Refinance Loans for Unemployed Homeowners

Q: I've been unemployed for three months and looking for options for refinancing my home other than going to my lender. I'm currently 6.75% and want to lower the rate. The value is $295,000 and I owe $202,000.
- Larry

A: There are refinance loans for unemployed homeowners. Once you're back on the job and have your first paycheck, you'll have a much better opportunity to get a lower rate.

When unemployed, we have to go with a "stated income verifier", but the rates are typically about a 1/2 point higher, which would put you at about the rate you have right now.

If you're unemployed, then your credit has to be first-class with a credit score of 720 or above to qualify. It's easy to do this kind of refinance if you have a great credit score and impossible to do if your score is below 680. You can get "prime terms" - low closing costs and competitive mortgage rates. My advice is to sit tight until after you get a job.

Real Estate Agents Need to Deal With Emotions

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Q: After buying my first home, I got really turned on to real estate. If I want to become a real estate agent, how would you recommend I gain competence?
- William

A: If you're highly motivated and interested in being a professional, you really don't have much competition. The average agent only sells one house every three months. This has always been a wide-open industry for motivated individuals. Your first step is to get your real estate license. It only takes 60 clock hours. Harvard Business School did a study on the lowest cost start-up business with the highest possible return in terms of income possibilities and it was real estate. I think many people get into real estate thinking "I'll make a few bucks really easy." They're retired, they're part-time, they're housewives and so forth. But what a lot of people aren't ready for is what it takes to deal with human emotions. You have to, of course, know your math, know your contracts, know your paperwork, know your laws, but there is the intangible aspect of people skills. A lot of people aren't willing to handle the pressure of negotiations.

About half of those who go through a real estate transaction aren't terribly satisfied with the service they get. One of the reasons for that phenomenon is the training at a lot of the big franchise real estate offices. They're like meat markets. People come in a constantly revolving door where agents may sell two or three houses and then they're out again. They can't last. What happens at some of these companies, as evidenced by the selling and manipulation techniques they use, it's like being in the presence of a used car salesman. You feel like you need to shower when you're done. Obviously, this doesn't work. People resent it. It will take a bit of research to make sure you stay out of the manipulation and "sales-ish" education you get at some of these places. They'll teach you how to go on tour, how to answer the phone like a secretary, how to go out and look at houses you don't have a client for. Before you know it, you've wasted 40 hours. They've trained you to fail. It's a trap.

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Craig Goebbel is President and CEO of LoanTek.com, mortgage loan brokerage.  He is also producer and host of Real Estate Radio Show, a Seattle-based talk show featuring mortgage and real estate news, interviews and listener calls. It is broadcast on KVI Radio AM 570 in Seattle, Washington. If you have a home mortgage question for Craig, you may call in live on the air at 1-888-312-5757 between 12 noon and 2 p.m. PST every Sunday.

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Real Estate Radio with Goebbel and Gray is the leading real estate radio talk show in the world and is hosted by Real Estate home mortgage expert Craig Goebbel, owner of LoanTek Home Loans and Robb Gray of John L. Scott Real Estate.