Thursday, January 31, 2008

Have you signed up for the Credit Repair Yet?

If you have signed up, disregard this email or let me know how your experience has been, I would like to have a testimonial to add to the others.

If you haven’t signed up, what’s holding you back? It can’t be the cost, last week I explained how much it will cost you to live with bad credit. It’s a great amount more than the cost to fix your credit.

It can’t be that you don’t believe you have bad credit. Did you know that 79% of credit reports have false information on them? This can be caused by Identity Theft, or just the credit bureaus putting false information on there…it happens all the time.

Hmmm, maybe it’s because you don’t feel that you have the time for credit repair. Well, I couldn’t agree with you more, I don’t know very many people that do have the time to repair their credit. That’s the best part about our program, it doesn’t take any time. All you have to do is pick the items you want disputed and their off to the races. When you receive your letters back from the bureaus you just send them into your team of paralegals and presto! That’s it. If the process needs to be started over again, they do it for you. It’s really that simple!

You know what I think it is. I think that you’re saying to yourself, “Self, I know that everyone says you can repair your credit, but my credit is way too bad to fix…” I want to give you some statistics that may change your mind. Keep in mind that these numbers are only from October 2007 – December 2007!


So if you think that it’s impossible to get the things removed off of “YOUR” credit, you’re wrong. This list just shows you that it doesn’t matter what your credit has on it. IT CAN BE REMOVED!

So sign up today to get your credit on the right track towards financing success. Here’s how.

1. Go to
www.CreditandFinancialWellness.com and click on Credit Repair.
2. Read through the brief information on Lexington Law, our approved and reputable Credit Repair Company that has attorney’s fighting for your credit.
3. Click on the “Sign Up” button, enter in the Lexington ID Code #10608 and fill out your information.

That’s it! From there just sit back and watch the items fall off, it’s a blast to see!


Dedicated to your Financing Success!

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Kenton Becker
kentonb@empireoptions.com
Managing Partner / Lakemont Mortgage Specialist
License # 510-LO-36929
http://www.empireoptions.com/

Friday, January 25, 2008

The Cost of NOT doing Credit Repair!

The first question I get when I suggest my Credit Repair Program to people is, “How much is it going to cost me?”

My response is simple… “A lot less than if you decided NOT to fix your credit.”

Do you know what your credit is costing you? Most people don’t realize just how important and influential their credit report is. Your monthly payments for most of your bills are a direct result of your credit scores.

The following chart is based of a home mortgage of $150,000 over a 30 year fixed period. Let’s analyze the following chart…

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This chart clearly demonstrates that poor credit can cost you almost $150,000 over a 30 year period of time, or even worse $400.00 per month!!! Repairing your credit to save money each month on your mortgage, vehicles, insurance, and other monthly payments is extremely crucial to your financial success.

Let’s take another more basic example…Say you buy a car and you take out a loan for $15,000 with a 60 month term. Follow me to the chart below…

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You will see on the previous chart that you will save over $3,500.00 if you have good credit instead of bad credit. Even if you get your credit up to “average” you will save $1,300.00…Amazing!

With the following 3 easy steps, that cost you A LOT less than $150,000 and for that matter even less than $59.83 per month, you will see your credit improve dramatically…

1. Go to www.CreditandFinancialWellness.com and click on Credit Repair.
2. Read through the brief information on Lexington Law, our approved and reputable Credit Repair Company that has attorney’s fighting for your credit.
3. Click on the “Sign Up” button, enter in the Lexington ID Code and fill out your information.

Congratulations! You are now on the fast track to improving your credit.

If you have any questions please let me know. I will be more than happy to help.



Dedicated to Your Financial Success,


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Kenton Becker
kentonb@empireoptions.com
Managing Partner / Lakemont Mortgage Specialist
License # 510-LO-36929
http://www.empireoptions.com/


P.P.S. Did you know that 79% of Credit Reports contain errors? That means about 8 out of every 10 people I sent this email to have errors on their credit report. Think it could be you? You aren’t spending money; you are saving money by signing up today!

Thursday, January 17, 2008

How Can I Fix My Credit” – Part 2 of 2 Part Series

WARNING: The information that you are about to read is a do-it-yourself guide to credit repair. If you would like to have expert advice and coaching go to www.CreditandFinancialWellness.com

Ok, so now that you know why you should fix your credit the question remains how can I fix my credit? By the way, if you missed last weeks blog, we talked about why you should fix your credit.

I want to focus on a few things this week.

1) Analyzing your credit report
2) Creating a Game Plan for which areas to target
3) Creating the dispute letters to send to each credit bureau for each item
4) Repeating the process if necessary.
5) Reviewing credit on a quarterly basis
6) Making sure you don’t fall in the same credit trap in the future

Analyzing your credit report

As a loan officer I always hear over and over again, “can I just use my own free credit report”. The overall answer is “no”. Consumer credit reports are a great tool for looking at your credit history and analyzing what your overall picture may look like. The downside to these reports are the same issues that you may have with an outdated piece of software, unfortunately the information may not be the most accurate. For mortgages specifically, we use a tri-merge (all 3 credit bureaus) credit report. This will give us the most detailed history and score for your file. Contact me if you would like this report pulled.

Creating a Game Plan for which areas to target

Once you have analyzed your “accurate” credit report you can then begin to put together a game plan on which areas you want to target first. With each credit report comes multiple reasons why your score is what it is; these reasons are where you want to target your efforts. They can vary from derogatory accounts, to high balances on credit cards, they could even be a result of too many inquires. Picking which items are good vs. bad is where expert help or knowledge comes into play.

Creating the dispute letters to send to each credit bureau for each item

You can access these letters from a variety of sources online. There’s only one problem though, you need to make sure they are good letters otherwise according to federal law the credit bureaus can ignore your dispute under a variety of conditions. I work with a company that can help you with this step. For more information read on.

Repeating the process if necessary

Wash, Rinse, Repeat. Sound familiar…same thing here, if it doesn’t work the first time, keep trying. Again, one problem, the credit bureaus may not even tell you why it’s not working. Unfortunately you’re on your own for this one. It can be a very long and frustrating process dealing with the credit bureaus.

Reviewing credit on a quarterly basis

After a few months have gone by you will want to review you credit to see what progress you have made. This will also help you analyze what new issues may now be your top priority. Maybe you have been able to remove some lates, but now you need to focus on the old collections or judgments. Or calling some of the old creditors and having them remove the old inquires. There are many tactics to choose from and once again the best advice is to start at the top of the list of reasons and work your way down.

Making sure you don’t fall in the same credit trap in the future

So if by now you have been able to get somewhere with the credit bureaus and things are beginning to fall off, how do you ensure that you won’t fall into the same trap as before with your finances. Simple answer, get a coach! Work with someone that has your best interest in mind. Someone that you would not be ashamed to share your financial information with and most importantly someone that will help keep you on track with your budget and finances.

I’m not going to lie to you; these steps can be extremely difficult. It takes a lot of time and knowledge to be able to take care of this process efficiently. In reality it takes you more time than you probably have. So you may be asking, “now what, if it’s too hard and I don’t have the time or knowledge…what do I do?”

I have created a company that can help with this. The company is called Credit and Financial Wellness, LLC. Over the past 6 years of being a SR. Loan Advisor I have learned a tremendous amount of knowledge with not only credit coaching advice but financial advice. I have seen clients that have nothing…and I mean nothing in the bank to clients that are literally multi millionaires, and I don’t mean paper money…liquid cash I'm talking about.

I have also attended more seminars on business and financial principles than I care to count and with all this knowledge I would like to share it with you. The website for my company is
www.CreditandFinancialWellness.com.

I know you may be thinking, “How do you have the time to fix MY credit” and the answer is I don’t! That’s why I have become affiliated with an amazing company that I put my seal of approval on. They are by far the industry leader in credit repair and their track record of success is nothing short of incredible. The best part is that their cost is very minimal for what they offer and amazingly enough these are attorneys fighting your credit flaws for you! Their information is also listed on my website.

Now the last step I mentioned is the coaching element; this is a service I offer and am very passionate about. Because of my knowledge in this field I have obtained many documents that industry leaders in financial management recommend. What I am offering is to coach you on your credit and financial success. If you are serious about getting your credit and finances straight once and for all, visit the website
www.CreditandFinancialWellness.com to find out how we can work together to help you achieve financial wellness.

I’m also going to offer an unforgettable special:

*** For everyone that mentions this blog and signs up for the Credit and Financial Wellness Coaching and Credit Repair will get their coaching set up fee waived. That’s a $35 value! ***

Again, for any questions about how this amazing opportunity can change your credit and financial picture visit
www.CreditandFinacialWellness.com.

Dedicated to your “Financial” success,

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Kenton Becker
kentonb@empireoptions.com
Managing Partner / Lakemont Mortgage Specialist
License # 510-LO-36929
http://www.empireoptions.com/

Thursday, January 10, 2008

“Why Should I Fix My Credit” – Part 1 of 2 Part Series

So for some of my clients the biggest question after they have viewed their credit report is “Why should I spend the time to fix it”? Fixing your credit report or spending the time to improve your scores can be very time consuming and not to mention dealing with all the creditors can be very irritating. However, when everything is said and done it is well worth the time and effort.

In today’s society credit scores are used very often and for many things. Lenders use them to determine your risk associated with offering you credit. It can be used in everything from mortgage loans to auto loans. Some of the areas that are not as commonly noticed but definitely still apply are credit cards, student loans, credit unions, rental applications, employment applications even cell phones and car insurance. If you don’t believe me talk to someone from a cell phone company and let them know you have bad credit.

Sometimes lenders will still offer credit even with a bad report but in each case it will cost you more than you realize to acquire that credit. In the mortgage lending world and for that matter any lending environment, you are given the best terms when you have the best credit. So oppositely you are given the worst terms if you have bad credit. Not only can this affect your ability to get loans but it will also cost you a lot of unintentional money spent because of this.

So now you may be wondering how and why these negative items are reporting on your credit report. Well, even though there are many different forms of negative items, lates, balances, collections, inquiries, length of account history, etc. they all are reported from the same source…your creditor. Usually every 30 – 60 days your creditor or lender will report any new history, whether good or bad, to the reporting agencies. Even if the information is not true…unfortunately it is up to you to fix it. Just as there are many ways that good and bad credit can be reported there are just as many ways that false information can harm your credit report, identity theft is only one example.

It is wise to view your report on a biyearly basis and having a professional walk you through the reporting information can also be very beneficial. There’s a lot of information to look over and it can be very overwhelming to look at, especially if there are lates and erroneous information. I have seen it over and over and over again with clients.

So once you see the different items that are reporting to credit, false or not, there are two areas that you want to focus on fixing. Quite simply they are the items that are not true and the items that are true and are negatively affecting your score.

With the right direction, it can be fairly easy to get false information removed from the report. There are hundreds of articles that can help you with this. The ones that I want to focus on are going to be the items that are true. These can be much more time consuming and difficult. However, I have to add, they may be removed from the report but you still will owe the balance until it’s paid off.

I’m going to leave you hanging…I know, don’t kill the messenger. Next week, I am going to talk about what tools you can uses to get these “true” items taken off your report at a rapid pace. The best part is that in the process this will remove the false information as well. Stay tuned for more info.


Dedicated to your Financial Success,

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Kenton Becker
kentonb@empireoptions.com
Managing Partner / Lakemont Mortgage Specialist
License # 510-LO-36929
http://www.empireoptions.com/

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Why Do a Rent to Own – 7 Benefits That Will Drive You to Home Ownership.

So you want to buy a home? Well then you are probably aware of some of the benefits of home ownership. For instance, the appreciation, tax benefits, pride of ownership, etc, but what if you are unable to get into a home due to financing issues. As a loan officer I am constantly seeing more and more lenders change guidelines and dropping off the map. So then what, well if you are considering doing a Rent to Own as an option then you are on the right path.

There are numerous benefits to going with our Rent to Own program when you are unable to acquire financing. I’m going to list out 7 of the largest benefits that I have found over the last couple years.

Top 7 Benefits:

#1 Building Equity: If you are currently renting, every month you send in a check it goes to the landlord to make him money and pay down his mortgage. After 2 years what will you have to show for it…nothing, except a chunk taken out of your paycheck each month. With our Rent to Own program your payment each month gets credited towards the purchase of your home. Also, because our area is still increasing in value each year at a steady rate you are building equity in the property through appreciation.

#2 Minimum cash out of pocket: Traditionally when you purchase a home you are going to be required to pay standard closing costs and depending on the loan program a down payment. But with Empire Options Rent to Own program you’re only required to pay 1st months rent plus a security deposit equal to your monthly lease payment. That’s it! This can save you substantially when you don’t have much money to spend.

#3 Bad Credit, No Problem:
Sometimes people go through rough times with their credit and with our Rent to Own program that’s OK. Our program is a make sense qualification process. We don’t solely look at one thing to make our decision but a combination of your ability to make the payment each month.

#4 Time: Empire Options Rent to Own program gives you plenty of time to get your financial picture ready to go. With our program you can purchase the home anytime between month 13 and month 24. Traditionally most of our clients wait the full term to make sure that everything is in line but for some it makes more sense to buy early.

#5 Improvements and Alterations: One of the highlights of our Rent to Own program is that you have the ability to make improvements to your home. Do you want to replace the carpet, have at it. Paint the house, go for it. Install new counter tops in the kitchen and put in new cabinets, that's great. You are only limited by your imagination because this is your new home.

#6 Greater Financing Options: One major benefit with Rent to Own programs that is heavily overlooked is how you can utilize all the equity that you have gained. To keep it simple, when you buy the home at the end of the lease term you are not purchasing the home at 100% financing but rather refinancing the home at whatever loan-to-value you are at with the new equity. In most cases our clients are able to do a 90% financing loan with a lender, which will give you much better rates and terms.

#7 Pride of Ownership: Biggest of all is that you are getting into your own home. This is no longer a rental or an apartment but your own home that you have picked out. Empire Options Rent to Own program allows you to pick out the home of your choice based on the budget that you have set for yourself.

So that's the top 7 that I have found over the years. There are many more benefits that our clients have found as they have moved forward with the program but for simplicity sake I kept it small.

If you have any questions about our program or if you would like more information about how this program can work for you and your family, let me know. I would be more than happy to help.

Dedicated to your success,

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Kenton Becker
Managing Partner / Lakemont Mortgage Specialist
License # 510-LO-36929