HOW TO FEEL GOOD

– How are you?
– Always Good! – This is almost always my answer to the question. It has become my trademark. Somebody once suggested that saying “good” all the time might be limiting, so I added something to my response: “I’m always good, and tomorrow I’m going to be even better!”

What does it mean? It means that I try to live according to my outlook on life: whatever happens, I look for the good in it. This is how I choose to live. Of course, not everyone can adopt this philosophy. We all have different circumstances, different challenges, and different views of life. We are surrounded by distractions, and sometimes it is difficult to avoid being affected by what happens around us. But over the years, I have learned an important lesson. Recently, my six-year-old granddaughter reminded me of it in a way I will never forget.

I Want to Feel Good!

Last April, my granddaughter visited us from Portland, Oregon, where she lives with her parents, my daughter and her husband. We took the family to some of our favorite places, where we often spend time walking with Max, our dog. One of those places is Ocean Beach. My granddaughter loved it! She ran into the water, splashed around played in the sand, and had a wonderful time. Naturally, she got wet and dirty.

Her mother became upset and raised her voice, wanting her to change her skirt. But my granddaughter refused. She loved that skirt! And then she said something that stayed with me: “I love this skirt. I want to feel good!”

She kept repeating: “I want to feel good! I want to feel good!” Those words got stuck in my mind. There was something so simple and honest about what she was saying. She wanted to enjoy herself. She wanted to feel good. And she didn’t want to give up something she loved just because the situation wasn’t perfect.

Her words reminded me of my own philosophy. But they also inspired me to put that philosophy into a simple mantra. I even recorded a YouTube video in which I share this idea. The original version went like this:

• If, whatever it is, doesn’t make me feel good, I’m not interested.
• If, whatever it is, doesn’t help my loved ones feel good, I’m not interested.
• And if I cannot do anything about it, I’m not interested.

The idea is simple: why spend our precious time and energy on things that make us feel bad, especially when there’s nothing we can do to change them?

What Does Feeling Good Mean to Me?

I feel good most of the time. Of course, I don’t feel good every minute of every day. Nobody does. But feeling good doesn’t mean being happy all the time or pretending that problems don’t exist. It means appreciating the things that make life worthwhile.

When I help a client close a mortgage loan, I feel good. When I receive the commission for that loan, I feel good, too. Why? Because that money allows me to pay our employees, and that makes me feel good. When my wife and I travel together, I feel good. This December, we are planning a ten-day trip to Kauai, and I already feel good about it.

There are so many things in life that can make us feel good. We just have to recognize them and appreciate them.

I have also learned to pay attention to what I allow into my life. I don’t watch television, and I don’t read the daily news. I have found that much of what I would encounter there doesn’t make me feel good. Instead, it can create unnecessary worry, frustration, or negativity and take time away from the things I enjoy.

This is my personal choice. I would rather spend that time walking with Max, being with my wife, helping my clients, learning something new, working on my next book, or simply enjoying the world around me.

Life is too precious to spend all our time worrying about things we cannot change.

A More Positive Mantra

Recently, I started thinking about my original mantra.

Although it expresses what I believe, I wondered whether it sounded too negative. It focused on what I wasn’t interested in rather than on what I wanted to embrace. So, I decided to turn it around.

Here is my new version:

• If it makes me feel good, I’m interested.
• If it makes my loved ones feel good, I’m interested.
• If I can do something to make myself or someone I love feel good, I’m interested.

And if I cannot change it, I’m not interested. Otherwise, I don’t want to spend my time and energy on it. I like this version better because it focuses on the positive. It encourages me to look for opportunities to feel good and to help the people I love feel good, too. And if there is a problem, I cannot do anything about, I try not to let it take over my life.

Of course, there are responsibilities we cannot ignore and problems we must face. Feeling good doesn’t mean running away from them. Sometimes, taking care of a difficult situation is precisely what makes us feel good afterward.

If you would like to start feeling good, order three of my latest books on Amazon.

Thank you!

A SIGH OF RELIEF
Part Two

Last week, I shared some of the challenges I faced while helping a client obtain a mortgage so she could pay her sister her share of their father’s inheritance. We had already overcome several obstacles, but the real kicker was still ahead.

After finding a way to obtain a smaller loan, I had to find a way to get my client a much larger amount of money. We needed a loan program that would not require her to provide tax returns. Fortunately, my client had just turned 62. That opened another possibility: a reverse mortgage.

Reverse mortgages are available to eligible borrowers starting at age 55 under some programs, although the age requirements depend on the type of loan. With reverse mortgages, the older the borrower, the more money may be available, subject to the property’s value and other requirements.

Because the property had a high value, we needed two appraisal reports. The results were surprising. One appraisal showed a much higher value than the other. Unfortunately, the lender had to use the lower of the two values. Fortunately, even the lower value gave us enough equity to obtain the money my client needed. I thought we were finally getting close.

Then another unexpected condition appeared. My client’s credit score was around 680, and the lender required tax returns. But my client hadn’t filed them. I had never encountered this particular situation before. So, I decided to submit the loan to another lender.

There is a saying often attributed to Albert Einstein that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Perhaps I was doing exactly that. But the new lender looked at the situation differently.

The lender told me that if we could get my client’s credit score to 720 or higher, tax returns would not be required under that particular loan program. Now we had another possible solution. I suggested that my client use some of the money she had received from the first refinancing to pay off her credit card balances. She did.

About a month later, we checked her credit again. Her score had increased to 750. That changed everything. We were able to transfer the appraisal reports to the new lender, and the loan was approved.

Of course, we still had some title-related issues to resolve, and we were running out of time. But we kept going. Finally, last week, I received my commission check. My wife, Elpha, and I have worked together for more than 40 years. When she saw the check, she said something that made me smile: “Now you can say that the deal is closed.” And she was right. What a relief!

Looking back, this double transaction taught me something important. When you begin working on a complicated mortgage, you cannot predict every obstacle you will encounter. Sometimes, you don’t discover a problem until you have completed several steps.

And sometimes, a solution that seems impossible at first becomes possible when you look at the situation from a different angle.

• You have to be patient.
• You have to know your options.
• And you have to be willing to keep looking when the first answer is no.

This is true in the mortgage business, and I believe it is true in life. After more than 40 years in the mortgage business, I still learn something from every complicated transaction. And that is one reason I enjoy what I do.

There are many people out there who are struggling with financial problems and don’t know where to turn. Some may need help with a mortgage. Others may need someone to explain their options and help them understand what is possible.

So please don’t be shy about reaching out to people who might need help. Sometimes, all it takes is a conversation to discover a possibility they didn’t know existed. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Thank you for following my story!

Manny Kagan
Mortgage Broker | 40+ Years of Experience
(415) 225-7920

WHY SKELETONS ON HALLOWEEN?

The ancient Celtic tradition

Halloween has roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, celebrated around the end of October. People believed that during this time, the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead became less distinct. Fire, costumes, and rituals were associated with protecting people from harmful spirits.

The Christian tradition of remembering the dead

November 1 became All Saints’ Day in the Christian calendar, followed by All Souls’ Day on November 2 in many Christian traditions. The preceding evening became known as All Hallows’ Eve, eventually shortened to Halloween.

Skeletons and skulls became symbols associated with death and the temporary nature of human life. In medieval Europe, artistic images called danse macabre, or the Dance of Death, reminded people that death comes to everyone, regardless of wealth or social position.

Why skeletons became popular decorations?

Over time, Halloween developed into a holiday of costumes, frightening characters, and playful encounters with the supernatural. Skeletons became ideal decorations because they are instantly recognizable, easy to manufacture, and can be arranged in funny or frightening scenes.

Today, homeowners place skeletons on their porches, hang them from trees, or arrange them as if they were having a party. What once symbolized death can now be a source of humor and creativity.

And what does it mean today?

For most people, skeletons are no longer a serious reminder of death or a representation of ancient beliefs. They are simply part of the fun of Halloween.

There is an interesting contrast here: skeletons represent the end of life, yet people use them to celebrate, laugh, and bring their neighborhoods together.

Perhaps that is one of the reasons Halloween decorations have become so creative. People can take something that might otherwise frighten them and turn it into something amusing.

And as you have observed in your neighborhood, some homeowners turn their front yards into elaborate scenes, using skeletons as characters in their own little stories, as you can see in the three images above.

Enjoy and share!

A SIGH OF RELIEF

Part One

Yesterday, I breathed a sigh of relief. A loan transaction I had been working on for quite a while finally was approved. Here’s the story.

My client had inherited her late father’s house together with her sister. She wanted to keep the house and live there, while her sister wanted to sell it and divide the proceeds. It sounds simple, doesn’t it? It wasn’t. It took three attorneys, two appraisers, a real estate agent, and a judge to determine the amount that had to be paid to settle the matter. And then I came into the picture.

My client was working, but she did not have enough reported income to qualify for a conventional mortgage. She also had not filed her tax returns. Yet she needed a substantial amount of money to keep her father’s house and settle the matter with her sister. Where could we find the money?

I started by looking at her current home in Southern California, where she was living. There was only a small mortgage on that property. But there was a problem. To access the equity through the financing option I was considering, she needed to establish the inherited property as her new residence.

That meant moving out of her current home, finding a tenant, and establishing her new residence at her late father’s house. We needed to document the change with the appropriate records, including her driver’s license, bank statements, and bills.

There was another complication: the backyard at the house in Southern California was undergoing major repairs. We had to wait until the work was completed before moving forward with the next steps.

First, I found an experienced lender offering a good interest rate. We planned to use a special loan program designed for investment properties. Instead of relying on the borrower’s personal income, this type of program can qualify a loan primarily on the property’s rental income, subject to the lender’s requirements. The rental income could be supported by a special report prepared by the appraiser. The borrower also needed to demonstrate that she had sufficient reserves. We thought we were on our way.

Then the appraisal came. The appraised value was too low, which meant we could not obtain the amount of money my client needed. I reviewed the report with the lender, and we discovered several mistakes.

Fortunately, I was working with an experienced lender who knew how to handle the situation. The lender was able to order another appraisal, and the new report eventually provided the value we needed. One problem solved.

Then came the preliminary title report. It showed an old loan that supposedly remained unpaid, even though it had been paid off about 25 years earlier. Fortunately, the person associated with that old obligation was still alive and could confirm that there was no outstanding debt. But we weren’t finished.

The title report also showed tax liens dating back to an earlier period. Time was running short, so my client agreed to pay them off from the proceeds of the new loan and deal with the government afterward. Step by step, we worked through the obstacles.

Finally, the loan closed. My client had the money in her bank account to settle the matter and move forward with her life. But when we looked at the bigger picture, something else became clear. We had accomplished what she needed to do, but the financial consequences were substantial.

That is where I will leave you until next week. In Part Two, I’ll tell you more about what happened and what this transaction taught me about the mortgage business.

With more than 40 years of running my mortgage brokerage practice, I have learned that closing a loan is sometimes much more than just finding the right lender. It requires patience, experience, persistence, and the ability to solve one problem after another. And sometimes, when the loan finally closes, the biggest feeling isn’t excitement. It’s relief.

Meanwhile, if you know someone who might benefit from my mortgage services, please don’t hesitate to share my information with them.

Thank you!

Manny Kagan
Mortgage Broker | 40+ Years of Experience
(415) 225-7920

HOW I CHOSE A NEW CAR

Have you noticed that our streets are becoming more colorful? I decided to join this movement!

The lease on my Audi Q5 was coming to an end, and I had to make a decision. The natural choice would have been to lease another Audi Q5, which would cost about $56,000 before taxes, or keep my existing car, which has only 27,000 miles, and finance the remaining $32,000 through a bank at 5.375% interest over five years. But I started thinking: During the next five years, anything could happen to the car. If something went wrong, I would have to pay for the repairs out of my own pocket. That realization led me to explore other possibilities.

At my age, I no longer need a large, fancy SUV. I started looking for a smaller SUV with an attractive financing package, starting at 1.9% interest. That way, I could save money and enjoy the peace of mind of a manufacturer’s warranty. After all, this is the kind of practical thinking I have always recommended to my mortgage clients!

Not far from our office is a Kia dealership in Serramonte along with other dealerships in the area. I decided to take a look. When I entered the showroom, I saw a beautiful blue car with a sticker advertising 54 miles per gallon. It turned out to be a hybrid, which was exactly what I was looking for! It offered excellent fuel economy and required only regular 87-octane gasoline instead of the more expensive 92-octane fuel I use now. Since my wife already has an electric Smart car, getting another fully electric vehicle didn’t make much sense for us.

A hybrid seemed to be the perfect compromise. I looked at several beautiful cars in different colors, but blue is my favorite, so that made the decision easier. The car also came with an attractive financing package at 1.9%.

There is an old story about Henry Ford and the Model T. According to the famous saying, customers could have any color they wanted, as long as it was black. In fact, the Model T was available in several colors between 1908 and 1914 before Ford eventually standardized on black for production-efficiency reasons.

Fortunately, we have come a long way since then! Today, we can choose from all kinds of beautiful colors. And here is another interesting observation: despite what many people believe, red cars are not necessarily the most likely to attract a police officer’s attention. White cars are often reported as being among the most frequently stopped, although the number of cars of each color on the road also matters.

After choosing my new car, I agreed to leave it at the dealership and return later to pick it up. When I came back, I noticed a sign on the windshield. It said: VIP Manny Kagan SOLD. That was a nice way to welcome me back!

So, if you decide to follow my lead and visit the Kia dealership in Serramonte, ask for the same VIP treatment and a good financing deal. You can also ask for the manager, Ebrahim Rahimi.

I promised you a good story, and I hope you will enjoy the ride! Three images above show only some of the available colors.

Enjoy and share!

Dear friends,

Today, I received some exciting news, and I decided not to wait until Wednesday, when I usually share Good News with Manny. So, consider this a bonus edition!

Today, we had a presentation at our office from a lender offering home equity lines of credit with fixed interest rates starting at 5.99%. What makes this program especially interesting is that qualifying may be easier than it is for many other loan products.

I got so excited about this opportunity that I decided to explore refinancing the second loan on my own home, which currently carries an interest rate of 7.5%! I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

Meanwhile, this program may not be right for you, but perhaps you know someone who could benefit from it. Maybe they want to pay off other debts, consolidate credit card balances, or access funds for a project they have been planning.

If you or someone you know is interested, please reach out to me. I’ll be happy to provide more details, explain the costs, and explore whether this opportunity makes sense for you. Your home equity may be a valuable resource. Let’s explore how you can put it to work for you!

Warm regards,

Manny Kagan
Mortgage Broker | 40+ Years of Experience
(415) 225-7920

We Don’t Take Pictures.
We Create Images.

The idea for this story came to me during our Sunday afternoon walk at Fort Funston. Our Labradoodle Max loves coming here because he can run freely without a leash. We love it because we can watch the sunset, enjoy the ocean, and see so many people walking with their dogs. And, of course, I photograph all the time. After looking at one of the pictures I took that day, I realized that making a picture like this requires a certain skill.

I have studied photography for many years. I have taken courses, read books, and looked at thousands of great photographs by great photographers. I am confident that I am a good photographer. I have even published four books of my photographs. But when I see somebody else’s picture—just a quick snap—I often don’t even know how to explain to the person what could make it a better image.

In my mind, we are not taking photographs. We are making images. I call myself an artist, not a photographer. When I see something, I try to see the image in my mind before I press the button. Then, after I take the photograph, I may crop it—often into a square—and that becomes part of the creative process.

The three images I am sharing with this story are a good example. They were all created from essentially the same spot and the same subject. In one, there is an umbrella and a person standing on the beach—or perhaps on top of the cliff—with the sunset behind them. In another, from almost the same place, I noticed two pelicans flying by and created a completely different image. Same place. Similar subject. Different images. So how do you make a good photograph? I think there are a few simple rules.

First, you have to see the result before you take the picture. This is probably the most difficult part. You have to develop the ability to visualize what the final image could look like. Second, you have to see the light. Where is it coming from? What is it illuminating? What is it hiding? How does the light change the feeling of the picture? Third, you have to see the subject. What is it that you want to say? What caught your attention? What do you want the person looking at your image to feel? And finally, you have to compose. Composition means deciding where everything belongs in the picture so that the final image looks the way you imagined it.

It is easy to say. It is much harder to do. I believe the only way to develop this ability is through practice—taking many pictures, looking at them afterward, asking yourself what worked and what didn’t, and trying again.

Can you learn this skill? Absolutely. But why would you want to? Most of us simply take pictures because we want to remember where we were or what we saw. We take pictures like tourists. But some of us want something different. We don’t just want to record what we saw. We want to create what we saw in our mind.

That is why I am sharing these images with you. They were all created from the same place, looking at almost the same scene, but each one tells a slightly different story.

I hope you enjoy them. And if you do, share them with a friend.

WHAT IS YOUR CREDIT SCORE?

When I have a conversation with a new client, one of the first questions I usually ask is: “How is your credit? Do you know what your credit score is?” Credit is an important part of qualifying for a mortgage. Your credit report contains valuable information about how you have managed your money over the years. It shows your borrowing history, payment patterns, outstanding balances, and other information that lenders use when evaluating a mortgage application.

Years ago, the Fair Isaac Corporation developed a credit-scoring model that became known as the FICO score. The model uses information from credit reports to calculate a number that helps lenders evaluate the risk of lending money to a borrower.

Your credit score can affect whether you qualify for a mortgage, how much you can borrow, and the interest rate and other terms available to you. But here is something important: Your credit score is one part of your mortgage application that you may be able to improve.

I recently worked with a client whose credit score was around 680. If we could get it to 720, he might qualify for substantially better loan terms. I reviewed his credit report and recommended that he pay down the balances on most of his credit cards to approximately one-third of their limits. He followed my advice. But there was a problem. He continued using one of his credit cards for business expenses, and the balance climbed over its limit. When we checked his credit again, his score was still around 680. We were back where we started.

So, I suggested another approach. He had savings available, and I recommended that he consider using some of that money to pay down the balances on the credit cards appearing on his credit report. He did. The next time we checked, his score had increased to 750. That made a significant difference to our mortgage options.

There was one more challenge. Normally, when you pay down a credit card, the lower balance may not appear on your credit report until the creditor reports it during its regular reporting cycle. That can take several weeks. In this case, we used a process that allowed us to obtain updated credit information sooner. It involved an additional fee, but it helped us get the information we needed without waiting for the next regular reporting cycle. With the updated score, we were able to move forward and close the loan.

What is the lesson? First, don’t assume that the credit score you have today is the score you must live with forever. Second, don’t make large financial moves without understanding how they may affect your overall situation. Paying down credit cards can help, but the result depends on your entire credit profile, and using savings to do it may not always be the best choice.

Third, if you are planning to buy a home or refinance, it can be helpful to review your credit well before applying. That gives you time to identify problems, correct errors, reduce balances when appropriate, and understand what may be possible. And remember: a higher credit score does not guarantee loan approval. Lenders also look at income, assets, debts, the property, and the requirements of the particular loan program.

After more than 40 years in the mortgage business, I have learned that preparing for a mortgage is often just as important as finding the right lender. So, the next time you call me about a mortgage, be ready for one of my first questions: “What does your credit score look like?”

Manny Kagan
Mortgage Broker | 40+ Years of Experience
(415) 225-7920

THE BEGINNING

I have a very close friend with whom I go for a walk every Sunday morning. We take Max with us and usually stop at a small café in West Portal. I drink tea, he drinks coffee, and my Labradoodle Max plays with his ball in the little backyard. During our walks, we talk about life, philosophy, and sometimes the Torah. My friend is younger than I am, not Jewish, and regularly reads the Bible, including the Old Testament.

Recently, during one of our walks, he told me that he had come to a realization: there is a Creator. That reminded me of something that happens almost every time we walk together. I constantly photograph flowers. One day he asked me, “Why are you always photographing flowers? Don’t you have enough?” I told him, “I don’t photograph flowers. I photograph natural beauty.”

Every flower is made of so many tiny parts, and somehow all those parts work together to create something beautiful. The more you look at it, the more you realize how little we really understand about how all of this works. (You can see some of the images in my book Reflections, available on Amazon).

My friend then said that his realization about a Creator came from thinking about the incredible complexity of everything that exists. No artificial intelligence could invent these tiny pieces. No human being could design them from nothing—and yet they exist, and they work together…

…Tomorrow, we begin reading the Torah again from the beginning. The first words are: “In the beginning…” According to the Torah, the world was created by an intelligence beyond our understanding – The Creator. Perhaps creation happened in an instant. But how could human beings comprehend something so enormous?

Perhaps the Torah is the blueprint. It gives us instructions, laws, stories, arguments, questions, and ideas that allow us to slowly understand how this world works and how we are supposed to live in it. And perhaps that is why the Creator chose a small group of people—the children of Israel—to study these instructions, argue about them, question them, and bring what they learn to others.

Isaiah described this mission as bringing light to the nations. But there is something interesting about people who bring light: they are not always appreciated. The Jewish people have always argued—with each other, with the world, and even with God. But perhaps that argument is part of the process. We question. We disagree. We struggle. And sometimes, through that struggle, we arrive at a deeper understanding.

And when people bring new understanding into the world, others don’t always welcome it. Sometimes the people who bring light are rejected, pushed away, or even destroyed. Maybe others simply cannot handle too much light. Perhaps this, too, is part of the original design.

Look at a flower. I included some of the  “seeds” of creation in my photographs. We see a beautiful flower, but behind that beauty is an enormous amount of complexity that we cannot fully comprehend.

And look at ourselves. A human being begins with something so incredibly small: one sperm among millions, reaching a fertile egg inside a woman’s body. From that microscopic beginning comes a human being—with eyes that can see, ears that can hear, a brain that can think, the ability to read these words, to agree with them or disagree with them, and even the freedom to choose what to do with that understanding.

Perhaps that is the greatest mystery of all. We are given the ability to question the Creator, to argue, to understand, to misunderstand, and to choose. So maybe the best thing we can do is enjoy the opportunity we have been given.

Look at the flowers. Notice the beauty. Ask questions. Disagree when you need to. Learn from one another. And enjoy every moment of this incredible creation. Then share what you discover with a friend.

THE SAME CLIENT, A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PROBLEM

I met this client about a year ago. The first time she came to me, she was going through a divorce and wanted to keep the family home. She needed to pay her husband his share of the equity. On the surface, it seemed like a simple case. But the loan amount was high, which meant she needed a significant amount of income to qualify. In her case, the income calculation was complicated. I submitted the loan to three different lenders before I finally found one that approved it. We closed the loan.

I thought that was the end of the story. It wasn’t. Meanwhile, she had started doing something completely different. She is from Italy, and while she was working for the company, she decided to open a pizzeria. She had a good idea of what she was doing, so she opened a small place in the Octavia and Hayes Valley area of San Francisco.

One evening, my wife and I went there and waited about an hour before we finally got our two pizzas. But it was well worth the wait. The pizza was so good that I couldn’t wait to go back. Before I had a chance to return, though, I tried pizza at another place. It wasn’t even close. Then she called me again. “Manny, I want to start a new restaurant.”

This time, she wanted to buy an existing restaurant, improve the space, and eventually bring two pizza ovens from Italy. She needed money. The purchase required about $550,000, plus I estimated another $200,000 or so for improvements. Now I had another mortgage problem to solve.

I started looking at the possibilities. One option was an SBA loan. I did some research and found that it might work. But loans for purchasing restaurants can be complicated, and an SBA loan could require additional collateral, potentially including her home. I found another possibility: a conventional line of credit. That was simpler, but it would not give her enough money for what she wanted to accomplish.

Then I found a third option that was very interesting: a reverse mortgage second on her home. The interest rate would be somewhat higher, but because of her limited conventional income, this option could potentially provide the money she needed without requiring the same income qualification as a traditional loan.

So that’s where we are now. I introduced her to one of my contractors, who will give her an estimate of what it will cost to renovate the restaurant. Then she will have to finalize the real estate transaction. After that, I’ll work on the financing.

Look at what happened. The first time I met her, she needed a mortgage because of her divorce. A year later, she needed money to buy a restaurant and build a new business. Same client. Completely different problem. And that’s one of the things I have learned after more than 40 years in the mortgage business. There is rarely a simple solution. But there is often a solution if you are willing to look for it.  You just have to keep looking until you find the right one.

Manny Kagan
Mortgage Broker | 40+ Years of Experience
(415) 225-7920