Manny Kagan

How To Build and Develop Muscles

How To Build and Develop Muscles

“A photographer slices space and time, then bundles them together with light to produce an image for others to appreciate.”

We recently returned from a trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Luckily we were able to use our timeshare exchange, which was about to expire, and my wife Elfa managed to trade it for a week in one of our favorite cities. We’ve been there many times in different seasons and were happy to return for a visit. Our excuse was The Santa Fe Photographic workshop. I began the ritual of taking a week-long seminar with great photographer teachers here in 2011. We’ve come here each year since then, with the exception of 2013, when we took our first trip to Cuba—sponsored by this organization. The result of that workshop was my first photo-book Soy Cubano (which you can buy on Amazon too).

This time, I wanted to take a class with Sam Abell, a world-renowned photographer, who worked for National Geographic for 31 years and taught in Santa Fe for 26 years. The problem was that the enrollment was full. I was the 8^th person on the waiting list. What were the chances for me to get in? But where there is a wish, there is a way. Three days before our departure, I received a call—I was in!

My education as a photographer came primarily from years of experience, classes I took at the City College of San Francisco, and seminars with various photographers. I photograph as well as look at books with the works of other great photographers, daily. You see some of my results once a week in the “My Encounters: Photos & Stories by Manny Kagan” newsletter. Photography requires various skills. One of them is the ability to see. Most of us know how to look—seeing is a different skill. This might be the talent similar to those possessed by painters, musicians, and athletes. And like with all of the mentioned fields, one’s talent can manifest only through constant practice with the help of good teachers.

As adage points out, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” Sam Abell was such a teacher in my current state. His course was appropriately titled “What is Next?” For me, photography is a hobby after I spend 10 hours a day helping clients get a mortgage. But it is a necessary self-expression. I see my photography (as well as my mortgage occupation), as a way to share what I possess—a way to help others to feel better and find joy. Sam Abell’s photography is very poetic; his images contain subtle messages. Some of them are among the best in National Geographic history.

One of the teachings he passed on from his father was “compose and wait”. I often practice this rule in my mortgage work as well. The trick is—how to compose? How to make mini adjustments, which will convert a snapshot into the image that will evoke positive emotions for the viewer (or the recipient of the mortgage)?

This requires mastership, which comes through constant practice.

P.S.

The four images are from 20 that I’ve shown to the group during the workshop (out of 2500 that I photographed). Enjoy and share it with a friend.

Do Not Keep Me As A Secret!
Smile And Please SHARE It With A Friend!

Cheers,

An elderly couple, (he is 84 and she is 73 years old), were referred to me by a Real Estate Agent. After renting a home for 17 years, they were told that on August 1st, they would have to move out from their first and only home since immigrating to America. Their combined income from Social Security and pensions were about $20,000/year.

Could Pacific Bay Financial help them? This was like a test since I am supposed to find a solution for every mortgage program.

Suddenly, I remembered that Reverse Mortgage could be used not only for refinancing, but for purchases as well. After calculating their eligibility, the computer program gave me a loan amount. Their real estate agent found them a very nice single family home in Pittsburg, CA, for which they will only have to pay property tax and hazard insurance, or about $4,500/year. The house will stay in their possession until the last person has passed away or moved out. Afterwards, the property will have to be sold or refinanced to pay off the loan plus accrued interest.

Please be advised:
All clients’ documents should be ready and prepared to submit to Lender ASAP! Any interest rate information published in this message is subject to change without notice and does not constitute a commitment to make any loan at any specific rate. Please contact Pacific Bay Financial for more information.

Whom Do You Know That Might Benefit From Our Tailored Mortgage Solutions?

Please be advised:

All clients’ documents should be ready and prepared to submit to Lender ASAP!

I have a lender that specializes in Foreign Nationals. A Foreign National is a borrower who lives/works abroad and has no VISA or SSN. While these transactions can be complex, Pacific Bay Financial’s experienced underwriting and production teams will assist you, with tailored mortgage solutions, through the process of acquiring the appropriate documentation.

Whom Do You Know That Might Benefit From Our Tailored Mortgage Solutions?

Do You Have Time?

“The question is not whether we have time. The question is how we make the most use of it.”

On several occasions, strangers have stopped me in the street and asked me, “Do you have the time?” What those people wanted to know was what my watch was showing on its’ face in that moment. I received my first watch from my father on my Bar Mitzvah, when I turned 13. A Bar or Bat Mitzvah is a Jewish tradition that recognizes a boy or a girl for coming of age and becoming responsible for his or her actions.

Things have changed dramatically in the last 55 years. One of the changes is that no one asks me for the time anymore, since most people can check the time on their smart phones. A few years ago, I stopped wearing a wristwatch or what it became to be known as a “timepiece”. But the wristwatch is still a coveted item. Online I discovered that there are at least 8 timepieces that were sold for over $1 Million. Mind you, they just serve one purpose—to accurately show time.

Then there is the new “hot” item on the market, the Apple Watch, whose price can go from $349 to $17,000. It can have multiple functions, but can we live without it?

Watches evolved in the 17^th century from spring-powered clocks, which appeared as early as the 14^th century. So perhaps before that, humans did not have a concept of time the way that we have today, divided into hours, minutes, and seconds. The Torah declares that there are seven days of creation. We began to measure the month cycle by observing the moon. It required two witnesses to announce the appearance of the new moon to begin a new month.

But when did we originally begin to measure time? When I googled “who created the concept of time”, I found many articles, but not an answer. I found one article in the Scientific American, which posed the question, “What if time was an illusion?”

An answer came from the latest book written by Mitch Albom, the author of the #1 New York Times Best Seller “Tuesdays with Morrie”. I have enjoyed reading all of his books. His latest book is called “The Time Keeper”. It is a story about the man who became known as Father Time, and is punished for trying to measure God’s greatest gift. After years of living in seclusion in a cave, he is given the opportunity to redeem himself by teaching two earthly people: a female teenager who is trying not to be late to an appointment with her boyfriend, and a wealthy man in his mid-eighties who has cancer. When a doctor tells the man “There’s not much we can do”, he asks “How much time do I have left?”

Father Time’s teachings were the true measurement of time. We all have time, but do we use it wisely?

In his first book “Tuesdays with Morrie”, Mitch Albom visits his teacher, Morrie Schwartz, who is dying. When Morrie was asked what he would do if granted one day of good health, he answered that he would go dancing with his wife.

P.S.

I am reading “The Time Keeper” and writing this story on vacation while watching the ocean in a resort on the Northeast coast of Oregon. When I thought about the images to show the change of time to accompany this story, the answer came immediately—five times that light changed over the ocean. Please read the book, enjoy, and share it with a friend.

Do Not Keep Me As A Secret!
Smile And Please SHARE It With A Friend!

Cheers,

Please be advised:
All clients’ documents should be ready and prepared to submit to Lender ASAP!

I received a call from a Real Estate Agent. Her client had applied for a loan with a bank, who had asked for very unusual conditions which would be very near impossible to provide. As a result, the deal was falling a part. I checked with one of our lenders and found out that I could close this loan in only 14 days! She finalized the contract extension and I got the loan!

Whom Do You Know That Might Benefit From Our Tailored Mortgage Solutions?

Cheers,

How To Save $150 Billion A Year

“Losing weight is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.”

We recently returned from a short vacation to Oregon. On our trip, I gave myself permission to have ice cream everyday! I was always thin until a few years ago when I noticed that my pants were getting tighter. There could be only two reasons for that—either my pants shrank (which would be a miracle since apparently all of them did it at the same time), or I got richer.

According to an article that appeared in the S.F. Chronicle titled, “Nearly a third of world’s population now overweight”, the study showed that “there was a strong link between income and obesity; as people get richer; their waistlines also tend to start bulging”. In another article, the SF Chronicle reported that “Obesity costs U.S. health system $150 billion a year”. To paraphrase Mark Twain (he was writing about smoking): “to lose weight is easy, I’ve done it thousands of times”.

The basic rule to losing weight or changing any habit is to visual ourselves the way we wish to be. And this is tough. Why should we change something that gives us pleasure, like eating cake, drinking sugary drinks, or any other activity that supposedly are not good for us?

For my pants, I found a very simple solution—a tailor. It costs me less than any meal in a restaurant ($10) to make them an inch wider. Some people choose different programs which help control their waistlines. One of them is called iWellness Plan. If you want to check them out, please call Jennivine Lee.

I know quite a few people who went through this program. Those who had discipline and continue to visualize themselves as a slim person stayed slim, while others reverted to their old eating and drinking habits (or just liked their old clothes so much) that soon after losing weight, they gained it back and started wearing their old pants and dresses again.

P.S.

No matter where I’ve traveled, it was always easy to spot someone who carries a lot of weight. The images you see came from The Sea Ranch, France, Cuba, and of course—San Francisco. Enjoy!

Do Not Keep Me As A Secret!
Smile And Please SHARE It With A Friend!

Cheers,

Whom Do You Know That Might Benefit From Our Tailored Mortgage Solutions?

Do You Know Which Car To Buy?

“Regardless of how fast you are driving, the distance to your destination does not change.”

I was helping clients fill out a loan application. Being very proud of their accomplishments, they told me that their car payments were exactly the same as six years ago, which was the last time they refinanced their home. It seemed a bit strange to me, since they had a brand new Lexus SUV. Apparently instead of buying a new car, they leased one for three years and then returned the car to the dealership to get a new one—on the condition that their payments would stay the same at $609/month. No shopping around, no hassle; they were in and out in one hour. I also have a Lexus SUV, but mine is 10 years old with over 100,000 miles and I have no monthly payments. Of course, over the long run, I have spent money on various repairs, and it is difficult to say which method is more advantageous. But monthly payments not only drain our cash flow, they can significantly affection our ability to qualify for a mortgage.

Recently, a client who was getting a purchase jumbo mortgage, had to pay off his two car loans to enable him to qualify. Often, paying off one’s debt has to be done before a loan is submitted to the lender for bank underwriting.

But what if the available cash is only enough for the down payment and closing costs?

Then borrowers need to get money from friends or relatives, and apply for a new car loan to repay their debts, after the mortgage loan is closed. To improve their cash flow, some clients use refinancing to pay off their car loans.

But what if you are planning to buy a new (or used) car?

The first step is to do the research and then shop around. When my wife recently decided to change her Mini Cooper to another car (after the dealer told her that she needed to spend a significant amount cleaning the carbon build up in the engine), we called my friend Dave Sutch—an excellent car broker with whom I consult with before I buy any car. Not only did he give us good advice, which resulted in Elfa getting (and loving) an electrical Smart car, but he also arranged for the selling of her previous Mini. The fee we had to pay him was worth every penny. You can also use the online services, Calypso, which help with the buying and selling of used cars.

While we see more and more electrical cars on the streets, and not only Teslas, many car manufacturers are designing gas-powered cars. The article, which appeared in the Wall Street Journal titled “Tomorrow’s Car May Run on Gas”, claims that the “US government standards require cars to average 54.5 miles a gallon by 2025, up from 25.1 mpg last year”. Well, this is only 10 years away.

Just in case you missed it, Apple is going into the electrical cars business as well.

P.S.

If you do not care about saving gas, and having some extra money, and want to indulge yourself (and impress others), perhaps a gold and pink Rolls Royce can fulfill your desire. Or maybe you would like a white Maybach, the top of the line car from Mercedes, with a starting price of about $190,000. How about the black Aston Martin car favored by James Bond, whose price can go over $200,000? Of course, if you care about the environment (and your budget), but still want to impress your friends, then perhaps a red Tesla is your choice (which I photographed next to my “horse”—a 10 year old Lexus). Enjoy!

Do Not Keep Me As A Secret!
Smile And Please SHARE It With A Friend!

Cheers,

Another Satisfied Customer!

Make sure to contact us today for all your mortgage needs!

Please be advised:

Appraisal and preliminary title report required on both properties

A client was buying a new home. His previous one was sold, but escrow did not close yet. He needed the proceeds from the sale for the down payment on a new property. Suddenly, he found out that the buyers could not get a purchase loan. He was about to lose this new purchase and possibly his deposit, however we were able to find a tailored solution!

Whom Do You Know That Might Benefit From Our Tailored Mortgage Solutions?

Cheers,

Author: Manny Kagan

How To Build and Develop Muscles

Mortgage Solutions For You!

Mortgage Solutions For You!

Do You Have Time?

Mortgage Solutions For You!

How To Save $150 Billion A Year

Mortgage Solutions For You!

Do You Know Which Car To Buy?

Another Satisfied Customer!

Mortgage Solutions For You!