Have uploaded files for Meeting The Morelli to Amazon and Draft2Digital (aka Books2Read, which distributes to the rest of the book world). This is (thus far) a standalone set in the Empire of Humanity. I have the bare idea for a sequel. Amazon has files for kindle, paperback and hardcover. I’m not allowed to create …
Author Archives: admin
Online Mortgage Quotes
I got a question about what I think about those online quote services. The answer is that they vary from okay to putrid. There are two sorts of online quote sources. The first is where mortgage companies have their rates online, and people come along and browse. Those are pretty much a waste of your …
Mortgages: General Concerns and Manufactured Housing
A mortgage or Deed of Trust (they’re not the same!) is basically pledging an asset that you own as collateral for a debt. If you default on the debt, the lender takes your property. When you’re talking about real estate in the state of California (and many others), this is generally accomplished by use of …
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Losing Property Value with Highly Leveraged Properties
(This was originally published March 18th, 2006. I’ve added a couple updates, but otherwise it’s as published. It’s still very relevant, and if there’s anyone that wants to tell me I didn’t nail it, please speak up) Somebody wrote a comment about going upside-down on their mortgage: What happens if the property value falls and …
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You Only Need Negative Amortization Disclosures on Negative Amortization Loans
First let me say that I really learned a lot from your postings/articles/website; its awesome that a resource like yourself exists. Now to the problem. I recently refinanced and the mortgage broker lied to me about many, many things. I was sold a negative amortization mortgage. The broker provided me a chart showing my payment …
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What Happens When You Can’t Make Your Real Estate Loan Payment
I’ve written a lot here about how to manage your mortgage so that you control it instead of it controlling you. Let’s consider what happens when that project fails. If you don’t pay your mortgage, on time, no big deal at first. The lenders don’t like it, but there’s a grace period built in. Fifteen …
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Joint Loans for Unmarried People
We aren’t married. How do we buy a house together? Basically, the same way that married people do. The qualifications are exactly the same, provided that you both will be living in the property. If not all of the people who will be buying will also be living in the property, they have to show …
How Do You Think About Money?
I am profoundly lucky in that I read “I Will Fear No Evil” in high school. Not an assignment, I just like to read, and Robert A. Heinlein has always been one of my favorite authors. A very few pages into the book, he has one of his characters toss off two fantastically good pieces …
Debunking “Banks Give Better Deals Than Brokers”
Banker loans are better deals – for the bank. Ken Harney had an article Study Shows Loan Brokers’ Better Side But now a new, independent academic study has concluded the opposite: According to a team of researchers headed by Georgetown University’s Gregory Elliehausen, home mortgage applicants with less-than-perfect credit pay lower financing costs when they …
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Debt Consolidation Refinance – Doing it Wrong vs. Doing it Right
There’s a lot that gets written on this subject, mostly by loan officers looking for business. Well, don’t think I’m not looking for business, but not with this post. Or if anybody calls me because of this, at least I’ll know they understand how to do it right. The basic come-on is this: Your home …
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