Search found 17 matches
- Mon Jan 12, 2015 11:02 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Ridiculous closing costs on cash deal?
- Replies: 15
- Views: 4312
Re: Ridiculous closing costs on cash deal?
Here is an update: I contacted the company that issued the title policy 7 years ago and they said they could issue a new title policy for this transaction at a cost of $330. The cost for updating the title commitment is $75. The total closing fee would be $800 (my half $400). In other words, there is a big savings. The buyer's attorney knows the company and is fine with this. The title company is willing to accept an affidavit from me in lieu of an updated survey but after doing more research, I think it's worth paying for a new survey to avoid any risk if the survey has a mistake. I'm hoping that by going back to the same survey company, I will same some money; once they verify that the lines have not changed since last time, they won't ne...
- Fri Jan 09, 2015 4:32 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Ridiculous closing costs on cash deal?
- Replies: 15
- Views: 4312
Re: Ridiculous closing costs on cash deal?
Thanks for the info. The buyer here is himself a builder (works on his own and periodically builds a single house, or rehabs one, and sells it). He's not getting any financing. He lives a few doors down on the same block as my property, so he has passed by this property every day for the past 7 years. If the buyer really thinks he needs a survey updated from the last time, maybe I'll see if the same surveyor can do it, perhaps for less. I'm really surprised by the cost of the title insurance. Maybe this is the going rate but I read that usually some portion of the cost is to insure the lender who has given a mortgage so that title insurance should be less expensive if it is a cash deal. Maybe if I go back to the same title company that issu...
- Fri Jan 09, 2015 3:50 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Ridiculous closing costs on cash deal?
- Replies: 15
- Views: 4312
Ridiculous closing costs on cash deal?
I bought a tear down property 7 years ago for cash. I did nothing with the property and now am selling for cash on an "as is" basis to someone who plans to tear it down and build. I have the title policy from the purchase and even an original survey from 7 yrs ago on the huge paper paper. Buyer's atty is estimating the following seller closing costs which seem quite high to me under the circumstances. $1,680 on seller's portion of title expense [why so much when there's no mtg/lender to insure, we have an old policy that can be brought up to date; and sale price is 235k] $125 commitment update fee $400 for survey [shouldn't buyer pay for this if he really needs it; or go to the person who did it 7 yrs ago for update] $600 for 1/2 ...
- Mon Nov 18, 2013 8:25 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Help w/ transition to 3Fund Portf (but big muni ladder)
- Replies: 8
- Views: 1295
Re: Help w/ transition to 3Fund Portf (but big muni ladder)
I ended up in a lot of the managed funds when my account was managed. For example, when Fidelity took over 62k Roth to manage, they must have plugged me into some computerized trading model because they immediately put me in 20 funds and some of these have less than $500. Part of the reason for starting to self manage is to simplify, reduce the number positions, and reduce the expenses. But because I have so many positions right now and am not starting from scratch in building the 3 Fund Portfolio, I have my work cut out for me. Thanks for the help! Spyman
- Sun Nov 17, 2013 10:26 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Help w/ transition to 3Fund Portf (but big muni ladder)
- Replies: 8
- Views: 1295
Re: Help w/ transition to 3Fund Portf (but big muni ladder)
This makes perfect sense Artsdoctor. Thanks so much for taking the time to respond. I will definitely pull Rick Ferri's article and start working on the overall plan. I think the implementation will be a challenge but we shall see.
Spyman
Spyman
- Sun Nov 17, 2013 5:37 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Help w/ transition to 3Fund Portf (but big muni ladder)
- Replies: 8
- Views: 1295
Re: Help w/ transition to 3Fund Portf (but big muni ladder)
Thanks. I'll try to find someone since it definitely would be helpful. I know that with the muni bonds, I will need to hold them to maturity but I don't need to buy new muni bonds. Instead I could reinvest some or all of the proceeds in Vanguard Muni Funds. If I stay in the Breckenridge managed account, they will keep reinvesting in new individual muni bonds to maintain the ladder.
- Sun Nov 17, 2013 5:01 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Help w/ transition to 3Fund Portf (but big muni ladder)
- Replies: 8
- Views: 1295
Re: Help w/ transition to 3Fund Portf (but big muni ladder)
Thanks for the suggestion. I will look into this since the expense ratio is quite low. It's a little more cumbersome to use and I'll have to figure out what to put and where as part of an overall allocation with these funds (and funds outside the TSP).
- Sun Nov 17, 2013 1:44 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Bogle based advisers
- Replies: 10
- Views: 1187
Re: Bogle based advisers
I saw a Forbes article (Sept 23, 2013) that mentioned that some certified financial planners work on an hourly basis. Per the article, Garrett Planning Network is a nationwide confederation of 325 such planners. Anyone have experience with someone within this network or others?
- Sun Nov 17, 2013 1:15 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Help w/ transition to 3Fund Portf (but big muni ladder)
- Replies: 8
- Views: 1295
Help w/ transition to 3Fund Portf (but big muni ladder)
We would be enormously grateful for some assistance in figuring how to transition to a simplified 3 Fund type Portfolio given our current holdings, including a large municipal bond ladder. We have lots of stuff left from when the accounts were managed so need to start selling stuff off. But do we do this all at once? And then invest in the new funds all at once? I'm tempted to try to find someone to pay on an hourly basis to give advice when needed and help us get the portfolio in shape for better self management. We’re also re-thinking our allocation and risk tolerance. I went thru the initial post and think I've put together a thorough description of the current situation (see below). Thanks for any suggestions. -- spy Emergency funds: Ye...
- Sun Aug 18, 2013 11:17 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Municipal Bonds - Pro's and Con's
- Replies: 28
- Views: 5797
Re: Municipal Bonds - Pro's and Con's
I've invested in a muni bond ladder via Fidelity which uses Breckenridge as the manager. The minimum initial investment is $1,000,000 and the fee is 35 basis points. I have no discretion in how they structure the ladder but they are buying bonds as long as 11 years out with an average duration of 6 years. They typically buy in 50k lots. Because of the volume that Breckenridge does does and their expertise (they only invest in municipal bonds), I'm comfortable that they are getting competitive pricing when buying/selling and doing a good job of evaluating for credit risk. The problem with a muni bond ladder is that it is very difficult to exit or reduce exposure in the future. To have diversification and a decent return, you need to have a s...
- Sat Feb 09, 2013 3:55 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: For munis, bond fund or ladder
- Replies: 116
- Views: 15947
Re: For munis, bond fund or ladder
Thanks stlutz and larry. These are great points. I believe I am getting institutional prices as the mgr is Breckenridge (via Fidelity) and they only manage muni portfolios. No one ever discussed with me what the length of my ladder would or should be and I was too ignorant to raise this before committing. I now believe that the ladder is designed to have an avg duration of 5-6 yrs. This probably makes sense for me but I will discuss this with my Fidelity rep (we have call next week) I don't think I can direct that Breckenridge limit the bonds to 10 yrs or less (if this was what seemed appropriate for my situation) since it's a discretionary account. I don't have a sense of what the yield curve has been but the most recent bond (bought 2/4/1...
- Sat Feb 09, 2013 12:28 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: For munis, bond fund or ladder
- Replies: 116
- Views: 15947
Re: For munis, bond fund or ladder
Larry, In theory the idea of a muni bond ladder makes sense for the reasons you identify. But I am finding it very difficult to watch my mgr build the ladder since this is necessitating the purchase of numerous high quality but long duration bonds (I already owned several muni bonds --500k total --of short to intermediate duration so the longer bonds were needed to complete the ladder). Given how low the yields are right now and how long the duration is of these newly-purchased bonds (since January, I have acquired 10 bonds of 50k each that mature between 2020 and 2024), I am really worried about the prospect of inflation and rising interest rates and what this will mean for my investment. Seems like a terrible time to be committing to long...
- Wed Jan 30, 2013 9:55 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Long duration individual muni bonds
- Replies: 10
- Views: 3934
Re: Long duration individual muni bonds
Thanks so much! I just ordered Larry Swedroe's bond book and I'll look at the MFS website. I'm glad you advised me about the secondary bond market. I have so much to learn.
- Tue Jan 29, 2013 8:26 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Long duration individual muni bonds
- Replies: 10
- Views: 3934
Re: Long duration individual muni bonds
Thanks for the insights. I think that for someone who wants to own individual muni bonds, there is something to be said for paying for the expertise (and greater inventory of bonds) and I suppose it makes sense to create a bond ladder if that's what they are doing. But I'm going to give more thought to the bond fund options with the lower cost. I also just don't know that I want to hold individual bonds of such long duration given how low rates are now.
- Mon Jan 28, 2013 9:20 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Long duration individual muni bonds
- Replies: 10
- Views: 3934
Re: Long duration individual muni bonds
Thanks. What you say makes sense. I will ask some questions to get a better sense of what's being done and why. I believe the current muni mgr looked over the transferred bonds to make sure they met their stds. At least one bond was exchanged. Some of the soon to mature bonds were sold.
- Sun Jan 27, 2013 7:55 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Long duration individual muni bonds
- Replies: 10
- Views: 3934
Re: Long duration individual muni bonds
Thanks. I can't fault UBS. We had long discussions about my financial situation, goals, assumptions and I was on board with the allocation. In the end, though, I decided that I wanted to avoid the fees and the frequent trading and try to simplify my portfolio and lower the costs. But of course this means I need to figure out how to manage the funds on my own. At Fidelity, I gave Breckenridge discretionary trading authority for the one municipal bond account. In hindsight, I should have had more information about how they would be picking bonds and the duration and what impact the addl investment would have on my overall allocation (and whether individual long duration bonds make sense at this point in time -- even if the overall duration of...
- Sun Jan 27, 2013 2:32 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Long duration individual muni bonds
- Replies: 10
- Views: 3934
Long duration individual muni bonds
I'm new to the forum and learning a lot and realizing how many mistakes I've made. In 2010 (age 50), I left a high-paying job for a low-paying dream job. I had enough $$ accumulated that I decided to hire an advisor at UBS to manage half of it. The rest was at Fidelity and self-managed. Total $3.2 mil and half of this is retirement. This year, I decided to move it all to Fidelity (except abt 350k in govt TSP and a health savings acct) and manage it myself with one exception. At UBS, I had (among other investments) about 450k in individual municipal bonds, all maturing bet 2013 and 2017. The Fidelity rep suggested that I consider opening a managed municipal bond account thru Fidelity with Breckenridge as the subadvisor. But the minimum accou...