by Irene Moustakas | Nov 12, 2008 | Miscellaneous, Tips
Beware of giving and receiving gift cards this holiday season. If you have a gift card or store credit with a retailer that has filed for bankruptcy, you can be pretty assured that you won’t ever see that money. You could try standing in line behind creditors in...
by Irene Moustakas | Nov 6, 2008 | Industry News, Rates, Tips
From one day to the next, hits and improvements on credit score brackets got much stricter. Hits for lower credit scores (anything below 740) are bracketed by increments of 20 points starting with a 620 FICO. Based on today’s interest rates (which are really good...
by Irene Moustakas | Oct 28, 2008 | Tips
An impound account, sometimes referred to as a “Reserve Account” is when your property taxes and homeowners insurance get collected monthly along with your mortgage payment. In California, you have a choice as to whether or not you want an impound account, although...
by Irene Moustakas | Oct 24, 2008 | Tips
I’ve been asked a few question about the use of paying points the past few weeks, so I’d like to comment on this a little bit. Whether or not you should pay a point to buy down the interest rate takes both math and speculation. On average, 1 point buys down the...
by Irene Moustakas | Oct 21, 2008 | Tips
We all know that getting a loan is much harder to get and to qualify for nowadays. First time homebuyer programs with low down payment requirements of 3.5%-5.0% down are still available, but they can be somewhat restrictive in who can get them, and can also be more...
by Irene Moustakas | Oct 14, 2008 | Tips
When I have a chance, I listen to the Ray Lucia Show on Bloomberg AM radio, which is a call-in show for people to ask questions on financial investment strategies. One call struck my interest, so I want to share it with you as well and give you an example of how I...