Feb

10

File under…

Filed Under mortgage | 1 Comment

File under small victory: Colorado cracks down on mortgage brokers

File under mortgage + home equity loan + checking account : Aussie ARM can pay off

File under conforming loan limits: It’s still $417,000 in Denver and Colorado. California is a different story.

File under money from the Feds: Rebates, What you need to know

File under 16th & Court makeover: Adam’s Mark sale done

File under not a lopsided trade after all: Manning for Rivers

File under an interesting experiment: Due to Top Five Fridays I rank well for Mailman Newman

Feb

4

Monday Morning Quarterback

Filed Under colorado, rates, sports | Leave a Comment

Microsoft may be buying Yahoo. They also might be buying the Sun complex in Broomfield. Despite Google’s meteoric rise, Microsoft is/are still the Joneses and Google knows it!

The caucus in Colorado is Tuesday. Isn’t twenty years of Bush (4) + Clinton (8) + Bush (8) enough? For the record, I’m a huge fan of Barry. If you read his bio, you might become one too. He’s half African, half Caucasian. Raised in Hawaii. Lived in Indonesia. Schooled in California and NY. Senator for Illinois. He’s got the whole country and a lot of ethnicities covered plus according to the NY times he’s a MAC.

Rate cuts, rate cuts, and more rate cuts.

I’ll be the first to admit that I really didn’t think the Giants had a shot at winning the Superbowl. I grew up watching both the Jets and the Giants but since my brother liked the Giants, I adopted the Jets as my team just to spite him. Boy do I regret that move big time!

Despite being a Jets fan, it’s hard for me to hate the Patriots. New England line backer Tedy Bruschi is the same ethnic chop suey as I am.

Why do we love sports? My brother said it best, it’s unscripted drama.

My brother is now a Broncos fan.

Suck it Peter King!

    Sep

    24

    Links

    Filed Under mortgage | Comments Off

    Here are some links you might enjoy:

    Aug

    20

    Pigs get fat, but hogs get slaughtered

    Filed Under mortgage | Leave a Comment

    The maxim “pigs get fat, but hogs get slaughtered” came up during a recent conversation I had playing golf at Hyland Hills, a municipal course off 36 and Sheridan in Westminster. I teed off with a friend but eventually our two some became a four some as the group behind us caught up.

    pig.jpgOne guy asked what I did for a living and when I told him that I worked as a mortgage broker he looked at me and said, “looks like the pigs got fat and the hogs are getting slaughtered.” It caught me off guard considering most people usually bandy that maxim around in a board room not on a golf course. After a second I regained my senses and said “don’t pigs and hogs have the same fate?” He responded with a laugh and when I told him that I don’t eat pork, he said “I don’t blame you, they live in filth!”

    While the hogs are shutting their doors, the pigs are having some challenges. Countrywide took out a loan and recently they announced layoffs along with
    Suntrust. Moreover, Capitol One just closed Greenpoint Mortgage.

    Ironically, 2007 is the year of the PIG.

    Jun

    18

    A list Denver didn’t make

    Filed Under denver | Leave a Comment

    Denver usually makes it to the top of the list when it comes to healthy living and educated inhabitants. There’s one list that Denver didn’t make, the most expensive cities in world.

    Here are the top 20:

    1. Moscow
    2. London
    3. Seoul
    4. Tokyo
    5. Hong Kong
    6. Copenhagen
    7. Geneva
    8. Osaka
    9. Zurich
    10. Oslo
    11. Milan
    12. St. Petersburg (Russia)
    13. Paris
    14. Singapore
    15. New York City
    16. Dublin
    17. Tel Aviv
    18. Rome
    19. Vienna
    20. Beijing

    I’ve visited a fair share of these cities (in bold) and even lived in the outskirts of the lone US representative (NYC). Personally, I’d rather live in Denver plus we have an international airport, so these cities are only a plane ride away.

    Feb

    28

    We’re better than Minneapolis!

    Filed Under denver, real estate | Leave a Comment

    While trolling some of the mortgage blogs, I came across an article on Behind the Mortgage regarding home prices slumping in Minneapolis and St. Paul during the last quarter in 2006. The article summarizes a CNN article and includes a graphic where Minneapolis/St. Paul is circled to show that their market isn’t so bad.

    msp_q4_housing.jpg

    The graphic caught my eye because Denver’s real estate market is better than Minneapolis (albeit slightly better). At least we have bragging rights for now.

    Jan

    15

    Links: The Onion needs a real estate section

    Filed Under mortgage, real estate | Leave a Comment

    house2.bmpReal estate is a hot topic on the web. One quick search for “real estate” on google nets you 275,000,000 results. That’s a lot of indexed pages on real estate alone. From blogs to news feeds, the amount of information on real estate is overwhelming. If you’re looking for non-location specific real estate sources start here:

    With stories like “Business Card Confirms Real-Estate Salesman Is Eddie Money,
    ” the Onion would’ve made it to the front this list if they had a real estate section.

    Jan

    10

    Links: You’re fired!

    Filed Under personal finance, real estate | Leave a Comment

    If you’re a loyal reader, you’ve noticed that I post “Links: yada yada yada” more frequently. As I’ve mentioned numerous times, I’m a huge NY Jets fan and I visit thejetsblog.com quite a bit. Rather than disseminating all the information contained in each article, Bassett (the main blogger on the Jets Blog) would just post a list of links to various articles. I found it to be very effective and if the one sentence summary made the link either click worthy or not. That being said, here are links to various articles of interest:

    • 25 Rules to Grow Rich by is old (November 2006) by Internet standards but this list includes 5 real estate related rules:
      1. For return on investment, the best home renovation is to upgrade an old bathroom. Kitchens come in second.
      2. It’s worth refinancing your mortgage when you can cut your interest rate by at least one point.
      3. Spend no more than 2½ times your income on a home. For a down payment, it’s best to come up with at least 20%.
      4. Your total housing payments should not exceed 28% of your gross income. Total debt payments should come in under 36%.
      5. Never hire a roofer, driveway paver or chimney sweep who is going door to door.
    • While your at it, CNN Money has another article on how technology especially social networking sites are helping consumers make choices on real estate agents, neighborhoods, and even deciphering what their house is really worth.
    • One of the sites mentioned in the CNN Money article, Homethinking, allows you find and rate real estate agents. One quick glance shows that none of the real estate agents have been rated. Moreover, they allow agents to pay their way to the top of the list via sponsored profiles.
    • Americans are struggling to afford a home. The American dream is getting harder to achieve because buying a home is out of reach. For those of us who grew up near New York City, renting an apartment in the city much less buying a home was always out of reach.
    • Donald Trump has stated that he wants to raise the bar in the lending game. He should start by stop focusing on Rosie and start firing his top mortgage guy.

    Dec

    5

    2006 is ending, tax time is coming

    Filed Under personal finance | Leave a Comment

    Yahoo’s top ten end of year tax tips:

    1. Check your retirement balances
    2. Use up your medical reimbursement plan
    3. Review your contributions to your company’s retirement plan
    4. Review your alternative minimum tax situation
    5. Don’t buy any mutual funds in December
    6. Deal big stock winners
    7. Update your family tax records
    8. Corral cash receipts
    9. Check your withholding totals
    10. Review your benefits

    CNN’s top ten year end tax tips:

    1. Live energy efficient
    2. Do a tax projection
    3. Figure out your income and deductions
    4. Postpone that bonus
    5. Sock away some for retirement
    6. Pay off those deductible expenses before year’s end
    7. Give it to charity
    8. Give gifts to children
    9. Offset your capital gains
    10. Marriage helps

    Jan

    12

    Metro Denver Area house values

    Filed Under denver, real estate | Leave a Comment

    According to a recent article in CNN, Denver is overvalued or overpriced at 10%. Other Colorado cities were considered overvalued or overpriced as well:

    • Grand Junction +31%
    • Greeley +19%
    • Boulder +18%
    • Colorado Springs +10%
    • Denver +10%
    • Fort Collins +10%
    • Pueblo +5%

    Pueblo overpriced?