Dave Marzinke's Blog

  Last Week's Economic News in Review                 Last week was filled with unexpected employment news shockers, including April seeing the lowest rate of unemployment since 2008 and a surprise increase in initial jobless claims. Meanwhile, personal incomes and spending gained momentum. Unem...

       Here's a term you may have heard a lot in the news recently: housing affordability. But what exactly does it mean and how does it affect you as a homebuyer?    What Is Housing Affordability?  The two factors influencing housing affordability are income and housing prices. In general terms,...

This may seem like common sense but I wanted to share this story as a reminder to watch out for this with your clients.   A Realtor contacted me in my office on the 6th of December about what I could offer their client on a deal they just put in to escrow.  The Realtor told me I was up against an...

There has been much talk about the impact that the Dodd Frank rules will have on our industry after January 10, 2014. There has been a lot of assumptions, misguided statements and flat out inaccurate information being disseminated throughout our industry. Some portions of the rules are simply not...

  As you may have heard, our government and many of its agencies are currently shutdown. How does this affect mortgage lenders and banks? Among other things, here is how lenders will be affected:   1.       Lenders use IRS to for tax transcript request (conventional, FHA, VA)   2.       Lenders u...

The FHA 203K loan program is one of those programs that you've heard about but you are not really sure how it works.  With the right lender and servicer, this is a powerful loan program that can help you get that listing in shape to get top dollar or help your buyer obtain their dream home if the...

Yesterday was one of the worst losses I've seen in my 10 years of lending experience.  We went through three re-prices and mortgage backed securities lost over 150 basis points.  Ouch!  But what does this really mean if I'm still looking to purchase my home?  How does this affect my payment?   Ho...

With the market in Orange County, CA heating up and having limited inventory, buyers need to take every step to make their offer as attractive as possible.  With buyers that need financing, one of the most successful things you can do is to have a full pre-approval from a lender so you can make y...