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Raybyrnes
ParticipantRicechex
Just to give you a perspective on the Credit Card Industry. They need to keep an average credit score in their portfolio so they are happy to lose money on the 0% because your credit score allows them to issue lots more credit cards at 20% interest rates to marginal credit people while keeping an overall average rate that can be packaged and collateralized in scecondary markets. Additionally, if you use the credit card they are able to collect fees from the vendors you pay. In many ways it is win win for those who are responsible with their credit.
ParticipantRicechex
Just to give you a perspective on the Credit Card Industry. They need to keep an average credit score in their portfolio so they are happy to lose money on the 0% because your credit score allows them to issue lots more credit cards at 20% interest rates to marginal credit people while keeping an overall average rate that can be packaged and collateralized in scecondary markets. Additionally, if you use the credit card they are able to collect fees from the vendors you pay. In many ways it is win win for those who are responsible with their credit.
ParticipantI agree with you. I remember a very interesting point made when working on my MBA. What is the first job of every CFO? #1 to keep his job #2 to guide the financial management of the company. Might hold true for the Agent. First job is to keep a client happy, next job is to sell the home. As you pointed out the client did not know all the variables so in the end maybe they lost money but ignorance might be bliss. Relative to other offers at the point they sold they might have been very satisfied with their agent. So there might be a time variable at work aswell. As you stated you opinion of their house changed as you got more savy of the market. Maybe their firmness softend as they became more savy aswell.
ParticipantI agree with you. I remember a very interesting point made when working on my MBA. What is the first job of every CFO? #1 to keep his job #2 to guide the financial management of the company. Might hold true for the Agent. First job is to keep a client happy, next job is to sell the home. As you pointed out the client did not know all the variables so in the end maybe they lost money but ignorance might be bliss. Relative to other offers at the point they sold they might have been very satisfied with their agent. So there might be a time variable at work aswell. As you stated you opinion of their house changed as you got more savy of the market. Maybe their firmness softend as they became more savy aswell.
ParticipantI own Cohen and Steers and if you believe in dollar cost averaging you can buy the fund through Schwab and it is no load no fee. If you want to include REITS as part of your portfolio on a one time basis you can buy the ETF under the symbol ICF.
Another option worth taking a look at is CGM Realty (CGMRX) You can open an account with the company directly and it too is no load no transaction fee if opened directly. Through Schwab you would have to pay the transaction cost (50$) Might require some addional paperwork at the end of the year for tax purposes.
ParticipantI own Cohen and Steers and if you believe in dollar cost averaging you can buy the fund through Schwab and it is no load no fee. If you want to include REITS as part of your portfolio on a one time basis you can buy the ETF under the symbol ICF.
Another option worth taking a look at is CGM Realty (CGMRX) You can open an account with the company directly and it too is no load no transaction fee if opened directly. Through Schwab you would have to pay the transaction cost (50$) Might require some addional paperwork at the end of the year for tax purposes.
ParticipantSomething does not add up. You are a high net worth client and this is a large transaction. We are not talking about 100K condo. So typically both parties should have excellent representation. Why did your agent not advise you to write the offer? They are well aware of the fact that the agent has to at least present the offer to the seller.
I tend to believe that the sellers are more of the challenge than the agent. The seller is letting the agent know up front that any offer other than full offer is unacceptable and will result in them finding an agent who can better represent them for full asking price.
The agent should be firm with his client to garner some flexibility but they were probably leveraged by the seller when they iniitially took the listing. They might simply be relating the opinions of the seller rather then recognizing that their job in this instance might be to sell their own client on the offer. JMTC
ParticipantSomething does not add up. You are a high net worth client and this is a large transaction. We are not talking about 100K condo. So typically both parties should have excellent representation. Why did your agent not advise you to write the offer? They are well aware of the fact that the agent has to at least present the offer to the seller.
I tend to believe that the sellers are more of the challenge than the agent. The seller is letting the agent know up front that any offer other than full offer is unacceptable and will result in them finding an agent who can better represent them for full asking price.
The agent should be firm with his client to garner some flexibility but they were probably leveraged by the seller when they iniitially took the listing. They might simply be relating the opinions of the seller rather then recognizing that their job in this instance might be to sell their own client on the offer. JMTC
ParticipantMichael,
I don’t work in the industry but your opinion is pretty short sighted. Yeah if you don’t ahve any welth and you are going for a 30 year fixed there isn’t much need. Put some scratch together, start getting income properties, inherit some real estate that you are looking to cash out and all of a sudden a good broker goes a long way. I would say that hold true for a stock broker, insurance broker, CPA’s etc.
When yoiu don’t have much you don’t have the same need.
ParticipantMichael,
I don’t work in the industry but your opinion is pretty short sighted. Yeah if you don’t ahve any welth and you are going for a 30 year fixed there isn’t much need. Put some scratch together, start getting income properties, inherit some real estate that you are looking to cash out and all of a sudden a good broker goes a long way. I would say that hold true for a stock broker, insurance broker, CPA’s etc.
When yoiu don’t have much you don’t have the same need.
ParticipantI would think that the cons are the fact that even if someone is upfront with you it does not mean they have access to the most competitive programs.
This probably becomes more apparent as you move away from a full documentation confomraing loan.
There are a lot of sub-prime bwrs out there who could have qualified for an FHA or CHAFA loan. If I were an upfront mortgage guy who did not have access to these prograams but provided the very best sub-prime loan that you could qualify for than you would have lost out.
If you are going to use lending tree for your loan you might be well served to get a costco card and participate in the rebate that goes along with using their program.
MOre than likely you are going to get routed back to Etrade.
ParticipantI would think that the cons are the fact that even if someone is upfront with you it does not mean they have access to the most competitive programs.
This probably becomes more apparent as you move away from a full documentation confomraing loan.
There are a lot of sub-prime bwrs out there who could have qualified for an FHA or CHAFA loan. If I were an upfront mortgage guy who did not have access to these prograams but provided the very best sub-prime loan that you could qualify for than you would have lost out.
If you are going to use lending tree for your loan you might be well served to get a costco card and participate in the rebate that goes along with using their program.
MOre than likely you are going to get routed back to Etrade.
October 12, 2007 at 11:41 PM in reply to: how big of a mortgage will i be able to afford if ……. #88648ParticipantI like the Amex because I have a family and shop at Costco. I bumped up to the Executive Memebership so I get 2% back on purchases as an executive member and I get an addition 1% back in purchases on the AMEX. Rather than getting a card for myself and my wife because 99% of the time we shop together I got one for myself and gave the otehr to my mother who I now colect the 2% on. All in all I spent 50$ more for the Exectuvie membership but ended up getting close to 300$ back at the end of the year.
If you don’t have balances to transfer you are missing out on 1000$ a year. It is not hard to carry a balance of 20 k on a couple fo credit cards and shift them around. During that period of time the money can be sitting in a MMA earning you 5% or better. If you have a Costco membership you can open up a capitalone MMA and it is paying an APY of 5.2%.
Another great tool to make managing this stuff easier is yodlee.com
If you have a fidelity account the FULL View feature is built on Yodlee’s Platform. Sam is true for Merrill Lynch and many of the other larger brokerage firms. Give it a shot.
One caveat to be aware of is that you need to pay down some of this stuff 2 to 3 months before making major purchase. Your credit score will drop a little as you carry high balances on teh CC and the Usage % goes up. For me I will gladly trade a 780 credit score that does nothing for me for a 720 and 2 or 3 grand a year.
October 12, 2007 at 11:41 PM in reply to: how big of a mortgage will i be able to afford if ……. #88654ParticipantI like the Amex because I have a family and shop at Costco. I bumped up to the Executive Memebership so I get 2% back on purchases as an executive member and I get an addition 1% back in purchases on the AMEX. Rather than getting a card for myself and my wife because 99% of the time we shop together I got one for myself and gave the otehr to my mother who I now colect the 2% on. All in all I spent 50$ more for the Exectuvie membership but ended up getting close to 300$ back at the end of the year.
If you don’t have balances to transfer you are missing out on 1000$ a year. It is not hard to carry a balance of 20 k on a couple fo credit cards and shift them around. During that period of time the money can be sitting in a MMA earning you 5% or better. If you have a Costco membership you can open up a capitalone MMA and it is paying an APY of 5.2%.
Another great tool to make managing this stuff easier is yodlee.com
If you have a fidelity account the FULL View feature is built on Yodlee’s Platform. Sam is true for Merrill Lynch and many of the other larger brokerage firms. Give it a shot.
One caveat to be aware of is that you need to pay down some of this stuff 2 to 3 months before making major purchase. Your credit score will drop a little as you carry high balances on teh CC and the Usage % goes up. For me I will gladly trade a 780 credit score that does nothing for me for a 720 and 2 or 3 grand a year.
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