Scapegoating mortgage brokers or anyone else is not the answer, nor is prohibiting yield spread. We've been here before (in the early 1990s), congress did something remarkably similar except a little bit more sane. It didn't work then. Why would...
Minorities get higher rates. They add that the fact minorities are more likely to borrow from institutions specializing in high-priced loans could mean they are being steered to such lenders or that some lenders are unwilling or unable to serve...
The phrasing in parallel with Animal Farm is intentional. Sellers need to understand this, and so do buyers, especially in a hot real estate market. Some offers are more equal than others, and knowing how to choose between competing...
I've heard this story, in all of its variations, at least hundreds of times. Someone will send me an email and say "They told me not to make my loan payment because I was going to skip one. So...
One of the things I'm seeing a lot of these days is blanket advice on bridge loans. A bridge loan is a loan that you take out with the explicit intention of having it be short term. The most common...
What is a good interest rate for a house that is for someone with low income? Well, if you make enough to afford the property, your income isn't a factor on the interest rate you get! You either qualify or...
I just moved into a rental house with an option to buy. I figure I can probably save up around $40-45k for a down payment in three years. how should i save? The Roth IRA tax loophole for first...
Really. I know that most people who read that title are replying "no kidding" but you would be amazed at how many people act like there is such a fairy godmother. I got an email yesterday that said, basically, "Help...
We have several rental properties that we own (more than 10). When we were younger, before we got married, we both moved around a lot and bought houses, moved, stayed a year or so and did it again. I...
Thanks again for the terrific posts. I've learned more about mortgages in the past two months than I ever dreamed I might. I am looking to buy my first home soon, and have myself in a good credit position...
What do the mortgage companies mean when they say they can not insure you house loan.? What is the danger to the homeowner? I have been in the new home for over a year now and they just now told...
Here are the facts of the situation, whether you're talking about San Diego or Manhattan, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, or any of the other densely packed, high cost areas where all the employment and career opportunities are. Fact 1:...
Okay, I did an article called Why Renting Really Is For Suckers (And What To Do About It). Fairness demands that I do a companion article on situations where buying is not a good idea. There actually are some. First...
This is one of the biggest issues with my local real estate market. Because the San Diego market has very high demand and limited supply of property, prices are high. A reasonable two bedroom condo runs around $200,000. A 1200...
This is a pure scam throughout, but it's legal as far as I know. I'm not going to go into more details than I can avoid. The universe knows there's enough people pulling this right now, but the bad guys...
When things went south in the real estate market, I saw more changes in the lending industry in a few months than the previous five years. But those changes mostly restored us to the place we were a few years...
This is one of those things that trips up people to buy a house or refinance it: student loans. First off, Form 1003, the Federal Uniform Residential Loan Application has the following relevant questions on page 4, among the...
This is a warning to those who purchase restricted sale property. I've gotten a couple of calls for refinancing these in the past couple months, and I've never covered this subject. A restricted sale property is one where the...
One of the casualties of the lending meltdown is the high loan to value second mortgage. With many properties locally having lost twenty percent or more of their value, a second mortgage on a property that ends up in default...
Many folks have no idea how qualified they are as borrowers. There are two ratios that, together with credit score, tell how qualified you are for a loan. The more important of these two ratios is Debt-to-Income ratio, usually abbreviated...
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