The One Year Anniversary of the "Credit Crisis"

In August of 2007 we knew that changes were occurring in the mortgage industry. What we didn't know was that while the owners of our company were on vacation, various investors and lenders would simply stop funding approved, ready to go loans. Leaving us here to desperately try to explain to people why suddenly they actually weren't buying or refinancing a home after all.

Like any good employee would do, we called the owners and whined, "Everyone is mad at us, what should we do?"

And like anyone with thirty years of experience in the field, on vacation with their family, would respond they said, "Everything will be fine."

The combination of perspective and Disneyland has an unbeatably calming effect, evidently.

And alas, they were right, as one year later we're all here to tell the tale, though it's still unclear if the worst is over.

Here is an interesting article about the beginning of the end of the mortgage world as we'd known it for several years.

And here is a terrific analysis of the various financial sectors that have been affected and the invasive steps the government has made (and is poised to make) in order to stave off a recession.

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New Tax Incentive for First-Time Home Buyers

The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 authorizes a $7,500 tax credit for qualified first-time home buyers. To qualify for the credit, a home must be purchased between April 9, 2008 and before July 1, 2009, and buyers must meet income restrictions. This tax credit combined with still relatively-low interest rates and house prices at a 5-year low make now a great time to enter the real estate market for the first time!

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Home Improvement Goes Green

Portland, Oregon is regarded as one of the greenest cities in America. As a Portland real estate professional, new home buyers often ask, “What’s available for environmentally friendly homes?” To my surprise, green architecture doesn’t seem to be catching on very quickly with Oregon homes. Yes, there are a few projects popping up here and there, but the majority of newly built homes for sale are following many of the same old environmentally unfriendly guidelines.

My response to Portland, Oregon residents and new home buyers is this, “Get into the house you like and make environmentally friendly improvements on your own.” When your financial situation is right, pull some equity out of your home to make some green improvements. Why wait a decade for Portland real estate builders to go green, when you can get started with your current home? The following are some easy tips for making your home and lifestyle green:

• Have insulated windows installed to conserve heat.
• Buy energy efficient appliances and replace your desktop computers with laptops.
• Have your yard landscaped in a way that conserves water and requires less maintenance.
• Have an advanced climate control system installed.
• Have skylights installed.
• Go to home depot to get water saving showerheads and fluorescent light bulbs.
• Call PGE to get on their renewable energy program.

There are a couple hundred more tricks for making your house green. These are some of the more feasible ideas that generate the greatest results. Some of these tips are less extreme, whereas many of these tips can be made affordable by refinancing your home and using some equity. As a bonus, green improvements aren't just good for the environment, they save you money too!

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Better to Rent or Buy

The New York Times published a user-friendly graph that measures if/when it's better to buy rather than rent.

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PMI Revises Distressed Housing Market List

Effective June 1st PMI, a major mortgage insurance company, has added to its list of distressed housing market areas. They have also divided them into "Level 1" and "Level 2" segments. Given that the options for obtaining combination first/second mortgages to avoid large down payments have all but disappeared, how much mortgage insurance companies are willing to insure is becoming increasingly important for those seeking to purchase or refinance with minimal down payment/equity.

Areas listed under Level 1 are eligible for mortgage insurance up to a 95% loan-to-value ratio.

"Level 1 is for those... areas where we anticipate the downturn to be less severe based on underlying fundamentals, including unemployment trends, home price volatility, etc."

Areas listed under Level 2 are eligible for mortgage insurance once the loan-to-value has been REDUCED by 5% of the maximum allowable for the particular loan program being used. And in any event, the loan-to-value cannot exceed 90%.

"Level 2 is for those... areas that are projected to continue to experience more significant economic and/or housing downturns and are expected to take longer to improve."

Oregon and Washington state are not largely affected by this yet, with one exception. Bend, Oregon is on the Level 2 list. So however bleak it looks to the average person driving around Portland seeing "For Sale" signs on seemingly every third house, PMI doesn't think we have it so bad -- we'll see how it goes over the next several months.

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Mortgage Loan Calculator

With the majority of economists now speculating that rates will either go up or perhaps stay the same for the foreseeable future, anyone who has been thinking about refinancing will probably want to look into it now. We're not expert economists here, but rates have increased a little bit every day since Bernanke lowered the discount rate last week. Below is a calculator to help you determine if a refinance is a good idea for you.

Also, for potential homebuyers, this will give you an idea of what you can afford. Be sure to use the "mortgage" function rather than "loan" function so you'll have the most accurate total payment including property taxes and homeowners' insurance.

Posted by All Pacific Mortgage at 12:22 PM 6 comments  

Your Home Equity Line Might Vanish

Last month we received a memo suggesting we inform our clients that many lenders were poised to freeze their HELOCS. So in our monthly newsletter we let everyone know that if they know they’ll need the money from their Home Equity Lines they might want to take it out now and put it into an interest-bearing account. But before we could even get the newsletters in the mail, I received a letter from my bank. My HELOC has not been frozen, but the maximum line has been decreased based on the bank’s belief that houses have decreased in value, generally speaking. So now I know firsthand – it’s happening. The bank told me I could pay for an appraisal to be done by THEIR appraiser if I wanted to dispute it, but I know that will likely prove to be wasted effort, time and money.

I’m not overly alarmed by it. According to Freddie Mac’s chief economist’s report the housing market probably won’t improve as a whole until 2010. In our favor, we are still experiencing job growth in Oregon at this point which offers hope in terms of recovery. But it’s a good time to create a short term budget if you were planning to leverage the equity in your home over the next few years. Here’s a very thorough and easy to navigate budget created by Dave Ramsey if you need help there.

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Just When You Think it's Safe...

Right after I explained all of the zero-down financing options available to would-be homebuyers last week, I was greeted Monday morning by several memos from mortgage insurance companies effectively stating that conventional 100% loans are probably going the way of the dinosaur soon.

To back up, all conventional loan applicants who do not have a 20% down payment are required to have mortgage insurance. When you apply for the loan, the lender approves the loan subject to the mortgage insurance company approving your loan as well, thereby mitigating the lender’s risk.

For a while now, several markets have been listed by mortgage insurance companies as “declining.” Currently all of California, Nevada and Arizona are on that list. For a while Bend and Medford, Oregon have been on these lists too. But the latest list also includes the Portland metropolitan area (meaning Clark County, Washington as well). Seattle is still hanging tough (though Tacoma is on some lists).

But just to keep things confusing, every mortgage insurance company puts out its own list, and Portland isn’t on all of them. Neither is Bend or Medford. (Sorry to those it affects, but NV, CA and AZ are on all of them.)

The purpose for these lists is that mortgage insurance companies will no longer insure properties in declining markets to 100%. So as of today, we may be able to find a no-down conventional loan for someone (most lenders are still doing them, but as I said, subject to being able to insure them), but for how long depends on when the remaining mortgage insurance companies decide we’re in a declining market. Soon it might be that people will need at least a 3% down payment for conventional financing.

The good news is, HUD has thus far been unable to ban down-payment-assistance programs on FHA loans. Even better, FHA loan limits are expected to increase by as much as 30%. So I have a feeling we’re going to be doing a lot of government loans in the coming months.

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Is This a Good Time to Buy a Home?

According to this article it’s a very bad time for young people to buy a home. I’m not sure under what investment strategy it’s considered best to buy when prices are high rather than low, but I’ll just let that absurd tidbit in this article go for now.

What I do want to address is the ridiculous notion that first time home buyers have to put 10% down. Entirely untrue. Here’s a short list of options for first time home buyers with NO down payment. As in ZERO down payment.

1. FHA – FHA loans require a 3% down payment. However, HUD’s attempt to outlaw the gifting of the down payment from “down payment assistance” programs has thus far been unsuccessful. On an FHA loan, a first time buyer can use this gift program for the down payment, and ask the seller to pay all of the closing costs (especially in this market full of desperate sellers). Resulting in zero investment by the buyer. Alternatively, if you’re lucky enough to be related to someone who wants to give you money, you can receive a gift from family for the entire 3% down and closing costs.

2. FannieMae Flex 100 – This is a 0 down loan with mortgage insurance. The seller can pay all of the closing costs or the buyer can receive a gift from family to cover the closing costs.

3. FannieMae My Community – This is a zero down loan also with mortgage insurance. The closing costs can be paid by the seller or by a gift from family; however, on this program the buyer does need to have $500 of his/her own money. (Income Limits apply for this program.)

4. VA – Veterans, including reservists, are eligible for VA loans which require zero down payment. The closing costs can be paid by the seller or by a gift from a family member.

5. Oregon State Bond – For this program the buyer cannot have owned a home for the past three years and income limits apply. Under this program the state of Oregon offers first time buyers a below market rate and also pays 3% of the loan amount toward the buyer’s down payment. It’s done in conjunction with either a Fannie Mae or an FHA loan and follows the credit and qualifying guidelines of whichever program is being used.

I don’t know where some of these people get their information, but it’s really not anymore difficult to get a loan today than it was ten years ago generally speaking. It is tough out there for those who want to become billionaires overnight by investing in real estate, without working, having any money to invest or paying their bills. But for first time home buyers - there's no time like the present to start investing in your future.

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Have You Been Triggered Recently?

What’s a “Trigger?”

Trigger refers to a service sold by the credit reporting bureaus to credit card, mortgage and other lending agencies. When a consumer’s credit profile meets certain predetermined criteria, the Credit Bureaus sell the applicant’s name and contact information to companies subscribing to this service.

The Credit Bureaus don’t provide lending institutions with the consumers’ credit data, only the names of those who meet the criteria specified by the lender buying the service. The lender then uses the names and contact information to solicit the consumer. This is how you receive all that mail saying you’re “pre-approved” for a loan when you haven’t even applied for one! .

What can you do?

To remove your name from the National Credit Bureau’s list of pre-approved offers of credit and insurance, complete an on-line form on www.optoutprescreen.com or call at 888-5-OPT-OUT (888-567-8688). You can also contact the Credit Bureaus directly, as well as opt back in if you change your mind.

To contact the Credit Bureaus directly, you can reach them at: Equifax 800-685-5000 Experian 888-243-6951 TransUnion 866-922-2100

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Listening to economists is often about as useful as listening to the weather report. The bond market didn’t respond positively yesterday to news that retail sales for January were higher than economists expected. February will be a good month for retail sales too if what we’re spending to say “I love you” today is any indication. Americans must really be feeling the pinch of this recession, eh? Unfortunately, that’s bad news for interest rates and we’ve seen increases pretty consistently.

Furthermore, everybody and their dogs are speculating about what will happen in Oregon when the new Fannie Mae loan limits go into effect. So far I’ve heard that Bend and Medford will increase to $430,000 and $425,000 respectively, but nothing on the Portland area. From another source, Oregon isn’t expected to raise limits at all, anywhere. As always, we’ll have to wait and see how it goes. The loan limits are calculated based on median home prices for each area, and in the Portland area we might already be where we need to be.

In other news the Oregon legislature is considering a mortgage reform bill – similar to the one that didn’t pass last year. Most of the line items are pretty straight forward (and for many are standard practice, but need to be legislated for the unscrupulous few) and some of the proposed items are already in place. For instance, brokers already have to disclose their yield spread premiums. But one thing that stands out is the line requiring lenders to verify the income and assets of every borrower – which means no more stated income loans. And there are instances when self-employed people really do have enough income for the loan they’re applying for, but can’t verify it in a way that meets Fannie Mae guidelines for a variety of reasons. Many lenders have stopped doing these “stated income” loans already, but it will really be unfortunate for a lot of high quality loan applicants if they go away altogether.

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Protect and Improve Your Credit Score

Thanks to the Federal Reserve, rates have dropped below 6% a few times over the past month (today included). That's the good news. The bad news is that people whose credit score is below 680 will pay higher rates on all conventional loans. Those with scores below 620 will be paying 2% higher than the going rate.

If you're planning to buy a house next year or think you might want or need to refinance to take advantage of the nice low rates, make sure you optimize your chances of having a high credit score. In addition to the famed "pay your bills on time" and "don't file for bankruptcy" there are additional steps you can take to protect or raise your score.

1. Don't have more (or less) than about 2 or 3 credit cards. I have personally seen this make a difference. My husband and I have had all joint credit accounts for ten years, except I have a Macy's card (I have no choice, of course, as Macy's often offers an addition 10-20% off if you use their card!), and my credit score is always 10-20 points higher than his.

2. Don't max out any of your credit cards. Or better yet, pay them in full each billing cycle.

3. Do use your credit cards regularly, so that you have current credit ratings. If you have a card you keep for emergencies that you never use, have Netflix (or some other recurring bill) charge your card and then pay it off every month.

4. Don't take out any new loans right before you apply for a home loan - brand new debt temporarily adversely affects your score. In other words if you plan to buy a car and a house, buy the house first. ANYONE will give you a car loan -- even if you filed bankruptcy yesterday. Home loans are a little trickier, so get that established first.

5. If you have collections to pay or want to pay off and close some accounts (make sure you keep AT LEAST 3 accounts open), do it well in advance of applying for your loan, as recently closed accounts adversely affects your score.

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Adjustable Rate About to Reset?

For some people who are struggling to make their recently-adjusted mortgage payments both Countrywide and HUD are offering to help. Generally, it's a catch-22 -- if you fell behind on your payment, then your credit wasn't good enough to refinance. HUD is going to be allowing people who had a good payment history UNTIL the adjustment to refinance even if they have recent late payments. Countrywide seems to be implementing something similar.

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Dave Ramsey's Mortgage Calculator

I've received several e-mails from people wondering why I don't recommend paying off (or paying down) mortgages. But actually I neither recommend that people do nor do I recommend they don't. I think this is a personal preference. Either investment strategy can work out well for people. For those who want to put themselves on a plan to pay their mortgages off early, Dave Ramsey has a great and easy calculator here.

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Myths About Mortgages & Home Ownership

Grad Money Matters' post about mortgage and homeownership is mostly self-explanatory, but I have a few disagreements. It's worth reading just for the commenter that prompted an author correction (I agree completely with the commenter). Here's what I would add:

Myth 1 - ISPF says that it's untrue that "If I can afford the mortgage payments, I can afford to own the house." It is true that owning a home comes with maintenance expenses and likely higher utility bills, but the property taxes, home-owners insurance and HOA fees are all considered part of the mortgage payment from the lender's perspective. So if you can afford your mortgage payment (according to the old fashioned method of qualifying for a loan), you can probably afford the house in general.

Myth 2 -- ISPF says that you might not benefit on your tax return from owning your home. I know that this is a possibility, but it is so remote that it's really not worth mentioning. It actually happened to me once though. My husband and I have always lived well below our means, and when we bought our first house way back when, it was a teeny tiny little house for $80,000, and we did an adjustable rate loan at 5% interest. The interest we were paying wasn't even close to enough to effectively itemize. Still -- if you can find a house for $80,000 these days, let me know -- I'll take it, tax break or no. Also, even though we didn't benefit tax wise, we had a $650 mortgage payment (PITI) for four years and then sold the house for $110,000. MUCH better ROI than if we'd rented.

Myth 3 -- ISPF says that 40 or 50 year loan terms are not a good idea. I completely agree. Neither are 20 year terms usually a very good deal.

Myth 4 -- ISPF says not to enroll in a bi-weekly payment program. Absolutely. Why pay someone to do something for you that you can EASILY do for yourself? A variation on the bi-weekly program, if you make ONE additional principle payment each YEAR on a 30 year loan, your loan will pay off in the 22nd year. Another option is ask your loan officer to calculate for you a 15 year (or 10 year or however many years you want to pay it off) amortization and just pay that much every month. It's not that complicated, don't pay anyone to do it for you. I'll do it for you if you e-mail me.

Myth 5 -- ISPF says that fixed rate payments don't equate to fixed rate expenses. Well duh. However, what do you have to show at then end of ten years of giving your landlord $1000 per month? The answer is: nothing. A home is an investment -- renting is carefree in comparison, but that doesn't mean it's always financially savvy.

Myth 6 -- ISPF says that you don't have to have private mortgage insurance even if you don't put 20% down. This is sort of true. Most people have been doing "piggyback" loans the last five years or so. However, many lenders have stopped funding second mortgages altogether. Since all of the chaos happened this summer, I haven't done a piggyback loan, but I'm sure they'll come back around. Also, for people earning less than $100,000 per year, mortgage insurance is now tax-deductible, so it's not always worth the hassle (or expense) of avoiding it.

Myth 7 -- ISPF says lenders can amortize your loan on a refinance so that you will still pay the loan off at the original date. This is true of a "streamline refinance," and it can be done on a regular refinance, but I've never had anyone ask to do it.

Myth 8 -- ISPF says shopping for a mortgage at multiple places only counts as one inquiry on your credit report for credit scoring purposes. It's the truth. Same is true if you've been all over town shopping for cars this week.

Myth 9 -- ISPF says you should get pre-approved for a loan FIRST, then shop for a house. YES! It's a rare real estate agent who will take you shopping for a house if you haven't been qualified by a lender anyway.

Myth 10 -- ISPF was spreading that tired old rumor that "the bank owns your house." But was big enough to retract when the error was pointed out.

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What Does an Annual Percentage Rate Mean to Me?

On Monday I linked to an article advising homebuyers to make sure they read the Truth-in-Lending Disclosure which calculates the annual percentage rate on the loan they're about to accept. People also use this calculation when they're shopping for a lender in advance. Chances are if you ask half a dozen Loan Officers what the APR means, six of them will tell you it doesn't really mean anything, it's just a dumb calculation the government makes us do, and that nobody really understands it or knows how to explain it anyway.

But that's only partially true. It does have limited usefulness and there are better ways to determine what kind of deal you're getting on your loan, but it does mean something, and as luck would have it, I even know what that is! So I'll let you in on the secret -- then, if you have to, you can even explain it to your Loan Officer.

A Truth-in-Lending Disclosure contains four boxes across the top:

Box 1) Annual Percentage Rate -- The cost of your credit expressed as an annual rate. Because you may be paying loan discount "points" and other "prepaid" finance charges at closing, the APR disclosed is often higher than the interest rate on your loan. All of the items on your Good Faith Estimate are figured into this calculation EXCEPT the following: Appraisal, Credit Report, Homeowners Insurance, Property Taxes and Title Insurance

Box 2) Finance Charge -- The cost of your credit expressed in dollars. It's the total amount of interest calculated at the interest rate over the life of the loan, plus Prepaid Finance Charges and the total amount of any required mortgage insurance charged over the life of the loan.

Box 3) Amount Financed -- The loan amount applied for, minus the Prepaid Finance Charges. Prepaid Finance Charges include items paid at or before settlement, such as loan origination, commitment or discount fees ("points"), adjusted interest, and initial mortgage insurance premium. The Amount Financed is lower than the amount you applied for because it represents a NET figure. If you applied for $50,000 and the Prepaid Finance Charges total $2,000. the Amount Financed would be $48,000. The idea being that even if you borrow $50,000, if you had to pay $2,000 to borrow it, you ESSENTIALLY only borrowed $48,000.

Box 4) Total of Payments -- The total amount you will have paid if you make the minimum required payments for the entire term of the loan (you'll want to have a tissue handy if you tend to be a weepy sort --- it's a big, ugly number). This includes principle, interest and mortgage insurance premiums, but does not include payments for real estate taxes or property insurance premiums.

It's important to take a good look at your Truth-in-Lending disclosure, but if you're comparing lenders or making sure you understand your loan documents, it's much more straightforward (and you'll get a more accurate result) if you compare rates, fees, monthly payments and loan amounts from the Good Faith Estimate (and the Note, if you're at closing). It's difficult to verify just from a TIL exactly what you're comparing.

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Do You Need an Attorney to Review Your Loan Documents?

Once in a while we come across a borrower who would like to review their closing documents prior to signing them at the title company. Which is absolutely fine with us. But sometimes they do something silly like take them to an attorney, bring them back with various lines scratched out, saying we'll have to remove certain verbiage from our (pretty standard) documents and THEN they'll sign them.

At which point we have to tell the borrower they'll have to go ahead and ask their attorney if he'd like to loan them the $250,000 then, because we don't know any lenders who will alter their loan documents. "Oh," is their typical response, and then they sign the documents as they were prepared.

Ah attorneys -- can't live with 'em... can't live with 'em.

We've had other people spend two hours reading every line of their documents while we all sat there waiting too. All of us who work in this business generally verify about five or six things for accuracy and sign our names as quickly as possible -- because we know what's negotiable and what, simply, is not.

I actually ran across a good article today that lists the very things that are useful, helpful and/or very important to watch for when signing your loan documents. If you understand the basic things in this article, you shouldn't have to waste your money on an attorney -- who probably won't be very useful in the end anyway.

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Eat the Rich

There was a great cartoon in The Columbian last week. Two guys are walking down Wall Street and one says to the other, "It turns out, poor people with bad credit can't afford to buy a home. Who knew?"

And that perfectly illustrates the Wall Street greed that led us to the current liquidity crisis. Last week the Federal Reserve acted (finally) on news that Countrywide might go bankrupt (among other issues) and cut the discount rate. This doesn't affect lending rates, what it does is give lending institutions who are having temporary cash flow problems an inexpensive way to borrow money until they're back on their feet. Sort of like using your equity line to pay for an emergency and then paying yourself back, instead of liquidating your 401K.

This has been met with mixed reactions. On one side people are wondering what took him so long. And on the other side, people are saying, listen those greedy rich jerks should be punished for the mess they made. Why are we always bailing out the rich people?

It's a good question, and no one wants to reward the billionaire investment bankers who have gotten rich(er) on the backs of innocent poor people. But it's not entirely accurate to say that's what the Federal Reserve has done. Were the banking industry to collapse, Angelo Mozilo, George Bush and the rest of the billionaires would still be out golfing next week. It's you and I who would be standing in line at the soup kitchen.

As it is, I've now been able to find a home for the loan applications of most of the people who, just last week, thought they might never close. And I'm really hoping I'll be able to help out some people who were, unfortunately, refinanced two years ago by an unscrupulous lender who put them in a terrible situation. If the new restrictions prevent me from doing so, their mortgage payment will almost double, and they'll probably end up in foreclosure, even though they have 50% equity and excellent credit (they have very little income and will not be able to make the increased payment). They're very scared and I want to help them, even if that helps Wall Street too.

Love might make the world go 'round, but it's the free-flowing exchange of money each day that puts food on our tables and roofs over our loved-ones' heads.

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The Day My Mortgage Died

I still have a job (so far), in case you were wondering.

I also have a lot of people who have signed loan documents and think they're closing on their houses tomorrow.

What I don't have, is anyone who will wire them the loan money.

As I said earlier in the week, people who are seeking government loans or standard conforming loans are fine. I have plenty of those. But for anything outside the proverbial "box" the choices are few and far between. Basically if the investor doesn't have the word "bank" in their name, they don't have enough money to honor their lock commitments (or they're simply too scared to spend what money they have left).

And the banks are sharply reducing what they're willing to do also.

I have people mad at me, saying, "But how can the investors not honor their lock commitments?! That doesn't happen!"

And I understand their confusion - I've never heard of such a thing either. But that's what has been happening the last two days. It's ugly out here.

As a result I had a chance to experience firsthand how easy it is for brokers to commit fraud. I was looking for a home for a borrower I can no longer get done in-house. And I called a wholesale lender, explained to the account rep that I needed a no-documentation loan because my guy is on temporary disability - which is not considered qualifying income - therefore I need a loan that doesn't ask for source or amount of income. (Permanent disability, on the other hand, is income we can use for qualifying.) So the rep (who does not even know me) said, "Oh, what you do is say that it's permanent disability -- no one will check -- and then you have to state how much it is, and make sure that you state enough to keep his debt-to-income ratio under 40%."

I would have told him that I'm not really prepared to risk going to prison for the sake of making $800 this week, but I was too stunned.

Here's hoping for less excitement next week.

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The Mortgage Market Crisis

The current situation for mortgage lenders has everyone buzzing. A lot of people I've worked with are losing their jobs, but many are not losing their senses of humor. When we sent well-wishes to a person we knew at a recently-belly-up company, he e-mailed back that we shouldn't worry about him -- said he was cooking up a tupperware pyramid scheme and would be calling us to invest with him once he got it going.

But jokes aside, part of my job is to attract new clients. The other day I told my boss that it doesn't do us much good to find people who want to buy a home if we don't have any loans to offer them. And he pointed out that we still have plenty of loans -- for people who qualify -- just like the old days. Which is true. In fact, interest rates on regular conforming loans have been decreasing, and it's likely the Fed will cut them again in September, if not sooner.

The hardest part of working through such a volatile time though is that we have people who are supposed to close on a home they've purchased, and their loan programs have disappeared. We get notice daily (and sometimes hourly) of investors who are changing their guidelines or discontinuing loan programs or even closing their doors. And while you might think it's for his own good that the investor, who (on paper) is clearly over-extending himself, can no longer purchase his property, he has a plan and believes he's making a good investment. And as his mortgage advisor (as opposed to his mother) it isn't pleasant to tell him, sorry, it's not going to happen now.

Over-extending oneself can be a good (if risky) way to create wealth. I'll write more about that next week.

Whenever you fall, pick something up. – Oswald Avery

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