Well I made it to day one!

I've decided to start a new style to my blog too. I'm one of those people that needs structure so I'm bringing it to my blog too. It should allow you all an easier reading experience too.

My blog will now feature

1. A commentary beginning. This might be a gripe, a vent, a complaint or an exciting victory, just depends on my mood and the day :-) You know how that goes!

2. Next will be a call to action to better your financial future.

3. Will be an insight into my work life.

4. A recap of last nights dinner. I know this sounds crazy but as a self proclaimed "foody" who can't cook and doesn't eat meat, I love to read about other peoples dinner happenings and I figured I can't be the only one, right?

5. Will be the main guts of the blog and in this series tips, info, and ways to save your home or save money on home ownership.

I'm excited to see how this will play-out over this next month. I hop you all will join me with your thoughts, questions and opinions!

Here we go!



Today's thoughts is brought to you by Mc Donalds! I'm trying to understand why Mc Donald's would allow a check casher/ pay day loan company to open a kiosk inside one of their restaurants. Better yet, I'm not sure why I care so much. I drove by a Mc Donald's and actually started laughing when I saw it, and I still don't know why it's still in my head. I really do not care for these pay day loans. I believe that in a true emergency everything is fair game, but they just seem to be the worst ones out there, and then to see it in a Mc Donald's, well, I guess it bothers me because it just makes it too convenient. Enough said.

The action for today is to call your creditors:
Here's how it's going to work.I know I've said this before but the first step to financial freedom is to pick up the phone. How many phone calls do you need to make that you've been putting off? I admit to needing to having calls that need to be made too. It seems like the majority of the time I remember that I need to call someone after business hours. I've been keeping a running list of "to do's" but I often joke in my mind that I should keep another list of places that I keep my master list!

So your list of people to call should include the following people.

1. All creditors- including your credit card company, mortgage company, and anyone else you owe money too. This is especially important if you are having problems paying all your bills. The point of your call is to ask in every which way if they can lower your rate and payments.

2. Utility companies-phone, cell phone, cable, dsl, dish, propane (you get the picture) You want to ask if there are any specials or different programs that lower your monthly bills. You'll be surprised how eager they are to help... many people on the other end of the line are feeling the pinch of this economy too, and who better to "know" the ways to a discounted bill than them.

3. Your insurance companies- This might not be on the top of your list of places to save, but it should be! With the right agent, who knows what questions to ask, you can save 20% or more by either switching companies or making small changes with your existing policies.

4. Your pharmacist and doctor- Both of these medical care professionals either have samples or know of programs that can help you save on your prescriptions.

Today's work activityis not too exciting. It seems we are having a problem locating a property that a bank needs some info. on. I've tried every which way, but everything I can find says it's vacant land and all the maps (and me driving for hours) don't show the house even exists. We'll figure it out, it's just frustrating. On another note, since the fires in October, I have done reports on house that truly no longer exist. Saddest one was a person who's escrow closed the day before the house burnt down. Talk about bad luck... their solution was to never make a payment. I know there's more to the story, but there were no winners in this deal, except for the sellers, I guess you could say they had really good luck, but even that sounds wrong.

On a happy note, we received another bank owned listing today. We'll be going out and checking to see if it's vacant. If someone is still living there we'll be offering them "cash for keys" which is paying them money to leave the property in a good, clean condition within a certain about of time. I'll blog more on that later.

Dinner last night was spaghetti and turkey sausage. It's amazing how cheap spaghetti can be. But do you ever wonder why Italian food at a restaurant can be some of the most expensive when the ingredients are the cheapest? Same goes for Chinese food. So the spaghetti was $1, the sauce $1 and the sausage was on sale as it was purchased on the sell by date for $3.45. So $5.45 for a dinner of 4. Not bad. Had this been at a restaurant I'm sure we would have been looking at at least $50 and that includes no beverages as we only drink water!

Deed In Lou of Foreclosure is the real estate topic for the day. First of all a deed in lou of foreclosure is when the bank agrees to take title to the property by the homeowner signing over ownership back to the lender. The former homeowner then walks away from the property and the loan (in most cases). I chose to talk about a deed in lou today because this is one of the most asked questions I get. On first look it seems that this could be a great solution to both the homeowners problems and the banks. You would think that the banks would jump at just taking the asset (the property) back without having to spend the time or money with a foreclosure. Unfortunately for anyone hoping to do this, I have only seen one property where the bank agreed to this and I've seen thousands of tax documents on different properties. From what home owners have told me the banks will say it's a possibility and request that you send in the financial packet and then say that they are not doing deed in lou's. Here are the reasons that banks are not open to deed in lou's even though it would save them money on the whole foreclosure and eviction process.

1. The banks don't want to make it easy to walk away from your home. Can you imagine if they said yes to every homeowner that has negative equity in their home regardless if they can afford the payment? By saying yes to one homeowner they are opening the floodgates to other homeowners requests. Which leads me into reason #2.

2. Banks try hard not to flood certain markets with foreclosures. They know that if they were to accept a deed in lou then the home would become instantly marketable and if they already have an over abundance of properties they are trying to sell, then they would further bring down the values of all the properties. If they can slow the process they can possibly slow the devaluation of their assets.

3. Banks hurt their balance sheets and financial worth every time they have to add an asset back under their ownership. It's in their best interest to slow down the acquiring of properties and clear out the ones they have on the books before they take more.

As you can see there's a lot more to the deed in lou for the banks. I think everyone would agree that it would be easiest and best for the homeowner to do a deed in lou, but the banks have decided that it's not in their best interest. If you are hoping to do a deed in lou, please contact your lender and explain your situation. Your best chance is to send them their packet filled out with your financial situation outlined, but just be prepared for a battle. There are other options available and be open to what they can offer. Just remember not to accept an offer from the bank that puts you in an even worse position.

Tomorrow we'll dig into short sales!