I have to say that the last two years I spent as a mortgage loan officer and vice president at Bank of America were the most frustrating of the the 27 years I have been in the business.  It was as if common sense no longer mattered. Furthermore, many escrows failed to close on time due to ridiculous underwriting conditions required by the underwriting department.  The management under which I worked really did their best under the circumstances.  The sad fact of the matter is that Bank of America at this time does not have an effective mechanism to process loans efficiently, and they will at times deny loans to credit worthy borrowers.  

I plan to give specific examples in future blogs, and I welcome comments.  It  is not my intention to disparage Bank of America out of anger.  As a company, they treated me quite well.  As for my clients, well that was a different story.  Hopefully, my voice and others will be heard, and something will be done to change this.

It is hard to believe, but I have actually retired as a mortgage loan officer and Vice President from Bank of America. I will now be spending much of my time creating music on my musical website, www.jerard.com.

I am looking forward to writing about the many problems which exist at Bank of America. I won’t do this tonight, but I will begin in the next day or so.

I do not want to complain about my tenure there just for the sake of creating bad feelings. Hopefully, what I have to say will stir them to get their act together.

More to come….

I certainly welcome any calls regarding home loans.   I pretty much know the business cold.  Underwriting issues making it difficult for good borrowers to get new loans (not impossible…just difficult) are something that I have just become accustomed to dealing with, since all lenders today make it hard.

That being said, I have decided to move in a new direction.  I will be setting up a home studio and performing “live” my renditions, both vocal and instrumental of some of some really good  music.   I will then publish these video performances  on the internet.  The sponsor?  Well Loanman.com will be the sponsor.  I like the loan business, because I enjoy assisting people in making the right decisions.  I do it well, and, frankly,  it’s a good living.

But I would also like to share my musical talents with anyone interested in hearing what I do.  Today’s technology makes this fairly easy to accomplish.  I am a classical guitarist, an arranger and a vocalist.  Each performance will begin with me talking a little about the composer and the musical piece.  I plan to do one or two of these videos a month.

It should be fun.

I am discovering that our underwriters are more than ever scrutinizing the down payment of purchases.  For example, I recently closed a loan where the borrowers were putting down 20% cash to a new loan. The borrower was self employed and transferring money a small amount of money from his business account to add to other funds for the down payment.

You can’t believe the trouble this caused, and I almost lost the deal. The business funds were not allowed, and our underwriting geniuses tried to argue the money transferred from his business to his personal account actually tainted the money already in his personal account. Granted, there is no logic to this reasoning whatsoever, but logic often times is completely thrown out the window.

Well, the deal closed last week but not without a whole lot of stress and fighting to inject just a little bit of common sense.  We had to provide proof of other funds. It wasn’t fun, and I am becomming increasingly frustrated with irrational calls that always go against the borrower.

Fortunately, I usually prevail and my loans close, but not without a whole lot of arguing and frustration. This job used to be a lot more fun than it is today, and I can’t figure out what is really going on.

The challenge I face to is reach people so that they can discover the value of this site. It is not as easy as it seems. The educational videos, the video listings, my music, my comments–all unique and of real value, are things that I am very proud of. 

Over the past month or so I have been exploring the possilities of promoting myself on Facebook.  I want to make sure that this done in good taste and in a non pushy way.  I am open to suggestions. 

This is like a new starting point, as far as the promotion of this site, and I will keep you informed of the progress.

I took up the game of golf when I was 13.  I had the privilege of watching Arnold Palmer in his prime through the 60’s, when he would play in the L.A. Open at Rancho Park each year in January.  I saw Jack Nicklaus in his first PGA tournament, the L.A. Open in 1961.  He finished last of those who made the cut.

I wanted to become a great golfer, but life has a way of humbling  people like me.  I practiced a lot but had just so-so talent, if any.  Today, I don’t play much, if at all.

All that being said, I heard Dan Patrick interview Tom Watson last week after he almost pulled off what would have been the greatest all-time story in the history of golf, in my opinion…winning the British Open at the age of 59.  Tom was disappointed but philosophical and shared his thoughts and feelings with Dan.

What is so terrific about golf is that if you look at the greatest players in recent times, e.g. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Gary Player and others, you will see one thing in common.  They are genuinely nice people who demonstrate genuine humility in the way they deal with fame and treat their fans. Golf is probably unique in this way.

I remember once in 1962 at the LA Open I walked past Gary Player after a practice round and just said “hi” and asked him how he was. He stopped and talked to me for a couple of minutes and asked me several questions about myself just because of the love he has in his heart for people in general.  He, in particular has impressed me through the years with his intelligence, eloquence, sense of humor and genuine love of life.  He has been one of golf’s great ambassadors.

More to come…

A friend of mine sold his home in Valencia  for $750,000.  His escrow is supposed to close in August.  His buyers were committed to going with a lender referred by the buyer’s relocation company.  The first appraisal came in for the sales price of $750,000.   The review, “desktop”  second appraisal came in for $500,000.  The review appraiser completed his work behind a desk in Ohio.

So you would think their lender (not the bank where I work) would discard the lower appraisal or at least try to get to bottom of the matter.  Perhaps the relocation company would release the buyers from their obligation to use its lender.

So far this is not happening.  The lender is standing firm and is wanting to take the lower appraisal, even though the buyer wants to pay the sales price and is putting over 30% down. Since the relocation company is paying for the buyer’s move, it is not allowing the buyers to go to another lender.

Sounds ridiculous?  Well ridiculous things are happening today and sometimes there is little one can do about it.  If you try to appeal to one’s reason, you will often find nobody on the other end of a transaction who can help.  These can be real frustrating times for buyers and sellers, as well as for Realtors and lenders.  I’ll keep you posted.

We closed yesterday and could have closed earlier, had  the underlying lender not delayed in granting a one week extension for the closing date.  It helped that the borrowers were both employed with good jobs, and their credit scores were over 720.  Also, it helped that this was a house with no homeowner’s association issues to deal with.

I believe that I am fortunate to be working for a bank that can move quickly to close an escrow.  My assistant, as well as our processing department realized that the underlying lender was within its legal rights to pull the plug any time after July 2nd.  Had the documents not been ready to sign prior to the closing date, there was a strong possibility that the lender would have allowed the home to go to trustee’s sale, hence killing the deal.

So, everybody at my bank pitched in to make this happen, and I am grateful for that.

It is gratifying to know that

A client of mine put an offer in on a short sale.  After 3 months the bank accepted the offer with the stipulation that the escrow close by July 2nd. The problem was that these were FHA borrowers, and the offer was accepted on June 8th.

To make a long story short, we went the extra mile to close this escrow as soon as possible. Keep in mind, the typical FHA loan takes about 45 days to close. Well, documents were ready today with the borrowers scheduled to sign tomorrow and the loan to close early next week.  A great effort by my staff and me in getting things taken care of so fast, right?

Well, the bank in first position on the seller’s property has yet to sign off on the extension beyond July 2nd.  Although it is unlikely the bank will let this property go to a trustee’s sale this Monday as originally scheduled, as of late this afternoon the bank hadn’t given the green light to let the buyers close escrow.  If the bank for whaever reason denies the extension, we will have wasted a tremendous amount of time and effort–and there is nothing that can be done about it at this point.

The above scenario is an example of what can go wrong with transactions involving short sales. You never quite know where you stand until escrow finally closes. Granted, one can pick up a good deal purchasing a home this way, but if escrow fails to close on the agreed upon date, anything can happen.

……more on Monday

I took my son to see Michael Jackson at Dodger Stadium in the mid 1980’s.  About two years later,  I and my whole family saw him perform at what was then the Great Western Forum. Both performances were amazing. Michael was truly the King of Pop. 

I don’t think any musical artist in recent memory garnered the love and admiration that Michael did. He was truly an awesome talent.  The tributes to him over the weekend by so many public figures were unanimously glowing.  He had changed the way we view and listen to music and musical performers.  He was a sweet and gentle person.  He was generous and kindhearted to a fault.

That being said, Michael was a very sad figure.  The saying in the Bible ,”What profits a man to gain the world and lose his soul,” could arguably apply to him.  He had the love and admiration of  more people than just about anybody in recent history. He had enormous talent, which he was able to share with the world.  His music made us all feel good.  Yet he had become addicted to drugs, was heavily in debt, and his looks had become grotesque.

He was preparing for a 50 performance concert tour that would require a tremendous physical effort.  Even for someone in incredible shape, this was a daunting task. What did Michael need to prove and why was he doing it?  Was he doing this for the purpose of reducing his indebtedness?  I don’t think so. The money generated from the upcoming tour would only make a small dent in what he owed.  Was his craving for worldly love insatiable? I really don’t think that was it either.

I really don’t know why Michael died at such a young age. Maybe the reasons are complex. Perhaps it was from the pressure of having to continue to be Michael Jackson.  He was aging and becoming more drug dependent. His physical and perhaps even his psychological condition were making his return to the glory days just about impossible–and he knew it.  It’s sad to think that maybe deep down inside he felt very unhappy and unfulfilled. I hope that wasn’t the case.

Maybe his true legacy will be an example to all of us of what can happen to geniuses who receive love and riches beyond any one’s wildest dreams and the possible and even likely consequences of such a worldly prize.