Short sale hurts your credit

Choosing a short sale over foreclosure is difficult. Both take a bite out of your credit rating. But one is easier to recover from.

NEW YORK (Money Magazine) -- Q. We have to relocate because of my husband's job. Our home value has fallen nearly $100,000. We would like to get rid of it, but we don't want to go into foreclosure. Someone mentioned a short sale. What impact would that have on our credit rating?

Gerri Willis, Money magazine contributing writer and host of CNN's "Your Bottom Line," says:

A.A short sale, in which you negotiate with the bank to sell your home for less than you owe on your mortgage, will have a dramatically negative affect on your credit.

A consumer who has been through a short sale could see a drop in her credit score of up to 200 points, essentially the same decrease as if the homeowner had gone into foreclosure, says John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education for Credit.com.

And like a foreclosure, the negative mark will pull down the score for seven years.

That said, if you're underwater on your mortgage and you need to move, a short sale is a better option than foreclosure. Going through foreclosure will make it very difficult for you to get a loan for at least three to five years; if you've done a short sale, you may be able to qualify for a new mortgage within two years.

By Gerri Willis, Money magazine contributing writer

For more information on Short Sales, Foreclosures, Visit : http://www.robertjrussell.com , http://www.homesinflowermound.net, http://www.dfwhomeforsale.com, http://www.helpyoufindahouse.com, http://www.wediditagaingroup.com

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Fire Departments come together to help a common cause.

The Flower Mound Fire Department is among several area departments who have headed west to help battle the wildfires in Montague, Wise and surrounding counties.

Four members of Flower Mound's department have spent the last two days in various towns of Montague County, northwest of Denton County, battling a grass fire that has claimed lives and destroyed thousands of acres, as of Friday afternoon.

Flower Mound Fire Chief Eric Metzger said 60 members of his department volunteered to go.

"Everyone was concerned and wanted to go," Metzger said. "It's just like anyone else in the fire service, they all wanted to help."

Flower Mound sent two apparatus operators, a captain and another firefighter to the area on a brush truck and a water tender.

Local firefighters, including those from the Lewisville, Carrollton and Lake Cities departments, met in Denton on Thursday afternoon before heading to the Texas Forest Service in Decatur.

From there, they headed to the city of Montague to battle blazes and went to other towns, such as Forestburg and Saint Jo.

"Right now, we're just mopping up the fires," said Flower Mound apparatus operator Wade Woody on Friday afternoon. "There aren't a whole lot of new fires, but there are some that are re-kindling and taking off again. We're going from small fire to small fire before they turn into big fires."

The fires started Thursday and have affected 12 counties: Archer, Clay, Eastland, Hamilton, Jack, Palo Pinto, Parker, Stephens, Wichita, Wise and Young.

"There have been high winds, lack of rain, high temperatures and low humidity," Metzger said. "It's all the right conditions for a perfect storm."

Thursday afternoon, wind blew smoke and the scent of burning from the fires into the D/FW area, including Flower Mound.

Metzger said the crew is expected to return Saturday morning, unless the fire continues.

"If it extends beyond (Saturday), we'll swap out," Metzger said. "Our guys got three hours of sleep in the truck, so they're going to be exhausted."

By Chris Roark, Staff Writer

To find out more about Flower Mound - visit http://www.robertjrussell.com

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Extended Warranties vs Home Appliances

I never buy extended warranties, but this sure sounds like sound logic.

This month I want to share with you a little trick that I learned to help choose the best appliances when building your own home.

When we built our house I did not know this little gem so we wound up with some new appliances that have not been that great. After a couple of years we started to have some issues with them breaking and the result was having to come up with the cash to repair them.

I figured out a great way to tell if an appliance was reliable or not.

Here it is in a nut shell:

• First find the appliance that fits your need and budget.
• Price the extended warranty on each appliance model that you are interested in.
• The higher the cost of the extended appliance warranty the lower the reliability and the more costly it is to own over the long term.
• The insurance companies that back these warranties do studies on the cost of repair and dependability of the models and companies that produce the appliances. They are in the business to make money. So it stands to reason the lower they set the warranty cost to you, the lower the frequency or repair they are going to have to cover under the warranty.
  
  Here are a couple of common sense points when using this rule of thumb.
• Choose appliances in the same price range when making the comparison. If you choose one that is much more expensive it stands to reason that it will be more expensive to fix than a cheaper model with less bells and whistles on it.
• Make sure you choose the same term or duration of the insurance policy for the appliances that you are comparing.

A couple of months ago we had to replace our microwave vent hood combo. My wife used this exercise to choose the new one. The two models that she compared were about the same cost but the warranty on the Kitchenaide was $99.00 for 5 years and on the GE model it was $399.

No doubt we bought the Kitchenaide and bought the warranty for good measure. Even if you do not buy the warranty this comparison method is better than any other method I know of.

Hope this helps when choosing your appliances.

To find out more about what we do visit http://www.robertjrussell.com

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Identity theft victims fight back, bust pizza-purchasing suspect

LEWISVILLE, Texas - Texas ranks fourth in the nation for the number of identity theft victims, according to the latest numbers from the Federal Trade Commission.

Most victims range from 18 to 39 years old.

But when it came to the case of one Flower Mound couple, they decided to get answers rather than sit back after they became identity theft victims. Ultimately, their actions led to a suspect's arrest.

Brad and Sarah Bailey first learned they were targeted after Wells Fargo informed them of suspicious charges to their account. They were charged $70 to Romeo's Pizza.

"I was irritated," said Mrs. Bailey. "I was devastated. Right now, the last thing anybody needs is to have money depleted out of their account."

The charges didn't end there. They were charged more than once for food they never ordered from the same pizzeria.

"I couldn't let it go," Mr. Bailey said.

In a search for answers, Mr. Bailey decided to make a visit to Romeo's Pizza. He talked to the manager who told him to bring a police officer if he wanted to know where the pizza was delivered. So, Mr. Bailey did just that and returned with an officer.

Ultimately, the Lewisville police officer ended up at a Motel 6, which is where police said they found the suspect and more evidence in one of the rooms. Police confiscated equipment that the suspects allegedly used to create credit cards.

"They confessed to everything ... and what they were doing was going and getting gift cards and they were using this equipment to make credit cards," Mr. Bailey said.

Semmie Isaiah Williams was arrested and charged with fraud. A debit card with the Baileys' account information on it was also found by police.

"How many people get that type of satisfaction to say, 'The person that did that to me, they're in jail," Mr. Bailey said.

"Well, I called him Magnum P.I. that night," said Mrs. Bailey of her husband.

Visit: http://www.robertjrussell.com

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