For all of the rants I post about bad business practices, there are a lot of things the mortgage industry gets right. One of these looks like a red flag not to do business with them, and may seem like a cruel trick, but it is neither. With every single loan that is done, you, …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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Mortgage Rate and Points
Everybody knows that you want the lowest rate, and everybody knows that you don’t want to pay any money you don’t have to, in order to get it. However, not everybody makes the connection that it is always a tradeoff between the two. At any given point in time, each home lender has it’s own …
May Be Out Of Touch
Starting tomorrow, I’m going to be potentially out of touch for a few days. Too cheap to buy a month of mobile broadband for a week, and I have no idea if there even is wifi coverage available. The blogs and FB Author page allow scheduling in advance, so I’m taking advantage of it. My …
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 …
Fixing Kelo – a proposal
My mind wouldn’t let me leave this topic alone. I got to thinking about how to fix this. I think Congress could do fix this tomorrow. Simple Public Law. The Congress of the United States, wishing to discourage abuse of eminent domain, henceforth enacts into law:
Cold Hard Numbers
When the Kelo decision was rendered in 2005, I had just recently attended a talk by Gregory Smith, then county assessor, on the future of home values in San Diego. Historical text: He expects prices to continue to rise by 5-10% per year, citing scarcity as the reason. Basically, too few homes are being built, …
The Ultimate Consumer Horror Story
Every so often, I get a call out of the blue that starts something like this “Hello, I’m shopping for a mortgage. Just tell me your lowest rate.” I try to do the ethical thing, finding out on what sort of loan and all of the ancillary information that would actually make this useful information. …