bubbleinfo.com

This attorney is spreading hysteria here – banks don’t have keys to your house.  If you don’t want to be in this predicament, then don’t make your house look like it’s vacant! Hat tip to daytrip for sending this:

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I think sellers should do improvements before selling, but I’m not big on staging – especially bathrooms!

The next bubbleinfo gathering is on the calendar – click here for more info!

With Fannie/Freddie’s policy of taking loans from borrowers with “extenuating circumstances” just three years after their short sale, we should start seeing some of those folks getting back into the market soon – as long as they re-establish good credit. 

From the latimes.com:

Millions of Americans whose credit scores have declined in recent years because of economic stresses could start rebuilding their scores if their rent, utility, cellphone, insurance and other monthly payments were reported to the national credit bureaus.

But typically they are not, and as a consequence fail to show up as positive factors on credit scoring systems such as FICO or VantageScore. These on-time payments essentially go to waste for consumers, even though monthly rents often can be as large as mortgage bills, and years of utility and other payments are widely recognized as strong indicators of creditworthiness.

Now for the secret: Under federal law, these unreported accounts need not go unused. You as a mortgage applicant are guaranteed the right to bring evidence of your unreported on-time payments to lenders, and they in turn are required to consider those records in making a decision on granting you a home loan — provided that you request it. If a loan officer refuses, he or she could be open to legal penalties.

Although federal financial regulators generally acknowledge the right to present supplementary data that consumers enjoy under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, only one — the National Credit Union Administration — has published guidance informing lenders that they are required to comply.

Factoring in so-called nontraditional credit accounts not only could provide important help to buyers and owners with recession-scarred scores but could also aid the estimated 35 million to 54 million consumers who don’t — or barely — show up in the files of Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, the three national credit bureaus. Many of these are young people with thin files with just a couple of credit accounts, and many are minorities.

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Hat tip to SM for sending this along, from The Seattle Times:

Gayle and Ray Harvie were at Disneyland when they learned a troubled neighbor had stolen, and then crashed, their new $12,000 Yamaha motorcycle.

The 18-year-old thief was fine, but the Harvies, who’d raised three boys themselves, thought he needed to be taught a lesson. They called police and pressed charges.

When his mother, Caroline Pepperell, and Ray Harvie spoke a few days later, Harvie insisted she or her son pay for the damage. Pepperell refused. They hung up.

That was the last conversation between the Harvies and Caroline Pepperell for nearly six years. In that time, their dispute metastasized into a saga involving three separate police investigations, a dead dog, Adolf Hitler’s secretary and allegations of forgery and organized crime. It led to the conviction of a decorated cop, the disbanding of the Sultan Police Department and, in March, a $79,146 judgment after a four-day jury trial.

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From SB Nation:

Many give Boston Red Sox fans plenty of grief, some of it warranted, some of it not. Red Sox Nation has become, for better or worse, a whipping boy. But the following video of the crowd at Fenway Park helping an autistic man sing the National Anthem, is simply an incredible display. As he begins to trip-up during the middle of the song, the crowd encourages him, then sings along.

The moment took place during Disability Awareness Day at Fenway. The video below speaks for itself:

Seen in the latimes.com:

Will the move to dismantle Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mean the end of the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage as we have come to know it?

Many housing proponents say that it will. Without the government’s backing, they contend that the 30-year mortgage will become a relic of a bygone era when mortgages were cheap and easy to come by.

But others say America’s most popular home loan will still be available — if you can afford it.

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