Monthly Archive

In late November, 2006, a guy saw one of my bandit signs and called my answering service regarding selling his house. This was the beginning of the sub-prime fiasco, and he got caught up early on. He lost his job and could not afford his payments. After meeting with him and his wife, I initiated a short sale with the bank.

A short sale, for those of you who don’t know anything about real estate investing, is when you offer the bank an amount much less than the outstanding balance owed. If you can prove to the bank that the house is worth substantially less than what’s owed (possibly because of neglect), and that the owners were in a hardship situation and could not meet their obligations, the bank may take the offer rather than initiate foreclosure and take ownership of the house.

Banks are in the money lending business, not the real estate business, plus they have to put an large amount of money in reserve for each house they take back; that’s money they can’t lend.

The practice of short selling is usually common with second mortgages when the first mortgage is foreclosing, because all junior liens are wiped out after the foreclosure. There is a big incentive for the holder of the second mortgage to settle (usually 10 cents on the dollar) so they get something- anything back. What’s great is that you automatically build equity into the deal, which is why you see “No equity, no problem” on all those bandit signs in your neighborhood.

The problem was, there was only one mortgage on the house, which makes it harder to deal with the bank. Sill, I went ahead because it looked like a good deal.

Now, keep in mind, the process usually takes a couple of months, three at the most. In the initial documentation from the bank, they even said it takes approximately 30 days.

Six months later, mid-May, I heard from the bank…”Sorry, your offer was too low”…crap…I re-ran my numbers and I figured I might be able to sweeten the offer. I did, by $10K (which should really have been $5K but I wanted to make the deal happen). When I made the offer to the bank, I asked them if it was going to take a long time for their response, they responded that they will fast-track the analysis.

Five months later (last week) they finally called me back. They are “conditionally” accepting my offer…yea! (conditionally :o)…

Now…a lot has happened in the last five months, including a penalty on an unpaid property tax bill, and of course that nasty little sub-prime business. So I am going back to the bank to negotiate another $5K off the price. Yes, I can afford the higher price, but it’s the principle of the matter - and I need to practice my negotiating skills.

So, the moral of this convoluted story, is that sometimes you just need a little patience…

My eldest daughter passed her road test yesterday morning (scored a 94)…she’s now street legal. I saw the tether that binds her to us start to fray and it was a bittersweet moment. On the one hand I had to choke back the tears of joy and pride in her accomplishment, on the other is the realization that she now has her wings and soon she will be on her own. (Of course it also means more gray hairs and sleepless nights waiting up for her to get home).

In preparation for her road test, Sam and I were driving nights and weekends. I would set up traffic cones in the the local elementary school parking lot and we practiced the staples of the test - parallel parking, 3 point turns, and the quick stop. I will cherish these moments together for as long as I live, and I look forward to the time I will spend teaching her younger sister.

I was of the generation of Harry Chapins’ “Cat’s in the Cradle”, and it was my biggest fear that I would take my kids for granted. I have great parents who were always there for me. To that end, I have always tried to be there for my kids, even if it meant coming home from work early during an important project or getting up early on Sunday to go to a Cello lesson . There have been times that I was on the phone, pencil and paper in hand working out a tough Algebra word problem if I just couldn’t be there.

This is the thing that really sucks about being a parent; all the toil and tears and sacrifice, the sleepless nights waiting for them to come home from dates, only to see them off to college, and later, walking them down the isle to give them away to their husband-to-be. For daughters, at least, it seems you are constantly giving them away.

Then there’s the worrying, always the worrying. I’m 47, happily married and relatively successful and still, my parents worry about me. I see the future, and for me, it isn’t pretty…

Still, I wouldn’t change a thing, especially after seeing the look of sheer joy and pride in my daughter’s face after executing a perfect parallel parking maneuver in the parking lot of the elementary school she attended only a few years earlier.

Nicole Jaracz is Drew Carey’s new fiancee…but more importantly, she’s #2 on Google Trends right now. I’m trying an experiment. I am going to see what happens after tagging her here. I don’t expect an immediate surge, but I want to see if I place anywhere in the coming days…

Here is where you can check out the latest Hot Trends.

By the way,  feel free to hit the home link above and check out my other entries, you might find some interesting stuff.

It’s not the destination, it’s the journey that’s important…right?

My destination is to be totally independent from a “traditional” job, and join the ranks of the professionals without borders. My journey is chronicled in this blog, and man am I having fun.

The two or three of you that actually follow my blog know that I try to find quality sites that align with my journey. You also may know that one of the methods I am investigating is Affiliate Marketing. I recently stumbled on a really cool site by a guy named Josh Wexelbaum. The site is called “The Scrappy Business Idea Blog” and it can be found here. He’s 25 and, like Lea Woodward of LIP Living, walks the walk. His site has tons of free resources, as well as his own eBook which appears as tabs on the main page. There are three basic online money making techniques he explains - affiliate marketing, Adsense marketing, and selling your own eBook. The information is geared more towards beginners, but there’s stuff for all levels of expertise.

He also has a link to his other site that chronicles his journeys around the world. His internet marketing gig pays for the ride. Not too shabby…

Just a quick update, the second part of Ryan Norbauer’s excellent article in 43 Folders on Enlightened Outsourcing can be found here.

As I mentioned in my last post, Lea Woodward over at LIP Living was coming out with a book…well the book is out, it’s called “X Marks The Spot: The Indispensable Guide To Living As A LIP & Working From Anywhere“.

I bought a copy this morning and read it throughout my work day. It is an easy read and covers a lot of information. The early chapters describe Lea’s background and how she and her husband got into the LIP Lifestyle. It goes over the places they have lived and their rationale for choosing those locations. I like this part because it builds up her “creds”; a lot of authors write about a subject with which they are not familiar; she walks the walk.

After this, the book starts getting really meaty. It goes into the rationale for doing it, facing your fears, how to get started, and the basic nuts and bolts of what you need to do and things you need to consider. The book is chock full of tips and hints, and the Appendix has an excellent list of additional resources. As an added bonus, by buying the book, you get access to their Facebook group of other LIPs and soon to be LIPs.

I consider the book a valuable resource, and an excellent how-to book on living the Location Independent Professional lifestyle.

The book costs $12 US (6 GBP). You can buy the ebook here. There are 100 ebooks for sale in this pre-release. The print version will be out at the end of the month, and will cost $22 (11 GBP); there will also be only 100 books in the pre-release.

Note: In the spirit of full disclosure, the link above is an affiliate link, and I will get a portion of the proceeds if you buy through it. But I really do like the book and think that it is a valuable resource, so much so that if you want to order the ebook without my getting the commission, you can get it from here; it costs the same either way - I’m just standing by my review.

Saw this through Technorati search on 4HWW and it looks really interesting. I haven’t fully explored their site, but I will; it looks like a book on their experiences is coming out soon.

I like the concept and branding. I added their link to my Blogroll.

Just spreading the love…

It had to happen sooner or later, but as of this writing, if you do a Google search on “Car Seat Ratings” (including the quotes), my Tumbler blog proof of concept is the last (10th) entry on the first page.

I don’t expect to make any money on this site, but I did want to see if what I learned in the 30 Day Challenge would get me placed.

I am now redoubling my effort to come up with a niche I am comfortable with and go whole-hog into developing. I am pretty psyched. Maybe the internet marketing route does have the potential to be a good Muse.