The Democrats are now diving into the discussion about cleaning up the mortgage industry and subprime lending. I’ve written quite a bit about the importance of avoiding the curse of being house poor. The rising foreclosure rate is due to two major factors. Mortgage lenders are loosely regulated and consumers made uneducated, [...]

You’ve seen all of the articles and news segments about the skyrocketing percentage of homes going into foreclosure around the country. It’s not hard to figure out why the foreclosure rate has risen so drastically. Mortgage lenders took advantage of buyers, and buyers threw away all logic and reasoning when figuring out how [...]

CNN Money writes this article about the housing market continuing to slump. If you look at the numbers, they are not unbelievably bad. It’s been a gradual slip back reality which should have been expected after one of the biggest housing booms in United States History. Seriously, take yourself back to 2003 [...]

Educating yourself is the key phrase in this installment of the “11 Principles of a Money Crasher” series. If you want to save money and ultimately be wealthy when you retire, then you need to be an educated consumer. Educated consumers get better deals on the large purchases made during the course of [...]

Did you know that if you’re close to reaching your credit limits on some of your credit cards, the interest rate on a completely unrelated credit card can get jacked up? Or if you miss a payment on one credit card, your other credit cards can increase your interest rates?
For example, let’s say you [...]

When it’s time to tap the equity in your home, you usually have two options: a home equity line of credit (HELOC) or a home equity installment loan (HEIL). Both will get you the money you want, but one may lower your credit scores, which will make everything you buy on credit more expensive…be careful.
So, [...]

Recently, my job has caused my wife and I to relocate to Jacksonville, Florida. It’s about 75 miles northeast of Gainesville, Florida. We currently own the condo we’re living in right now, and we’re in the the process of selling our condo. At first, we were all about buying a nice starter [...]

The prepayment penalty clause in a mortgage is about the equivalent of stealing from your own mother. It’s one of the most horrible things on earth! The prepayment penalty became popular during the real estate boom when many people bought houses with subprime adjustable rate mortgages, and many lenders secretly added the prepayment [...]

The mortgage business has been a hot topic lately after the recent fallout of subprime lenders and the restrictions put on them by the federal government. It was only a matter of time before the government started putting their hand in this market, because it was being abused by mortgage loan sharks. I [...]

You have heard me talk about the use of craigslist for selling your home, and I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t try it myself. We have been trying to sell our condo for the past three weeks now, and we have had TREMENDOUS success with our Craigslist ad. In three weeks, [...]