Getting Rich Quick in Real Estate

On a very regular basis these days, I’m running into people who took paid money for a get rich quick seminar and are looking to buy property for zero down and immediately sell it for a $50,000 profit. Somebody With A Testimonial Told Them How It Could Be Done. Sorry folks but the people with …

California Mortgage Loan Disclosure Statement

California replaced the one page federal Good Faith Estimate with a two page Mortgage Loan Disclosure Statement. I haven’t seen a lot of abuses of this yet, mostly no doubt because it is so new. I don’t even know if there are solid regulations and implementation policies and standards on it yet. I haven’t seen …

Types and Levels of Mortgage Documentation

No matter which provider, no matter what type of loan you get, nobody is going to loan you money without the appropriate documentation. The more documentation you have that you are a good risk, the better the rate you are going to get, and the lower your costs are going to be. Everybody hates filling …

Real Estate – Third Party Service Providers

RESPA (Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act) prohibits an agent from requiring you to have other services performed by outside companies. RESPA also prohibits an agent from accepting payment (kickbacks) from third party service providers. Nonetheless, these are major problems in the real estate world. It is an unfortunate fact that many agents care far more …

Questions to Ask a Prospective Loan Provider

Mortgage – Questions you must ask every provider on every loan. (This list is trying to be as exhaustive as possible, but is likely missing some important questions. If I missed one, send it to me: dm at ) What is the rate? What is the amortization period? Is there a possibility that the note …

Mortgage Markets and Providers

There are actually several distinct marketplaces consumers can obtain their funds from, and several types of providers. John the wealthy highly salaried person with great credit and a substantial down payment should not and usually does not obtain his mortgage from the same funds providers as his twin brother Jim, the self-employed, always-broke person with …