[David] Oh, yeah.
[Kittle] All I can say is David Clayton Thomas. He’s not.
[David] He may not be, but dang, that’s a good song. Love that song. Brings back so many memories. Alice, remember those days were so well, all of us go back to those wonderful blood, sweat and tears days. So anyway, it’s what’s going on for many right now, by the way, that song was nominated three Grammy awards, 1970 Best instrumental arrangement. So nostalgia there, a little nostalgia as we deal with the markets and what we’re dealing with. Alright, let’s go over and because Matt’s got, wait a minute. Matt Graham is not here today because it is president’s day. Forgot that. So let’s dive right into the discussion of what we see noticing the markets going down, headed down off this morning. That’s from Friday school. Yeah, that’s right. Where markets are closed day, but Friday we saw it. So Bill started taking away, get us your commentary.
[Bill]Yeah, so I think Les hit it pretty well, right? Last week we had almost a mirror image in the middle of the week of a huge sell off one day and then made back basically all of it the next day and then continued to prices to grind a little bit higher from there as the week ended. This is a pretty quiet week for economic news so everybody can devote full attention to the political economic news. Which is coming at everybody fast and furious and boy, there’s news reporters are earning their keep finally, just trying to keep up with what’s coming out of the news cycle.
[David] Yeah, agencies, the news cycle is that another level
[Bill] Keeping the tariff for it up to date is the full time job by itself and it’s love them or hate them. The art of the deal is what we’re seeing play out in real time right now.
[David] Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Marc, I’m going to jump over to you. I’m going to get your thoughts on the Les’s comments.
[Marc] Every week we talk about this and what’s happening out there. And I’m just a naysayer right now. I don’t think we’re going to see any major change on anything, but it’s just like everything changed in this country. We’ve been waiting to see the fallout. On real estate commissions on the housing market. Right. And it’s been anti climatic to some degree, and I know it’s still concerned some realtors. So, the market’s just like that. We’ve got uncertainty in the fed as to who’s going to head that up and whether he can be removed or not. I think there’s going to be a power play between the fed and Trump. It’s just going on right now and I think it’s going to get worse and everything I read tells me he really can’t get rid of the guy. So we’ll see how that goes and that, but I don’t see any changes. I think it’s business. I figure we got to figure out in our current market, how to make it work. I think people ought to be realistic and of course, if closings are down, you need to fine tune back your operations some, or you get caught in that hole we were, we’ve been in so many times in the industry. So I’m not real bullish on the market right now. I’m taking let’s look and see approach because I’m dealing with it every day. And that small company down in Alabama.
[David] Yeah, the small company you’re running right now. Yeah.
[Marc] And it’s even tighter for us, David, than other folks. And I’m trying to figure out how to make ends meet when there’s no loans coming in the door right now to speak of. There was before and it really affected us in rural america. There’s just nothing happening in rural america right now It’s very regionalized. Yeah,
[David] It’s very regionalized Marc. We’re seeing others where the pipelines are night growing And nicely and other markets like yours so very much of a regional Regionalized market and which is also going into Alice, what’s happening regulatory wise in that with CFPB shut down, the power is going to the states. Can’t wait to get into that as we get into your segment. Mr. Kittle, your thoughts on the report from Mr. Parker, other than he doesn’t have the voice of I love the music. I think it was very appropriate. Music selection was perfect. The parody is perfect.
[Kittle] Les is closer to that stuff than I am and if rates fall, I think that’d be a great thing if that falling foreign yields go down. If we get to drilling quickly, like what Trump says he’s going to do and, well, maybe drill all the energy prices come down. Everything’s affected by that. We’ve said that for a long time. You got to transport every good to whatever market it’s in. So it’s less cost to transport. Prices should come down, right?
[David] Yeah, the argument that the tariffs are causing prices to go up. There was a I heard I’m trying to remember where it was, but I heard a really strong argument for that is not actually happening and it defies logic because of the process.
[Kittle] So it was last week where, uh, Chuck Schumer, the inflation rate came out for January blamed Trump.
[David] I know he’s lost all credibility. Yeah, I’m sorry. I’ve been on national television, debating issues with Schumer and he’s an interesting animal to put it mildly again, try and stay out of politics, but there’s just some of the things that are being said It’s just you go like, Oh my gosh, crazy. Bill, have you wanted any thoughts you want to wrap up on our segment on the markets? Then we should get to Alice.
[Bill] Just one comment on, on the tariffs too, is you can’t take a word and have. Here’s the word, here’s the impact, right? There’s so many different permutations of it and when you talk about, so with what’s going on with the US and Canada, and I think I was reading recently, a car can basically go back and forth across the border eight times. Between the US and Canada and the manufacturing process, tariff at each step along the way is going to be really problematic, versus other tariffs where it’s a once and done and you can debate, is the supplier going to absorb the cost? Is the US consumer? Is it just reflect in a change in the value of the dollar? I mean, there’s so many permutations and that’s a really good point. The manufacturer, there’s no one answer.
[David] I’m manufacturing a home of a prop of a car being constructed, going back and forth eight times across the border. You really, I didn’t realize that I didn’t realize I should have realized that, but that’s a great point. You raised hard to imagine that not going to have a consequence. Obviously you’re trying to bring manufacturing back on shore. Alice didn’t mean to skip over you, but I love your thoughts on the market and then we’re going to get right in with your update. So your thoughts.
[Alice] As I keep listening to Les’s report, and even when he might use the term of rates will be lower, it’s still the understanding, you have to keep that in the context of it’s still going to be within that same range that we keep talking about, right? this isn’t lower, and there’s some refi boom that’s going to come out of that in my report next stay tuned and listen all those little nuances about how to get people qualified, now become something and they have been for the last really two years that the loan officers have to really become experts at if you’ve been procrastinating on having to know every nuance about Underwriting and product eligibility and first time home buyers and unique markets. You got a lot of catch up to do, but Fannie and Freddie have some new stuff. They’re trying to, they make it easier one borrower at a time. There aren’t even major underwriting changes that can be made that can all of a sudden provide sweeping opportunity also. So you have to be an expert at the little things right now. Because of that, we’re just going to be in this range. We’re just moving within this range and everything tariffs aren’t, we’re not going to know the impact of that for a year.
[David] Yeah. Fully realized. Yes. So good. Applaud that. We had a lot of wisdom there, Alice. Thank you. A perspective as always. So be sure to sign up for Les Parker’s TMSpotlight newsletter. You can do so. By getting the paid version for free by entering the word power in the signup code on the tmspotlight. com and Power stands for Power Seller. He’s got a good partnership with them. Also, I want to shout out to Gary Cantrambone, who has the impossible task of putting that all together. Gary, awesome job. Les, we appreciate you as well. Give you a bad time about your voice sometime, but actually you’ve got a great voice. Matt Graham’s not here because of the holiday president’s day. Matt. Hope you’re doing well. Love the website. Check out MBS live.net. Do the signup code LOL for a extended trial period. You just want to sign up. It’s so affordable. It’s got so much information. It’s over the top. Good.