Yesterday, I was in a meeting with the Sales Manager of a local thrift institution. Her Bank portfolios all of their adjustable rate loans and all their jumbo product. They sell conforming product in the secondary market. This person informed me that on one day last week, she received an aggregate of 85 changes in the FNMA/FHLMC?FHA rules. In effect, her head was spinning.

She told me that her Bank was still lending the way it has successfully for the last twenty years. They try to understand the Borrower. They obtain information about the property and the Borrower which they deem important. They then make the decision about the loan. They try not to go way beyond their community for loans or Borrowers. At present, they have eleven(11) of their residential loans in foreclosure. They must be doing something right.

The point of this post is this. This IS the time for your local thrift. Their small size and intimacy with their customer base can now serve you and your customers. Stop in to day hello to the originator at the branch. Start introducing these peole to your Buyers. They are much more accessible than those bargain deals on the Internet, which crash and burn with regularity.

Stay close to home. The money is there for your customers, and, ultimately, for you.