Bad Santa: Fidelity Title says “No No No” to Employee 401(k) Plans

January 7, 2008 by 2 Comments

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Twas the day after Christmas and all through the title plant, not a creature was stirring because employees have a retirement rant.

According to The Title Report, Fidelity National Financial sent a memo out to their employees the day after Christmas informing them the company will no longer make contributions towards employees 401(k) plans.

"Fidelity did not immediately provide comment about why it ceased making retirement contributions.

The housing downturn has taken a toll on the Fidelity’s earnings as well as its stock value. Since closing at a high of $28.04 per share in May, its stock has lost more than 50 percent of its value, closing at $13.59 on Jan. 4.

Fidelity reported its third-quarter net earnings dipped to $6.5 million, compared to $127.6 million during the same period in 2006. Impacting earnings was an $81.5 million charge the company took as it bolstered its reserve for claim losses."

Other local Fidelity brands include Chicago Title and Ticor Title.  An unnamed source from The Title Report suggested:

"Fidelity could consolidate its Fidelity National Title, Chicago Title and Ticor Title operations if market conditions worse."

Meanwhile, Bill Foley, Chairman of Fidelity National, is enjoying the fruits of his labor as a wine maker.   Wine Spectator’s article dated December 26, 2007 (I kid you not):

"Merus, a Napa Cabernet label founded as a bonded garage in downtown Napa and which became one of Napa Valley’s rising-star Cabernet producers, has been sold to vintner William Foley, who heads the Foley Wine Group. Terms of the sale were not disclosed….

Foley’s heightened involvement in wine comes as he is fazing himself out of other business interests. He is still chairman of two firms, Fidelity National Information Services and Fidelity National Title, banking and home-loan deposit firms, respectively, yet he relinquished the title of CEO in the past year.

"I guess I’m shifting from those businesses to wine," he said, adding, "I’d like to kick [the wine brands] up a notch…."

Read the Wine Spectator article here: Download FoleyWineSpectatorDec262007.pdf

Is Fidelity leading the way for other large title underwriters and banks to cut employee benefits?

Filed Under: Title Insurance

Blood Drive at The Talon Group tomorrow

January 7, 2008 by Leave a Comment

The Talon Group, your title and escrow partners, is having a blood drive on Tuesday, January 8th from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m.   Erin tells me that they have a couple of spots available for donors around 2:30.   The blood drive bus will be in Talon’s back parking lot in Bellevue along 112th.   For more information, or to donate please contact Erin.

We are experiencing a shortage at our blood banks so roll up your sleeves and do a good deed.

Talon’s Bellevue office is located at 11400 SE 8th Street, Suite 250, Bellevue, WA 98004. 

Filed Under: Title Insurance

Stuffed Poppers — a tailgating must have

January 6, 2008 by 2 Comments

For the first time, I made stuffed poppers and they were delish (if you like spicy food).  They were devoured while we watched the Seahawks beat the Indians yesterday!

I learned through my experiment, that you should wear gloves when cutting the peppers.   Nothing could get the pepper juices from my hands and they burned all night.  I also discovered that the vapor (?) makes me gag and cough.   Appetizing, huh?  Cutting onions produces a stream a tears…so maybe I’m just an overly sensitive cook.  Bonus: you can make these the night before and pop them into the oven Img_6240when you’re ready to serve.

[photo to follow once I bake up today’s batch…they were consumed too quickly yesterday for me to snap a picture]

Since we’re in the heat of football playoffs, I thought I’d share my recipe with you for stuffed poppers.   They’re kind of like nacho’s; the recipe is very flexible and you can add what ever you want.

Soak 1-2 wooden toothpicks in water before you begin (to prevent flamage).

Softened Cream Cheese – one package works for about 6 peppers.

I blended chopped garlic, fresh chopped basil (dry would work too) and sun-dried tomatoes with a little salt and pepper.

I make the cream cheese mixture first and then prepare the peppers so the flavors have a chance to blend.

Fresh jalapeno peppers (my sister in law uses another pepper that she says is not as spicy and is slightly larger.   I’ll let you know if we can narrow down which one it is).  I would figure 1-2 peppers per serving.

Slice a small wedge down the length of the pepper.  You want it to be narrow enough to keep the pepper closed when cooking yet large enough to stuff with the goodies.   Remove the seeds and ribs from the pepper.   Stuff the peppers.

Wrap thin sliced bacon around each stuffed pepper and secure with a soaked wooden toothpick.  Wrap the bacon in a criss-cross to cover the cheesy opening of the pepper.  If your pepper is larger, you may need two slices.  Darn!

Secure the bacon with a wooden toothpick.

Broil (or BBQ) the poppers until the bacon is cooked.  I broiled my poppers with the cheese side down first and then flipped them once the bacon was cooked to finish with the cheese side up.  This was out of concern that I may loose my stuffing if the cheese became melted and gooey by heating up the cheesy side and then flipping over.

Enjoy!

Other ideas I may try the next  time I make poppers are stuffing with:

  • Brie
  • Sausage and rice (like a mini stuffed bell pepper)
  • Crab and cream cheese

What are your favorite popper stuffings?

Filed Under: Recipes

Go HAWKS!

January 5, 2008 by Leave a Comment

We have our first round play off game starting about 1:30 today.   It’s a home game and you know our fans are going to be loud!  Plus, we’re in the midst of a windstorm with 50 mph gusts and a possible thundershowers…I’m hoping Mother Nature will allow our power to stay on so we can watch the game and cheer for our Seahawks!   

Filed Under: Seattle

First Friday Funny of 2008

January 4, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Well…it has to be the firework display at the Seattle Center.  Who’d a thunk that in the land of techno giants, we would have a computer glitch halting the show for a couple re-boots!

To view un-edited the video, click here.

No word on which computer system caused the error.  In the end, the fireworks had to be manually triggered by humans.

Happy 2008 Seattle!

Filed Under: Just for Fun, Seattle

Bits and Pieces from the FOMC Minutes

January 3, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Here are a few bits and pieces from the minutes of the FOMC meeting from December 11, 2007 that was released today.

"In the housing market, new home sales were below their third-quarter pace, and sales of existing homes were flat in October following sharp declines in August and September. These declines likely were exacerbated by the deterioration in nonprime mortgage markets and by the higher interest rates and tighter lending conditions for jumbo loans….

Participants discussed in detail the resurgence of stresses in financial markets in November. The renewed stresses reflected evidence that the performance of mortgage-related assets was deteriorating further, potentially increasing the losses that were being borne in part by a number of major financial firms….

Moreover, participants recognized that some lenders might be exposed to additional losses:  Delinquency rates on credit card loans, auto loans, and other forms of consumer credit, while still moderate, had increased somewhat, particularly in areas hard hit by house price declines and mortgage defaults. Past and prospective losses appeared to be spurring lenders to tighten further the terms on new extensions of credit, not just in the troubled markets for nonconforming mortgages but, in some cases, for other forms of credit as well….

In light of elevated inventories of unsold homes and the higher cost and reduced availability of nonconforming mortgage loans, participants agreed that the housing correction was likely to be both deeper and more prolonged than they had anticipated in October.  Moreover, rising foreclosures and the resulting increase in the supply of homes for sale could put additional downward pressure on prices, leading to a greater decline in household wealth and potentially to further disruptions in the financial markets."

Remember, this is not a forecast into the future but a press release of minutes from the meeting a couple of weeks ago.   With that said, 2008 will have many homes facing their ARMs adjusting unless they take action soon.  If you have an adjustable rate mortgage with a fixed period ending in 24 months or sooner, please contact your Mortgage Professional.   

Filed Under: Mortgage

Is Your Loan Officer Legal?

January 3, 2008 by 1 Comment

According to DFI, a majority of Loan Originators have not renewed their license…it’s quite possible that your Loan Originator (aka Loan Officer, Mortgage Consultant, Mortgage Planner…we go by many titles) may not be licensed to complete a loan application if they did not renew their license prior to December 31, 2007.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Legislation

I can’t think of a much nicer way to begin 2008

January 2, 2008 by Leave a Comment

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We are just returning from a family vacation at Ocean Shores and I’m very tickled to learn that Mortgage Porter is receiving some nice nods from some fellow real estate bloggers whom I think a great deal of.

Tony Gallegos of the Mortgage Cicerone has declared Cicerone’s Top 20 Bloggers for 2007.  Yours truly is very honored to be included as one of Tony’s top 20.  I’m excited to be on this list as there are many fellow bloggers I’m familiar with and a few who are new to me.  I enjoy checking out blogs I’m not subscribed to yet.

Equally exciting, Larry Cragun’s Magnificent 7 on Real Estate Undressed is down to the final round.  I’m very lucky to have a couple of posts included in the running of the total of 14 consumer focused articles.   Please do check out the posts and let Larry know which one gets your vote. 

Is this a sign for how great 2008 will be?  I certainly hope so.

Filed Under: Weblogs
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