The Real Estate Sage at The Real Estate Investment Institute - REII

Time is getting short! Very short! No, no, no Brenda and I are fine, but some time in the next 24 hours we're leaving permanently for Texas. Some where between Conroe and Galveston. I'm not being evasive we've been looking at houses in a wide area. Like all good treks we have only the vaguest of plans.

We've been talking about this for several years, but business and family kept us in Las Vegas. In early 2005 we sold our condo and went on tour for two months among other things looking at homes in Galveston. Weather couldn't have been worse, or so we thought, that "big one" hit shortly after we left. Had it occurred 10 days earlier we'd have been their, had it occurred 14 days earlier we'd have been in New Orleans! Business required us back in Las Vegas just in time!

Family and friends think we are out of our minds, but we're originally from Michigan, we've survived blizzards that had to be experienced to be believed! That's not to mention tornados. Before coming to Nevada, we spent a decade in west Texas one eighteen months. We had a very large mobile home park and you guessed it not once but three times tornados hit the park, It also flooded several times, they hadn't had measurable rain in years, it also snowed, first time in 30 years. We're not going to worry about the weather just prepare for it!

Long term boaters we'd like to get 5 to 10 years ocean experience before we retire. We have additional treks planed for the future. So anywhere near the gulf is good. It helps that Amy lives in League City and practices in Houston.

We don't know what we're going to do yet. Brenda has some offers and I'll continue with the Institute. It's been 23 years since I qualified as a Texas real estate broker, I've never done mortgages in TX, but a mortgage is almost a mortgage. I'm always looking for opportunities to speak and teach. I'm revising "Get The Money" to "Get The Money 2009" and ‘09 will be here fast! I might finish "Counting On Your Fingers" that was to be my first book, now it will be may be 14.

So I won't be answering the e-mail from 8-25 to 8-29. My phone 702-334-0174 will remain the same until 8-29 or 30, then I'll post the new number.

If you see a gas guzzling SUV with two people and a cat, towing a small trailer all with Nevada plates be kind, wave hello and pass us carefully. I'll be driving and thinking about my next bit of spontaneous, instantaneous, brilliance for my next blog.

Talk to you'al from Texas.

Bill and Brenda

North Carolina has ban Yield Spread Premium, YSP!

According to an article in Originator Times, http://originatortimes.com/content/templates/standard.aspx?articleid=3438&zoneid=1 Today, North Carolina, has become the first state to ban YSP's. Thumbing there noses at consumers and potential home owners, while telling them they are protecting them!

Eliminating YSP will effectively force small mortgage companies acting as mortgage brokers out of business. It force mortgage rates and cost up due to lack of competition and lack of disclosure.

The larger mortgage originators will simply operate as mortgage banks. The mortgage bankers will be able to charge higher fees, due to lack of competition and they will receive the lions share or the remaining business.

That individuals could even propose such ideas is beyond belief! That the majority of North Carolina's legislators went along with it defies expiations!

I'm possibly a bit naive. In a country that accepts atrocities, as long as its for "their own good" it seems any thing is possible. Janet Reno and the FBI incinerating 96 men, women, and children to protect them comes to mind. Or may be executing a woman holding a dangerous baby to her chest while hiding behind an open door. I guesses that would be home owners and mortgage brokers should be glad that they are being protected, and surviving!

Harsh? Extreme? Politically Incorrect? You better believe it! If you've spent your life financing and selling real estate, helping people obtain and seceded with the "American Dream" there is a target on your back. We're going to see more of this non-sense in the next four years no matter who we elect! If we elect the "perverted compromising suito conservatives" it's going to be bad enough! If we elect those that hide their hatred of the "American Dream" and all it implies, God help us, and don't gather in large combustible buildings.

Bill

William J Archambault Jr

Congress in there wisdom has seen fit to bring an end to DPA

, Down Payment Assistance as we know and hate it. For certain there must be a better way to put people into homes with little or no money than the current program of Non-profit fiascos.

Please consider the following, it was originally my comment on a friend's rant about the current slight of hand necessary to do private DPA.

The problem is with the FHA/HUD bureaucrats,

their charter doesn't call for a no down payment program so they came up with this DPA nonsense! To get around the rules.

If FHA/HUD were honest they would either offer no money down or direct seller help. But, no by playing this game they can claim they had a down payment from a disinterested third party. If they were honest, think how much easer it would be if to finance a $100,000 purchase it simply required a $103,333 appraisal!

The problem is not with the PDA's, they saw a need and helped a lot of good people get in to and succeed with their own homes. They are often though of as "charities" but they're not, never have been! They are "non-profits" which has to do with their management and tax structure. Non-profits are normally mistaken to mean charity or low cost neither is necessarily true, their employees and directors are often extremely over paid! Twelve years ago Elizabeth Dole was making over $3,000,000.00 as head of that "non-profit!"

Bill

William J Archambault Jr

The Real Estate Investment Institute

Allowed: Following the letter of a law or regulation. The safest of mistakes for the uneducated and/or timid.

Allowable: Stretching the law or regulations, based on known case law and common practice. Most often a better approach, but requires an extensive knowledge of the subject.

Not-Allowed: Breaking the law or regulation. It matters not your intent, ignorance is no excuse.

I've included not-allowed only because it is so easy for some to pass from "Allowable" to "Not-Allowed" through foolishness, ignorance, stupidly, or larcenous intent.

Ambiguity: A total lack or statutory or moral guidance.

I wish to discuss dealing with the grey areas between strict compliancy with the "Allowed" and using the "Allowable" and beyond both in dealing with "Ambiguity!"

With out going into a long dissortation of my own let me quote an old tormentor, William Shakespeare.

When in doubt: "To Thine Own Self Be True..." In other words, do what you believe is right, so long as you avoid the "Not-Allowed" Whether going from "Allowed" to "Allowable" or in the face of "Ambiguity" always do what you think is right! "And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou can not then be false to any man."

"Boldness be my friend."  But, "Mind your speech a little lest you should mar your fortunes."

"Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them."

"No legacy is so rich as honesty."

If I some time appear harsh please remember: "...oftentimes excusing of a fault doth make the fault the worse by the excuse."

"If it be a sin to covet honor, I am the most offending soul."

Bill

William J Archambault Jr

The Real Estate Investment Institute

With a little help from William Shakespeare 

and http://www.brainyquote.com/

I keep telling people that I'm not that old,just delapidate. But, lately I've begun to question my age. It's not a health thing, in fact I've been feeling pretty good, all things considered. My problem is not my age, chronologically or physically, my problem is my vocabulary! Most of our words are old if not ancient, so it's not the words. My problem is that my meanings have become old fashion.

I'm finding that my expectations are exceeding my grasps. I love dealing with people especially when dealing in real estate and mortgages. I lust for the deal! I start each day with great expectations and a firm belief in people! I believe we find what we seek and I seek the best.

I've been actively dealing, long distant with a lot of real estate agents in the last few weeks. While it's easy to find people who loudly profess the same things I so profoundly believe in, it's the same words, but not with the meanings I grew up with!

Words like:

Service,

Common Courtesy,

Knowledge,

Professionalism,

Ethics,

Client,

Customer,

Agent,

Integrity,

Fiduciary!

May be the confusion is to be expected, from people that grew up with leaders that questioned the meaning of "is" and limited the meaning of "sex!" There was a time when no one questioned "is" and while we couldn't mention "sex" with out blushing we certainly knew what it meant.

You may add to the list, or you could define selected words for us.

Do these words still have meanings?

What should we expect when we see them used to promote an individual or company?

Is it fair for some one who grew up in the fifties and sixties to except the meaning to be the same as when he learned them?

Bill

William J Archambault Jr

The Real Estate Investment Institute

Is what this kid learned now obsolete?

Checking the Drudge Report http://www.drudgereport.com/ this morning I came across an article on Morgan Stanley freezing thousands of Home Equity Lines Of Credit, HELOC's. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=afQ0PVYvOgzI&refer=home

Home owners still owe the outstanding balance, but they will no longer be able to use the open ended feature to draw more useable cash from the loan. For most this is only an expensive inconvenience. For some a major financial setback. For those fools that strictly follow the "money merge" philosophy face financial disaster!

I've been a long time advocate of Lines Of Credit, both secured and unsecured and remain so. When the HELOC's came along opening the LOC's to the average person I became a major advocate of these useful tools for my real estate investment students.

But, the problem with HELOC's or any other loan is depending on it! Until you have the cash in hand even an open LOC of any kind, secured, unsecured, or even your credit cards are subject to many problems beyond your control! Morgan Stanley's freezing draws on HELOC's has nothing to do with the individual credit or collateral! This is just the latest freeze!

Bill

William J Archambault Jr

The Real Estate Investment Institute

Our on going national disgrace, disgraces (?) Disgraci, what ever, has us turning on each other. After nearly thirty years of hate mongering by politicians perhaps it's to be excepted that we can no longer identify with our fellow man. What bothers me is that other wise good people, good real estate people, good mortgage people are mislabeling other good people for political convenience!

It bothers me that so many have lumped the "have nots" with the "undesiring!" I can't define "undesiring" although I often think I know them when I see them. What I can define are the "have nots." For our purpose "have nots" are those people that don't make as much as we do, which of course means that except for Bill Gates, et. al. we are all "have nots!"

When mortgage and real estate people start talking about people with out large down payments being undeserving a home of their own, I have to wonder, did they pay cash for their home? Where do they draw the line? If people with little or no down payment are undeserving, what about those that put 20% down? What about those who put up a big down payment, but who's home has deprecated to the point they have no remaining equity? What is the difference between no original equity and no current equity?

What does a big down payment do? Does it protect the home owner? Truthfully, big down payments protect no one except the bank! Little or no down payment may even protect the home buyer, by marinating his liquidity and putting the bank mutually at risk with the home buyer.

How dare these bigots lump the "have nots" with the "undesiring!" These bigots are most often blaming low down payments for the mortgage crisis, but other than being PC to do so what proof do they offer? How do they explain the over welling masses that used these loans to successfully join the "haves!"

Bill

William J Archambault Jr

The Real Estate Investment Institute