Today in the mortgage space, everything is getting squeezed. Values are getting squeezed. Consumers are getting squeezed by credit bureaus, Fannie Mae and the lack of transparency of the Obama plan. Lenders are getting squeezed as they are overwhelmed with demand and try to get loans closed as they are near the top of their warehouse lines with increased costs of providing each loan. Employees throughout the industry are squeezed by everything in this challenging landscape and customer service is suffering horribly.
With that all said, thank you to everyone who reached out to us after our message of urgency last week. For anyone who missed it, we are in a situation where effective with all applications dated after May 1, 2009 the appraisal will have to be ordered blindly through an independent repository. This will have several effects. First, appraisal times will be delayed. Second, there will be no more “gut checks” of value for the consumer to see if it is worth spending the fee on an appraisal. Finally, there will be higher costs. Appraisal costs are expected to rise by $100 to $150 to the consumer. By the way, the repositories are owned by, you guessed it, the big banks. So much for independence in valuation.
So again, if you are considering refinancing to get a better rate or perhaps, shorten your term, move on it this week. You will maintain maximum control of the process.
