In this newsletter, I’ve tried to deliver wise advice and insights that might help you navigate your daily journey through the real estate and mortgage world.   I’ve tried to keep it lighthearted so at least some of the stuff you learn here might come in handy during a spirited game of Trivial Pursuit. You could also argue that my newsletter aren’t exactly on par with Nietzsche (which is perfectly fine with me because I gather he’d be a real downer at a party) and are light on what some people would call “facts” .   Today’s edition, though, turns its back on frivolity and mirth to serve a higher purpose by announcing I’ve decided to become a medical expert and warn you of a dangerous and potentially lethal malady that is reaching epidemic proportions. What formal medical training have I undergone, you ask? We needn’t dwell on such trivial matters when lives are at stake, people! The disease to which I’m referring is HPV! There are a lot of commercials these days talking a...

On the heels of my recent music-inspired blog entry, someone in our office emailed me the following line from the song "Stressed Out" by Twenty One Pilots:   Out of student loans and tree-house homes we all would take the latter .  While there's no arguing that a home loan is preferable over a student loan, it made me think of another line from the same song:  Used to dream of outer space, but now they’re laughing at our face saying, “Wake up, you need to make money.”   In other words, no amount of dreaming or wishing things were  different is going to change the realities of life.  Wow, that just sounded really depressing - sorry!  Allow me to try and turn that frown upside down (and THAT sounded REALLY cheesy - sorry).  A recent study conducted by a psychologist at University of North Carolina Greensboro found that daydreamers showed better functioning skills and ability to focus when required by the context of the situation.  Further, ...

Please allow me to introduce you to a gentleman by the name of Benjamin Hammond Haggerty. He didn’t invent a cure for a dreaded disease or build an engine that runs on hugs and sunshine. However, what he did may have greater influence on and provide more inspiration to our current generation of first-time homebuyers than any inventor in the 21 st century. So what did he do, you may ask. In 2000, he stood up to decades of “how things are done,” went against the advice of some of the brightest and most successful minds in his industry, and struck out on his own: he recorded an EP (album) and distributed it all by himself. In essence, he told the record executives he didn’t need them and their infrastructure to be successful – and he was right. You may know Mr. Haggerty better as Macklemore. That first album, titled “Open Your Eyes”, only sold 15,000 copies – which is 15,000 more than I’ve ever sold – and I’m reasonably certain the proceeds from...

Currently, there’s a commercial on television for Allstate advertising their policy for full replacement of a motorcycle if you total your new one.   It’s short but succinct with a bit of humor at the end.   Good for you, Allstate!   However, it doesn’t exactly ring true.   If you total your car, there’s a good chance you’re going to be a bit banged up – that’s the nature of an accident where your car gets totaled, of course.   However, it’s certainly POSSIBLE that, because of airbags, crumple zones, improved seat belts, etc., you could walk away without a scratch from an accident severe enough to total your car.   On the other hand, if you’re involved in an accident on your motorcycle that’s bad enough that the insurance company is going to total it AND pay for a brand new bike, the likelihood that you’ll be walking around without a limp and/or a mild concussion chatting it up with one of your girlfriends is . . . well, it’s going to be lower tha...

With low inventory of good homes to purchase, what's a first-time homebuyer to do?  Sure, buying a fixer upper is a possibility, but there's another (more financially rewarding) option to consider.   With only a 3.5% down payment, a first-time homebuyer could purchase a duplex, triplex, or fourplex!  Awesome!!!!! Wait, did I lose you there?  Hear me out, and you'll be glad you did.   You could purchase a multi-unit property (up to four units), live in one of the units, and rent out the remaining units.  The rents for the remaining units can pay the entirety of your mortgage (or a major portion of it).  Do I have your attention now?   "My income's not high enough to purchase a property that big," you might be saying right now.  Au contraire.  (I've never used that phrase before in any of my writings.)  The rents of the other units you're not occupying can be counted IMMEDIATELY as income based on the appraised valu...

Right now, there’s a popular . . . I’m not sure what to call it, honestly, but it’s a thing a bunch of people are doing on Facebook where they post a list of ten concerts they’ve supposedly attended, and you have to guess which one is an outright lie.   I’m not sure if the object of this “game” is to see how well your friends (you know, all 3,642 of them on Facebook) know you and your concert attendance habits or how cool you want those 3,642 people to THINK you are for having attended the concert of at least nine bands.   While I’m certainly not THAT old, social media causes me to SMH more often than LOL.   At any rate, the gist of today’s article is going to be SORT OF similar: I’m going to tell you three things related to the mortgage/real estate world, and only one of them is going to be absolutely true.   Don ’ t worry, I’m not going to make you guess – but you can play along that way if you wish.   According to a recent article I read onlin...

Until recently, flippers who don't have an unlimited source of income have had to get a hard-money loan to acquire properties and rehab them for the flip - and until that property was sold, flippers had to pay HIGH interest on that hard-money loan.  Ouch! Now, as a flipper, you can obtain your hard-money loan to acquire that uninhabitable property, make the improvements to make it habitable, and IMMEDIATELY refinance it into a qualified mortgage with today's regular rates - no seasoning required.  I'll pause a moment here for you to go back and read those last few sentences to assure you're reading them correctly.   This isn't a guarantee that you'll qualify or any of that jazz, of course - you still have to go through the application and underwriting process - and I'm not going to quote you any rates, but you can be sure they'll be WAY BETTER than hard-money loans if you qualify.  Also, you might find that with the ability to refinance to a m...

Back in 2000, a little-known Irish quartet had a sleeper hit on the airwaves here in the United States called “Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of.”   (Check it out on YouTube, if yo u’re curious.)   It’s a catchy tune about one friend trying to tell another that just dwelling on something isn’t going to get him anywhere.   Near the beginning of the song, there are these lines:   “I never thought you were a fool, but, darling, look at you.   You gotta stand up straight, carry your own weight.   The tears are going nowhere.”   While this song is 17 years old, its message couldn’t be more applicable to this very moment in time when we have very low inventory of homes and an ever-increasing pool of potential buyers.   If you or someone you know is currently “stuck in a moment” (i.e. renting) because they’re just not SURE of what to do about buying a home, raise your hand.   Wow, that’s A LOT of hands!   If you or someone you kn...