The tax man cometh, and it seems like he wants more every year. Fortunately, there is an easy way to pay less taxes this year than you paid last year — file a property tax appeal. According to the National Taxpayers Association, approximately 60% of taxable property in the U.S. is over-assessed. That’s the majority, folks! The majority of you — and the majority of your clients — are paying too much in property taxes. The good news is that filing an appeal is relatively easy, and 33% of appeals are successful. I just gave you a good reason to touch base with your clients.

Even though most people are overpaying when it comes to property taxes, almost no one is willing to go through the appeal process — even though it’s relatively easy. Simply contact your local county assessor’s office, and obtain the paperwork. Make sure to ask them what formula they use to do their calculation. This is important because many counties use a percentage of market value. That means that you could still be paying too much in property taxes even if your assessment is already below current market value. Also make sure to ask for a copy of your property card so that you can check it for errors. You want to make sure that the number of rooms and square footage are correct, for example.

When my wife was a young girl, she followed her father and an appraiser around the new home that her father had just built for their family. Her father is a funny guy, so he kept the appraiser amused. The appraiser allowed him to hold the opposite end of the tape measure, so he pulled it out past the edge of the house in an effort to inflate the square footage of the home. Because the appraiser was so far away, he couldn’t tell that he was being duped. This is a good example of why it’s important to check your property card for errors. Needless to say, my father-in-law isn’t totally honest. I find it sort of ironic that my father-in-law is also one of the only people I have ever known who faithfully files property tax appeals.

You may also be able to find comps in your neighborhood to support your case, although that will take a bit of digging into the public records. Also realize that one of the best times to appeal is when you have just gotten a mortgage — the reason being that you have a fresh appraisal in your hands. A lot of counties will allow you to use a recent appraisal as evidence in disputing your assessed value.

Wade Young is a Colorado mortgage broker.

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State Street Corporation, the country’s largest money manager for institutions, is in hot water with its investors. More than 200 retirement plans have brought suit against the money giant. Bloomberg has reported that the damages are expected to exceed the $625 million originally set aside for that purpose. The Bloomberg story sources place the damages at over $1 billion, and the rumor mill sets the damages at many billions.

The Plaintiffs’ attorney maintains that State Street breached its “fiduciary duty” to investors. State Street will no doubt play the investments-carry-inherent-risk card. Angry investors say that the investments were marketed to them as low risk — akin to a money market fund when they were actually highly leveraged mortgage-backed securities.  It comes down to a marketing question. Were the investments packaged such that the packaging didn’t jive with the contents inside the box?

The fact that State Street has set aside $625 million to cover damages shows that the company expects significant exposure. The Plaintiffs’ attorney is claiming that a “prudent expert” … well, should have known … well, to the extent that they had knowledge.

The end result is that the ratings agencies need to do a better job. Investors need to do a better job. And State Street … well, everyone could have done better. Yet here we are, and it will be interesting to see how things play out.

Wade Young is a Denver mortgage broker.

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I started lenderama with the modest intentions. I wanted a cheap way to connect with my clients. All 50 of them. When lenderama blossomed into the booming voice that it is, my eye’s were opened to how new media platforms like blogging are changing the power structure of our industry.

Sometimes I ask myself why so many people listen to me. The only honest answer is that I bothered to say something in the first place. You can tell people you’re an expert all you want. Once you start proving it, that’s when people start to listen. Blogging platforms give good real estate agents and mortgage brokers the ability to PROVE they are experts. More importantly, the average agent or LO can use blogs without the help of an IT guy, or a web designer. Blogs bring the digital soapbox to the masses.

In an environment where the prestige of being an agent or originator is no better than a used car salesman, there’s no better time to use blogging and new media as a platform for proving to your clients that you are different. I’ve seen it from my own efforts.

Now, I’m taking everything I’ve learned in three years of blogging and packaging it up into RE BlogWorld. This three day conference and trade show is part of the largest new media event in the world. We’ll have over 70 seminars to pick and choose from over three days in Las Vegas. Are you just getting your feet wet? We’ll get you right on track. Are you an experienced blogger with nothing to learn? That’s what I thought before I went to this event last year. I walked away with cramps in my hand after taking so many notes. We have something to offer for everyone.

Over the next few months, I’ll be banging away here with updates and news about RE BlogWorld. If you’re smart enough to find lenderama, I know it will benefit you.

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Can’t get enough of me? I know the feeling. Tomorrow, I’ll be all over the web. Here’s a rundown.

Just for fun, I’ll be guest posting on The Real Estate Weenie. Teresa Boardman’s blog of mass destruction, cleverly designed as a hot dog stand.

12:30 Eastern. Andy Kaufman asked me to call into Zebra Talk concerning our RE BarCamp project. We’re finalizing our content for this great event, so now’s the time to act if you wish to be involved.

4:30 Eastern. I have a BIG announcement concerning a great new project I’m working on. I’ll be talking to Barry & Barry about it live on Real Estate Radio USA. If you’re interested in taking your online efforts to the next level, and love to party in Vegas, you’ll definitely want to tune in.

5:30 Eastern. Have questions about this big announcement? Ask me live via Twitter. I’ll be there for sure until 7:30. If you’re not already a Twitter member, sign up for free, then follow me.

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“The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”- Ronald Reagan

H.R. 5830 emerged from the Barny Frank led House Financial Services Committee last week, and I couldn’t be any less surprised. The latest variant can be found at OpenCongress, but here are the Cliff Notes.

FHA will insure new loans for borrowers at 90% of present value.

Lenders must consider the loan paid in full.

They actually only get 85%, once a 3% FHA financing fee is paid along with 2% in closing costs.

Participation by the lenders is voluntary.

If the buyers sells or refinances the loan, they must pay a prorated portion of the equity to FHA.

Oh, and there’s hundreds of millions of dollars in appropriations that have little to do with the program itself.

There’s a lot more details, but I’m not going to bore you with them The bill is just out of committee in the house and still faces markup committees, amendments from the full House, and a Harry Reid led Senate. The details are not yet important.

What’s the point of this bill?

Brian Brady seems to think we are saving ourselves from the moral hazard of, “the willingness of home buyers to walk away from a mortgage because they don’t like the fact that prices dropped” I understand the logic, but isn’t letting them skip out on 20% of the debt they owe the same moral dilemma? Admittedly, on a smaller scale. The truth is, I don’t care about the morality of it all.

Housing Bubble fanatics will call the bill a lender bail out. I’m not sure how. It’s hardly a good deal for them. In fact, that’s the problem. The program is voluntary, and I don’t see to many lenders who’ll be all that voluntary in their participation. I think Barney Frank is counting on that.

Yesterday, in his speech at a MBS meeting in Boston, Congressman Frank reveals his intentions,

“If this program, this set of inducements, for people to avoid foreclosure doesn’t make much difference, what you will face next year … will be much tougher rules about the home mortgage industry in general”

Can you see the future? I can.

What’s lost in the debate over H.R. 5830 are the appropriations to grow the FHA, fund legal aid programs across the nation, and even to pump money into the FBI to hire more agents. H.R. 5830’s goal is to grow the government, create the illusion that the politicians are doing something to help the average Joe, and setting the stage to take an even greater role once it doesn’t work.

Just wait until the Senate gets a hold of it.

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Did you enjoy the wild ride we had last week? Volatility reentered the market as data and news went both ways providing moves both up and down. Mortgage backed securities ended the week up 63 basis points, providing a slight tick down in rates.

Those big events I mentioned last week played a huge role in the volatility, with Friday’s jobs data sending bonds into their wildest single day ride in a long time (the candlestick measured about 135 basis points). But what all happened last week?

As was expected, the Fed dropped rates another .25%, but the policy statement’s wording changed, giving a boost to bonds. Normally, bonds react negatively to the Fed’s move, causing mortgage rates to tick higher on Fed rate cuts, but this time the Fed stated they were all but guaranteed to stop the “insanity”. Since that means the Fed is finally facing the facts regarding inflation and changing their stance to a potentially more combative one, bonds moved higher this time.

However, the very next day, the Fed’s face got slapped by the PCE report. One of the statements the Fed had made Wednesday was “Although readings on core inflation have improved somewhat”, and that is where they were proven wrong by the PCE data. PCE came ticked higher and beat expectations, even at the core level. In fact, core inflation rose outside the “comfort zone” again, coming in at 2.1% year over year. Remember that this is the Fed’s favorite gauge on inflation, so that move had to have stung a bit. Bonds shrugged off the news for the most part though.

Then came Friday, and its much better than expected report, which sent bonds into oblivion. While the job market is still shrinking, the loss was much less than expected, and that brought back wage-based inflationary fears. The market sentiment changed later in the day as the thoughts became more regarding recession, and bonds managed to regain almost all of the lost ground.

So, now we have started a new week and this one should be much calmer. After last week, we all could likely take a breather and this week’s agenda should allow some of that. There are a few reports ahead that could send some ripples through the markets, though, so stay alert. Here is the breakdown:

• Monday: ISM Services Index (10:00)
• Wednesday: Pending Home Sales, Crude Inventories (10:30)
• Thursday: Initial Jobless Claims (8:30)
• Friday: Balance of Trade (8:30)

As you can see, not a lot of economic data to digest this week, so let’s look at the technical side. If you look at the larger picture, there is a general trend lower, but there are strong support layers that held up against Friday’s assault. Stochastics are in the middle, so they will not help determine the direction for now. Bonds are off their highs of the morning, but the support of the 50-day moving average has held as well.

Normally, I suggest a locking stance for the week, obviously subject to change as conditions warrant. This week, I can say that the way the markets appear, my stance will likely be that of locking, but as support holds, there may be some opportunity to float as well.

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Lately I’ve been chatting with quite a few loan officers. In the last 10 days, I spoke with someone who was so desperate, he offered me 50% of his closings for the next 6 months if I could help him close more; and I also spoke with a loan officer who closed 28 loans in the last 30 days. (His average is over 25 per month - This guy is a machine!)

The irony of this situation is that both loan officers worked within 30 miles of each other. This raises a question… What is the difference between those who are closing hundreds of loans this year, and those struggling to find 1 or 2 per month? Attitude, and trust…

This is not to say that those who are struggling have a bad attitude. Rather, what I’ve noticed is that those who seem to be kicking in the doors lately, and closing loans at an exponentially higher rate than their competition have a high degree of trust in their marketing and sales ability. If you don’t think you can succeed, then why should your actions tell you any different?

If you’re skeptical, and keep playing the sales game defensively rather than going on the offense, you are making your job much, much more difficult than it needs to be! Let’s look at a loan officer named Omar.

Omar came to me, and told me his situation. It was a tough spot to be in to be sure, but he said something to me that I knew would make him a great candidate for a rapid change in his career: “Just tell me what to do, and I will do it.” Omar stuck to that promise. Despite the tight spot he found himself in, he made that decision to give it his all, without wasting time playing the “what if” game.

Too often I find originators worry about what will happen IF this or THAT doesn’t work… This is a defensive attitude that will kill your progress dead in its tracks. Its the same as trying to play basketball by doing nothing more than blocking. How many points would you score? None! You’d almost certainly lose every single game since no one is good enough to block 100% of the other teams shots!

In a similar vein, no loan officer on the planet can successfully block bad things from happening 100% of the time, so stop trying! A defensive mindset stops you from reaching your potential. Go on the offense, and tell yourself the same thing Omar did: “I’m going to do it - Success is NOT an option!”

Why should it be? You have the exact same opportunity that everyone else has. Some of our members were hurting so bad they had to take small loans or borrow the money just to join the Loan Officer Marketing Lab… Yet, most of them have added several closings per month to their wallet… If a loan officer so tight on cash can still market themselves effectively, then anyone can! (No, I am not promoting mindless spending here, but rather, CALCULATED risks. There is nothing wrong with being prudent with your spending, but at some point, you MUST make a decision to move forward and commit yourself to that decision)

Find your “ON” button and keep mashing it throughout the day. What gets you going? What gets you excited? What makes you stand up and take action? For Omar, he told me he didn’t have a choice, he HAD to make this work! I love hearing that, because it tells me things are about to get done! People seem to transform when all options are removed. A mental decision is made that “I’m going to do what I have to… Nothing is going to stand in my way.” That’s the mode you need to be in right now. Forget the market, YOU are in control. Just ask the loan officer who closed 28 loans in April…

Chad Weber - www.loanofficermarketinglab.com - www.fsboleadportal.com

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