Searchlight Crusade

• Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate

  November 30th, 2009 Announcement I am giving serious thought to retiring this carnival. Few people are reading it, and the amount of dross I have to shift through to get the few nuggets we have is getting larger. I have had to take the carnival bi-monthly the last couple go-arounds to get [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 10:00am EST
  

• Consumer Due Diligence on Real Estate and Mortgage Loans

  Or: Please don't believe everything you read on the internet! Rarely a week passes by that I don't get a request from someone to link to their website or article. I'm happy to link to good sites and good articles with real consumer information. Unfortunately, this is not the majority of' [...]
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  Posted: November 29, 2009, 12:00pm EST
  

• Selling In Buyer's Markets: Do You Need to Sell Or Are You Part of The Problem?

  One of the things that sticks out about buyer's markets is that there are two sorts of listings: Those who are willing to do whatever it takes, anything it takes, to get the property sold, and the other who apparently just likes having the property in MLS. Many listing agents have [...]
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  Posted: November 28, 2009, 12:00pm EST
  

• Online Mortgage Quotes

  (This is a reprint from December 2006, with a few updates. It is instructive in the wake of a certain new mortgage quote service, launched with great fanfare. The negative amortization loan is gone, but I'm seeing lots of other fairy tales being told there - deliberate low-balling on costs' [...]
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  Posted: November 27, 2009, 10:00am EST
  

• My Thirty Second Public Service Announcement On Mortgage Loans (UPDATED)

  I usually write long articles, Part of that is because I've done all of the easy subjects, part because sound bites facilitate sloganeering, not serious thought that's likely to result in a better answer - or the realization that you've been wrong in the past. But long articles take a lot [...]
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  Posted: November 26, 2009, 10:00am EST
  

• 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) In this article somebody wrote in the comments about going upside-down on their mortgage:
  [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 10:00am EST
  

• Do Not Sign Loan Disclosures That Don't Apply To Your Loan

  from an email: 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 [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 10:00am EST
  

• Listing Agents Who Want Both Halves of The Commission

  I went out previewing properties a couple days ago. That particular client's situation being what it is, I was concentrating on vacant properties. But over half the vacant properties in that area had restricted showing instructions. "Call agent first," or "call for appointment to see." When the property is vacant, there [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 10:00am EST
  

• The Ideal Listing Commission and its Structure: Performance Based

  Here's the real issue about commissions: They need to be structured to incentivize good results - rewarding those agents who do good work, penalizing those who don't. The current structure, where the brokerage gets a flat percentage of official sales price - doesn't really motivate agents to perform. It really [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 11:00am EST
  

• Selling to Avoid Foreclosure in a Buyer's Market

  Found this on a public forum I need help to stop foreclosure on my home. I need to sell quickly? I am a couple months behind on my payments and want to sell now. I am not looking to make a profit just need to get what i owe. Boy, did the [...]
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  Posted: November 21, 2009, 10:00am EST
  

• The Difference Between Note Rate (APY) and APR

  I am continually horrified how many people shop their loans by APR, just as I am by people shopping their loan based upon payment. Why? Because in either case, you're setting yourself up to spend a lot of money in closing costs that most people will never recover. But you' [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 10:00am EST
  

• 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' [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 10:00am EST
  

• 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,' [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 10:00am EST
  

• The Push Towards Bigger Loans: Why It Happened and How Consumers Suffered

  One of the consumer attitudes I encounter constantly is the feeling that if you cannot afford the loan, the lender will not loan you the money. This safety zone common sense sort of reliance upon lender policy as a backstop is not only false, but one of the best ways [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 10:00am EST
  

• 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' [...]
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 10:00am EST
  

• How to Tell A Good Real Estate Market Article From A Bad One

  Don Henley has a fun song off his second solo album called "Driving With Your Eyes Closed". I can't find a video performance, but here's an MP3. It's got a chorus that ends with the line, "You're gonna hit something /but that's the way it goes." A lot of what I [...]
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  Posted: November 15, 2009, 12:00pm EST
  

• CBB: The Art of Setting Buyer's Agency Compensation on a Listing

  First off, let me make something very plain. All a CBB (Cooperating Buyer's Broker compensation) can do is give good agent an incentive or disincentive to look at the property. A high one will not, by itself, sell the property. A low one will not completely prevent it from being [...]
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  Posted: November 14, 2009, 11:00am EST
  

• Sourcing and Seasoning of Funds

  People sometimes ask, "Why should the lender care where I got the money for the down payment? I earned it, it's mine - cash is cash!" They're right as far as they go. In general, the lender doesn't care whether you got your cash. For all they care, it could have [...]
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 10:00am EST
  

• Steering: The Most Violated Law In Real Estate

  I just picked a random ZIP code in my local MLS, and out of the first twenty listings I came to, ten had explicit violations of one or more of the sections of RESPA regarding steering right there in the listing. This did not include lender-owned real estate, which has [...]
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 10:00am EST
  

• Project VALOUR-IT

  (This will remain on top through Veteran's Day. Scroll down for daily posts) I think that one charitable fund raiser per year is both reasonable and an absolute limit, so I have to be very picky as to which one I choose. I could choose the San Diego Zoo, American Red [...]
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 2:11am EST
  

• Racial Gap In Home Loans

  Racial Gap in Loans Is High in California. I can give a variety of reasons for this. First off, especially in Los Angeles but to a lesser extent throughout the state, there is a huge "Spanish speaking only" community. When you limit yourself to speakers of a language which isn't the nation's [...]
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  Posted: November 10, 2009, 10:00am EST
  

• Debunking "Banks Give Better Deals Than Brokers"

  Better deals for the bank, that is. Ken Harney has 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' [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 10:00am EST
  

• 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 [...]
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  Posted: November 08, 2009, 12:00pm EST
  

• Debunking the Money Merge Account Scam (Games Lenders Play, Part 8)

  Mortgage Accelerators, or Money Merge Accounts, have become the thing that everyone's pushing of late. I have gotten so much junk mail about this from more originators (who don't know who I am) and wholesalers (who should) that I'm going to have another whole go at the entire concept. The [...]
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  Posted: November 07, 2009, 10:00am EST
  

• Non-Exclusive Buyer's Agency Contract - A Bet Consumers Can't Lose

  There are two sorts of buyer's agency contracts, exclusive and non-exclusive. Note that this has nothing to do with Exclusive Buyer's Agents, who do not accept property for listing. I disagree with their reasoning on the virtues of doing so, but I can see a reasonable person making the arguments [...]
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  Posted: November 06, 2009, 10:00am EST
  

• When Should A Buyer's Agent Ask You To Sign a Contract?

  The answer depends upon what they're doing for you. If you contact them because they're the listing agent for a property, they shouldn't ask you to sign an agreement at all. They have a fiduciary duty to that seller to get the property sold. If the act of asking to sign' [...]
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  Posted: November 05, 2009, 8:57am EST
  

• Joint Loans for Couples: How Does the Qualification Process Work?

  First off, let me say that your site has been very informative and helpful. I stumbled across your blog looking for information on ARM vs. 30 year fixed loans and ended up reading every article. One issue I have never really seen addressed is joint loans. When a couple, married in [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 10:00am EST
  

• Loan Qualification Standards - "Loanbusters"

  This is definitely not a "Who you gonna call?" I've done a couple articles in the recent past on the two ratios, debt to income and loan to value. Nonetheless, there exist a plethora of reasons why someone can be turned down for a loan even though they make it on' [...]
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  Posted: November 03, 2009, 10:00am EST
  

• Refinancing With An Expiring Prepayment Penalty

  how soon should I start shopping around to refinance my home? I have a 2yr interest only and it's up in (four months) Okay, the 2/28 loans which you are describing all have prepayment penalties for at least two years. Figure it's going to cost you 6 months worth of interest, [...]
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  Posted: November 02, 2009, 10:00am EST
  

• The Basics of 1031 Exchanges

  Section 1031 of the IRS Code has to to with tax treatment on the exchange of one parcel of real estate for another. It's similar to Section 1035 which covers most non real estate exchanges. Car for a car. Boat for a boat. Business for a business. But section 1031 [...]
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  Posted: November 01, 2009, 10:00am EST