COUNTRYWIDE PLANS TO FIGHT FOR CLIENTS.Byline: GREGORY J. WILCOX Drop by an open house this weekend and there is a chance you could bump into a Countrywide coun·try·wide adv. & adj. Throughout a whole country; nationwide: launched a fundraising campaign countrywide; a countrywide search. Adj. 1. home loan sales person. The Calabasas mortgage giant, which is getting hammered ham·mered adj. 1. Shaped or worked with a metalworker's hammer and often showing the marks of these tools: a bowl of hammered brass. 2. Slang Drunk or intoxicated. Adj. in the credit crunch Credit Crunch An economic condition whereby investment capital is difficult to obtain. Banks and investors become weary of lending funds to corporations thereby driving up the price of debt products for borrowers. , ordered 7,000 loan consultants to spread out across the country in operation "America's Open House." It's one more battle in the company's war to win back the hearts and checking accounts of homebuyers, who are scarce these days. Here's the battle plan. The consultants will hook up real estate agents and prospective buyers they encounter and provide them with an array of mortgage financing options that Countrywide still offers. Surprisingly, it's a sizeable number. "We do have a wide variety of loan programs -- 197 at last count. But fundamentally people only use about five or so," said Mark Kemp Mark Kemp, a graduate of East Carolina University, has served as music editor of Rolling Stone and vice president of music editorial for MTV Networks. In 1997 he received a Grammy nomination for his liner notes to the CD Farewells & Fantasies , the company's divisional vice president for California, Nevada and Hawaii. Countrywide still makes loans with 5 percent and 10 percent down payments. And it also has a wide variety of jumbo and superjumbo loans, he said. But it is not the Wild West of just a couple of years ago. "Credit standards Credit Standards The guidelines a company follows to determine whether a credit applicant is creditworthy. certainly have tightened up, and that's a result of investors getting more careful and scrutinizing what they invest in," Kemp said. "The best advice I could ever give is be prepared to document your income and be prepared to have a down payment." Countrywide is encouraged by what it views as signs of renewed consumer interest in home finance, including a 40 percent spike in the number of customers calling to discuss their home financing options after the Fed's recent half-point rate cut. One thing the consultants will bring are calculators that can provide qualified prospective buyers with pre-approvals for a loan. That will let them know how much house they can buy and whether prices are still too high. The consultants will also bring a Realtor's survival kit, what the company calls "a big ol' bag of appreciation from Countrywide." Kemp said: "It's not as dismal as it seems. You can still have a piece of the American dream American dream also American Dream n. An American ideal of a happy and successful life to which all may aspire: . I hate to sound like a Pollyanna, but it's true." Maybe so. But it's still going to take a lot more than a bag of appreciation to sweeten sweet·en v. sweet·ened, sweet·en·ing, sweet·ens v.tr. 1. To make sweet or sweeter by adding sugar, honey, saccharin, or another sweet substance. 2. To make more pleasant or agreeable. up this real estate market. CASH INFUSION: CityView, a national housing investor, last week launched CityView Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Fund, a $150 million-plus fund to create more work-force housing in Los Angeles County. The enterprise's executive chairman is Henry Cisneros, the former Housing and Urban Development head. "With housing costs rising faster than incomes, the imbalanced work-force housing supply in Los Angeles County is a crisis," Cisneros said in a statement. CityView will partner with homebuilders and developers to address a pressing issue and build homes within the price range of working families such as teachers, nurses, police officers and firefighters. The enterprise has already partnered with the California Public Employees' Retirement System and has added three local pension funds -- the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension, the Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System and the Los Angeles County Employee Retirement Association. The fund can be used for complex housing developments, such as infill in·fill n. 1. The use of vacant land and property within a built-up area for further construction or development, especially as part of a neighborhood preservation or limited growth program. 2. projects, and brings the creativity for the development of underused land. For example, in one of the first projects, CityView teamed up with John Laing For John Laing, the 15th century bishop of Glasgow, see John Laing (bishop) John Laing plc is a British developer and operator of privately financed, public sector infrastructure projects such as roads, railways, hospitals and schools through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and Homes to develop an Inglewood site near Los Angeles International Airport “LAX” redirects here. For other uses, see LAX (disambiguation). “KLAX” redirects here. For other uses, see KLAX (disambiguation). Los Angeles International Airport (IATA: LAX, ICAO: KLAX, FAA LID: LAX , which was formerly used for oil drilling and storage. Today, the development of 157 detached, single-family homes is the largest master-planned community Inglewood has seen in more than 15 years. greg.wilcox@dailynews.com (818) 713-3743 |
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