All Forum Posts by: Paul B.

I wasn't suggesting that it wasn't true. Just saying that I agree with the Snopes takeaway which is that this should not be taken as a sign that today's educational system is wholly inferior to that of the past.

Having said that, it does look like 8th graders of the late 19th century knew a whole helluva lot more about things that "mattered" than today's 8th graders -- even many of today's high-schoolers and college students.

Interesting, BUT...

http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.asp

Well, it's probably different for mortgage lending than commercial.

When I looked at a PFS, I'm looking to see what it added in terms of adding strength to a guaranty. In most commercial loans to a business, the sources of repayment were listed as follows:

1. Cash flow from operations (for term loans) or conversion of trading assets (for lines of credit secured by A/R or inventory).

2. Realization of collateral.

3. Resources of guarantors.

In a more traditional mortgage loan underwriting, you're looking only at the person, not a business, and you're infinitely more concerned about that person's income. Their net worth is sort of irrelevant because if they can't pay from income and you can't get made whole from the collateral, it's unlikely that you'll seek their personal assets for the deficiency, assuming that's even allowed in your state.

In commercial banking, we'd gladly go after your personal resources when seeking repayment under a guaranty.

Point being, I'd list everything you own (and I mean everything), using honest attempts at value. Let the underwriters do what they're going to do behind the scenes.

You said that the instructions were clear that you're to use market value. Being a real estate professional, I assume that you feel comfortable having an educated opinion on the market value of your holdings. If that't the case, then that is what I would put.

I would *not* subtract here for closing costs and commissions because (1) that was not part of the instructions and (2) the lender may very well do that for you behind the scenes, so you don't want to be double-whammied.

I know when I was underwriting commercial loans, we would look at the "adjusted net worth" of the guarantor. This number, which was usually markedly different from the "net worth" on the personal financial statement, made adjustments such as:

* Zeroing out all personal assets such as cars, boats, jewelry, artwork, etc., but leaving in any debt related thereto.

* Adjusting the value of any closely-held stock or business entities, which tend to be overstated.

* Capitalization of any leases.

* Adding in any contingent liabilities, especially if a share of the asset related thereto appears on the balance sheet.

It was common to see that someone whose personal financial statement indicated a $5 million net worth would be reduced down to $1 million or less. And that was OK, because frankly by the time we got done with it, anyone who had a net worth at all was doing better than 99% of the population.

Chances are at some point you're going to need an agent, or you'll encounter someone who needs one.

Find an agent who is willing to be your "go to" agent -- someone you'll use when you need an agent, and someone to whom you can make referrals -- and that agent will certainly give you comps whenever you need them.

I advise against using "role-based" email addresses (for example, info@, sales@).

First of all, as has been offered, it looks impersonal. Maybe it's something you use on a Web site (although there's a reason you shouldn't do that, either), but I would not use it on a business card.

The other reason I would advise against role-based email address is that every spammer in the world knows to try info@, sales@, webmaster@, etc., when trying to guess valid email addresses.

Now, you're probably taking efforts to reduce spam, anyway (like I forward all my email to Gmail, let their spam filter do its thing, then collect the filtered email), but I would not use such an obvious email address for my own.

If the dollar actually falls/fails, I don't think any currency will be worth owning. And if we're really heading to financial Armageddon, I don't think owning the shiny gold stuff will matter, either.

You'll want to own the physical essentials: a lot of land and the means to grow/raise food on it; access to energy; and guns/ammo.

It's been almost 13 years since I worked at Bank of America, but as you know, it's a big place. There are many places this loan could have originated.

It could have originated in commercial lending, real estate lending, a banking center, the mortgage department, and so on.

Frankly, I am not sure any of that matters since I have never heard of Bank of America letting anyone "assume" a loan. (We're not talking about taking a loan subject-to, correct?)

If I recall correctly, there were FHA loans way back in the day that were assumable without any credit check or underwriting. At the time, finding these loans was real estate Nirvana. But those days are gone, I believe, not just via FHA but everywhere.

My take is that if BofA were going to let you assume the loan, they would do so only after conducting a full underwriting involving your personal financials. And if they are going to do all that, they would likely prefer to skip the documentation risk that exists with assumptions and just get all new paperwork, with you as the borrower.

Only if the existing loan had some juicy language in there that made it a winner for them to keep would I envision them letting you assume it, and why would you want that? Or if the rate were fixed and above-market, they might keep it in place. But again, why would do that?

So, the Reader's Digest version here, at least from my point of view, is that assumption of a loan -- especially in an institution that has a credit policy manual as big as an Oxford Dictionary -- is unlikely at best.

Please let us know if you discover otherwise. We're all here to learn.

I see a feud brewing between them and the Stonecutters.

"Who controls the British Pound?
Who keeps the metric system down?
We do! We do!"

The Zillow estimate is not at all reliable for our purposes, and if you use it with anyone who knows what they are doing, you will come across as instantly amateurish.

That makes it a double-whammy no-no.