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Underwater without a Drop to Drink

Over the past few months, talk of the US debt crisis has got me thinking: how does all this effect me? As it turns out, more than you might think. Here’s how my little brain traveled from the hell-in-a-handbasket news from the US government to me trying my hand at refinancing my condo: Clearly, US (more&hellip)

Sustainable Building and Condo Breakdowns

How do I constantly find myself reporting on real estate gone wrong? Oh yeah, because it seriously happens, and I believe people need to weigh all the risks when making real estate decisions. Today’s real estate disaster is rather epic in scale, and it’s also a tale of six degrees of real estate separation. Remember (more&hellip)

Update: Recovering from Renovation Wreckage

Remember the plight of Real Savvy readers Jocelyn and Kevan? The ones who bought their dream home, planning to spend a few thousand on minor repairs and ended up mired in four times the damage and expense? To refresh your memory, here’s what the front of their house looked like after their contractor discovered massive (more&hellip)

Bad TV: Courtney Cox’s Massive Financial Error

I was catching up on Courtney Cox’s new show Cougar Town the other night on Hulu (not that I watch trashy sitcoms…), when a plotline went down that upset me so much, I have to rant. For the uninitiated, Cougar Town is Friends alum Courtney Cox’s latest sitcom vehicle. It stars the fabulous-looking (albeit nipped (more&hellip)

Financing My Condo, Grandma Style (part 2 of 2)

This is last of a two-part miniseries about my adventures in condo financing. If you haven’t read it yet, check out Part 1. When we left off, I’d just left the mortgage broker’s office in San Francisco, flying high with aspirations of wheeling and dealing in real estate. There was just one fly in the (more&hellip)

Financing My Condo, Grandma Style (part 1 of 2)

I nearly have a panic attack every time I think about the process I underwent to finance my condo. I very nearly got myself into the situation in which many Americans are finding themselves–in an oversized adjustable rate mortgage with no equity in their properties. After I found my dream condo by accident, I took (more&hellip)