How Does Dave Ramsey’s Advice on Mortgages Pencil Out?

Last month I wrote about advice I’ve been seeing popping up in my Facebook feed from Dave Ramsey on mortgages. There are several points that I just don’t find realistic for the average person who wants to buy a home, such as only using a 15 year amortized mortgage with 20% down payment and limiting your mortgage payment to 25% of your take home pay. I promised that I would share a follow up post where I review different scenarios comparing his advise to real life scenarios. [Read more…]

Should You Follow Dave Ramsey’s Advice on Mortgages?

financial goals for buying a homeDave Ramsey is someone a lot of people follow for financial advise. Lately he’s been showing up A LOT in my Facebook stream pushing his thoughts on mortgages, home ownership and credit. Some of his ideas, I don’t totally disagree with. In fact, I shared a post that came from his group encouraging people to continue to pay rent and make their mortgage payments during the pandemic if at all possible (ie nothing is for free). However, I don’t support what he instructs his followers who are considering buying a home and I also have an issue with anyone who pushes their “team of vetted real estate agents”…I would be really surprised if there is not some sort of financial relationship associated with this referral arrangement.

Let’s take a look at what he encourages his followers to do with regards to buying a home or getting a mortgage. [Read more…]

Good Bye, Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct

The Alaskan Way Viaduct aka Highway 99, was my preferred route when traveling through Seattle. As someone who lives in West Seattle, Highway 99 (or the viaduct) was a great alternative when traveling to downtown Seattle or north Seattle. I voted against the tunnel twice and will miss the views driving the viaduct. I really wish the viaduct would have been retrofitted or rebuilt instead of the tunnel. Anyhow… I thought I would share a video our family created a few years ago about the viaduct – tunnel. No animals were harmed in this video!

I will really miss the viaduct. I enjoyed the gritty drive and will miss the amazing views. When our beloved JP Patches was at our home for my surprise 40th party, he said our elected officials had “tunnel vision” and I could not agree more.

Should you work with a local lender?

The other day, while on Facebook, I came across a stat that my friend and real estate educator, Jillayne Schlicke had posted in response which surprised me. Her comment was in response to an article she had shared on Zillow acquiring a mortgage company that has licenses in all 50 states.

jillayne schlicke LO licensing WA State

[Read more…]

What the ??? Wells Fargo!

Wells Fargo has been in the media quite a bit recently for terrible things the bank has done to their consumer clients and employees. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out…this is another example of how a powerful large bank has taken total advantage of consumers. [Read more…]