I got a search for “which states allow prepayment penalties”. I’m not aware of any that don’t. If there are any, I’d like to know. Any such states should immediately be renamed “Denial”. I really hate prepayment penalties, for a large number of reasons. Nonetheless, to make them illegal would not be in the best …
Author Archives: admin
What Does Escrow Do?
This is a question that gets asked a lot. Escrow is nothing more or less than a neutral third party that stands in the middle of a real estate transaction and makes certain all of the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed. They make certain that all of the terms of the contract have …
Transparency, National Security and Shield Laws
Asymmetric Information has an excellent article on what journalistic ethics are and are not, much to the chagrin of Juan Cole. As I stated a few days ago, I would not make it illegal for the press to publish anything, so long as they’re willing to defend its factuality in court. That they publish a …
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The Fallacies of Index Fund Investing
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 …
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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