I recorded this webinar on March 11, 2009. The AUDIO IS HERE and will open in a new window.  Listen along and click through the links as I discuss them: The zero-down loan limits for California counties How a purchase price, above the VA loan limit, might not require a 20-30% down payment VA downpa...

Last May, I wrote about the Ohio law that, the legislature intended, would put the screws to payday lenders in that state. The law limited payday loans to four short-term loans a year and capped annual interest rates at 28......

Remember those impetuous, ne’er do well subprime borrowers and those greedy subprime lenders?  Writing about them is sooo… 2007 but I’m happy to report that both greed and reckless abandon are alive and well today…. …at Bank of America. Remember Ken Lewis?  He’s...

Bank of America is getting slaughtered by short sellers.  The stock has plummeted to under 10% of its March, 2008 value.  Of course, a few things happened on the way to the slaughterhouse: The bought Countrywide, America’s largest mortgage originator. They bought Merrill Lynch, America’...

Two excerpts from a local article:  Bankruptcy reform could help hard-up homeowners Overwhelmed by debt from credit cards, a $536-a-month truck payment, $8000 in overdue property taxes and two mortgages, the single homeowner is hoping (San Diego bankruptcy attorney) Colwell can remove the $84,000 s...

Bazllionaire Wilbur Ross, a man who's made a big play on mortgage servicing rights and who's waiting until the US government ":gets real" on the terms it offers to private investors before he jumps into the bailout of broken financial institutions, had some interesting opinions about the proposed bo...

If you read the news this morning, you’ll find Realtors all over the country rejoicing that President Obama has surged into the depressed real estate market on a white charger, bearing with him an heroic plan to rescue everyone — borrowers, lenders and especially Realtors. No discouragin...

We've written about this before, but as more and more people face foreclosure (last year's foreclosures totaled 2.3 million, according to the AP) its a good time to remind people of this strategy. From the AP: During the real estate frenzy of the past decade, mortgages were sold and resold, bundled ...

Last month, real estate columnist Steve Brown shot off a nice little rant about how bank regulators were forcing banks to clamp down so hard on real estate lending that they were denying credit to good borrowers as well as bad ones. The Kansas City Business Journal provides further evidence of this ...

In the face of the economic crisis that is challenging non profits to do more with less money, one hero organization deserves recognition. It's the SunTimes Marovitz Lawyers Lend A Hand to Youth program, which awarded $217,000 in grants to 27 different Chicago tutor/mentor programs in December 2008....