All Forum Posts by: Mark Fitzpatrick

I can't help but feel for the poor landlord who ended up with this guy:

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2012/03/30/hoarder-evicted-from-friendship-apartment/

I agree with Atlas Shrugged as well. Amazing book. There are some points where it can get a little tedious, but it's a brilliant read nonetheless.

I'll second The Richest Man in Babylon - great book.

I would also suggest The Big Short and The 4 Hour Workweek. Both great reads.

What Lance said!

Actually, banks are definitely lending, just not compared to the way they were back in 2005 when you could get mortgages with no income or asset verification.

The area where I think lending standards are still a bit tight is for self-employed individuals. I've unfortunately had to turn down very well-qualified self-employed people because they couldn't show any positive income on their tax returns after all their deductions. Some of these people have had enough assets in the bank to pay off their mortgage a few times over, but banks are focused more on monthly cashflow and less on assets, unfortunately.

One trick I heard from an attorney to protect your primary home is to take out an equity line against it that you use only minimally. When it's recorded on title, it's recorded for the full credit line amount regardless of what you actually owe on it. If somebody is looking to sue you and does an asset check, it looks like you have a highly leveraged property with little equity in it even though you have little to nothing actually borrowed on the equity line.

If you opt for this, make sure to read closely the terms on the equity line so you're not surprised with minimum withdrawal amounts, upfront fees, etc.

Fannie Mae loans require ownership seasoning of 6 months before you can do cash out loans. If you can't wait that long to get your money out of the deal, consider purchasing with hard money. You can rate/term a hard money loan without running into the cash out issue.

Max 45% DTI for Fannie loans these days except under very limited extenuating circumstances. FHA allows you to go to 50%, but investor FHA loans are not easy to find - if they exist at all.

Hi Scott, one of the biggest problems I see with credit scores is borrowing too much versus the credit card limit. Even if you pay off your credit card every month, if you happen to have a balance of more than 50% of the credit limit on the day the credit report is run, you could be rated down even if you have a good payment history. If your limit is low, either raise it or make sure you don't have a balance of more than 50% of the limit while you're shopping for loans. Ideally, keep the balance at 30% of the limit or below.

Other than this, I don't think you have much else to worry about - you're scores are good. As long as the middle of your three scores in a trimerge credit report are above 740, you will fall into the top tier of mortgage pricing based on credit scores.

We use laminate upstairs and ceramic tile downstairs and avoid carpet altogether - it just gets dirty too easy. And if you buy cheap carpet to try and save money, you end up replacing it sooner because it just doesn't last.

Hi Mike, it sure sounds like it. Schiff made the point that the Fed is pretty much screwed either way. If it doesn't raise rates, the economy is hosed. If it does raise rates, the economy is hosed. Nice choice, huh? I guess we call get to just hold on for the ride.