In honor of Independence Day, here are 13 little-known bits of trivia about the United States constitution, courtesy of constitutionfacts.com: The first constitution was not known as the Declaration of Independence.  It was called the Articles of Confederation. The U.S. Constitution has 4,400 words. It is the oldest and shortest written Constitution of any major government in [...]...

YSP is an acronym for Yield Spread Premium. This is the rebate that a lender will pay to a mortgage broker in exchange for selling the interest rate above the wholesale par rate. This is probably best understood by using an example. If the loan amount is $100,000 and the wholesale par rate is 5%, if [...]...

A get-rich-quick scheme promises that participants can make money fast with basically no skill, effort or time in a very short period of time. The hottest get-rich-quick schemes offer unlimited profits through various easy-money opportunities, but the only person who is gonna make money fast is the author himself. Some people do get-rich-quick through the lottery, [...]...

I'm starting to see more of a dirty little secret not often discussed in the mortgage and real estate industry. It however is is starting to pop it's ugly head more than usual and I have a feeling our current market environment has something to do with that. I'm talking about "Pre-Approval Letters" and what they [...]...

A few months ago, Richard Bitner mailed me, The Mortgage Cicerone his recently finished book, Confessions of a Subprime Lender - An Insider's Tale of Greed, Fraud and Ignorance." Truthfully, I thought it was going to be another pulp-sensationalized Housing Bubble book…boy was I wrong! The further I got into the book, the more I [...]...