sitting for a friend, but that will soon end I’ll be house hunting and hopefully buying so this new service of yours might be useful too me.
Well I’m all signed up. Now that you have my SS# and a credit card … have fun! I was subscribing to a credit monitoring service that was $14.95 a month and when they changed their service for the worse, I left them. if your new service does what it says it will, I’ll be a long-time customer. I’m happy to be on e of the first.
Hi Bob,
Okay, you have two blogs: one on Technology and one for Mortgages.
I signed up to this blog – Cringely on Technology, and did not sign up for Mortgages.
Selling your business on this Cringely on Technology Blog is going too far… and makes for a very tenuous link to technology.
I am not interested in mortgages, or your mortgage business.
Please keep this blog/site focused on technology (what you are mainly known for) or you WILL lose readers/listeners.
Kind regards,
Griff
Sounds “complainy”
– “makes for a very tenuous link” , not really.
What makes technology interesting is what it can do, not by itself but combined with ideas for new ways of looking at data, and how it changes old ways of doing things.
Bob,
Have you considered hooking up with Leo LaPort @ TWIT.TV to do some podcasting? This Week In Tech is fun and interesting. If you have what it takes to get along with Dvorak from time to time, you could introduce yourself to an even larger audience. The show drives a lot of visitors to guests web sites and blogs. Check it out.
Hi Bob,
Add an “About Us” to top navigation bar to give better exposure to “Why We Did This” section
“The Home-Account Team” information.
Best regards,
Conrad
I like the sound of this. As I entered my details, it dawned on me that there was no place to put my wife’s details. Seeing as how she’s key to our mortgage, this is a bit omission. We pool our incomes to afford the nice house we live in. I have to have her details included to qualify for such any possible refi.
Bob, this sounds brilliant. On the downside, within the first couple minutes I found some glaring typos on the home-account.com site: “Insure [Ensure] you’ll always have the best mortgage”, and “Tailor the profile to fit your families [family’s] unique situation — once customized, your [you] receive only the…”
Yikes! Those are some pretty glaring mistakes. I stopped reading to type this note, so I hope you can fix these and any others quickly. (Bonus: “Limited time offer” should have a hyphen: “Limited-time”.)
Jon
Bob,
Since you like predictions I have a few:
First, there may be 50 million mortgages but you’ll be lucky if 1% ever hear of this. That’s 5 million. About 0.1% is a good sign-up rate for direct marketing. That’s 5000. I hope your site can live on 5000 sign ups max.
Second, you might have heard this is the worst economy and housing market in 80 years. About half of all mortgages are under water or delinquent. They won’t qualify for refi’s. That get’s you down to 2500 customers. Many of whom have lost their down payments in the stock market.
Third, people are used to getting things free on the internet. It’s going to be tough convincing them to pay for services that are free everywhere else. Yes, the smart ones will realize the mortgages from your site and the free ones just go to the same lenders. And yes, the smart ones will realize your site is just another spin on credit repair services. And that realtors dispense the same information as well.
Conclusion… good luck but I wouldn’t invest in this.
A little math lesson:
1% of 50 million is 500,000
.1% of 50 million is 50,000
This may actually be a good time to get in to the market. Start when the market’s slow, and hopefully the kinks will be worked out when things take off again.
I’ve just done my third and probably last refi, and a major finanical review, wish this had been around a year ago.
With your math skills, I wouldn’t invest in anything except a calculator.
“About half of all mortgages are under water or delinquent.”
But isn’t that all subprime? My understanding (from over here in Australia) is that the prime mortgage market is looking ok (foreclosures up, but not the bloodbath that subprime is).
So you need to take that into account in your miscalculations as well.
I don’t live in the USA so i don’t have any comments to make re your new venture. But i do wish to know if you are now branching out into new area and moving away from your observations and coverage of all things technological? If so should you not change your byline ” Cringely on Technology ” .
Wow, how to save $175,000 on your mortgage. That’s pretty compelling. I’d sign up.
Best of luck on your new venture. I think you guys can really change the industry.
By the way, if the “analog process” costs $1,500, it’s not clear to me that $10/mo. for the digital process represents a huge savings. I’d say get rid of the recurring pricing model and go back to a flat fee, maybe $500 or even $200 for a lifetime subscription.
This is just sheer Genius. Kudos on a great idea.
er Shear
I’m in the mortgage biz and the past years have been hard. I’ve spent time on the home-account site and do know, the next many years will be even harder due to this software. If the thing does what it says–provides 24/7 awareness along with smart alerts telling the customer when to refinance (based on numbers not humans), and a marketplace that encourages low cost closings (which protects a homes equity), I think you’ve got yourself a winner.
You’re right on as you described ‘yield spread premium’–this is money paid to a mortgage broker directly from the lender. The broker obtains the money by increasing the ‘buy rate’ provided by the bank. Since your site is a ‘broker free enviroment’, the rates provided will not have this escalation.
Congrats on the new venture. Are you guys hiring?
Bob,
being Canadian, any interest to franchise this to Canada?
My understanding is that we are not as badly off as US situation is, however I am sure that there’s plenty of people in Canada who just bought too expensive house for their earnings (at the time when subprime rate was easily obtainable; not anymore though ….). I’ve always been amazed what my bank would have approved me for (knowing that should I believe them, I’d be somewhere down the line in a deep trouble …).
Good luck!
My theory is that Bob HAS to mention home-account.com on this site. Marketing the site on his blogs is probably part of the deal he has with the company. I don’t blame him for it – just don’t read this post if you don’t care about it. Bob’s gotta eat.
Quoting Bob: “People with better credit who qualify immediately for loans at Home-Account then drop out can’t take advantage of the strategic advice that’s at the heart of the service. THEY WON’T save $175,000 in interest charges. That requires following a multi-year strategy. They may not even get the very best deal on that initial loan because we might be able to help them quickly improve their credit score enough in a month or two to get a lower rate.”
—-
I still don’t quite follow how someone with good to excellent credit, healthy income, and no credit card debt (or other debt problems) will want to stay subscribed for longer than a month or two. What I get from your comment is that what I get in return for $10/month is your “strategic advice”. You need to be a little more specific about this…
Right now, I have excellent credit, a stable job that pays well, and a mortgage on the first home I bought. I have no problems paying back this mortgage, and have actually turned this house into a rental property (because I am not living there). I just signed a one-year lease with tenants—the rent alone covers the mortgage cost (and note that I can afford the mortgage without the rental income).
My wife and I are considering buying a home since we are currently renting our living space. Interest rates are extremely low right now: your site’s 2-minute evaluation said I could get a 30-year fixed at 4.875%. If I bought a home at this rate, why would I continue my subscription at home-account.com? It’s possible interest rates could dip—but I try to stay relatively well-informed on this topic. Not only that, but I can just use the free 2-minute evaluation every now and then to see if an interest rate is available that’s sufficiently low to warrant refinancing.
My question is, what other “strategic advice” is there? I’m quite fiscally conservative: I follow all the “conventional” money management wisdom: max out 401k, IRA, save a significant portion of my monthly income, don’t carry *any* debt other than the mortgage, pay all bills on time, etc.
I’m not trying to knock your site or idea at all… I’m just looking for a better answer to question (1). I can see how someone in a weaker financial situation would stick with the subscription, but once they arrive at a significantly strong position… where can your site possibly take them?
One final comment: the “gist” of home-account.com (at least your description of it), seems to be that of mortgage consumer advocate, i.e., you’re on “our” side. I don’t know exactly how to do this, but you need some way to convey trust. I’m leery of “too good to be true” Internet scams; I wouldn’t have even done the free evaluation if it weren’t for you saying you’re part of it. Maybe partnering with places like BBB, VeriSign, Trustwave, Consumer reports or some consumer advocacy organizations. Dunno, just a thought.
You’re right, Matt, there may be no benefit for you, but I believe that would make you an exception. I often meet people who believe they can micro-manage their own mortgage, but national data evidences this isn’t the case.
The 2006 Statistical Abstract of the US Census reports the average mortgage note outstanding in the US is 28 years. Rewind 16 years to 1990, and the average note outstanding was 28 years. In the US, chances are, we will leave this world, before our mortgage statement reports a $0 balance.
As I understand this software, it allows subscribers to benefit from small changes in interest rate movements (the marketplace has no broker loads and encourages low closing cost transactions) which allows one to refinance more frequently, without losing the equity in the property. This of course gives the subscriber the option of lowering debt service payments or keeping service payments the same and lowering the amortization schedule.
But to answer your question, and I paraphrase, ‘Where can this site take people like me?’
I offer two answers, one specific and one general–
Specificallly–First thought is it would enable you to utilize a series of strategically placed ARM transactions (25-50 basis points less than fixed rates) over the coming years, allowing to realize more principle paydown. The smart alerts would provide the roadmap to the whens, wheres, and hows.
Generally–This software is simply going to save you a lot of time, as it’s automatic!
I believe this is a great value play for what we in the mortgage biz call ‘A’ Profiles. Micro-managing a mortgage becomes an opportunity cost or a time expense that could be better be spent elsewhere.
Most consider the mortgage transaction dreadful and painful. I believe most would rather put this transaction on auto-pilot and be done with it.
Bob,
I tend to think your plan is rooted in what was not what is. . . mortgage underwriting is undergoing a lot of change. Formulas are only part of the story. I had a so-so credit score because of a (now) ex-wife who wasn’t paying her part of bills during separation. I went to my bank, explained this and told the lending officer what I wanted, offering 20% down on the house and a year of payments in reserve on deposit at the bank and in one of their CDs. Trust me, I got the loan and and excellent terms (loan is about $1mm).
The problem we are in is due to over-leveraging. I didn’t think the 100% loans being offered me were a good idea but I qualified. Huh? I qualified for an ill-advised, stupid way to get into the housing market. The industry is how reeling from their stupidity and changes to new worthiness criteria and I don’t qualify due to a short-term personal situation. I present my own terms, far better than they could hope to get and, voila, I qualify.
Bottom line: live simply, save up and get a house with a mortgage that is noise level and not much more. And maybe try again to understand it is a roof over your head, under which you can live richly and bless others with care and hospitality.
Marco
Bob,
If this wasn’t your site/idea, I think you would be just as hesitant as I am to type the “keys to my city” into your DB.
I’m going to trust you on this one, you seem like a do no evil type guy – but man you better not sell your data set to some data hounds… :p
I totally agree with tokind (above) get with Leo LaPort @ TWIT.TV
It would be a good way to make your case re: security concerns & reach a wide range of cheap ass nerds – that would love to save a buck.
Thanks for doing stuff – you seem to be pretty good at it.
-kirby
Here’s the problem: the revenue per user is very low, so you need a large number of users. But more users bring more overhead to service them, from providing the actual “strategic value”, to basic customer service. Those two services alone presumably need some human involvement. I don’t see how you can automate the “strategic value” part, unless it is marketing hogwash. Nor do I see how can you automate the human interaction with the customer to address his complaints or whatever he can not find an automated answer for. Bottom line, with more users you’ll have more overhead, overhead that won’t be covered by the $120/user/year revenue. Yes, initially you may get some easy revenue from the first subscribers but wait until the volume increases substantially and you actually need to service them and provide them more value behind what your automated forms and credit checking can do. You better find the suckers to sell them the business and make a quick killing that way, provided you can recover your start-up costs.
Home-account.com gets a decent plug in PC World earlier this week. Go to number 5.
Bob,
How does Home-Account compare to the Money Merge Account (MMA) over at uFirst (https://www.theinterestexterminator.com/) ? Are they complimentary or competitive?
I had uFirst run their analysis and they claim to be able to get me out of debt (mortgage, student loan, car loan, etc.) within 14 years by calculating when and how much to pay on which bills (including loans) without living paycheck-to-paycheck or severely crippling my ability to “go out” once in awhile. All I have to do is follow the prompts and update their web-based software whenever a transaction occurs. While I have a degree in Physics and have done rocket science (NASA Kennedy & Johnson Space Centers) I am having trouble following the money trail.
I have followed your exploits for a lot of years and would really like your feedback. Thoughts?
The idea sounds great but no one yet has mentioned the one big variable in all this….the current home market price which is based on the appraisal.
What you owe on your mortgage, credit cards, car loans, your credit history and FICO scores; well those are all hard numbers and easy to verify. But what is your house worth? Or shall I say what would it appraise for? Well you may have a vastly different number in mind and your house (especially now) may not appraise for nearly what you think its worth. So how does home-account verify this if you are in the mind set to try and refi or purchase? The refi or purchase of a home always comes down to the appraisal and all the other numbers (down payment, LTV ratio, ect.) will be based on the opinion of that appraiser at that specific point in time.
For a refi if you are shoulder deep in equity then the appraisal will no doubt not have the same meaning (or criticality) then if you are in a situation where a $25,000 difference in the appraisal vs. your home price opinion would mean the difference between a go/no go situation.
So how can this system prepackage and approve a loan or refi when the one variable, the current home market price (appraisal) is not truly known until the appraisal comes in?
-to my understanding the Home-Account system scrubs the subscriber’s address against data found in various AVMs (automated valuation models). These are repositories of data derived from the MLS based based on closed sales. Though not perfect, these models provide good previews of appraised values.
I believe as technologies like Home-Account and AVMs become more efficient, not only are mortgage brokers an endangered specifies, but so are appraisers and mortgage underwriters.
Congratulations on the funding notice on TechCrunch. Good luck with it all.
I have come to the belief that anyone who refinances a mortgage without decreasing the term of the mortgage is costing themselves money in the long run. When a refinance of an existing mortgage occurs, the monthly payment will decrease, for some that is the main objective, however if the term of the new loan extends beyond the current term one will be paying much more in interest in the long run.
If an original note was 5.75% for a 30 year term and I am in year 5 of that term and I refinance the mortgage to 4.75 with a 30 year term, I will save approximately 100.00 a month on my payments and will recoup my refi costs in approximately 3 years. But I have also extended my term back to 30 years.
I believe that I would be much better served to accelerate the paydown of the principle amount, resulting in a decreased term.
maybe correct as you’ve stated and as you need but I add three points for others:
1) perhaps closing the 4.75% enables an upgrade of that mortgage within 12 months (the cell definition is enhanced at Fannie/Freddie and/or FHA and you can benefit–also, if you don’t close the 4.75 you cannot upgrade)
2) many in the US need the savings of $100/150 month. They can always cut back the amortization schedule at some point in the future.
3) the marketplace in the software encourages lower closing cost transactions without yield spread premium–the assumptions made on payback period is overstated–their transaction will be almost naked.
I was a cynic turned subscriber. Look closer at this software, it’s cheaper for them to do than for the homeowner to micromanager—they have developed a new discipline—independent mortgage management!
We had simalar mortgage company in the UK who was subsiduary of major bank and they are closing their doors due to credit crunch and leaving a lot of clients with mortgage problems, so beware
All episodes of Scrubs are live over at https://www.squidoo.com/scrubsepisodes for free if you wanna watch it online.
No people require maxims so much as the American. The reason is obvious the country is so vast the people always going somewhere from Oregon apple valley to boreal New England that we do not know whether to be temperate orchards or sterile climate.
If you scalp yes in front yet restart blackra1n via a PC/Mac yet to utilize regularly ( blank ) voilá! The actual finished.
This is such a great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. I love seeing websites that understand the value of providing a quality resource for free. It?s the old what goes around comes around routine.
well written article, i just finished bookmarking it for later. i’d like to revisit on future posts. how can i set up the rss again? thanks!
Hi nice to read your post I would like to introduce my new VPS cheap VPS
How do you know it is good!Can you tell me more about it?
I found your site via google thanks for the post. I will save it for future reference. Thanks Berkey Water Filter is our specialty.
Very good blog post I love your site keep up the great posts
Good day! I’m appreciative of the useful information. Can I quote parts of your post in mine? Thanks!
It\’s nice here. good study. I\’ve been looked the information for a time. thanks
My family and i came here mainly because this website was tweeted by a woman I had been following and i am delighted I made it here.
I have to point out you render many really good points and will be able to put up a variety of suggestions to add in as soon as a day or two.
I’ve read a guide that teaches how to build a homemade solar panel and wind turbine at a very low cost. It also claims to reduce 80%-100% of your electric bill. However, is it true? Did the guide really people in achieving their goal? Read more…
————-
[edit]Oops, wrong post
sssssssssssss aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssss aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssss aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssss aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssss aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssss aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
asdsdasdasdfasdasdas
Thanks man. It is special reading
Very interesting concept. Since no one works for free Im guessing your business is a volume business. Makes since and your always on the borrowers mind. I always find it funny that people can tell you who their insurance agent is, who sold them their car, who their handy man is, but with their biggest asset (at least usually) they have no clue who their lender was. This seems to create that relationship for life. Its brilliant from a marketing standpoint because word of mouth on something like this should keep you pretty busy. Good idea!
Thanks very good o/
Very worthwhile page. Your webpage is fairly quickly getting to be among my favorites.
I loved your blog article. Great.
great thanks man…
video izlemenin keyfi videocok.com ile çıkar.
good thanks o/
Danke for inspiring me to go look up my own research. Yours was way more thought out than mine.
Oh,nice article. Good informations..
Great communication I recently upon your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my original comment. I don’t know what todivulgeexcept that I have enjoyed reading. Careful blog. I will keep visiting this blog very many. Your blog review here a6
hmmm… so i stumbled upon your subject from other website that discussed this. Anyway, i spent the time to study your subject but i’m a bit confused… Either way, you’re a respectable author and i needed to take the effort to write thanks! I’ve book marked your blog for future referral.
This post had great content thanks for making my life better
Bookmarked your website. Are grateful for discussing. Surely worth time from our research.
You actually have a point there, I have never imagined it like it like that before. You make it sound so interesting. I am going to have to investigate this more!
You actually have a point there, I have never imagined it like it like that before.
Thank you so much for your insight on I, Cringely » Blog Archive » So THAT’S Why He’s So Interested in Mortgages! – Cringely on technology , I totally agree with you. It is great to see a fresh outlook on this and I look forward to more.
Thank you so much for your outlook on I, Cringely » Blog Archive » So THAT’S Why He’s So Interested in Mortgages! – Cringely on technology , I totally agree with you. It is good to see a fresh outlook on this and I look forward to more.
Thank you so much for your outlook on I, Cringely » Blog Archive » So THAT’S Why He’s So Interested in Mortgages! – Cringely on technology , I totally agree with you. It is good to see a fresh outlook on this and I look forward to more.
Thanks for the tips!…
[..]Found another resource for PAID SURVEYS on your site, Hope you don’t mind if I link to it.[..]…
Thank you for share incredibly very good data. Your internet is so coolI am impressed by the facts that you’ve got on this weblog. It reveals how properly you realize this topic. Bookmarked this web page, will arrive again for extra. You, my buddy, ROCK! I discovered just the facts I by now searched in all places and just couldn’t uncover. What a ideal internet site. Like this web page your web page is 1 of my new favs.I like this web page demonstrated and it has offered me some type of dedication to be successful for some cause, so thank you
Sounds like a good system and I applaude you for saving homeowners $$$$ on their mortgage. I hope this housing crisis ends soon.
Then the gas company sees whats going on with the van and they raise the price.
thank you great web site .. follow yes
akne behandlungbei akne:
Very good idea. I think this could really take off. There are way too many costs associated with a New Orleans Mortgage
Thank you for placing up this post. I¡¯m unquestionably frustrated with struggling to research out essential and rational commentary on this subject. everyone now goes in the direction of the amazingly much extremes to possibly generate home their viewpoint that either: everyone else within earth is wrong, or two that everyone but them does not truly understand the situation. pretty a variety of many thanks for the concise, pertinent insight.GOV,EDU,Folkd
You say, “We’ll teach you how to improve your credit score, literally telling you which bills to pay off first and how much to pay each month.”
But in the Terms and Conditions on the home-account website ( https://www.home-account.com/terms ) it says:
“Home-Account is not a credit repair organizations, and are not offering to sell, provide or perform any service to you for the express or implied purpose of either improving your credit record, credit history or credit rating or providing advice or assistance to you with regard to improving your credit record, credit history or credit rating.”
Good stuff you have here, I was going to mention this to a good friend of my
http://lvbags936858.page.tl/Louis-Vuitton-Wall-socket-notice-that.htm
We are a group of volunteers and opening a new scheme in our community. Your web site offered us with helpful information to work on. You’ve performed a formidable task and our whole neighborhood will likely be thankful to you.