By PETER ROSENTHAL, President V.I.P. Trust Deed Company Q:  I have owned my home for many years and have recently tried to refinance my old mortgage to obtain extra money for personal use. Though my credit is good, I was turned down by the mortgage company because of “”excessive late fees.” For years I have […]

By PETER ROSENTHAL, President V.I.P. Trust Deed Company Over the years your parents, the District Attorney’s office, consumer affairs reporters and the V.I.P. have warned you that if a deal seems too good to be true–It is! Watch out for frauds, swindles and cons that are just too good to be true. Well, the IRS […]

By PETER ROSENTHAL, President V.I.P. Trust Deed Company If you have been a resident of Glendale for the past ten years you may have noticed that the graffiti situation has improved REMARKABLY. The real improvement has come in the last 2-4 years, with the active involvement of Glendale’s Neighborhood Services, the active involvement of one […]

By PETER ROSENTHAL, President V.I.P. Trust Deed Company I am often asked about the wisdom of selling one’s real estate without a broker. Obviously, commissions on a hypothetical $200,000 property can be $10,000-$12,000 or more and that, theoretically, is a lot of money to waste. The question is, is it really wasted? As I am […]

By PETER ROSENTHAL, President V.I.P. Trust Deed Company Over the years I have written many columns on real estate fraud. Though this subject matter is not as timely now as it was during the early 1980’s and again in the early 1990’s, I wish to discuss this area of fraud that, hopefully, you will never […]

By PETER ROSENTHAL, President V.I.P. Trust Deed Company Every day I see ads in the paper for real estate loans that are almost too good to be true. The deals that are too good to be true always have an asterisk and small print down at the bottom. The small print is exactly the same […]

By PETER ROSENTHAL, President V.I.P. Trust Deed Company Q: We are presently shopping for a house in Burbank. We have been quoted different mortgage rates by a couple of lenders, depending on the amount of points that we pay up front. In addition, there are different rates for 15 year loans and 30 year loans. […]

By PETER ROSENTHAL, President V.I.P. Trust Deed Company I received so many calls after my last graffiti article that I was prompted to write a follow-up.  One call from an apartment owner really struck home because of its negative characteristics.  In general, the caller was complaining that the Long Beach police didn’t care about the […]

By PETER ROSENTHAL, President V.I.P. Trust Deed Company I often base these articles on true day to day stories.  Yesterday took the cake:   It was almost a course in “how to defraud your children.” This customer was referred to us to handle a foreclosure, but as an aside he inquired about equity loans.  He had […]

By PETER ROSENTHAL, President V.I.P. Trust Deed Company In a previous article I touched many a sore spot by discussing loans made to friends and relatives.  We have all “been there, done that” and, unfortunately, many of us will be asked to do so again. This column assumes that you have agreed to lend a […]