Monday, January 5, 2009

The Trump Team Offers Solution for Real Estate Woes

The Trump Real Estate BlogBrett Carmen, a seasoned veteran in the real estate industry for over 17 years, and a member of Donald Trump's team of experts, posted a blog on the Trump U site today offering his ideas for solving the real estate crisis. He holds active licenses in real estate, mortgage finance, and property & casualty insurance, so he knows the business from all aspects. I think they would be wise to listen to him. Obama would be damn smart to get some of Trump's people on his panel of advisors, for that matter.

He worries that the people responsible for the problem (and the ones able to correct it) are too concerned with blaming everyone else and need to get over it and work on a fix, instead of passing the buck.

His ideas are:

1. Create jobs
2. Keep interest rates low
3. Stop the banks from making mortgage requirements that keep the majority from purchasing.

Brett agrees that the requirements were too slack before, but now they have over-compensated and that is just adding to the problem. I know this is true for Myrtle Beach real estate. Our Realtors tell us that when they get a customer who is finally ready to buy, they can't qualify them anywhere for the mortgage.

Brett also says that many of the banks are trying to eliminate mortgage brokers entirely, and this would be a huge mistake. He says that brokers did 70% of the loans several years ago, and are an important part of our country's business market. They didn't create the faulty loans either, although the banks want to blame them. All they did was follow the requirements the banks set forth. Like the doctor blaming the nurse for giving the medicine he prescribed, this is not only unfair, but simply untrue.

His final advice is to lower the debt-to-income ratio for the time being so that the majority of America can still own a home, but they don't over-extend themselves in the process.
The Trump Blog is a great read, and everyone should listen to the guys that know real estate more than anybody.
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Other really good real estate resources include the Cunningham team and homes for sale in Greenville SC, and my friend Jack Ragsdale who is an expert in Flower Mound Texas real estate and Frisco Texas real estate.