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Mortgage brokers ready for a lift
by Andrew Cannarsa, The Examiner
Bel Air, Md. - Reginald Gill, like other
brokers, is ready for the mortgage market to get
back on track.
Gill, a founder of the Bel Air branch of Challenge Investors
Corp. of Bel Air, has felt the effects of the fears and
anxieties associated with the market. In the past several
months, the tough conditions caused Gill to lose his
co-founder, Graham Goff.
“I’m having a difficult time getting people
into loans,” Gill said. “The guidelines have
changed and people have tightened up a bit.”
In a shaky market, homebuyers need to be as informed
as possible and know there are many programs people can
use to find a house they can afford, Gill said.
“This market is turning upside down,” Gill
said. “Now it’s affecting people who have
700 or 800 credit scores, because the market got even
tougher for them. It’s affecting everyone at this
point.”
The market saw some encouraging signs late last week,
as national homes sales increase 2.8 percent in July,
according to the U.S. Commerce Department. Sales, however,
were down 10.2 percent compared with last July.
In the Baltimore region, property sold for about $331,053
in July, according to the Metropolitan Regional Information
Statistics Report. Sales in the region were down about
12.4 percent from the same period last year.
All markets are cyclical, thus the worst of the subprime
mess could be over, said Carl Delmont, chief executive
officer of Freedmont Mortgage in Hunt Valley.
“The pendulum has swung pretty far in both directions,
but I think we’ll come back to the middle soon,” Delmont
said. “Obviously, you have some inexperienced officers
that continue to tell people things that aren’t
true. People need to be financially literate and know
the market, because if they understand their finances,
then hopefully they won’t take these exotic loans.”
With financial literary, consumers have to know the
market and know their broker during the homebuying process,
said Lance Cassell, managing director of the Better Mortgage
Bureau in Baltimore. Not all brokers are just out to
make a sale, Cassell said.
“Ultimately, you have some unethical brokers,
but they’re the squeaky wheel and get all of the
attention,” Cassell said. “There is a large
percentage of ethical and trained mortgage officers out
there.”
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