Jack M. Guttentag The Mortgage Professor

Yahoo! Finance User - Sunday, February 3, 2008, 2:35AM ET  Report Abuse

• Overall: 5/5

JG presents the facts impartial and as real as always for many, many years through "The Mortgage Professor" column as well as this new channel . For those who find this article's information "poor", all of what is presented is factual. A fixed, ARM, fixed IO, ARM IO and HOA all behave just like what is stated. I have a Fixed 15yr IO and it does reduce subsequent payments as stated. I also have a fixed 2nd mortgage normal 15yr and it also does NOT reduce payments like the fixed 15yr IO as represented in the column. What bad or untruthful information was presented to warrant a poor rating? In fact, the information present will educate and enlighten borrowers to payment differences between the mortgage products that you'll never hear before you go to the closing table. I have learned from the Mortgage Professor when making an informed decision about taking out first time mortgages for myself, and what to look out and what to ask for beforehand. Also the unbiased and very insightful info has helped me (as a software tester) and many other mortgage business professionals tremendously as a software tester for an Loan Origination System (LOS) for a Fortune 5 IT company. Your reputation in educating everyone in the field is broad and widespread and your website and Mortgage Encyclopedia book are definitive references for us. For the fixed IO mortgage, I didn't even know that after the fixed period the loan will amortized as a normal Fixed loan, so that bit of info will help me out (as I plan to pay down more before that time before it becomes a fixed payment - and to look for this behavior in amortization schedules of the LOS I am testing)! Please continue to keep up the good work of informing and teaching the public about the mortgage industry in how it works especially the details of recent subprime meltdown as of late. Your information will continue to be of much worth and value to those that know how to use it, and just like a loaded gun or a car out of control to the unitiated and uneducated, a weapon to those that would cause more harm to others or themselves. I thank you for the information and look forward to many, many more of your well written and informative articles.

Yahoo! Finance User - Sunday, January 6, 2008, 10:26PM ET  Report Abuse

• Overall: 1/5

The current crisis in housing and financial markets is thanks to people like Guttentag. Interestingly, both rich and poor are losers in this game! The poor have now lost their "dream homes", while the "rich" are paying the bills. However, Wall Street bonuses are hardly affected.

Yahoo! Finance User - Wednesday, January 2, 2008, 6:15PM ET  Report Abuse

• Overall: 1/5

The article is factual enough, but I think misguided. I just can't think of that many people that have such a lumpy income stream that they need this kind of a product (real estate agents, high-end car salesmen, farmers....OK, I'm tapped out on ideas). At the end of the day, this kind of scenario mostly attracts people that can't really afford the house they want to buy from their regular income, but want to believe that some extraordinary event (before endless real estate appreciation, now Aunt Myrtle's passing or that insurance settlement) will somehow bail them out and make the impossible possible. The fact that a column like "The Mortgage Professor" is even viable when most of us are in the same boat of cashing our paychecks every week working for the man speaks volumes about how screwed up real estate prices are in many markets (and how willfully people in high-cost markets want to ignore the fact that they can't buy the same house that their salary would afford in Texas or the Midwest). That said, I'll give the Professor credit for identifying an unmet need in the mortgage market - not sure why prepaing a traditional FRM shouldn't reduce the ongoing payment versus the term. And I'm not a purist for FRM - I did my first ARM a five years ago, and even when it rests this year, the rate will still be lower than the FRM rate today. But I could still afford the ARM if it hit its interest rate cap (although it would hurt). The lesson is, don't take out a mortgage that you can't pay from your humdrum weekly paycheck.

dave - Wednesday, January 2, 2008, 5:27PM ET  Report Abuse

• Overall: 1/5

This is why the mortgage industry is viewed as used car salesman. My father used to say figures don't lie but liars do figure. An HOA loan gives you some very iffy options but at a huge risk. If you truly have great variations in income than keep several payments and pay down the principal with the remainder. I don't believe there is a single borrower that ever got one of these loans and completely understood all the implications of what they were doing. The industry is loaded with those looking for someway to sound like they have the next best thing. STOP IT!!!! Either get out or, 1. Start thinking of your client first. 2. Start offering competitive products at good rates with great service. If you do, you will do just fine if you don't then you will get exactly what you deserve.

Yahoo! Finance User - Wednesday, January 2, 2008, 3:03PM ET  Report Abuse

• Overall: 4/5

I'm not sure where all the trash-talking is coming from. JG is the only columnist on this site who consistently gives FACTS that readers can then use for themselves or ignore should they so choose. For someone with very large, but infrequent sources of income, perhaps this option makes the most sense. There are risks to every mortgage product, even a standard 30-yr fixed. The risk on most, of course, is that you will have insufficient income to pay it after a job loss, injury, etc. But the risk of month-to-month non-payment for someone with inconsistent income may be significantly higher. The only one who can truly make that decision is the borrower.