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 …
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Is This Supposed to be Helpful Legislation? (Illinois)
A reader named Terri at Educating the Wheelers sent me an email giving me a heads up on the antics of the state of Illinois. here is the link. Here is the original article at blackprof. The link to the original source is broken, but here is the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, …
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Issues with Family Transfers of Real Estate
We live in (A California city). In a 2 bedroom 1 bath home on approximately a 20,000 Sq. ft. lot. It is easily worth 500K to 600K with a current mortgage of $116,000. The mortgage/Title is in the name of my father and his wife 90% and myself and my wife with a 10% interest. …
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Impound Accounts Facts and FAQs
I’ve seen a fair number of questions on impound accounts in the last several months. An impound account, also known by the confusing term escrow account because the lender is holding it in escrow, is money that you give the lender in order to pay the property taxes and homeowner’s insurance on the property. The …
Fear and Greed, or How Did The Housing Bubble Get So Big?
(This was originally posted in 2006) One of the occasional questions I get from people has to do with why the housing bubble got so big (or if you’re one of those still in denial about it, how prices jumped so far so fast). This has to do with several factors. Legislation made real estate …
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Facts Of Life On Buying and Selling “Without an Agent”
I saw your article on on Searchlight Crusade about exclusive buyers agents and I have a couple follow up questions pertaining to my own situation that I am hoping you could shed some light on. I don’t have any buyers agent (currently). However I have spotted 2 houses in an area that I think I …
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Dammit Jim, I’m a Real Estate Agent Not A Doctor!
(With apologies to the late great DeForrest Kelley) Just got off the phone with an agent I know who had an interesting experience today. One of this agent’s listings called. Actually his significant other did, because the guy fell down in pain. Still somewhat conscious, but in lots of pain. Now, if I were in …
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Looking For Loans In All The Wrong Places
No, I’m not turning into a country western singer. Just got a search for “no closing costs no points loan cheapest rates loan”. The visit (to this article) lasted less than a full second. The obvious implication was that it wasn’t what that person was looking for. As I have said before on many occasions, …
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Variable Annuities: Debunking the Ignorant Press
Found an annuity article in the local paper with an error so glaring that I had to debunk it. Here’s the article:Income for Life And here’s the critical error, conveniently in the first two paragraphs: Interested in annuities? The type known as an immediate annuity may pique the interest of some investors. But the first …
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Thoughts on Abolishing Estate Tax
I have never liked or favored the estate tax, and yet I am very much of two minds about actually abolishing it. I’m glad of the benefits to the individuals involved, and yet it is only one of the issues involved in planning for what happens to all of us eventually, and abolishing it removes …