Loren's Blog

Good afternoon! I'm sorry I've been away for the past week or so. My father-in-law has been in the hospital for an extended stay, and I've been a bit 'pre-occupied'. And yes, he's fine now and back home, so all is well.However, while I was visiting him at the hospital, I was constantly reminded o...

I found an interesting article in the Minneapolis StarTribune over lunch this afternoon....."Coldwell Banker/Burnet sued over agents' referrals" (Business section, page D2)Basically, a suit has been filed over Realtors 'steering' closings to Burnet Title, an affiliate of Coldwell Banker- without ...

Since I had gotten some good comments back from the community...I thought I would tell you what ended up happening with my 'client'.To recap: I had pre-approved a Realtor's referral after verifying income and credit. Later, the Realtor visited a home where the selling Realtor wanted to place my c...

Had a tough call to make yesterday, and thought I'd ask the community about handling it....I had a referral from a realtor. When I interviewed the client , and verified credit & income, I gave the realtor the amount they would be pre-qualified for on a 30-yr. fixed rate. At one home they stopped ...

Last week, our new Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson was given a copy of a ‘Final Report' from her Predatory Lending Study Group. In it, a number of recommendations were made that are being requested to include in a bill to come to a vote this legislative session. (I do have a copy of the e...

If you haven't heard, the Minnesota Legislature is looking at passing a law this session that would require a Mortgage Originator (someone who can write loans AND employ loan officers) to have a provavble net worth of at least 1.5 million dollars outside of their business. This would do 2 things-...

I'm just curious this morning.....If you are helping a client, and they ask you for a recommendation for a trusted loan officer, how many names or cards would yoiu give your client?I've heard some say 'one', others 'two' and even a couple say 'three'.What are your feelings on the subject?

As a chair of the Minnesota Association of Mortgage Brokers, I get involved with a lot of things that try and help the consumer in Real Estate transactions. However, I also get to see some of the tricks played by unprofessional Mortgage people- the 'Bad Apples'. One came to light again today- hop...

After having breakfast with a divorce attornry today, (about referral business, not for my own personal use, thank goodness!) he talked to me about a problem he sees....that Realtors are not giving honest home price listing information to the 'homebound half' of a divorce. He accused most Realtor...

After getting my 2nd call of the day yesterday from a potential client that wanted to apply for a cash-out loan because their Realtor had 'taken them off the MLS', I figured I'd better write a quick reminder.....While the majority of Realtors are above board on this.....remember- Most all lenders...