Buying Investment Property – An Example of the Issues

My aunt is going to move to a new condo and wants to sell her old one. I would like to buy her old condo as an investment and rent it out (as I am already a home-owner). This whole investment/rental buying is all new to me. She has lived there about 5 years and …

Practical Examples – Refinance or Prepayment Penalty?

Hi Dan wondering if you could help me out I’m getting a lot of different answers from a lot of people and I’m really searching for help I bought my house brand new (three years ago) for 550,000, and (the next year) I refinanced into a mta loan. which at that time was around 4.25% …

When The Loan Underwriter Makes A Mistake

“challenging underwriters mistakes in housing loan paperwork” was a search that I got. You can’t challenge them. Butting heads with an underwriter is stupid and counterproductive. There’s only one person who gets a vote, and it’s not you, whether you are an applicant, processor, or loan officer. The underwriter may not be the original application …

The Pin That Pops the Housing Bubble?

This was originally published in Jun 2006, and what it describes was indeed that pin. The housing bubble is not the primary focus of this website, but to pretend it does not exist is plainly wishful thinking. One of the ongoing phenomenon that have been driving the bubble is the “Stated Income”loan, where the lender …

The Effects of Divorce on Real Estate

The bottom line on this question is always, “Whatever the courts say.” Divorce law is complex, and different from state to state, and even when you think you’ve got a clear message in the law as written, the courts may interpret it differently, or there may be precedent that says otherwise, or even just some …

Legal Late Payments on Your Mortgage

(I have noticed a fair number of hits to this article that, judging by their search query, probably want the article on What Happens When You Can’t Make Your Real Estate Loan Payment instead) I got a question about legal late payments in California. Unfortunately, there really is no such thing as a legal late …

Housing Bubble Death Trap

That was the wording of a search engine hit I got. It’s not literally a death trap, of course, only much financial pain. But the hyperbole is forgivable in today’s modern society and the state of the current market. Other people may have other definitions of “housing bubble death trap,” but when I’m talking about …

Homesteading and Declaration of Homestead

One topic I haven’t covered yet here is homesteading. This has nothing to do with the Homestead Act of 1862 that encouraged settling the western United States. A declaration of Homestead basically protects your equity. In many cases, you may not even have to file a declaration to receive the benefits, but whether this is …