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Marianne Grant, CRS 907-529-6602

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A Financial Neutron Bomb in the Hood??

12-04-10
Marianne Grant, CRS 907-529-6602

In the magazine Dollars and Sense, Jim Campen, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts-Boston and an expert on racial discrimination in mortgage lending, has written a piece entitled,

"Update on Mortgage Lending Discrimination: After a Disastrous Detour, We're Back Where We Started."

I encourage you to read this scandalous horror story. Apparently, mortgage lenders were redlining neighborhood based on ethnicity, selling most of the subprime loans to black and Latino homeowners-to-be, who are now disproportionally being foreclosed upon.

http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2010/1110campen.html

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/12/03-3

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/12/02-6

Since I live in Alaska, a pretty homogenously white (think Tea Party) state, I have no personal experience that would corroborate this disturbing story. I would be interested in hearing yours, one way or the other.

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Invest your Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend

10-12-10
Marianne Grant, CRS 907-529-6602

Just when we thought we had seen the lowest rates EVER, here are today's rates that beat them yet AGAIN!

If you are thinking of buying a home in Alaska, talk to me. Now is the time to invest those Permanent Fund Dividend checks you just received from the State of Alaska for every member in your family. You add them up, and that free money might just be enough for a downpayment on a home - a gift just for living in Alaska!

Now how can you beat that: Lowest Rates ever PLUS free Permanent Fund Dividend money = possibly a new home for you and your family. :) Call me today 907-529-6602

Conventional 30 Year Fixed

4.000%

Conventional 15 Year Fixed

3.500%

5/1 Libor ARM

3.125%

FHA 30 Year Fixed

4.000%

FHA HUD 184 30 Year Fixed

4.375%

FHA 5/1 Hybrid ARM

2.875%

VA 30 Year Fixed

4.000%

VA 5/1 Hybrid ARM

2.875%

Alaska Housing Finance Corp. (AHFC)

1st Time Homebuyer Tax-Exempt

4.125%

Veteran's Mortgage (VMP)

4.250%

Taxable

4.500%

1st Time Homebuyer Taxable

4.375%

Maximum Loan Amounts

Single Family

Duplex

Triplex

Fourplex

Conventional

$625,500

$800,775

$968,950

$1,202,925

AHFC/Conventional

$688,050

$690,600

$874,750

$1,037,400

FHA Limits

$347,500

$444,850

$537,750

$668,250

VA/ To include VA Funding Fee

$625,500

$625,500

$625,500

$625,500

*These rates are intended to be distributed to industry professionals only, since they may not include all required consumer disclosures

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Lance Mackey wins Iditarod for 4th straight time

03-16-10
Marianne Grant, CRS 907-529-6602

The Anchorage Dailey News reports from NOME, Alaska, that Lance Mackeywon the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Tuesday to become the first musher in the event's 38-year history to win four consecutive races.

"Fans bundled up against subzero temperatures cheered the 39-year-old throat cancer survivor as his team coasted up the main street of this old Gold Rush town. For winning, Mackey gets a new Dodge truck and $50,400. He finished the race in eight days, 23 hours and 59 minutes.

The Iditarod kicked off March 6 with a ceremonial start in Anchorage. That was followed by the competitive start the following day in Willow when 71 teams took to the Iditarod trail and headed to Nome."

It is THE big event at the end of winter, and Alaskans follow the progress of the sled-dog teams eagerly in newspaper and the Evening News on TV.

AP - Lance Mackey celebrates

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Critical Decision Making - Risk or Opportunity?

03-11-10
Marianne Grant, CRS 907-529-6602

Who has not experienced this scenario: A buyer seems committed to the buying process, the home inspection is done, repairs are negotiated, and yet - at the last moment, the buyer gets cold feet for no apparent reason and wants to pull out, willing to sacrifice the earnest money. What is going on here?

That is the moment, when we really earn what we're worth: How we frame the situation in the buyer's mind affects the outcome.

This is the valuable lesson I learned reading: Kahneman and Tversky, Choices, Values, and Frames.

Framing matters a great deal.

Frames are mental structures - beliefs and assumptions - that simplify our understandig of the world around us and help us make sense of it as we decide and act. Frames enable us to deal with compelxity without being overwhelmed by it. However, the frames can also be quite constricting because of well established routines when faced with a threat.

The way we frame a problem drives the types of solutions that are considered. Is a problem framed as a threat, or as an opportunity? Framing affects our propensity to take risks - and buying a house can be a risky business.

If we frame a situation in terms of a potential gain, we act differently than if we frame it in terms of a potential loss. So, telling a buyer that he will lose a certain house if he does not make an offer right away might be true, but can actually have the opposite effect - the situation is framed as a potential LOSS (sometimes rationalized by not wanting to end in a bidding war).

In the case of the buyer getting cold feet, we need to help him define a problem in several different ways, because each definition tilts toward one kind of solution. Most of us are slightly risk averse, and getting cold feet when the risk factor dawns on this buyer, is not surprising. When faced with threat/risk, we tend to respond rigidly, but act more flexibly and adaptively if the same situation is framed as opportunities.

Here is the skinny of it all: Help the buyer assess the level of threat - the level of risk, but then reframe the situation as an opportunity to achieve what he or she wanted to do in the first place before getting temporarily derailed.

Language - Framing - matters a great deal as it shapes the way we look at a situation and has a powerful effect on our decision making.

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It is almost upon us again - the famous Iditarod Dog Sled Race

02-28-10
Marianne Grant, CRS 907-529-6602

It is almost upon us again - a weekend of great excitement and color in Anchorage, Alaska, at the tail end of winter:

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race Ceremonial Start , which begins

Saturday, Mar 6 10:00a at Iditarod Starting Point, Anchorage, Alaska. It is THE big winter event, and visitors from all over the world come to participate in it - as mushers, or as spectators.

The Iditarod is called the "Last Great Race on Earth." Mushers and 1,000 dogs dash towards the Bering Sea coast through rugged remote mountain ranges and snow-capped forests. It's 1,100 miles of pure adrenaline, and it all begins in downtown Anchorage the first Saturday in March.

The offical web Iditarod web site is here

Enjoy!

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