It is scary to realize this is a person of influence in the legislative branch of our government.

In Killeen, we were at 4-6% largely because of the heavy government influence on the economy.  

In general, does the lender have any control or influence over any of the fees with "title" in the name?

The peer-to-peer model has influenced the industry for sure. 

And not to offend any realtors reading this, but I think something people don't mention is the influence of brokerage on the market here.

Ian Tudor that's a very creative strategy, goes to show how much relationships can influence what you can get done!

You can really only influence two things in this situation, 1) Money coming in & 2) Money leaving your possession. 

So each of us gets to decide who influences us and who does not.

I don't have any influence on what happens at any of the companies involved in a mutual fund and as @Mike M. has shown below, look at what just happened to Facebook just a few weeks ago.

The saddest thing I see is that "success" for today's kids and young adults is Instagram followers and social media "influence", which IMO is completely useless vocation to our economy and people as a whole.