I am noticing that a lot of folks just can’t control their desire to buy with credit cards. They cannot control having high balances. People who took a wise step in getting out of 18% credit card rates through refinancing their home are running their balances up again. The intent was good, paying off those high interest rate balances.

However I have observed:

The urge to buy is running high.
The urge to spend is in control again.

The strength to resist just does not exhist.
Being mature - a trait that doesn’t endure.

So being the pragmatist I am. (ho ho ho) I decided to make the mobs of credit card addicts my benefactors. I took my entire retirement investments and put them in the new mutual investment fund you may have heard of: “Credit Card Cocaine Fund”

“Credit Card Cocaine Fund” is a unique fund that purchases stock in companies that understand the human addiction to high balances and using up every ounce of credit limit one can acquire. It focuses on companies with research departments that identify the people that are willing to pay the highest rate of interest. It has the uncanny capacity to spot those companies that willingly raise the credit lines of those most likely to use them.

Now how about this for business savvy! One of these companies has determined how to identify the genetic propensity to become addicted to continually having credit card balances. Yes this is a fact.

These genetic marvels start receiving toy credit cards for Christmas and anonymous birthday presents beginning at age 8. This idea came from James J Smoke, who was a noted research analyist for the cigarette industry. Smoke is solely responsible for persuading the candy companies to start selling chocolate cigarettes. They had to subsidize the candy companies as this ended up in providing greater sales for the cigarette companies long term. It became a fact that the kids stopped buying the chocolate kind for the hard stuff, you know real cigarettes.

So old Smoke used this knowledge and moved on to higher income at the international advisory council for earning high rates of interest. It is said, his idea of toy credit cards is garnering him a huge bonus.

Aside from all this complicated data, is the simple fact that my retirement is in your hands, all this thanks to the new investment fund that targets the right people buying the right stuff, any stuff. That is any stuff paid by credit card.

Keep those credit card balances high please. I must retire someday.

Better yet, you could move to Addictsville, Texas (shown below) where you must make every purchase with credit cards and are subject to an annual audit proving you never pay the balances off.

Larry Cragun

Who do you not select as a loan officer? You can add to the list.

1- Your neighbor

2- A rookey

3- Don’t hire anyone who can’t give you a real estate agent reference. (Talk to the agent please)

4-

And what set me off again? This story - crap why can’t people be smarter?

Housing dreams turning into nightmares

Mortgage fraud cases detailed in Lawrence

Click Here for the rest of the sad story.

LAWRENCE — Jose Felipe dreamed of buying a retirement house in Florida, where palm trees and balmy breezes would remind him of his native Dominican Republic. So the commercial painter went to a storefront mortgage consultant in Lawrence two years ago and asked for a credit check. Top-notch, he recalled being told.

The trend is taking out equity through refinancing. Of course that is good for mortgage companies like ours, however, for a moment I will preach.

My wife says be careful here Larry, as we have done what I will now preach against. The situation you may be in may be devastating to you. You think, “if you can only pull out some equity you will be fine.”

You may be worse off is the case I ask you to consider. Especially if you refi into a loan with a prepayment penalty.

As I write this article my mind goes back to the two years I bought foreclosures. I was amazed at the situation people were in. I purchased one home on acerage for $200.00 as the owners were pulling out of the driveway never to return. We sold it 4 months later for a $30,000 profit. I can tell you of many other similar stories.

What amazed me was how unnecessary this was. The husband in the story above was a sophisticated real estate person. He had a large business at one time. Later I found him back selling real estate. He was no dummy.

However, he was crushed. The common denominator. The pressue of the bill collectors, the problems, the overwhelming situation caused him to walk away.

This didn’t happen in a day or a week. It happened with one bad decision after another. It happened because of pride. It happened because of lack of being real.

What I would rather see, than having more business of this kind, is to have people move down in value rather than lose their homes. Take the equity into something you can afford. Of course the reasons you snub this idea are legit:Kids changing schools, the hassle, and the dream of recovering.

You gamble your home coupled with the loss of your equity if not careful. I just remembered an attorney that did this, a client from long ago. Except he did it 3 times and out. He got himself into a business problem. He refused to give up. He refinaced 3 times. He ruined his credit. The fees to refiance plus the prepayment penalties ate his lunch and his equity.

Sometimes it works out fine. It just troubles me I see so much of it already. Larry Cragun, your friend.

It was another radio Advertisement.

This advertising lie by the smooth talking voice said, “I can get you a 30 fear fixed mortgage with no closing costs for a low 5 3/8%. No way. Not without trickery. Don’t get sucked into a bait and switch.

Our company was fully in place on January 4th, ready for our loan officers to start writing loans. Eight days later we see the evidence of an industry still endowed with crooks.

I use a harsh word crook here, you tell me if it is deserved.

It involves a purchase, of course a milestone event for a family. One week before the contract to purchase has arrived the closing documents are ready to sign. In our state we mostly use escrow companies. We were not the lender in this case but were contacted by the buyers/borrowers in a panic.

The buyer/borrower found out at escrow they were being sold a loan with a pre-payment penalty. This had never been discussed with their loan officer and had never been disclosed. They do not have low credit scores which sometimes causes the type of loan where there is a pre-payment penalty. There is no reason for this penalty, except when one is sold, a rebate can be earned by the loan officer.

Rebates are not always obvious on the closing papers.

The callers were upset and wanted our office to take over the loan. This is a bad idea with a week to go for closing, very risky that it cannot be done in time. They were told there was a back up offer on their house and they had to take this loan or lose the house. Were that true, which it turned out not to be, the house could be lost to the backup offer. We told them to fix the loan and stay with the current loan officer.

Our office suggested they ask the closer if there was in fact a rebate to the mortgage company. There was.

In inquiring about the actual lender etc. it turned out to be one we are approved with, even have had a very close business relationship with. We were able to confirm to the borrower the solution was simple. Remove the pre-payment clause and give up the rebate to the lender.

Here is the secret to how these crooks work. With one week to go, they believe you will cave in. So the crooked loan officer called the borrowers bluff, refusing to remove the rebate and the prepayment penalty. He was banking on emotion and the threat of losing the house to pad his pocket.

The borrower here refused to sign, refused to do business with this loan officer. They walked out, even willing to put their earnest money at risk.

The story has a good ending. The sellers have moved out. It is better for them to take this borrower, give them a two week extension, than to find a new buyer. Extension granted - new loan submitted by us the same day.

So the greedy crooked loan officer lost the bet.

I hope the lessons in this story are obvious. Even to the loan officer. I expect a complaint to be filed against him. Washington State has no tolerance for crap like this. It wouldn’t surprise me, as loan officer licensing is just being started, that this bird loses his license before he receives it in the mail.

I wrote last week we about refusing a pay day loan advertiser. Click here for a good article on the subject from the New York Times: The Title:

Seductively Easy, Payday Loans

Often Snowball

I post the email for two reasons: First, we will only promote, if and when we allow advertising on this site, businesses that add to the mortgage community. By add, I mean a valuable service.

Pay days loans are your friendly loan shark. The fees and interest they charge are in the absurb category. They may seem small in dollar amount but in percent they are serious.

Second: If you are in the space where you need a loan until your next check, you are not ready to get a mortgage or a new home. For you I want you to start dreaming. Visit this site daily. Look at a year or two as not far away. Start taking action that solves your problem.

Notice I said take action. This places the burden on you. You can do it. Do It.

Now for the email:

Dear Sir/Madam,
After
visitinghttp://mortgagesundressed.com ,our company

would be interested in an advertisement on your site.

We provide consumers a safe and easy way to apply for

payday loans online. Our advertisement format is

generally 15 words long and it will contain two to three text

links, which we provide. Please let us know how much your site

would charge for an ad of this size. We look forward to your reply

and the opportunity to work with you.

Thank you,

Let us realize that the privilige to work is a gift, the power to work is a blessing, and that love of work is success. David O McKay

Those pesky little devils

they make it sound so good.

Give us your name and email

well loan you what we should.

Along the way we sell your name

to all the eager lenders.

You, you receive a ton a fame

And to us we are the best

of mortgage lead vendors.

Larry Cragun

Sorry, we live in Microsoft territory but these two back to back press releases seemed hypocritical to me.

First Bill Gates says: Bill Gates says West not supplying enough IT talent
November 07, 2006 01:46 PM ET

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A shortage of information technology graduates from Western universities is leading companies to call on developing countries to meet research demand, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said on Tuesday. Full Article

Then Microsoft announces this: Same day, same RSS Feed: Film, TV downloads newly available via Xbox 360
November 07, 2006 04:54 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Microsoft Corp. will unlock the digital-distribution capabilities of its next-generation console, Xbox 360, to Hollywood studios beginning November 22. Full Article

One of the truly big problems with our youth is the XBox. Many of the kids of our generation grow up playing games and that is the bulk of it. We are sending them out to compete for IT jobs, and other real jobs not grown up yet. Even at age 20.

If they don’t grow up, how can they compete? They can’t. Certainly there are families that manage their home , but too many do not. Great teaching experiences like Boy Scouts Of America have far too few boys joining.

This has helped fuel the stupid phenomena of the Gambling as a profession craze. TV has made it glamerous. Heck if you can’t compete, gamble.

Some are creative and can go from games to inernet phenom. These are few. So the wealth in our country will get more divided. Those that are smart and those that grew up on Z Xbox.

Reverse the trend if you have kids at home. Do your job. Be a parent. Save your kids from being a child of 8 at age 20 and unable to compete with others for a decent career.

Larry Cragun.