1. When people sign up for a service like satellite radio they sign up for a certain time period such as a year or year and a half. At the end of the time period it is supposed to shut off, not keep on going while Sirius continues to bill.
2. When you sign up for Sirius they send you a welcome letter stating the terms of the service. Nobody reads them because the sales staff informs you that you are paying for the set time period and that’s it. No where in the sales presentation do they say about auto renewing. The welcome letter is more of a formality then stating the obvious. We know what we bought, how much we paid, and for how long. Why would we need to read the pack if everything was stated to us in the first place?
3. Lets say that you do read the welcome letter and are informed about the auto renewal policy but forget about it over the year or two you had the service and do not call in to cancel. Of course it is your fault as you are not keeping up your deal of the bargain.
4. Most people who are introduced to satellite radio services are done so when they lease a car. Ford in particular has an agreement with Sirius that the first 6 months of the lease include it for free. At the end of that time period you can either continue it by paying or let it turn off. Since you did not agree to something with Sirius it automatically gets shut off the day you hit 6 months of having the car. The agreement is between Ford and Sirius, not you.
5. During those 6 months you get use to having uninterrupted music and hundreds of choices. You end up liking it so much that you see no need to bring cd’s or your iPod on road trips anymore. The $10 a month does not seem like that much and since you can play it on your computer at home you ante up the money and either pay for it in whole for the rest of your lease or by month.
6. When it is time to turn in your car lease you will start getting notices on you radio saying it is time to renew the subscription and it even shows the phone # on it. You can either call and pay up or do nothing as you are turning the car in and getting something else assuming that when you turn it in everything is all squared because you paid for it in full.
7. Sirius has the policy that if you do not call in to cancel they have the right to continue billing your credit card that is on file. If there is no credit card then they start sending you bills. You will get a bill in the mail saying you owe money now with a late fee on it. Of course this confuses you as you paid for a certain time period and either forget about the policy or never read the welcome letter because their was no need to except to find out what stations played the music you like.
8. If you do not pay the first bill, Sirius writes off the debt and sends it to a collection company. Of course you will be confused as I was to hear a call from a collection agency as I keep excellent record of my finances. I was informed that I owed $31 to Sirius for not paying my last two bills which I should not have had in the first place as the service was shut off and the car was turned in.
9. A quick phone call (45 minutes on hold) to the customer service center (which I think is in the Bahamas) should get to the bottom of this. What they tell you is that the terms of the welcome pack said they were going to keep billing but since there was no credit card on file they kept accruing a balance. Bills were sent but were thrown out because why would they keep billing as my year and a half I paid ahead of time for was up? There was nothing they could do now as the debt was sold. Yup, a $31 bill being sent to collections to ding up my credit report.
10. In the end it made sense to pay the $31 for a service I never used as it was not worth my time to fight it and let it jack up my credit report. But who is the loser here? Is it me? The consumer who thought everything was explained to and did his part but never read about a policy where he had to call in to cancel (I never received a call asking if I wanted to re-new)? Or is it Sirius? The company who provided a outstanding service. One so good that it became normal to skip the local radio stations and go right to the satellite stations and then listen to at home on my computer. The loser is Sirius. The policy should be that there is no auto-renew policy. If you pay in advance then at the end of your contract the service gets shut off. This way when the person goes to turn it on and hears nothing they know that they need to call in to renew. Sirius can flip a on/off switch at anytime. By continuing to bill and then sending it to collections (w/o a phone call) will mess up a credit report. Even worse is that its over $31. Sirius could get rid of all the employees (saving $$$ on salaries) who work at that call center. Even the manager I talked to (Joshua) agreed that it is a bad policy. I asked him how many times a day they get a call like mine and he said “too many.” Unfortunately I can never go back to Sirius Satellite Radio again. Not because of the product or the service, but because of a bad policy and a lack of communication on their part.
1. When you lease a car you never have to worry about car repairs happening. All new cars come with a lease that covers any drive train repairs like engines, transmissions, or any other major mechanical mishaps. Yes, when you buy a car you get the same warranties but after the warranty is up you are on your own.
2. Since the manufacturer is picking up the tab on all repairs you will be able to bring your car into the dealership without having to spend a dollar. With most dealerships or car repair shops charging over $100 an hour just to take a look at your car this will save you a ton of money.
3. You are getting a new car every two or three years. This way you can change with the times and drive a number of different cars in a life time.
4. All cars and trucks are liabilities. They will depreciate. When you lease your car you will not have to worry how much it really is going to be worth at the end of your contract. Hopefully the car manufacturer charged you enough in your monthly payment where you would have paid down how much it was intended to depreciate.
5. Lease payments are always going to be less than car payments. Most car loans are 5 years now. Take a $30,000 car over 5 years and even with a 0% interest rate. If you bought the car you would pay $500 a month for that car. A lease payment would be around $350 saving you $150 a month. This way you can keep your money and invest it. If you really like the car at the end then you can buy the remaining balance out right.
6. It is usually easier to get approved on a lease than on a loan. The car manufacturers need to get somebody else paying down the balance on the loan and are willing to loosen their guidelines more than a bank because they need to make a sale. A bank sees you as a risk because they are giving you money to buy something that will be worth less the second you take it off the dealer lot. If you default on the loan, the bank is stuck with a vehicle that is worth less than what the balance of the loan is.
7. Most car leases are pretty straight forward and up front. Usually, every element of the deal, lease price, term, money factor, residual, vehicle make and model is already in place and cannot be changed. This way you know you are getting a good deal. You still can negotiate if you want to, but most cars like a Ford Focus or Ford Fusion are priced as is. Ford knows that they need to get a lot of them out the doors to make a profit so they already go down to that profit margin they need to be competitive. If you are thinking about leasing a truck or SUV then try negotiating. Most of those vehicles are priced higher and can come down.
8. Leasing takes the guess work of having to deal with a used car in the future. People think that getting a 3 to 6 year old car will benefit them in the long run because they will pay it off if they had to take a loan. All that happens now is they have a car payment and have to pay for car repairs. Most used car loans are 3 years. Take a $10k car loan at 0% and your payment is still $277 a month. This is hoping you don’t have any car repairs along the way. When getting a lease you could probably get the same new car for around the same monthly payment and not have to worry about $100 an hour labor charges.
9. New cars do not have to be maintained as much as old ones because you know you are going to be turning it in. This does not mean to not change the oil but little things like waxing it every month. The car is still new and you are not supposed to wax a car for the first 6 months of getting it anyways. The paint is still settling from the factory.
10. Piece of mind. How many times have you been driving around in your old beat up clunker and something broke. Your car repairs cost over $1k and it puts you in debt. Its a never ending cycle with cars. Sure, car companies are making better cars, but they are man made. They will break down no matter if it is a Mercedes, Lexus, or a Ford.
1. RSS stands for “Rich Site Summary” which is a format to deliver content that changes frequently on your website.
2. People looking for fresh content on the Internet will want to grab your RSS feed to have it automatically sent to their e-mail box so they do not have to go back and look for new info in the future.
3. When people subscribe to your RSS feed this builds your credibility as an expert in the field of whatever it is you are writing about. When your subscriber count starts going up your website will soon become a authority website on the Internet.
4. With a large subscriber list you are guaranteed to get a lot of visitors to your website. Lots of visitors guarantees a interactive website full of new information and content.
5. Search engines like Google and Yahoo love sites with large RSS feed subscribers. Google knows how many subscribers you have if you use their Feedburner service. When Google sees large numbers in there and new subscribers being added they are going to send you more search visitors to your site.
6. Your RSS feed could be picked up by a major website and used as new content or a bunch of smaller websites could use it. Small websites use your content as new content for their sites but now you have links coming back to your site. When Google, Yahoo, and MSN see links coming back to your site your site will get pushed up in the search engine rankings and more visitors will enter.
7. Your readers privacy will be kept in tact for the ones who do not want to sign up for a newsletter. Many websites make you enter a email address to get new info. With a RSS feed, your readers don’t have to submit their info unless they want to. All you need to know is that you have another subscriber who wants to know what your writing about.
8. Making money. Large companies will approach website owners who have a large number of subscribers because they know that you have a loyal and growing fan base. Major companies will offer to pay you to advertise on your website because they know you are going to have repeat traffic and if you support a product then they might do it to.
9. With your RSS feed your links embedded in the feed will help build your search engine rankings for a specific keyword or phrase you might be ranking for. Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other search engines follow your RSS feed link and use those keywords to rank you. Make sure you write your posts correctly with the write keywords and phrases.
10. By adding a little RSS button on your site you could effectively grow your sites visibility two fold without having to write more.
1. Nobody likes the IRS. If there is a person out there who actually likes sending in their tax returns every year they must be an alien. The only people who like doing this are people who work at the IRS because it keeps them employed.
2. It is unconstitutional. No where in the U.S Constitution does it make it legal for the U.S Government to tax its own citizens. However, one of our greatest Presidents of all time never has this brought up against him. Good old “Honest” Abe Lincoln was the ass clown who brought the IRS (then Bureau of Internal Revenue) into existence with the Revenue Act of 1862 to help fund the Civil War. Obviously he did not get the chance to stop this theft from its new citizens when John Wilkes Booth killed him. Government liked this new found revenue from all of its old now new states and continued with it.
3. The IRS always makes people bring up that stupid question of “everybody has to pay their fair share.” Who decides what is fair? You don’t. Do you even know what fair is? If somebody ever says that after you tell them the IRS is one of the biggest wastes of space, please slap them. Then tell them to give you all of their money and that you will give back what is only deemed fair by you. See if that changes their mind.
4. The IRS provides no “services” to the individual. Have you ever sent in your income tax returns, wrote your check and wondered what you spent money on this past year to have the U.S Government charge you anything. I cannot think of one thing the U.S Government has done with my tax return money for me…ever. Everything we use that has some sort of Government function attached to it is already funded by a different tax, ie. roads are paid by gas taxes. The worst part is that you do not even get a receipt. Imagine going to your local dry cleaners and paying for your laundry. You always get a receipt for services rendered. The IRS does not have to do this. This just “steal” from you without giving you a receipt. If you were a business owner and ran your operations like this do you think you would have any return customers? Probably not. Instead of doing your income taxes this year, call the IRS and ask for a receipt for what services you used from the US Government. When one is shown, then pay.
5. The IRS in 2008 had a operating budget of $11.1 BILLION dollars (up from $10.4 Billion in 2007) and you know its going to be more in 2009 and into the future. Again, what do “we the people” get from paying taxes? I still can’t think of anything. Imagine saving $11.1 Billion dollars in tax payer money every year on something that has no value. The U.S could start paying back some that $11 Trillion of national debt (as of Jan 2009) it owes or the $4.5 Billion the U.S pays JUST IN INTEREST ever year.
6. The IRS creates $200 billion dollars in none value spending ever year by American citizens. That money is spent by you and I to hire tax accountants whose job it is to make sure we have done our taxes right. Their whole livelihood revolves around the theft of money from the IRS and then telling you that its ok if the IRS steals because they need you to pay them so they can buy food for their family. Sure, if the IRS closed, all of the tax accountants at H&R Block and tax lawyers around the country would be out of a job the next day but being a auditor for a company would provide more value for the economy than doing taxes. The $200 billion figure is probably a light figure. It does not take into account what you need to do to get to the point of filing taxes. You might need to take time off of work to drive to your accountant. This is time away from making money and time spent burning fuel in your car.
7. The IRS hates trees. Its tax code book is over 67,000 pages. Can you image what a book would look like that has 67k pages!! This equates to about one tree just to make that book. That is just the book to describe how stupid our income tax system is. Who the hell would ever want to read it. I bet you that its been added onto with the same laws or codes so many times because nobody at the IRS wanted to check to see if some law was written on page 27,272. As of July 2008 the IRS collected 59 million paper tax forms for the 2007 income tax return season. Does it get you thinking how many forms have been printed over the last 100 years. The U.S population in 2009 is 305 million. So lets take 100 million adults a year x 100 years = OVERFLOW on my calculator. It does not want to calculate it because its knows how asinine this calculation is and does not want to know this number at all because it will start crying. Some 87 million filed taxes online in 2008. I know they are moving towards doing everything online but now the budget for their IT department is going to go up.
8. The IRS hates businesses a lot. With the recession of 2009 in full effect, the IRS is putting major corporations out of business. Here is one that hits home for me since I am in Detroit, MI. As we all know, Ford, GM, and Chrysler are hurting and it looks like one of them is going bankrupt. GM and Chrysler have asked for $7 Billion each from the second bailout plan to stay afloat. In 2007 General Motors paid $37 BILLION DOLLARS in income taxes. Here is a great idea. Why not give them back the $37 BILLION they ALREADY earned and let them stay in business. Do you think GM could develop a car that got 100 mpg with $37 Billion in research and development? I think so. Heck, they could probably build the Starship Enterprise to run off of shampoo with that kind of money. Instead the IRS wants to bankrupt GM by stealing from them and depress the whole Metro Detroit area so people lose jobs causing more homes in Michigan to go into foreclosure.
9. The employees at the IRS are given decent salaries with full benefits and a pension. Some IRS agents make over $100k a year. I know because when I use to work at Quicken Loans as a mortgage banker one IRS agent was a client of mine. He made $105k a year and had only been there for 2 years. Where in the private sector can you make $105k after being at a job for 2 years unless you are a Doctor? You can’t. IRS agents get guns. This means if you don’t pay your income taxes they can shut down your business or barge into your home demanding payment. If it was any other person off the street they would be called a thief, be arrested, and put in jail. Since the IRS agent has a badge it makes it ok though. This does happen. My same client told me about a story where he and some other ass clown agents had to shut down a car repair shop. It was the kind where dad and his sons were the mechanics, the cousins washed and detailed cars, and mom was the office manager. They could not afford to pay all of their taxes so the IRS put them out of business. Now all of them are out on the street with no income to buy food, pay rent, etc. Wouldn’t it be nice to throw the IRS out on the street.
10. Politicians use the IRS and income tax promises to get elected. Barack Obama was voted to President this year because he was not going to tax people who make below $250k a year. Of course he knew that less than 30% of the American population make above $250k. So why not vote for him. You are not going to be affected with your $50k salary. Even though 60% of the US income tax is paid by people who make over $250k. Its easier to tax those bastards who are doing something right. This is one way to get a lot of people to vote for you as some 65% did. Luckily for Barack Obama the word did not get out fast enough about Ron Paul. He was going to eliminate the IRS the day after getting elected and put 20% of your hard earned income back into your pocket regardless of how much you make. Read The Ron Paul Book. You Will Feel Smarter
1. With the Detroit Lions being the first ever winless team in NFL history they have actually set a record.
2. All Detroit Lions fans now can stop talking about when the Lions were going to go winless and now they can say it happened in 2008.
3. Ticket prices at Ford Field will not go up next year because not even the Ford’s have the balls to do that. Back in 2007 they did. “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, fool me three times….well you’re not going to fool me three times”…George W.Bush
4. Maybe if the Detroit Lions ever get back to the glory days of 8-8 we can all enjoy being in the race for a playoff spot instead of the #1 draft pick.
5. We know the Detroit Lions are going to draft a QB because they think a QB will solve their problems. The Detroit Lions must have never heard of the classic football saying of “Offense sells tickets and Defense wins championships.” (Read about Joey Harrington for proof)
6. The most entertaining thing anybody saw in section 108 row 2 saw this year was during the Tampa Bay game where some lady was hammered drunk and threw up on the field. This was when the Lions were up 17-0. After security removed her, the Lions were down 21-17. This all took place within a matter of 8 minutes.
7. To lure (trick) ex-Detroit Lions fans back to Ford Field maybe they will have “bring your mug games” to the field and charge $20 for as much beer as you can drink instead of the $7.50 beers that are there now. Ridiculous.
8. Ford Field will end up being the best foreclosed piece of property in Detroit. Equipped with luxury suites, 47 kitchens, 84 bathrooms, a guest house (visitors locker room), and two jumbo screen TV’s. What a deal!
9. Hopefully William Clay Ford Sr will realize that he knows nothing about football and open up his checkbook and hire somebody who knows a thing or two about football. (See Bill Parcells)
10. With an 0-16 record my dad has no choice this year but to not renew his season tickets. I know his argument is that he has had seniority for 30 years or so but who cares. Your seniority is for a product that sucks. When you own season tickets and only go to half of the games (and can attend the half you don’t go to) its time to punt. Anybody looking for two seats in section 108 row 2 on the aisle? They are right behind where Jason Hanson and Nick Harris warm up. If so, contact me.
1. You are President Bush and have all of the power in the world to do whatever you want. When asked about the war in Iraq you admit that Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations were not there in the first place. When you get called out by the news reporter about this gigantic mistake all you can say is “so what.”
2. Your Vice President Dick Cheney and when told that over 66% of the American population says the War In Iraq is not worth fighting you reply with “so.”
3. You are so blown away by #2 that you decide to make a top ten responses video on why VP Dick Cheney should care “so” much about the United States.
4. You are named after your favorite color (Pink) and don’t care about all of the things you have lost because “so what” your still a rock star and your having more fun.
5. Your an expert at Rock Band and your favorite band is Weezer. Say it ain’t “so” man, a 100%. Nice work.
6. Your some of the best jazz musicians (Miles Davis and John Coltrane) of all time and even though you don’t say a word through the whole song you have to call it something. “So what” should I call this song?
7. You ask out the girl of your dreams and you shoots you down but leaves a small window of opportunity for you. All you can say is “So” you’re saying theres a chance.
8. Your family has sold out to corporate sponsors. “So what,” your getting paid.
9. Barack Obama has promised to pay your mortgage and all of your bills. “So” why would I not vote for him?
10. After looking at reasons 1, 2, and 9 its no wonder why our country is “so” screwed up right now.
1. Over the past year there has been a big push from the U.S Government and organizations like Hope Now to slow down the amount of foreclosures going on. The goal is to help people stay in their homes and continue making payments to mortgage companies so they don’t go completely broke which most of them are doing.
2. The Detroit News ran an article today talking about how over 50% of the people who had their loans modified this year are again 30 days late on their mortgage payment. John Dugan, head of the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (Really, is such a long title necessary? Sounds like a made up position) said “The results, I confess, were somewhat surprising, and I say that not in a good way.” Why were you surprised John?
3. It does not surprise me at all. When I worked at Quicken Loans I saw a ton of people who should never of been approved on a loan to begin with. It was all of those sub-prime loans they had in the first place which I could not even work with. Many were behind on their payments already or owed over 100% of the value of the home. This was when the market started going down or as I like to say back to what it should have been.
4. The people whose loans are being modified are probably the people who should have NEVER BEEN APPROVED ON A LOAN IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!
5. The banks are trying to keep the people in those homes paying some sort of payment. Its better to accept half of what the mortgage payment use to be then to foreclose on the home and let it sit vacant for a year because homes are just not selling. It costs the mortgage company more to maintain a foreclosed home then it does to keep the people in there.
6. One of the problems with the way mortgages are done is the mortgage companies only look at what they see on your credit report. I can remember just barely approving people on 30 year mortgages and their debt to income ratio (DTI) was at 57%. That’s right 57% of their income was going to what I saw on the credit report. This was usually the mortgage, car payment, and maybe a credit card. This does not account for car insurance, food, cell phone bills, gym memberships, or any other monthly obligations. You know that if mortgages were to take those into consideration nobody would get approved on any mortgage. You know what, maybe they shouldn’t be.
7. These same people are not changing any of those things they do on a monthly basis because they do not have to. If we really wanted to protect the housing industry the banking community should come together and make people send in receipts of all of their purchases every month to determine what their true DTI is. Unfortunately it will probably be at 90% every month. Before the refi boom happened you had to have a DTI under 38% to get approved.
8. Let’s say that these people are doing their best to make the payments but its all of those what ifs that are happening. Lay offs, less hours at work, car repairs, or maybe the cost of operating the house went up. Electricity rates are going up by 10% in Michigan alone this year. Maybe you live in the city of Detroit and the Water and Sewage Departments plan to raise water rates by 10% and sewer rates by 17% . I can’t believe they are doing that. Their reasoning is because demand went down because of a wet summer. I’m no economist but don’t prices go down when demand goes down. Probably not since its a government thing. They need to protect their jobs so its easy to raise peoples rates instead of being happy that their fellow neighbors didn’t pay as much this past year. With all of these increases in things needed to keep the house livable its no wonder why people are still defaulting on their modified mortgages. Don’t even get me started on the cost of food. The only thing we can be happy about is the sharp decrease in the cost of gas.
9. With all of these outside factors that a mortgage company does not take into consideration when approving somebody on a loan we can probably bet on seeing another article in 6 months about how 75% of modified mortgages are now 3 months late. I think its admirable what the banks are doing but its going to be a lose/lose situation. People need to understand that owning a home is the biggest liability you could ever take on. A home is not an asset until it is paid off. The people who are having their loans modified probably do not deserve to be a home owner. Sometimes its better to rent and know if something goes wrong (leaky roof, furnace, etc.) you can call the landlord and they have to fix it, not you.
10. You know there is no way that the bank is going to forgive a large portion of the debts because it hurts their bottom line. Not even a 4.5% interest rate on the same balance of loan is going to make enough difference to help them out. Expect to see more of the same troubling news in the housing market even with this so called help.
1. In a article written at CNN today it talked about how the treasury is throwing around the idea of lowering 30 year mortgage rates down to 4.5%. If the Treasury Department steps in and does this it does nothing to fix the down turn in the housing market. The amount of homes on the market are not going to decrease.
2. The old saying of “Good Ain’t Cheap And Cheap Ain’t Good” could describe what will happen if this goes through. Remember last time interest rates were lowered. Wasn’t it in 2002 after 9/11? Didn’t Alan Greenspan and the rest of the ass clowns at the Federal Reserve lower rates on things like home equity lines of credit to historical lows to spur the economy. It worked, right? Well it did for about 5 years and look at where we are at now. Is going back to low mortgage rates the answer? No!!
3. I understand their thinking. They think that if their were lower rates it will get people off of the fence who are ready to buy but are waiting for rates to come down. Some people may have been declined on a loan because their debt to income ratio was too high. By lowering the 30 year mortgage rate to 4.5% this will be all the motivation one needs to write up a purchase agreement and get moving. Umm, no. The amount of homes sitting vacant is going to grow because of all the layoffs going in the economy. Foreclosures are still popping up and probably will continue to do so. So who is going to buy all these homes again?
4. The reason people are not buying homes has nothing to do with interest rates. People are not buying homes because real estate values have been dropping by double digit figures every 6 months since late 2007. So what sounds better to the person sitting on the fence. Save 1% on your mortgage rate or 10% off the price of the house? Both do of course but what’s better? Is that a trick question?
5. As an example. Let’s say a couple is planning on buying a $175,000 home. They plan on putting 20% down payment for a loan of $140k. Let’s assume that 30 year interest rates as of 12/5/2008 are at 5.5%. This would give them a payment of $794 principal and interest a month. If they could get the 4.5% interest rate their payment would be $709 a month. That’s $85 less a month in interest. Not that much. To somebody looking at buying that much of a house is not going to slow down their decision. It might (and I mean might) sway them but that’s like not going out to the bar one night a month. If they want that house they are going to buy it regardless of the rate. Let’s take that same couple who is waiting until home prices start averaging home value drops of 2%. Its smart to wait until that time period because nobody offers full price in a down market. You always offer 10% less than what they are asking. For the examples sake let’s say they wait another 6 months and the value of the home drops another 10% like what’s happening here in Michigan. The same home of $175k is now worth $157,500. Putting the 20% down the loan is now $126k. Let’s say 30 year mortgage rates are at 5.5% in 6 months. Their monthly payment would be $715. Only $6 more a month in interest. Some may argue that it makes sense to get off the fence and buy with those numbers. What you don’t think about is where the money’s coming from. Its coming from the Government who just decided to print up a bunch of money and flood the markets again with cheap coin. This causes inflation and a decline in the value of our dollar. Both are a lose/lose scenario. You might say that on paper it makes sense but you will be paying for it in the long run in your taxes and your purchasing power.
6. The problem is not the interest rates, its getting people approved on the loans. Mortgage rates are near historical lows. Mortgage lenders have had to tighten lending restrictions to people without a good credit history or enough income to make their mortgage payment. Nobody deserves to be a home owner. You have to earn it.
7. More mortgage companies will go bankrupt. Sure, in the short run it will be like the good old days of the refi boom where people were calling left and right and begging to do a loan. Most of the housing boom was called the “refi boom” for a reason. People were refinancing because rates were low, not buying. All of the people who have stuck it out at mortgage companies will get rewarded with this quick burst of refi applications, or will they? I can remember before I was shown the door at Quicken Loans that over 90% of my clients had a loan to value over 85% and a 30 year interest rate around 6%. From what I hear from my friends that still work at mortgage companies they don’t allow cash out refinances over 90% LTV anymore. I assume that most of my past clients are around 95% LTV which disqualifies them before you can even get into the mortgage application. Too bad for them.
8. What about the people who can get approved? Now they have a 4.5% interest rate. Do you think they will ever refinance again? They better not. If they do, then their dumb. So now the mortgage company has lost a past client it could do a loan for. So much of the business mortgage companies do is refinances, not purchases. It was just like when I did a second mortgage for one of my favorite clients in Washington. We did 4 loans for her in a matter of a year and a half. She kept taking money out of the equity in her home and then on the last one I told her that we would probably never be able to do a loan for her again because she was (over a year ago) at 100% LTV. She’s probably at 110% LTV now. On to the next client.
9. So with everybody jumping in to get lower interest rates now the margins the banks make on the loan is going to be less. I wonder if it will be enough to cover their losses from the past or be able to hit their estimates on Wall Street.
10. The biggest reason why it won’t help is because the Government is running the show. They want to show all of us that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac still work. The market clearly shows they make it worse. Its not that I don’t want the economy to get back on track but every time I hear the Directors at the Federal Reserve talk I wonder how such intelligent people could ever think of such idiotic ideas. They should let the market take its own course, lock the doors at the Fed and get out of the way.
1. Over the past couple of years text messaging has become the new “in thing” for communication. I have not fallen into this trap…yet. Sure its only another $5 on my cell phone plan with T-Mobile but I already pay $50 a month to be able to communicate with people. Why would I want to pay more to be able to accomplish the same goal of sending communication.
2. How many times have you seen people who get in a text-a-thon with their friend and that same conversation ends up lasting 15 minutes waiting for them to respond when a quick 3 minute or less phone call would suffice.
3. What about when the message you are trying to send to your friend gets misinterpreted. The problem with this form of communication is that it is meant to be a short message but sometimes it can come off as being…short. We all hate it when somebody is short with us because it shows they do not want to listen or do not care. Its so easy to jump to conclusion on what somebody is trying to get at but it probably is not what the intended message is all about. This results in a phone call having to be made to clarify what the intentions of the last remark were. This adds on more time to a communication period which could have been easily reduced be half through a quick phone call.
4. Without being able to hear somebody’s voice you really can’t get a feel for what they are trying to say. Without hearing the tone of the persons voice its hard to tell if they are joking, being friendly, or being mean. Of course you can assume what they are trying to do and you are probably right some 83% of the time but what if your not. Here is a good example. Text “Hey Asshole” to any of your friends while keeping a straight face, a mad face, or a happy face. See if they can determine how you are trying to express yourself to them.
5. Everyone assumes that you have a texting plan. I don’t because I prefer to call. At first it started with my ex-boss at Quicken Loans. He texted me all the time and it cost me $.10 to receive or send a text. I informed him I did not have the plan but he kept doing it. So I told him for every text he sent me I would charge him $.25. To collect I would go by his desk and take from his loose change jar at least a dollar worth of change ahead of time and inform him he has a credit with me now. I informed him about the transaction and he was fine with it. Of course they implemented a policy where every person who was a Senior Mortgage Banker had to have a BlackBerry so this put the kabosh on texting because now we were receiving emails. This did not make me happy because now my phone bill went up $15 for that service.
6. The art of the conversation is going to be lost. Even I have noticed a slight decrease in how I can articulate with friends and family members because I am on the computer so much. There are some people who are quite better are texting than I ever hope to be and getting paid for it.
7. I like the idea of a short conversation but how many times have you texted somebody and what the conversation was about ended in a one to one exchange of text messages. Probably never. There always has to be at least 5-8 text messages relayed to end the conversation. Is this being effective or abusing what the text message is intended for?
8. Its rude…in a way. Its better than somebody picking up their phone when your out at dinner or in a public place. However, now since you must wait to receive a text back to inform the rest of the company you are with what the other person is doing it puts a hault to whatever the party was talking about. You can’t just move on because now you are distracted waiting for a return text message.
9. Even if you have your phone on vibrate it will be going off twice as much now as if you would have just called once. Remember that every conversation takes more than 5 texts to complete so your dumb phone is going to be vibrating all over the place up to a minimum of 5 more times distracting those around you.
10. Text messaging can bring down empires because now there is actual documentation of a message. Don’t think its a big deal. Ask the former Mayor of Detroit Kwame Kilpatrick.
1. Last week I was driving to Detroit Metro Airport for some out of town business. Driving on I-94 I noticed a bunch of police cars. It was a little strange to me because it was around 11:30am. I am use to the early morning speed traps and the after noon ones but not at 11:30am. It was a little much. Four Michigan State Troopers were parked about 1/4 of a mile away from each other. Of course one was sitting behind a guard rail far enough back where you could not see him until you past him. The next one was the chase car. He was pulling people over that the first police car had radared. The classic hide and go seek tactic.
2. Getting back from my trip the other day my girlfriend picked me up at the airport around 7:30pm. Driving back on I-94 the same thing was going on. We drove through two speed traps in a matter of 5 miles. Why the hell are all of these speed traps going on?
3. Today I received my answer. The Detroit News had a big article about all of the speed traps going on in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb Counties. It seems that Michigan has been voted as the worst state for speed traps by the National Motorists Association. Really, out of all 50 states Michigan came in at #1? I guess I can believe that because Michigan is the “Motor Capital Of The World.” Even today I noticed a small speed trap near Hayes and 17 Mile Road. One Clinton Township Police Officer was in a parking lot and another one was 1/8 mile up ahead with somebody pulled over.
4. Reading more into the article it states how the Police Departments have been writing more speeding tickets than in previous years. The reason behind it is to make up for loss revenues from property taxes with all of the foreclosed homes. Michigan is losing their butts out on both of those because of the economic crisis. The way I see this is that the local governments are working a little harder to keep their jobs now because they can’t just send you a increased property tax bill. So they tax you on your driving habits more than your car insurance company does.
5. Isn’t this ridiculous? Instead of actually solving real crimes we now have our cops out there looking to bust you for going 5 over. Maybe instead of having to make up for loss revenue the cities and counties need to revamp the way they collect taxes. It sucks how so many of the problems in the U.S all comes back to taxes.
6. I am not a fan of speed limits to begin with. Well at least on highways. In the city limits I understand there is some need for order but on the highway it should be up the user to decide how fast or slow they want to go. An accident at 70 mph or one at 100 mph is going to have the same result. If you can’t handle your car at 70 mph than you probably should not be worrying about other people driving at 100mph. You should get off the road and let somebody else drive.
7. Now, you are going to have to think twice about going to pass somebody on a local road or highway. Speeding up to pass somebody might result in you drving right into a speed trap. This comes with a guaranteed speeding ticket and a increase in your car insurance.
8. Utica Police Chief Michael Reaves said when he first started working as a cop 30 years ago it was not about increasing revenues. Now if his department does not produce any revenues they probably are not going to stay open. Isn’t that a bitch! I didn’t know that the Police were “in business.” I understand without revenue you can’t hire more police officers to protect the streets. Being a police officer is a risky job sometimes and it takes a unique individual to want to be one. I just wish they were not out there trying to write tickets just to keep their jobs because that’s what they are really doing.
9. Over my last 12 years of driving I usually drive the posted speed limit for the sole purpose of not having to pay a ticket. My friends hate when I drive because I go “so slow.” I always put the cruise control on at whatever the posted speed limit is just to make sure. Driving 5 mph faster is usually not going to make a difference in getting where I need to go. To combat faster driving I try to leave on time to make appointments. Its really that simple.
10. I know that by writing this its probably a bad omen. Even when I noticed the speed trap today I was doing 5 mph over because I was trying to pass somebody. From now on I think I am going to let people go by me and move behind them. I do not like supporting the local governments in this way. Especially knowing all of the troubles people in Michigan are dealing with. Maybe we do not need as many cops out there. If all they are doing is pulling people and not solving crimes then what good are they doing? Is speeding a crime? If so, then why does the Government allow car companies to produce cars that go faster than 70 mph? I’m baffled. Oh wait. Its because the Government needs me to go faster so they can get money to keep their jobs.
8. If you do not pay the first bill, Sirius writes off the debt and sends it to a collection company. Of course you will be confused as I was to hear a call from a collection agency as I keep excellent record of my finances. I was informed that I owed $31 to Sirius for not paying my last two bills which I should not have had in the first place as the service was shut off and the car was turned in.
. You Will Feel Smarter
