Mike Tullio's (blueskyeguy) Blog

 OK.  Time to get out the crystal ball.  We've been hovering in the low 6% range with the 30-yr. fixed interest rates (despite what all of the pop-up ads on Internet proclaim) and a few bits of news lead me to believe we may hit 5% by the end of the year. 1.  I see, I see.  I see wheelbarrows ful...

 All signs are pointing to FHA as the savior of this market.  Numbers don't lie.  FHA originations were in the 2-3% range just a year or so ago; now I wouldn't be surprised to find it closer to 20% of the market share.  Amazing loan programs, no minimum credit score (sort of), and 3% down.  It's ...

 I am ashamed.  It has been weeks since last posting and it's amazing how quickly good habits can be obliterated.  A diet can be crushed in one sitting when placed in front of a package of Oreo DoubleStuff cookies.  A hasty trip through a school zone whilst running late for an appointment can man...

 Face it.  Lint is one of the last things we think about on a daily basis.  You may shove your hand in your jeans pocket and pull out a mysterious wad of mangled paper and fuzz, maybe even wonder if it was an important note that went through the wash, but whether you sock it back in your pocket o...

 It's over.  The love is gone.  We've drifted apart.  Sure, there was a time when everything seemed wonderful.  How crazy were we having our first lien right away?  Remember when we'd spend the weekends together, you, me, a paintbrush, some power tools?  You gave me worth and value and it felt so...

 It's getting interesting out there.  The foreclosure rate is increasing exponentially and the media is eating it up like a Chinese buffet.  You can't turn on the tube without a well-polished reporter spewing forth another factoid about the topic, and rue the day that an evening news broadcast do...

I just hired a new loan officer that has been successfully working Internet leads for the past few years and he has requested that I look into purchasing a batch of these things.  I've never bought a lead and it feels kind of weird to me.  All of my business is referral-based and that's the way I...

 Big week in the Men's College Basketball world.  The field has narrowed from 63 teams to the Final Four.  Interestingly, the four teams that were seeded #1 are the four teams that are left.  There's usually some surprise team in the final couple of games; some underdog that rose from obscurity t...

I've been seeing these things a lot lately.  Those black tubes stretched across the various roadways I drive.  At first I thought they were some kind of traffic enforcement device and there were cops lurking nearby waiting for suckers like me to fly over them at unlawful speeds.  But no, they are...

 10,007.  Every point, every blog, every step has been worth it.  A huge thank you to the AR community for your help in reaching my first 10,000 points.  Yeah, it's about more than that, but as we all know, we are in a goal-oriented industry.  We are measured by our performance.  Closed loans.  C...