Making Certain You Shop Your Mortgage – Whether You Want To Or Not

Ken Harney had some welcome news on Move afoot to end uninvited mortgage pitches To a certain extent, these are a good thing for consumers. However, it gets way overdone. What happens is this. Let’s sat I get a client into my office, they apply for a mortgage, and I run their credit. The three …

Impound Accounts Facts and FAQs

I’ve seen a fair number of questions on impound accounts in the last several months. An impound account, also known by the confusing term escrow account because the lender is holding it in escrow, is money that you give the lender in order to pay the property taxes and homeowner’s insurance on the property when …

Dual Agency: Using the Seller’s Agent as Your Buyer’s Agent

Is it unwise to use the listing realtor as your purchase realtor? A house I’m interested in purchasing is being sold by the realtor selling my house. Although she’s done a decent job selling my house, I fear she won’t negotiate well on my behalf if she has to divide her loyalties between these listers …

Book Review: The Geek Gap By Bill Pfleging and Minda Zetlin

A while ago, I had two publishers ask me if I would read books for review purposes on my site. I said that I would be glad to. One of the publishers included this little book on communicating between “suits” (businessfolk) and “geeks” (technical folk). Having a background on both sides of the fence (math, …

Life Insurance – Proper Prior Planning Prevents…

Life Insurance is something that nearly every adult should have, and almost every adult who buys goes about purchasing it the wrong way, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons, and buys the wrong policy. Is that an indictment of the system or what? Let’s start with what life insurance is. Life insurance is …

Lenders and Insurance Proceeds

The question that inspired this was can a mortgage company use the flood insurance claim money towards homeowners mortgage loans? This is equally applicable to every other form of insurance on your home – earthquake, regular homeowner’s insurance, and any others that you may have or require. The short answer is yes. The reason that …

If Your Loan Falls Through

“What do I do when the loan falls through” That depends upon when it falls through and what situation you’re in. If you’re in a refinance situation, you generally keep making payments on your old loan until and unless you can find a refinance that is better that you qualify for. There is one exception …

Games Lenders Play, Part V – Selling a Low Payment

Hello, I’ve been reading your website for awhile now, and have found it very helpful as I’m learning to navigate this crazy loan process! I had a question I was wondering if you could write about/answer. We currently have a mortgage and a secondary line of credit on our condo (we didn’t have a down …

Flipping vs Fixing vs Investing

I get occasional questions about the difference between these three kinds of activity. Well, there are subjective parts to the answer, but here are some general guidelines: A true flipper is looking for a quick turn on the property, usually without much work done to really improve the property. They don’t typically keep the property …