Timothy Barnes's (mortgage_pro) Blog

Last Week in the News Consumer inflation rose a tame 0.2% in August, just half of July's 0.4% rise, the Labor Department reported September 15. The improvement reflected a big slowdown in energy costs. From the start of August through September 8, U.S. gasoline prices fell by more than 40 cents t...

House Passes Bill to Modernize FHA By a vote of 415 to seven (10 votes not cast) the U.S. House of Representatives passed The Expanding American Homeownership Act (H.R. 5121) on July 26, which will modernize and update the National Housing Act, and let the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) use...

Tudor Revival Architecture --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Tudor Revival houses (1910 to 1940) grew extremely popular in the 1920s and 1930s, a time when historic architectural styles were incorporated into single-family dwellings. Sometimes referre...

Prioritize Your Way to the Top Priority management is the art of doing what you need to do before doing what you want to do. Fueled by urgency, diligence and focus, priority management will help you create a to-do list that concentrates first on the activities with the most payback. Here's how to...

Last Week in the News Ending a streak of 17 straight increases, the Federal Reserve voted on August 8 to leave the benchmark Fed Funds rate (the rate banks charge one another for overnight loans) at 5.25%. In announcing its decision, the Fed said, "Economic growth has moderated from its quite str...

Credit Scores: How They Work Credit scores became common in the 1980s, and today are widely accepted by lenders as a reliable way to evaluate a potential borrower's willingness and ability to repay a loan. Credit scoring condenses a borrower's credit status into a single number which changes as t...

Master Your Customer Data Whether you run a corner deli, a loan origination business or a real estate office, the majority of your new business and referrals most likely comes from your current customers. In order to capture the full potential of repeat business and referrals, you must master you...

Webcams: Windows to Your World Do your clients know that webcams -- digital cameras that capture video and still pictures on a computer -- can support a home security system? They can also be used to remotely monitor vacant homes, watch the dog and check in on the babysitter. Getting clients star...

Last Week in the News When the Federal Reserve meets on August 8, it will decide to either raise or hold the line on interest rates. Here's some of the data from last week they'll consider: The unemployment rate hit a five-month high in July as employers added just 113,000 new jobs for the month,...