We are hoping to move within the next few months. We don’t have a ton of money saved and our credit isn’t bad, but it is low. We do not have credit history. We haven’t been able to secure financing for a vehicle, so we doubt we would be able to get financed to own a home any time soon without working on our credit.
We have been renting for more than 3 years, we did the math a realized we have spent close to 20K in rent. What should we do? Should we continue to rent and save, or should we look into owner financed homes?
Can someone please better explain this to us. We are new to the concept, it isn’t that popular in Louisiana.
Thanks!

I need to borrow about 0,000 to refinance an office building. Anyone knows of a bank that does that nowadays? Does it have to be a local bank? The building was appraised for 1.1mil, adjusted down to 875,000 due to 40% vacancy and cash flow.

My question is do you think this is a good idea and if not, what’s wrong with it?

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/07/you-want-to-fix-the-u-s-economy-heres-a-start/

Here is the text of the link:

Charles Hugh Smith publishes Foreclosure Crisis Weekly, dedicated to documenting the often-amazing foreclosure crisis.

>

A simple 8-point plan would restore both the banking and the real estate sectors, and end the political dominance of the parasitic “too big to fail” banks.

Craven politicos and clueless Federal Reserve economists are always bleating about how they want to fix the U.S. economy and restore “aggregate demand.” OK, here’s how to start:

1. Force all banks to mark all their assets to market at the end of each trading day, including all derivatives of all types, including over-the-counter instruments.

2. Allow citizens to discharge all mortgage and student loan debt in bankruptcy court, just like any other debt.

3. Banks must mark all their real estate to market weekly as defined by “last sales of nearby properties” adjusted for square footage and other quantifiable measures (i.e. like Zillow.com).

4. Require mortgage servicers and all owners of mortgage-backed securities to mark every asset within each pool to market weekly.

5. Any mortgage, loan or note which was fraudulently originated, packaged and sold, including the misrepresentation of risk, the manipulation of risk ratings, fraudulent documentation by any party, etc., will be discharged as uncollectable and the full value wiped off the books and title records without recourse by any of the parties.

If a bank fraudulently originated a mortgage and the buyer misrepresented material facts on the mortgage documents, then both parties lose all claim to the note and the underlying asset, the house, which reverts to the FDIC for liquidation, with the proceeds going towards creditors’ claims against the bank.

6. Any bank which misrepresents marked-to-market asset values will be fined million per incident.

7. Any bank which is insolvent at the end of a trading day will be closed and taken over by the FDIC the following day, and liquidated in an orderly manner via open-market auctions of all assets, including REO (real estate owned).

8. All derivative positions held by the insolvent bank will be unwound immediately, and counterparties who fail to make good on their claims will also be closed, given to the FDIC and liquidated.

You know what this is, of course: a return to trustworthy, transparent accounting. And you know what the consequences would be, too: all five “too big to fail” banks would instantly be declared insolvent, and most of the other top-25 big banks would also be closed and liquidated.

At least trillion in impaired residential mortgage debt would be written off, maybe more, and trillion in impaired commercial real estate would also be written down. Derivative losses are unknown, but let’s estimate it’s at least trillion and maybe much more.

If .8 trillion of fantasy “value” is wiped off the nation’s books, that’s only a 10% reduction in net household and non-profit assets, which total trillion. Even an trillion hit would only knock off 20%. If that’s reality, if that’s what the assets are really worth in the real world, then let’s get it over with. Once we’ve restored truthful accounting and stopped living a grand series of debilitating lies, then the path will finally be clear for renewed growth.

The net result would be the destruction of the political power of the “too big to fail” banks, the clearing of the nation’s bloated, diseased real estate market, and the restoration of trust in institutions which have been completely discredited.

Bank credit would flow again, and we could insist on a healthy competitive system of 250 small banks instead of a corrupting system of 5 insolvent parasitic monsters and 20 other bloated but equally insolvent financial parasites.

Those who lied would finally get fried. At long last, those who misprepresented income, risk, etc. would actually pay some price for their malfeasance. Criminal proceedings would be a nice icing on the cake, but simply ending the pretence of solvency would go a long way to restoring banking and real estate and ending regulatory capture by TBTF banks.

What’s the downside to such a simple action plan? Oh boo-hoo, the craven politicos would lose their key campaign contributors. On the plus side, the politicos could finally wipe that brown stuff off their noses.

Location:
East Bethel, Minnesota

Summary:
The property in question was purchased about 10 years ago and split into 2 parcels of land; with separate financing. The commercial property is all along the highway with the residential behind it. The driveway first leads to the commercial property, with the residential property land locked behind it; no other entrances to it. The loan on the residential, sorry to say, has gone into foreclosure. They are taking my house at the end of the month.

Question:
Do I have to let the owners of that land go through the driveway in my business? Someone told me today that Minnesota law says that I cannot land lock a piece of land like that, and will be forced to allow them through my commercial property. Do they have to pay me for this right of way? I do not know how this all works and would really appreciate a knowledgeable answer. I do not have the financial resources to bring these questions to a lawyer. Anyone know where I could find out for free if nobody here knows the answers?

Daniel

Here it is:

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/07/why-wallison-is-wrong-about-the-genesis-of-the-u-s-housing-crisis/

Nice quote. Note the references to REPUBLICAN lawmakers.

"Wallison [blamed F&F for the meltdown], of course, wrote a lonely dissent from both the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission majority report and from his fellow Republican commissioners, in which he alone blamed the global financial crisis on U.S. affordable housing policies. This argument is clearly contradicted by the facts, including the following:

• Parallel bubble-bust cycles occurred outside of the residential housing markets (for example, in commercial real estate and consumer credit).
• Parallel financial crises struck other countries, which did not have analogous affordable housing policies
• The U.S. government’s market share of home mortgages was actually declining precipitously during the housing bubble of the 2000s.

These facts are irrefutable."
Apparently, some cannot read and respond to facts. Just change the subject and hope no one notices.

Location:
East Bethel, Minnesota

Summary:
The property in question was purchased about 10 years ago and split into 2 parcels of land; with separate financing. The commercial property is all along the highway with the residential behind it. The driveway first leads to the commercial property, with the residential property land locked behind it; no other entrances to it. The loan on the residential, sorry to say, has gone into foreclosure. They are taking my house at the end of the month.

Question:
Do I have to let the owners of that land go through the driveway in my business? Someone told me today that Minnesota law says that I cannot land lock a piece of land like that, and will be forced to allow them through my commercial property. Do they have to pay me for this right of way? I do not know how this all works and would really appreciate a knowledgeable answer. I do not have the financial resources to bring these questions to a lawyer. Anyone know where I could find out for free if nobody here knows the answers?

Daniel
When I originally purchased the property I was going to have a frontage road put in, so their was an easement on the commercial property for the house to use land going to the side road when the frontage road was installed. However, my finances fell through and the road never got built. The easement was put into place, however it was specified for the frontage road usage. Is this transferable now to the driveway going through the commercial property?

I own a commercial property. I owe 500k to the bank and it was appraised for .15m 2 years ago. I would guess an appraisal would come to about 900k today. We are working out a deal to seller finance it to a developer for .15m who will put down 325k and use his remaining funds to build an additional store on the lot to increase the value, then refinance in a year or so and pay us the rest. Now this means we would be in a second lien position. We have came up with a few different safeguards to minimize the risk. Do you think a mortgage insurance company would insure this since it is technically a loan?