Comments on: The Simple Dollar Morning Roundup: Exiting Relatives Edition http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/the-simple-dollar-morning-roundup-exiting-relatives-edition/ Simple, applicable personal finance advice for the modern world Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:34:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: mitchell http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/the-simple-dollar-morning-roundup-exiting-relatives-edition/comment-page-1/#comment-56836 mitchell Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:41:56 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/the-simple-dollar-morning-roundup-exiting-relatives-edition/#comment-56836 the benefit of using prosper is a reasonable (not outrageous) return while diversifying your portfolio. if you lend money to people with bad or no credit, expect to lose your money. however, you can find people with good credit and get 10+% return on your investment. you can still lend to bad credit people, but its more of a gamble, requiring more of a mathematical analysis into the limits you need to set in order to maintain a certain return. i also think you might misunderstand what canceling means. the only lost money on a canceled loan is the opportunity cost, the interest not earned on your money over the course of a week. and yes, this is part of the problem with the system, but over a longer period of time, this issue shrinks in magnitude. its just like the stock market. ups and downs. the benefit of using prosper is a reasonable (not outrageous) return while diversifying your portfolio.

if you lend money to people with bad or no credit, expect to lose your money. however, you can find people with good credit and get 10+% return on your investment.

you can still lend to bad credit people, but its more of a gamble, requiring more of a mathematical analysis into the limits you need to set in order to maintain a certain return.

i also think you might misunderstand what canceling means. the only lost money on a canceled loan is the opportunity cost, the interest not earned on your money over the course of a week. and yes, this is part of the problem with the system, but over a longer period of time, this issue shrinks in magnitude. its just like the stock market. ups and downs.

]]> By: Matt http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/the-simple-dollar-morning-roundup-exiting-relatives-edition/comment-page-1/#comment-56819 Matt Mon, 13 Aug 2007 13:43:51 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/the-simple-dollar-morning-roundup-exiting-relatives-edition/#comment-56819 The list of home-buying mistakes is good, but my experience has been that most buyer's agents aren't really on your side either. If an agent switches between roles (that is, sometimes she is a seller's agent and sometimes she is a buyer's agent), I've found that the selling instinct tends to win out and clouds the buyer/buyer's agent relationship. Someone who is strictly a buyer's agent can do a good job, but those who try to be switch hitters forget who they are working for sometimes. I've had to remind more than one "buyer's" agent that she was supposed to be on my side. With that caveat on the first item, the list boils down to "The only person looking out for your interests in a real estate transaction is YOU", and that is the truth. The list of home-buying mistakes is good, but my experience has been that most buyer’s agents aren’t really on your side either. If an agent switches between roles (that is, sometimes she is a seller’s agent and sometimes she is a buyer’s agent), I’ve found that the selling instinct tends to win out and clouds the buyer/buyer’s agent relationship. Someone who is strictly a buyer’s agent can do a good job, but those who try to be switch hitters forget who they are working for sometimes. I’ve had to remind more than one “buyer’s” agent that she was supposed to be on my side.

With that caveat on the first item, the list boils down to “The only person looking out for your interests in a real estate transaction is YOU”, and that is the truth.

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