On January 28, 2005 I turned lenderama into a blog. To my knowledge it was the first B2B blog in the mortgage, or even the real estate industry. My original goal was to talk to the 54 mortgage broker clients that I had cultivated over my years as a wholesale account executive. What actually happened changed my life.

Looking back, what has four years of involvement in social media done for me?

I was standing on the trade show floor of Inman Connect NYC earlier this month when a real estate agent walked up to me and exclaimed, “YOU’RE THE GUY!”. I told her I get that a lot. It’s funny, but also true. I’m going to brag a bit in this post. I hope you’ll see that I’m doing it to show you what’s possible by participating in social media. Here are some highlights

I was interviewed for Mortgage Technology Magazine. Then by RIS Media, and Inman News. Lenderama was featured in a story about real estate blogging in Investors Business Daily.

I was interviewed for the McGraw Hill published book, Realty Blogging. I was asked by the writers of that book to start blogging for them. I started teaching people how to blog all the way back in 2006.

Inman News asked me to start contributing to their blog. As did countless other sites.

I started meeting people from around the country. First online with bloggers like Dustin Luther, Dan Green, and Jim Duncan.

By 2007, I was meeting them in person. People like Teresa Boardman, Kristal Kraft and Jeff Turner. Awesome people. People that I call friends.

Because of Lenderama, Dave Savage and I talk on the phone.

I also met Jason Berman through Lenderama. He was the past president of CAMB and teamed up with me to create REBlogWorld.

Because of blogging, I met Andy Kaufman, who got me involved with helping him on RE BarCamp.

All of this has created momentum. In the last month, I’ve connected in person with Sherry Chris, CEO of Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate, and Dale Stinton, CEO of NAR. This weekend, Dave Jenks started following me on Twitter.

Virtually every close friendship I’ve developed in the last four years is related to social media, including my best friend, all of my business partners, and even the great lady I took to lunch for the first time today.

I started a new business with three awesome people. Ginger Wilcox, Kelley Koehler, and Mariana Wagner. All of us are examples of how using social media can expand your SOI, help you find new clients, or to forge great friendships.

Social Media had changed my life.

Last night, I struggled with the fact that I have more opportunities facing me than I have time for. I have to figure out how to pick and choose. Considering the economy as a whole, that’s a pretty damn cool problem to have.

Okay, yes. I’m bragging. I’m dropping names. It feels good. Four years ago, I was an average sales guy with 54 clients he wanted to reach. Today, I’m sort of a big deal. I’m meeting people at the top of the industry. But all of this came from social media tools that most of you can use to accomplish everything I have. If you haven’t adopted social media as a marketing platform yet, why the hell not?

I managed to pull off another week of writing this in the United States, and mortgage rates managed to tick higher, yet again.  I guess the Fed is waiting on something else (maybe a new infusion of cash from Congress?) before they try to drive rates lower, or even keep them level.  It does sound like Obama and his Democratic buddies are ready, willing and in all likelihood, able, to spend exuberant amounts of money to drive rates down and “lower mortgage costs”, which should likely scare you and all the borrowers out there.

Well, as I said last week, mortgage backed securities would be under selling pressure this week, and indeed they were, even in the midst of favorable economic data.  In the end, mortgage rates ended the week around 0.25%, but let’s look at what happened throughout the week. 

Treasury Auctions were rather mixed, with short term auctions meeting marginal demand and drawing slightly higher yields.  The 5-year auction went fairly well and even had fairly decent foreign participation, with yields ending at 1.82%, and the 20-year TIPS coming in at 2.50%.  Data wise, we saw continued problems in the housing market on several occasions, along with dismal numbers across the board when it came to the economy, with Friday’s list of data all missing their expectations.  The good thing is that despite the increased inflationary expectations, the data is showing recessionary concerns still outweigh inflationary ones.  And yet, mortgage backed securities fell and mortgage rates rose.

What’s in store for this week?  We start the week off with a report that is the Fed’s favorite.  Personal Consumption Expenditures (aka Personal Income and Outlays) has already come out, which I break down in detail over at Florida Mortgage Daily.  We also have several other key players, as well as more Treasury Auctions (they need to fund their stimulus packages).  And, of course, it’s will be the first Friday of the month and that means the Jobs Jamboree is coming.  Here is the rundown…

• Monday:  Personal Income and Outlays (PCE, Personal Spending and Personal Income) (8:30), ISM Index (10:00), 3-month Bill Auction (1:00), 6-month Bill Auction (1:00)
• Tuesday:  Pending Home Sales (10:00), 4-week Bill Auction (1:00)
• Wednesday:  ADP Employment Report (8:15), ISM Services Index (10:00), Crude Inventories (10:30)
• Thursday:  Jobless Claims (8:30), Productivity and Costs (8:30), Money Supply (4:30)
• Friday:  Non-farm Payrolls (8:30), Unemployment Rate (8:30), Average Work Week (8:30), Hourly Earnings (8:30), Consumer Credit (3:00)

As you can see, all eyes will likely be focused on a dismal economy with inflationary fears taking a back seat.  However, that was the case last week as well and mortgage backed securities plummeted, causing mortgage rates to rise, so what can be expected this week?

Mortgage bonds have fallen through another layer of support and now take aim at testing their 50-day moving average.  The good news is that they have moved into an oversold situation according to stochastics, so a correction is coming, it is just a question of when.  The bottom line, though, is they have broken out of their trading range that was caused by the artificially inflated prices due to the Fed’s buying, so the Fed is about the only way we will see lower mortgage rates for the foreseeable future, minus the corrective period.

By Jeanne Johnson of LandRecs.com

In order to stop foreclosures, it is inevitable that existing mortgages will be modified so borrowers can make their monthly payments.  In the past, when mortgages were modified, title policies were still in the picture, because intervening liens were a concern. For example, let’s say Sam Smith wanted to modify the terms of his loan by increasing the loan amount. You were the first mortgage lender. If you modified the loan, you had to worry about what that would do to your 1^st lien position. If there was a second mortgage or a tax lien on the property, changing the terms of your loan might bump you into second place.

Think about it. Titles on all of these troubled loans have already been insured. They won’t need to be insured again. I expect the new loan modification law will be written so that the modifications that will generally decrease the interest rate will be seen as an advantage to any secondary lien holders. Therefore, the modification should date back to the original loan, and no endorsements will be needed. So, there won’t be any need for a title review, or a modification of the title policy. Even if the laws are not  written to address the issue, doesn’t it make sense that the terms of the modification will certainly be better than the original loan, so no one in a secondary position can claim they have been damaged?

I think loan modifications are good for the consumer, and good for the economy, but I think they provide no role for title companies.