| BBB Urges to Know the Facts about Reverse Mortgages
Raleigh, NC, May 30, 2007 --(PR.com)-- Beverly Baskin, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Eastern North Carolina, advises long-term homeowners with equity built from homeownership, that a reverse mortgage can be a good investment. Reverse mortgages allow homeowners to turn their home equity into spendable cash without having to make monthly interest or principal payments.Under a reverse mortgage, the lender sends the borrower money via a lump-sum payment, a line-of-credit, monthly check or a combination of all three. The homeowner is not required to pay back any of the loan advances or interest until the loan term is over. Generally, no repayment is due until the borrower no longer occupies the house.Before venturing into a reverse mortgage the BBB, along with the Federal Trade Commission, suggest that homeowners consider the following facts:Reverse mortgages are rising-debt loans.
Subprime fiasco exposes manipulation by brokerages
TAHER AFGHANI WAS WORKING for discount retailer Target Corp. near San Francisco when friends told him about the riches to be made in Californias Mortgage Alley. It was 2004, and the U.S. real estate market was on fire. Down in Southern California, a hub for lenders specializing in loans to people with weak, or subprime, credit, Afghanis pals were making a fortune pushing risky mortgages on homebuyers. After tagging along with a buddy on a company trip to Los Cabos, Mexico, Afghani quit Target, headed south and began hustling loans at Costa Mesa-based Secured Funding Corp. I had never seen so much money thrown around in one weekend, Afghani, 27, says of the Cabo getaway. It was crazy. All these kids, literally 18 to 26, were loadedthe best clothes, the cars, the girls, everything.
Beauty of BYOB: Orchids and Zinho are two spots where the wine ...
It's not only the high cost of wines on restaurant wine lists that makes the BYOB (bring your own bottle) concept so popular. It's also knowing that you can select your wine from the large assortment offered in a retail wine shop. Diners from outside the state of Pennsylvania are usually astounded at the high cost of wines in our restaurants. Part of the reason for the excessive prices in the restaurants in our state is the pricing policy of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. The restaurant trade in other states can buy their wines directly from a distributor at a cost which is typically 35 to 50 percent lower than the retail price. The typical markup for wines sold in restaurants inside or outside of our state is 300 percent. The restaurants argue that they need that profit margin to compensate for the purchase of glassware and replacement of broken glasses.
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