As men around the world hit the shopping avenues for Christmas, it is important to keep some things in mind. Thanks to Ed P., here are some good tips (you’ll need sound):

My girlfriend recently broke up with me. She sent me an e-mail that said, “I wish to advise you that unprecedented market conditions have made it necessary for me to cease our relationship effective immediately. I will continue to see any men that I have met as of November 18, 2008, but they must ask me out by December 2, 2008. I would like to thank you for the relationship we have enjoyed with you in the past and wish you the best for the future.” Where have I seen that verbiage before?

Speaking of which, after sending out an announcement on November 21^st, looking for wholesale reps across the nation, Southern California wholesaler Fortes closed their doors. “After careful thought and consideration, the Board of Directors of Fortes Financial, Inc has decided to wind down operations of the company and its divisions as of November 24, 2008.  Effective immediately, Fortes will not be accepting any new loan submissions nor will it fund any loans currently in the existing pipeline. We regret having to take this action and the disruption it may cause the parties involved.”

LandAmerica Financial Group Inc., one of the biggest title insurers in the U.S., filed for bankruptcy protection prior to Thanksgiving. They agreed to sell its two main title-underwriting subsidiaries, Lawyers Title Insurance Corp. and Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Co., as well as United Capital Title Insurance Co., to Fidelity National Financial Inc. This raised more than one eyebrow, as the bankruptcy comes less than a week after Fidelity National’s plan to acquire LandAmerica fell apart.

One lender’s correspondent division came out with a nice reminder about appraisals, focusing on factors that may influence home values and how to mitigate their, and the lender’s, risk. Paraphrasing:

Their recommendation for new construction Condo/Converted Condo/PUDs, since it can be difficult to determine the value on new construction properties in the current environment due to excess inventory of unsold units and slower absorption rates in many markets, is that underwriters should focus on the review of comparables in new construction appraisals to assure the appraiser is providing the best and most recent comparables available, appraisers should use comparables from both inside and outside the project or development, and outside comparables should be from projects where the builder or developer is different from the subject property seller.

For auction properties, where there are very high buyer’s premiums, excessive realtor and/or marketing fees, large home improvement disbursements and appraisals with only auction sales used as comparables, lenders should take care to have their underwriters review the purchase contract to assure the buyer’s or auction fee is clearly disclosed and not excessive for the transaction. Also, buyer’s fees are generally in the 5-8% range and added to the winning bid to determine the final sales price and realtor commissions, if any, should be 1-2%, and all fees on both the Buyer and Seller sides of the HUD-1 should be consistent with the purchase contract and deemed reasonable relative to the transaction.

Rates continue to head lower this morning, with the 10-yr hitting 2.87%. (So if you tie up $1 million with the government for 10 years, you’ll earn less than $29k per year.) Fortunately mortgage prices are tagging along for the ride somewhat, with prices better by roughly .250. This week we’ll see the unemployment data on Friday. Before the Employment data, today we have the ISM national manufacturing index and Construction Spending (ISM is expected to drop slightly, and Construction Spending is expected to drop .9%). Productivity and ISM Services are scheduled for Wednesday. Finally, Factory Orders will be released on Thursday. There is little of note tomorrow, but on the 3^rd we have ISM Services, Productivity, the Beige Book, and an ADP employment report of questionable correlation to the government’s employment report on Friday. We can look forward to the usual Jobless Claims on Thursday, along with Factory Orders. Friday we hit the jackpot with Nonfarm Payrolls (expected -300k), Hourly Earnings, the Average Workweek, and the Unemployment Rate. Current expectations for the headline grabbing number are running around 6.8%.

My teenaged niece Elizabeth was nervous as she took the wheel for her first driving lesson. As she was pulling out of the parking lot, the instructor said, “Turn left here, and don’t forget to let the people behind you know what you’re doing.”
Elizabeth turned to the students sitting in the back seat and announced, “I’m going left.”

Rob