Ruin your credit in one hour

How can you take your credit score down 50, 100 or even 150 points in a single hour? It’s possible, and what is amazing is that it’s not that hard. People do it all the time. Let’s start with a little background. Your credit score is a measure of how likely it is you will...

/ Read more
Interest Rates and Inflation

10/16/17 | Casey Fleming | It’s been a while since I wrote about interest rates and inflation.  In the last six weeks rates have crept up about 0.250%.  Let’s talk about what happened. As you may recall, stocks and interest rates tend to move together most of the time.  This is because as stock prices...

/ Read more
How Supply and Demand Affects Real Estate

7/13/2017 | Casey Fleming | For as long as I’ve been in the real estate finance industry (and that’s a long time) friends and family have asked me about real estate values – Are they going up?  Are they going down?  Are we nearing the peak?  Are we close to the bottom?  Over time the...

/ Read more
Pass on Real Estate Outside of Probate

There are only three certainties in life: taxes, death, and someone is going to be fighting over your estate if you die without putting your intentions in writing, especially if you own real estate.  Of course you probably know you should have either a trust or a will, but now there is a new –...

/ Read more
The Importance of Thinking When Getting a Mortgage

One of the themes of my book is that rules-of-thumb are a very bad foundation on which to base decisions about your mortgage options.  I recently completed a refinance for a client that perfectly illustrates the importance of thinking through the goals and concerns of the client before generating options and then choosing one. Background...

/ Read more
When to Avoid Buying a Condo

I am often asked whether buying a condo is a good investment. The short answer – I own one in New Mexico and yes, they can be a great investment. If you are buying a condo to live in it, it’s great to have all your exterior maintenance taken care of, and nice to have...

/ Read more
Tax Tips for Landlords

Here’s some good information from an article in Marketwatch this morning.  As a landlord myself (and a real estate broker) I know that I need to remind myself of these things once in a while: By Bill Bischoff Published: June 2, 2015 6:00 a.m. ET Share Deducting rental real estate losses The tax rules for...

/ Read more
Paying Points Can Save You Money

You now know what costs are involved in originating your loan, and you know that you have options in paying for those costs. We also have an option to pay a discount fee (formerly known as points) to buy down our interest rate if we wish.  Is it possible that paying points can save you...

/ Read more
What Is a No Closing Cost Loan?

As explained in the previous blog, the costs of your mortgage can be thought of as being in two different boxes. One is the cost of getting the loan, the other the cost of having the loan. Put another way, one is the cost of paying everyone who works on your loan for their services,...

/ Read more
No Cost Loans: What Fees Don’t Get Paid?

It costs money to buy a home. Sure, this doesn’t surprise you. But you’ve seen ads for no cost loans, right?  You will pay these costs one way or another.  So let’s look at the costs. An eye-opening fact is that you will spend more money on your home than you will on anything else...

/ Read more