America's #1 Mortgage Broker

Zillow.com announced that they will be the headline sponsor of the Bloodhound Blog UNCHAINED Social Media Marketing conference.  This from David Gibbons:

In 2008 we are increasing our bet on Realtor 2.0 and I'm excited to announce that the Bloodhound Blog Unchained conference will be brought to you by Zillow. Bloodhound blog is read daily by thousands of real estate professionals and is arguably the most influential blog read by real estate insiders. The blog's written by Realtor 2.0 for Realtor 2.0. From May 18th to 20th the bloodhounds are hosting a conference that will distill the best practices for profiting from the revolution in social media and real estate. BHBU is also possibly the only Mortgage 2.0 conference of the year with a separate track dedicated to loan officers and mortgage brokers. If social media is part of your marketing plan for 2008 I recommend that you get to Phoenix for this event. Conferences are a great networking opportunity but I'm convinced that you will leave BHBU with much more. Click here for more information. I look forward to seeing you - in Phoenix in May - and helping consumers on the web and on Zillow

My comments about this announcement can be found on Agent Genius.  I"ll be discussing this and the mortgage market conditions on REAL ESTATE RADIO USA at 1:15PM PST, today.

You can listen to a recording of the REAL ESTATE RADIO USA INTERVIEW With Brian Brady HERE 

A compendium of announcements about UNCHAINED:

Laurie Manny to Speak at UNCHAINED Social Media Marketing Conference

Why is Zillow.com sponsoring BloodhoundBlog Unchained? Discover the answer to that question for yourself by diving for Black Pearls — and win a link on our sidebar or even an Unchained scholarship

Comments to Contacts to Clients: Bawld Guy Talking…at UNCHAINED.

Do you want to understand what Web 2.0 means in your own life? On the internet, Socrates would have lived

Has Web 2.0 Failed YOU?

The Odysseus Medal: “What would David Gibbons do?”

Bloodhound Blog Remains Open. What Would Beth Ask?

Bloodhound UNCHAINED Tickets Are Released

Gift of Knowledge: Russell Shaw

UNCHAINED: The birth of cool RE.net marketing ideas

Guerilla Web Marketing Conference- Powered by Bloodhound

Six Simple Ways to Retire Rich By Mary Beth Franklin Retirement savings plans are undergoing an extreme makeover. After decades of trying to teach Americans how to save and invest for their own retirement -- with mixed success -- employers have come up with a simple solution: They'll do it for you. Thanks to automatic enrollment in 401(k)s and other retirement plans, plus streamlined investment options, saving is so effortless that you can't help but succeed. Keep Reading »
Jumbo Loans: Upgrade to the House of Your Dreams With house prices cooling, it may be time to upgrade to that dream home which suddenly appears within reach in this buyer’s market. But with more property comes more mortgage – as well as more options and more pitfalls. The difference between a "conforming" and a "jumbo" loan could directly affect your monthly mortgage payment. To shed light on how loans are priced and sold, YOU Magazine turned to Barry Habib, an expert in the mortgage-backed securities market and CEO of Mortgage Market Guide. Keep Reading »
Ten Commandments for Better Networking By Ivan R. Misner, Ph.D. Do you suffer from "Butterfly-itis" at the very mention of networking at business functions? If you answered yes, you are not alone! Many business people and entrepreneurs get a bit uncomfortable when it comes right down to walking up to someone and starting a conversation. Many others are concerned about getting effective results from the time they spend networking. The process doesn't have to be traumatic, scary, or a waste of time. Keep Reading »
Preparing Your Home for the Spring Selling Season The days when you could throw a “For Sale” sign in the front yard and have your home sell quickly are over, at least for now. Around the country, home inventories are up, and the result has been a drastic increase in average selling times. Add to that the fact that your home may not be worth what it was a year ago, and you’ve got the makings of a rather lengthy, and potentially miserable, sales process. But, it doesn’t have to be that way. Keep Reading »
Grapho-therapy Change Your Life by Changing Your Handwriting As Americans, we put a great deal of effort into transforming ourselves for the purpose of improving our lives. Termed as "self-improvement", it is a 10-billion dollar a year industry that encompasses a variety of methods for changing any number of personality traits. One method we've recently stumbled across is Grapho-therapy, the practice of improving our personality by making changes in our handwriting. Keep Reading »
A Valentine’s Dinner The Perfect Gift for Someone Special By Kirk Leins Valentine's Day is a wonderful concept, in theory at least. While the idea of a holiday dedicated to couples in love is sweet, its purity has given way to the pressure of creating the perfect evening. If this strikes a chord, fear not. My gift to you this Valentine's Day is a game plan for creating a great night for your special someone. Keep Reading »
Winter Workouts Bringing Your Exercise Indoors It's a vicious cycle. You get into shape for summer only to fall out of shape by the following spring. The holiday season has something to do with this ebb and flow, but there's more to the story than a short-lived increase in gatherings and gastronomy. Truth be told, wintertime weight gain is due in large part to a seasonal decrease in our daily exercise. Keep Reading »

Courtesy of Loan Toolbox 

Bombastic blogger, Kevin Tomlinson, knows how to rile up the crowds. Most of you met Kevin through the Project Blogger competition, hosted by Activerain.com. Kevin never disappoints. He made the dramatic statement that he believed...

Bloodhound Blog would be shut down by Friday.

Kevin's not mean, he just likes a little controversy.

I thought I'd try to practice the WWDGD principle and attempt to get meaningful input from the crowd. I expected to be baited by the irrelevant but chose to ignore them; this conversation is too important for the practitioners. Scroll through the comment thread and you'll see where Kevin's broker, Beth Butler, started to go into a state of curiosity rather than remain in a state of judgment.

See what Beth Butler would ask

I'm ecstatic about our latest addition to the UNCHAINED faculty.

Laurie Manny, host of Long Beach Real Estate Home, has signed on to discuss how to build a locally-focused real estate weblog. In one short year, Laurie has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the search engines for the competitive keyword phrase "Long Beach Real Estate". More effective, however, is her complete domination of long tail searches, "downtown long beach real estate", "goldengate square", and "oceangate square". The latter two search terms are buildings in which Laurie has a major market presence.

Alas, search engine placement is nothing if the site doesn't create fans. Laurie delivers the goods consistently with interesting content, a plethora of guest authors, and detailed market reports. She enjoys commercial success by employing a sophisticated IDX feed and CRM solution.

Laurie cut her teeth on Activerain.com and has strong following of "students" there who model her. She readily shares her success causing many Active Rainers to wonder why Laurie hasn't had a more prominent, instructional role in RE.net conferences.

Frankly, we couldn't let her knowledge escape the national spotlight so we invited her to join the faculty of UNCHAINED.

Ask Laurie a question about how she thrives in the rough and tumble world of online real estate marketing and the answer you'll get will be complete. It's like taking a sip from a fire hose as she rattles off actionable ideas about how to drive traffic and attract customers.

Leave your raincoat at home but bring a pen and paper. Laurie Manny is UNCHAINED.

PS- When Laurie writes, Active Rainers listen. The smart money is getting seats in the front row before Laurie's fans hear about this and crash the server.

The facility itself is beyond cool — a vast Phoenix mansion converted to a world-renowned museum of Native American culture and history — along with a spacious conference center and break-out rooms. Docent-guided tours of the museum will be available after conference hours.

But the big news today is that we’re finally able to start selling tickets for the event. And to reward the true Guerrillas who have hung in here with us through three months of arm-wrestling, we’re offering the full package — a $350 value — for $149.

That’s a limited-time offer, needless to say. We have limited seating, so we want to make sure the grunts on the ground get first crack at availability. By the time the corporate weenies pull out their gold cards, the price of admission will be quite a bit higher.

I fell in love with ARMs again, after a five month hiatus.  Hey!  It's Valentine's Day so I can tell you a love story.  This love affair has been going on since I was in my 20s.  The sexy allure of adjustable-rate  mortgages were replaced by the stability of that old battle-axe, the fixed rate loan.  The culprit was the flat yield curve.  I dig curves so my eyes popped out of my head when I opened my e-mail this morning. 

Adjustable-rate mortgages walked into my life like a wild-eyed, long-haired, bombshell on a Harley, toting a bottle of tequila.  Normally, I balance her beauty with the risk she presents but I promise you, she's a changed woman.  This time, she promises to stay put for a ten-year period.  Frankly, ten years is plenty of time for me to outlast a few bumps in the economic road; it's a relationship worth having. 

I'm talking about the spread between a 30 year, fixed rate loan and an ARM with a ten-year fixed period.  The 30 year mortgage is around 6.0% while the ten-year fixed rate ARM is offered at 5.25%. Ten years is a LONG time, regardless of the economy, so I'm recommending that over the fixed rate loan.  Let me illustrate how long ten years is for you.  In 1998: click here for more

Welcome to world of online marketing. Everybody's doing it! I recognized that Web 2.0 had legs when I watched a model leverage a Myspace profile into a TV show. I choose to wrangle the herd by blogging.

While I've had some success, it didn't come easy. Many real estate agents and mortgage originators believe that blogging is the "little purple pill", prescribed to cure all their marketing woes. Others subscribe to business models like HomeGain, in hopes that it has the "magic tonic".

Let me show you how simple it is to make $200,000 in real estate brokerage:

continued on HomeGain Blog 

Well, the Federal Reserve cut rates, 1/2%, on January 30, and the bond market didn't like it.  Global buyers of US Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities believe that Bernanke is placating a "spoiled nation of sub-prime borrowers" and intend to hammer the dollar because of it.  

Here's why they're wrong:

1- The dollar, battered as it is, still represents the strongest currency in the world.  Now I fully expect to take heat for this.  The strength of the dollar comes from our moral initiative and ability to further that moral initiative (with 5-inch guns on a warship).  In short, I'm saying that the United States is the only country with the courage to deal with terrorists and that moral courage will be rewarded, long-term.  When the dung hits the blades, the world buys dollar-denominated securities.

2- Mortgage problems stem from a real estate valuation problem.  Cheap money hyper-inflated values in the most desirable locations in the country and now those values are dropping.  What goes up, must come down...BUT...it goes back up again.  Don't count out the long-term prospects of California, Arizona, Nevada, and Florida.  Teenagers in Buffalo long to live in Miami.  Princeton undergrads yearn to work in Silicon Valley.  Displaced auto workers find paradise in Phoenix.  As long as people want to live in these areas (and they do), there will be an upward push on housing values...long term. 

Home Gain started a group weblog:

Starting in February we will be posting content not only from HomeGain real estate agents and employees but also from some of the industry’s leading bloggers.

Our first guest blog next week will come from Brian Brady, Managing Director of the Mortgage Leaders Division of World Wide Credit Corporation, America’s #1 Mortgage Broker lending in 43 states.

Honestly, have they any idea what they're getting into?  I'm very suspicious of a club that would have me as a member. The party starts right after the Super Bowl.