The first two months of the year are always the most sluggish part of the year, just picture all those bleary-eyed, hung-over, pudgy characters struggling back into their office cubicle. Yes, Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then New Years, followed by Chinese New Year, and now you want us to work? Added to this year is the … Read more

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! FEBRUARY 8, 2016 – YEAR OF THE MONKEY Interested in some background on this Year of the Monkey? Go to this site, one of many that you can Google up. By the way, the Year of the Monkey is apparently NOT a good year for the Monkey. FIRPTA CHANGES ARE GOING … Read more

Happy 2016! Let me wish everyone who is reading this a happy, prosperous and healthy new year. This is the year of our national elections and we expect to see lots of excitement politically. This is the year of the Olympics, so we also expect to see excitement in the global sports world. Hopefully, these … Read more

Happy Holidays! Given that the Christmas and New Year’s holidays are rushing towards us like a freight train without controls, I am going to report on just a few interesting year end things that could have definite repercussions come 2016, and then I will be done! For 2015! This will be a short and sweet … Read more

The new TILA Respa Integrated Disclosure (“TRID”) regulations set forth by the CFPB has spawned many plays on the acronym. You know, of course, that TRID spelt backwards is “DIRT” and that is possibly the most common one bantered around. The CFPB, of course, is not amused. They call it the “Know Before You Owe” … Read more

IT IS OCTOBER 9TH…. ARE WE ALIVE? This then is the Million Dollar question: How did October 3rd go? Well, first of all, it was Saturday, so we didn’t have to come in to work, so we lived through that. Kidding aside, I have to admit that October 5 was a regular busy, crazy Monday, … Read more

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE CFPB ! Because it seems that for the last eight months I live, eat, and dream them. Did you know that your major and minor finances, your kids’ education, your car, your life, in fact, it could be that your whole world is being governed by this independently regulated government system? … Read more

U.S. Debt Clock – Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock: http://www.usdebtclock.org/  WHERE SHOULD I BUY MY FIRST HOME? For those of us who have Millennials making the transition to the “real world”, this could be a good question, particularly when living is tied to working (imagine that). So here is a list of rankings of cities versus … Read more

The TRID has been postponed, not just once, but twice! New proposed effective date is October 3, 2015. Oh boy, I go on vacation for 2 weeks and boom! Things started happening fast and furious. There was no June newsletter from me, but I have extra stories in this July monthly letter as so many … Read more

Oh, the Hazards of Running an Escrow Desk! The latest in e-mail and wire fraud and a big thank you to a fellow escrow company owner and President of the Long Beach Escrow Association – PJ Garcia – for sharing and alerting us: In California the Lender funds the Buyer/Borrower’s loan funds to the Title … Read more