The Friday gathering – Misc updates edition
By glblguy
Photo by Hamed Saber
I was thinking this week that I owe you updates on a couple of things: How things turned out when by debit card was stolen and what happened to the house we were contemplating buying.
Stolen Debit Card
Late last year, I wrote about a terrible experience we had when my debit card was stolen and used by some low down thief. I’ve followed up with my bank a few times, and while they did recover some of their money from the merchants involved, the remaining amount was written off. What did surprise me is that the bank made very little effort to track down the thief. I was told they generally leave that to the merchant or customer. Customer? Wait, was I supposed to do something?
Turns out, I was responsible for filing a police report. It would have been nice if they had told me that. So somewhere out there is a debit card thief that got away with stealing and using my debit card…and we wonder why crime is so prevalent in America.
The Foreclosed House
I also wrote about a house we were considering purchasing. The house was rough, but if we could have purchased it at the right price, it would have been worth it. I was trying to schedule some estimates and an inspection of the house, but people kept making offers. I certainly didn’t want to pay for an inspection just to turn around and find out that the house sold the next day. So after 2 or 3 failed attempts, the real estate agent just stopped calling me back. I’ve left 3 or 4 messages with her, and she just won’t return my calls. Can you believe that? In a down market, I have a selling agent that has the potential to receive full commision on the house, and won’t return a simple phone call.
Needless to say we won’t be buying the house, as I refuse to call her again. Last I checked, the house was still for sail (opps…thanks Brad!) sale. Her loss, and our search continues…
Announcement and Contests
Below are a few announcements I think you’ll find interesting. Also, I’m linking to a few contests as well, both so you can enter and to hopefully help my chances of winning. I never seem to win anything, but I keep trying!
- Alan from Affiliate Confession in conjunction with Market Leverage and Vat19.com are giving away more than $500 worth of prizes. You can read more about the contest at his contest post.
- John Chow is also working with Market Leverage and is giving away a bag of great stuff. Today is the last day of the contest though, so hurry!
- Bob from ChristianPF is giving away a $15 iTunes giftcard. Entering is easy, just add a comment!
- Madison from My Dollar Plan created a really cool blog ranking site called Pop Top Ranks. She currently has 4 categories: Health, Parenting, Personal Development, and Personal Finance. You’ll find me at position #25 all the way at the bottom on the Personal Finance page. I’m in the top 25%…no complaints!
- NCN from No Credit Needed was featured on CNN Moneythis week! Way to go NCN and what a beautiful family you have there!
- And finally, I had the honor of being linked from an article by The Consumerist this week. Thanks for the mention Alex!
The Gathering
Here are the favorite articles from my blogroll this week. Enjoy!
- A Year Of Debt Reduction from I’ve paid for this twice already…
- How A Man Retired Early On $565 Per Month from The Baglady
- Resisting the Urge to Splurge (Financially) from Single Guy Money
- things you don’t deserve from Plonkee Money
- Henry Ford’s Wealthy Mindset from Millionaire Money Habits
- Declare Financial Freedom on Financial Independence Day from Cash, Money, Life
- Why high gas prices are a good thing from ChristianPF
- Comparing The Cost Of Moving – Do It Yourself Or Hire Movers? from My Two Dollars
- Online Marketing for a Home Based Business from The Dough Roller
- Advice That Might Have Turned My Financial Life Around…Or Not from Being Frugal
- Family Finances: Our Modus Operandi from Simple Mom
- Net Worth By Age Is Meaningless from Blueprint for Financial Prosperity
June 20th, 2008 at 10:53 am
What is with real estate agents? My fiance and I saw a home that was for sale at what seemed like a fantastic price. We weren’t planning on really looking until after our wedding in a few weeks, but this seemed like a great deal. We drove by the house, liked the look, but had a few questions. I have tried to contact the agent to ask a few preliminary questions and have gotten no response. I would think with the way things are going in the housing market these days that real estate agents would jump at a chance to have a serious buyer.
June 20th, 2008 at 11:01 am
What, aren’t you using a buyer’s agent? If not, get thee one immediately. They are so wonderful to work with because they represent YOU not the seller of the house. Ours was great, and was really on our side. The only downside is that you end up buying a FSBO house, you will still owe them a commission (whereas with a regular seller who uses an agent, the two split the commission). (But since FSBO are usually cheaper due to not having a commission it might come out even.) And they take care of keeping in touch with the seller’s agent, and in a case like this, the selling agent probably wants to keep on the good side of your agent since they will work with each other for other sales as well.
And if you don’t end up buying, at least in our case, you don’t owe your agent anything.
June 20th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Thanks for the mention – I need to get in on some of the other giveaways!!
June 20th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Was the house really moving on a lake? (“for sail”) :)
You may want to correct the text in the post to use “sale” and delete this comment. :)
Brad
June 20th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
@Kristin – I don’t even recall, I threw away her info.
@AnnMarie – No, we aren’t officially looking around that much just yet, otherwise I would have gotten a buyer’s agent.
@Brad – lol…too funny. I even proof-read the article twice and still missed that one and another one I just found. Hard to see the forest for the trees I guess. Thanks for the catch ;-)
June 21st, 2008 at 5:49 pm
I didn’t know that the banks didn’t put much effort into tracking down thieves, but when you think about it, it would probably cost them much more than they could ever hope to recover. I’m sure for them it is strictly a dollars and cents business decision.
Thanks for highlighting the Carnival of Financial Goals! :)
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Thanks for mentioning the new PopTop site! Glad to see you in the top 25%… that’s something to be proud of!
July 8th, 2010 at 1:07 am
I would like to begin by saying, thank you for supplying me with the information I’ve been searching for. I have been searching the internet for three hours searching for it and would have given my right arm if I would have found your website sooner. Not only did I locate what I was looking for, but also found answers to questions I never even thought to ask myself. Thank you for your wonderful web-site!