[zzz]

If you are on food stamps, I’m not sure you’d qualify for a Costco Amex to get cash back, nor should you have $100 to buy the executive membership where you also get cash back. So some of the benefits I get out of it may not apply to this group.

I do not have a family to feed, but I had no problem joining Costco for a few simple reasons. The gas there is by far often the cheapest in the county. I don’t buy a lot there, but I do buy milk, wine, water, and the household goods that are cheaper per unit (floss, toilet paper, etc). Since these items come in such large quantities, sometimes I split the items with a friend, or I simply just store it and use it for months and months. You get 2 cards when you join so you can give the other card to either a family member, or you could give the card to a friend. Costco is pretty lax on verifying the in one household thing when you get 2 cards.

If you do belong to Costco and don’t have the executive membership, you should upgrade to it. If you don’t get at least $50 back, then you can ask for the refund between the cost of regular membership and executive. But if you do, then your membership can be quite cheap.

And I like being able to buy the occasional appliance, electronic, etc at super great prices.

[zzz]

If you are on food stamps, I’m not sure you’d qualify for a Costco Amex to get cash back, nor should you have $100 to buy the executive membership where you also get cash back. So some of the benefits I get out of it may not apply to this group.

I do not have a family to feed, but I had no problem joining Costco for a few simple reasons. The gas there is by far often the cheapest in the county. I don’t buy a lot there, but I do buy milk, wine, water, and the household goods that are cheaper per unit (floss, toilet paper, etc). Since these items come in such large quantities, sometimes I split the items with a friend, or I simply just store it and use it for months and months. You get 2 cards when you join so you can give the other card to either a family member, or you could give the card to a friend. Costco is pretty lax on verifying the in one household thing when you get 2 cards.

If you do belong to Costco and don’t have the executive membership, you should upgrade to it. If you don’t get at least $50 back, then you can ask for the refund between the cost of regular membership and executive. But if you do, then your membership can be quite cheap.

And I like being able to buy the occasional appliance, electronic, etc at super great prices.

[zzz]

JP I’m along the lines of what Rustico said, I don’t get how you make out? How many people are really going to get flat out loan write downs? If you are getting a loan mod that extends your loan to 40 years, what does that get you? Apparently to even be considered for a loan mod, you have to be behind in payments. What does a years worth of nonpayment do to your credit?

[zzz]

JP I’m along the lines of what Rustico said, I don’t get how you make out? How many people are really going to get flat out loan write downs? If you are getting a loan mod that extends your loan to 40 years, what does that get you? Apparently to even be considered for a loan mod, you have to be behind in payments. What does a years worth of nonpayment do to your credit?

[zzz]

JP I’m along the lines of what Rustico said, I don’t get how you make out? How many people are really going to get flat out loan write downs? If you are getting a loan mod that extends your loan to 40 years, what does that get you? Apparently to even be considered for a loan mod, you have to be behind in payments. What does a years worth of nonpayment do to your credit?

[zzz]

JP I’m along the lines of what Rustico said, I don’t get how you make out? How many people are really going to get flat out loan write downs? If you are getting a loan mod that extends your loan to 40 years, what does that get you? Apparently to even be considered for a loan mod, you have to be behind in payments. What does a years worth of nonpayment do to your credit?

[zzz]

JP I’m along the lines of what Rustico said, I don’t get how you make out? How many people are really going to get flat out loan write downs? If you are getting a loan mod that extends your loan to 40 years, what does that get you? Apparently to even be considered for a loan mod, you have to be behind in payments. What does a years worth of nonpayment do to your credit?

[zzz]

Rustico to your point on real estate not being a profession. Here’s my take on it. I think a lot of people flocked to real estate jobs during the boom much like people did to headhunting jobs during the .com boom. Many many unqualified folks who left a bad taste.

The internet has changed the dynamics of many industries, not just real estate or job searches. Its made information readily available in some instances and allows people to “self serve”. Much like it took a bit of time for people to adopt online banking, I think the progression of end user adoption as well as better technology and implementing research around web usability, more and more things will become self serve for certain segments of the population as well as for specific functions.

I believe however there will still be a segment of clients out there that will be full service. Online brokerage/trading versus private client services. People will have complex requirements or will require particularly skilled specialists.

As it applies to housing, I would think the industry will evolve to where some homesellers and buyers will feel comfortable doing it themselves, much like FSBO happens today, but all online without sales agents. I would like to believe that some day you can execute your entire home buying / selling transaction online (with the exception of actually going to look at the house).

I know a lot of people felt they “had” to hire a real estate agent to buy a home because they didn’t understand how to navigate the process of escrow, title, finding a mortgage and understanding it. Unfortunatley many of these real estate agents didn’t know how to read or understand the mortgage docs any better than you or I. I would like to think this whole process will be streamlined and simplied so that intelligent people can understand what they are reading.

I believe the WSJ yeasterday indicated some of the mortgage documents and disclosures will be simplified as many buyers either do not understand all of the documents nor did they read them.

There will and are real estate professionals that are highly skilled in negotiating or navigating complex real estate transactions that some portion of the population will still want to “pay” for their expertise. The internet cannot replace humans completely. And there will always be people who just don’t want to be bothered to find a home or to sell a home themselves and will want to hire someone to do it for them.

I’m not sure how else you can define a profession Rustico, but in my book, possessing skills or knowledge that others will pay for constitutes a profession. The quality of the profession is an entirely different story.

[zzz]

Rustico to your point on real estate not being a profession. Here’s my take on it. I think a lot of people flocked to real estate jobs during the boom much like people did to headhunting jobs during the .com boom. Many many unqualified folks who left a bad taste.

The internet has changed the dynamics of many industries, not just real estate or job searches. Its made information readily available in some instances and allows people to “self serve”. Much like it took a bit of time for people to adopt online banking, I think the progression of end user adoption as well as better technology and implementing research around web usability, more and more things will become self serve for certain segments of the population as well as for specific functions.

I believe however there will still be a segment of clients out there that will be full service. Online brokerage/trading versus private client services. People will have complex requirements or will require particularly skilled specialists.

As it applies to housing, I would think the industry will evolve to where some homesellers and buyers will feel comfortable doing it themselves, much like FSBO happens today, but all online without sales agents. I would like to believe that some day you can execute your entire home buying / selling transaction online (with the exception of actually going to look at the house).

I know a lot of people felt they “had” to hire a real estate agent to buy a home because they didn’t understand how to navigate the process of escrow, title, finding a mortgage and understanding it. Unfortunatley many of these real estate agents didn’t know how to read or understand the mortgage docs any better than you or I. I would like to think this whole process will be streamlined and simplied so that intelligent people can understand what they are reading.

I believe the WSJ yeasterday indicated some of the mortgage documents and disclosures will be simplified as many buyers either do not understand all of the documents nor did they read them.

There will and are real estate professionals that are highly skilled in negotiating or navigating complex real estate transactions that some portion of the population will still want to “pay” for their expertise. The internet cannot replace humans completely. And there will always be people who just don’t want to be bothered to find a home or to sell a home themselves and will want to hire someone to do it for them.

I’m not sure how else you can define a profession Rustico, but in my book, possessing skills or knowledge that others will pay for constitutes a profession. The quality of the profession is an entirely different story.

[zzz]

Rustico to your point on real estate not being a profession. Here’s my take on it. I think a lot of people flocked to real estate jobs during the boom much like people did to headhunting jobs during the .com boom. Many many unqualified folks who left a bad taste.

The internet has changed the dynamics of many industries, not just real estate or job searches. Its made information readily available in some instances and allows people to “self serve”. Much like it took a bit of time for people to adopt online banking, I think the progression of end user adoption as well as better technology and implementing research around web usability, more and more things will become self serve for certain segments of the population as well as for specific functions.

I believe however there will still be a segment of clients out there that will be full service. Online brokerage/trading versus private client services. People will have complex requirements or will require particularly skilled specialists.

As it applies to housing, I would think the industry will evolve to where some homesellers and buyers will feel comfortable doing it themselves, much like FSBO happens today, but all online without sales agents. I would like to believe that some day you can execute your entire home buying / selling transaction online (with the exception of actually going to look at the house).

I know a lot of people felt they “had” to hire a real estate agent to buy a home because they didn’t understand how to navigate the process of escrow, title, finding a mortgage and understanding it. Unfortunatley many of these real estate agents didn’t know how to read or understand the mortgage docs any better than you or I. I would like to think this whole process will be streamlined and simplied so that intelligent people can understand what they are reading.

I believe the WSJ yeasterday indicated some of the mortgage documents and disclosures will be simplified as many buyers either do not understand all of the documents nor did they read them.

There will and are real estate professionals that are highly skilled in negotiating or navigating complex real estate transactions that some portion of the population will still want to “pay” for their expertise. The internet cannot replace humans completely. And there will always be people who just don’t want to be bothered to find a home or to sell a home themselves and will want to hire someone to do it for them.

I’m not sure how else you can define a profession Rustico, but in my book, possessing skills or knowledge that others will pay for constitutes a profession. The quality of the profession is an entirely different story.

[zzz]

Rustico to your point on real estate not being a profession. Here’s my take on it. I think a lot of people flocked to real estate jobs during the boom much like people did to headhunting jobs during the .com boom. Many many unqualified folks who left a bad taste.

The internet has changed the dynamics of many industries, not just real estate or job searches. Its made information readily available in some instances and allows people to “self serve”. Much like it took a bit of time for people to adopt online banking, I think the progression of end user adoption as well as better technology and implementing research around web usability, more and more things will become self serve for certain segments of the population as well as for specific functions.

I believe however there will still be a segment of clients out there that will be full service. Online brokerage/trading versus private client services. People will have complex requirements or will require particularly skilled specialists.

As it applies to housing, I would think the industry will evolve to where some homesellers and buyers will feel comfortable doing it themselves, much like FSBO happens today, but all online without sales agents. I would like to believe that some day you can execute your entire home buying / selling transaction online (with the exception of actually going to look at the house).

I know a lot of people felt they “had” to hire a real estate agent to buy a home because they didn’t understand how to navigate the process of escrow, title, finding a mortgage and understanding it. Unfortunatley many of these real estate agents didn’t know how to read or understand the mortgage docs any better than you or I. I would like to think this whole process will be streamlined and simplied so that intelligent people can understand what they are reading.

I believe the WSJ yeasterday indicated some of the mortgage documents and disclosures will be simplified as many buyers either do not understand all of the documents nor did they read them.

There will and are real estate professionals that are highly skilled in negotiating or navigating complex real estate transactions that some portion of the population will still want to “pay” for their expertise. The internet cannot replace humans completely. And there will always be people who just don’t want to be bothered to find a home or to sell a home themselves and will want to hire someone to do it for them.

I’m not sure how else you can define a profession Rustico, but in my book, possessing skills or knowledge that others will pay for constitutes a profession. The quality of the profession is an entirely different story.

[zzz]

Rustico to your point on real estate not being a profession. Here’s my take on it. I think a lot of people flocked to real estate jobs during the boom much like people did to headhunting jobs during the .com boom. Many many unqualified folks who left a bad taste.

The internet has changed the dynamics of many industries, not just real estate or job searches. Its made information readily available in some instances and allows people to “self serve”. Much like it took a bit of time for people to adopt online banking, I think the progression of end user adoption as well as better technology and implementing research around web usability, more and more things will become self serve for certain segments of the population as well as for specific functions.

I believe however there will still be a segment of clients out there that will be full service. Online brokerage/trading versus private client services. People will have complex requirements or will require particularly skilled specialists.

As it applies to housing, I would think the industry will evolve to where some homesellers and buyers will feel comfortable doing it themselves, much like FSBO happens today, but all online without sales agents. I would like to believe that some day you can execute your entire home buying / selling transaction online (with the exception of actually going to look at the house).

I know a lot of people felt they “had” to hire a real estate agent to buy a home because they didn’t understand how to navigate the process of escrow, title, finding a mortgage and understanding it. Unfortunatley many of these real estate agents didn’t know how to read or understand the mortgage docs any better than you or I. I would like to think this whole process will be streamlined and simplied so that intelligent people can understand what they are reading.

I believe the WSJ yeasterday indicated some of the mortgage documents and disclosures will be simplified as many buyers either do not understand all of the documents nor did they read them.

There will and are real estate professionals that are highly skilled in negotiating or navigating complex real estate transactions that some portion of the population will still want to “pay” for their expertise. The internet cannot replace humans completely. And there will always be people who just don’t want to be bothered to find a home or to sell a home themselves and will want to hire someone to do it for them.

I’m not sure how else you can define a profession Rustico, but in my book, possessing skills or knowledge that others will pay for constitutes a profession. The quality of the profession is an entirely different story.

[zzz]

I personally do not believe in buying cheap insurance. You do get what you pay for. When I shopped for insurance, I found the cheaper rates were commensurate with lower coverage limits.

Good people get sued in accidents legitimately or illegitimately and do you want your personal assets to be on the line because you went with the minimal amount of liability? For me, its not worth the few hundred dollars in savings to go with lower limits.

If you own property or have any significant assets, or would like to not put your future earnings in jeopardy, you should take out an umbrella policy on top of your home and auto insurance. If you have a pet, take out an umbrella policy. The reality is if someone steps on your property and slips and falls, they can sue you.

I have State Farm. They are not the cheapest. They have great customer service and pay claims without a problem, offer many discounts for good driving record, car safety, multiple policies, and finally, they will send you rebate checks if they are having a good year! The caveat is not all agents are good. When I moved here I started with a guy downtown that was an incompetent dipshit. He calculated my premium incorrectly. He was off by like $60, but I didn’t know this when I paid the premium in full for 6 months via credit card and then proceeded to leave the country for almost 2 months. I wasn’t around to receive the new bill and he never called me so State Farm just dropped my coverage and issued me a refund check. So I come home to find that I was uninsured for about 2 weeks so if my car had been stolen I would have been SOL. A good agent would have called, but he didn’t so I just switched to another one and they’ve been great since. He had the balls to call me to ask why I switched and I told him if he had bothered to pick up the phone while I was his client to tell me I had to pay more because he couldn’t calculate the premium correctly, this wouldn’t be an issue.

[zzz]

I personally do not believe in buying cheap insurance. You do get what you pay for. When I shopped for insurance, I found the cheaper rates were commensurate with lower coverage limits.

Good people get sued in accidents legitimately or illegitimately and do you want your personal assets to be on the line because you went with the minimal amount of liability? For me, its not worth the few hundred dollars in savings to go with lower limits.

If you own property or have any significant assets, or would like to not put your future earnings in jeopardy, you should take out an umbrella policy on top of your home and auto insurance. If you have a pet, take out an umbrella policy. The reality is if someone steps on your property and slips and falls, they can sue you.

I have State Farm. They are not the cheapest. They have great customer service and pay claims without a problem, offer many discounts for good driving record, car safety, multiple policies, and finally, they will send you rebate checks if they are having a good year! The caveat is not all agents are good. When I moved here I started with a guy downtown that was an incompetent dipshit. He calculated my premium incorrectly. He was off by like $60, but I didn’t know this when I paid the premium in full for 6 months via credit card and then proceeded to leave the country for almost 2 months. I wasn’t around to receive the new bill and he never called me so State Farm just dropped my coverage and issued me a refund check. So I come home to find that I was uninsured for about 2 weeks so if my car had been stolen I would have been SOL. A good agent would have called, but he didn’t so I just switched to another one and they’ve been great since. He had the balls to call me to ask why I switched and I told him if he had bothered to pick up the phone while I was his client to tell me I had to pay more because he couldn’t calculate the premium correctly, this wouldn’t be an issue.

[zzz]

I personally do not believe in buying cheap insurance. You do get what you pay for. When I shopped for insurance, I found the cheaper rates were commensurate with lower coverage limits.

Good people get sued in accidents legitimately or illegitimately and do you want your personal assets to be on the line because you went with the minimal amount of liability? For me, its not worth the few hundred dollars in savings to go with lower limits.

If you own property or have any significant assets, or would like to not put your future earnings in jeopardy, you should take out an umbrella policy on top of your home and auto insurance. If you have a pet, take out an umbrella policy. The reality is if someone steps on your property and slips and falls, they can sue you.

I have State Farm. They are not the cheapest. They have great customer service and pay claims without a problem, offer many discounts for good driving record, car safety, multiple policies, and finally, they will send you rebate checks if they are having a good year! The caveat is not all agents are good. When I moved here I started with a guy downtown that was an incompetent dipshit. He calculated my premium incorrectly. He was off by like $60, but I didn’t know this when I paid the premium in full for 6 months via credit card and then proceeded to leave the country for almost 2 months. I wasn’t around to receive the new bill and he never called me so State Farm just dropped my coverage and issued me a refund check. So I come home to find that I was uninsured for about 2 weeks so if my car had been stolen I would have been SOL. A good agent would have called, but he didn’t so I just switched to another one and they’ve been great since. He had the balls to call me to ask why I switched and I told him if he had bothered to pick up the phone while I was his client to tell me I had to pay more because he couldn’t calculate the premium correctly, this wouldn’t be an issue.

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