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Recently one of my clients called me because they decided to refinance and they got a great rate, saved almost a 1% off their original loan and had no closing costs. This cut their monthly payments by over $200 according to them.

But, what they were calling me about was they got a letter from their insurance agent saying they were canceling them. Why, may you ask? Well, it seems they were too close to a landslide area and not close enough to a fire hydrant.

Now, they have had this insurance for over 3 years and because they refinanced, the underwriter wanted to review their account. They have never had a claim, but now they are being dropped by their insurance company. I told this client take the day off and find a new insurance agent today! If you don’t your bank that has lent you the money will put their own insurance in place and you won’t believe how much they will charge you.

Luckily they were able to find an new insurance company that would cover them within a half hour, but it certainly could have been worse and I can’t imagine what would have happened if they couldn’t have found another insurance company to cover them. My guess is their bill would have went up way more than the $200 a month they were already saving getting the new loan.

So, if I were you, I would plan a backup plan in place, just in case your insurance company calls and says that your insurance has decided to change the policy and you now no longer qualify to be a customer. Because if you don’t it will cost you!

Todd Clark - Broker / Sales Coach
All Brokers Real Estate
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739

Tigard Oregon Homes for Sale, Tigard OR homes for sale, homes for sale in zip code, 97223,97224, Tigard Oregon Realtor, Tigard OR Realtor, Tigard Oregon MLS Search, Tigard OR MLS Search, 1st time home buying expert, short sale expert, avoiding foreclosure in Tigard, helping families home, LivingBeaverton, Townhomes for sale, home for sale, house for sale, Bull Mountain North, Bull Mountain South, King City, Mountainview, Greenburg, Summer Lake Neighborhood, Summerfield neighborhood, Tigard neighborhood, Walnut Grove Neighborhood. Tigard Oregon Real Estate, Tigard OR real estate, Todd Clark, (503)524-9494, WWW.LivingTigard.com, www.IFoundYourNewHome.com, www.SavingyouFromForeclosure.com

©2010 Todd Clark - Originally posted at  Earth, Wind and Fire are great on the radio, but not so great when trying to get insurance!

Can you believe this, 29% interest rate on a credit card and I don’t care? That is right, I don’t care! I’m not in any way offended that my credit card company calls me a deadbeat, I’m  actually really proud of the title. It has taken me a long time and a lot more lessons earlier in life to get to the point where I’m called a deadbeat!

What is a deadbeat to a credit card company? A deadbeat is someone who pays their bill in its entirety every month. You see when you pay your credit card in full every month, you don’t pay interest and that makes me a deadbeat. The credit card company doesn’t make any money off me at all.

So, why did they raise my interest rate to 29%? Just in the off chance that I don’t pay one month, this way they can actually make some money off me. But, I got some bad news for them, that isn’t going to happen. I pay automatically through my credit union and I raise the amount that is set to be sent in to the exact amount owed every time I use the card.

Why do I even use the card if I have the cash on hand? Well, here is the fun part for me, the credit card actually pays me to use it. Depending on the card, I may get air miles or on one card, I actually get cash back at the end of the year. Either way, the bank loses, I get something for free while they get yet another deadbeat on their hands.

Now, I have heard of a few credit card companies closing accounts like mine in the past couple months, but until it happens to me, I’m going to be proud to be a deadbeat on the few cards that I do have. Are you a deadbeat? Maybe you should become one, it is rather fun to get a letter that says they are raising your interest rate and you can laugh at it knowing that you will never have to pay that.

Todd Clark - Broker / Sales Coach
All Brokers Real Estate
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739

Tigard Oregon Homes for Sale, Tigard OR homes for sale, homes for sale in zip code, 97223,97224, Tigard Oregon Realtor, Tigard OR Realtor, Tigard Oregon MLS Search, Tigard OR MLS Search, 1st time home buying expert, short sale expert, avoiding foreclosure in Tigard, helping families home, LivingBeaverton, Townhomes for sale, home for sale, house for sale, Bull Mountain North, Bull Mountain South, King City, Mountainview, Greenburg, Summer Lake Neighborhood, Summerfield neighborhood, Tigard neighborhood, Walnut Grove Neighborhood. Tigard Oregon Real Estate, Tigard OR real estate, Todd Clark, (503)524-9494, WWW.LivingTigard.com, www.IFoundYourNewHome.com, www.SavingyouFromForeclosure.com

©2010 Todd Clark - Originally posted at My credit card company calls me a deadbeat and has raised my interest rate to 29%, but I don’t care!

Seems like a simple enough question, will the governments new law requiring the credit agencies to not only allow us free copies of our credit reports, but also free copies of our credit scores increase home sales?

I think without question it will actually have a positive impact on housing. How many times have you had a client call you and say “I’m interested in buying, but I’m not sure I qualify, my credit stinks” to only find out they have a 790 credit score and $20,000 down? In the past 3 years alone, I had this exact situation happen 4 times.

I even had more during the years 2005 through 2007 when I really had a lot of people call me about getting a home on a lease option or owner financing because their credit was so bad, only to find out they had great credit scores, they were just punishing themselves for things that happened years ago and had long dropped off the credit report.

I look forward to this new law passing. I predict with people finding out they have great credit scores, there will be a lot more home buyers in the market to buy a home. If you find out your score is higher than you thought and you qualify, give me a call, I would love to help you. If you don’t want to wait for the free credit report, call me and I can get you a list of some great mortgage brokers that can help you find out if you are qualified to purchase a home today.

Todd Clark - Broker / Sales Coach
All Brokers Real Estate
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739

Tigard Oregon Homes for Sale, Tigard OR homes for sale, homes for sale in zip code, 97223,97224, Tigard Oregon Realtor, Tigard OR Realtor, Tigard Oregon MLS Search, Tigard OR MLS Search, 1st time home buying expert, short sale expert, avoiding foreclosure in Tigard, helping families home, LivingBeaverton, Townhomes for sale, home for sale, house for sale, Bull Mountain North, Bull Mountain South, King City, Mountainview, Greenburg, Summer Lake Neighborhood, Summerfield neighborhood, Tigard neighborhood, Walnut Grove Neighborhood. Tigard Oregon Real Estate, Tigard OR real estate, Todd Clark, (503)524-9494, WWW.LivingTigard.com, www.IFoundYourNewHome.com, www.SavingyouFromForeclosure.com

©2010 Todd Clark - Originally posted at With government changing the law so that everyone can see their credit score for free, could that increase home sales?

By Todd Clark (Broker/Sales Coach) 503-524-9494

I was talking to a friend of mine who was trying to buy a home, but he said despite making five times what his wife does per year, he was turned down for a loan while his wife was granted a home loan with no problem. This is what has left me scratching my head and let me explain why.

Why was he turned down, despite having a 35% down payment and 742 credit score? According to the underwriter it is because he is commission based and there is no way to guarantee he would have a check every month.

So, what was my friend’s mortgage broker’s solution? Let’s try to get the loan in your wife’s name only. Well, the loan went right through and the underwriter issued the loan in the wife’s name for the full amount without question. All she wanted was her pay stubs from the past year and a copy of her taxes. (You know the ones that the husband is also on, since they file jointly?)

So, the house closes and I wasn’t going to question a thing if the underwriter wasn’t. So, why do I think this is such a sad day for logic on this loan? They wouldn’t give the husband the loan because he didn’t have a steady paycheck, he was commissioned based real estate broker. But, his wife got a regular check… FROM HIM! Yep, he is the one that wrote her the check, she was an employee of his. So, who cares if he couldn’t pay for the home, because clearly she would still be getting a check every month if he was bankrupt.

Do you understand the logic on this one? If so, please explain it to me?

Todd Clark - Broker / Sales Coach
All Brokers Real Estate
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739

Tigard Oregon Homes for Sale, Tigard OR homes for sale, homes for sale in zip code, 97223,97224, Tigard Oregon Realtor, Tigard OR Realtor, Tigard Oregon MLS Search, Tigard OR MLS Search, 1st time home buying expert, short sale expert, avoiding foreclosure in Tigard, helping families home, LivingBeaverton, Townhomes for sale, home for sale, house for sale, Bull Mountain North, Bull Mountain South, King City, Mountainview, Greenburg, Summer Lake Neighborhood, Summerfield neighborhood, Tigard neighborhood, Walnut Grove Neighborhood. Tigard Oregon Real Estate, Tigard OR real estate, Todd Clark, (503)524-9494, WWW.LivingTigard.com, www.IFoundYourNewHome.com, www.SavingyouFromForeclosure.com

©2010 Todd Clark - Originally posted at Another sad day for logic… Another real estate broker turned down for a home loan

For the past couple months I have been fighting with this wonderful new HVCC law and how it pertains to today’s real estate transaction. This was a perfectly good transaction until the appraiser got involved and that is when a smooth transaction went from smooth to will this ever close?

Well today I’m happy to say it closed and funded! This was suppose to close on May 13^th and had this new HVCC law not taken affect on May 1^st, it would have! On May 1^st we had put in an offer on a property. The buyer had already met all the underwriters conditions on another home, but the inspection and what the seller was willing to do weren’t going to fly. So my buyer decided to walk and found this home the same day. (May 13^th was an easy date to close by according to the mortgage broker.)

So on May 1^st we ordered the appraisal and low and behold May 13 comes and goes and we have no appraisal and we can’t contact the appraiser to find out what the hold up is, because that would be against the new law. (NO CONTACT!)

So on May 21, 2009, we get our appraisal back, but its $27,000 less than what my client offered and $35,000 less than the original asking price. The only problem is we can’t talk to the appraiser to find out what he used for comps, because all our comps show this priced dead on! But, once again, we aren’t allowed to question the appraiser. How can a home appraise for $15,000 less than anything else on the market including a condemned home and $35,000 less than the last three sales on the same street? (It has the same square footage, same yard size, same builder, same year…)

But, the sellers were desperate to sell, and lucky for my clients, they lowered the price of the home $18,000, but that still meant the sales price was going to be $9,000 above appraised value and the sellers were no longer going to be paying the buyer’s closing costs. Now, my buyers needed to come up with some cash and sign a letter to the underwriter stating they understand that they are paying more for this home than it appraises for. (Which they did.)

So, now here we are last Thursday and you would think docs would go out that day. But, wait, the appraiser hasn’t signed the document stating the house is now being sold for a lesser amount than was originally offered. Guess what, he didn’t even respond to the request from the underwriter for 8 days. Then when he did finally respond, it was, “No, I’m not going to sign that unless you pay me more money!” WHAT? That is blackmail!

Finally, on Friday, the underwriter went to senior management and got the senior underwriter to realize that the appraiser was being a “_____” and that they should just go around him and approve it, which they did very successfully and now we are finally closed and ready to move on, or are we?

As of today, there are at least two ethics complaints being filed by the buyer and seller against this appraiser since it cost both of them thousands of dollars that they could have used to make this sale work. But, they also plan to recover that loss by suing the appraiser individually. I honestly hope they win, because this guy was doing this just to do it and he had no reason that we could figure out. But, if we can get him out of the business and also get the HVCC law overturned, it will do a lot more for real estate than it will being in place.

Todd Clark - Broker / Sales Coach
Palazzo Realty Group
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739

©2009 Todd Clark - When HVCC rears its ugly head, everyone should take notice.