We all like to feel as if we’re in control of our lives, whether it’s our personal lives or our professional lives. One important area where those two intersect is in our financial lives. To be able to keep our personal lives headed in the right direction, we need to exert strong control over our finances, and very often those financial resources are created by our professional lives. While so many investment vehicles seem to be careening out of control today – traditional security investments especially – many forward thinking and savvy investors are turning to...
I know a guy who inherited the home he grew up in when he was in his late 20s. He rented it out and purchased a separate home for himself and his new bride. The old family homestead continued to appreciate in value and eventually he knew it would be smart to sell it and leverage the cash to buy a greater number of properties. He did this successfully and started to see his little portfolio of residential real estate grow. However, he still remembers a conversation he had over the phone with his representative at one of the major conventional lenders. They held...
I remember an old NBA video game the kids used to play. When one player was able to block the shot of another player, the announcer on the video game’s audio, would intone in a dramatically low and intense voice: Rejected! It was a cool feature in the video game. It’s not so nice when you hear it at the end of a long application process for a mortgage with a bank or conventional lender. Further, it happens far more frequently than most borrowers realize. I recently read one summary that said half of all applications to refinance a mortgage were rejected and that...
If you’ve been turned down by a bank or conventional lender for a loan to buy or refinance real estate, you’ve probably asked some questions like these: – “Why won’t the bank lend to me?” – “What can I do now that my loan application has been turned down?” – “How can I get a loan after the bank rejected me?” – “How can I improve my credit rating?” These are common questions that thousands of people have found themselves asking during the last several years, and it’s not just people who want to buy or refinance real estate. Small business...
When news about the performance of the Dow Jones average jumps from the business page to the front page, it’s seldom a good thing for folks heavily invested in the stock market, and that’s what happened recently. I woke up one morning and the big headline from the previous day was about how the Dow had dropped 530 points on the previous trading day and more than 1,000 points for the week. Occasions like these make me appreciate and understand even more why people invest in First Trust Deeds on California real estate. Don’t feel helpless I think one of the worst...
