Growin' Up Gregory

If you've purchased, refinanced, or built a home in the past three years, odds are that you signed a slew of paperwork during your mortgage process. Hopefully, you had a lender who explained all of the details and answered any questions you had in order to make sure that you fully understood your mortgage terms and options. I can't count the number of people who have commented, "This is a lot more paperwork than the last time we did this." In late 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) introduced two new forms, the Loan Estimate (LE) and Closing Disclosure (CD), which went into effect at that time.  Like most new rules, regulations, and forms, there were some things they got right, some things they got wrong, and some things that have room for improvement. From both a borrower and lender's perspective, here is some background info as well as my thoughts on the current status and changes that should be considered. Purpose An explanation of ...

As each new year rolls around, millions of Americans make New Year's Resolutions on how they want to change their life:  eat healthier, exercise more, save money, make new friends, etc.  But year after year, many find themselves making the same failed resolution as the year before.  What if instead of spending time thinking about a resolution, you spent time developing resolve - a firm determination to do something.  Resolutions sounds good and offer many benefits, but without the resolve to actually follow through on them, they often wind up being empty words. The concepts in this outline come from a story found in the Bible in 2 Kings 4:1-7.  Go read it, it's not long.  This is the story of the woman who's husband has passed away, debt collectors are coming for her children, and she has almost nothing left to her name.  But she meets a prophet who gives her some guidance and hope.  She follows his suggestion and turns her small bottle of oi...

The housing market seems to be heating up nationally and even in our small town.  With that being the case, I would like to share a few tips and try to offer a better understanding of the home buying and mortgage process for both seasoned and 1st time home-buyers alike from someone's perspective who has sat on both sides of the desk as a loan officer and consumer.  Hopefully, these tips will help make your home buying process go as smooth as possible. 1.  Know YOUR budget.  Yes, the bank can tell you what you qualify for based on credit and debt ratios.  But only you know your spending habits.  Are you ready to commit to a house payment, insurance, taxes, improvements, and repairs?  Or do you want more freedom for season tickets to your favorite team?  Or extra cash to rush off on spontaneous getaways?  Begin to think about how much money you can do without each month, how much you're paying now in rent, or how much you're saving towards a ...

I remember as a child my dad having me get outside on the weekends or when we weren't in school to help on projects around the house.  It may have been working on fences, something to do with the pool, or fixing one of the many broken pieces of equipment that he's owned over the years.  My part was typically just the simple stuff, following his directions step by step while we worked on that day's project.  And I honestly never realized the thought and planning that went into some of these seemingly small tasks at the time. But this weekend, we finally began doing some of the more serious landscaping at our new (1 year old) house.  Before we could start the actual work, Britt and I had to decide where flower beds were going to be, where the walkway would be, which bushes and flowers to buy, what kinds of stones, etc.  There were a ton of decisions to make before we ever even got dirty. Next came the calculating and buying step.  We had to figure out how...

So North Korea tested another ballistic missile that can supposedly reach anywhere in the mainland United States.  That means you should probably be paying attention to this if you aren't already.  Now I know that many people on each side of politics have differing views concerning how to handle situations like these via war and diplomacy.  There have been many diplomatic attempts to persuade North Korea to cease its nuclear operations, including current requests from the president to China and Japan to handle this diplomatically.  I am far from an expert on international relations, so allow me to attempt to simplify this situation. My family and I live in our home.  It has property lines, walls, and doors.  If you threaten, or even insinuate, that you may harm someone in my family; and show that you have the equipment, ability, and possible intent to do so; I will not wait for you to break in the door to deal with you.  Yes, we can try to work out o...