Archive
Does a refi make cents? I got a call recently from an investor named Brad that had a conundrum. He was looking at refinancing a mortgage from a 30-year fixed ARM (adjustable rate mortgage) to a 15-year fixed mortgage. A fixed adjustable rate mortgage sounds like an oxymoron. They work like this- for the first five to ten years the rate is fixed. After that, it can adjust...
A/C Repair Yields Over 31 Percent: Financial calculators aren’t normally a hot topic, even in real estate circles, but I took the opportunity to attend an information session on the subject sometime ago, and I haven’t regretted it. The instructor’s name was Gary Johnston, and the night of the session, he forever changed the way I look at investments by introducing me to the...
Yohanan’s Might: We learned late last Thursday evening that something terrible had happened in our community. A family in our congregation had lost a child. Their 18-month-old son, Obadiah Dillard, had died due to an accidental drowning. Obadiah was the fifth of six children born in the Dillard house. As I lay down Thursday night, I wondered what could be done to help. It dawned on...
This is a Question and Answer session I had with the Calhoun Times Editor Brandi Owczarz about what we are seeing in the rental market. It ran in the paper a few weeks back and a friend asked me to post it to the blog. So here you go. Q. What rental "trends" are you seeing right now in NW Georgia...are you seeing that 3/2 homes are popular? Are people requesting big yards? etc.... ...
Take Time to Be a Dad: Recently I was riding with an experienced 81-year-old investor. He grew up a poor sharecropper in Mississippi. What he’d learned from his meager beginnings was how to work. I mean, really work. He would pick 300 lbs. of cotton a day. He kidded that he was the slowest out of his 12 brothers and sisters. You know, I always admire guys like him. Nothing was ever...