NY Houses 4 Sale

Hey, Do they owe you money???

Just wondering if anyone out there has any unclaimed funds?  Do you ever find yourself wondering if anyone, ANYONE owes you money?  Well,  hit up the New York State Comptroller's website and find out if they owe ya money. 

"Many could easily claim that money - in some cases more than $1,000 - with a phone call or a few clicks of a mouse, said Assemblyman José Peralta, who discovered more than $2.8 million in unclaimed funds for his district alone".  Daily News.

By the way, if you read the Daily News article online,then you know that the URL that they provided was wrong.  The one that I provided above is the correct site. Good Luck! 

Answers for American Home Mortgage customers - I was just asking myself the same thing!

I have been getting calls from people who have or were going to be getting mortgages from American Home.  Most people are curious and some are down right petrified because they are scared that they will not be able to qualify for a mortgage now.  I have had to make two calls to people who have pre-approvals from AHM to make them aware of the unravelings, with little to no advice as to what to do now.

In my scrub to find any new news about AHM, I found this great in depth article of Q and A.  I think posting it here will be my new advice to  people, "just read my blog".

"What should I do if I already have a loan from American Home Mortgage?

Keep making payments, says Jonathan Pinard, Hauppauge-based president of the Empire State Mortgage Bankers Association. The loan's terms cannot be changed. It's likely the mortgage will be sold to another lender."  Newsday.com

A MUST MUST Read! 

Stocks Vs. Real Estate?

There is always two sides to each coin.  Perhaps some people will insist that stocks are a better investment and maybe some people will fight tooth and nail to say that Real Estate is a better bang for your buck.  In an article today on CnnMoney, there is a breakdown with these five main points.  Use your judgment and you decide, which is better? 

Round 1.  Performance.  Cnn States that over the long run, stocks are hard to beat.   

Round 2. Leverage.  Round two for Real Estate.  The article states that the leverage that alot of homeowner acquired is unbeatable.

Round 3. Costs.  Ok, I would have to bet that the cost of buying a home as opposed to stocks gets beat hands down.  Stocks win 2 rounds.

Round 4.  Taxes - Round goes to Real Estate.  Can you say write offs?

Round 5.  Transparency.  Eeek a draw!  "An easy round for stocks? Think about Enron, Tyco and WorldCom. "

Round 6.  Effort.  Again, hands down would beat Real Estate. 

Round 7. Volatility.  Real Estate wins.  Even though there can be depreciation in your home, it won't or I should say, it most likely won't happen within hours, days or a week. 

Round 8.  Diversification.  Stocks have it!  It is alot easier to build a stock portfolio than a real estate investment portfolio.  You don't think so?  Have you ever heard of Casey Serin? 

Round 9.  Decision.  Check out the Cnn article to see.

Yikes on the hikes..

Homeowners in New York should expect an11% (About $72.00 per single family household)  increase on their water bills.  According to 1010Wins this is the highest increase since 1992 and the Water Board Exec.  - Steve Lawitts says that the increase is justified because the rates are lower than the national average. 

This is a bad thing for my husband - you see he has a bit of OCD with bleaching and cleaning the whole house and the concrete.  If on any given nice day you pull up to my house, you are greeted with the aroma of bleach! 

Getting from point A to point B...

You want to get out of debt and you don't know how.  Budgets never worked for you, but you know that this is something that you need to do.  Here is what I suggest you do - Make a list of every bill that you have.  Set up five columns and list each account - write down the total amount owed, your minimum payments , the APR and the due dates for each bill.

For example -

• Mortgage -  $230,000 / $1,800.00 / 5.75%/ 1st.
• Tuitions - $3000 / $300 / 0%/ 5th
• Credit cards - You might have 1,2,3 or 10 - List them all separate. 
• Phone bills
• Cell phones
• Food bills
• Insurance
• Car payment - (however many you have)
• Cable bills
• Utility bills
• Savings account *
• Etc..

ADD up the minimum amounts needed to pay each bill - this is your monthly "nut". 

Now make a list of all your accounts - make sure you include:

• Checking account
• Savings account
• Cd's
• Money Market accounts
• Etc..

Make a list of all your monthly income.   

<Some people like to do this on a spread sheet - I actually like doing it on plain paper - so I can see it in "black and white"> 

Allocate.  Starting with the bills that need to be paid by a certain due date and work down the list.    Start out by allocating only the minimum due on each account.  Once you are finished with the allocating of the minimum's, if you have money left over, go back through your list and re - allocate which bills you want to pay off first.   Take into careful consideration which debtor has the most amount owed and the highest APR.  So lets say you have three credit cards and the balances are $1800/$2300 and $8,000.   With APR's that are 13.99%/11%/3.99.  I know knee jerk reaction would be to pay off the $8,000 - but I suggest you go with the highest APR first  and concentrate on paying that off then then you can concentrate on the the next higher APR and so on. 

If you notice, I added into the monthly bills "Savings Account", I did this because I firmly believe that when you are saving you need to see progress and you need to "pay yourself first". 

Love and Money..

I have been working with a young couple who are looking to buy a home, get married and start having kids,  like NOW.  The girl often mentions things like "at my mom's house, we have a a huge kitchen..."  "When I find THE house, I will know" and "We need at least 4 bedrooms, WE are hoping to have three or four kids..." 

When I glance over at the husband to be - I just see a glazed look come over his face. 

The fact of the matter is, the wife to be is trying to get to a place where her parents are now.  She wants to forgo the journey that lays ahead of her and just jump into tomorrow. 

When I ask the young couple what their credit is like - she knows hers, and looks to him to answer for himself.  He has some debt, she does not.   She was surprized and unaware of his debt.

When I ask her how much they can afford, she knows her salary and knows that when she has kids, she will not have that to count on, because she will stop working.  He did not know that.

When I asked the young couple how much they had to put down on a home, they both had no idea, all monies will be coming from what they get at their wedding. 

Sometimes, love and money is a tough subject - BankRate has a great tool - "Love and money quiz: How do you and your mate relate?

...For now, they have decided to rent. 

Mortgages..

I am sure I am not telling you something that you don't already know, but when applying for a mortgage here are a couple suggestions that you should be aware of:

1.)  Educate yourself on the mortgage.  Don't plan that in 5 years, 7 years or 10 years you or your spouse will be making more money or your financial situations will take a change for the better.  Plan on what you can afford today, and set aside at least 3 months worth of money in reserves for that "rainy day".  Alot of borrowers that I know, have said to me "Well, Bill will be getting a big raise next year, so we just have to worry about this year - but next year, he will be making almost double".  Guess what, Bill never got that raise, instead he got a severance package offered to him.  So don't plan on the unknown. 

2.)  Stay away from any "creative" financing.  If you are taking an interest only or a very "creative" mortgage because you can not afford the home at a 30 year fixed, then you should reconsider your purchase.

3.)  Reduce! Reduce! Reduce - Having too much credit is probably almost, if not worse than having NO or BAD credit.  When you have excess amounts of credit available to you the banks worry that at any point your can become charge happy and wind up in financial disarray. 

4.)  Prepare.  When applying for the mortgage, you need to have money in reserves.  So in addition to your down payment, your closing costs and your various other fees, the banks want a certain amount of money available in reserves.  You need to have that in the bank before closing (Usually 2-3 months of reserves are requested). 

5.)  Read your commitment letter.  Make sure that the rate, the terms, and the amount that you are borrowing are all correct before signing the docs. 

Just as a side note, I am not a mortgage broker and I don't play one on T.V either.  In the last few years, people took "Piggy-Back Mortgages" - to avoid the PMI insurance, but with rates slowly creeping up and may continue do do so - you might want to consider not going that route.  Your mortgage broker (if they are good/honest) can help you further with this.  This is something to consider when you are buying with less than 20%. 

A bit of this and that...

Sick of tile?  Sick of Hardwood floors?  How about a MUD Floor... (NyTimes.com)

If you have not heard about them yet.. You will if you read Fortune Magazine. (Fortune.com)

New York the highest priced rental market.  Just in case you did NOT know that already.  (CNN.Com)

Great home affordability calculator.  (CNNMoney.com)

Like to try new restaurants?  OuterB did some research and gathered some local eateries. (OuterB)

Have a question?  Ask InmanWiki, its like having your own little answer bank. (Inman.com)   

Are you heading into trouble?

Have you ever felt that you took one step forward to only take three steps back?    Have you ever wonder how your credit cards balance got that high?  Do your bills just come faster and faster? 

Here are 15 sure fire ways to know if you are heading into debt trouble?  From BankRate.com

1.	Your credit card balances are rising while your income is decreasing.
2.	You are only paying the minimum amounts required on your accounts, or maybe even less than the minimums.
3.	You're juggling bills. For example, you apply for another credit card and use cash advances from it to pay an existing card.
4.	You have more credit cards than a successful gambler has poker chips.
5.	You are at or perilously near the limit on each of your credit cards.
6.	You consistently charge more each month than you make in payments.
7.	You are working overtime to keep up with your credit card payments.
8.	You don't know how much you owe and really don't want to find out.
9.	You have received phone calls or letters about delinquent bill payments.
10.	You are using your credit card to buy necessities like food or gasoline.
11.	Your credit cards are no longer used for the sake of convenience, but because you don't have money.
12.	You are dipping into savings or your IRA to pay your monthly bills.
13.	You are hiding the true cost of your purchases from your spouse.
14.	You're playing the card game by signing up for every credit card that sends you an unsolicited offer.
15.	You have just lost your job, or are fearful that you are about to, and are concerned about how you will pay all your bills.

The best thing to do is to take notice if you are falling into any of these categories then try to work on changing it early as opposed to later.  Don't wait for a "windfall of money".  If you feel that you need help, seek it now.   

HouseMath 2.0

I will have to thank my feedreeder for giving me this information, because this morning I was reading Future of Real Estate this morning and found HouseMath 2.0.   What a great tool.  I was playing around with some numbers and I found it to be quite interesting.  Go Play - let me know what you think.