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The Tollbooth Model of Real Estate Agency
Over the last couple of decades, there's been a rising movement, mostly on the part of those who want a piece of real estate agents business, to sell agents as a toll booth. Tollbooths sit there, guarding the entry to...
Military Housing Allowance and Loan Qualification
One of the things that is really helping military families afford good properties is the military housing allowance and the way that lenders treat it, making it much easier for them to qualify with regards to debt to income...
Be Careful Not To Commit Fraud With Rebates
With many people pushing various "cash back to the buyer" schemes in real estate, a note of caution is needed. Actually, it's more like an entire symphony of caution. Because if there is a loan involved, you run the risk...
Things to Consider If You Can't Afford Your Payment
I read a lot of the info. you have on your web page ... thank you. I don't live in San Diego so I'm not looking for a home. What I am trying to decide is whether to sell...
Temporary Rate Buydowns
Every so often I run across a reference to a "rate buydown" I don't like to use them because they don't benefit the client, but I should explain them, what they are, and how they work. A rate buydown is...
Hourly Pay Instead of Commission For Agents
This was a comment on Real Estate Sellers Giving A Buyer Cash Back. The interesting thing is proposing hourly pay instead of commission for agents. That makes a lot of sense. Disclosing (net) cash back to the lender changes the...
Buying Real Estate Without A Source of Income Or When You Are Changing Careers
I've found several of your mortgage articles very helpful, and wondered if you could help me find a way to solve the dilemma I've been presented with by a loan officer at my bank. My husband is Active Duty...
VA Loans Have Become The Magic Bullet
Quite a while ago, when loan standards were other than they have become, I wrote an article with the title Is a VA Loan a Good Deal? Back then, if you could qualify for a loan that was both...
Wells and Community Water Systems
We read Searchlight Crusade every day and consider your essays a priceless education in avoiding the major pitfalls in the home-buying process. On behalf of all of us consumers, thank you so much for your hard work! Please comment on...
There Are No Schools That Teach What A Good Agent Needs to Know
I find it fascinating the number of people who will claim that because no college degree is required to become a real estate agent, that agents can't possibly be worth any significant amount of money. The reason no college...
Buying Off A Prepayment Penalty At Loan Inception
Been reading some of your informative tips. I am looking at refinancing and getting a $378000 mortgage. Now in the case of having a 3 yr prepay penalty, vs paying 1.5% in points to make it a 1 yr...
How Can I Lower The Down Payment Requirements So I Can Buy Real Estate?
With a few lenders starting to loosen their requirements slightly in San Diego, it's becoming increasingly obvious that the bottom is behind us. However, the issue has now become, "I don't have much of a down payment. How do...
The History of Suburban Housing
For at least the last thirty years, I've been hearing "affordable housing" advocates yammer about the high cost of housing, and how working families can no longer afford "decent" housing, which they apparently consider to be the three or...
CBB: The Art of Setting Buyer's Agency Compensation on a Listing
First off, let me make something very plain. All a CBB (Cooperating Buyer's Broker compensation) can do is give good agent an incentive or disincentive to look at the property. A high one will not, by itself, sell the...
The Mortgage Loan Market Controls the Real Estate Market
One of the things I keep telling folks about the real estate market, whatever area you live in, is that it is controlled by the loan market. If you want to understand where real estate in general is headed, look...
The Best Way To Solve Problems in Real Estate
The same as in every other area of life: Get out in front and stop it from becoming a problem. I do not understand why many people approach real estate transactions like a casual outing. Go window shopping, decide...
My Stance on Military Action by the United States
You want to know what our most precious and limited resource is? Young men and women willing to put their lives on the line in defense of our country. When we run out of them, we will be dust, along...
Reverse Engineering Works in Human Affairs and Legislation, Too
Praxeology, or deducing intent by action, is nothing more than reverse engineering as applied to humans rather than machinery. It completely amazes me the number of people who understand that you design a keyboard, for instance, by including the sorts...
Low Price: "Quantity Has A Quality All Its Own"
This saying comes to us courtesy of our military. They use it in the context of ten million peasants armed with stone age weapons will swarm one man, no matter how well armed or how well supported. In my work,...
Lessons From Election 2012
Lessons from last night: Demographically, Republicans can no longer win national elections. It doesn't matter who lied, it doesn't matter how unfair the media coverage, it doesn't matter the amount of cheating. Those are all included in the final result....
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