Heat Wave, A/C Glitches Overwhelm Home Warranty Phone Lines If you’re a homeowner whose central a/c is on the fritz, and are covered by a warranty policy, before you pick up the phone to report a claim today, you may want to get a cup of coffee and something to read. How come? The phone lines —...Read More
Still Needed: a “Price Reduction Prayer” Home Sellers (and their Realtors) may have their own private prayers and superstitions, but I’m only aware of one that is widely known: the practice of (some) home Sellers to *bury a statue of St. Joseph in their background prior to putting their home on the market (and no, you don’t...Read More
Q&A for Borrowers (“No, You Don’t Have to Return the Money”) For those tuning out the news over the July 4th holiday, one of the lead financial stories the past few days is alleged manipulation of Libor, or the “London Inter-bank Offer Rate,” by bankers at U.K. giant Barclays. While the allegations and defenses are...Read More
Jon Corzine Free Until . . . 2022? “Peter Madoff Pleads Guilty to Fraud.” —Headline; The Wall Street Journal (June 29, 2012) Coming up on the four year anniversary of the demise of Bernie Madoff”s multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme, his younger brother, Peter, has now plead guilty to fraud. Given that the case was cracked...Read More
“Countrywide” Redux: The Age of the Sovereign Sub-Prime Loan Remember sub-prime loans, the ones being handed out like candy to apparently penniless Southern Californians (and Nevadans and Floridians and . . )? With such features as “negative amortization,” whereby the Buyer could opt to re-pay as little per month (or nothing!) as they wished, with the...Read More
Not Just “Location, Location, Location” Twin Cities home Buyers (and readers of this blog) know that multiple offers are back, big-time, this year. But not everywhere, or for every property type or at every price point. So, what makes for a sure-fire bidding war, like the one that just erupted at 4340 Colfax Avenue...Read More
