Are you hearing all those stories about the ones going under? Ever wonder why? This tends to be the fuel to the fire that the media loves to deliver to their viewers. Its very seldom that they actually disperse any news that is good, but instead they tend to resort to all of the doom & gloom news reports.

A friend of mine worked a temp job in the 2005 market slop in South Florida for an ethicless (yes I made that up) egomaniac, in the mortgage brokering trade. I wouldn’t really call that a business. Besides his short guy syndrome, he had his little temp in there falsifying dates and initials for an upcoming investigation.

How do guys like that stay in business and get rich? Your probably asking yourself that very question right this moment. Because they have that immortal promise of get rich quick and have I got a mortgage for you that we all want to hear. Yeah, we want to hear it! Please… Please… Please… tell me ALL about it right NOW!

Suckers are not suckers. Suckers believe and don’t read contracts. Suckers think they can’t get a legal reasonable rate mortgage for one reason or another, and maybe some of us suckers shouldn’t. But who likes to hear no. In the words of the timeless life-long lesson that has been handed down over the years, “a sucker is born every minute.” But look on the bright side, you can do it what it takes to be a non-sucker.

Taking responsibility of your financial future is the very best thing that can be done to save yourself from that eternal lollipop of a bad mortgage during an iffy time with an iffy income potential. I see mortgage after mortgage going belly up, good honest folks who just thought easy is good, unable to pull themselves out of this one. And what did they get from all those wonderful refinances? Crap. Crap that they can’t even put their finger on except for possibly a big screen TV or a diamond necklace or a car that lost its value the minute it drove off the lot. This brings me to think of yet another adage, “rich people have big libraries; poor people have big screen TVs.”

Where are the saviors now? Those great little brokers who were making 10% on their mortgages and more? Well they are off hiding somewhere under a rock waiting for the next upturn in the market, or they are out using that money they made off the suckers to buy up property left and right. For a fraction of its true potential investment asset.

A friend in this business had just passed her title agent certification. I begged her to get out while she still had her name and she did. That broker I spoke of wouldn’t even sign his name on a DHL delivery slip. Are you smart? Have you been in real estate? Do you understand the cyclical nature of real estate or will you see only in a direct tunnelvision? The choice is entirely up to you and you alone!

Take responsibility of your actions and pay close attention to your Greed. We all have it in some degree or another and it usually does us in. Real estate is no different. Balance is always better than too much ownership. Organization and the ability to hit the ground running every morning is the stuff of this business. Honesty and Integrity works. Really.

Honest landlords keep property rented and sleep well at night. They also upgrade neighborhoods with constant repair and maintenance. A good mortgage broker can be the difference in your financial security in your old and golden years. Read the contracts! Then re-read them once again to make sure that you did not miss any important areas.

What’s driving you? What’s really driving you and making your get up early in the morning? Find out. Then form your own personal ethics committee. Pound per pound there is no investment capable of return like real estate. But it doesn’t come easy. It comes with thought, work, timeliness and that hard saved capital no matter how small. Sometimes it’s enough.

Money works just fine until too many motives get involved. Make it your partner in life. Not your devil. Let it take care of you like a good investment can. Stop waiting to win the lottery and get to it! Best wishes and good luck in this year of fortuitous opportunity for those who have the faith to believe in the future of property. And maybe in themselves. I believe in You!

Mitch Mauldin provides tips and information on Real Estate Investing and Flipping Houses for REIality.com - A Guide to Investing in Real Estate.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mitch_W_Mauldin

Mortgage brokers work with rate comparisons and approvals, assigning loans to a designated licensed lender depending on a couple of different factors, like pricing and expedient closing. Closing and servicing will most likely fall into the hands and lap, areas of responsibility of the lending institution, not the broker.

The top wholesale institutions playing in this type of arena include (i) Federal National Mortgage Association and (ii) Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation

(** NOTE: Also called Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, respectively).

Lately, more legislation and regulations, governments and related bodies overseeing the industry is and will continue to be cracking down increasingly on fraudulent mortgages and wrangling in this arena.

Here is just some of the fall-out that you can expect in these markets:

- Additional disclosures and warnings of risk have to be shared and made public to a borrower.
- As far as actual costs then go for this type of service, public domain documents list them as the combined rate and costs may not exceed a lower percentage, without being deemed a “High Cost Mortgage”.
- Compliance with regulators drive costs typically lower, not higher
- It has to be a reasonable and market-competitive, standard fee, not excessive
- mortgage brokers and brokering activities must comply to standards set by law in order to charge a fee to a borrower

By law there is no fiduciary duty on mortgage brokers to act in best interests of their customers (except for California)

Warning signs of troublesome trends in the industry that give mortgage brokering a bad rep (taken and adapted from online sources):

- Convincing borrowers to refinance a loan without any true benefit
- Failing to provide all RESPA documentation, i.e. Good Faith Estimate, Special Information Booklet, Truth in Lending, etc so the borrower may clearly understand the mortgage terms and lender policies.
- Falsifying income/asset and other documentation.
- Influencing a higher Loan Amount and inflated appraisals (usually in tandem with an appraiser).
- inserting hidden clauses in contracts that forces the hand of the consumer to pay the broker or lender to find him or her a mortgage whether or not the mortgage is closed.
- Not disclosing Yield spread premium or other hidden fees BEFORE the settlement/closing.
- unethical business practices
- Unjustly capitalizing on a borrowers relative ignorance about mortgage acquisition.

It there is increased interest for entering into this entrepreneurial pursuit, tapping into all it has to offer (even in a downturn type market), you best be prepared for the under-belly wheeling and dealings that sometimes threaten the integrity and reputation of the industry. It is up to you on which side of the fence you prefer to earn your reputation and dollar.