ARE YOU A TOP PRODUCER?

During my 16 years in the mortgage business I have met thousands of loan officers. Year after year I have observed that 10% of the sales force make 80% of the income leaving the other 90% to fight over the leftovers. Each loan officer has the same opportunity to work 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, yet there is always the group that earns at least 2 or 3 times the income of the average loan officer.

What I have observed with successful loan officers is that they have the desire for riches. I would like to share a 5 step formula with you that I have personally used to attain my goals:

1. Define the exact amount of money you desire.
2. Decide what effort you will put forth for your desired income.
3. Establish a date by which time you intend to possess the money you desire.
4. Create a detailed plan to create your desired income.
5. Write it all down on paper, in pen.

Finally let me share this with you: The fact that you want to be a top producer is great and is one reason we value you here at AMS, but before you can HAVE you must BECOME.

Matt Wagoner!

Prior to joining the AMS family, Matt had a varied and fascinating career path. He trained as a professional opera singer for twelve years, and anybody who has been lucky enough to hear him sing knows what an incredible talent he has! His ability gave him the chance to join The Bohemian Club. This is the world's most elite men's only club. Only singers and actors of high education and talent may join. The club owns 3000 acres of redwood forest in the Russian River area of Northern California. During his time in the club he was able to perform with Steve Miller and Bob Weir(Grateful Dead), and meet Woody Harrelson, Clint Eastwood, Patrick Wayne and many other performance luminaries.

He married his beautiful wife in October of 2000, who is also a singer. She is a country singer from Tennessee. While neither of them sing professionally anymore, they do perform for family and close friends on special occasions. In addition to being one of our strongest Loan Officers, Matt is an avid surfer, an advanced certified diver, skydiver, ocean kayaker and all around outdoorsman. If you get the chance to meet him, you will find Matt is a very nice guy and a true gentleman. We are proud to have him on the AMS Team.

Win a $25 gift card good at Chili's Bar & Grill. Simply submit your favorite recipe by Dec. 14th, 2005 to be entered into the contest. The winner will be chosen by our panel of judges and he or she will be announced in the Dec. 19th, 2005 issue of the AMS Insider. Good Luck!

Sam's Spicy Guacamole

INGREDIENTS:

2 medium tomatoes, diced

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1 garlic clove, pressed

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon cumin

2 large, ripe Haas avocados, pitted and peeled

Tortilla chips or toasted pita bread wedges (optional)

DIRECTIONS: 1. In a small bowl, combine diced tomatoes, onion, lime juice, fresh cilantro, garlic, salt, cayenne pepper, and cumin until well blended. In a separate bowl, coarsely mash avocados with a fork or potato masher. Stir in the tomato mixture. Serve with tortilla chips or toasted pita bread wedges, if desired. Makes about 2 cups.

Tickle These, Elmo

A women desperately looking for work goes into a toy factory.

The Personnel Manager goes over her resume and explains to her that he regrets he has nothing worthy of her. The woman answers that she really needs work and will take almost anything. The Personnel Manager hems and haws and finally says he does have a low skill job on the Tickle-Me-Elmo line and nothing else. The woman happily accepts.. He takes her down to the line and explains her duties and that she should come in at 8am the next day.

The next day at 8:45 there's a knock at the Personnel Manager's door. The Tickle-Me-Elmo line manager comes in and starts ranting about the woman just hired. After screaming for 15 minutes about how badly backed up the assembly line is, the Personnel Manager suggested he be shown the problem.

Together they head down to the line and sure enough Elmos are backed up from here to kingdom come. Right at the end of the line is the woman just hired. She has pulled over a roll of the material used for the Elmos and has a big bag of marbles. They both watch as she cuts a little piece of fabric and takes 2 marbles and starts sewing them between Elmo's legs.

The Personnel Manager starts to kill himself laughing and finally after 20 minutes of rolling around, he pulls himself together and walks over to the new employee and says, "I'm sorry, I guess you misunderstood me yesterday. What I wanted you to do was give Elmo two test tickles."

Surveys Indicating Mortgage Rates Turning Around Again

After a couple of weeks of slight declines, the message on the rates front was mixed for the week ended November 30 according to Freddie Mac's Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey and December 2 for the Mortgage Bankers Association's Weekly Application's Survey. The changes, however, appeared to signal that rates were on the upswing once again.

Freddie Mac reported a small decrease in the 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate to 6.26 percent from 6.26 percent the previous week. Fees and points also eased off slightly to 0.5 from 0.6. The 15-year fixed rate was unchanged at 5.81 percent although fees and points dropped from 0.6 to 0.5.

Both adjustable rate mortgages tracked by Freddie Mac were up for the week. The 5/1 ARM edged up one basis point to 5.75 percent and the 1-year ARM increased two basis points to 5.16 percent. Fees for the 5/1 dropped from 0.8 to 0.6 while fees on the 1-year were up from 0.7 to 0.8, the highest for that product since the end of March.

The MBA survey was more decisive. It reported increases, all in double digits, across the board. Its survey stated that the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.32 percent from 6.20 percent, with points increasing to 1.30 from 1.17 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value loans.

15-year fixed-rate mortgages were also up 12 basis points to 5.84 percent with points increasing to 1.37 from 1.26.

One-year ARMs increased to 5.49 percent from 5.39 percent one week earlier, but points decreased to 0.91 from 0.96.

MBA's Market Composite Index - a measure of mortgage loan applications increased 5.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 46.8 percent compared with the previous week which was shortened by the Thanksgiving holiday, but was down 6.1 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

Refinancing as a percent of total mortgage applications bounced back to 41 percent from 39.1 the previous week and adjustable rate mortgages continued to hold on to their near 1/3 market share, up a scant 0.1 percent to 33.1 percent from the previous week.