Really Good Mortgage News - REALLY!!

When you read this you’re going to think it sounds too good to be true.

We all hear about mortgage interest rates going up and down. In recent weeks there has been a rather significant dip. I began to wonder if there was an easy way to refinance from 6.75% to the current much lower rates. I called my lender (Wells Fargo) and asked a flurry of questions, to which all the answers were “yes.”

I was told I could refinance whenever I liked with no fees, no closing costs, no cost at all. I could refinance now, and again next month, or next year, or next week if rates changed again – as many times as I wanted. He asked me all the relevant questions about employment, income, etc. and processed the application in just a few minutes. The approval was given instantly and they’ll send me the paperwork to sign and have notarized.

The bottom line? I’m saving $195 per month in interest just because I asked. In my book – that’s big!!! I feel like I just found $195 in last winter’s coat pocket. So many things I’d rather do with $195!!

Call your lender now, so you don’t spend a penny on interest that you don’t have to. I hope your lender is as friendly as mine.

The miracle of real estate

Ok, riddle me this all you more experienced agents: What is the scoop on the whole burying of St. Joseph upside down? What does it mean? Why upside down? Everyone seemingly has a different take on it...Some say it started with St. Theresa burying St Joseph medals on a parcel of land her convent was trying to buy; others claim that it's because St. Joseph is the patron saint of homes and carpenters. Others claim it has nothing to do with the saint at all, that the efficaciousness is the result of the prayers sent heavenwards while the little burial ceremony is taking place. It FEELS like it might be an Italian-American thing, although I don't have any proof. But the Italians are big on St. Joseph...very, very big.

My own brush with the phenomenon came not as a realtor, but as a seller. My boyfriend Ron put his house on the market last summer, and it promptly languished there for the next 6 months, without even a flicker of interest from the outside world. By January we were beginning to feel desperate. He'd gotten a St. Joseph statue as a joke stocking stuffer for Christmas, and one day I thought to myself, "Oh, why the heck not?" and went out there and buried it in the front yard. Two weeks later the house was under contract.

Lynn Freeland swears by the St. Joseph miracle, although distressingly, just the other day, she informed me that you have to dig the statue back up afterwards. Uh oh. Who knew? Not me - mine is still buried by the front steps of Ron's old house. Am I headed for disaster? It's kind of worrying, since the good magic so obviously DID work...and I can only conclude that any reversal of its power will be equally effective, devastatingly so.