It seems I can’t hardly turn around in the investment world without a paean to Jack Bogle, who preaches the advantage of the index fund. Mr. Bogle’s reasoning goes something like this: Looking at the world of mutual funds, relatively few funds beat the S&P 500 Index, so why not just buy the whole S&P …
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The Escrow Process and Reasons for Falling Out
There are all sorts of reasons why escrow falls through, but they fall into three main categories. They can best be described as failures of qualification, failures of the property itself, and failures of execution. Before I get into the main subject matter of the article, I need to define a contingency period. This is …
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Timeshares, Pro and Con (mostly Con)
I realized that I hadn’t covered timeshares, and decided it was time. I suppose I should define what a timeshare is, just in case. A timeshare is a property where you buy the rights to use it for a certain amount of time every year. The most typical time share is a two week period. …
The Perfect War
(originally written 20 years ago, republished because it’s worth keeping. I do not favor war with Iran) Another blogger has a wonderful article about the demand for an antiseptically perfect war, with no collateral damage, no casualties (certainly no bystanders), and everything wrapped up in a nice little package before the attention span of the …
FSBO Horror and Failure to Disclose Property Defects
I keep getting search result hits for the string “fsbo horror.” It’s an amalgamation because I haven’t done any postings on this specific subject. Both buyers and sellers have problems relating to For Sale By Owner issues. For sellers, the largest issue seems to be properly disclosing all relevant items to satisfy the liability issue. …
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New Release! (and last chance at a sale)
I have a new release tomorrow, Bubbles Of Creation. It’s part of a many-worlds fantasy series named Connected Realms, and will be the last in this series. It is available to pre-order in e-book, and the paperback and hardcover versions go live tomorrow morning. They won’t allow me to do audiobook until the e-book is …
For Sale By Owner – Working Directly With a Loan Officer
Just got a search on “state of california fsbo questions to work directly with loan officers without a agent” This isn’t a problem. Whereas it is the same license, it is two entirely separate job functions. The fact that you are or are not working with an agent has absolutely nothing to do with whether …
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Disclosure Issues and Failure to Disclose
One of the most important things for the buyer in any transaction is confidence that the seller has disclosed all known problems. One of the things most people don’t realize, or act like they don’t realize, is that it’s at least as important to the seller. The California Association of Realtors (CAR) has a program …
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Tax Treatment of Annuity Withdrawals
Asymmetrical Information has a good article about the political and budget problems faced by pensions everywhere. It touches upon the treatment of annuities, one of the most popular investment vehicles there is. Most defined contribution pensions (e.g. 401k, among others) in the United States are actually funded by variable annuities. Annuities currently have in interesting …
Signing Off Loan Conditions
what is a underwriter final “sign off” on the conditions First off, it needs to be mentioned that a good loan officer gathers information and puts a full package, with all of the information an underwriter should need, before submitting the package to the underwriter. That’s how you get loans through quick and clean. Give …