All Forum Posts by: C Rich

When investing, are the earnest money losses for deals rejected and other fees (commitment fees, accountants fees, legal fees) deductible on your taxes?

Let me know your experience and if you can post the reg(s) or IRS pub(s) that support your opinion, that'd be great, too.

I would eliminate all old-fashioned wood-burning indoor fireplaces from any property I owned. There are gas-burning, pellet-style and electric fireplaces that achieve the same ambiance without the risk of pests, fires, accidents and damage.

@Corey Dutton

Glad to help. As investors, we shouldn't have to overpay.

@Bryan Hancock

"As things currently stand a borrower that is more creditworthy than someone else bidding for the same asset could pay a higher loan constant because they already have mortgages in their name they are servicing properly. That makes zero sense!"

Exxxaactly! That is the problem in a nutshell and this seems to be by design. But, if the banks hired and trained their people, dumb decisions wouldn't disqualify people from making money for themselves or the banks. Unfortunately, the banks are the last to know as long as the upper echelon in their organizations make loot for downsizing/cost-cutting and don't seem to have a vision for making even more money.

@Steve Babiak -

Here are some links (and excerpts) from major news and website sources that discuss borrower credit card limit deductions and the impact on the borrowers' credit scores. The borrowers didn't cause problems, but by lowering the borrowers' credit limit, it forced the borrowers to appear maxed out or near maxed out and this triggered lower fico scores.

Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=adCwmmkzFI3U

"The credit limits on Brown’s cards have been lowered, which has raised his debt relative to his available credit. This so- called utilization rate is a key factor in determining credit scores. Brown, a 58-year-old construction company owner in San Diego, has seen his credit score drop to 650 from 760 over the past 13 months."

CreditCards.com: http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/lending-crisis-credit-score-cut-limits-1270.php

"Even if you haven't been directly affected by subprime mortgage problems, your score could take a hit. That's because new research says a majority of credit card lenders are lowering credit limits to reduce their risk in the wake of the credit crunch.
When a customer's available credit goes down, for any reason, it brings the current balance closer to the limit. That can lower the consumer's credit score substantially. Why? A key component of credit score calculations is the ratio of used credit to available credit -- the 'utilization ratio.'"

ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=6993495&page=1#.T1gV5TGPUtE

"By lowering people's credit card limits, banks are also lowering people's credit scores in many cases.
And that means these families will pay tens of thousands of dollars more for things like mortgages and car loans."

"The Craigs' credit card company cut their limit by more than half -- slicing it from $15,000 down to $7,000 -- not because their situation had changed but because the company's had. 'I called the credit card company and asked them why they had reduced my credit limit,' Sean Craig said. 'And she said that it was due to the current economic crisis.'"

Uncool to commit fraud. The R.E. agents, the fraudulent buyer and HUD should be held accountable for this type of taxpayer theft.

Happy BD, Will. This thread is too funny. Didn't know it was your BD, but now I do.

@Will and @Ryan -

There is nothing preventing HMLs from changing the terms of the deal after deal info and personal data collection has been divulged.

Well, Will -

I can't say it is fair game. The only time I ended up having to contact HMLs was when an HML presented their company as a legitimate lender and then changed the terms of the deal. I was then put in a position to look at other HMLs' deals to compare the HML to other HMLs to understand the HML beast and get the best deal for myself.

What I noticed in that process is that HMLs asked too many questions about the property instead of about my financial capabilities. To counter their nosiness and give myself a level of comfort in divulging deal specifics during this comparison phase, I simply gave then info on nearby properties or properties with like comps.

My point is, there is no reason to give unproven, untrusted people too much info. Consumers don't know who they are dealing with when dealing with HMLs, but they KNOW that banks are regulated.

Like I've said previously, I went with a small local bank that had better terms for me with less risk to me of divulging my deals.

Contact the nearest and priciest hotels in your area and get on their referral lists for starters. Next, contact R.E.A.s that specialize in corporates.

Nobody else hit with the nosiest of the nosey HML lenders that might be selling your deal data on the side? Hmm