The Post's Maryann Haggerty and columnist Elizabeth Razzi answer your questions about the local housing market.

For temporary use like this you can pick up a brand new one that uses your existing seat belt for under 50 bucks at a shop like Target. For daily use they recommend a seat with it’s own harness. They cost much more, I know we have one in each car at $250 a piece.

[...] and HUD-1 Settlement Statement (beginning on page 46; link below) to see if any changes were made since they were unveiled. The two biggest issues that I see [...]

Let me begin by saying I think that uniform Good Faith Estimates are a huge step in the right direction. However, I’m quickly reviewing the newly revised Good Faith Estimate and HUD-1 Settlement Statement (beginning on page 46; link below) to see if any changes were made since they were unveiled. The two biggest issues that I see are:

1. No monthly mortgage payment.
2. No funds due for closing.

HUD boasts that consumers will save an average of $700 by using these new forms, yet consumers won’t have the tools to compare without these two factors. It seems like HUD was so focused on YSP (which seems less clear to me on the new form) and controlling closing costs, they skipped a few important details.

Am I missing something right under my nose? Click here to read the final rule. I’ll go through this again and perhaps dig into the entire document over the weekend…I’m just wondering if any of you have more insight into this.

a

Two Flaws with the new Good Faith Estimate

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Rental company car seats can be a little unpredictable, Ardell. Go to Target and get a Graco Turbobooter. It’s about 1/3 the price of high end seats (which we own too) and has gotten top ratings. My 5-year-old loves it.

Hi Ardell,

Check with the rental car companies. If they are renting a car while they’re here, you can typically rent one at the same time.

Also, check craigslist.

I just got a call from my daughter that I need a booster seat to pick them up at the airport tomorrow night.  They are flying in for Thanksgiving.  In previous years she was smaller and the baby carrier doubled as a car seat.  But she just turned 4 years old and apparently needs a booster seat.

I’ll have to Google what it is.  Apparently it is too big for them to bring one with them, or that would be a lot of trouble.  I wonder if I can rent one?

If anyone knows anything about 4 year olds and booster seats :)  I’d appreciate the info.  Maybe I can buy one and then donate it to…someplace.  I spent 4hours today shopping for their arrival.  Had I known earlier…oh well.  Kids!

a

Nana needs a booster seat by tomorrow night

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Seattle Jo,

My first thought was that you didn’t have to notify the lender, but remember that you will have to switch the insurance covers which covers both you and the lender. The policy your received as a condition of the original mortgage was an Owner’s Policy. If you rent it out you need a Landlord’s Policy, and the lender is to be notified at least annually that you are carrying appropriate insurance on the house.

“And I can safely say that scenario in 134 (zero reserves) would not fly with us or any of our lenders. Have you seen that recently Ardell?”

It was a place in Snohomish one of my clients was going to buy as a place to go for weekend ski trips. Funny thing was the listing agent said they were well run and had plenty of reserves. When I got the Resale Certificate it said $0 in reserves. We cancelled the transaction immediately so I don’t know what my client’s lender might have done, but there had been financed sales just before that, so someone was lending with zero in reserves.

@Rhonda,

If we get the systemic bank failure that I have been predicting, you will need the ability to sustain yourself for a few months. While a bunker may have practical applications in the future, I don’t think the war will be for at least two years. Your resources are better spent building relationships and stockpiling food, cash, fuel, and learning how to use a shotgun.

@Leanne,

When I say 60s/70s, I am saying that we will rollback several decades as the depression destroys wealth and people that have been living off the FIRE industries will have to retool to meet the demands of repatriated industry. Look at the lifestyles of the 1920s and then the 1930s. We were better off in the 1880s/90s. Societies expand and contract. First Century Rome was far better off than 5th Century Rome.

While I will admit that the average person may not have had the ability to see the financial doom we were building, look around at people that had the facts rudely shoved in their faces, and continued to believe that we could just flip property and paper back and forth to create wealth. Many of these people were very well educated, but were blinded by their circumstances. I’m also of the opinion that many of the people that were running these large institutions lacked the wisdom to see more than 3 months in the future. Their compensation is always based upon hitting their numbers, rather than securing their future. WM’s Killinger would be my poster-boy for this phenomenon.

Lest we think I am being excessively arrogant, I will freely admit that my industry (air transport) had sealed its fate by 1999, and it was readily apparent that it was going to implode by mid-2000, I didn’t come to that reality for another two years. It is very difficult to see your own livelihood as being unsustainable in its present form when you are drawing paychecks.

Remember, debt is the antithesis of wealth and our societal priorities relating to commerce should be to build and sustain wealth and the means of production. Housing is not production, but an end-use consumer item. Finance is nothing more than a means to direct money to its most productive end, rather than a means unto itself. Goldman Sachs produces nothing. It is an intermediary between people with money and those with the means of production.

Leanne, I feel the conflict within you. Come over and join us on the Dark Side. It is your destiny.

Darth Eleua - unofficial ray of sunshine for Rain City Guide.

I don’t recall reading about that much violence, anarchy, or starvation in the 60s and 70s Leanne, although I suppose people did enjoy hunting, fishing, and gardening.

No doubt people will go through some tough times. Those in real estate may take a disproportionate share of the burden. I doubt people will be forced to downgrade to only 1 station wagon per family though!

Russ, no kidding. Maybe it’s part of a IQ test… I hope I passed!

The NMLS is a case study in fusterclucks. Seriously, whoever designed that site needs to dragged out back and shot. The instructions were written by lawyers. The interface was designed by computer geeks who haven’t seen sunlight in years. The whole process is just backwards. I am still trying to decipher what the hell an MU2 and MU4 is in plain english.

Every other day I get some email from some other state that decided LOs need to take a test or 24 hours of courses. I spend more time trying to make sure I am compli