You've probably seen the signs posted illegally on city sidewalks promising "Credit Repair." These scam artists promise desperate consumers that bankruptcies and chronic late payments can be magically removed from their credit reports for a fee. The only truthful part of this claim is the fee. Only time (seven to ten years) will remove bankruptcies and improper use of credit from a credit report.
Rapid Credit Rescoring is something entirely different. If you've ever applied for a mortgage, you know the importance of your credit score, which reflects your history of debt repayment and supposedly predicts the likelihood that you will repay your mortgage on time. A minimum credit score of 650 is required for most mortgages today. Loan qualifying is automated now, and there is little to no flexibility in the requirements.
Suppose you have a credit score of 642. If your lender doesn't know about Rapid Credit Rescoring, you are out of luck. If your lender is on the ball, she will look for minor issues that may be easy to remove from your credit report. Suppose you have always paid your bills on time, but one payment was 30 days late because you moved and the bill was lost in the shuffle. Or maybe you had a parking ticket, and you didn't know until your credit report was pulled that the city had turned your ticket over to a collection agency. Or maybe you cancelled your membership in a book club, but the book club continued to bill you for books, and when you didn't pay, the book club charged off your small debt and reported it to the credit bureau.
Believe it or not, just one of these issues will actually prevent you from buying a house. However, if you are smart enough to choose a lender who knows about Rapid Credit Rescoring, the lender can run your credit report through a "what if" program and determine how much your credit score might be increased if you could remove these small blemishes. You need to provide proof that you paid the parking ticket, or you need to call your credit card company, explain why you were late that one time, promise never to do it again, and beg them to remove the late pay from your credit report. Usually they will do this, especially if you call on Friday and act really polite and contrite.
Once you have proof that you have rectified your little credit crime, your mortgage lender can submit the proof to a company for Rapid Credit Rescoring. This will cost you about $140. What? Just to get a new credit score? Yes, that's right. But remember, you must either 1) get your credit score in line with the automated lending standards, or 2) pay a higher interest rate, or 3) forget about buying the house you want. $140 is a bargain if it enables you to buy the house at the best possible interest rate.
If you are preparing to buy a house, get your free credit report several months in advance. There are three credit reporting bureaus, and you need to get a report from each one, because they don't all have the same information, and you don't know which bureau's report your lender will use. It can take several months to remove errors and surprises from your credit report, but if you do all the legwork yourself and allow plenty of time, the corrections will be reflected in a new credit score in about 30 days. Then you can avoid last minute trauma during the home buying process, and save the $140 charge for Rapid Credit Rescoring.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Tucson Museum of Art Craft Fair
The 26th Annual Tucson Museum of Art Holiday Craft Fair is this Friday through Sunday from 10 AM to 5 PM. On Saturday and Sunday, there will also be an Art Book Sale.
The fair will be on the lovely shaded patios and in the lobby of the new part of the museum at 140 North Main Street in the historic El Presidio barrio north of Presidio Park.
The fair will be on the lovely shaded patios and in the lobby of the new part of the museum at 140 North Main Street in the historic El Presidio barrio north of Presidio Park.
Some of the museum galleries are in fabulous old territorial homes. The Cordova House is believed to predate the 1854 Gadsden Purchase, which would mean it was built when Tucson was part of Mexico. You can peek inside the Cordova house while enjoying live music in the Cordova Courtyard beer garden.
120 artists will offer jewelry, ceramics, water colors, metal work and more. Fancy eats and gorgeous desserts will be for sale.
120 artists will offer jewelry, ceramics, water colors, metal work and more. Fancy eats and gorgeous desserts will be for sale.
Get a start on your holiday shopping, or just enjoy the beautiful weather and music for free in a lovely downtown environment.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
October Residential Sales Statistics
Tucson Association of Realtors has released the Residential Sales Statistics for October. The average sale price was $262,251, which is 12% less than the record high achieved in June of this year, but only 1.7% lower than the October 2006 average.
The median sale price is also less than June's all time high, but only $1,150 lower than it was twelve months ago.
Number of active listings has been increasing since July this year. In October, 9,313 properties were for sale through the MLS.
Number of sold properties increased from 683 in September to 790 in October, but sold units are still 28% below a year ago.
The median sale price is also less than June's all time high, but only $1,150 lower than it was twelve months ago.
Number of active listings has been increasing since July this year. In October, 9,313 properties were for sale through the MLS.
Number of sold properties increased from 683 in September to 790 in October, but sold units are still 28% below a year ago.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Tohono Chul Park
Tohono Chul (Desert Corner) Park will be open to the public free of charge from 8 AM to 5 PM on Thanksgiving Day, November 22. This lovely bit of desert northwest of Oracle and Ina Roads is the perfect place to take the relatives and walk off your feast.
Join the mailing list so you'll know about upcoming events like the December 2nd performance of U of A's Harp Fusion, the largest touring ensemble of concert harps in the world. http://www.tohonochulpark.org/
Join the mailing list so you'll know about upcoming events like the December 2nd performance of U of A's Harp Fusion, the largest touring ensemble of concert harps in the world. http://www.tohonochulpark.org/
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Bicycle Recycling and Art
Bicycle Inter-Community Action and Salvage (BICAS) will have its 12th Annual Art Auction, Fundraiser and Celebration on Sunday, November 18 from 6 to 9 PM at Artfare, 55 N 6th Ave., across from the Ronstadt Transit Center, just north of Congress St.. Music, food and entertainment will be offered, and winner of the silent auction will be announced at 9 PM. The art will be sculpture, jewelry, paintings and more, all made from bicycle parts or having bicycle themes.
BICAS believes that if you give people fish, you have fed them for a day. Teach people to fish; they can feed themselves for a lifetime. Therefore, the good people of BICAS will not repair your bike for you, but they would be delighted to teach you how to repair it, and you can use their tools.
They will also help people of any age who live in the barrios near BICAS to built their own bikes free of cost. Children from any part of Tucson can apply for scholarships to build their own bikes, too.
The crew reconditions and recycles bikes, so if you're like me, and you just want a nice used bike, you can go to their underground bike purgatory at 44 W 6th St. and pick one out. When I bought my bike there years ago, the entrance to the bike shop was through a hole in a wall next to a loading dock. You'd drop down into the shop, and it was sort of like entering Wonderland with Alice.
The web site photo seems to indicate that they are still underground, but now they have a ramp. Not quite as much quirky fun, but no doubt a lot more convenient.
The crew reconditions and recycles bikes, so if you're like me, and you just want a nice used bike, you can go to their underground bike purgatory at 44 W 6th St. and pick one out. When I bought my bike there years ago, the entrance to the bike shop was through a hole in a wall next to a loading dock. You'd drop down into the shop, and it was sort of like entering Wonderland with Alice.
The web site photo seems to indicate that they are still underground, but now they have a ramp. Not quite as much quirky fun, but no doubt a lot more convenient.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Prop 200 Defeated
Prop 200 went down in flames. 58,966 people voted. 28% yea, 72% nay.
Opponents of Prop 200 spent over $725,000 on their campaign, which included door hangers and lots of mailings. The victors paid over $17 per vote.
John Kromko's pro-Prop 200 campaign was more cost effective, costing him and his supporters $13,000, or 79 cents per vote.
I hope some serious work on the important problem of limiting growth can now begin.
Opponents of Prop 200 spent over $725,000 on their campaign, which included door hangers and lots of mailings. The victors paid over $17 per vote.
John Kromko's pro-Prop 200 campaign was more cost effective, costing him and his supporters $13,000, or 79 cents per vote.
I hope some serious work on the important problem of limiting growth can now begin.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Prop 200
If the people lead, the leaders will follow. All too often in Tucson, our elected officials fail to address issues that concern voters. Various special interest groups respond by putting propositions on our ballots. Lots of money is spent on advertising, and the side with the most money usually wins.
No one is more opposed to the endless, reckless growth of Tucson than I am. While I do sell houses for a living, I draw the line at selling land and new construction. I am a house recycler. I think there are already more than enough houses in Tucson. If a buyer wants to build a new house, destroying wildlife habitat, wasting energy and building materials while contributing to urban sprawl, I tell him he will have to get some one else to help him with that.
Proposition 200 is on the November 6 ballot. It was written with the intention of stopping new home construction by prohibiting additional connections to Tucson Water's supply once "Tucson Water reaches an annual rate of water delivery to customers that exceeds . . .140,000 acre-feet per year," which is 4,000 acre-feet less than Tucson's allocation of Colorado River water. Except for the part about rejecting some of our allocation, limiting water service to available supply seems to make sense.
Unfortunately, the consequences of this statement were not thoroughly considered. Prop 200 does not define water delivery. Presumably, when he wrote the proposition, former state legislator John Kromko was talking about drinking water, but if we include use of reclaimed water (water that is treated and used for irrigation) the 140,000 acre-feet limit is reached a lot sooner, perhaps as early as 2009. There is no room for presumption when writing public policy.
Additionally, Prop 200 eliminates the $14 per month fee on our water bills that was initially called the refuse fee because it was associated with a new charge for garbage collection that was formerly funded by other revenue sources. Realizing a public relations snafu, Tucson Water changed the refuse fee to the environmental services fee, and revenue from the fee now supports $23 million worth of services that need to be funded somehow. Kromko doesn't state which city programs he wants to have eliminated so we can continue to have brush and bulky, garbage and recycling collection, landfills and groundwater remediation. He simply says the City will have to tighten its belt. Our overworked and underpaid police and fire departments are concerned that their already inadequate staffing will be reduced even more, and they oppose Prop 200.
For emotional impact, Kromko also threw in something to prevent treated sewer water (effluent) from being mixed with drinking water, even though Tucson Water has no intention of delivering water "toilet to tap" as Prop 200 so graphically describes it. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality does not allow direct delivery of treated effluent to homes. Recharge or infiltration of highly treated effluent into groundwater is permitted, but Tucson Water gave up that idea when the public howled. They may revisit this idea in the future, especially if we don't stop building more houses, the drought continues and global warming worsens. In other words, sooner or later effluent will become drinking water in Tucson, just as it is in many other western cities.
Prop 200 requires "the purest possible water". The word pure contains no measurable standards. Who will define purity? Lawyers. Who will pay for the highest level of water treatment? Tucson Water customers. Do we need and will we be able to afford water quality that exceeds EPA drinking water standards? No.
Prop 200 prohibits the use of effluent for some legitimate purposes, such as dust control, fire suppression, and wildlife habitat restoration. Prop 200 says effluent can be used for irrigation, but only enough to "sustain the vegetation". What does that mean? The lawyers will tell us.
Except for 10 days of assistance in an emergency, Prop 200 would prevent Tucson Water from delivering water to a "water distributor," a term that has no definition in water law. Does this means Tucson Water can't provide water to the University of Arizona, Davis Monthan Air Force Base or the VA Hospital? These are water service providers. Is a provider the same as a distributor? The courts will decide.
Kromko probably intended to prevent more than 10 days of assistance to utility companies like Metro Water. Do we really want to cut off the water supply on day 11 to our neighbors in need? Vague intentions have no place in public policy. The lawyers would have to sort that one out, too.
To get the City of Tucson's analysis of all this, click here. Of course, the City of Tucson has an ax to grind. Tucson Water is a City department, so naturally the City of Tucson doesn't support criticism of Tucson Water.
The Arizona Daily Star asked some independent water law experts to evaluate Prop 200. The experts concluded that Prop 200 is poorly written, uses terms that have no legal definition, and if passed, will not accomplish its objective of limiting growth. If developers aren't allowed to connect to Tucson Water's system, they will either drill wells, which could lower the water table, or they will build outside the Tucson Water service area, contributing to sprawl.
Molly McCasson, a former member of the Tucson city council, supports Prop 200. But her argument boils down to this: if Prop 200 passes, the City will be forced to deal with the legal quagmire that will be created by this confusing measure. I think this is the best argument in favor of Prop 200, because it is clear that Tucson Water and the current city council have no intention of dealing with the growth issue unless they are forced to.
Various environmental groups were asked for their views on Prop 200. Only the Sierra Club endorses it.
When evaluating a voter initiative, I think it's smart to follow the money. Usually, if home builders, car dealers and the Tucson Association of Realtors are in favor of something, it means more houses and more people, and I'm automatically against it. The growth industry opposes Prop 200, and they have spent over $700,000 to defeat it. So it's strange to find myself in agreement with these groups, but I have to say that Prop 200 is not the right way to limit growth.
No one is more opposed to the endless, reckless growth of Tucson than I am. While I do sell houses for a living, I draw the line at selling land and new construction. I am a house recycler. I think there are already more than enough houses in Tucson. If a buyer wants to build a new house, destroying wildlife habitat, wasting energy and building materials while contributing to urban sprawl, I tell him he will have to get some one else to help him with that.
Proposition 200 is on the November 6 ballot. It was written with the intention of stopping new home construction by prohibiting additional connections to Tucson Water's supply once "Tucson Water reaches an annual rate of water delivery to customers that exceeds . . .140,000 acre-feet per year," which is 4,000 acre-feet less than Tucson's allocation of Colorado River water. Except for the part about rejecting some of our allocation, limiting water service to available supply seems to make sense.
Unfortunately, the consequences of this statement were not thoroughly considered. Prop 200 does not define water delivery. Presumably, when he wrote the proposition, former state legislator John Kromko was talking about drinking water, but if we include use of reclaimed water (water that is treated and used for irrigation) the 140,000 acre-feet limit is reached a lot sooner, perhaps as early as 2009. There is no room for presumption when writing public policy.
Additionally, Prop 200 eliminates the $14 per month fee on our water bills that was initially called the refuse fee because it was associated with a new charge for garbage collection that was formerly funded by other revenue sources. Realizing a public relations snafu, Tucson Water changed the refuse fee to the environmental services fee, and revenue from the fee now supports $23 million worth of services that need to be funded somehow. Kromko doesn't state which city programs he wants to have eliminated so we can continue to have brush and bulky, garbage and recycling collection, landfills and groundwater remediation. He simply says the City will have to tighten its belt. Our overworked and underpaid police and fire departments are concerned that their already inadequate staffing will be reduced even more, and they oppose Prop 200.
For emotional impact, Kromko also threw in something to prevent treated sewer water (effluent) from being mixed with drinking water, even though Tucson Water has no intention of delivering water "toilet to tap" as Prop 200 so graphically describes it. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality does not allow direct delivery of treated effluent to homes. Recharge or infiltration of highly treated effluent into groundwater is permitted, but Tucson Water gave up that idea when the public howled. They may revisit this idea in the future, especially if we don't stop building more houses, the drought continues and global warming worsens. In other words, sooner or later effluent will become drinking water in Tucson, just as it is in many other western cities.
Prop 200 requires "the purest possible water". The word pure contains no measurable standards. Who will define purity? Lawyers. Who will pay for the highest level of water treatment? Tucson Water customers. Do we need and will we be able to afford water quality that exceeds EPA drinking water standards? No.
Prop 200 prohibits the use of effluent for some legitimate purposes, such as dust control, fire suppression, and wildlife habitat restoration. Prop 200 says effluent can be used for irrigation, but only enough to "sustain the vegetation". What does that mean? The lawyers will tell us.
Except for 10 days of assistance in an emergency, Prop 200 would prevent Tucson Water from delivering water to a "water distributor," a term that has no definition in water law. Does this means Tucson Water can't provide water to the University of Arizona, Davis Monthan Air Force Base or the VA Hospital? These are water service providers. Is a provider the same as a distributor? The courts will decide.
Kromko probably intended to prevent more than 10 days of assistance to utility companies like Metro Water. Do we really want to cut off the water supply on day 11 to our neighbors in need? Vague intentions have no place in public policy. The lawyers would have to sort that one out, too.
To get the City of Tucson's analysis of all this, click here. Of course, the City of Tucson has an ax to grind. Tucson Water is a City department, so naturally the City of Tucson doesn't support criticism of Tucson Water.
The Arizona Daily Star asked some independent water law experts to evaluate Prop 200. The experts concluded that Prop 200 is poorly written, uses terms that have no legal definition, and if passed, will not accomplish its objective of limiting growth. If developers aren't allowed to connect to Tucson Water's system, they will either drill wells, which could lower the water table, or they will build outside the Tucson Water service area, contributing to sprawl.
Molly McCasson, a former member of the Tucson city council, supports Prop 200. But her argument boils down to this: if Prop 200 passes, the City will be forced to deal with the legal quagmire that will be created by this confusing measure. I think this is the best argument in favor of Prop 200, because it is clear that Tucson Water and the current city council have no intention of dealing with the growth issue unless they are forced to.
Various environmental groups were asked for their views on Prop 200. Only the Sierra Club endorses it.
When evaluating a voter initiative, I think it's smart to follow the money. Usually, if home builders, car dealers and the Tucson Association of Realtors are in favor of something, it means more houses and more people, and I'm automatically against it. The growth industry opposes Prop 200, and they have spent over $700,000 to defeat it. So it's strange to find myself in agreement with these groups, but I have to say that Prop 200 is not the right way to limit growth.
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