Just sittin' here and looking at my desktop calendar for April, and was reminded of a very important date next month -- it's the 25th Wedding Anniversary with the love of my life ... sent her an e-mail (because I'm a 21st Century kinda guy) to her work and asked her to dinner -- maybe we'll go eat in Venice, or Rome! I think she might like that.

So yesterday, I drive the short 45 minutes in heavy traffic, to 'Dreamworks' in Burbank and had lunch with my oldest Son, who works there. As usual it was Great!

He sold his condo in Orange County at the very top of the market more than a year ago (and I mean at the EXACT top of the market -- he/we planned it day by day hour by hour when to list it etc.) and has been renting since, waiting for the right time to buy a bigger place ... he follows the market very closely; we talk about lending stuff and property values etc. frequently. He thinks today, he'll sit tight for more than another full year, or possibly rent even longer, with values plunging like they are in Orange County (last time they did that was in the early 1990's).

So yesterday we're discussing what a mess the residential real estate mortgage lending industry is in, who caused it, and what to do about it, and so on. The conversation naturally turned to all those 'poor people' who got stuffed into homes they should never have qualified for in the first place, and the coming foreclosure explosion. Coming I said? It's here right now! ... I explained it was a period where lenders and loan officers discovered it was easy to GIVE AWAY money, instead of lending it with actual loan standards! I mean how hard can that be, right?

Anyhow, I asked him the next time he has "poor/unfortunate consumer" feelings, and is talking with his mother about that, I said "ask her how many years in the beginning of our marraige did 'I' have a second job" -- because that's my solution for those "poor consumers" ... go out and get a second job and pay your dam bills - LIKE I DID!

Last night we added a new feature to our main website, we're offering a FREE CD Lesson to be viewed right now inside your own Internet browser! This lesson happens to cover industry ADVERTISING! Check it out: http://americasmoneycenter.com/freelesson.htm

I'm thinking this idea will help potential new students to get a better idea about the sort of CD Lessons we have available on our main website -- this AIN'T full of fluff ....

Piked up a great idea from Bart, a friend of mine - and that is to put a complimentary CD Lessons on our main website. The concept is to introduce people to what they look like, and provide some material advise as well ... good will I think!

I selected the topic ADVERTISING, as I have noticed many people in the origination side of the residential real estate mortgage lending business, have a limited understanding of this notion - therefore I feel a lot of folks will get some good out of this. I expect the lesson to be live on the site by month's end.

Tomorrow's the first day of Spring!

Considering there are several hundred different 'net branches' and other similar opportunities available to industry personnel on the Internet, and the fact that many of them are heavily advertised - I'm pretty pleased we had 23 visitors to our all new Associate Loan Officer Program page on our main website, since we launched the program this past Monday. As it's turned out so far, three (3) of them liked what they saw (believe they're pre-qualified), and requested the full application package so they can read all the fine print - that conversion percentage works for me!

Become an Associate Loan Officer with a Chartered Financial Institution

In conjunction with a Chartered Financial Institution, we are presently offering an exciting program, where you can, when approved, associate with a company that has a national presence ... acceptable in several dozen States and having access to all the major wholesale funding sources. Yesterday we launched it on our website - if you wanna read more about it, go ahead and click HERE

Didn't you wonder, like I did, about the math in that gigantic power ball drawing day before yesterday? They said there were two (2) tickets sold with the winning numbers in the $370 Million game ... so far one guy came forward and got his half(?) $116Million! Who else can't figure out that math beside me? Even I bought a ticket, that's probably the third or fourth time I've ever done, that ... but like they say you gotta play to win. I DID win! I got one (1) number (22)!

And speaking of being picked a winner, I got selected for Jury Duty this week, I've been on call every evening. I have to phone in with my PIN number to see if I have to appear, so far haven't had to go all week, but there's still tomorrow. I really don't want to go, but like my brother told me, "ya gotta do your duty" --- then I reminded him about when I was in the Army!

Some of you that know me, know my oldest Son Christopher works for Dreamworks. Yesterday he phoned and told me his name will be in the "credits" for their upcoming Shrek 3 ... so now I know somebody who's famous!

Yep, got our March Newsletter out this morning without a hitch, the read rate so far today looks real good, that makes me happy.

Last night I had dinner with a 25 year long friend of mine (James Isreal), who sells advertising for Source Media (National Mortgage News, Broker Magazine, Origination News, Mortgage Grapevine, etc.) and Jim was telling me what he's seeing as he visits his clients this trip. Many scared people out there with zero advertising budgets(they're focusing on survival he said), a few happy one's too, since they're still standing and starting to get increased submissions, since so many other wholesalers have or are failing.

Speaking of wholesalers, day before yesterday I had a nice coinversatiun with my friend of 42 years (Paul Russo) - a young man I participated in hiring (when I was a senior assistant newbie in the biz), who later was an aggressive branch manager competitor of mine (and for more than a decades was nearly as good as I was in my prime :}). He eventially left The Mother Company and (with a few of the guys we both knew back then)opened up a wholesale operation in Reno Nevada; MLSG Home Loans.

I was pleased to start a new thread/topic in our Discussion Board, where I recommended originators use his firm - hell, how many other wholesalers do YOU know that have been in business 18 years?