We Are All Children At Heart

“If we are children at the beginning of our lives and behave like them at the end, who are we in between?

An adult is a child in bigger clothing, and who plays in a game called Life. Learn the rules, break them, and have fun.”

Sometimes you need more than 10 fingers to play

I showed my assistant Samantha some of the photos of children that I’ve taken with my iPhone, to which she remarked, “You have to use those images in your next ‘Good News’ with the title “We Are All Children at Heart”. Luckily, this is the perfect fit for what I wanted to write about. Children play games, as do adults. This is why I titled my first book, “The Mortgage Game: The 5 C’s and How to Connect Them”.  I’ve mentioned in my previous newsletters, that I used this book as well as my next one “Mortgage Solutions for Smart People: 5 Easy Ways to Get Your Loan Approved” (which will be available as an ebook shortly–will keep you posted), to create an educational course: “How to Play the Mortgage Game and Win”.

A lot of people take their life and the process of getting a mortgage too seriously. It is all just a game. There are no winners or losers—just players. If you think you lost, practice, learn, and then the next time, you might win; as long as you have fun playing. It helps to know the rules of the game. I wrote two books to help you with the mortgage rules. In my class, there are 10 students, who have committed four Sundays to learn these rules. Of course, knowing the rules is not enough, one needs to practice. I have been playing the mortgage game for almost 30 years and every day I still learn something new.

We have to learn to smile early in life

Keeping a diary is good practice for writers

My new clients John and Beth wanted to buy a house in Piedmont for $1,150,000. The house needed improvements, but both felt that it was still a bargain. John had a very good salary. Beth—who also worked, had the money. There were only a few issues to resolve. Both were still married to other people, and were going through divorces.

John owned another house for which, his (soon to be) ex made the monthly mortgage payments. When we ran his credit, there were three recent late payments on the mortgage, which significantly lowered his credit score. As a result, I could not use John’s income to qualify for a loan.

There was a possible solution—to find a bank that could do a mortgage without stating income, (unlike loans in the past that required borrowers to lie about their income) and with only Beth as the borrower. We work with a few lenders who can do these kinds of loans, which require a significant down payment. I collected all of the documents and took them to the lender, only to discover that they do not lend in Oakland/Piedmont.

Buying food can also be a game

An art connoisseur

The next bank I considered has a branch in Oakland, and could approve the loan with a 40% down payment. The next issue was time. The real estate agent negotiated a close of escrow in 25 days which is very difficult to perform. The bank said they needed 35 to 45 days. Then there was also the issue to be sure that the house would appraise for the agreed upon price. During the fast growing appreciation of home prices, there are not always three comparisons (comps) available to get an appraised value. Luckily, the real estate agent was able to delay the appraisal removal date as well as the close of escrow.

When my clients got stressed with all of these issues, my advice was to look at the loan process as a game. Try to have fun instead of getting aggravated.

P.S.

The images of children I took with my iPhone show just how much there is to enjoy in our lives, while playing a game.