Author: Manny Kagan

This year’s election date is Tuesday, November 5^th. Every year a few weeks before the election, some friends gather in the house of Ahuva and Emanuel Jolish. Emanuel is retired and he loves San Francisco. He is a guide and is interested in the local politics, attends meetings, convenes with those who run for various offices, and helps those of us who are busy with our lives to understand what is really going on.

On our get togethers, we exchange views and opinions. This helps us make educated decisions for whom to vote for, and which issues to support. What is interesting is that Jolish’s family (like in many other families), spouses and growing children might have opposing views. I guess this is what democracy is all about.

The newspapers print  opinions on whom to support. Some have similar views, some differ. This year, the SF Chronicle and Examiner are on opposing sides. And then of course, there are flyers in which, like in any election, each side is claiming that the other is wrong.

What is unusual this year is that those who run for all three major positions are not opposed. It seems no one else wants to deal with our city’s dirty laundry. When it comes to the measures, all four of them could be resolved internally among the supervisors, and not brought up to the ballots. One of the participants in our group pointed this out and as a protest, thought to vote “no” on all of them. During the discussion, she’d change her mind and instead decided to abstain from marking the ballot.

There are two propositions B and C, which deal with the same subject: at what height can a particular new building be built. (For more information, please see some articles in the SF Chronicle fromyesterday and today.) This is a very good example of the dirty politics. There are so many high-rises that are built in San Francisco. When we drive on Van Ness, I notice a very tall new building which is literally growing up from the old one.In my view, it is a very ugly addition, and blocks the view on the hills. The decision to build this one was not brought up to the ballot, and like other decisions about buildings, it should be decided by the competent professionals.Though this brings to mind our national politics — are there competent professionals, or just attorneys/politicians as in San Francisco?

P.S.

I love San Francisco. Every time when we come back from trips, we are coming home. I want my home to stay beautiful. The city is changing all the time. I remember when the Embarcadero freeway was about to come down, many protested the demolition. In my office, I have posters showing the barren hills in 1847 of the area that used to be called “Yerba Buena”—one hundred years before my birth.  Over the next 160 years, a lot of people contributed to what became San Francisco.

By voting, you are contributing. Please do it.

Meanwhile, enjoy some of my visions of our great city.

Do not keep me as a secret.

 SMILE AND PLEASE SHARE IT WITH A FRIEND

Jane used to be self-employed. She recently found a great new job with a very good salary and felt she was ready to buy a new home. She had owned one in the past, but sold it without recouping her down payment. 

The problem was that she had very little left in her savings account. Fortunately years ago, she served in the Army and could use her certificate of eligibility to buy a home without any down payment by getting a VA loan. Those loans can be used for the refinance as well. 

Whom do you know who is a veteran?

John and Kim had a loan fixed for 5 years at the interest rate of 4.125% since 2011. John called me six months ago, since he wanted to buy another property. When we ran his credit report, we discovered that his credit score dropped to 625 because of some mix-up in payments. I referred him to a person who helps restore credit scores.

When we ran his credit again six months later, his score went up to 767. At the same time, I checked interest rates and we could refinance his $1,350,000 loan to 3.00%, lower his monthly payments by $851, and extended the loan life for 5 years without any out of pocket closing costs, and with no prepayment penalty. In addition, I was able to secure a line of credit for them of $50,000.

Mr. Cramer needed a pre-approval letter. He was selling a single family home in San Francisco that he owned together with his sister. The proceeds would go to buy a four unit building in the North Bay.

He and his wife own their home with $250,000 balance of the mortgage of 4.00% and 28 years left to pay it off. He is 69 years young and recently retired. His wife is younger.

After checking interest rates and realizing that conforming loans (up to $417,000) dropped to 3.25% for 15 years amortized loans, I asked him if it would make sense to pay off their current balance 14 years sooner?

It did.

He wanted to be sure that by the time he is gone, his wife will have a smaller mortgage or not at all. Their payments are increasing, but would be offset by the extra rent on the new rental property.

Whom do you know who needs to lower their interest rate?

“It’s the economy, stupid.”, was one of three messages campaign strategist,James Carville coined in Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 Presidential campaign. The other two messages were, “Change vs. more of the same” and “Don’t forget healthcare.”

As the wise King Solomon reminded us—“There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:4-11). 

“It’s the economy, stupid” was my response to a question my friend and client asked, “Would the actions of those damn Republicans help lower the interest rates?”

He missed the last refinancing wave, procrastinating in providing us with the necessary documents. This time, he would not mind if it would be the actions of the Republicans, with whom he obviously was not in agreement with, to help the interest rates go down again.

I really hope so too, since it would help millions of borrowers lower their monthly payments, whose property values increased during the last year (and it would help us pay off debts accrued from the previous economy slow down).

A new yearly cycle of reading the Torah started on Saturday, September 28^th. Five books of Moses are divided into 54 chapters, which are read every Shabbat in the synagogues around the world. The Jewish calendar follows the lunar cycle. To adapt to the days we use from the Gregorian calendar (1582) in certain weeks, some chapters are combined. Every morning, I read the chapter of the day as an inspiration and a reminder, and I would like to share some of my observations with you.

The first book and the first chapter in English are called, “Genesis”, and as you probably know, describe the story of creation of the world. Among us, there are those who take the story literally. Some believe that the narrative is the product of human imagination, while others claim that there is no God and no story.

I personally believe that there are the sources of creation and sustaining of the life beyond our comprehension—this is what some of us call God. The Torah is not a history book and presents its narrative often in an allegorical form. For example, six days of creation is an evolutionary process, which scientists have calculated took place over 15 billion years ago. But what is remarkable for us readers, is how this complicated process is described in the Torah:

“In the beginning of God’s creating the heavens and the earth—when the earth was astonishingly empty with darkness upon the surface of the deep, and the Divine Presence hovered upon the surface of the waters—God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God separated between the light and the darkness.”—Genesis 1/1-5

Upon completion of each daily task:

 “God saw all that He had made, and behold it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”—Genesis 1/26-27

The question comes to mind, how it is possible to see good! After all, as we know, good is a relative term (Good vs. Bad).

I was taking my daughter Tamar to the airport. We left a little bit late and Tamar was nervous. I was considering between either Highway 280 or 101. It was a little past 9am, so I reasoned that the traffic on the 101, which is shorter in distance, would be okay.

When we got on the ramp, we saw that the road was a sea of slowly moving cars. Since there was no way to turn back, I made the only decision I could—“To stay in the traffic and enjoy life”. The traffic turned out to be because of a small accident up ahead. Meanwhile, the damaged vehicle, the tow truck, and the police car were on the other side of the road. Drivers were slowing down and did what Tamar said in LA is called “rubber-necking”. After that, traffic gained speed and we got to the airport on time.

Looking back on my life and reflecting on the times when I was late to something, I realized that I actually do not remember missing anything. Once when we just arrived to the United States, I was driving in heavy rain to a job interview for a property manager position. I could not get there on time and as a result, I did not become a property manager. I was not late to my next appointment and became a mortgage broker instead.

A lot of us would like to be affluent. The question is, how? When you read biographies of successful people, there is often a common theme: “I was poor, now I am rich, and I like now better.”
My late mother-in-law used to say, “It is better to be rich and healthy, than sick and poor.” The road from poor to rich is not easy and only a few are willing to pay the price.
I recently spoke with a friend who used to be a loan processor in our company. Now she works for another company earning more money, but she has an hour commute, has a huge workload, and her boss is young, arrogant, and very demanding. She misses our working environment, but needs the money.

Another friend left the mortgage business and is currently selling software for a start-up. The pay is low, but he has shares. It is a fast-growing company and one day there might be a pay-off. His work is very intensive and fast paced. He misses the mortgage business and claims that if he had worked as hard in mortgages, he would have earned much more.

In the dictionary, the word “Affluent” has two meanings. As an adjective it means, “having abundance of wealth, property, or other material goods”.

It also means, “abounding in anything abundant, or flowing freely”. To sum up, in order to be affluent, one needs to be fluent (like in languages), or to “flow” in whatever one does.

Life and business can be compared to a river. It can start as a small stream, only to become a huge waterfall. As one becomes more fluent in life, it gets easier to navigate through the rough waters. As long as we stay in the flow, either physical or energetic, there is a better chance to be affluent.
In this sense, the mortgage business has all the elements of a flow. Ever changing, abundant, and diminishing. Like a river, it can quench your thirst or drown you if you will not learn how to stay in the flow.

When interest rates inched up, lenders came up with new programs. You can refinance today without losing accumulated years in any increase.

For example, if you have a mortgage at 5.50%, which you paid off for 4 years, you can get a new one amortized loan over 26 years or 24, or 21, or any number of years as low as 8 years, at the prevailing interest rate of let’s say, 4.50%. No need to start all over for 30 or 15 years. I call this fluidity.

P.S.

I was inspired by the book “The Tao of Abundance: Eight Ancient Principles for Abundant Living” by Laurence G. Boldt to write this story and I found a few images in my photo library which show the flow of the water. 

Do not keep me as a secret.

 SMILE AND PLEASE SHARE IT WITH A FRIEND

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Best Wishes,