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 …
Continue reading “Disclosure Issues and Failure to Disclose”
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 …
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 …
“How do I remove PMI?” First off, a definition. Private Mortgage Insurance, often abbreviated PMI, is an insurance policy that the bank may make you buy in order to get the loan. It is a monthly surcharge based upon a percentage of your entire principal balance. You pay for it, but the bank is the …
Continue reading “Removing Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI)”
What’s negotiable on a purchase? The short answer is everything. There may be standards and traditions in your area, the same as there are in mine. That doesn’t mean they are not subject to amendment by specific negotiation. Once you get outside legal requirements, anything is subject to negotiation. As long as both (or all) …
legal information on going through probate without money That was a search hit I got. The problem with this question is that you can’t go through probate without money. The deceased’s creditors want cash. The probate court wants cash. Attorneys and anybody else your executor has to hire want cash. Federal Estate tax may be …
The easy, general rule is that legitimate expenses all have easily understood explanations in plain English, they are all for specific services, and if they are performed by third parties, there are associated invoices or receipts that you can see. Let’s haul out the Mortgage Loan Disclosure Statement (California) or Good Faith Estimate (elsewhere), and …
Continue reading “Mortgage Closing Costs: What is Real and What is Junk?”
(This was originally published in March 2006) Doing my workout this morning I asked myself what’s next for the real estate market. The state of the market here locally is that prices are and have been in decline. There is no longer any mystery about whether they will decline, only how much and for how …
Continue reading “Looking Beyond The Bubble: What’s Next For Highly Appreciated Markets”
One of the most common questions in real estate is “What is this property really worth?” The easy answer is the same as the deepest, most profound one I can come up with, “Whatever you can get someone to pay for it.” It’s the answers in between that you’ve got to watch out for. The …
US News has an interesting editorial by Mortimer Zuckerman in their latest issue, having to do with the departure of Lawrence Summers and the downside for Harvard’s students. It seems that Summer’s celebrated episode of Hoof in Mouth Disease was only a public reason for the faculty turning on them. It seems he wanted the …
