Home

City reneges on promise to allow homeowner's garage

By Benny Kass, Sunday, April 6, 2008.

DEAR BENNY: In 1995, I bought my house, which had many problems between the former owner and the city. He built the garage for the house without any permit or city codes. The former owner lost the house and before I bought the house I had a meeting with the city staff and I agreed to buy and rebuild it according to the city codes.  more...

Good broker will warn against bad refi

By Jack Guttentag, Sunday, April 6, 2008.

(This is Part 1 of a two-part series.)

In the last 10 years, I have written almost 50 articles on different mortgage broker topics, but none of them addressed the most basic topic of all: "What makes a good broker?" Perhaps it took 10 years before I was ready to confront this question, along with its obvious corollary: "How do you know a good broker when you see one?"  more...

How buyers, sellers are closing deals in today's market

By Dian Hymer, Sunday, April 6, 2008.

Negotiation is back in style, and is likely to remain a necessary part of buying or selling a home in today's beleaguered residential housing market. Other key elements to a satisfactory closing are flexibility, perseverance, creativity and diligence.

Needless to say, you need to work with the best real estate professionals you can find in your area. In most cases, it takes a team effort to put a home-sale transaction together and see it through to fruition.  more...

Suspected mortgage fraud up 42% in 2007

By Inman News, Sunday, April 6, 2008.

Banks and other financial institutions filed 52,868 suspicious activity reports involving suspected mortgage fraud in 2007, an increase of 42 percent over the year before, financial regulators said in their first report on mortgage fraud since November 2006.  more...

Keep chin above mortgage waters

By Alison Rogers, Sunday, April 6, 2008.

"We were supposed to close today, and our mortgage broker just requested some extra paperwork from the lawyer yesterday. Why didn't she ask for it earlier instead of screwing up our closing?"

"The apartment makes sense for us to buy if it saves us $7,000 a month in rent -- do those numbers work?"

"If you use a mortgage broker, who pays the fees: you or the bank?"

"I heard interest rates were at 6 percent -- how come I got quoted 8 percent on my loan?"  more...