Homeownership & Lifestyle

Homeownership is more than a mortgage — it’s about community, lifestyle, and long-term planning.

This section includes personal insights, community involvement, and home-related topics that reflect the broader experience of owning and living in the great Pacific Northwest.

Dawn’s Army is doing The Big Climb for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

Bigclimb My husband and step-son will be marching up 69 floors of the Columbia Tower on Sunday, March 21, 2010.   They’re doing this as part of the team proudly called Dawn’s Army to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society along with friends, family and Dawn Appel’s former co-workers at The Talon Group.

This is not the first time this team has assembled for their friend, Dawn Appel.  Dawn has been battling Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia long enough for this to be the third annual climb by her friends.

The Columbia Tower is located in down town Seattle and many will climb (some race) 1,311 steps for this worthy cause in just a few weeks.

Please consider donating if you can–every bit helps!

Thank you.

T’was the Week Before Christmas

Editor’s Note: We have some super talented people at Mortgage Master.  This poem was written by Shelli Nixon at our office and shared during our RESPA training today.   This is posted at Mortgage Porter with her permission to share with you!

T’was the week before Christmas

When all through the lands,

LO’s and Closers were wringing their hands.

RESPA Changes are coming,

They all started to worry,

We’d better get trained, and trained in a hurry!

We all kept on hoping

There would be a delay.

But HUD said, “No Way,” it’s all here to stay.

“We love our new HUD

And our new GFE,

Don’t fret, don’t worry, it’s as simple as can be.”

We all shook our heads,

Threw our hands to the sky.

What were you smoking?  You must have been high!

You took a one page doc

And changed it to three.

Easier?  More simple?  How can that be?

The Regs don’t match up,

So now what do we do?

HUD says, “No comment, It’s all up to you.”

No info on TILA,

HMDA, REG B.

We are totally screwed, why can’t they see??

In a time when some borrowers

Think lenders are scary,

You’ve given 3 pages to make them more wary.

This doesn’t make sense,

Not one little bit.

We are all trying hard to not throw a fit.

So we all do our best

To put borrowers at ease.

But make more reform, please, please, please!

Please bring someone in

Who knows what to do.

What is best for both borrowers AND lenders too.

We are all still waiting,

Though not holding our breath

And hoping the government doesn’t “Reg” us to death.

So on this week before Christmas,

I’d like to wish you

Good luck with RESPA, I need it too!

~Shelli Nixon, Mortgage Master Service Corporation<

Always Read All of the Fine Print

I’ve been noticing at my bank a new promo offering “1% mortgage cash back”.  My husband has enjoyed teasing me saying stuff like “why would anyone use you?”  And when he was at the bank branch, he asked a mortgage-teller if this was legit they replied something along the lines of “yeah, isn’t this great!” [Read more…]

West Seattle Food Drive Today

Update 3:00 pm: My husband and I popped into Thriftway to make our donation just as the event was wrapping up and Prudential agents were loading up the van with shopping carts of donated food for the West Seattle Food Bank.

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Prudential Northwest Realty is having a food drive today from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at these five West Seattle grocery stores.

Safeway 2622 California Avenue SW, Seattle

Safeway  4754 42nd Avenue SW, Seattle

West Seattle Thriftway 4201 SW Morgan Street, Seattle

Albertsons 10616 16TH Avenue SW, Seattle

Safeway 9620 28th Avenue SW, Seattle

 

Hat tip to West Seattle Blog.

Book Review: And Then The Roof Caved In by David Faber

I’ve found that one of the perks of being a mortgage blogger is that on occasion, Roofcavedin people will send me copies of their book requesting a review.  I recently finished reading CNBC Reporter, David Faber’s book which addresses how we have arrived at this financial situation we are in.

If you watched his documentary “House of Cards”; you will find lot of the content from the book follows David’s reporting from the documentary.   I enjoy Faber’s reporting on CNBC in the mornings and when you read his book, it’s as if he’s talking to you.   It’s an easy read that covers every angle of how we got here.  And maybe it’s because I’m employed in the mortgage industry, I found this book hard to put down.

If you want to understand more about the perfect storm that lead to this economic crisis; I highly recommend “And Then The Roof Caved In: How Wall Street’s Greed and Stupidity Brought Capitalism to Its Knees” by David Faber.