AMERICA’S CUP SPECIAL: What I’ve Learned While Watching the Opening Race for the 34th America’s Cup From a Seagull

“A better mousetrap needs someone to choose the bait, set up the trap, and it can only catch one mouse at a time.”

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America’s Cup is Big Business. During the last year, we read a lot about the preparation and what is done to attract tourists to this remarkable event.

I did not think that I would get to watch the race live, let alone, that I would be able to photograph it. Nevertheless, the opportunity came when we received an email from our investment manager Peter Karp. (He is very good and I am very pleased with the results of my investments.) Apparently, a major social networking company canceled their reservation to watch the race from Forbes Island at the last minute and Peter’s firm received a call asking if he wanted to entertain his VIP clients. And since we were one of them—we were able to attend as well.

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The images you see in this email are a few from hundreds that I took of the race. It is simultaneously a boring and exciting. Most of the time nothing was happening and then in a few minutes, two beautiful $10 million dollar 72 foot catamarans—creations of human ingenuity passed in front of us. Hitting speeds in excess of 20 knots (mi/hr), they glided without touching the water. Sometimes, it looked like they were going to collide into each other. At the end, the New Zealand team won both races. The first time, they beat an American Oracle team by 36 seconds, and the second round by 52-seconds. (Each team will have more races.)

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The next day, I was curious to see the comments in the newspapers. Apparently, there are two factors which contribute to the win: One, according to the article in September 7th’s Wall Street Journal stated, “While cup teams must adhere to guidelines in building their yacht, there is enough leeway that one team can have a far superior design. So the fastest boat usually wins every time, no matter who is sailing.”

But there is one more factor.

According to the article in the San Francisco Chronicle on September 8th“After beating Oracle Skipper Jimmy Spithill to the starting line in both races Kiwis (New Zealand Team), Skipper Dean Barker guided his team to leads at the first mark.”

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But my true lesson, which reinforced both ideas for winning came while I was watching a seagull. For a strange reason, the bird would continuously fly up with an object in her beak and then seemed to have lost it by dropping it down on the concrete retaining wall. Someone pointed out to me that she was actually trying to break an oyster shell.

After she succeeded and was enjoying her meal, another bird just watched and was able to indulge on some left overs.

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Who taught her that? Why is one bird superior to other creatures?

In the modern sailing world, more money does not always guarantee success (though it can help). Smart, repetitive work, and the right tools and a good team have better chances. And of course—the team needs a skipper, who guides the effort.

P.S.

On September 28th, our company Pacific Bay Financial Corporation will celebrate our 28 years young birthday. Over the years, many bigger companies and banks appeared and disappeared. In the game called “Life”, the true winners are those who stay in the game.


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What Does an Apple Have to Do with Rosh Hashana?



“Life consists of cycles–even when it seems that it is a straight line.”


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The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah literally translates to the “Head of the Year”. This day also signifies the birth date of Adam—the first person God created (according to the Torah). Thus, if Adam would listen to his father—God, and not to his wife Eve, and not eat the fruit from the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil”, he would have lived forever and celebrated his 5,774th birthday by staying in the Garden of Eden, living the quiet life of a gardener without any excitement or turbulence. As a result, you and I would probably not exist and you would not be reading this story.

We do not know what kind of fruit was on the tree which for Eve “was good for eating and was a delight to the eyes” (Genesis 3/16). Nevertheless, according to the Kabbalah (Jewish Esoteric knowledge), the Garden of Eden is called “The Holy Apple Orchard: In addition, King Solomon wrote ‘Beneath the apple I aroused you[r] love” (Song of Songs 8:5). There are other stories connecting apples to Rosh Hashanah. 

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Apples have another remarkable quality. From the ancient times, they were known to have healing properties. Apparently, when King Herod (73-4 B.C.E) felt faint, he would eat an apple. There is a reason for saying “an apple a day, keeps the doctor away”.

To attest to this, there is an article in the recent “The Intelligent Optimist”magazine. Researchers at California State University and other scientists, the article reported, discovered that there are many relationships between apples and our well-being (including helping us lose weight).

For the Rosh Hashanah celebration, the Challah—which is a braided bread traditionally eaten on the Sabbath, is baked round on Rosh Hashanah, and the first piece of it is dipped into honey followed by eating a slice of apple, and reciting the blessing “Shana tova ve matoka” (Bless us with a good and sweet year).

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The apple adds to the symbolism of roundness on this holiday. For me, it signifies a cycle where the end and the beginning are connected together, like seasons in the year. An apple ripens at the beginning of the fall when life slows down after an exuberant summer. After the harvest is collected, everything goes into a dormant winter. In the spring, trees bloom again, attracting bees that produce honey to be reconnected with the fruit that it came from.

We see this cyclical process clearly in the mortgage business. When the interest rates went down, there was an abundance of loans (the harvest). And then the rates went up, the business slowed down. Now we have to work harder on our marketing and asking for referrals. By spring, the market will improve and the world will become alive again.

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I wish you a very good and a very sweet New Year.

Shana tova ve matoka 

P.S.

I decided to visit a farmer’s market in the Civic Center to photograph apples for this newsletter. I wanted to have images with a smile—I was lucky.


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Why Labor Day is the Hardest Working Day for Some People



Walk in the city someone built for you and say. “Thank You.”
Drive on the road someone paved for you and say, “Thank You.”
When people serve you–do not forget to say “Thank You.”


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In 1882, the idea for a Labor Day holiday was first introduced to the United States, and it became a Federal holiday in 1887. In those years, hands in the fields or the factories did the majority of labor in the country. According to Webster’s Dictionary, “labor” is defined as:

Physical or mental exertion; work, toil, or the process of childbirth.

What is interesting is that both labor related activities were first mentioned in the Torah.

“To the women He said, ‘I will greatly increase your suffering and your child bearing; in pain shall you bear children.’”—Genesis 3/16

“To Adam He said, ‘By the sweat of your brow, shall you eat bread.”—Genesis 4/2

According to Wikipedia, the highest number of employed people in our country are in the retail sales (24%). Since Labor Day is the second busiest event (after Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving), these hard working women and men work long and exhausting hours for the rest of us to enjoy our days off. 

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When I started working at the age of 15, I was a laborer—first a toolmaker, then an auto mechanic. (And later, I became an engineer.) You can read more about my humble start in the workforce in my first book, “The Mortgage Game: The 5 C’s and How to Connect Them”.

After we moved to Israel, on my first day of work, I held a welding torch in my hands, and I managed the construction of large steel industrial projects later on. In the United States, my first job was working as a handyman for a general contractor.

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All of this was a while ago. Today, many Americans’ jobs are spent at desks in front of computers. Even work done by robots is overseen by people.
I work long hours and it does not feel laborious, while what my colleagues and I do is stressful. The only pain I suffer from is emotional, when I sometimes cannot help my clients get a mortgage.
To whom then does Labor Day apply to?

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The holiday belongs to the hardworking women and men who work in the fields to bring food to our table. To the cleaning ladies and men who help us enjoy our lives, or those who work in restaurant kitchens, to feed us after our hard day at work in our offices.

It also belongs to Mothers, who (thanks to the miracles of modern medicine) have less pain, but who really labor to bring beautiful children into our world full with beauty.

As far as the rest of us are concerned, we are just getting a free ride. Enjoy it (and spend money to help improve the economy).

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P.S.

The photo portraits are my humble contribution to the hard working laborers.

  1. To the woman who controlled traffic in front of our house during the road repair.
  2. To a gardener I met in Palm Springs.
  3. To a seller of the San Francisco Chronicle who works on West Portal.
  4. To a young executive chef in Santa Fe (unfortunately the restaurant closed).
  5. To a contractor I met on Fillmore Street.


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How to Be the Best at Whatever You Do

 

Doing is easy–becoming takes an effort.


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On our recent trip to The Sea Ranch, I was reading, “Tao of Photography: Seeing Beyond Seeing” by Philippe L. Gross and S.I. Shapiro. It was a gift from my daughter Tamar, and was perfect for the tranquil environment of the location.  The Taoist philosophy of Chuang-Tzu is a Chinese concept signifying the way, path, route, or doctrine. It can help one look deeper into one’s own heart—

“Leap into the boundless and make it your home!
Great understanding is broad and unburied; little understanding is cramped and busy.”Chuang-Tzu

The book is a description of the photographic experience from the Taoist point of view and contains quotes from many famous photographers. 

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“I never look for a photograph. The photograph finds me and says, “I’m here!” and I say, “Yes. I see you. I hear you.”—Ruth Bernard

In my classes about the mortgage business, I usually start with a Russian proverb, which loosely translates to:

“The prey runs to the hunter.”

One needs to become a hunter first in their heart and in all their being, before one can to be called a hunter.

 

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We are currently seeking new loan originators. During their interviews, some candidates start by talking about their experience. I usually stop them and ask, “Tell me about who you are before talking about what you know or what you do.”

To put on a uniform, to have a diploma, or to own the best equipment, does not make one the best in their chosen occupation. Believe in your heart and many hours of practice and learning can make the difference.
It took me years of taking pictures before I could call myself a photographer. It is very different to define who is the best in the art of photography. How can one compare? I’ve seen works of many great photographers from whom I’m trying to learn. As far as the mortgage business is concerned, I strive to be one of the best by focusing on finding solutions.

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In a very interesting book, “Outliers: The Story of Success”, Malcom Gladwellpoints out that those who achieved real success in life, like the Beatles, Bill Gates, and others “practiced” for at least 10,000 hours before their success was recognized by others. After 30 years in the mortgage business and close to 60,000 hours of practice, writing two books on the subject (the second one is currently with the Publisher), I finally might be getting there.

However, I still need your help to pay my mortgage.

P.S.

One of my photography teachers, Stephen Burns, told me “Less is more”. The images in this email, which I took at The Sea Ranch, follow this concept.


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Beauty is in The Eye of The Beholder



The mirror on the wall will not tell you if you are beautiful. You have to know it in your heart.


*All beautiful images in this e-letter were created by my beautiful wife, Elfa.*


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I do not know about you, but when I am on vacation and have an opportunity to relax, I start seeing the world with open eyes and notice only the beauty. It is Sunday morning in The Sea Ranch, where I have been staying for 5 days in a beautiful house on the bluff with my wife and beautiful daughter, Alona.

Outside the window, I see a foggy sky and grey ocean with grey rocks. I just came back from photographing amazingly beautiful grey images. Flocks of beautiful grey pelicans are flying in front of our window.

Last night, a group of seven beautiful deer came to eat by our house and then joined us (outside) to watch a beautiful movie on the TV. Yesterday, we spent many hours strolling in a beautiful forest. Days before, we walked on a trail along the beautiful ocean, surrounded by the beautiful nature.

Here, we met our neighbors—a beautiful couple who divide their time between beautiful Paris and The Sea Ranch.

We had our anniversary dinner in the beautiful St. Orres Restaurant. It is located outside beautiful Gualala, a small town next to The Sea Ranch.

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While here, I finished reading a beautiful book by Anita Moorjani—“Dying to Be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing”. It is a life story about a young beautiful woman, who had “died” from cancer and came back. Her near death experience helped her to get rid of cancer and also changed her outlook on life. This book inspired me to write this letter. The book was given to me by my beautiful friend and Doctor of Oriental Medicine—Dr. Angela Wu, who helps beautiful women to conceive and bring to this beautiful world, beautiful children. She is the author of the book, “Fertility Wisdom: How Traditional Chinese Medicine Can Help Overcome Fertility”.

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Tomorrow, we are driving back to our beautiful house in San Francisco, in the most beautiful city in the world. I am going back to work with our beautiful employees.

You might suspect that this beautiful vacation with too much oxygen in the air affected my brain. It might have. Did I forget about the regulators who I was complaining about in my previous newsletters? Or the banks, that create problems for borrowers—are they also beautiful?

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I am sure that people, in spite of the circumstances they work in, are beautiful. At the same time, the adverse conditions help me to come up with beautiful mortgage solutions for my beautiful clients.

P.S.

The beautiful photos pale in comparison with the real beauty found in nature. We like to visit The Sea Ranch so much that on Labor Day, we are coming back with our other beautiful daughter, Tamar. She is helping me write my next beautiful book, “The Marriage Game”. Stay tuned.


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What To Do When A Relationship Hits A Bumpy Road

Successful marriage is hard work. Are you doing your best?

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Yesterday, August 8th, we celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary in my wife Elfa’s favorite place—The Sea Ranch. Our daughters, Alona came from Paris and Tamar from L.A. Some people asked us how we have managed to stay together for so long and keep a loving relationship. What is out secret? To answer this question, I decided to write a book, “The Marriage Game: The 7+ C’s and How to Connect Them”.
You might notice that the title is similar to my previous book, “The Mortgage Game: The 5 C’s and How to Connect Them”. Not only are the titles similar, but I am also using “The C’s”, which in this care are: Communication, Cooperation, Commitment, Compromise, Creativity,Compassion, and Caring. (It was actually our daughters who came up with this idea to use words which start with the letter C, as I did in “The Mortgage Game”. Then there are the additional  “C’s”, as per my wife Elfa’s suggestion,Copulation and my contribution, Cuddling.) Though we both worked hard and with joy to keep our marriage a success, the main credit belongs to my wife and partner, Elfa. She also agreed to partner with me on this project as well. I started to write this book on our trip in The Sea Ranch and am planning to finish it before the end of the year.

Stay tuned!

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So why title a newsletter about such a joyful event in our lives—“What To Do When A Relationship Hits a Bumpy Road”? Because any relationship is a journey through life and there are many bumps in the road.

Actually, the title came into mind while reflecting about what is currently going on in the mortgage business. I am obviously upset that because of the new regulations, my clients have to deal with so many complicated hardships. However, applying my extensive experience in dealing with “bumpy roads” in my marriage, I decided to deal with the current developments in the mortgage business with patience and understanding. After 30 years of being a mortgage broker, it seems that I am also “married” to this business.

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I  had lunch recently with my old friend, Ed Sutton, with whom I reconnected after almost 30 years. He is very good at helping people prepare their tax returns. He can be reached at esutton@sutton1040.com / 650-755-1040 or via his website. Ed has been married for 39 years, and when I asked him what he thinks is his “secret” for his long marriage, he answered without hesitation—good communication. I will write about what I think this really means in my new book.

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P.S.

I took these images at The Sea Ranch. Though they are undoubtedly beautiful, you need to come here to have your own experience.


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What Do You Think About?

Humans differ from animals by the way they think. Humans differ from each other by what they think about.”

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In the courtyard of the Legion of Honor Museum, there is a large sculpture of August Rodin’s The Thinker. On our last visit to the museum, we saw the “Impressionists on the Water” exhibit—a very compact show that features beautiful art by the artists who lived close to the waterways in France at the end of the 19th to the early 20th century, and who became known as impressionists because of the specific way they created their art. It was interesting to see how the curator put together a collection where most of the images had an unusual composition (at least from my photographic eye).

On the way out, I photographed a group of visitors who posed in the front of the sculpture, pretending to show how they think. A friend of mine, Greg Durrett, told me that when he lived close to the museum, he would go there regularly to photograph the “pretending” thinkers.

Earl Nightingale once remarked, “We become what we think about most of the time”.

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What we think about is often affected by the world we live in and of course our own personal disposition. We were recently at a friend’s house where a group of men and women discussed the “hot topics” of the day–the Asiana Flight 214 crash in San Francisco and the George Zimmerman trial. Everyone had their own opinion about those stories, but the reference was primarily based on what people read in the newspapers or saw on TV. At the same time, someone commented that one cannot believe everything they read in the newspapers.

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Unfortunately, those are the sources which affect our thinking about economic or political decisions as well. When Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010, there was an overreaction to the events, which at the time were ‘old news’. The purpose of the act was to try to prevent the same type of economic disasters from happening again. The problem was that creating a document over one thousand pages long, and further attempting to implement it, was given to people whose thinking was affected by what happened in the past without any idea how to take care of the future.

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The result is regulatory overkill. Since the problems were caused by the actions of the Wall Street firms and large commercial banks, regulation of the loan origination side of the mortgage industry is over-productive. What borrowers need is not protection from phantom predators, but rather solutions on how to make their lives better. In the mortgage business, it is relatively simple to accomplish. Just follow the rules of the 5 C’s that I wrote about in “The Mortgage Game: The 5 C’s and How to Connect Them”. Plus add one more “C”— Common Sense, and many problems will disappear. Unfortunately, this might lead to an increase of unemployment since no one really needs regulators to tell us how to live our lives and conduct our businesses; unless of course, those people are trained to be productive. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, There are 3.8 million unfilled employment opportunities in the United States. But removing regulators will increase employment for those who really want to work for a living, such as developers, builders, and anyone involved in real estate related activities and this will turn the world around. (But this might also increase interest rates. Be careful what you wish for.)

 

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P.S.

We are closing more sales transactions. Every case has its own set of complications. In one of them, I was very pleased when the clients listened to my advice and offered a higher price. Luckily, their offer was accepted. They kept their monthly payments “affordable” by choosing a loan with a fixed rate for 7 years (not 30), and interest rate 3.75%.

P.P.S.

I also live by the water and thought that we do not have the same quality of light. As it is in the South of France, I humbly present you some of my images related to the subject.

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It is Not About the Amount, But What It Can Do For You


Would you like to get 3.25% fixed for 7 years?”



When we focus on the destination, we will find a way to get there.

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How do you think a client would react when he received a call from me that his loan request for $2,200,000 was approved? It would replace his existing mortgage of $1,200,000 at 5.50%. The new interest rate will be 10.50% and will cost 4 points or $88,000, plus closing costs of about $5,000 to get it. You probably would think that the client, who was very happy for that wonderful news, had lost his marbles.

What I did not tell you is that the client is a contractor. He owns an old house in a prime location. He is planning to rebuild it by adding 4,000 sq. ft. After he finishes construction, the new house could be sold for over $4 million. Now you can do your own math. The interest cost is going to be $231,000 plus the closing cost of $93,000, subtract those numbers plus the loan amount from the sales price. The balance is the profit (minus taxes and real estate commission) and suddenly a 10.50% interest rate is no longer such a big deal—especially since the client is not qualified to get a construction loan from a commercial bank.

The title of this story came from my assistant Samantha, after I shared with her a conversation I had with a friend. He came to me for marketing advice. While listening to him, I was squeezing a yellow rubber ball to increase blood circulation in my fingers to relieve some discomfort in my pinky. I picked up this ball as a freebee at a conference. On one side of the ball, there is a smiling face and on the other is a marketing message. I showed him both sides, pointing out that in a given moment we are both looking at the same ball from opposite sides and getting a different message. But in the end—neither of those messages are important. Since the purpose of squeezing the ball is to relieve stress or to increase blood circulation.

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The same goes with getting a mortgage. Borrowers are often fixated on securing a fixed rate and not on improving their cash flow. The result can be like a recent conversation I had with a client. Their current mortgage of $635,000 (They can pay it down to $625,500 to get a better rate), has an interest rate of 5.25% and monthly payments of $4,000 plus $300 for the mortgage insurance. We started talking about refinancing a while back when the fixed rates were at 3.50%, but she never sent me the paperwork. I called her recently suggesting that they send documents to be ready when rates will come down again to which she responded that she was only interested if the rate was 3.50%.

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 Today (after rates went up), they can get 4.50% for 30 years fixed rate or 4.00% fixed for 7 years, with the savings of $182 a month between those two options. At the same time in comparison with their payments today, the savings could be $1,300/month. Would you wait for to get a lower interest rate or act now?

P.S.

The buildings in Havana, Cuba  (as you can see in my images), might be good candidates for improvement. As far as getting construction loans—it is a different story. You can join me in December on our trip to Cuba to check out more development opportunities. Please do not procrastinate. There are limited seats on the plane.

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You Cannot Reverse Age, But You Could Possibly Reverse a Mortgage

“Wine and cheese get better with age. How about people?

Some do.

Others get wiser.”

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Marcelo at 95

A few weeks ago our telephone rang at 7:30am on a Sunday morning. The Caller ID showed the call was coming from New Jersey, so I knew that it was our dear friend Marcelo. He beat me to wish me a “Happy Father’s Day.”
Marcelo is turning 97 in August. His wife died some years ago, followed by his girlfriend. Now he has a new one (a younger woman, of course). When I asked how he is doing, he said without complaining, that his sight is not good anymore and he had fallen down, broken his nose, and needed stitches on his forehead.

But he added “I am alright now”.

“I do not hear well”, he continued, “and when I fell down my hearing aid broke. But I am getting a new one which works better”, he added. “I have difficulty bending down”, he said, “but a young woman comes over every day now to help me”.

And then he switched to politics. “Obama does not know what he is doing and World politics stink, but otherwise ‘Baruh Ha Shem’—Thank God everything is good”.
Marcelo has lived in many parts of the world and speaks seven languages. At the beginning of World War II, he lived in Paris. As a Jew from Lithuania, there was no way out (but through a concentration camp). One day, he was walking down the street and overheard a conversation between two men.

“You can go to the Argentinian embassy and tell the council that Victor sent you to get a Visa.”

Without hesitation, he did just that. A month later, he was on a ship to Buenos Aires. In spite of the many challenges in his life, he is always optimistic.
We came to celebrate his 95 birthday two years ago, and it was a great party.

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Judy–Marcelo’s friend
A few months ago, Marcelo called and asked if we do reverse mortgages. We do. Reverse mortgages are loans, which can be given to persons starting at the age of 62. One does not need to have income or credit score to qualify. As long as there is sufficient equity in the property (preferably with no existing loans, or with a very small balance), borrowers can receive a substantial amount of money in the lump sum or in installments. I write about this program in more detail in my second and forthcoming book, “Mortgage Solutions for Smart People: 5 Easy Ways to Get Your Loan Approved”.

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A woman I met on the street
The cost of getting it and the cost of mortgage insurance is deducted from the amount of the loan before distribution. The interest is quite low and accumulates during the life of the recipient. When a person dies, if there is equity left, it goes to the heirs.
This program is not for everyone and since real estate values have dropped, many cannot benefit from this opportunity. After I explained to Marcelo how the program works, he decided against it. He thought he will manage and besides he wanted to leave more to his grandchildren. There are talks that it is going to be more difficult to get those loans, but so far, as long as there is lendable equity, some borrowers enjoy the money milked from their home, without the need to repay it.

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I met this man at the Farmer’s Market in Gualala.

P.S.

I like to photograph wise people. Not only because of their wisdom, which is not always obvious, but also because many of them show their character without inhibition and do not pretend to be what they are not.

P.P.S
On my trip to Cuba in February, I met a lot of wise women and men—and so can you. We are going there again in December for the Havana Jazz Festival. You may join us.

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What the Mortgage Industry Can Learn From Zuni Café

We have only one stomach with a limited capacity, but our brain has no limits. We need to feed them both; so choose your food carefully.”

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When I am asked which is my favorite restaurant in San Francisco, without hesitation—my answer is Zuni Café. Despite the misleading name, it is a large restaurant located on Market street (between Gough and Franklin Street). We’ve been going there for at least 23 years. In San Francisco, we are blessed with many great restaurants, and since we often eat out, we have been in many of them through the years.

We go to Hayes Bar and Grill for very good fish before concerts at Davies Symphony Hall. We go to Firefly, a neighborhood restaurant on 24th and Douglas, for excellent eclectic cuisine. There is a new small Greek restaurant on West Portal called Orexi, where the food is as good as at Kokkari, downtown. There is a Vietnamese restaurant, The Slanted Door, in the Ferry building (and its smaller version, Out The Door, on Bush and Fillmore).Outerlands, is at the end of Judah street close to the ocean, and is one of the city’s jewels if you are willing to wait to get a table since they do not take reservations.

The list goes on and on. There are probably a few new ones opening as I write this letter! Restaurants are a tough business and to survive for a long time and still draw loyal customers is a very high achievement. (I am proud that our company—Pacific Bay Financial, which has been in business since 1985, is also in the same league.)

What makes Zuni Café so special is that they stick to the basics: good ingredients, a good diverse menu, very good chefs, well-trained employees (waiters, bartenders, and service personnel), systems and of course—the management.

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But what the mortgage industry can really learn from Zuni Café is their speed of execution. On our most recent time there, we were seated in front of the kitchen and watched the action. The kitchen staff worked with such speed and precision. Everyone moved very fast, sometimes running with one goal in mind—to serve the customers.
Ugur Tartuk worked by the stove preparing the famous chicken for two and my fish order, and could work at every kitchen station. Meanwhile, Ken Turner conducted the food distribution process. Thanks to him, we got our orders in the shortest possible time.
I looked around and did not notice any regulators, who would taste every dish before it was served. And no one sends a customer’s iPhone over a hundred pages of disclosures, claiming that the food they are about to eat can cause an increase in weight and the wine they are going to drink can make them drunk. Such things are the customer’s choice; therefore, please do not sue the restaurant nor the rest of the world, if this happens. Regretfully, this portrayal is what is going on in the mortgage business.
And because the regulators enforce “financial protection” without any regards to the customers’ real needs, the mortgage process has become very tedious and slow.
I doubt if the mortgage industry will adopt the good service practice offered by Zuni Café and other good restaurants soon. Well at least after a stressful and tiring work day, we can enjoy a good meal with friends.
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Adriane Harrison, who conducts the restaurant’s traffic, always greets you with a smile.

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Gilbert Pilgrim, the owner, in a blissful moment.

P.S.

I decided to write this story on the spur of the moment while dining in Zuni Café a few weeks ago. The part-owner, Gilbert Pilgrim (who is a very good chef), was dining there as well, and I asked his permission to take some photos with my iPhone. I wish I could photograph everyone who always serves us with a smile. But meanwhile, enjoy some of the images.

The next time you have difficulty to make a reservation, tell them that you are Manny’s friend. If this will not work, call me, and I will use my connections.

P.P.S
Some of my clients are choosing a loan fixed for 7 years with the interest rate 3.375%, which significantly improves their cash flow. What are you waiting for?

Do not keep me as a secret.


 SMILE AND PLEASE SHARE IT WITH A FRIEND


Best Wishes,

Manny<br />
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