Author Archives: Jay Butchko
Are You Issuing Predatory Loans to Your Employees?
D.C. is one of the most expensive cities in the country, and you like to think that you are doing your part to contribute to the prosperity of its inhabitants by operating a small business where you sell your products or services to customers at affordable prices while paying your employees a fair wage. … Read More »
Retirement Is Not an Endless Summer Vacation
It has been a long time since you have had to think about the back-to-school routine, but you see it happening around you. For you, summer ends when it is cool enough that you can tolerate a Metro ride with your suit jacket on, but for everyone else, there is a bigger seismic shift… Read More »
LLCs Are Not 100 Percent Creditor-Proof
Choosing a business structure is the first thing you do when you establish a business, and many entrepreneurs, especially inexperienced ones, make the decision hastily. When your only basis for the decision is the one-paragraph descriptions on the IRS website, you can easily get the impression that the limited liability company (LLC) business structure… Read More »
Real Estate Sellers’ Disclosure Forms
Before buying a residential real estate property, buyers must go through a rigorous screening process to ensure that they are truly fit to buy the property they want. If you are planning on financing your house with a home mortgage loan, then you must submit documents to the loan officer to determine the amount… Read More »
Reverse Mortgages and Your Estate Plan
By now, you have heard the young people complaining about how the only way to be able to afford to buy a house is to have rich parents. Even though homeownership has long been considered the hallmark of financial stability, not everyone whose name is on the title to a house feels financially secure. … Read More »
Zero Down Payment Mortgages Are Here Again
Mortgage loans are prohibitively expensive; this is hardly breaking news. Housing prices are so far outside people’s budgets that the only way to lower your mortgage payment to something that you can qualify for is to make a sizable down payment, but rent is so expensive that no one can save for a down… Read More »
Short Refinances
You can tell that trouble is brewing in the housing market because people have started resorting to unconventional methods in order to obtain and keep home mortgage loans. For example, it is so difficult to qualify for a home mortgage loan, given the astronomical interest rates, that assumable mortgages are experiencing a resurgence in… Read More »
LLC Operating Agreements
Starting a business is easy, but making it profitable is not. To incorporate a business, all you have to do is file a form, and then you can get to work marketing your products or services. When things go wrong, though, you often wish that you had more written agreements to rely on so… Read More »
ABC As an Alternative to Bankruptcy
The decision to close a business can come as a relief. You might be walking away from an unsuccessful venture so that you can start a new one that has greater chances of success. Perhaps you have decided to get out of the entrepreneurship game all together and just work a boring desk job,… Read More »
The 5 Ds of Real Estate Purchases
Economists have described the current generation of first-time home buyers as “nepo babies.” This means that house purchases are so expensive that no one below the age of 40 can afford to buy a house or condo unless their parents contribute to the down payment. In other words, the young generation cannot reasonably aspire… Read More »
