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Watch Out for Chief Denny’s Flip Sacramento
I’ll be the first to admit that I have never met Chief Denney, and I do not watch his little cable show on A&E about Flipping San Diego, nor have I perused his free propaganda, but I don’t need to in order to know what kind of person he is because it’s like my dead ex-husband Al Brown was resurrected and come to life right here in the Sacramento Bee. I can easily spot the Get Rich Quick schemes perpetrated by hucksters and snake oil salesman because I used to know so many of them from Orange County in the ’80s and, I hate to admit, was married to a couple of them in my younger and naive days, although not at the same time.
I see the warning signs. I read between the lines. And I scoff at the smiling faces full of charm and feigned sincerity, knowing full well that the public will buy that dog-and-pony show regardless of what I say about it. Still, I can’t keep my mouth shut when I see this baloney, and now it’s plastered in a full-page Sacramento Bee ad. Lord help us all.
Apart from the fact the poor schmuck can’t afford a proofreader so he didn’t catch the fact that they spelled his name wrong, he makes a clear statement that all of those properties he is showing in his FLIP SACRAMENTO ad are actual sales bought by members of his real estate team. They are not. Then, down at the bottom of the ad, he rebukes that claim by stating those properties are simply for demonstration purposes — meaning he had to insert a photo of some kind of property in those empty slots so the ones he chose are not indicative of anything. In fact, they are amounts due for back taxes and those homes do not sell at those prices.
That’s seems like blatant misrepresentation, but what do I know?
What can the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau nail him on when his ad is all about giving away free books and CDs that will change your life? It will change your life all right when he sucks you dry for all of the other investment ideas he has up his sleeve and products he will sell once you’re on the mailing list.
A smart person would run like hell. But there are a lot of suckers in the world. I hate to bear witness to this crap, and I can hear my phone ringing now with morons muttering about making big profits by buying properties at tax sales, oh, please. I suppose a person who sends away for a free Fix and Flip for Quick Cash Kit deserves what they get, but I can’t help but want to protect them from their own ignorance.
How the New Mortgage Rules Affect Sacramento Home Buyers
At first blush, it was reasonable to figure that the QM (Qualified Mortgage) and ATR (Ability to Repay) new mortgage rules put into place on January 10th by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau probably would not affect very many borrowers. That’s because lenders had already tightened their guidelines. But some of the new rules are difficult for some borrowers to meet, such as the 43% back-end debt ratio.
For those of you not in the real estate business, a back-end debt ratio is calculated by taking all of your revolving monthly debt, including your mortgage payment, taxes and insurance, and dividing that number by your gross monthly income. For example, if you earn $5,000 a month and all your debt payments plus mortgage obligation adds up to $2,200 per month, you most likely will not qualify to buy a home under the new mortgage rules because your back-end ratio is 44%.
I am a REALTOR in Sacramento, not a mortgage broker, so I won’t go into all the sticky details about how a borrower is qualified for a mortgage because that’s the job of people like Dan Tharp at Guild Mortgage. You can reach Dan at 916 257 1470. He’s a very patient person who will spend all the time it takes to explain mortgage options to you and help a borrower to pick the best loan. He also obtains great rates from major lenders (probably better than you can get directly), so if there’s a bank you particularly want to get a loan through, he’s your guy.
I can tell you that mortgage lenders are definitely more thorough lately. Just the other day, we had a lender run a nationwide check on a borrower. This was not my borrower but the seller is my client. Also, this would not have happened in the old days. This lender looked for lawsuits or any other kind of derogatory item filed against the borrower and sure enough, it found a lawsuit filed in Missouri.
The Social Security numbers matched, even though the borrower denied that he was one and the same person. After a bit, he finally backed down and admitted that the lawsuit was his. And you know what? He did not get the loan.
