All Forum Posts by: Ed O.

Erik Kubec

The part about 2 borrowers and 2 incomes being worse than one has always blown my mind too.
It's amazing how much easier it is to buy a car with 0 down than to buy a home with 20% down. I've long thought the appraisers and title companies have done a great job at forcing costs and procedures to exist so that their existence and ability to charge fat fees could remain forever. Kudos to them I suppose.

You have an opportunity to get some points back by paying the balances on your credit cards down. Hard to say how many points you could get, but 1% of use will help you a lot more than being around 30%.

Also, limiting inquires, as already discussed can help as well. I do realize this is tough to do, given exactly what's happening. If you're dead set on buying more and trying to get your score up, the next time you get your score up, buy as many as you can while it's up. Of course, make sure the deal is right. That way, with 1 credit pull, you might be able to acquire multiple homes without as much collateral damage. Check with your lender on that, they should know how viable this idea is.

Personally, I hate the scoring models. About a year ago, the wife's credit had 3 earrant deragatories on her report. We were able to get them all removed. However, when they were on the report, she went from a 780 or so to a 620.

For the heck of it, I figured I'd see how many on-time payments she made on the report. On her report she had somewhere between 9,000 and 10,000 on time payments, with 3 lates. She was rated in the bottom 30% or so of people to lend to.

To beat the dead horse, she paid on time 99.7% or so of the time, but was a worse risk than 70% of the population. That doesn't pass the smell test.

Enough said.

Scott W.
as you know, the crawl is cemented. there's no leaks found down there.

I probably didn't clarify this enough on my part:
Even with concrete poured in the crawl, you could still have water entering from the sides of the house when there's a lot of rain. Is the foundation block? I have one one a block crawl and have seen evidence of water getting in there in the past. Also, you might inspect the house in the middle of a downpour, if oddly enough, possible. I have found gutters working improperly - not draining down the spout and pouring over in the same spot until the problem is identified and fixed. This is an unlikely cause, but there's plenty of variables to ponder.

Also, are the exterior walls insulated? A dumb question until you find out they're not. I have seen it before. You could also have water getting into the walls at a bathroom window, from either the inside or the outside of the house (Been there).

Good luck

Greg B.
Here, we have a golf course that went bust and was recently reopened. They added a fitness facility inside of it. The new owner is doing this sort of concept on several courses in the region. I'm guessing they've had some success with it.
They also offer a club-type membership. The club is not private. If you get the membership package, for around $50 monthly, you get to use the fitness area and golf during non peak times without a cart for free. Club members also get discounts on carts and golfing during peak times.
Another idea would be to kae the place a private country club. Not terribly familiar with how they operate, but many people will pay for exclusivity.
Also, I'd guess they sell ad space on the score cards, benches, and anything else someone will pay for.
Golf tournaments also could bring in some good revenue as well.

Are you certain there's no new potential causes of moisture in the home? A leaky drain pipe, supply line, failed wax ring, or something like that?
Is the roof tight? You might check in the attic and see if there's any signs of water damage.
Does the shower have a fart fan and does it exhaust the air outside, not at all, or into the attic?
If the hvac is a forced air system, perhaps it may help to clean the duct work. Beware of the scummy contractors in this field.
New air filters may be the cheapest attempt, try a pleated one instead of a cheap rock catcher.
See if the problem gets better, worse, or if it changes as the weather does.
Is the crawl space vented? This might help.
Is rainwater entering the crawl? Is the yard pitched away from the home? Are the downspouts extended to get the rainwater a good distance from the house. I see it all the time, where they just dump water right at the corner of the home. This is a bad thing.

Good luck. Let me know if you get it.

At some point, you may bump into someone from Primerica or Kingdom Builders. They might try and convince you that you that they are what you need. If this happens, say loudly, "LOOK, THERE'S M.C. HAMMER," point to your right. Then, proceed to run to your left as if a pack of dogs was chasing you.

Is it legal to do both in your state? Originating loans is a brutal business. I did it for a few years and it was a ton of work for a minimal commission. I was always competing with liars, like the advertisers on bankrate or companies promoting themselves on the radio, with bogus rates or terms. It's difficult to convince people you're not screwing them when there's tons of misinformation out there. At the end of a the day, I would be lucky to Gross between a half point and 3/4 of a point from each deal after the commission split.

There may be some online compaines that would do this for you. Try googling it and see what happens. I had a friend that worked with one years ago (can't recall who). There's overhead costs right out of the gate and without an extensive customer list, it could prove extremely difficult to make enough $ to justify splitting your focus in half to try and bring in deals for both jobs. Just my .02. Not trying to rain on your dreams.
Hope this is of some help.

It has been my experience that when permits are pulled, regardless of the work, your value will go up. In one year, I had two nearly identical properties reassessed as it's done every 2 years in my state. They had the same starting value. The property, where of all things, I changed out the electric panel and made it a 200 amp service, saw the value rise higher than the property I did nothing with. It ended up costing me $100 more in taxes. Somehow, the assessor, form what I'm guessing, saw a permit was pulled and dinged me.

If you're terribly worried about getting clobbered with your assessment, consider working with a firm that handles RE property assessment appeals. I found one that is in my market and they are phenominal. I had to split the savings with them 50/50, but did no work and took no risk.

Geof Greeneisen Good news! Thanks for passing that info along. It's good to know.
Steven Hamilton II
Today, they finally emailed me. Still, no returned phone call as promised..let's see.... 1,2,3,4.. times.. wow, 0 for 4. The "contact me if you need anything" salesman, at least 3 emails, and no response. The person whose computer kept having problems also has somehow failed to respond to my email from last night as well. Their decision was to fix their mistake and to lob another hollow apology at me.
My response to that, sent a minute or two after receipt of their email, was a polite request for a refund of all fees, including any fees to transfer my account to a company I would be comfortable working with.
The manager that emailed me failed to respond to my request today, and chances are, I'll probably have to make 6-12 phone calls and a bundle of emails to find out if they will make good on the headache they have created.
All in all, if they're donkeys about it, I'll be out $450 in fees, for less than one months worth of their "service." (setup fee, custodian fee and transfer fee)
Oh, and then I'd have no other choice than to make sure the entire story from start to finish was shared in many places.

Ann Bellamy
Thanks for the insight. I think my EECB was partially blocked and probably didn't get to the inboxes of the people I was trying to reach. As to their computer updates, on two of the four calls I was on, the reps informed me that they couldn't access the necessary information becuase their systems were down.
Also, thanks for informing me of the likeliness that I would be wasting my time reaching VIPs at the company. I guess it's easier to face that sort of resistance with a family owned and managed company. Good to know.
In my research, I found a site where existing and prior emplyees rated their companies and ETC was on there. The comments and ratings were pretty bad.

Joshua Dorkin
Kent Kinzer was included in the EECB. Never did hear from him or get any indication that anyone saw the message.

Having been new to this once too, I'd suggest trying to collect some leases from local folks that will be in line with your state and local laws. This could be quite valuable. In fact, I recently scrapped my own lease, in favor of someone else's whose was much better than mine and just added a few tweaks of my own. You might try and network at a local REIA (Real Estate Investor Association (Group)) to try and meet some like minded, experienced people.
Good luck!

Michael Lauther Thanks for the suggestion. I went ahead and dropped an executive email carpet bomb @ etc tonight. If that doesn't work, I have a few other avenues to try and remedy the situation. I called them again today and again was told that they (the higher-ups who the rep refused to name, claiming to not know who they were) would be discussing my file and making a decision and calling me today before they closed. True and consistent, they didn't call me again.
Joshua Dorkin Do you know who this BP etc rep is, if in fact, one exists?
Jon Klaus I have tried to email the top brass at the company. It looks like the company is owned and controlled by one family, as that's all they show on their leadership page. I was able to snag a few names of some vps and some other addresses to drop the eecb on. I'm sure it will find its way into a few inboxes at the least.