Rocket Mortgage

My wife and I are just starting to look at houses. I am working with Rocket Mortgage on pre-approval just so we have it ready. The Rocket Mortgage folks said if we use one of their real estate agents we can get up to $4000 off of closing costs. Has anyone used a Rocket Mortgage realtor in the past? Is this a gimmick? We have other realtors who have been suggested to us by friends and family, so I'm trying to figure out the pros and cons of going with the RM realtor vs one suggested to us. Would other realtors potentially offer the same thing or provide benefits I'm not aware of?

Hello everyone, So a little bit about me I am 40 years old. I live in Texas I am single and I currently have streaming subscriptions with Netflix Hulu Disney+ Paramount+ hi Dave and Crunchyroll and Apple TV right now. I’m paying 140 something dollars a month in just streaming subscriptions. And I just got an alert on my phone from rocket mortgage saying that my subscription for Netflix was going up for no reason so I’m tired of the creeping subscription prices. I’m freaking floored about how much money I’m spending on this a month when I watch probably two or three maybe five at the most series per season and a lot of the movies that I watch on the screen streaming platforms do come out on Blu-ray? So I’m asking for basically testimonies from others who have made this transition how difficult was it? Are there series that you know you’re never gonna be able to get on Blu-ray so you might have to go back to a subscription service for a month or two at a time, things like that, I understand the space requirement for going back to physical media. That’s not a problem. I have the space in my home. I just would like to know if I I can expect to be able to find most TV series on the come out on Blu-ray. I’m not really big on spoilers. I’ve literally watched clips on YouTube of movies out of order and out of context and literally been like hey that looks like a cool movie or TV show. I’m gonna go watch that and still enjoyed it. So any advice or hard lessons learned from your personal transition to to this and getting out of the streaming market would be graciously appreciated thank you.

Location: Bakersfield CA Kern county **Post Body:** I am the court-appointed Special Administrator for my late mother's estate in Bakersfield, CA (Kern County). I am flying completely solo, representing the estate pro se with a fee waiver. I have an absolute nightmare of a situation with a hostile, fraudulent occupant and a looming foreclosure sale scheduled for July 13, 2026. I desperately need advice on how to get an immediate lockout. **The Background & The Fraud:** My mother passed away unexpectedly on October 19, 2023. The occupant was my moms friend who lied and claims to had been in a relationship with my mother for 27 years (they were NEVER together romantically she was never married and i'm the only son/child she had) intentionally hid her death from me until June 2024 so he could live in her house rent-free and steal estate assets. He went to court and lied under oath to a probate judge and on his petition for letters of admin, claiming they were a couple for 27 years (never married, never registered domestic partners), and claimed he was personally paying the mortgage and property taxes after she passed away. I pulled the actual records from the lender and proved it was a lie—my mom's personal bank account was on auto-pay until it froze 13 months later, and the lender paid the taxes out of the home's equity. During this time, he illegally sold two of her vehicles. I found his legit Facebook Marketplace ad in his own real name and account selling her El Camino for $8,000 without a title, and he fraudulently transferred her Lexus into his name at the DMV before probate even started without anything in writing he says my mom just verbally told him he can do whatever he wants with the cars. (again lies) **The Psychological Warfare & Audio Evidence:** He has moved his sisters and multiple random individuals into the house after her death. They have engaged in wild psychological manipulation to try and keep me away. His sister explicitly told me that she met my mother right before she died, claiming my mom held a deep grudge against me and didn’t want me around (which I have on Audio recording, also she claimed she had to "beg" my mother on her deathbed to make amends with me. (also recorded) But a few days later, I caught the main occupant on audio admitting a massive lie: **he openly admits his sister never even met my mother.** It was all a fabricated, cruel psychological game to try and make me feel unwanted so I wouldn't pursue my mother's estate. On top of that, I have him on audio saying, *"I ain't going to get no money out of this,"* and admitting, *"You are the sole heir and only son."* When I confronted him about jail time for the illegal car sales, he snapped on tape: *"You think I want to go to jail over some fucking cars? I’m too old to go to jail for this."* **The Current Crisis & Active Sabotage:** We went to formal mediation on February 20, 2026, and signed a binding agreement where he withdrew his petition for administration and agreed to support me to become it, and I would have the house listed and sold. The probate judge signed off on my Letters, granting me full authority to immediately secure the premises, take inventory, change the locks, and market the home to save our $250,000 equity cushion. The trustee (Affinia) originally set the auction for May 18, but because I got the house listed, they agreed to a 45-day postponement until July 13. Now, the occupant is completely sabotaging the process. He refuses to let my realtor or any potential buyers inside, stating it's a "bad time" and refusing to provide a phone number to coordinate a better time. When I confronted him with the judge-signed court orders and letters proving my legal right to immediately secure the premises,change the locks, and take inventory, he told me on audio: **"Fuck the judge, fuck our agreement,"** and told me I could **"shove those papers up my ass for all I care."** He explicitly stated, *"I don't give a fuck about this house, for all I care it can burn to the ground."* **My Dilemma:** I am completely broke and e-filing via OneLegal. A standard Unlawful Detainer (eviction) lawsuit takes months in California, and I will lose the house and the $250k equity to foreclosure on July 13 if it isn't cleared and shown to buyers immediately. 1. Can I use an emergency *Ex Parte* motion in Probate Court under **CCP § 664.6 (Motion to Enforce Settlement Agreement)** to bypass the standard eviction timeline and get an immediate Writ of Possession/Sheriff Lockout due to "imminent waste and destruction of estate assets"? 2. Because a civil TRO against the bank usually requires a massive monetary "Injunction Bond" (which my fee waiver won't cover), can a Probate Judge issue an order directly to Rocket Mortgage/Affinia to freeze the foreclosure based on this extreme squatter obstruction? 3. How can I best present this raw audio evidence and my realtor's signed declaration to the Kern County court to show the judge the absolute contempt this guy has for the legal system? Any guidance from California probate or eviction experts would literally save my life right now.

How the Reputation Firm Terakeet Failed to Fix an Epstein Friend’s Image How a Secretive Firm Tried (and Failed) to Fix an Epstein Friend’s Tattered Image Terakeet, a reputation management firm, used online tricks to downplay the friendship of the Goldman Sachs general counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler, with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It wasn’t enough. An undated photograph released by the Justice Department showing Kathryn Ruemmler with Jeffrey Epstein. Ms. Ruemmler’s name appeared in over 10,000 documents released in January by the Justice Department pertaining to Mr. Epstein.Credit...U.S. Department of Justice May 17, 2026Updated 1:32 p.m. ET Senior members of Terakeet, a reputation management firm, huddled in April 2024 to discuss what they could do for their new and potentially biggest client, Goldman Sachs, and its general counsel. She was suddenly the subject of unwanted publicity for her association with the sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Terakeet’s chief executive and co-founder, Mac Cummings, described the counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler, to the others at the meeting as a “friend of mine” and the “executive sponsor” of the Goldman Sachs account, according to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by The New York Times. Mr. Cummings added with some hyperbole that Ms. Ruemmler, a former White House counsel in the Obama administration, was “the most accomplished, brilliant lawyer in the United States, possibly the world,” and that she “probably will be at some point a Supreme Court justice of the United States — she is cool, she is fun, she’s interesting.” There was just one problem, Mr. Cummings said. After leaving the White House, Ms. Ruemmler had entered private practice and met with Mr. Epstein. “She’s done nothing wrong,” Mr. Cummings told his subordinates. “But like the other thousands of people that met him over the course of the last 20 years, her name is on something, her name is in a news article, which isn’t really helpful when you’re trying to be in the C-suite of Goldman Sachs. So that’s probably an area that we’re going to zone in on.” Image Ms. Ruemmler, right, in the Roosevelt Room with members of the Obama administration in 2014.Credit...Mandel Ngan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Zone in on Ms. Ruemmler’s troubles they did. Over the next 20 months, according to internal documents and interviews with individuals involved in the work, Terakeet’s team went to remarkable lengths to address what one memo characterized as her “association risk problem.” Specifically, Terakeet created and posted positive online content about Ms. Ruemmler that was aimed at appearing above the mostly negative content about her association with Mr. Epstein. The goal was that at least 80 percent of the first 30 Google search results would be favorable. To pull this off, the firm, based in Syracuse, N.Y., resorted to the furtive, algorithm-placating digital tradecraft that has made it one of the most exclusive and expensive players in the booming world of reputation management firms that combine public relations and technical skills to maintain a preferred narrative online. (Mr. Epstein himself tried to do the same sanitizing of his digital presence, although not with Terakeet, with seemingly similar, unsuccessful results.) Ms. Ruemmler declined to comment for this article, and Mr. Cummings declined to be interviewed on the record. He did, however, issue a statement describing his firm’s work. “Terakeet’s technology is built on a simple mandate: organizations must tell their own story,” the statement said. “If they do not, third-party bias combined with generative AI will shape it for them.” Image Mac Cummings, chief executive and co-founder of Terakeet, in 2012.Credit...David Lassman/The Post-Standard — Syracuse.com Over the years, his company’s client roster has included MetLife, JP Morgan Chase, Oracle, Target, Walmart, Disney and Bain Capital. Many of these were primarily “growth” clients who used Terakeet’s optimization expertise to fortify their brand. Others were dogged by controversy and fell into the “reputation” client category. Most wished to build and protect their brands at the same time. One prospective client, The New York Times, entered into discussions with Terakeet last year about how the firm could help combat online attacks aimed at Times employees. The Times ultimately decided not to enlist its services. Terakeet occasionally works free of charge for causes such as the American LGBTQ+ Museum in New York, but on average most clients can expect to be billed in the range of $5 to $10 million annually, according to people familiar with the company. The fees are considerably more than what other reputation management firms charge. “We charge high fees, but nothing like that,” said Sam Michelson, the chief executive of Five Blocks, a New York firm that has competed with Terakeet for clients in the past. In its early years, Terakeet focused on providing search engine optimization services to drive online traffic to a client’s website, including in 2007, when it assisted in digital fund-raising for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. The firm did similar work for the 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns of Barack Obama. In 2016, according to federal disclosures, Mrs. Clinton’s second presidential campaign paid the firm $10,000 to perform technology services in battleground states. Image Terakeet, based in Syracuse, N.Y., is one of the most exclusive and expensive players in the booming world of reputation management firms that combine public relations and technical skills to maintain a preferred narrative online.Credit...Lauren Petracca for The New York Times Terakeet also maintained a small list of clients contending with minor blemishes on an otherwise positive public image, such as St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which had been embarrassed by a ProPublica story in 2021 detailing how the nonprofit accumulated billions of dollars in a reserve fund while the families of patients faced financial hardship. Ms. Ruemmler presented a far different challenge for Terakeet. The story of how the firm tried and ultimately failed to diminish Mr. Epstein from her public profile represented an all-out effort to mute the immutable. In the end, all Terakeet could do was prove the adage coined by the billionaire Warren Buffett: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” This account is based on internal Terakeet documents, audio recordings of company meetings and interviews with 20 current and former employees. Since those who work at Terakeet are required to sign nondisclosure agreements, they described their confidential work on the condition of anonymity. Reeling in a New Client Early in 2024, Terakeet had lost what had been its biggest client, Rocket Mortgage, and with it more than 25 percent of the firm’s revenue. For that reason Mr. Cummings was excited to have landed Goldman Sachs as a new client. “I think that they’re the biggest label that we have, next to Met Life, on the Fortune 50,” Mr. Cummings said at the April meeting that year, according to the recording. Maintaining the global investment firm’s reputation would likely not constitute a heavy lift, he said. Already, according to Terakeet internal data, 65 percent of the Google search results for Goldman Sachs were favorable, with only 12 percent unfavorable and the rest neutral. Mr. Cummings went on to predict his own centrality in client relations. He said of David M. Solomon, Goldman’s chairman and chief executive, that “I will have his cellphone number, I will golf with him, and he will be our new best friend.” Mr. Cummings, an avid golfer who owns residences Skaneateles, N.Y., and Palm Beach, Fla., has often played a key role not only in wooing clients but in their custodianship, including personally hand-delivering reports to them. Mr. Solomon was “regularly getting dragged in the media,” as one Terakeet executive observed in the meeting. During the Covid lockdowns of 2020, he had played disc jockey at a large concert in the Hamptons under the name DJ D-Sol. That alter ego, the Terakeet internal document said, could result in “reputation fragmentation.” Image Terakeet took on Goldman Sachs, led by chairman and chief executive David Solomon, as a client in 2024.Credit...Al Drago/Bloomberg Minimizing Ms. Ruemmler’s association with Mr. Epstein was a more daunting task. At the time, mentions of the deceased sex offender appeared four times among the top 20 Google searches for Ms. Ruemmler. Among those four mentions was a 2023 Wall Street Journal account of how Ms. Ruemmler had “dozens of meetings” with Mr. Epstein and had planned to visit him at his island home in the Caribbean. Mr. Cummings told his team that such accounts were overblown. Still, “it’s crucial to strategically leverage controllable content to enhance Kathy’s online narrative,” as the internal memo put it. The Terakeet team went to work with the familiar tricks of the trade. They set up a personal website and a LinkedIn page for Ms. Ruemmler. They wrote several versions of her profile page and then located likely landing spots for them on websites belonging to the University of Washington, the Salzburg Global Seminar and other institutions. They developed a “tracking and monitoring” strategy to survey the shifting landscape of Google searches of Ms. Ruemmler. Such efforts met with resistance from Goldman Sachs, whose traditions included an insistence on a single boilerplate biography for each of the firm’s executives. Asked about Terakeet’s intention of publishing numerous differing profiles of Ms. Ruemmler on the internet, the firm’s communications director, Tony Fratto, said in an interview, “My team manages the bios. We just wouldn’t tolerate multiple bios.” While the investment firm spent much of 2024 and 2025 pumping the brakes on Terakeet’s efforts to buttress Ms. Ruemmler’s reputation, some members of Mr. Cummings’s team said they began to have doubts about his claim that his friend had done nothing wrong. One member of the team concluded after going through the research that Ms. Ruemmler’s association with Mr. Epstein had been greater than what had originally been suggested and quit Terakeet altogether. $6 Million From the U.A.E. Terakeet’s expertise in fixing reputations like that of Ms. Ruemmler had been years in the making. One lucrative account for Terakeet, according to four former employees, has been the United Arab Emirates and its ambassador to Washington, Yousef al-Otaiba. Much of Terakeet’s work, which according to Foreign Agents Registration Act records began in July 2019 and continues to this day, focuses on optimizing Google searches in an effort to promote tourism in the U.A.E. But Mr. al-Otaiba, a well-known figure in Washington social circles, was concerned in 2017 about a story published in The Intercept that reported he once had ties to sex workers and traffickers. (Mr. al-Otaiba declined to comment, beyond confirming that Terakeet has done work for the U.A.E.) A small team at Terakeet set to work to push the damaging story off the first page of Google search results. The account’s manager, Kenneth Schiefer, relocated from Syracuse to Washington for more than a year to work in person with the ambassador at the U.A.E. embassy without leaving a digital trail of emails and text messages between the two of them. Image Terakeet’s team worked with Yousef al-Otaiba, the Emirati ambassador to Washington, to push a damaging news story about him off the first page of Google search results.Credit...Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Anti-Defamation League Terakeet’s team first established a personal web page for Mr. al-Otaiba. The firm then used an anonymous editor handle called VentureKit to create a fraudulent, sock puppet account, Quorum816, to add positive information about Mr. al-Otaiba on his Wikipedia page in 2020, according to two individuals with knowledge of the events. (In August 2021, Wikipedia reversed the edits made by Quorum816 and suspended the account as well as VentureKit.) Terakeet’s content writers also wrote several profiles of Mr. al-Otaiba that emphasized his leadership abilities. They took care to avoid duplication, since Google only posts what it deems to be “differentiated content.” The team then supplied the profiles to institutions with which the ambassador had affiliations — including the Milken Institute, the Special Olympics and Harvard’s Kennedy School — as well as to a digital directory called The Marque, which charges up to four thousand dollars a year to post an individual’s profile page. The profiles contained links to favorable U.A.E.-related blogs written by Terakeet staffers, with the effect of giving the profiles added authority and pushing them up the Google search pipeline. For these efforts, the United Arab Emirates paid Terakeet more than $6 million from 2020 through 2022. By 2023, the mission had been accomplished. The Intercept story had sunk to page 2 in the Google search results. Today for most users, it languishes on page 5. Another client of Terakeet has been Robert F. Smith, the chief executive of Vista Equity Partners, a global investment firm. Last year Mr. Smith was listed by Forbes as the third richest Black individual in America, with a net worth of $10 billion. In 2019, he stunned some 400 graduates of Morehouse College when he pledged in a commencement address to pay off all their student loans. He then did exactly that. But his reputation was marred by a single act of malfeasance. In 2020, he signed a non-prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice acknowledging that he had “engaged in an illegal scheme to conceal income and evade taxes” from 2000 to 2015. (Through a spokesman, Mr. Smith declined to comment.) Image Terakeet also created a digital strategy for Robert F. Smith, the chief executive of global investment firm Vista Equity Partners, to suppress search results for tax fraud.Credit...Manuel Orbegozo/Bloomberg Part of Terakeet’s assignment, according to three people with knowledge of the events, was to push this chapter of Mr. Smith’s life as far down the Google search list as possible. First, the firm took control of Mr. Smith’s personal and corporate websites as well as his social media accounts and maximized the favorable content in them. Terakeet then set up a separate personal website for Mr. Smith devoted to his philanthropic work. They also wrote up and posted different leadership profiles wherever Mr. Smith had an affiliation or had made a donation: StudentFreedomInitiative.org, TheHistoryMakers.org, WEForum.org, PointsOfLight.org, CarnegieHall.org and the sites of several universities. Though Terakeet could not erase a 2020 story in Forbes about Mr. Smith being under investigation for tax crimes, it used optimization techniques to cause other Forbes stories emphasizing Mr. Smith’s wealth to appear above the more negative Forbes article in Google searches. Terakeet’s efforts paid off. By 2023, a Google search for “Robert F. Smith” did not yield prominent mention of Mr. Smith’s tax fraud within the first 100 results. For the average user, the same search result holds true today. ‘We’re Going to Fix This for You’ Terakeet’s grip on Ms. Ruemmler’s reputation began to slip last November, when the House Oversight Committee made public several thousand documents it had obtained from the estate of Mr. Epstein. The tranche included emails from Ms. Ruemmler referring to the convicted sex offender as “sweetie” and “Uncle Jeffrey.” “We are not defending Jeffrey Epstein, full stop,” Mr. Cummings told the Terakeet team a few days after the documents were disclosed, according to a person who was present at the meeting. Though Goldman Sachs continued to stand by its general counsel, members of the team assigned to the account at Terakeet said they began to wonder if more trouble was coming. They did not have to wait long. On the afternoon of Friday, Jan. 30, the Justice Department released 3.5 million pages pertaining to Mr. Epstein. Ms. Ruemmler’s name appeared in over 10,000 of them. In some of the exchanges, she discussed traveling to France with Mr. Epstein, expressed appreciation for the lavish gifts he had bought her and offered him legal advice. Shortly afterward, Mr. Cummings gathered shaken Terakeet team members who had worked on Ms. Ruemmler’s account. He vowed to keep up the fight. “I told Kathy, ‘We’re going to fix this for you,’” he said, according to someone with knowledge of the meeting. Image Ms. Ruemmler at an event in 2022. She announced this February that she would be resigning from Goldman Sachs but continues to be covered by their account with Terakeet.Credit...Shelley Kusnetz Rather than wait for this to happen, Ms. Ruemmler announced on Feb. 12 that she would be resigning from Goldman Sachs. Her departure date will be sometime in June. In the meantime, she continues to be covered by Goldman Sach’s account with Terakeet, and the reputation management firm continues to track and survey what Google says about her. Today when you search for Ms. Ruemmler, the first entry is her Wikipedia page. Its first paragraph states that she resigned from Goldman Sachs “over her links to child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.” Hassan Ugail, a professor at the University of Bradford in Britain who specializes in facial recognition, confirmed that the image included in the Justice Department’s Epstein files depicts Ms. Ruemmler. Robert Draper is based in Washington and writes about domestic politics. He is the author of several books and has been a journalist for three decades.

Terakeet, a reputation management firm, used online tricks to downplay the friendship of the Goldman Sachs general counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler, with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It wasn’t enough. Senior members of Terakeet, a reputation management firm, huddled in April 2024 to discuss what they could do for their new and potentially biggest client, Goldman Sachs, and its general counsel. She was suddenly the subject of unwanted publicity for her association with the sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Terakeet’s chief executive and co-founder, Mac Cummings, described the counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler, to the others at the meeting as a “friend of mine” and the “executive sponsor” of the Goldman Sachs account, according to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by The New York Times. Mr. Cummings added with some hyperbole that Ms. Ruemmler, a former White House counsel in the Obama administration, was “the most accomplished, brilliant lawyer in the United States, possibly the world,” and that she “probably will be at some point a Supreme Court justice of the United States — she is cool, she is fun, she’s interesting.” There was just one problem, Mr. Cummings said. After leaving the White House, Ms. Ruemmler had entered private practice and met with Mr. Epstein. “She’s done nothing wrong,” Mr. Cummings told his subordinates. “But like the other thousands of people that met him over the course of the last 20 years, her name is on something, her name is in a news article, which isn’t really helpful when you’re trying to be in the C-suite of Goldman Sachs. So that’s probably an area that we’re going to zone in on.” Zone in on Ms. Ruemmler’s troubles, they did. Over the next 20 months, according to internal documents and interviews with individuals involved in the work, Terakeet’s team went to remarkable lengths to address what one memo characterized as her “association risk problem.” Specifically, Terakeet created and posted positive online content about Ms. Ruemmler that was aimed at appearing above the mostly negative content about her association with Mr. Epstein. The goal was that at least 80 percent of the first 30 Google search results would be favorable. To pull this off, the firm, based in Syracuse, N.Y., resorted to the furtive, algorithm-placating digital tradecraft that has made it one of the most exclusive and expensive players in the booming world of reputation management firms that combine public relations and technical skills to maintain a preferred narrative online. (Mr. Epstein himself tried to do the [same sanitizing of his digital presence,](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/business/media/jeffrey-epstein-online.html) although not with Terakeet, with seemingly similar, unsuccessful results. Ms. Ruemmler declined to comment for this article, and Mr. Cummings declined to be interviewed on the record. He did, however, issue a statement describing his firm’s work. “Terakeet’s technology is built on a simple mandate: organizations must tell their own story,” the statement said. “If they do not, third-party bias combined with generative AI will shape it for them.” Over the years, his company’s client roster has included MetLife, JP Morgan Chase, Oracle, Target, Walmart, Disney and Bain Capital. Many of these were primarily “growth” clients who used Terakeet’s optimization expertise to fortify their brand. Others were dogged by controversy and fell into the “reputation” client category. Most wished to build and protect their brands at the same time. One prospective client, The New York Times, entered into discussions with Terakeet last year about how the firm could help combat online attacks aimed at Times employees. The Times ultimately decided not to enlist its services. Terakeet occasionally works free of charge for causes such as the American LGBTQ+ Museum in New York, but on average most clients can expect to be billed in the range of $5 to $10 million annually, according to people familiar with the company. The fees are considerably more than what other reputation management firms charge. “We charge high fees, but nothing like that,” said Sam Michelson, the chief executive of Five Blocks, a New York firm that has competed with Terakeet for clients in the past. In its early years, Terakeet focused on providing search engine optimization services to drive online traffic to a client’s website, including in 2007, when it assisted in digital fundraising for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. The firm did similar work for the 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns of Barack Obama. In 2016, according to federal disclosures, Mrs. Clinton’s second presidential campaign paid the firm $10,000 to perform technology services in battleground states. Terakeet also maintained a small list of clients contending with minor blemishes on an otherwise positive public image, such as St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which had been embarrassed by a [ProPublica story in 2021](https://www.propublica.org/article/st-jude-hoards-billions-while-many-of-its-families-drain-their-savings) detailing how the nonprofit accumulated billions of dollars in a reserve fund while the families of patients faced financial hardship. Ms. Ruemmler presented a far different challenge for Terakeet. The story of how the firm tried and ultimately failed to diminish Mr. Epstein from her public profile represented an all-out effort to mute the immutable. In the end, all Terakeet could do was prove the adage coined by the billionaire Warren Buffett: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” This account is based on internal Terakeet documents, audio recordings of company meetings and interviews with 20 current and former employees. Since those who work at Terakeet are required to sign nondisclosure agreements, they described their confidential work on the condition of anonymity. # Reeling in a New Client Early in 2024, Terakeet had lost what had been its biggest client, Rocket Mortgage, and with it more than 25 percent of the firm’s revenue. For that reason, Mr. Cummings was excited to have landed Goldman Sachs as a new client. “I think that they’re the biggest label that we have, next to Met Life, on the Fortune 50,” Mr. Cummings said at the April meeting that year, according to the recording. Maintaining the global investment firm’s reputation would likely not constitute a heavy lift, he said. Already, according to Terakeet internal data, 65 percent of the Google search results for Goldman Sachs were favorable, with only 12 percent unfavorable and the rest neutral. Mr. Cummings went on to predict his own centrality in client relations. He said of David M. Solomon, Goldman’s chairman and chief executive, that “I will have his cellphone number, I will golf with him, and he will be our new best friend.” Mr. Cummings, an avid golfer who owns residences in Skaneateles, N.Y., and Palm Beach, Fla., has often played a key role not only in wooing clients but in their custodianship, including personally hand-delivering reports to them. Mr. Solomon was “regularly getting dragged in the media,” as one Terakeet executive observed in the meeting. During the Covid lockdowns of 2020, he had played disc jockey at a large concert in the Hamptons under the name DJ D-Sol. That alter ego, the Terakeet internal document said, could result in “reputation fragmentation.” Minimizing Ms. Ruemmler’s association with Mr. Epstein was a more daunting task. At the time, mentions of the deceased sex offender appeared four times among the top 20 Google searches for Ms. Ruemmler. Among those four mentions was a 2023 Wall Street Journal [account](https://www.wsj.com/us-news/jeffrey-epstein-calendar-cia-director-goldman-sachs-noam-chomsky-c9f6a3ff) of how Ms. Ruemmler had “dozens of meetings” with Mr. Epstein and had planned to visit him at his island home in the Caribbean. Mr. Cummings told his team that such accounts were overblown. Still, “it’s crucial to strategically leverage controllable content to enhance Kathy’s online narrative,” as the internal memo put it. The Terakeet team went to work with the familiar tricks of the trade. They set up a personal website and a LinkedIn page for Ms. Ruemmler. They wrote several versions of her profile page and then located likely landing spots for them on websites belonging to the University of Washington, the Salzburg Global Seminar and other institutions. They developed a “tracking and monitoring” strategy to survey the shifting landscape of Google searches of Ms. Ruemmler. Such efforts met with resistance from Goldman Sachs, whose traditions included an insistence on a single boilerplate biography for each of the firm’s executives. Asked about Terakeet’s intention of publishing numerous differing profiles of Ms. Ruemmler on the internet, the firm’s communications director, Tony Fratto, said in an interview, “My team manages the bios. We just wouldn’t tolerate multiple bios.” While the investment firm spent much of 2024 and 2025 pumping the brakes on Terakeet’s efforts to buttress Ms. Ruemmler’s reputation, some members of Mr. Cummings’s team said they began to have doubts about his claim that his friend had done nothing wrong. One member of the team concluded after going through the research that Ms. Ruemmler’s association with Mr. Epstein had been greater than what had originally been suggested and quit Terakeet altogether. # $6 Million From the U.A.E. Terakeet’s expertise in fixing reputations like that of Ms. Ruemmler had been years in the making. One lucrative account for Terakeet, according to four former employees, has been the United Arab Emirates and its ambassador to Washington, Yousef al-Otaiba. Much of Terakeet’s work, which according to Foreign Agents Registration Act records began in July 2019 and continues to this day, focuses on optimizing Google searches in an effort to promote tourism in the U.A.E. But Mr. al-Otaiba, a well-known figure in Washington social circles, was concerned in 2017 about a [story](https://theintercept.com/2017/08/30/uae-ambassador-yousef-al-otaiba-double-life-prostitutes-sex-work/) published in The Intercept that reported he once had ties to sex workers and traffickers. (Mr. al-Otaiba declined to comment, beyond confirming that Terakeet has done work for the U.A.E.) A small team at Terakeet set to work to push the damaging story off the first page of Google search results. The account’s manager, Kenneth Schiefer, relocated from Syracuse to Washington for more than a year to work in person with the ambassador at the U.A.E. embassy without leaving a digital trail of emails and text messages between the two of them. Terakeet’s team first established a personal web page for Mr. Al-Otaiba. The firm then used an anonymous editor handle called VentureKit to create a fraudulent, sock puppet account, [Quorum816](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yousef_Al_Otaiba&action=history&offset=&limit=500), to add positive information about Mr. al-Otaiba on his Wikipedia page in 2020, according to two individuals with knowledge of the events. (In August 2021, Wikipedia reversed the edits made by Quorum816 and suspended the account as well as VentureKit.) Terakeet’s content writers also wrote several profiles of Mr. al-Otaiba that emphasized his leadership abilities. They took care to avoid duplication, since Google only posts what it deems to be “differentiated content.” The team then supplied the profiles to institutions with which the ambassador had affiliations — including the Milken Institute, the Special Olympics, and Harvard’s Kennedy School — as well as to a digital directory called The Marque, which charges up to four thousand dollars a year to post an individual’s profile page. The profiles contained links to favorable U.A.E.-related blogs written by Terakeet staffers, with the effect of giving the profiles added authority and pushing them up the Google search pipeline. For these efforts, the United Arab Emirates paid Terakeet more than $6 million from 2020 through 2022. By 2023, the mission had been accomplished. The Intercept story had sunk to page 2 in the Google search results. Today, for most users, it languishes on page 5. Another client of Terakeet has been Robert F. Smith, the chief executive of Vista Equity Partners, a global investment firm. Last year, Mr. Smith was [listed](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jabariyoung/2025/09/10/here-are-the-4-richest-black-people-in-america-and-number-1-will-surprise-you/) by Forbes as the third-richest Black individual in America, with a net worth of $10 billion. In 2019, he stunned some 400 graduates of Morehouse College when he pledged in a commencement address to pay off all their student loans. He then did exactly that. But his reputation was marred by a single act of malfeasance. In 2020, he signed a non-prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice acknowledging that he had “engaged in an illegal scheme to conceal income and evade taxes” from 2000 to 2015. (Through a spokesman, Mr. Smith declined to comment.) Part of Terakeet’s assignment, according to three people with knowledge of the events, was to push this chapter of Mr. Smith’s life as far down the Google search list as possible. First, the firm took control of Mr. Smith’s personal and corporate websites as well as his social media accounts and maximized the favorable content in them. Terakeet then set up a separate personal website for Mr. Smith devoted to his philanthropic work. They also wrote up and posted different leadership profiles wherever Mr. Smith had an affiliation or had made a donation: StudentFreedomInitiative.org, TheHistoryMakers.org, WEForum.org, PointsOfLight.org, CarnegieHall.org, and the sites of several universities. Though Terakeet could not erase a 2020 [story](https://www.forbes.com/sites/elanagross/2020/08/21/billionaire-robert-f-smith-reportedly-under-investigation-for-potential-tax-crimes/) in Forbes about Mr. Smith being under investigation for tax crimes, it used optimization techniques to cause other Forbes stories emphasizing Mr. Smith’s wealth to appear above the more negative Forbes article in Google searches. Terakeet’s efforts paid off. By 2023, a Google search for “Robert F. Smith” did not yield a prominent mention of Mr. Smith’s tax fraud within the first 100 results. For the average user, the same search result holds today. # ‘We’re Going to Fix This for You’ Terakeet’s grip on Ms. Ruemmler’s reputation began to slip last November, when the House Oversight Committee made public several thousand documents it had obtained from the estate of Mr. Epstein. The tranche included emails from Ms. Ruemmler referring to the convicted sex offender as “sweetie” and “Uncle Jeffrey.” “We are not defending Jeffrey Epstein, full stop,” Mr. Cummings told the Terakeet team a few days after the documents were disclosed, according to a person who was present at the meeting. Though Goldman Sachs continued to stand by its general counsel, members of the team assigned to the account at Terakeet said they began to wonder if more trouble was coming. They did not have to wait long. On the afternoon of Friday, Jan. 30, the Justice Department released 3.5 million pages about Mr. Epstein. Ms. Ruemmler’s name appeared in over 10,000 of them. In some of the exchanges, she discussed traveling to France with Mr. Epstein, expressed appreciation for the lavish gifts he had bought her, and offered him legal advice. Shortly afterward, Mr. Cummings gathered shaken Terakeet team members who had worked on Ms. Ruemmler’s account. He vowed to keep up the fight. “I told Kathy, ‘We’re going to fix this for you,’” he said, according to someone with knowledge of the meeting. Rather than wait for this to happen, Ms. Ruemmler announced on Feb. 12 that she would be resigning from Goldman Sachs. Her departure date will be sometime in June. In the meantime, she continues to be covered by Goldman Sach’s account with Terakeet, and the reputation management firm continues to track and survey what Google says about her. Today, when you search for Ms. Ruemmler, the first entry is her Wikipedia page. Its first paragraph states that she resigned from Goldman Sachs “over her links to child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.” ,

\- May 14, 2026 ## The Good 🚀 - **Strong Revenue Growth:** Q1 revenue grew 46% year-over-year to $333M, accelerating for the second consecutive quarter. - **Net Dollar Retention (NDR):** NDR reached 139%, the highest in over two years, indicating strong customer expansion and retention. - **Paid Customer Growth:** Paid customers rose 54% YoY to approximately 690,000. - **Enterprise Momentum:** Large deals, including a hyperscaler consolidating to 35,000 paid seats, and international wins (India, Europe) highlight enterprise traction. - **AI as a Tailwind:** Broad adoption of AI features (Figma Make, Weave, MCP) is driving seat expansion, customer upgrades, and new monetization (AI credits). - **Cash Flow & Margins:** Non-GAAP operating margin at 16%; free cash flow margin at 27%; $1.6 billion cash on hand. - **Product Innovation:** Rapid updates and new features (context improvements, timeline editor for video, MCP enhancements) keep Figma ahead on product. - **Customer Examples:** Google, Lufthansa, Rocket Mortgage, and NBBJ all showcased as deepening their reliance on Figma. - **Raised Guidance:** Full-year revenue and operating income guidance raised by $55M and $25M, respectively. - **AI Monetization Early Success:** Over 75% of users who exceeded AI credit limits continued usage; early enterprise AI credit purchases are strong. - **Diverse Expansion:** Growth not just in design teams, but across engineering, product, and other functions. --- ## The Bad 🤔 - **Gross Margin Pressure:** Gross margin was 82% (down from historical highs), reflecting higher AI inference costs. - **Visibility on AI Margin Impact:** Management was unable to give a clear floor for gross margins as AI adoption grows, signaling potential future pressure. - **Short-Term Cash Flow Impact:** Q1 free cash flow margin was artificially lowered by a $56M bonus payout (annual event), impacting margin comparability. - **AI Cost Management Still Evolving:** Efforts to optimize AI cost (model routing, first-party models) are ongoing, not yet fully realized. - **Beta Features:** Some monetization levers (like MCP usage-based pricing) are still in beta and not contributing to revenue yet. --- ## The Ugly 😬 - **Competitive Threats Increasing:** Hyperscalers and AI labs (e.g., Anthropic, Google) are launching similar or adjacent design/AI tools, increasing competitive intensity. - **Uncertain Long-term Mix:** Management admits it’s too early to predict the balance between seat expansion vs. AI consumption for future growth. - **Market Saturation Risks:** As AI features become table stakes, Figma may face pressure to keep innovating or risk commoditization. - **Reliance on AI Monetization:** Early AI credit monetization is positive, but it’s a new model with limited historical data—potential for volatility or pushback from customers. - **Potential for Margin Compression:** As AI usage grows, unless cost controls are successful, margins could dip below 80%—a psychological and financial concern for some software investors. - **Some Customer Churn Possible:** Although not highlighted as acute, introducing AI credit limits and new pricing models always risks pushback or churn from price-sensitive users. --- # Earnings Breakdown: ## Financial Metrics 💰 - **Q1 Revenue:** $333 million, up 46% year-over-year (YoY) - **Q1 Gross Profit:** $275 million - **Gross Margin:** 82% - **Non-GAAP Operating Income:** $52 million - **Non-GAAP Operating Margin:** 16% - **Free Cash Flow:** $89 million - **Free Cash Flow Margin:** 27% - Note: $56 million bonus payout impacted margin by 17 percentage points - **Cash, Cash Equivalents, and Marketable Securities (end of Q1):** $1.6 billion - **Net Dollar Retention Rate:** 139% (highest in over 2 years, up 3 pts QoQ) - **Paid Customer Growth:** ~690,000 paid customers (up 54% YoY from ~450,000) - **Customers Spending >$10K ARR:** Up 37% YoY (5 pts acceleration vs. Q4) - **Customers Spending >$100K ARR:** Up 48% YoY (2 pts acceleration vs. Q4) ### Guidance - **Q2 2026 Revenue Guidance:** $348M–$350M (40% YoY growth at midpoint) - **Full-Year 2026 Revenue Guidance:** $1.422B–$1.428B (35% YoY growth at midpoint; raised by $55M) - **Full-Year Non-GAAP Operating Income Guidance:** $125M–$135M (9% margin at midpoint; raised by $25M) --- ## Product Metrics & Highlights 🛠️ - **AI and Platform Usage:** - Over 60% of largest customers (>$100K ARR) used Figma Make weekly in Q1 (up from over 50% last quarter) - Over 80% of Make users on Full Seats continued using Figma Design for visual editing and broader exploration - MCP weekly active users in Design grew 5x quarter-over-quarter - **AI Credit Monetization:** - AI credit limits started March 18, 2026 - Over 75% of Org and Enterprise users who were over their credit limit continued to use credits - Over 95% of those users remained active on the platform - Pro teams purchasing AI credit add-ons have 3x higher annualized spend and more seats per team than those not purchasing add-ons - Q2 will be first full quarter of AI credit monetization - **International Revenue Growth:** 48% YoY - **Pro Team Conversions:** Up over 150% YoY (viewed as a leading indicator for future growth) - **Large Enterprise Deals:** - Hyperscaler consolidated into a single agreement for over 35,000 paid seats (one of the largest deals in Figma history) - Major wins in India and Europe with large IT and automation firms - **Expansion Trends:** - Over 60% of paid customers spending >$10K ARR added full seats at renewal - Customers with >$100K ARR using MCP grew full seats ~70% faster than those not using MCP - **Product Innovation:** - Major updates to Figma Make for better context and control - New MCP capabilities: agents can read/write directly to Figma files - Updates to Figma Weave, including new video timeline editor - AI assistant in Alpha, expected to expand credit usage soon --- **Source:** [Decode Investing AI Assistant](https://decodeinvesting.com/earnings_call/FIG?year=2026&quarter=1)

Wells Fargo transferred my mortgage to Rocket Mortgage after we made our payment and they said they sent it to Rocket Mortgage but they are saying it could take 30-60 days to process and its showing we did not make a payment. Rocket Mortgage said we can wait or pay twice for the month. They said if we wait we may get a penalty for late payment and it may get reported, but we could try and call and explain to them the situation once it processes the payment. IDK what to do, I can not afford to double pay right now.

**Bilt sent my mortgage payment into a black hole. 15 days later, my money is still missing and nobody will give me an answer.** **The background:** Mr. Cooper recently merged with Rocket Mortgage. Somewhere in that transition, Rocket Mortgage quietly stopped accepting payments from third-party apps — including Bilt. Neither Rocket Mortgage nor Bilt told anyone. No email. No notification. No warning. **What happened:** I submitted my mortgage payment through Bilt on May 1, same as always. It never posted. I contacted Rocket Mortgage. Their response: *"We do not accept payments from third-party apps such as Bilt. Please contact your bank to cancel the payment."* Cool. So where's my money? **The runaround:** * Bilt says the payment was "received" by Rocket Mortgage * Rocket Mortgage says they didn't accept it, and won't going forward from Bilt * The funds are floating somewhere in between * Nobody can tell me where **Bilt support:** Opened a ticket May 9. They "escalated to a senior team" on May 10. That was 5 days ago. Complete silence since. To protect my credit I had to make a second mortgage payment out of pocket directly to Rocket Mortgage. So I'm now double-paid on my mortgage with no refund in sight and a support team that has ghosted me. u/BiltRewards — 15 days, no answers, money still missing. Would appreciate an actual response.

Lost out on a house recently where I believe we weer the highest offer. The issue the listing broker shared was they were concerned the house would not appraise at the purchase price possible holding up the deal with our 25% down. They went with a slightly lower cash offer I guess. I was surprised my lender didn't know this based on our offer going in. So....I'm looking for a local broker, lender or credit union, not sure whats better. What about direct lender like Rocket Mortgage or Cross Country? Wife and I are w2 employees with a rental property and down payment will be coming from my dad. Pretty basic. Just want a lender to maybe be more aggressive I guess, if that's possible.

Detroit-based home lender Rocket Mortgage [filed a lawsuit Thursday](https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/2026/05/14/rocket-mortgage-suing-uwm-for-100m-as-heated-rivalry-flares/90081416007/) against local archrival United Wholesale Mortgage for alleged breach of contract, the latest escalation in a bitter personal and business feud between Rocket Companies Chairman Dan Gilbert and UWM CEO Mat Ishbia.

I received the following voicemail this morning: “*Uh, yes, this message is intended for (my name) and (wife’s name). My name is (common American name) and I work with legal mail services.* *I'm reaching out to you guys. Uh, you guys had a documentation sent out to you guys for 10 to property assessment request, um, against, um, the social ending in (actual last 4 of my social) for yourself, um, it states here there's a form also sent out to a corporation of central loan admin, um, as well as a rocket mortgage, um, pertaining to this property assessments.* *Now I am recommending if you have any questions, concerns, if you guys are not going to be on the premises, is to respond as soon as you guys can at the (888 phone number) reference number of 187-470-187470.* *It's important that you guys respond the next step to deliver the forms out to a place of employment of (name of my actual employer) here. So hopefully you guys respond um and you guys are become aware if you guys aren't aware of the actions. Again (888 phone number) with the reference number 187470. You guys have a good day.”* They also called my wife this morning. She answered, and they said they were trying to serve me paperwork and needed to get a hold of me. She hung up on them. I’m thinking this is a scam, but curious to get everyone’s thoughts.

Back in 2023, my friend changed their name and wrote a guide to help others through the process. When I went to follow the steps this year in 2026, I found that the process had changed enough that the information needed to be updated. Now that I'm (almost) finished, I figured it would be nice to share the information I've gathered in a public forum. The process is long, tedious, confusing, and bureaucratic. You will need to be patient. You will call places to update your name, and they will refer to you as your old name for the entirety of the interaction. Many institutions got my new name wrong, which required me to have to submit multiple requests for updates. Stay strong. If you have questions, ask them here and I'll do my best to answer them. Of course note that my experiences are not universal, I pray that yours are easier and not harder. **BEFORE YOUR HEARING** 1. Fill out the name change application with the DC court. Make sure the details on your supporting documents (e.g. birth certificate) perfectly match what you put on the application. 1. The application will ask you why you’re changing your name. You can give pretty much any reason that shows you’re not trying to do something illegal. 2. You will need to identify your creditors and their addresses. A creditor is anyone to whom you have the potential of owing money. This list includes your landlord or mortgage lender, all of your utilities under your name (gas, electric, internet, water/sewer, trash), your phone company (if under your name), your student loan managers, and your credit card companies. I also included HOA, medical bills, and insurance. Sometimes creditor addresses are listed on their websites, but you may need to call. When asking for creditor addresses, ask for a physical mailing address for general correspondence. Customer service representatives will have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about if you mention changing your name. 1. Print out your application. You only need to print the application pages (you don’t need to print the instructions, affidavit, or court order). 1. Gather required documents outlined in the instructions (birth certificate, social security card, utility bills from the last 60 days, driver’s license). 1. My approach recently has been to bring as many of the outlined documents as I’m able to and have them pick which ones to use. This helps me prevent the possibility of not having the right documentation. 1. Bring your signed and dated application to the Moultrie Courthouse at 500 Indiana Avenue NW– Monday - Friday, 8:30 am - 5:00 pm. The courthouse is right by the Judiciary Square metro (red line). You do not need an appointment. 1. You’ll need to go through a metal detector to get into the building. It’s best to get there right when they open to avoid a line. There should be someone in the lobby directing people when you arrive- they’ll either tell you to go to the fourth or fifth floor. 2. It took them about an hour to process my paperwork, but that was because there was a malfunction with the computer. The clerk also asked me my pronouns, so if you’re trans and wary of the government knowing that, be prepared for this question. 1. The fee is $60 plus a nominal transaction fee. Cash is technically accepted at the courthouse, but there’s a whole process that isn’t worth the hassle. 1. The clerk will schedule you a virtual court date, likely a month or two out. Make sure you can be available before you accept. The clerk will give you information about when and how to connect for your court date, but this is not the official court order that you need to mail to creditors. 1. Go home and wait to receive an email with your official court order for your upcoming hearing. This is at least a few days. You’ll need to make copies of the office order from the mail for each of your creditors. 1. Mine took almost three full weeks to arrive. I tried calling to check on the status of my case, and they told me to send an email to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). I never received a response, so pursuing information is pretty fruitless and you’re just forced to be patient. 1. Print copies of your court order for each creditor. 1. Mail ALL of your creditors a copy of your court order by US Certified mail **with return receipt attached**. You will need to submit the pale green return receipts to court. It’s best to bring backup envelopes to USPS in case you mess up, your own pen, and address labels if you have them. 1. There are green forms for each in the post office, usually under a counter/island. [This video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oMGCLyOZy8) (starting at the 4:15 mark) explains how to fill out the USPS forms (note to leave room for USPS postage, don’t attach your own postage). The forms, and how you attach them, are confusing. Each letter will cost about $10. 2. This process is time-consuming. You will have to write your creditors’ addresses and your return address on each envelope and return receipt, as well as your creditors’ addresses again on the certified mail slip. You will need the ‘[plus four](https://tools.usps.com/zip-code-lookup.htm?byaddress)’ version of the zip codes of all of your creditors. 3. Save your dark green certified mail receipt slips (with the USPS seal).  https://preview.redd.it/ppd80n1btw0h1.png?width=825&format=png&auto=webp&s=e149ce414594d53bee0fe6f17816a7f14ad8c053 1. Fill out the [affidavit](https://www.dccourts.gov/sites/default/files/2024-01/Name_Change_Application_Affidavit_Service_Mail.pdf), print, and sign (towards the end of the application document). You may need more than one depending on the number or creditors. 1. If the link above doesn’t work, you can find it by searching “affidavit of service by mail for name change.” 1. Wait to receive the pale green postcard return receipts. When you have all of them or a few days before your court date, whichever is sooner, scan the receipts. **The court will not accept your case until you have proof of delivery to all of your creditors.** 1. If you have not received some of the return receipts back, you can check to see if they were delivered by entering the tracking number listed on the left side of the certified mail receipt on the USPS [website](https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackAction). If they are showing as having been delivered, you can take screenshots of proof of delivery. 2. If you have letters that have still not been delivered, you are able to attempt to reach out and notify them electronically. I had to email my notice to my insurance agent, who responded to the email acknowledging receipt. I took a screenshot of that acknowledgement email and uploaded it with my affidavit, and the court accepted that. 1. I can’t attest to this, but the fact they accepted proof of electronic delivery makes me think that maybe the whole certified mail step could be skipped. You may want to look into this option. I’m unsure if it would have been accepted from the beginning, or if they only allowed it for me as a last-ditch effort after the certified mail failed. 2. If you have Xfinity as an ISP, they were the most difficult of my creditors. I sent a letter to Comcast’s Philadelphia address, and it took almost a full month to be marked as delivered. I tried using their website chat feature, calling, and even physically going to an Xfinity store, but nobody I spoke to was able to help me. 1. Create an account on [https://efiledcsuperiorcourt.gov/](https://efiledcsuperiorcourt.gov/). You can look up and bookmark your case by searching for the case number that’s at the top of the original notice the clerk gave you at the courthouse. 1. Submit your affidavit and receipts to court. You will click on your case, then Actions, then File Into Case. Click through Case Information, then Parties, then to Filings, and check eFile Only. Under Filing Code, select Affidavit Filed. 1. eFile only accepts PDFs, so you will need to convert your scanned documents/screenshots to PDF if you haven’t already. Google Docs has this capability, and there are several free PDF converters online. Do not pay for Adobe for this. 2. It costs $6 every time you need to upload a new file. If you submit proof of receipt multiple different times, you will need to submit an affidavit with each one. Learn from my mistakes and try your best to get this right on the first try. 1. At your court date, log in early. The hearings are held via WebEx, it’s good to have an account/the app beforehand. They will check to see that your video and audio are working by asking you to identify yourself. You need both video and audio. They will start exactly on time (or earlier if everyone is there). 1. There may be other people there, as they hear many cases a day. I believe they take cases in order of who arrived first– I logged in 20 minutes early and was the first one to be heard. 1. If there are any issues with your paperwork, they’ll let you know. If they believe you can get it sorted by the end of the day, they’ll give you the opportunity to do so and let you log back into the hearing. Otherwise, they’ll reschedule your court date for another couple weeks out. If there are no issues, the hearing is brief and will last about two minutes. 1. They will email you a copy of your court order within a business day or two, but you’ll also need physical copies with the raised seal. They will mail the physical copies, but they’ll take about two weeks to arrive. I got impatient and went and picked them up. It was easy and only took a few minutes, all they needed was my case number. You get five free copies, additional copies are $5 each. You will probably not need extras. **AFTER YOUR HEARING** 1. SOCIAL SECURITY: Submit a name change application with the Social Security Administration on their website [here](https://www.ssa.gov/life-events/change-name). 1. You will not be able to fill out this application prior to your court date. 2. The application is long and involved- you will need to make a [login.gov](http://login.gov) account, take pictures of yourself and your ID, and receive multiple verification texts and emails. 3. At the end of the application, it will prompt you to make an appointment at the SSA office. You should start this process as soon as your hearing is completed, as sometimes it can be a couple weeks before the next available appointment. **You cannot go to the SSA office without an appointment.** 4. You still need to get a ticket (i.e. check in) when you arrive at the SSA office, but they should honor your appointment time or otherwise prioritize you. People will queue up outside of SSA before it opens. If you schedule your appointment for right when the office opens, you may want to get there early so that you can check in early.  1. When I went, there was a guard helping people check in on the kiosk. If someone isn’t there to help, people don’t understand how to check in with the machine, so it can take a while. 5. Social Security Office Information Address: 1905-B 9TH ST NE (Near the Rhode Island Ave metro or on the D36 bus line) Phone: 1-800-772-1213 Hours: Monday-Friday 9am-4pm 1. Take one of the official copies with the raised seal to your appointment. Bring one form of ID such as a driver’s license. You do not need to bring your social security card. A new SS card is free, they will mail it to you within two weeks. 1. DMV: Bring the official court order (with the raised seal) and your new Social Security card to the DMV. They will have you complete a form for a Driver’s License and take a new photo. They will give you copies of your temporary license (both paper and email) that can be used to update some of your accounts. A new license costs $20. They will also update your voter registration for you. 1. Do NOT attempt to change your driver’s license before social security. 2. There is a queue at the DMV around the building before it opens, it moves pretty quickly. They advise against Saturdays, Tuesdays, and lunchtime (11-2). The Rhode Island Ave DMV is open Tuesday-Saturday 8:15AM-4PM. They do not take appointments. 3. If you own a car, you will also need to get the name on your title and registration changed. You can (and probably should) get that done at the same time as your license. You’ll need to bring your car title, registration, and license. The cost for each is $30. 1. WORK: Reach out to your manager and HR to let them know your name is changed. They will let you know what you need to do to change your work ID, email, insurance, retirement accounts, etc. 1. BANK ACCOUNTS: Different banks will have different processes. They may require you to send an email, fax, or physical letter. 1. Note you can send 10 pages for free with Fax Plus: [https://app.fax.plus/signup](https://app.fax.plus/signup) 1. HOME: If you rent, you will need to reach out to your landlord and update your lease. If you own, you will need to contact the title company to change the name on your deed, your mortgage servicer, and your HOA if applicable. 1. Your mortgage is managed by the servicer, not the owner. E.g. many loans are owned by Fannie Mae, but serviced by companies such as Valon or Rocket Mortgage. The servicer is who you need to update your information with. 2. Changing the name on your deed is expensive, around $500-$600. You can reach out to different title firms to get quotes, you don’t need to go with who you originally signed with. You will need to physically go in and sign in front of a Notary Public. 1. INSURANCE: Insurance policies that are not provided by your employer (homeowner’s, renter’s, car, etc.) Reach out to your insurance agent and email them a court order of your name change. Make sure that they update your information correctly and pass it along to applicable parties, e.g. your mortgage servicer for your homeowner’s policy. 1. PASSPORT: Follow the instructions [online](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/have-passport/change-correct.html). You do not need to wait for your new driver’s license or social security card to start this process. 1. If your passport is more than a year old, fill out form DS-82 to renew your passport with a new name by mail. 2. You will need to mail in a new passport photo, your old passport, the court order of your name change, and a check for $130. I sent a copy of my updated driver’s license for good measure. “Passport fees must be made by check (personal, certified, cashier’s, travelers) or money order (U.S. Postal, international, currency exchange) with the applicant's full name and date of birth printed on the front and payable to "U.S. Department of State." You must mail via USPS, other delivery services are unable to deliver to the PO Box. 3. If you want help with this process, you can go in person to a passport office. Bring your checkbook just in case. 1. UTILITIES: Electricity, gas, Internet, phone, etc. 1. Pepco requires a copy of the legal name change documents, your new ID, and a written request sent to [email protected].  2. Xfinity will make you call or chat with them so they can send you a form where you can upload proof of your name change. 1. The easiest way to get a real person on the line is to lie and say that you want to add a service. 2. You only get one chance on this form. If they reject it, they will not let you submit it again and will make you physically go to an Xfinity store to update your information. 1. DOCTORS: Your doctors’ offices will require your updated insurance card and ID. 1. TRANSPORTATION: AMTRAK, MARC, WMATA, Uber/Lyft, airline accounts 1. Some of these make it easy to just change your name in your account, some will make you call and/or fill out a form and submit proof of name change. 1. Anyone who has listed you as a beneficiary or included you as part of an estate will need to update your name. 1. EVERYTHING ELSE: Library card, gym membership, community center, Ace Hardware, USPS account, Etsy, Amazon, REI, capitol bikeshare, parking passes, Neopets, restaurant rewards, Ebay, subscriptions, etc.

### Below are the shows that have occurred this week in blink-182 history. Mondays suck, so we thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane. Were you lucky enough to witness any of these performances live? Share your videos, photos, or even your favorite moments from these shows! |Date|Tour|Location|Venue|Additional Info|Setlist| |:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-| |May 12, 1996 (30 years ago)||Brisbane, Queensland, Australia|Crash and Burn||| |May 12, 1996 (30 years ago)||Noosa, Queensland, Australia|Noosa Reef Hotel||| |May 15, 1996 (30 years ago)||Sydney, New South Wales, Australia|Coyotes, Carringbah Inn||| |May 16, 1996 (30 years ago)||Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia|University of Newcastle||| |May 17, 1996 (30 years ago)||Sydney, New South Wales, Australia|The Sands Hotel||| |May 18, 1996 (30 years ago)||Sydney, New South Wales, Australia|Metro Theatre||| |May 13, 1998 (28 years ago)|1998 Australian Tour|Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand|Powerstation||| |May 15, 1998 (28 years ago)|1998 Australian Tour|Melbourne, Victoria, Australia|The Palace Complex||**Songs:** Pathetic, Peggy Sue, Voyeur, Wasting Time, Does My Breath Smell?, Josie, Dick Lips, Untitled, Apple Shampoo, Mutt, Dammit, Waggy, Family Reunion, Carousel, M+M's, The Country Song, Enthused| |May 16, 1998 (28 years ago)|1998 Australian Tour|Melbourne, Victoria, Australia|The Palace Complex||| |May 16, 1998 (28 years ago)||Melbourne, Victoria, Australia|Recovery TV||**Songs:** Mutt, Josie, Voyeur| |May 17, 1998 (28 years ago)|1998 Australian Tour|Adelaide, South Australia, Australia|Thebarton Theatre||**Songs:** Pathetic, Peggy Sue, Voyeur, Wasting Time| |May 15, 1999 (27 years ago)||New York, New York, United States|MTV Oddville Lifetime Studios||**Songs:** Aliens Exist, Adam's Song, What's My Age Again?, Going Away to College| |May 18, 1999 (27 years ago)||Montreal, Quebec, Canada|Musique Plus||**Songs:** Don't Leave Me, Mutt, Going Away to College, What's My Age Again?, All the Small Things| |May 12, 2000 (26 years ago)|The Mark, Tom and Travis Show|Inglewood, California, United States|Great Western Forum||**Songs:** Dumpweed, Don't Leave Me, Aliens Exist, Dick Lips, Family Reunion, Voyeur, Blow Job, What's My Age Again?, Untitled, Going Away to College, Drum Solo, Pathetic, Adam's Song, Peggy Sue, Wendy Clear, Mutt, Genie in a Bottle, All the Small Things, Thong Song, Carousel, The Country Song, Dammit| |May 13, 2000 (26 years ago)|The Mark, Tom and Travis Show|Phoenix, Arizona, United States|Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum||**Songs:** Dumpweed, Don't Leave Me, Aliens Exist, Dick Lips, Family Reunion, Going Away to College, Blow Job, What's My Age Again?, Untitled, Voyeur, Drum Solo, Pathetic, Adam's Song, Peggy Sue, Wendy Clear, Mutt, Dammit, The Country Song, Carousel, All the Small Things| |May 15, 2000 (26 years ago)|The Mark, Tom and Travis Show|Dallas, Texas, United States|Starplex Amphitheatre||| |May 16, 2000 (26 years ago)|The Mark, Tom and Travis Show|Austin, Texas, United States|Frank Erwin Center|Unknown if any jams or drum solos took place.|**Songs:** Dumpweed, Don't Leave Me, Voyeur, Family Reunion, What's My Age Again?, Pathetic, Peggy Sue, Aliens Exist, Dick Lips, Going Away to College, Adam's Song, All the Small Things, Untitled **Encore:** Mutt, Dammit| |May 17, 2000 (26 years ago)|The Mark, Tom and Travis Show|The Woodlands, Texas, United States|Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion|Setlist incomplete|**Songs:** Dumpweed| |May 12, 2001 (25 years ago)||Las Vegas, Nevada, United States|Sam Boyd Stadium||| |May 15, 2001 (25 years ago)||Melbourne, Victoria, Australia|The Palace Complex||| |May 16, 2001 (25 years ago)||Melbourne, Victoria, Australia|The Palace Complex||| |May 13, 2002 (24 years ago)|Pop Disaster Tour|Pelham, Alabama, United States|Oak Mountain Amphitheatre||**Songs:** Anthem Part Two, The Rock Show, Dumpweed, Going Away to College, What's My Age Again?, Please Take Me Home, Happy Holidays, You Bastard, Adam's Song, First Date, Carousel, When You Fucked Grandpa, Dysentery Gary, Family Reunion, Don't Leave Me, Stay Together for the Kids, All the Small Things, What Went Wrong?, Reckless Abandon, Drum Solo, Dammit| |May 14, 2002 (24 years ago)|Pop Disaster Tour|Tampa, Florida, United States|Ice Palace||| |May 15, 2002 (24 years ago)|Pop Disaster Tour|West Palm Beach, Florida, United States|Mars Music Amphitheatre||**Songs:** Anthem Part Two, The Rock Show, Dumpweed, Going Away to College, What's My Age Again?, Please Take Me Home, Happy Holidays, You Bastard, Adam's Song, First Date, Carousel, When You Fucked Grandpa, Dysentery Gary, Family Reunion, Don't Leave Me, Stay Together for the Kids, All the Small Things, What Went Wrong? **Encore:** Reckless Abandon, Drum Solo, Dammit| |May 16, 2002 (24 years ago)|Pop Disaster Tour|Orlando, Florida, United States|TD Waterhouse Centre||**Songs:** Anthem Part Two, The Rock Show, Dumpweed, Going Away to College, Blow Job, What's My Age Again?, Please Take Me Home, Happy Holidays, You Bastard, Adam's Song, First Date, Carousel, When You Fucked Grandpa, Dysentery Gary, Family Reunion, Don't Leave Me, Stay Together for the Kids, All the Small Things, What Went Wrong?, Reckless Abandon, Drum Solo, Dammit| |May 18, 2002 (24 years ago)|Pop Disaster Tour|Atlanta, Georgia, United States|HiFi Buys Amphitheatre|Setlist incomplete.|**Songs:** What Went Wrong?| |May 12, 2004 (22 years ago)||Raleigh, North Carolina, United States|Alltel Pavilion at Walnut Creek||**Songs:** Feeling This, Easy Target, What's My Age Again?, Violence, The Rock Show, Obvious, I Miss You, Asthenia, Adam's Song, First Date, Go, Stay Together for the Kids, Dumpweed / M+M's / Josie / Man Overboard, Reckless Abandon, All the Small Things, Down, The Fallen Interlude **Encore:** Stockholm Syndrome, Dammit, Drum Solo| |May 14, 2004 (22 years ago)||Columbus, Ohio, United States|Germain Amphitheater||| |May 15, 2004 (22 years ago)||Maryland Heights, Missouri, United States|UMB Bank Pavilion||| |May 16, 2004 (22 years ago)||Bonner Springs, Kansas, United States|Verizon Wireless Amphitheater||**Songs:** Feeling This, Easy Target, What's My Age Again?, Violence, The Rock Show, Obvious, I Miss You, Asthenia, Adam's Song, First Date, Go, Stay Together for the Kids, Dumpweed / M+M's / Josie / Man Overboard, Reckless Abandon, All the Small Things, Down, The Fallen Interlude, Drum Solo **Encore:** Stockholm Syndrome, Dammit| |May 18, 2004 (22 years ago)||Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States|Target Center||**Songs:** I Miss You, The Rock Show| |May 14, 2009 (17 years ago)||Los Angeles, California, United States|Paramount Studios|T-Mobile party; first performance since hiatus|**Songs:** The Rock Show, Feeling This, Dammit| |May 18, 2009 (17 years ago)||Burbank, California, United States|The Tonight Show with Jay Leno||**Songs:** The Rock Show| |May 14, 2016 (10 years ago)|We Are Pirates Tour|Irvine, California, United States|Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre|First show with Matt Skiba as an official member|**Songs:** Family Reunion, The Rock Show, Feeling This, Built This Pool, Josie, First Date, Bored to Death, Dumpweed, All the Small Things, Brohemian Rhapsody, What's My Age Again?, Dammit| |May 12, 2018 (8 years ago)||Carson, California, United States|StubHub Center||**Songs:** Cynical, Anthem Part Two, Feeling This, The Rock Show, Bored to Death, Built This Pool, What's My Age Again?, I Miss You, First Date, Violence, Kings of the Weekend, Family Reunion, Just Like Heaven, All the Small Things, Brohemian Rhapsody, Dammit| |May 13, 2018 (8 years ago)||Concord, California, United States|Concord Pavilion||**Songs:** Cynical, Anthem Part Two, Feeling This, The Rock Show, Bored to Death, Built This Pool, What's My Age Again?, Down, I Miss You, First Date, Violence, Kings of the Weekend, Family Reunion, Just Like Heaven, Dumpweed, All the Small Things, Brohemian Rhapsody, Dammit, Drum Solo| |May 12, 2023 (3 years ago)|World Tour 2023/2024|Montreal, Quebec, Canada|Centre Bell||**Songs:** Also sprach Zarathustra, op. 30, Anthem Part Two, The Rock Show, Family Reunion, Man Overboard, Feeling This, Reckless Abandon, Violence, Up All Night, Dysentery Gary, Dumpweed, EDGING, Aliens Exist, Cynical, Happy Holidays, You Bastard, Happy Holidays, You Bastard, Stay Together for the Kids, Always, Down, Bored to Death, I Miss You, Adam's Song, Ghost on the Dance Floor, What's My Age Again?, First Date, All the Small Things, Dammit, Baby Shark| |May 15, 2023 (3 years ago)|World Tour 2023/2024|Toronto, Ontario, Canada|Scotiabank Arena||**Songs:** Also sprach Zarathustra, op. 30, Anthem Part Two, The Rock Show, Family Reunion, Man Overboard, Feeling This, Reckless Abandon, Violence, Up All Night, Dysentery Gary, Dumpweed, EDGING, Aliens Exist, Cynical, Happy Holidays, You Bastard, Stay Together for the Kids, Always, Down, Bored to Death, I Miss You, Adam's Song, Ghost on the Dance Floor, What's My Age Again?, First Date, All the Small Things, Dammit, Last Resort| |May 16, 2023 (3 years ago)|World Tour 2023/2024|Cleveland, Ohio, United States|Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse||**Songs:** Also sprach Zarathustra, op. 30, Anthem Part Two, The Rock Show, Family Reunion, Man Overboard, Feeling This, Reckless Abandon, Violence, Up All Night, Dysentery Gary, Dumpweed, EDGING, Aliens Exist, Cynical, Happy Holidays, You Bastard, Stay Together for the Kids, Always, Down, Bored to Death, I Miss You, Adam's Song, Ghost on the Dance Floor, What's My Age Again?, First Date, All the Small Things, Dammit, Call Me Maybe| |May 17, 2023 (3 years ago)|World Tour 2023/2024|Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States|PPG Paints Arena||**Songs:** Also sprach Zarathustra, op. 30, Anthem Part Two, The Rock Show, Family Reunion, Man Overboard, Feeling This, Reckless Abandon, Violence, Up All Night, Dysentery Gary, Dumpweed, EDGING, Aliens Exist, Cynical, Happy Holidays, You Bastard, Stay Together for the Kids, Always, Down, Bored to Death, I Miss You, Adam's Song, Ghost on the Dance Floor, What's My Age Again?, First Date, All the Small Things, Dammit, Cotton-Eyed Joe| --- ### Events this week in blink-182 history - **May 17, 1997 (29 years ago)** — The first-ever blink-182 website went online. - **May 18, 1999 (27 years ago)** — The band performs in Toronto, Ontario for Musique Plus. - **May 12, 2000 (26 years ago)** — The band takes photos at MCA Records in Santa Monica, California.<br>The band performs at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles, California, with Bad Religion and Fenix TX. - **May 18, 2001 (25 years ago)** — The music video for The Rock Show debuts on TRL.<br>Mark is a guest on ABC's Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. - **May 13, 2009 (17 years ago)** — The band officially announced their summer reunion tour with Fall Out Boy and Weezer. - **May 18, 2009 (17 years ago)** — The band appeared together on KROQ's Kevin and Bean. Tom: "I need to apologize. For the past few years I've been doing this serious stuff. And then the first song we come out and play, and I come right out and ask people if they masturbate to the Lord of the Rings, it was crazy."<br>The band held a pre-tour party at the El Compadre Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles. - **May 17, 2011 (15 years ago)** — The full band are in the studio. Mark posts three updates, revealing a "12-hour studio day": "let's go where we've never been," he tweets. - **May 18, 2011 (15 years ago)** — The full band are in the studio. Mark posts three updates and Travis posts one; Mark notes that "some of the best stuff has been written in the past two days, if I do say so ourselves," and that they're "taking it all back to what it is: three guys playing music in a room." - **May 18, 2018 (8 years ago)** — Mark Hoppus is interviewed by Las Vegas Magazine about the upcoming residency, stating "we don't want to do the same show every night for 16 shows," and mentioning tentative plans for a 20th anniversary gig or two to celebrate Enema of the State in 2019. - **May 14, 2020 (6 years ago)** — Mark confirmed new music was being made during the quarantine.

*I write educational posts on buying your home for the first time. I even posted my homebuying book at* r/NewbHomebuyer *if you want to check it out* Here's a post from a couple that got denied for a mortgage. I'll follow up with some math and my advice on denied applications. >So, my wife and I found a condo we really love and decided to apply at rocket mortgage. I was told to reduce my monthly payments by $700, so basically I was told no. >Here is my situation: >This will be our first home. We have been renting our current residence for 3 years. >The condo we want is asking 259k, but has been on the market a little more than a year. We imagine we can offer less. >I make $20.10 an hour and I'm guaranteed 45 hours, but never work less than 50. >My wife makes $18.44 at 40 hours, and had a second job at $12 an hour for 12 hours. >I have a $508 a month car lease with 17 months left. >My wife financed her car and has a $400 a month payment with $26k left on it. >We have 6k left in student loans, and 5k in credit card debt. (we have reduce our total debt by 10k in the last year). >We have been able to reduce our debt by about 1k a month. >My parents have offered us 5k for a down payment as a gift. >We have 2k in the bank, and about 10k in 401k's. >We were pretty crushed when we got turned down, but maybe our attempt is laughable. >We hate the though of losing this condo. What can we do? >Thanks for any advice, even the brutal kind. So i'm just going to go through the income as an underwriter would: $20.10 per hour and 40 hours per week (I know he said 45, but I can talk about overtime later) that's $20.10 x 40 x 52 / 12 = gross monthly income. Which is $3,484 and hers is $3,196 combined is $6,680 gross monthly income. They're paying $900 per month on cars, and maybe $100 per month on the credit card. A mortgage payment might look like this, and I'm just guessing here, but using a 6.5% interest rate: $1,643.38 principal and interest $200 property taxes $0 homeowners insurance (assuming HOA covers it) $117 mortgage insurance $400 HOA That mortgage payment is $2,360 Add the $1k monthly to total debt and we're at $3,360 total monthly debts vs the $6,680 gross monthly income. That's right at 50.2% debt to income ratio. I mean just at a glance, it's below FHA's maximum thresholds for debt to income, so the denial might have come from possible late payments on credit. Or maybe the condo has higher property taxes and HOA fees. It might be more likely that the condo/HOA will not work with an FHA loan. In that case, you'd need to get DTI lower, but maybe not too much lower. Readers will probably say "These guys shouldn't get a home" But I didn't cover the overtime this guy makes, which sounds like it could be about 20+ hours per month. It also depends on their lifestyle outside of the debts on credit. # Things you should review if you've been denied There are a few things you can try before assuming homeownership is off the table. Here's the order I'd go through: # Check your application for accuracy A loan officer might run your file through automated underwriting, get a denial, and then tell you "your score is too low" or "you need more down payment." But sometimes the real issue is missing or incorrect information. Ask your loan officer for a copy of your 1003 (your mortgage application). Read through it. Common things that get missed: * Assets that weren't disclosed (retirement accounts, stocks, savings at another bank) * Old debts on your credit report that should've been paid off or removed * Double-reporting on a refinanced loan (old loan still showing, new loan also showing) Underwriting works like a two-sided scale. Negatives on one side, positives on the other. If your loan officer didn't list all of your assets, the scale isn't accurate. A retirement account with $40,000 in it adds significant weight to the positive side, even if you're not using it for the down payment. # Ask for a manual underwrite Most lenders use automated underwriting because it's fast. But automated systems can spit out a denial even when you'd qualify under manual review. Manual underwriting means a human goes through your file with a checklist instead of relying on an algorithm. For FHA, here's what they look for on a manual underwrite: * Cleaner housing payment history (no late rent or mortgage payments in the last 12 months) * No major lates on installment loans in the past 2 years * Reserves (a few months of mortgage payments saved up) * Compensating factors like minimal payment increase from your current rent, strong residual income, or additional income that couldn't be counted If your loan officer says "we don't do manual underwrites," that's your cue to find a different lender. # Switch to a mortgage broker This is the move if your current lender hits you with overlays. Overlays are extra rules a lender adds on top of the actual loan guidelines. FHA's minimum credit score is 580 with 3.5% down, but a lender might require 620. That's an overlay. A mortgage broker represents multiple lenders. One lender might cap at 620, another at 580, another at 550. The broker shops your file to the lender that fits. If you got denied at a bank or credit union, this alone might solve your problem. # Address the actual issue If none of the above work, then the denial is probably real and you need to fix something. The three most common reasons: # Debt to income ratio is too high * Pay off a debt with 9 or fewer payments left (lenders can omit it) * Refinance your car to lower the payment * Add a co-borrower * Sell something with a loan attached # Low credit score * Pull your report at annualcreditreport.com * Fix mistakes * Pay down credit cards below 30% utilization * For collections, ask for "pay-for-delete" - meaning they delete the account if you pay, not just mark it paid * I had a surprise $100 collection drop my score 100 points. Paid it, got it deleted, score went back up # Down payment/cash to close * Look into local down payment assistance * Gift from family (must be documented with a gift letter) * Sell an asset (almost anything if you can track it with a bill of sale) * First-time buyers can pull up to $10,000 from an IRA without the 10% penalty One thing I want to call out: if your loan officer told you "you can't qualify" and that was the end of the conversation, that's not good enough. A good loan officer tells you exactly why and what to do about it. If yours didn't, get a second opinion. Good luck, drop questions if you need. Sam *I write educational posts on buying your home for the first time. I even posted my homebuying book at* r/NewbHomebuyer *go check it out*

Mortgages are a complex beast. Between the interest rates and loan terms, it can be a serious challenge to find the best mortgage for your situation.  Even seemingly insignificant factors can end up making a huge difference over the lifetime of a mortgage. Take interest rates, for instance. Just a small point difference could end up saving (or costing) you thousands of dollars over the years. If you don't do enough research upfront, you might end up having to refinance down the line.  With all the lenders that are out there, finding the best one can feel like a crapshoot. To avoid decision paralysis, I’d suggest visiting a few mortgage comparison sites to filter through your options and narrow down the list. These are some of the best ones.  **BestMoney** You can use BestMoney to research all kinds of financial products, including mortgages. They separate it out so you can find the best loan for purchasing a home, refinancing a mortgage, or borrowing against home equity.  For each loan type, there are options to filter through lenders based on your credit score (excellent, good, fair, or poor) and the loan amount you’re looking at. BestMoney assigns each lender an overall score out of 10, which combines the lender’s Trustpilot score and their brand reputation.  On top of the scores, there are also in-depth reviews for many of the main lenders, like Rocket Mortgage, Veterans United, AAG, etc. A typical review starts out with a pros and cons list, and then it gets into things like loan terms, rates, and the application process. BestMoney also has an article library that addresses common mortgage topics like refinancing, VA loans, and FHA loans. **FindMortgages** At first glance, FindMortgages looks a lot like BestMoney, but the two sites have different scopes. While BestMoney covers a range of financial products, FindMortgages is solely about home loans.  There are separate lists of lenders for whether you’re purchasing a home or refinancing your mortgage, and there are also dedicated sections for home equity loans and VA lenders. Within each category, you can filter by your credit score and loan amount. FindMortgages also gives each lender a score out of 10, which adds together the Trustpilot TrustScore and a value score that factors in a variety of lender characteristics.  Currently, the site has full reviews for six different lenders: Rocket Mortgage, Quicken Loans, AmeriSave, New American Funding, LendingTree, and Figure. The reviews are fairly brief and get straight to the point, covering pros and cons, the types of loans the lender offers, and the application process.  **Bankrate** When you visit Bankrate’s “Mortgages” section, one of the first things you’ll see is an interactive list you can filter through to see the current mortgage rates offered by each lender. The list of filters is pretty extensive, so this could be a good site to use once you have a strong idea of what you want out of a mortgage. Firstly, you’ll select whether you’re purchasing or refinancing. Then, you can filter based on your zip code, purchase price, down payment, and credit score. You can also choose whether you want to see FHA loans or VA loans included in the list. Bankrate has a separate section for home equity loans, but the home equity loan filters are similar to those you'll see on mortgages.  Bankrate assigns each lender a score out of five stars, and there are reviews for many of them. There are also customer reviews, which offer useful alternate perspectives in a lot of cases.  **NerdWallet** NerdWallet is best-known as a personal finance resource, but it has plenty of product comparison features, too. When you’re comparing mortgage rates, there are three initial filters you’ll see: purchase, refinance, and home equity. Within these filters, there are additional options.  For example, if you’re looking for a mortgage for purchasing a home, there are filters based on your zip code, credit score, purchase price, down payment, and loan term. You can also select whether you’re eligible for an FHA loan and indicate if you’re a veteran.  Like the other sites, NerdWallet gives each lender a rating; their rating system is out of five stars. They also have reviews for many of the lenders, breaking down features and the customer experience.  **Bottom line: Visit more than one site when comparing lenders.** No matter which of these sites you visit, you’ll be able to filter through a list of mortgage lenders to see companies that are best tailored to your personal situation. Some sites get more specific than others, but all of them cover the basics.  I wouldn’t rely too heavily on any one site, though. You’ll want to see what the reviews are looking like across sites before making a decision about something as consequential as a mortgage.  Have you visited any of these, and if so, what did you think?

Based on a recent analysis of the [best cities for veterans to retire](https://www.rocketmortgage.com/learn/best-places-for-veterans-to-retire), three locations consistently stood out—each reflecting a different key factor in retirement decisions: affordability, access to VA healthcare, and overall quality of life.  Here’s what the top three cities show:  [San Antonio, Texas](https://www.redfin.com/city/16657/TX/San-Antonio/housing-market) is highlighted for its strong VA healthcare access paired with a lower cost of living, which may help reduce overall retirement expenses  [Fayetteville, North Carolina](https://www.redfin.com/city/5903/NC/Fayetteville/housing-market) is driven largely by affordability, especially housing costs, which can make homeownership and long-term financial stability more attainable on a fixed income.  [Colorado Springs, Colorado](https://www.redfin.com/city/4147/CO/Colorado-Springs/housing-market) offers a stronger quality-of-life balance with solid healthcare access and lifestyle benefits, though at a higher housing cost.  At its core, each city reflects a different tradeoff that directly impacts financial stability and comfort in retirement. For those who’ve served, what ends up mattering most when choosing where to call home after service?  *Rocket Mortgage is a VA-approved lender, not endorsed or sponsored by the Dept. of Veterans Affairs or any government agency.* 

### Below are the shows that have occurred this week in blink-182 history. Mondays suck, so we thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane. Were you lucky enough to witness any of these performances live? Share your videos, photos, or even your favorite moments from these shows! |Date|Tour|Location|Venue|Additional Info|Setlist| |:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-| |May 17 2023|World Tour 2023/2024|Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States|PPG Paints Arena||**Songs:** Also sprach Zarathustra, op. 30, Anthem Part Two, The Rock Show, Family Reunion, Man Overboard, Feeling This, Reckless Abandon, Violence, Up All Night, Dysentery Gary, Dumpweed, EDGING, Aliens Exist, Cynical, Happy Holidays, You Bastard, Stay Together for the Kids, Always, Down, Bored to Death, I Miss You, Adam's Song, Ghost on the Dance Floor, What's My Age Again?, First Date, All the Small Things, Dammit, Cotton-Eyed Joe| |May 16 2023|World Tour 2023/2024|Cleveland, Ohio, United States|Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse||**Songs:** Also sprach Zarathustra, op. 30, Anthem Part Two, The Rock Show, Family Reunion, Man Overboard, Feeling This, Reckless Abandon, Violence, Up All Night, Dysentery Gary, Dumpweed, EDGING, Aliens Exist, Cynical, Happy Holidays, You Bastard, Stay Together for the Kids, Always, Down, Bored to Death, I Miss You, Adam's Song, Ghost on the Dance Floor, What's My Age Again?, First Date, All the Small Things, Dammit, Call Me Maybe| |May 15 2023|World Tour 2023/2024|Toronto, Ontario, Canada|Scotiabank Arena||**Songs:** Also sprach Zarathustra, op. 30, Anthem Part Two, The Rock Show, Family Reunion, Man Overboard, Feeling This, Reckless Abandon, Violence, Up All Night, Dysentery Gary, Dumpweed, EDGING, Aliens Exist, Cynical, Happy Holidays, You Bastard, Stay Together for the Kids, Always, Down, Bored to Death, I Miss You, Adam's Song, Ghost on the Dance Floor, What's My Age Again?, First Date, All the Small Things, Dammit, Last Resort| |May 12 2023|World Tour 2023/2024|Montreal, Quebec, Canada|Centre Bell||**Songs:** Also sprach Zarathustra, op. 30, Anthem Part Two, The Rock Show, Family Reunion, Man Overboard, Feeling This, Reckless Abandon, Violence, Up All Night, Dysentery Gary, Dumpweed, EDGING, Aliens Exist, Cynical, Happy Holidays, You Bastard, Happy Holidays, You Bastard, Stay Together for the Kids, Always, Down, Bored to Death, I Miss You, Adam's Song, Ghost on the Dance Floor, What's My Age Again?, First Date, All the Small Things, Dammit, Baby Shark| |May 11 2023|World Tour 2023/2024|Toronto, Ontario, Canada|Scotiabank Arena||**Songs:** Also sprach Zarathustra, op. 30, Anthem Part Two, The Rock Show, Family Reunion, Man Overboard, Feeling This, Reckless Abandon, Violence, Up All Night, Dysentery Gary, Dumpweed, EDGING, Aliens Exist, Cynical, Happy Holidays, You Bastard, Happy Holidays, You Bastard, Stay Together for the Kids, Always, Down, Bored to Death, I Miss You, Adam's Song, Ghost on the Dance Floor, What's My Age Again?, First Date, All the Small Things, Dammit, Celebration| |May 13 2018||Concord, California, United States|Concord Pavilion||**Songs:** Cynical, Anthem Part Two, Feeling This, The Rock Show, Bored to Death, Built This Pool, What's My Age Again?, Down, I Miss You, First Date, Violence, Kings of the Weekend, Family Reunion, Just Like Heaven, Dumpweed, All the Small Things, Brohemian Rhapsody, Dammit, Drum Solo| |May 12 2018||Carson, California, United States|StubHub Center||**Songs:** Cynical, Anthem Part Two, Feeling This, The Rock Show, Bored to Death, Built This Pool, What's My Age Again?, I Miss You, First Date, Violence, Kings of the Weekend, Family Reunion, Just Like Heaven, All the Small Things, Brohemian Rhapsody, Dammit| |May 14 2016|We Are Pirates Tour|Irvine, California, United States|Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre|First show with Matt Skiba as an official member|**Songs:** Family Reunion, The Rock Show, Feeling This, Built This Pool, Josie, First Date, Bored to Death, Dumpweed, All the Small Things, Brohemian Rhapsody, What's My Age Again?, Dammit| |May 14 2009||Los Angeles, California, United States|Paramount Studios|T-Mobile party; first performance since hiatus|**Songs:** The Rock Show, Feeling This, Dammit| |May 16 2004||Bonner Springs, Kansas, United States|Verizon Wireless Amphitheater||**Songs:** Feeling This, Easy Target, What's My Age Again?, Violence, The Rock Show, Obvious, I Miss You, Asthenia, Adam's Song, First Date, Go, Stay Together for the Kids, Dumpweed / M+M's / Josie / Man Overboard, Reckless Abandon, All the Small Things, Down, The Fallen Interlude, Drum Solo **Encore:** Stockholm Syndrome, Dammit| |May 15 2004||Maryland Heights, Missouri, United States|UMB Bank Pavilion||No setlist data available.| |May 14 2004||Columbus, Ohio, United States|Germain Amphitheater||No setlist data available.| |May 12 2004||Raleigh, North Carolina, United States|Alltel Pavilion at Walnut Creek||**Songs:** Feeling This, Easy Target, What's My Age Again?, Violence, The Rock Show, Obvious, I Miss You, Asthenia, Adam's Song, First Date, Go, Stay Together for the Kids, Dumpweed / M+M's / Josie / Man Overboard, Reckless Abandon, All the Small Things, Down, The Fallen Interlude **Encore:** Stockholm Syndrome, Dammit, Drum Solo| |May 11 2004||Charlotte, North Carolina, United States|Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre||No setlist data available.| |May 16 2002|Pop Disaster Tour|Orlando, Florida, United States|TD Waterhouse Centre||**Songs:** Anthem Part Two, The Rock Show, Dumpweed, Going Away to College, Blow Job, What's My Age Again?, Please Take Me Home, Happy Holidays, You Bastard, Adam's Song, First Date, Carousel, When You Fucked Grandpa, Dysentery Gary, Family Reunion, Don't Leave Me, Stay Together for the Kids, All the Small Things, What Went Wrong?, Reckless Abandon, Drum Solo, Dammit| |May 15 2002|Pop Disaster Tour|West Palm Beach, Florida, United States|Mars Music Amphitheatre||**Songs:** , Anthem Part Two, The Rock Show, Dumpweed, Going Away to College, What's My Age Again?, Please Take Me Home, Happy Holidays, You Bastard, Adam's Song, First Date, Carousel, When You Fucked Grandpa, Dysentery Gary, Family Reunion, Don't Leave Me, Stay Together for the Kids, All the Small Things, What Went Wrong? **Encore:** Reckless Abandon, Drum Solo, Dammit| |May 14 2002|Pop Disaster Tour|Tampa, Florida, United States|Ice Palace||No setlist data available.| |May 13 2002|Pop Disaster Tour|Pelham, Alabama, United States|Oak Mountain Amphitheatre||**Songs:** Anthem Part Two, The Rock Show, Dumpweed, Going Away to College, What's My Age Again?, Please Take Me Home, Happy Holidays, You Bastard, Adam's Song, First Date, Carousel, When You Fucked Grandpa, Dysentery Gary, Family Reunion, Don't Leave Me, Stay Together for the Kids, All the Small Things, What Went Wrong?, Reckless Abandon, Drum Solo, Dammit| |May 11 2002|Pop Disaster Tour|The Woodlands, Texas, United States|Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion||**Songs:** Anthem Part Two, The Rock Show, Dumpweed, Going Away to College, What's My Age Again?, Please Take Me Home, Happy Holidays, You Bastard, Adam's Song, First Date, Carousel, When You Fucked Grandpa, Dysentery Gary, Family Reunion, Don't Leave Me, Stay Together for the Kids, All the Small Things, What Went Wrong?, Reckless Abandon, Drum Solo, Dammit| |May 16 2001||Melbourne, Victoria, Australia|The Palace Complex||No setlist data available.| |May 15 2001||Melbourne, Victoria, Australia|The Palace Complex||No setlist data available.| |May 12 2001||Las Vegas, Nevada, United States|Sam Boyd Stadium||No setlist data available.| |May 17 2000|The Mark, Tom and Travis Show|The Woodlands, Texas, United States|Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion|Setlist incomplete|**Songs:** Dumpweed| |May 16 2000|The Mark, Tom and Travis Show|Austin, Texas, United States|Frank Erwin Center|Unknown if any jams or drum solos took place.|**Songs:** Dumpweed, Don't Leave Me, Voyeur, Family Reunion, What's My Age Again?, Pathetic, Peggy Sue, Aliens Exist, Dick Lips, Going Away to College, Adam's Song, All the Small Things, Untitled **Encore:** Mutt, Dammit| |May 15 2000|The Mark, Tom and Travis Show|Dallas, Texas, United States|Starplex Amphitheatre||No setlist data available.| |May 13 2000|The Mark, Tom and Travis Show|Phoenix, Arizona, United States|Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum||**Songs:** Dumpweed, Don't Leave Me, Aliens Exist, Dick Lips, Family Reunion, Going Away to College, Blow Job, What's My Age Again?, Untitled, Voyeur, Drum Solo, Pathetic, Adam's Song, Peggy Sue, Wendy Clear, Mutt, Dammit, The Country Song, Carousel, All the Small Things| |May 12 2000|The Mark, Tom and Travis Show|Inglewood, California, United States|Great Western Forum||**Songs:** Dumpweed, Don't Leave Me, Aliens Exist, Dick Lips, Family Reunion, Voyeur, Blow Job, What's My Age Again?, Untitled, Going Away to College, Drum Solo, Pathetic, Adam's Song, Peggy Sue, Wendy Clear, Mutt, Genie in a Bottle, All the Small Things, Thong Song, Carousel, The Country Song, Dammit| |May 11 2000|The Mark, Tom and Travis Show|Chula Vista, California, United States|Coors Amphitheatre||**Songs:** Dumpweed, Don't Leave Me, Aliens Exist, Dick Lips, Family Reunion, Voyeur, Blow Job, What's My Age Again?, Untitled, Going Away to College, Drum Solo, Pathetic, Adam's Song, Peggy Sue, Wendy Clear, Mutt, Genie in a Bottle, Dammit, Thong Song, Carousel, The Country Song, All the Small Things| |May 15 1999||New York, New York, United States|MTV Oddville Lifetime Studios||**Songs:** Aliens Exist, Adam's Song, What's My Age Again?, Going Away to College| |May 17 1998|1998 Australian Tour|Adelaide, South Australia, Australia|Thebarton Theatre||**Songs:** Pathetic, Peggy Sue, Voyeur, Wasting Time| |May 16 1998|1998 Australian Tour|Melbourne, Victoria, Australia|The Palace Complex||No setlist data available.| |May 16 1998||Melbourne, Victoria, Australia|Recovery TV||**Songs:** Mutt, Josie, Voyeur| |May 15 1998|1998 Australian Tour|Melbourne, Victoria, Australia|The Palace Complex||**Songs:** Pathetic, Peggy Sue, Voyeur, Wasting Time, Does My Breath Smell?, Josie, Dick Lips, Untitled, Apple Shampoo, Mutt, Dammit, Waggy, Family Reunion, Carousel, M+M's, The Country Song, Enthused| |May 13 1998|1998 Australian Tour|Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand|Powerstation||No setlist data available.| |May 17 1996||Sydney, New South Wales, Australia|The Sands Hotel||No setlist data available.| |May 16 1996||Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia|University of Newcastle||No setlist data available.| |May 15 1996||Sydney, New South Wales, Australia|Coyotes, Carringbah Inn||No setlist data available.| |May 12 1996||Brisbane, Queensland, Australia|Crash and Burn||No setlist data available.| |May 12 1996||Noosa, Queensland, Australia|Noosa Reef Hotel||No setlist data available.| |May 11 1996||Brisbane, Queensland, Australia|Crash and Burn||No setlist data available.| |May 11 1996||Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia|Surfers Paradise Surf Life Saving Club||No setlist data available.|

I'm 6'2, 280 lbs (actively lowering the weight), more torso than legs and a pretty big dude. My hips are roughly 18 inches. It's tough researching between these chairs because the opinions are pretty divisive. It seems like the embody averages the most positive reviews for larger people? I see a lot of talk around the fern having a bad seat. The leap itself seems alright but seems to be really questionable as to whether it's good for tall people. I did sit in a very old Herman Miller embody that came from rocket mortgage long ago. So it was definitely in rough shape but it wasn't bad. Is embody the best choice here?

Have Rocket mortgage, i have 63k left to payoff. I paid off a principal of $60k through ACH from my bank. In hindsight should have requested payoff and wire transferred it. But I did a ACH and thought next autopayment will take care. But the $60k is not applied to principal and held on a suspense/unapplied account. Customer rep says the money will be returned in 30 days, no written confirmation/no email/nothing on portal to being returned. Again 30 days is a long period to hold 60k with no interest/not able to invest and my nortgage is accumalating interest. Customer service chat/phone of no help. Gemini says complain to federal authorities [consumerfinance.gov/complaints](http://consumerfinance.gov/complaints) and that is only way to speed up return. Any one in similar circumstance? Partial payment-minus$60,000.00 Partial payments are considered "unapplied" until we receive the full amount due to cover your monthly mortgage. Any amount you pay above the monthly amount due will be applied to principal.

I am currently working a real estate deal in Houston, New construction, buyer is getting a VA loan with Rocket Mortgage. The lender UW is not accepting the builder documents being submitted and we are at a standstill. The Cert of Compliance was submitted in place of the COO request, but they are not accepting this. They are requesting an inspection report from the COH inspector for foundation, framing, and final, or a letter from the city stating that the home passed these inspections. I explained that the Compliance cert specifically states this, but its not good enough. The city of Houston inspection list has also been submitted and not accepted. They are also requiring a 10 yr warranty, which Texas only required a 6 yr warranty. This must be a Rocket Mortgage specific issue because I have never had any issues previously with VA loans. Has anyone dealt with this? Thx!

I filled out one of those how much do you qualify for home equity loan rate things that I thought was with my local mortgage company because it was linked on their website. \*Rocket Mortgage\* and 30 seconds later I got 20 phone calls and 45 emails... I spent the next 24 hours blocking numbers and listing emails as spam.. So-Fi caught my attention though with an above average loan offer. So I filled out their questionaire with caution to see what happened. To my surprise they came back with a reasonable offer, and the loan officer replied to my emails almost instantly. He asked me a few questions, I replied. He sent me a loan package and asked me to fill in the details. I did, and then silence... I emailed and asked what's going on... no reply for hours... I finally get an email and its asking me for more personal information and questions I have already answered 3 times. I email the loan officer for info and clarification on what's being asked of me... no reply.. just crickets... Before I signed my loan package and the intent to move forward, he would reply in less than 5 minutes now he ignores me for hours... he ignored me completely and never replied to me again even though I emailed him 3 times. Instead he trandfered me to another loan officer who introduced himself, and then promptly igonred the same 3 questions I asked the original guy. So I stopped replying to the loan offer questionair and instead answered every question with "Please cancel my loan request, I am going to seek financing elseware" 2 minutes later I get a reply from the now loan officer asking if he can help. I say yes. Please cancel my loan request I am going to seek financing from another loan company. He replies in 2 minutes... " Who did you decide? What are they offering? We can often beat competitors rates" I reply with "I don't like how I\[m being treated. nobody answers my emails or questions, I'm about to give you 5 grand or so in loan origination fees, and almost a hundred grand in interest over 20 years and I can't even get a reply to an email. To wich he replied well I just got your loan package at 10am this morning... but it was like 2pm in the afternoon and I had been emailing questions for a couple of hours with no replies... I said you only took a few minutes to reply when I asked to cancel my loan proceedings, but ignored me for hours when I had questions. if you would have replied as promptly before I would be fine. 2 minutes later he replied. "You're not the only loan I'm dealing with. I said you seem to be replying nice and speedy right now, but you ignored me for hours. Please cancel my loan request. 2 minutes later he replied. "Understood!" I hit reply, and linked the supervisor contact email in his email signature, and asked if I could please have another loan officer that actually cared to reply in a timely manner... And nobody replied to that email at all, so I have started another loan request with another bank who so far seems happy to have the oppertunity to earn my business. I don't understand how a company can just throw away over a hundred grand in pure proffit, with crappy customer service... yesterday they were great, but the instant I signed their contract they became assholes...

# Quick Hit Mortgage rates continue to remain somewhat elevated amid the ongoing war with Iran and market uncertainties. The wild card for where mortgage rates go from here, by way of the foreign exchange and bond markets, could have much to do with what Japan does next and not what the Fed does next. Additionally, we also cover the latest mortgage performance data to come out of the 2025 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). # Key Points & Stats 1. Japan intervened in the foreign exchange market in an attempt to defend the yen against the dollar. 2. Yields did not react drastically this time around, unlike the August 2024 episode. 3. Things could change if the BOJ reacts and raises rates, possibly sending the 10-year higher and by extension, mortgage rates. 4. In 2025, mortgage lenders encountered 11.55 million in mortgage applications, a gain of roughly 9% in comparison to 2024. 5. Of the 11.55 million, 58% (\~3 in 5 applications) resulted in a loan origination or closing. 6. That 58% represented 6.75 million in total closings (53% purchase, 29% refinance, 9% other, and 9% home improvement). 7. All told, those closings amounted to $2.12 trillion in dollar volume for 2025, a solid improvement relative to 2023 and 2024, but still less than half of what was closed in 2021 when volume hit $4.46 trillion. # Why You Should Be Watching What Japan Does Distracted? If you thought markets were only worried about the latest Iran war news, oil prices, inflation, the job market, A.I., the UAE leaving OPEC, or new news headlines revolving around the Hantavirus, you’d be missing the one that likely means more than any of those in relation to the 10-year Treasury and therefore the impact it could have on mortgage rates. Over the course of the last week, Japan was “forced” to defend its currency by intervening in the foreign exchange (FX) market. More specifically, Japan fired its yen bazooka multiple times by selling USD and buying yen. On April 30th alone, the estimated amount Japan’s finance ministry may have spent was around 5.45 trillion yen, or $35 billion to support the currency, just shy of the $36.8 billion last spent in July 2024. In the days that followed, Japan continued to intervene. The exact number of days intervention is allowed per IMF guidelines is what’s known as the “three times rule.” Which essentially suggests that a country can conduct up to three episodes of currency intervention within a six-month period and still be classified as having a “free-floating” exchange rate regime. Exceeding this limit does not result in a penalty, but it would prompt the IMF to downgrade Japan’s currency regime classification from “free-floating” to a “managed float” or “floating” rate, signaling that the market is not entirely determining the value. As of May 5–7, 2026, the Ministry of Finance has publicly signaled that Japan has two more such episodes (3-day windows) available before November if it wants to stay comfortably within the IMF’s “free-floating” guideline. This means they view the recent April/May actions as having used one of the three allowed slots in the current 6-month window.  This time around, the move was rapid but not catastrophic like the disorderly August 2024-style meltdown that led to a surge in yields and a sharp decline in the stock market. Leveraged funds could adjust without panic-selling their entire U.S. bond portfolios. Why is that? Well, intervention was mostly “sterilized” and targeted at FX, not bonds. In a classic violent carry trade unwind, Japanese investors and global funds would sell U.S. Treasuries to cover yen positions, pushing US10Y yields higher. But that didn’t happen. Japan’s Ministry of Finance (via BOJ) sold USD and bought yen directly in the foreign exchange market. This doesn’t automatically force massive selling of U.S. Treasuries. Many carry positions were unwound via FX hedges or rolling off derivatives rather than outright liquidation of bond holdings.  *Processing img wx8ene3kkxzg1...* Jesper Koll, of Monex Group, put things into perspective, stating, “intervention without changing domestic monetary policy is like tapping the brake while keeping your right foot firmly on the accelerator - at best, your passengers have a little fun, at worst, you’re burning through your brake pads.” What he’s getting at is that the Bank of Japan (BOJ) is the one that truly needs to step in to get the desired outcome of strengthening the yen while fighting inflation. Damien Loh, chief investment officer at Ericsenz Capital in Singapore, echoed those thoughts, sharing that, “without the Bank of Japan hiking at a pace commensurate to inflation, the yen will only weaken.”  For additional color on the situation, the BOJ’s policy rate is currently at 0.75% (the highest level since 1995), after the last hike in December 2025. It was left unchanged at the April 27–28, 2026 meeting. The April decision was a split 6-3 vote, with three board members dissenting and calling for an immediate hike to 1.0%. This was unusually hawkish. The BOJ sharply raised its core inflation forecast for FY2026 (to 2.8% from 1.9%) due to energy price pressures from the Middle East conflict, while cutting growth forecasts. The next meeting to see how things play out is June 15–16, 2026. This is now considered a “live” meeting for a potential hike. Market pricing (as of early May) has roughly a 60–70% probability of a 25-basis point hike to 1.00% in June. Governor Ueda and the board have repeatedly said they will continue to raise rates if the economy and prices evolve in line with (or stronger than) their forecasts.  *Processing img i8c9ij6okxzg1...* To understand the implication of a BOJ rate hike, you need to know this. A BOJ rate hike (or even expectations of one) makes Japanese assets more attractive relative to foreign ones. The mechanism equates to reduced foreign bond buying / capital repatriation: Japanese investors (pension funds, insurers, banks - some of the largest buyers of U.S. Treasuries globally) have less incentive to buy higher-yielding U.S. bonds when JGB yields rise. They may slow new purchases or even sell some U.S. holdings to bring money home. This reduces demand for U.S. Treasuries → bond prices fall → yields rise. If that happens, we could see a carry trade unwind in which many investors that borrowed in yen (cheap funding) to buy U.S. Treasuries and other assets are forced to sell. The result is as follows. A BOJ hike narrows the yield spread and raises funding costs → partial unwinds of these positions → selling of U.S. bonds → higher US10Y → higher mortgage rates.  As for the size of the unwinds, most estimates believe the figure to be close to $14 trillion:  * \~$400-500 billion in core leveraged/speculative carry trades (hedge funds, etc.)  * \~$6 trillion in broader exposure (Japanese institutions, insurers, pensions, banks - mostly unhedged or partially hedged against foreign assets)  * \~1.24 trillion (Japanese holdings of U.S. treasuries alone)  * \~5-6+ trillion (total Japanese foreign portfolio assets)  Assuming the carry unwind does play out, what’s the solution? Well, for those paying attention, the answer just might be the taboo asset class, crypto. There is a reason the CLARITY Act, or market structure bill, is being rammed through Congress at this exact moment. The U.S. needs to have continued demand for U.S. Treasuries. Stablecoins, which require a 1:1 backing with U.S. dollars or short-term treasuries, provide just that. Recent comments from Patrick Witt, Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, has publicly stated that the White House is targeting July 4, 2026, for the passage (and ideally signed by Trump), just in time to celebrate the 250th anniversary of America’s revolution. This could also be one of the crucial topics Trump and Xi Jinping discuss in Beijing on May 14-15, 2026, amid the rising demand for trade to be executed in Yuan. These are far from normal times, and when you look at everything going on, it all ties back to currency. The only debate is how it all plays out in the end.  *Processing img gyas3twwkxzg1...* # 2025 HMDA Data in Review  That first section was lengthy but needed for those that want to understand the broader scope of what's truly at play in terms of the current landscape, so thanks for sticking with it. In this section we’ll keep the commentary light, but we’ll be honest, there is still lots to cover. However, this time that length has more to do with the many charts that you’ll find below that highlight exactly how the mortgage industry performed in 2025 by way of the gold standard in mortgage statistics, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) and [iEmergent](https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.iemergent.com%2Finsights%2F2025-hmda-data-part-1%3Futm_source%3DiEmergent%26utm_campaign%3Dbd25e416a1-april_data%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_term%3D0_38f88169a7-bd25e416a1-578757344%23originations&data=05%7C02%7CBen.Lane%40Nafinc.com%7C156b24870245458095c408deacba5984%7C04986fa26d2846f7966ab1ac32f74fa8%7C1%7C0%7C639138113993581588%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=KyWGxTE0PvJas83Q1Ai4OVkGPxefwNfulgrZA1g1qyo%3D&reserved=0).  In 2025, mortgage lenders encountered 11.55 million mortgage applications, a gain of roughly 9% in comparison to 2024.  *Processing img c8oxhyb2lxzg1...* Of the 11.55 million, 58% (\~3 in 5 applications) resulted in a loan origination or closing. That’s essentially been the expectation over the last four years.  *Processing img 1bk5nl75lxzg1...* That 58% represented 6.75 million in total closings (53% purchase, 29% refinance, 9% other, and 9% home improvement). The driver of closings in 2025 has more to do with a rise in refinance closings than a rise stemming from purchase.  *Processing img j74rwrr7lxzg1...* All told, those closings amounted to $2.12 trillion in dollar volume for 2025, a solid improvement relative to 2023 and 2024, but still less than half of what was closed in 2021 when volume hit $4.46 trillion.  *Processing img g66ho95alxzg1...* The mortgage market continued to be fragmented with 4,749 lenders closing a loan in 2025, according to [Richey May](https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fricheymay.com%2Finsights%2Fhmda-market-share-dashboards%2F&data=05%7C02%7CBen.Lane%40Nafinc.com%7C156b24870245458095c408deacba5984%7C04986fa26d2846f7966ab1ac32f74fa8%7C1%7C0%7C639138113993635104%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=hBcTSIZtW%2BjIN1YQwefY0JnxUIqg48r6GOkaHfc5GLU%3D&reserved=0) data.  *Processing img 8wbtah5dlxzg1...* Independent mortgage companies continued to dominate the list of top lenders in 2025 (after filtering the data to just first-lien, 1-4 family, Retail, or TPO origination channels). United Wholesale Mortgage, Rocket Mortgage, and CrossCountry took the top three spots overall, with the following lenders shifting depending on what segment of the market you split the market further into.  *Processing img szbcx0zflxzg1...* The same template is provided below, but this time the market share has been quantified. The most obvious thing that jumps out is the split in domination for banks in the Jumbo space and independent mortgage lenders in the government space (FHA, VA, and USDA).  *Processing img u0ovjkxilxzg1...* That market share continues to translate through to what each institution focused on and/or was able to capture. https://preview.redd.it/9lofc7ellxzg1.png?width=936&format=png&auto=webp&s=8b813e1574ddab361980617821baa69e01eea8f3 For a look at the specific lenders within each of the mortgage market segments, here are top 25 lenders in each.  https://preview.redd.it/6m4zrc1nlxzg1.png?width=936&format=png&auto=webp&s=afb33afd79bbb6f1c7e5f4b2a23c8e349f645e71 https://preview.redd.it/yana3a1olxzg1.png?width=936&format=png&auto=webp&s=83958351916ea8d03ff3621abc0c7820d2c3d498 https://preview.redd.it/fdxkjxuolxzg1.png?width=936&format=png&auto=webp&s=42a7a3190f60d2aae4f6d1aae6da17e72bf64c9d https://preview.redd.it/6s2cdfiplxzg1.png?width=936&format=png&auto=webp&s=e6d404bbef38044b9c0e7757cbef083508a9930e https://preview.redd.it/efu5054qlxzg1.png?width=936&format=png&auto=webp&s=01451c8520e4d0943d022e8be851d1a74d511d9f https://preview.redd.it/pd30s7oqlxzg1.png?width=936&format=png&auto=webp&s=e229e0595de1912e1670571c24e42336dde9f58f https://preview.redd.it/rmsx9p8rlxzg1.png?width=936&format=png&auto=webp&s=fa71b676dbcfb9358ea817b88fe108cba4d396a6 https://preview.redd.it/vnfumburlxzg1.png?width=936&format=png&auto=webp&s=261a39be7a0aa872c74cb2fdc9c29f05a85f7bd3 https://preview.redd.it/jcsas5fslxzg1.png?width=936&format=png&auto=webp&s=2b569ff742edf300c0e7a1c7deb73cf85aeba703 Jumping back to iEmergent data, we see below that New American Funding’s “[NAF Promise](https://www.newamericanfunding.com/about-us/naf-promise/)” has been fruitful at expanding access to homeownership. * Among the top 25 lenders to Hispanic borrowers, NAF rose 2 spots in 2025 to 15th from 17th in 2024 * Among the top 25 lenders to Black borrowers, NAF rose 2 spots in 2025 to 16th from 18th in 2024 # NAF Learning Center [**Mortgage Rates Rise Slightly, But It May Still Be Easier to Buy a Home This Spring**](https://www.newamericanfunding.com/learning-center/housing-news/mortgage-rates-rise-slightly-but-it-may-still-be-easier-to-buy-a-home-this-spring?/utm_source=NAFInsights&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article&utm_campaign=May7&utm_term=default) Mortgage interest rates continued to rise as the war in Iran persisted. But rates are still lower than they were a year ago. Small changes in interest rates can have a big impact on the size of monthly mortgage payments. [**Buying a Home in a Hurry? Follow These 6 Tips for a Faster Closing**](https://www.newamericanfunding.com/learning-center/housing-news/mortgage-rates-rise-slightly-but-it-may-still-be-easier-to-buy-a-home-this-spring?/utm_source=NAFInsights&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article&utm_campaign=May7&utm_term=default) Homebuying can be equal parts exciting and stressful. On one hand, you’re about to become a homeowner. On the other, you have the waiting that comes with the homebuying process. The good news is that there are a few things you can do to speed things up.

CREDIT PROFILE \* Current credit cards you are the primary account holder of: \* Amex Platinum - 2 years old \* Capital One Quicksilver $12k limit, 26 years old \* Chase Amazon Prime $11.6k limit, 8 years old \* Chase Freedom Unlimited $15.8k limit, 9 years old \* Fidelity Visa $28k limit, 6 months old \* Carecredit Mastercard, $11k limit, 2 years old \* Venmo Stash Debit \* FICO scores with source: Fico score 811 (Various scores all hover around 800) \* Oldest credit card account age: 26 \* Cards approved in the past 6 months: 1 \* Cards approved in the past 12 months: 1 \* Cards approved in the past 24 months: 3 \* Annual income $: \~$140k CATEGORIES \* Ok with category-specific cards?: Yes \* Ok with rotating category cards?: No \* Estimate average monthly spend in the categories below. \* Dining $: 300 \* Groceries $: $500 rotating between Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Publix, Walmart and Costco \* Gas $: $100 at Costco \* Travel $: $500 \* Using abroad?: No \* Other categories or stores: \* Other spend: \* Pay rent by card? No MEMBERSHIPS & SUBSCRIPTIONS \* Amazon Prime member: Yes \* Verizon postpaid customer: Yes \* Costco or Sam's Club member: Both (Free Sam's Club with my job) \* Open to business cards: Yes PURPOSE \* Purpose of next card: Cashback \* Cards being considered: Bilt, Costco, Harris Teeter, Walmart, Verizon I've spent the past few years working on debt and my credit score, and the past couple of years I've dipped my toes in the credit card game and doing a little traveling. I had thought about going for another travel card with a SUB but I've decided to wait on that because I've got a vague idea/plan to take an international trip next year. My thought now is to maximize my cash back with my next card. I rarely use my Capital One, usually only when there is a targeted offer but it's by far the oldest card I have. Obviously the Prime Visa is for Amazon/Whole Foods. The Fidelity is my daily driver with the 2% going into my Roth IRA each month. Amex is for travel and I do a good job of using all the various credits. With the Venmo stash I rotate between the 5% cash back bundles with Walmart/Taco Bell and Target/McDonald's. Most months both of my Chase cards have a targeted offer for $5 off $100 at Food Lion and sometimes Harris Teeter (sometimes Amex will have a similar or better offer). I got the CareCredit a couple of years ago when my dog was sick and I just upgraded it with an offer of 5% back through December but I have yet to use it. In looking at where I'm spending money each month, the biggest expenses I have with no cash back are mortgages, HOA and Verizon. The mortgage on my house is through a credit union and is drafted from my account. I also have a mortgage in my name on my father's house that my brother and I inherited and are currently renting out, that's through Rocket Mortgage. I pay my HOA through the bank because the credit card fee makes it the better option, but if I got 5% back it would be worth switching to a credit card payment. My thoughts on my next card were the Verizon card to cover that spend, or the Costco or Harris Teeter or Walmart card. I'm already getting 5% back on most purchases at Walmart and Harris Teeter so those might be redundant. I generally use the Fidelity card at Costco so I'm already getting 2% back there but the extra on gas might be nice. Lastly, since the mortgages are the biggest monthly expenses, I have considered Bilt, but I'm a little bit wary.

Hi, Kind of crazy question but I'm looking at a property that's under contract, and the realtor says the buyer is using Rocket Mortgage conventional. It's an off grid cabin with only a generator and the nearest power would cost 30k+ to bring in. Interestingly when I called rocket mortgage twice, both agents said absolutely not regardless of the terms. The realtor says it's unlikely to go through, how do people even get into a contract like that? Do people assume their pre-approval will work out without telling the mortgage company basic facts about the property? Is it all wishcasting

I'm in a bind and need a loan on my property. It a little over 10 acres, 26 yr old double wide, pond in Texas. It's owner financed and they are threatening for closure. I only owe 28k the market value according to the tax office is 190k but imo the sale price on it would probably be around 160k. I contacted Rocket mortgage and was just text today that someone would get back with me in a few minutes. It's now been an hour and I've just read some crappy things on reddit about them. I need the money to pay off credit card debt and only about 1500, repair the roof, pay off my car, etc Does anyone have any recommendations? I have been off work for two months because my CDL was suspended for a ticket. The old ticket is about to fall off and I will just have the new one. I'm a local driver and I make 1k a week and they said they would hold my job. I have two more weeks to go and can drive again. I also am on social security and get $2127 month. Which I will have to pay back some because of my income. My goal is to be able to live on my social security with a easier job that I really enjoy. My credit score is 590 :( and it's going to go further down if I can't bring some money in quickly. Any advice on who to get a loan from and why would be very appreciated.

Research suggests many eligible veterans may not be using VA home loan benefits not because they don’t qualify, but because of persistent gaps in awareness, confusion around eligibility, and outdated assumptions about how VA loans work. In many cases, veterans simply aren’t being given clear, timely information about what they’ve earned through service. Misconceptions that VA loans are harder to close, less competitive, or limited in use continue to circulate, even though they often don’t reflect current reality. Perceived stigma within parts of the housing market may also add unnecessary friction.  For benefits specifically designed to remove barriers to homeownership, the lack of consistent education and outreach means too many veterans are only learning about their options after the fact. Closing the gap here comes down to clearer education early in the home buying journey, better guidance at the point of need, and more consistent messaging across the industry so veterans aren’t left piecing it together on their own.  Beyond the VA home loan itself, there are also several programs that can support veterans in different ways throughout the home buying process:  * [Veterans Housing Alliance](https://vha1.org/) (VHA). The VHA is a nonprofit that offers home buyer grants and education workshops for veterans.  * [Transition Assistance Program](https://discover.va.gov/transition-programs/transition-assistance-program/) (TAP). In collaboration with multiple government agencies, TAP offers educational resources and tools to help prepare service members and their families for a transition to civilian life. This includes a course led by VA advisors on the different benefits and services that veterans have earned.  * [Homes for Heroes](https://www.homesforheroes.com/heroes/military/). This nationwide program may offer significant savings for veterans who are buying or selling a home.  * [Disability housing grants for veterans](https://www.rocketmortgage.com/learn/va-housing-grants). These grants offset the cost of adapting a home to the unique needs of those with service-related disabilities. For example, the [Home Improvements/Structural Alterations (HISA) grant](https://www.prosthetics.va.gov/psas/HISA2.asp) provides up to $6,800 for veterans to make medically necessary improvements, such as construction of ramping to improve access to their home.  * [Good Neighbor Next Door](https://www.hud.gov/helping-americans/good-neighbor). This program by the Department of Housing and Urban Development offers single-family homes in revitalization areas for 50% off the list price to eligible buyers. While this program isn’t specific to veterans, it’s another avenue that makes home buying more affordable.  * State offerings. Some states also have local housing assistance programs. For example, the Ohio Housing Finance Agency’s [Ohio Heroes](https://myohiohome.org/ohioheroes.aspx) program offers discounted mortgage rates to eligible veterans.  At Rocket Mortgage, we aim to help eligible veterans better understand available home financing options. For those who’ve gone through the process, what information was missing early on that would have made things easier?  *Rocket Mortgage is a VA-approved lender, not endorsed or sponsored by the Dept. of Veterans Affairs or any government agency.*   *Program availability, eligibility requirements, and benefits vary.* 

On 04/08/26, I looked at my online account to see what my mortgage payoff was. I went to the bank, got a cashier's check, and mailed it to the statement address at Rocket Mortgage. On 04/21/26, I attempted to find out why my payment hadn't been applied. (My April payment now showed past due). Couldn't get a human being to save my life, so I sent an email. Later that day, the payment showed posted but unapplied to my mortgage, I showed a large credit balance, and my April payment still showed owed. I couldn't make a payment online "NOTHING DUE AT THIS TIME". On 04/28/26, I received a message that I had a document to review, a payoff per my request. The amount was a little over 2K. That made sense to me, due to residual interest, etc.. My husband went to our bank, paid to get another cashiers check, and then paid $99 to overnight it because the payoff **expired the next day.** Meanwhile, we are buying an investment property and in the process of getting a mortgage. I still show this large mortgage balance due. A member from Ruoff Mortgage called Rocket Mortgage with my husband and I on the line, and 60 minutes later...I find out that they are RETURNING my first cashiers check, a very large sum of money, because "IT WAS MORE THAN THE PAYMENT DUE BUT LESS THAN THE PAYOFF". I ended up having to make ANOTHER 4.8K payment over the phone, because now my mortgage payment showed 30 days past due. This makes NO sense to me, who turns down cash? Where is the common sense in their customer service? What type of antiquated system are they using that can't accept that payment? (My first cashiers check was posted in FOUR different transactions) I can't get an English speaking person to help me, and my account STILL shows a large credit balance, which means they haven't returned the funds. So they are earning interest on my unapplied cash. I'm furious, and just want to pay off my mortgage. You can better believe I will go through the same thing again in May, but I will request a payoff before I mail a cashiers check. (If they ever return my $$$)

I have a few credit cards, but am not a maximizer. I have shied away from cards like Chase Sapphire Reserve and AMEX Platinum for the sheer work it takes to make them worth it (sans sign up bonuses). The selling point for me with Bilt 2.0 was mortgage points. It was easy for me to set up 2 mortgages on different platforms (waited to have enough Bilt Cash for 2nd house) and I haven’t had an issue yet. Rent Day bonuses have been easy, point accelerators have been easy, payments have been easy, sign up bonuses and status has been easy, and Rent Day point exchange was easy. I agree there are some features missing and they keep nerfing benefits, but as a mortgage payment system and a credit card… it has just worked for me.

Using a throwaway account, y'all! Stoked about the expansion teams coming to the WNBA especially having my Detroit Shock back. But I started thinking what would a modern look and feel be for the new teams especially ones in cities that had W teams before. Here are my concept design explorations for the Cleveland WNBA team. Super nervous about sharing on reddit >.< and it's still a work in progress. Want to flesh out jerseys that carry more of the motif. I believe Cleveland will revive the name Rockers which was their team in the 90's. ~~I suspect they will keep this name cause they will be the Cavs’ sister team and the Cavs are owned by Dan Gilbert who owns the companies Rocket Mortgage/Rocket, Rock Financial, Bedrock…etc.~~ The team was named this based on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame which is in Cleveland so that drives most of the design concepts I’ll share. What I wanted to explore was two options. One is more fleshed out than the other. But 1. I wanted to do a corporate look which it seems like so many sports teams are doing. And 2. A more mascot/imperfect/fun approach. Less sterile and really taking from the 90s era of sports before it became like a capitalist hedge fund. 😭 This is the fun approach with the safe option being on the end. I hand drew the script font and it’s def not perfect but I feel it works? I really wish I were from Cleveland so there could be more intimate nods to the city that weren't just all based on R&RHoF. But I hope I did it some justice in the thinking!

location: Virginia Hello. My mom passed away 3 years ago and left the house to me and my sisters. She left the house to all 3 of us in her will and we have a stamped and singed real estate affidavit from the circuit court. My little sister and I went to get the deed to the house this week and noticed it is still in my deceased parents name, My older sister is the executor of the estate. She lives in another states and wants my little sister and I to buy her out of her share. I have been approved for a home equity loan through Rocket Mortgage and will be working with their title company for closing, Rocket Closing. I am afraid we will need to get a new deed before closing. I don't even know where to start if that happens. Would Rocket Closing be able to handle that or would I need to do this on my own? Thanks so much.

I’m 3.5 years into a 30 year at 6.75, balance on home is $312k Credit is showing 750. Not a lot of liquid cash right now for fees and closing costs. I just wanna get the payment down if I can and what I’m seeing is that I can get some where in mid to high 5%. I really don’t know how to “shop around” for a mortgage other than simply putting my information into sites like rocket mortgage etc. and I don’t have a broker and likely can’t pay a lot for one. What’s the best way to go about this? Thanks!

Massapequa. The house that I'm in a contract to buy has an over-the-ground pool with attached deck and privacy wall, as well as full bathroom in the basement. Both without permits. The realtors are saying that lenders won't care. I'm getting worried that it may become a problem after the appraisal is done. I see someone saying that smaller banks usually are more lenient, but how about online mortgage lenders like RocketMortgage or Better? Separately, did anyone have experience buying house with certain permits missing? Kinda scary, but it seems like everyone is doing that (per agents). TIA

First time home buyer shopping for mortgage here. All of the quotes I received today was above 6.2. But then I got this quote from Rocket and it seems to good to be true. What are the catch here? Purchase price $1,000,000, 20% down payment $200,000 Loan amount $800,000 First year rate reduction (covered by Rocket Mortgage) 4.75% - principal and intertest will be $4,173 ( 12 month savings will be $5,952) Year 2-5 rate will be 5.75% - principal and interest will be $4,669 For a 5 year ARM the total charge based on todays market is $16,043 we are giving you a lender credit of $6,016 – you will be paying $10,027 in points and fees. If you take into account the savings from the first year buydown we are giving you, your are technically only paying around $4,075 for the lowest rate on the market.

My god, rocket mortgage bought out my former company and they have been so agressive to get me to refinance! I’m talking about multiple calls every day. I entertained it a few times to see what they would do. It’s all lies and bullshit. They promise a good rate but they get you with ridiculous charges. I’m talking more than 6% of the loan for a meager 0.5 to 0.75 % reduction in the rate. They charge you a ridiculous fee for it. I don’t understand the point system, but I understand that more than 9% of your loan is just down right ridiculous. So F U rocket mortgage I’m not falling for your crap, and I hope this helps the community stay away from this predatory lender

Sen. Mark Warner reported **a large group of stock transactions today**, with this trade being one of them — a **BUY** in Rocket Companies ($RKT) on April 13, 2026, valued at $1,001–$15,000. At the time of disclosure, Rocket Companies was trading around $15.32 per share. Since then, the stock has moved to approximately $14.62, marking a decline of about -4.6% so far. Rocket Companies is a major fintech and homeownership platform, best known through Rocket Mortgage — one of the largest mortgage lenders in the United States — operating at the center of housing finance, lending, and digital banking. What makes this trade particularly interesting is Warner’s role in the Senate, where he is actively involved in banking, housing, and financial services policy — areas that directly shape the environment in which companies like Rocket operate, from interest rates to lending regulation. Multiple trades disclosed at once often raise questions about broader portfolio strategy — and when they overlap with sectors tied to a lawmaker’s policy influence, they tend to attract even more attention. 📊 Source: ProBors – Track insider & politician trades in real time ⚠️ Disclaimer: This is not financial advice. Do your own research before making investment decisions. ⏳ For data without delay, visit: 🔗 [probors.com](http://probors.com)

I currently work as a bartender for a company in an airport in california. We make minimum wage +tips, in all about 90-100k a year. (Slower airport) My family would like to move over to the east coast/ southern area. My company offers the ability to transfer to a different location in a different state. I would be using a FHA loan as a first time home buyer. While talking to rocket mortgage(first company i spoke with), i was told that i may have to move to my new city/state and start the position at the new location (same company) for 1-2 months before they could use my tipped income as verified income. I have been working the same job same industry for 11 years already. I was told of i didnt do that, then only my base pay minimum wage would be used. (Here in CA im making 17/hr base pay but in most other states base pay for tipped employees is $2.13/hr. ) So, my 90k-100k a year income of 11 years will only look like $4400 a year. I just don't feel like this is right? Please help!

Good afternoon. I am looking to refinance a home that I own in NJ, that I bought last year (2025) in August. I spoke with a loan officer that does mortgages through rocket, and this is what my disclosure looked like for a 30 year fixed from 6.5 to 5.3%. Based on a conversation with the guy, he said the closing costs would be “more like 16,000” and not the \~19,000 that I’m seeing on the disclosure. I also thought the VA capped recoupment at 36 months, looks like it’s showing 57 months on here. Can someone review this and let me know if anything sticks out? This is my second property, but I was lucky enough to get the first one at a post Covid interest rate so I never worried to refinance. Thank you! :)

I am in the process of a VA IRRRL and I talked to the loan officer and we basically agreed on a refinance from 5.875% to 5.375%. So tonight I get a notification saying to sign the new closing disclosure and it shows a rate lock that is only good 7 days but it is in fact, signed and locked by the lender at 3.875%. The package also includes the closing disclosure documents with the entire loan breakdown and seems like the 3.875% has to be way too good to be true, but it is set up to close in about 7 days and is all legit. Would I be able to keep the rate that they offered? Or is there any way that they can weasel out of it even though they signed it and claim ignorance or incompetence. I just signed and agreed to the disclosure package in the Rocket Mortgage portal and it in fact says I signed it and is now a task 'completed'. Is there any way I can ensure that I keep this rate and what do you guys recommend I do? Its so weird I cant find anyone who has ran into this before. Thanks.

So we have several houses that we use to rent and we had something interesting happen with one of our houses that I thought I should share. One of our newer houses is a fixer upper and we are in the process of gutting it. A woman showed up and told us she wanted to buy it. We told her several times that it was not for sale and it was not habitable right now. She continued to harass us over it, telling the neighbors she was buying it and then reaching out to our family to do the same thing. This person apparently did not realize that there are two owners on this property and really tried to bully my husband into selling it to her. This has been going on a year now. Fast forward to today when my husband gets a call from Rocket Mortgage. Apparently they approved this woman for a loan on our house (there is not a purchase agreement) and told us our house would have to appraise for 100K in order to give her 40K on it. Like what the actual F\*\*K. We informed Rocket Mortgage that the house was not for sale and that it will not be for sale and who the hell would sell a house worth 100K for 40K? Do they not do their due diligence before approving loans because this woman makes 1K a month on disability and has never paid a bill in her life. Just seems like a predatory lender in my opinion.

I'm refinancing my mortgage and I'm trying to decide between LoanDepot and Rocket Mortgage. I've heard LoanDepot got a perfect 5-star rating from Forbes and is the best overall lender. I've also heard Rocket Mortgage is best for streamlined digital experience. I've also heard LoanDepot starts at $85,000 while Rocket starts at $25,000. I'm wondering which one actually gives better rates or if it depends on individual situation. The thing that concerns me is that I want the best rate possible. I've heard LoanDepot sometimes advertises more competitive rates with flexible loan products. I've also heard Rocket highlights its efficiency and speed. I'm trying to figure out which one is actually better or if I should get quotes from both. Which one has better rates? Have you used either? What was your experience? Did you get approved? How fast was the process? Would you recommend one over the other? What about customer service? How do the fees compare? Should I get multiple quotes? I'd appreciate advice about LoanDepot vs Rocket Mortgage.

FINAL EDIT: Finally got the requirement to prove I don't own my fathers approved! Thanks everyone for your help! Edit: This is Rocket Mortgage btw. Hey guys - my wife and I are purchasing our first home, and we’re at the conditionally approved stage, closing date is set for the end of May. Here’s the rub, my dad and I have the same name, and back in 2019 I lived with him for 3 months - now the bank wants me to prove I don’t own his house? In a completely different state. We have the same first and last name, different middle. Unfortunately none of my dad’s mortgage info has his middle initial on it. They asked for a signed/dated letter from me stating I don’t own the property, and why I might be associated with it. I did that, and they’re not sure it’s sufficient. I sent a copy of his mortgage statement that just has his first and last name (in hopes that since there’s no mortgage on my credit report they’d go ok someone else has a mortgage on this property) but that’s not turning out to be a slamdunk either. Any guidance? Seems absolutely bonkers I’d need to prove I don’t own someone else’s house.

Make sure to keep all Closing documents in case you realize that the Title Company and the lender (Rocket Mortgage) are incompetent. We purchased a home July 2025. $341,696 at 6.37% Interest Rate. Our initial Monthly Payment was $2703.83. Loan was transferred to another Mortgage servicer in December 2025. All is fine and Good until the mortgage withdrawl this month on the 1st of April was $4200. As you can imagine we were confused and called to inquire what the issue was. They said that our escrow had a $10k deficit. That made no sense to us as we know for a fact that escrow was calculated into our monthly payment. Come to find out that the previous owners had UND INT 50% each on the property because they were not a married. The title company and the loan servicer never disclosed this fact to us during the closing process. The Home has two parcels numbers/accounts. The entire time we were only paying escrow on one parcel and not the two that existed at the time. (Property is now at 100% as of this year). They missed the second account completely. I mean seriously if they did their due diligence during the title search they should have seen the second account. We searched our property on the county website and saw the second account instantly which means they did not do their jobs. There was also two MUD TAX Bills. Now the mortgage company is looking to collect $4133 per month instead of the initial $2703 until the shortage is paid off. Even after the shortage is paid our payment won’t be $2703 but closer to $3100-$3200. So we filed a claim with the Title Insurance with detailed info showing their fault and expecting them to pay the discrepancy. If not we will take them to Small Claims Court. We also filed a complaint with the CFPB and TDSML against Rocket Mortgage for not doing their due diligence also. Spoke with someone from the County and sadly they said that Title Companies and Loan servicers are notorious for doing this and won’t say a word. Home buying is a ruthless process I guess.

So like millions my Mr Cooper mortgage became rocket mortgage. Now I'm getting around 2 to 3 emails daily. Texts messages from rocket to speak about saving money because my account was flagged for potential savings. Now they started calling me, yesterday I answered and the rocket mortgage guy was pushy asking me if I wanted to lower my bill or take equity out. I told him politely no thanks again he said so "you're not interested in saving money or lowering your monthly payment" like he was in disbelief. I again firmly this time said no, so he says let me get so and so specialist on here and give you some help to save. He puts on a 3 way call now another rocket representative to start asking everything the first did. This time I get pissed and tell them both, "look I don't care if you took over Mr Cooper, but I don't want you to call me about anything promoting anything" they both gasped and said so you're not wanting to lower your monthly payment? I said no I'm fine and take me off your call, text, and email list for anything other than account related security issues. I'm not sure if they will stop, but is there anything we can do if they continue their aggressive tactics of trying to "get you to save money "? Has anyone else been harassed by rocket mortgage?

Has anyone used CrossCountry Mortgage’s CashPlus program? They commit to buy the house in cash should something happen during the financing process that doesn’t allow the house to close on time. This is supposed to make your offer be able to compete with cash offers. Has this helped anyone? Are there any downsides? Would this even make a difference, since the offer would still show that we’re using mortgage financing (just with a cash backed guarantee). It seems like the seller would still just choose the offer than is simply cash. How is this different than Rocket Mortgage, who gives a fully underwritten guaranteed-to-close letter of approval for financing? Thanks for any help – we just lost out on a house that got 14 offers and the seller accepted all cash

# Los 76ers lo ponen todo patas arriba Con un espectacular acierto de tres, los de Pensilvania dan un vuelco a la serie y ponen un sorprendente 1-1 Los playoffs de la NBA tienen estas cosas. Un día, los Philadelphia 76ers son [absolutamente arrasados por los Celtics](https://www.nbamaniacs.com/pospartidos/celtics-76ers-no-salen-guion/), parecen confirmar todos los pronósticos con respecto a la serie y todo apunta a una rápida eliminación. Dos noches después, están asaltando el TD Garden y poniendo el 1-1. Los de Pensilvania han dado la gran campanada de la madrugada al vencer en Boston por 97-111, dando a la serie un inesperado vuelco y haciéndose con el factor cancha de cara a un Game 3 que cobra ahora una nueva dimensión. De repente, los fantasmas de una posible barrida quedan totalmente espantados y lo que parecía un viaje al matadero cobra una nueva perspectiva. De repente, resulta que hay eliminatoria. # Con su propia medicina Limitarlo todo a hablar de acierto en el tiro puede resultar en ocasiones muy simplista, pero resulta imposible no encontrar en el lanzamiento exterior la gran diferencia entre un duelo y otro para los de Nurse. En el primero, aun con buenas oportunidades, estuvieron tanto tímidos como imprecisos a la hora de mirar al aro desde el perímetro, lanzando tan solo 23 triples y anotando cuatro de ellos. Hoy, la cosa fue radicalmente opuesta. Hoy asaltaron la cancha de Boston con el arma favorita de los verdes. Los 76ers prácticamente duplicaron su número de intentos, pero, lo que es más importante, dispararon su acierto. Con un 48,7% desde el perímetro, se fueron hasta los 19 tiros de tres para dar alas a un ataque que se había quedado sin recursos en la primera noche pero que esta vez sí supo castigar a la extremadamente hundida defensa local, que con su *drop* en el bloqueo directo dio demasiados espacios para permitir el bombardeo. Y cuando quiso hacer algo al respecto, ya era demasiado tarde. De ello se encargaron V.J. Edgecombe y Tyrese Maxey, que hicieron sencillo olvidar la cantidad de puntos que los de Pensilvania tenían en la enfermería. El primero, en el escenario en el que dio muestra de su precocidad en su debut en liga regular, se fue hasta los 30 tantos con un 6/10 desde el perímetro para demostrar que tampoco le asusta la postemporada; el segundo, autor de 29, emergió como héroe a la hora de la verdad para, con 12 puntos en los últimos seis minutos, culminar la proeza. # Hace falta más Hace un año, los Celtics tenían una de las plantillas con más talento de la NBA. A la increíble dupla formada por Jayson Tatum y Jaylen Brown se unía una tercera espada envidiable como Jrue Holiday y un jugador diferencial como Kristaps Porzingis que en sus noches buenas demuestra que vale la pena esperar por él en todas esas otras en las que no está disponible. Pero el verano pasado se tomaron decisiones. Decisiones que pesaron menos de lo previsto en liga regular. Pero que esta vez sí se hicieron notar. Por primera vez, esta pareció una plantilla hecha para ahorrar dinero. Esta vez sí se notó esa construcción a base de amalgamar cosas de aquí y de allá y de dar mucha responsabilidad a unos jóvenes sin demasiada experiencia. Hoy fueron los Celtics quienes fueron presa de sus limitaciones, esas que no han aparecido durante toda la temporada pero que, a la hora de la verdad, han evidenciado que siguen estando ahí. Los de Mazzulla solo contaron con dos hombres en dobles dígitos, y son exactamente aquellos que cabría esperar. Y lo que es peor, solo uno de ellos brilló de verdad. Con Tatum apagándose como anotador con el transcurso de los minutos, Jaylen Brown se quedó como la única referencia ofensiva en la segunda mitad, en la que anotó 21 de sus 36 tantos pero en la que no pudo cambiar el sino de un choque que cada vez tendía más al lado visitante. Hoy sí fue él contra el mundo, y esos partidos suelen acabar mal. Fuente: [https://www.nbamaniacs.com/pospartidos/76ers-ponen-todo-patas-arriba/](https://www.nbamaniacs.com/pospartidos/76ers-ponen-todo-patas-arriba/) Nota de Spike: **el partido empezó con un parcial de 0-13 para Celtics (13-26), con Sixers en 0 de 6 en triples, con Edgecombe yéndose a vestuarios dolorido, y Celtics metiéndolos (uno Tatum, dos Hauser, uno Vucevic), con Jaylen haciendo daño desde el bote y penetración (sacando puntos y faltas)... Y luego todo se descalabró y se dio la vuelta**. **Los Sixers empezaron a enchufar, los Celtics a fallar (13 de 50 triples intentados)**, y tras un parcial de 12-2 para cerrar el 1Q y gran 2Q de Sixers, los locales fueron a remolque, al ritmo de Brown (21 puntos en la segunda mitad). \_\_\_\_\_ # Portland se lleva un triunfo; San Antonio, dos mazazos Una contusión craneal de Victor Wembanyama complica la vida a los texanos El domingo, los jóvenes San Antonio Spurs se estrenaron en playoffs conociendo la cara amable de las eliminatorias. Su atmósfera más intensa, el [sabor más dulce de la victoria](https://www.nbamaniacs.com/pospartidos/victor-wembanyama-no-se-anda-rodeos/). La segunda lección, por el contrario, incluía su cara más amarga. Una que no solo incluye la presión de los finales apretados o el amargor de dejar escapar un triunfo, sino también cómo una simple acción puede cambiarlo todo. El partido y, con un margen de error tan mínimo, quizás la temporada. Porque los texanos han perdido el segundo partido ante Portland por 103-106 y han cedido el factor cancha a los de Oregón, pero esta podría ser la menos mala de las dos noticias que recibieron esta madrugada. La verdaderamente preocupante, la que en cierto modo fue causa de la anterior, tuvo como protagonista a Victor Wembanyama y dejó con el susto en el cuerpo a todos los presentes en el Frost Bank Center. # De baja hasta… Apenas había comenzado el segundo cuarto cuando ocurrió. Wemby trató de penetrar a canasta pero tropezó con Jrue Holiday, lo que le hizo caer al suelo sin tiempo de protegerse con las manos y recibir un duro golpe en la cabeza. Uno lo suficientemente contundente como para dejarlo absolutamente noqueado en el suelo durante unos segundos y hacer que le fuera difícil ponerse en pie. Y de hecho, cuando lo hizo, fue para dirigirse directamente a vestuarios. Vídeo del choque de Wemby contra el suelo: [https://x.com/NBAonNBC/status/2046758413573521573?s=20](https://x.com/NBAonNBC/status/2046758413573521573?s=20) Allí se confirmó lo que pareció claro desde un principio. Victor sufrió una contusión que le obligó a abandonar el encuentro y cuyas consecuencias irán más allá de este duelo, pues el protocolo de la NBA establece pautas bastante estrictas con respecto a cuándo puede regresar un jugador en estas condiciones. Y aunque todo depende en cierto modo de cómo evolucione el pívot, se antoja probable que esta no sea su única ausencia. Y es que, según el protocolo, Wemby no podrá regresar hasta transcurrido un mínimo de 48 horas, pero para hacerlo necesitará superar varios controles en los que se corrobore que no arrastra ningún síntoma, lo cual suele requerir un tiempo bastante mayor. De hecho, la duración promedio de las bajas por contusión se sitúa entre los 7 y 10 días, lo cual pone en serio riesgo gran parte de la eliminatoria para él. De hecho, en 7 días, tendrá lugar el Game 5. En 10, podríamos estar en la víspera de un hipotético Game 7. Sobra decir lo que supondría una ausencia tan larga para los Spurs, que, incluso si reaccionaron de forma eficaz y llegaron a tener el choque en su mano, acusaron la baja de su superestrella en el tramo final. Tras colocarse 14 arriba en el último cuarto, los texanos echaron en falta su gravedad ofensiva y su presencia reboteadora, y se fueron hundiendo a medida que Portland apretaba para tratar de llevarse un triunfo que sabían que cambiaba radicalmente la perspectiva de la serie. Y, no sin sufrimiento, lo lograron. # Un joven y un veterano En 2023, se decía que Scoot Henderson sería número 1 en cualquier Draft que no incluyese a Victor Wembanyama. Desde la propia NBA se intentó de hecho impulsar una suerte de rivalidad entre ambos antes de que llegasen a la liga, y más de un aficionado de los Hornets se tiró de los pelos cuando vio que los suyos dejaban pasar al base para usar su *pick* 2 en Brandon Miller. Situaciones que, durante estos casi tres años, nos ha ido pareciendo cada vez más el enésimo caso de sobrerreación y venta de humo que acompaña a cualquier Draft. En este Game 2, sin embargo, ha dado muestras del talento que llevó a generar ese *hype*. El base dio toda una demostración de carácter y talento para, con 31 puntos, liderar el ataque visitante. Con Deni Avdija muy maniatado, fue él quien empezó a marcar el tono para unos Blazers que desde el inicio salieron con fe en sus posibilidades y que, gracias a sus triples y a su agresividad atacando el aro, encontraron una vía de anotación con la que mantenerse a la estela en un choque muy trabado. No obstante, todo pareció irse por la borda en el último cuarto, en el que un parcial de salida de 13-0 dio a San Antonio una ventaja que parecía definitiva. Y fue ahí donde Portland demostró que es un equipo joven pero no inocente. Con carencias pero no falto de competitividad. Fue ahí donde, sabedores de que un 2-0 ponía todo muy cuesta arriba y que la ausencia de Wemby les daba una oportunidad, subieron el tono y generaron a los locales su primer momento de verdadero atasco. Y con los Spurs empezando a congelarse, el base se encargó de encender a los suyos. Pero otro base. Esta vez no fue Scoot, sino uno más curtido y con más batallas a sus espaldas que el resto de jugadores de la serie juntos. Jrue Holiday, que de ganar partidos apretados en playoffs sabe un rato, dio la enésima muestra de lo que puede pesar la veteranía en situaciones como esta. Fue, sencillamente, el hombre en pista que sabía qué había que hacer para ganar. Y lo puso en práctica con maestría. Esto incluye absolutamente de todo. Acciones visibles y muy celebradas, como su robo y asistencia a Camara y su triple que dieron inicio a la reacción; otras de pura pillería como el rebote ofensivo tras un *airball* de Robert Williams para poner a los suyos por delante; y algunas en apariencia sencillas pero infinitamente valiosas, como su hábil falta para, estando tres arriba, impedir que San Antonio buscara el empate o su forma de huir de los defensores y perder tiempo cuando querían hacer falta intencionada para parar el crono. En casi cualquier acción decisiva, ahí estaba él, resarciéndose de un partido que estaba siendo discreto hasta el momento pero que elevó al sobresaliente cuando de verdad estaba todo el juego. Fuente: [https://www.nbamaniacs.com/pospartidos/spurs-se-llevan-dos-mazazos/](https://www.nbamaniacs.com/pospartidos/spurs-se-llevan-dos-mazazos/) \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ # Sangre, sudor y un LeBron para la eternidad Los Lakers cuajan una actuación defensiva brutal, torturan a Durant en su retorno y se encomiendan a un Rey que lucirá su corona para siempre. Kennard y Smart, claves. Hemos tenido que esperar casi ocho años para volver a ver un partido entre LeBron James y Kevin Durant en playoffs. **La última vez fue el 18 de junio de 2018, cuando los Warriors confirmaron la barrida a los Cavaliers en el cuarto y último partido de las Finales**, ganando su segundo anillo consecutivo, el tercero de su dinastía. Todavía quedan cosas desde entonces, casi todas casadas con la más absoluta longevidad: ambas estrellas siguen en activo y son, extrañamente, los mejores de sus respectivos equipos. Y de lo que menos queda es de la franquicia de Golden State, que tuvo su dulce prórroga con el título de 2022 [**pero que hoy recoge las migajas de lo que fue en su día**](https://as.com/baloncesto/nba/el-fin-de-una-era-el-fin-de-los-warriors-f202604-n/), uno de los mejores equipos de siempre que tuvo una rivalidad histórica con el eterno *Rey* de la NBA. Que con 41 años y 23 temporadas a sus espaldas, sigue jugando al baloncesto mejor que el 90% de la competición norteamericana. Durant pasó por Nets y Suns haciendo gala de un comportamiento errático y sin estar cómodo nunca en ningún lado, como no lo estuvo ni en Oklahoma ni en San Francisco. **Pero ese 18 de junio fue el último partido (hasta la fecha) de LeBron con la camiseta de los Cavaliers**. Con los deberes hechos y la conquista del anillo prometido en 2016, se fue ovacionado del Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, que esta vez no le reprochó su marcha, como si hizo en 2010 con la famosa The Decision mediante. Y James puso rumbo a la ciudad de la luz para vestir la camiseta de los Lakers, **ganar un nuevo título en 2020 y no volver a moverse de ahí a pesar de los rumores constantes**. Agigantando su leyenda. Y con el recuerdo de esos playoffs de 2018 como una de las exhibiciones individuales de la historia del deporte. Ahora, la historia es muy distinta... *o muy parecida*. Y Lakers y Rockets jugaron el segundo asalto de la primera ronda de playoffs en el Crypto Arena. [**En el primero no estuvo Durant por lesión y en este siguieron sin estar Luka Doncic ni Austin Reaves**](https://as.com/baloncesto/nba/los-lakers-obran-el-primer-milagro-f202604-n/). Pero sí que estuvo, cómo no, ese ser imperecedero llamado LeBron James, que se enfrentó, impertérrito, a una de sus muchas némesis, a uno de esos incontables rivales que se ha cruzado por el camino. Y fue un partido de barro, de rebote, de trincheras. De sangres, sudor y lágrimas. De físico, de tintes nostálgicos, épico y titánico. Una batalla generacional entre dos jugadores que también lo son. Y ahí también gana *el Rey*, **que lleva más de dos décadas reclamando una corona que ya no lleva, pero que siempre será suya**. Un cuarto de siglo de dominio, de prime constante. También ahora, cuando se ve obligado a coger la batuta por culpa de las lesiones. Con paciencia y sapiencia. [**Como nunca y como siempre**](https://as.com/baloncesto/nba/lebron-como-nunca-y-como-siempre-f202604-n/). Los Lakers se impusieron a los Rockets también en el segundo asalto (101-94), también sin Doncic y sin Reaves y, esta vez, a pesar de la presencia de Durant. **Y en un organigrama táctico extraordinariamente bien planteado por JJ Redick y ejecutado por sus jugadores a la perfección**. Ahí falló Ime Udoka cuando su rival puso a varios defensores sobre su estrella (Jarred Vandervilt, Rui Hachimura, un heróico Marcos Smart, el propio LeBron si tocaba...) y demostró su limitación en ataque, lo contrario a su mayor virtud. Y ahí ganaron los Lakers, que no han dejado que sus rivales pasen de los 100 puntos en ninguno de los dos primeros partidos **y convirtieron la batalla en un ejercicio de resiliencia absoluto de balonces divididos**, *reflections*, robos y jugadores lanzándose a cualquier balón, donde quisiera que estuviese. Y ahí salieron victoriosos los angelinos, que contra todo pronóstico viajarán a Houston con un 2-0 tan inopinado como merecido. LeBron se fue a 28 puntos, 8 rebotes y 7 asistencias, precipitado en alguna ocasión (8 de 20 en tiros de campo, 3 pérdidas), **pero con la sabiduría que le da la edad de no cebarse, saber ceder cuando toca e ir hacia dentro para aumentar sus porcentajes**. Un (pedazo de) mate suyo dentro del último minuto a pase de un inconmensurable Marcus Smart (ahora hablaremos de él) puso el definitivo 99-92 que desató el júblilo del Crypto Arena y de Doncic en el banquillo. Los Rockets, que volvieron a empezar mal (33-26 al final del primer cuarto) y llegaron a ir 15 abajo, se acercaron al descanso (54-51) **y llegaron a ponerse a tres (85-82) a menos de 7 minutos para el final, pero no consiguieron ir más allá**. Las dobles defensas a LeBron liberaban compañeros y los angelinos supieron mover el balón en esas circunstancias y buscar los tiros libres para cerrar el encuentro. Y así fue. A Durant se le notó que había forzado para jugar, no sólo porque vaya camino de las 38 primaveras, todo un chaval si lo comparamos con James. **Logró 23 puntos, 6 rebotes y 4 asistencias**, pero sólo anotó dos tiros de campo en toda la segunda mitad y sufrió mucho ante la defensa de los Lakers, lo que le obligó a realizar acciones impetuosas en forma de pases precipitados: 9 pérdidas. [**Ahí entró en juego Smart, el** ***orgullo Celtic*** **del eterno rival**](https://as.com/baloncesto/nba/marcus-smart-el-orgullo-celtic-de-los-lakers-f202604-n/), un base que cuando está en este mood es desesperante para el que tiene enfrente y una delicia para sus compañeros: 25 tantos, 7 asistencias... y 5 robos en más de 35 minutos. Todo pundonor. Los texanos buscaron con insistencia a Alperen Sengun y sus manos de mantequilla (20+11+5), **Jabari Smith se fue a 18 tantos y Amen Thompson a 16, con 9 pases a canasta**. El 40% en el lanzamiento y el paupérrimo 24% en triples fue la condena y la bendición, por los errores propios y por estar motivados por la increíble defensa de los Lakers. Rui Hachimura, con 13 puntos y una suspensión al final, fue clave en casi 43 minutos, mientras que Luke Kennard confirmó [**que es la mejor decisión que han tomado los Lakers en el mercado desde que ficharon a Doncic**](https://as.com/baloncesto/nba/el-traspaso-de-los-traspasos-luka-doncic-se-va-a-los-lakers-n/): 23+6+2, con 3 robos en 42 minutos. Para no jugarlos si tenemos en cuenta que LeBron se fue por encima de los 39. Un ser imperecedero que reinó también en una batalla física tremebunda. Que tiene todos sus malos ratos en la caja de zapatos donde guarda el porvenir. Que consigue que las pavesas tengan sabor a fresa. Eterno, inmortal, LeBron lidera a los Lakers a un 2-0 y los angelinos viajan a Houston como querían, con una ventaja fantástica, sabiendo que la cosa se va a poner fea, **pero que tienen la oportunidad de ganar uno de los dos siguientes partidos y encarrilar la eliminatoria**. Algo sorprendente teniendo en cuenta su situación médica, la edad de su actual líder y la extraordinaria imagen mostrada. Y, mientras tanto, a Doncic le va quedando menos... Fuente: [https://as.com/baloncesto/nba/sangre-sudor-y-un-lebron-para-la-eternidad-f202604-n/](https://as.com/baloncesto/nba/sangre-sudor-y-un-lebron-para-la-eternidad-f202604-n/) [9 de 20 Sengun, 7 de 16 Jabari, 4 de 14 Eason, 0 de 11 el resto de jugadores de banquillo...](https://preview.redd.it/ku28bzhehowg1.png?width=2058&format=png&auto=webp&s=90003804441d88881c5a8bb117ca02877c798bb1) [El big3 de Lakers abril de 2026: LeBron, Smart, Kennard.](https://preview.redd.it/cyicv11nhowg1.png?width=2054&format=png&auto=webp&s=975cec6b65330d8c74c46ea7fb748de8741c6ab0)

I bought our house 25 years ago, it should be paid off, but 3 years ago I had to refinance to pay off credit cards (which I was loath to do because my interest rate went up) refinanced for a shorter time and Rocket Mortgage said I had a rate lock guarantee so if rates went down I could refinance and they would cover closing costs. I really didn’t see another way at the time. One income was/is killing me. I’m still looking for a better job but it’s rough at 50 in a rural area where salaries are stagnant but cost of living rivals more urban areas. I took an extra part time teaching job which has helped some, but it seems like even it gets absorbed, new water heater, trees have to be removed, maintenance in general and it seems like EVERYTHING has gone up the last 6+ years and has never gone back down! I know I can cut my spending and I’m trying but does anyone else live on 50K ish comfortably? I already felt like a failure with not being remarried or in a relationship for…really so long I cannot even type it. My kids are a huge bright spot, successful and our relationships are pretty good for the most part, even spouses! But as I would like to move closer to them (they have asked repeatedly), I’m struggling even there to find a job that pays me more to move. Plus my mother is still in my small town and I’m the only sibling here. So struggle with wanting to be closer to kids but feeling like I am abandoning her. She’s very independent, but there have been a couple of times it has been helpful for me to be here with a couple of urgent care visits. I and my kids have all tried to convince her to move also. I’ve tried counseling, I feel like hormones are off, but finding help in that area even seems hard, no one seems to care about hormones as much as just trying antidepressants, not a huge fan there. I’ve been a single mom for years, I’m used to one or two things being chaotic but I just feel like everything is right now and whereas I used to relish SOME time on my own it’s just depressing lately-even with antidepressants being pushed! I feel like everyone around me is married, two incomes and have their lives together, even my kids! Which is fabulous and I consider that a huge blessing, I do not take that for granted, but man trying to break out of this gloom. So I guess that was definitely my vent big time, but anyone gone through or going through similar?

Refi with rocket mortgage. Im 1 year complete on my 30year low my current rate is 7.10 and Rockef mortgage is offering me. These numbers. My current mortgage is 3046 and I’d get the 5.49 rate. I do have to pay back a 16K DPA loan which is fine can’t roll into loan because appraisal value is around 440K-445K and I bought at 425K. My net income for me and my wife is around 12500-13K a month. I’m not what other info you need but it would save around 400 dollars a month it says on the refi. Any tips I could do to get closing cost down or anything? Thank you should I hit smash on this asap!?? Loan term 30 years Loan type Interest rate / APR FHA 30 Year Fixed 5.49% / 6.275% New monthly payment $3,046 Estimated mortgage payoff $416,111 Closing costs $12.051 \^ Discount points 0/$0 Origination fees $2,500 Third party costs $2.210 Upfront Mortgage Insurance Premium $7,341 Other / escrow \-$1.514 Cash to you $194 New loan amount $426.841 Mortgage payment breakdown $3.046

I will try to sum up my situation the best I can. I have a wife, a 20-month-old boy, and we just had another boy. He is 3 months old and has Down syndrome. Due to his disability, my wife will not be returning to work. I’m a Union worker. IBEW as a telecommunications technician. After taxes, I make anywhere between $1200 and $1600 a week. I’d say an average of $1500, so approximately $6000 a month. I JUST became a journeyman in December of ‘25 shortly before our son with DS was born. I’ve been on paternity leave ever since. He spent 11 weeks in the NICU fighting for his life. He’s finally home but he’s on breathing support, around the clock meds, and a feeding tube. Due to having a toddler and a newborn with frequent appointments and complicated transporting needs, I had to ask my union hall and contractor for a temporary layoff. They were very understanding and granted me this so I can collect unemployment and come back when ready, and I’m grateful for that. So… we moved into our home in August of 2024 using my VA loan (served 12 years in the Army Reserve) when our first son was born. I was still in my apprenticeship at the time and due to our living expenses and some unforeseen circumstances, we’ve racked up quite a bit of debt. $19,000 to be exact. Our mortgage is currently $3,200 a month, with a total loan balance of $362,000. Between my career in the IBEW and my freelance graphic design business, I’m confident that I can bring home about $7,500 a month on my own after taxes. That still makes paying $3,200 a month difficult. I was struggling to map out in my head how I’m ever going to be able to get out of debt, while paying this mortgage and taking care of my family on my income alone. I started reading up on the VA Cash-out Refinancing options, that way I could get out of debt and have cash left over. My wife wants to do some things to our house, which we could get done for fair prices because her dad is a builder and our home is brand new, built by his company. So we agreed that $40,000 cash out refinancing would allow us to get rid of the $19,000 debt in one shot and have $21,000 left over for home improvements and savings. I spoke with Rocket Mortgage tonight and they gave me an offer… Currently, between our mortgage ($3,200) and debt, we are paying about $4,060 a month. If I take their offer, our mortgage will go up to $3,800 a month but we will no longer have any debt AND we will have $21,000 in the bank. BUT the total loan amount will jump from our current $367,000 to $431,000. If and when we ever sell, we’ll make much less on the house. Before anyone tells me, let me just acknowledge that I know… I know that I bit off more than I could chew from the beginning. I listened to my wife and her father and I agreed to buy a home that put us in over our heads. Keep in mind that NJ is expensive. If you want to live a decent life here with a family, you’re going to struggle in this economy, no matter how you cut it, unless you make $300k a year which will never happen for us. So it all boils down to… Do I continue to tough out the $3,200 a month mortgage and stay in debt to credit cards forever? Or do I take the deal on the cash-out refinance, pay $3,800 a month, no debt and $21,000 cash to save and/or add on to our house, and take the bullet when the time comes if we sell the house? I just want to do what’s right for my family and provide them with the life that they deserve. It appears that I’m way past the 30% rule no matter which way I turn, and I’m going to be paying up to 60% of my net income on our mortgage. What would you do if you were in my shoes? Side note: We were told there was help provided to families with disabled children. Despite our difficult financial situation, SSI still told us that I made way too much money to qualify for any help. MAYBE we’ll be able to get my wife to become a paid caregiver for our son but I don’t trust that this NJ system will ever benefit lower middle-income families like mine. If you took the time to read all of this, I greatly appreciate you. If you take the additional time to provide any advice, I appreciate you even more. Thank you 🙏🏼

I had to file bankruptcy back in Jan. I have been trying to catch up on the mortgage during that time. I applied for a modification on Jan 18th. Sent in everything they needed. I got nothing but the run around. Last month they applied for a relief from stay which worried me. I call 50 times a day and get put on hold for an hour and half, can't ever get through to anyone. I got word from my attorney that the relief was granted. So I called every day following up on the application. They just continued to tell me everything was in process and they had everything they needed it was with the underwritters, and they would reach out when the application was complete. I continued to get letters stating they didnt have everything (even though I checked to make sure they did and sent it in multiple ways, email, fax, and upload) AND THEY CONTINUEDTO TELL ME THEY DID. This past week I get a demand letter stating they are starting the foreclosure process unless I pay $3,775. So I called and waited 2 hours until someone picked up and told me that the application was still in process for 30 days but I had to pay that amount by may 20th. So I made the payment and confirmed that they will still consider the application. They confirmed it...then today I go to check the status and the application is no longer there. I mean absolutely 100% ridiculous on their end. They gave me the run around saying they didnt have all the documents, when I have proof they did, and now they canceled my modification request because I paid the large amount. Unreal!!!!! Stay far far far away from Rocket Mortgage!!

My loan is currently an FHA 30 Year and recently I’ve been contacted my Rocket Mortgage to refinance for a lower rate BUT I have a soft second loan that would have to be paid off before I can refinance OR I could wait the remaining 30 out of 36 months and the soft second disappears. After being in the home only 7 months I have had to get work done to the landscaping and exterior. So my funds currently are limited in my savings. I only have around $14,000 saved. To pay off the soft second would cost me $13,300. Here are the numbers: Current mortgage- 373k @ 7.625% Monthly Payment- $3470 Refinance mortgage- 5.99% New Monthly Payment- $3038 I don’t feel comfortable to exhaust my savings just to save a current $400/month. Knowing I now have zero safety net. Am I doing the right thing?

I owe 78,000 at 3.6% interest. Zillow says my house is worth 120,000 to 170,000. I need some repairs and some projects. I called rocket mortgage to see what my options are. They asked what I needed the money for. I said foundation work. They will not lend on a house with a bad foundation. The agent told me to take a personal loan and fix the foundation, and then they would lend me the money to pay off the personal loan. This seems like a lot of moving parts and a good chance to stick me with a huge personal loan. My credit is somewhere between 730 and 770 depending on what app i am checking. What is my best course of action?

***INTRO*** Hey everyone! For those who don't know me, I'm u/pterodaktyl4, the Redditor who tracks commercials in NFL game threads. Yes, really. It started half out of curiosity, half as a joke. Then, after I did it for the first time, it just became my thing and I'm just that guy now. May I behold my wonderful Google Sheet spreadsheet of [my 2025-2026 NFL Commercial Counter](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1B8jc228FN_IjQuSVGx8Me6T1YICvbQI61Bnz3f-wtdw/edit?usp=sharing). A quick note: there are many ways to watch NFL games now, but I only counted non-local commercials as they aired on my TV broadcast. For every standalone game, I tracked total commercial count, runtime, brand, which team had the most commercials per brand, non-commercial time, broadcast averages, and more. ***HISTORY*** I started tracking everything 6 years ago, though some data were added later. Non-Commercial Time wasn't tracked until 3 years ago (for both regular season and postseason), and per-network broadcast frequency wasn't tracked until this season. [2025-2026 (This Year!)](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1B8jc228FN_IjQuSVGx8Me6T1YICvbQI61Bnz3f-wtdw/edit?usp=sharing) [2024-2025](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/188RPgpIWIFLM1mf59YVb7_M5jQA9XJQT4C6eMl_aElo/edit?gid=0#gid=0) [2023-2024](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/199E4DWcPlg-cKM3swsFUi4T9NLX5hlng_xgyuW7jO7Y/edit?usp=sharing) [2022-2023](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/147yAWKBby2T-NUvLqgwoJNtaA1fYG66pUoVgXUHIPx8/edit?usp=sharing) [2021-2022](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cDbCJ6Tb3KwTEwSmT5l7vbEYpyi1WRLfsnKdX_MkxHA/edit?usp=sharing) [2020-2021](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yTVuudl2nnyoLMoYazlKo6We9Z6UCtksqWEUu_-l_CU/edit?usp=sharing) [2019-2020](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/107BWKLaUhn0VzdTw4HOSyExzehVLvWU8lgtot-o92wM/edit?usp=sharing) ***NFL COMPARISON STATS*** * **Target aired 59 non-local commercials this season.** Only 2 players finished the season with exactly 59 targets: * Bills WR Keon Coleman * Jets WR Garrett Wilson * **The season average for non-local commercials in standalone games was 110.** Only 5 players topped that with more than 110 receptions in 2025: * Puka Nacua (129) * Trey McBride (126) * Ja'Marr Chase (125) * Jaxon Smith-Njigba (119) * Amon-Ra St. Brown (117) * **The fewest non-local commercials aired in any standalone game this season was 81.** For context, the Raiders averaged just 77.5 rushing yards per game in 2025. * **949 unique advertisers interrupted live coverage this season.** This is 949 more times than the Jets defense managed to interrupt an offensive pass by catching it, aka an interception, as they logged zero interceptions. * **The most non-local commercials aired in a single game this season were 140.** These kickers all scored more than 140 points: * Jason Myers (171) * Ka'imi Fairbairn (160) * Brandon Aubrey (155) * Cameron Dicker (148) * Cam Little (140) * **Commercials are sometimes joked about as "penalties," but our standalone game average of 110 isn't as extreme as it sounds.** 110 accepted penalties would rank tied for 14th in the league in 2025. * Only 12 brands aired more non-local commercials in standalone games this season than Philip Rivers had pass attempts this season. * **Matthew Stafford threw 46 touchdown passes in 2025.** Only two individual quarters this season saw more than 46 non-local commercials: * Bills vs. Broncos – Divisional Round, 2nd Quarter (48) * Jets vs. Patriots, 2nd Quarter (47) * Only one team averaged 40+ non-local commercials in a single quarter: the Jets, who averaged 40 in the 2nd Quarter. * **Drake Maye posted a 113.5 passer rating in 2025**, making him the only QB this season with a higher rating than the season's average non-local commercial count per game (111). * **The playoff average for non-local commercials was 114 per game.** Only 6 players averaged more scrimmage yards per game in the playoffs: * Kenneth Walker III (139) * Jalen Coker (134) * Saquon Barkley (131) * Romeo Doubs (124) * Puka Nacua (118.7) * Travis Etienne (116) * Every team that was predominantly featured in the "Ride The Float" NFL AI commercial was eliminated before the Divisional Round. ***LEADERBOARD*** |Regular Season (74 Games)|Playoffs (13 Games)|Total (87 Games)| |:-|:-|:-| |1. GEICO (131)|1. Verizon (35)|1. GEICO (158)| |2. Verizon (115)|2. GEICO (27)|2. Verizon (150)| |3. Lowe's (111)|3. T-Mobile (25)|3. Progressive (126)| |4. Progressive (111)|4. intuit TurboTax (24)|4. State Farm (123)| |5. Capital One (103)|5. McDonalds (24)|5. Lowe's (117)| |6. State Farm (99)|6. State Farm (24)|6. T-Mobile (115)| |7. Allstate (93)|7. Taco Bell (22)|7. Allstate (107)| |8. T-Mobile (90)|8. Bud Light (19)|8. Capital One (107)| |9. Amazon Prime (89)|9. Chevrolet (18)|9. Taco Bell (103)| |10. Royal Caribbean (84)|10. AT&T (16)|10. Royal Caribbean (99)| ***BROADCAST LEADERBOARD*** |Amazon (17 Games)|CBS (4 Games)|ESPN (25 Games)|FOX (7 Games)|NBC (24 Games)|Netflix (2 Games)|NFL Network (7 Games)|YouTube (1 Game)| |:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-| |1. State Farm (43)|1. Verizon (12)|1. Burger King (49)|1. Verizon (19)|1. Toyota (69)|1. Accenture (6)|1. Lexus (27)|1. NFL Sunday Ticket (7)| |2. GEICO (37)|2. Survivor 50 (10)|2. Monday Night Football (49)|2. T-Mobile (17)|2. Hyundai (67)|2. Verizon (6)|2. Bud Light (24)|2. Buffalo Wild Wings (5)| |3. Subway (36)|3. Y: Marshals (10)|3. Progressive (46)|3. McDonalds (14)|3. Lowe's (56)|3. Capital One (4)|3. Verizon (24)|3. Dunkin' (4)| |4. DraftKings (35)|4. State Farm (9)|4. Allstate (45)|4. State Farm (14)|4. T-Mobile (50)|4. FanDuel (4)|4. Lowe's (20)|4. Google Pixel 10 (3)| |5. FanDuel (34)|5. Taco Bell (8)|5. Capital One (43)|5. GMC (13)|5. Progressive (49)|5. Ford (4)|5. NFL International Games (20)|5. Sonic (3)| |6. WingStop (33)|6. AT&T (7)|6. McDonalds (43)|6. Bud Light (12)|6. Winter Olympics (48)|6. NFL Playoffs (4)|6. Progressive (17)|6. Verizon (3)| |7. Thursday Night Football (32)|7. Bud Light (7)|7. GEICO (41)|7. GEICO (11)|7. Chevrolet (47)|7. Ally (3)|7. Adidas (16)|7. Airbnb, Arby's, Capital One (2)| |8. Amazon Prime (31)|8. Chevrolet, GEICO (7)|8. Taco Bell (40)|8. Royal Caribbean (11)|8. GEICO (44)|8. ChatGPT (3)|8. FedEx (16)|8. Colgate, Dove, Google, Jeep (2)| |9. Little Caesars (28)|9. Honda, intuit TurboTax (7)|9. Target (38)|9. Taco Bell (11)|9. Walmart (43)|9. Rocket Mortgage (3)|9. Gatorade (16)|9. Lowe's, Lucid Motors, NFL International Games, NFL Tickets (2)| |10. Nissan (24)|10. Michelob Ultra, Ram (7)|10. State Farm (35)|10. The Masked Singer (11)|10. NBA on NBC (33)|10. Skyscraper Live (3)|10. GEICO, King's Hawaiian, Land Rover, NFL, NFL+, USAA (15)|10. NFL+, Nike, T-Mobile, Walmart (2)| ***COMMERCIALS PER TEAM (AFC EAST)*** |Buffalo Bills (7 Games)|Miami Dolphins (5 Games)|New England Patriots (8 Games)|New York Jets (3 Games)| |:-|:-|:-|:-| |1. Verizon (14)|1. Capital One (11)|1. GEICO (16)|1. Bud Light (6)| |2. State Farm (13)|2. Burger King (8)|2. Winter Olympics (15)|2. GEICO (6)| |3. GEICO (12)|3. GEICO (8)|3. Progressive (13)|3. NFL International Games (6)| |4. Chevrolet (11)|4. Allstate (7)|4. Hyundai (12)|4. Burger King (5)| |5. FanDuel (10)|5. Amazon Prime (7)|5. State Farm (12)|5. Capital One (5)| |6. Taco Bell (10)|6. DraftKings (7)|6. Toyota (12)|6. It Takes All Of Us (5)| |7. Allstate (9)|7. Lexus (7)|7. Verizon (12)|7. Allstate (5)| |8. Amazon Prime (9)|8. Lowe's (7)|8. Allstate (10)|8. NFL (5)| |9. AT&T (9)|9. State Farm, Thursday Night Football (7)|9. AT&T, Burger King (10)|9. On The Rocks, Progressive (5)| |10. Royal Caribbean, Subway (9)|10. Verizon, WingStop (7)|10. T-Mobile, Walmart (10)|10. Verizon, WingStop (5)| ***COMMERCIALS PER TEAM (AFC NORTH)*** |Baltimore Ravens (7 Games)|Cincinnati Bengals (3 Games)|Cleveland Browns (1 Game)|Pittsburgh Steelers (7 Games)| |:-|:-|:-|:-| |1. T-Mobile (14)|1. GEICO (6)|1. Lowe's (4)|1. Lowe's (16)| |2. GEICO (13)|2. Amazon Prime (5)|2. Nationwide (4)|2. Progressive (16)| |3. Lowe's (13)|3. Capital One (5)|3. NFL International Games (4)|3. GEICO (15)| |4. Toyota (13)|4. State Farm (5)|4. Verizon (4)|4. Toyota (13)| |5. Verizon (12)|5. Taco Bell (5)|5. Bud Light (3)|5. Verizon (13)| |6. Winter Olympics (12)|6. Verizon (5)|6. King's Hawaiian (3)|6. Hyundai (11)| |7. Capital One (11)|7. Allstate, AT&T (4)|7. Lexus (3)|7. Chevrolet (10)| |8. Hyundai (11)|8. Burger King, Head & Shoulders (4)|8. Adidas, Amazon Prime, FedEx, Gatorade, GEICO (2)|8. Lexus (10)| |9. Progressive (11)|9. iPhone 17 Pro, Royal Caribbean (4)|9. Jersey Mike's, Jim Beam, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, NetApp (2)|9. Royal Caribbean (10)| |10. Walmart (11)|10. Toyota, Walmart, WingStop (4)|10. NFL, NFL Shop, NFL+, Progressive, Toyota, Wells Fargo (2)|10. Arby's, Walmart (9)| ***COMMERCIALS PER TEAM (AFC SOUTH)*** ***NOTE: The Titans did not have a standalone game last year. I know they struggled but come on, they had a decent rookie quarterback and we should've seen at least one standalone game (preferably post-Callahan... but I know they wouldn't have a choice when the schedule releases)*** |Houston Texans (7 Games)|Indianapolis Colts (2 Games)|Jacksonville Jaguars (3 Games)| |:-|:-|:-| |1. McDonalds (13)|1. Bud Light (6)|1. Verizon (11)| |2. Capital One (12)|2. NFL International Games (5)|2. State Farm (8)| |3. GEICO (12)|3. USAA (5)|3. Bud Light (6)| |4. Allstate (11)|4. Domino's (4)|4. Lexus (6)| |5. NFL Shop (10)|5. FedEx (4)|5. Progressive (6)| |6. Progressive (10)|6. GEICO (4)|6. Amazon Prime (5)| |7. State Farm (9)|7. Lexus (4)|7. Nationwide (5)| |8. T-Mobile (9)|8. Verizon (4)|8. NFL Shop (5)| |9. Taco Bell (9)|9. ACE, Adidas, Allstate, Campbell's Chunky, Gatorade, It Takes All Of Us (3)|9. Allstate, Capital One, GEICO, Golden Globes (4)| |10. Amazon Prime, Nationwide, USAA (8)|10. Maker's Mark, NFL Shop, Progressive, T-Mobile, Thursday Night Football, Zepbound (3)|10. Lowe's, NFL International Games, Royal Caribbean, Survivor 50, Taco Bell (4)| ***COMMERCIALS PER TEAM (AFC WEST)*** |Denver Broncos (7 Games)|Kansas City Chiefs (8 Games)|Las Vegas Raiders (3 Games)|Los Angeles Chargers (7 Games)| |:-|:-|:-|:-| |1. GEICO (16)|1. NFL Sunday Ticket (14)|1. GEICO (7)|1. GEICO (16)| |2. State Farm (13)|2. GEICO (13)|2. Capital One (5)|2. Verizon (14)| |3. Verizon (11)|3. Lowe's (13)|3. CreditKarma (5)|3. Capital One (13)| |4. Progressive (10)|4. Verizon (13)|4. Progressive (5)|4. State Farm (13)| |5. Taco Bell (10)|5. Walmart (13)|5. State Farm (5)|5. NFL Sunday Ticket (12)| |6. WingStop (10)|6. State Farm (12)|6. Target (5)|6. Progressive (11)| |7. Bud Light (9)|7. Capital One (11)|7. USAA (5)|7. Lowe's (10)| |8. FanDuel (9)|8. Progressive (11)|8. Avatar: Fire & Ash, Burger King, Corona, McDonalds (4)|8. Toyota (10)| |9. Uber Eats (9)|9. T-Mobile (11)|9. Monday Night Football, NFL Shop, NFL Sunday Ticket, Popeyes (4)|9. Allstate, Chevrolet (8)| |10. Allstate, AT&T, Burger King, Capital One, iPhone 17 Pro, Liberty Mutual, NFL International Games, Royal Caribbean, Subway (8)|10. Hyundai, Nationwide (10)|10. T-Mobile, Thursday Night Football, Verizon, WingStop (4)|10. Hyundai, Nationwide (8)| ***COMMERCIALS PER TEAM (NFC EAST)*** |Dallas Cowboys (8 Games)|New York Giants (3 Games)|Philadelphia Eagles (8 Games)|Washington Commanders (8 Games)| |:-|:-|:-|:-| |1. Verizon (17)|1. State Farm (6)|1. State Farm (17)|1. Verizon (15)| |2. Progressive (14)|2. DraftKings (5)|2. Verizon (15)|2. Progressive (14)| |3. Hyundai (13)|3. GEICO (5)|3. GEICO (13)|3. Capital One (12)| |4. Lowe's (13)|4. Lowe's (5)|4. Hyundai (11)|4. GEICO (12)| |5. Capital One (11)|5. Thursday Night Football (5)|5. Lowe's (11)|5. T-Mobile (12)| |6. GEICO (11)|6. Verizon (5)|6. Progressive (11)|6. Royal Caribbean (11)| |7. T-Mobile (11)|7. Allstate, Amazon Business, American Express (4)|7. AT&T (10)|7. Walmart (11)| |8. Toyota (11)|8. AT&T, Burger King, iPhone 17 Pro (4)|8. Royal Caribbean (10)|8. Amazon Prime (10)| |9. Amazon Prime (10)|9. New Balance, NFL International Games, Progressive (4)|9. Amazon Prime, Capital One, McDonalds (9)|9. Lowe's (10)| |10. AT&T, Target (10)|10. Subway, T-Mobile, Walmart, WingStop (4)|10. Nationwide, New Balance, Nissan, T-Mobile (9)|10. Nationwide, NFL Shop (10)| ***COMMERCIALS PER TEAM (NFC NORTH)*** |Chicago Bears (7 Games)|Detroit Lions (7 Games)|Green Bay Packers (8 Games)|Minnesota Vikings (7 Games)| |:-|:-|:-|:-| |1. GEICO (15)|1. Taco Bell (13)|1. Hyundai (14)|1. Verizon (17)| |2. Verizon (13)|2. Hyundai (11)|2. GEICO (13)|2. Lowe's (14)| |3. Progressive (11)|3. AT&T (10)|3. Verizon (13)|3. Progressive (13)| |4. Royal Caribbean (11)|4. GEICO (10)|4. State Farm (12)|4. GEICO (12)| |5. T-Mobile (11)|5. Amazon Prime (9)|5. Allstate (11)|5. Lexus (12)| |6. Allstate (10)|6. T-Mobile (9)|6. AT&T (11)|6. Bud Light (11)| |7. Amazon Prime (10)|7. Verizon (9)|7. Lowe's (11)|7. NFL International Games (11)| |8. Lowe's (10)|8. Allstate (8)|8. Royal Caribbean (11)|8. Toyota (11)| |9. McDonalds (10)|9. NFL (8)|9. T-Mobile (11)|9. NFL (9)| |10. Taco Bell (10)|10. Progressive, Thursday Night Football (8)|10. Amazon Prime, Progressive (10)|10. Allstate, Best Buy, Capital One, NFL Sunday Ticket (8)| ***COMMERCIALS PER TEAM (NFC SOUTH)*** ***NOTE: The Saints did not have a standalone game. I know it wasn't the best year, but it looks up with Shough. That being said, I still feel like all 32 teams should have a standalone game. Alright, rant over. But show me some Shough (yes, I'm aware you don't say Shough like that)*** |Atlanta Falcons (6 Games)|Carolina Panthers (3 Games)|Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5 Games)| |:-|:-|:-| |1. Verizon (14)|1. Taco Bell (9)|1. Taco Bell (13)| |2. GEICO (13)|2. State Farm (7)|2. GEICO (10)| |3. NFL International Games (10)|3. Verizon (7)|3. Capital One (8)| |4. Bud Light (9)|4. College Football Playoff (6)|4. T-Mobile (8)| |5. Progressive (9)|5. GEICO (6)|5. USAA (8)| |6. Royal Caribbean (9)|6. T-Mobile (6)|6. Hyundai (7)| |7. Toyota (9)|7. Burger King (5)|7. Lowe's (7)| |8. USAA (9)|8. Monday Night Football (5)|8. Monday Night Football (7)| |9. Allstate (8)|9. Royal Caribbean (5)|9. NFL Shop, NFL Sunday Ticket (7)| |10. Amazon Prime, Lowe's (8)|10. Allstate, Capital One, Domino's, Liberty Mutual, Lowe's, McDonalds, Target, USAA (4)|10. Progressive, Verizon (7)| ***COMMERCIALS PER TEAM (NFC WEST)*** |Arizona Cardinals (2 Games)|Los Angeles Rams (8 Games)|San Francisco 49ers (8 Games)|Seattle Seahawks (8 Games)| |:-|:-|:-|:-| |1. Panera (7)|1. GEICO (16)|1. GEICO (14)|1. T-Mobile (16)| |2. Allstate (4)|2. T-Mobile (16)|2. State Farm (14)|2. GEICO (14)| |3. Capital One (4)|3. Verizon (16)|3. T-Mobile (14)|3. State Farm (13)| |4. Gillette (4)|4. Hyundai (13)|4. Taco Bell (13)|4. Allstate (11)| |5. Subway (4)|5. State Farm (13)|5. Allstate (11)|5. Taco Bell (11)| |6. WingStop (4)|6. Chevrolet (11)|6. Lowe's (11)|6. Subway (10)| |7. Amazon Prime, Chevrolet (3)|7. Taco Bell (11)|7. Royal Caribbean (11)|7. Chevrolet (9)| |8. GEICO, KFC (3)|8. Allstate (10)|8. Chevrolet (10)|8. AT&T (8)| |9. State Farm, Stitch Fix (3)|9. Lowe's (10)|9. Progressive (10)|9. Capital One (8)| |10. Thursday Night Football, USAA (3)|10. Progressive, Royal Caribbean (10)|10. Verizon (10)|10. Royal Caribbean (8)| ***APPEARANCES IN TEAM TOP 10 BROADCAST AND TEAM LEADERBOARD*** 1. GEICO (36) * GEICO appeared on every team's leaderboard 2. Verizon (32) * Cardinals, Seahawks, and Texans were the only 3 teams not featuring Verizon in their top 10 leaderboard. 3. Progressive (27) 4. Allstate, Lowe's, State Farm (22) 5. Capital One (21) 6. T-Mobile (20) 7. Amazon Prime, Royal Caribbean, Taco Bell (15) 8. Hyundai (12) 9. AT&T (11) 10. Bud Light, NFL International Games, Toyota (10) 11. Burger King, Chevrolet, Walmart (9) 12. USAA, WingStop (8) 13. Lexus, McDonalds, Nationwide, Thursday Night Football (7) 14. NFL Shop, NFL Sunday Ticket, Subway (6) 15. NFL (5) 16. FanDuel, Monday Night Football, Target (4) 17. Adidas, DraftKings, FedEx, Gatorade, iPhone 17 Pro, NFL+, Winter Olympics (3) 18. Arby's, Domino's, It Takes All Of Us, King's Hawaiian, Land Rover, Liberty Mutual, New Balance, Nissan, Survivor 50 (2) 19. Accenture, ACE, Airbnb, Ally, Amazon Business, American Express, Avatar: Fire & Ash, Best Buy, Buffalo Wild Wings, Campbell's Chunky, ChatGPT, Colgate, College Football Playoff, Corona, CreditKarma, Dove, Dunkin', Ford, Gillette, GMC, Golden Globes, Google, Google Pixel 10, Head & Shoulders, Honda, intuit TurboTax, Jeep, Jersey Mike's, KFC, Little Caesars, Lucid Motors, Maker's Mark, Mercedes-Benz, Michelob Ultra, NBA on NBC, NetApp, NFL Playoffs, NFL Tickets, Nike, On The Rocks, Panera, Popeyes, Ram, Rocket Mortgage, Skyscraper Live, Sonic, Stitch Fix, The Masked Singer, Uber Eats, Wells Fargo, Y: Marshals, Zepbound (1) ***AVERAGES/DIFFERENCES*** |.|2019-2020|2020-2021|2021-2022|2022-2023|2023-2024|2024-2025|2025-2026| |:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-| |Q1 NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS|20|18|20|19|20|19|19 (--)| |Q1 COMMERCIAL TIME|8:23|7:57|8:10|7:43|7:43|7:19|7:05 (-0:14)| |Q2 NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS|28|30|33|32|32|32|34 (+2)| |Q2 COMMERCIAL TIME|12:50|13:34|13:36|13:10|13:01|12:56|13:23 (+0:27)| |HALFTIME NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS|8|9|11|10|11|11|11 (--)| |HALFTIME COMMERCIAL TIME|6:18|6:26|6:37|6:05|6:08|6:03|6:09 (+0:06)| |Q3 NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS|19|19|20|18|21|20|21 (+1)| |Q3 COMMERCIAL TIME|8:12|8:13|8:38|7:32|8:27|7:46|7:58 (+0:12)| |Q4 NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS|24|23|23|25|24|27|26 (-1)| |Q4 COMMERCIAL TIME|11:07|10:56|10:04|10:47|10:07|11:08|10:46 (-0:22)| |OVERTIME NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS|4|6|4|3|5|3|4 (+1)| |OVERTIME COMMERCIAL TIME|1:30|3:12|1:56|2:18|1:57|1:54|1:58 (+0:04)| |FINAL NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS|99|100|108|105|109|110|111 (+1)| |FINAL COMMERCIAL TIME|46:59|47:18|47:24|45:31|45:34|45:25|45:39 (+0:14)| Factoids: * First-quarter commercial time has trended downward every season since I started tracking. After 2024–2025 marked the first time it dipped below 7:30, this season set a new low at 7:05. * That lost first-quarter time appears to be shifting into the second quarter, as this season set a new high of 34 non-local commercials in Q2, surpassing the previous record of 33 set in 2021–2022. * Second-quarter commercial time returned to 13+ minutes after dipping below that mark last season. At 13:23, it's the highest since 2021–2022, when it last hit 13:30+. * Third-quarter non-local commercials tied the all-time season high at 21, matching the 2023–2024 season. * This marks the third consecutive season setting a new high in total non-local commercials, a streak I'd rather not see keep extending. * Total non-local commercial time hasn't returned to the 46-minute average seen when I first started tracking, but this season's 45:39 is a new high for the past four years. Based on the current trend, I wouldn't be surprised to see it creep toward 45:45 next season. ***BROADCAST AVERAGE*** |.|Amazon (17 Games)|CBS (4 Games)|ESPN (25 Games)|FOX (7 Games)|NBC (24 Games)|Netflix (2 Games)|NFL Network (7 Games)|YouTube (1 Game)| |:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-| |Q1 NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS|18|18|19|21 (Most)|18|16|20|11 (Least)| |Q1 COMMERCIAL TIME|6:43|7:00|6:59|7:58 (Most)|7:06|7:35|7:21|6:19 (Least)| |Q2 NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS|32|37 (Most)|34|35|35|27|36|25 (Least)| |Q2 COMMERCIAL TIME|12:59|14:59 (Most)|12:48|13:29|14:06|13:51|13:09|11:42 (Least)| |HALFTIME NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS|12|10|13|9|7 (Least)|14|15 (Most)|10| |HALFTIME COMMERCIAL TIME|6:00|7:13 (Most)|5:36 (Least)|6:59|6:25|6:28|6:05|6:03| |Q3 NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS|19 (Tied Least)|21|20|23 (Tied Most)|20|19 (Tied Least)|23 (Tied Most)|20| |Q3 COMMERCIAL TIME|7:17 (Least)|8:54|7:20|9:14|8:06|8:47|9:16|9:19 (Most)| |Q4 NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS|28|26|29|22 (Tied Least)|24|22 (Tied Least)|27|32 (Most)| |Q4 COMMERCIAL TIME|11:13|11:33|10:38|9:34 (Least)|11:00|9:51|10:04|13:29 (Most)| |OVERTIME NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS|2|4|5|6|5|\--|5|\--| |OVERTIME COMMERCIAL TIME|1:01|2:02|2:03|2:00|2:32|\--|2:00|\--| |TOTAL NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS|110|112|114|112|106|96 (Least)|122 (Most)|98| |TOTAL COMMERCIAL TIME|44:24|50:13 (Most)|43:30 (Least)|47:37|47:05|46:35|46:33|46:54| ***WHICH TEAM AVERAGED THE MOST/LEAST?*** |.|MOST|LEAST| |:-|:-|:-| |**Q1 NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS**|Colts (26)|Jets (12)| |**Q1 COMMERCIAL TIME**|Colts (9:24)|Jets (4:11)| |**Q2 NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS**|Jets (40)|Bengals (29)| |**Q2 COMMERCIAL TIME**|Jets (16:04)|Buccaneers (11:38)| |**HALFTIME NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS**|Colts, Dolphins, Jets, Panthers (14)|49ers, Packers, Ravens (9)| |**HALFTIME COMMERCIAL TIME**|Patriots (6:52)|Buccaneers (5:23)| |**Q3 NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS**|Panthers (27)|Raiders (14)| |**Q3 COMMERCIAL TIME**|Eagles (8:59)|Raiders (4:52)| |**Q4 NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS**|Raiders (34)|Seahawks (21)| |**Q4 COMMERCIAL TIME**|Chiefs (13:28)|Texans (9:04)| |**FINAL NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS**|Colts (126)|Cardinals (101)| |**FINAL COMMERCIAL TIME**|Cowboys (48:32)|Buccaneers (41:38)| ***HIGHS/LOWS*** |.|HIGH|LOW| |:-|:-|:-| |**Q1 NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS**|Texans vs Patriots - Divisional (34)|Falcons vs 49ers, Jets vs Patriots (7)| |**Q1 COMMERCIAL TIME**|Patriots vs Broncos - Championship (11:48)|Jets vs Patriots (2:01)| |**Q2 NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS**|Bills vs Broncos - Divisional (48)|Lions vs Vikings (20)| |**Q2 COMMERCIAL TIME**|Rams vs Bears - Divisional (18:35)|Buccaneers vs Texans (9:30)| |**HALFTIME NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS**|Chiefs vs Jaguars, Falcons vs Colts, Panthers vs 49ers, Rams vs Jaguars (17)|Ravens vs Steelers (4)| |**HALFTIME COMMERCIAL TIME**|Super Bowl (12:15)|Ravens vs Packers (3:30)| |**Q3 NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS**|Panthers vs 49ers (36)|Chargers vs Raiders (4)| |**Q3 COMMERCIAL TIME**|Cowboys vs Eagles (15:09) **NOTE: There was a rain delay during this quarter**|Chargers vs Raiders (1:40)| |**Q4 NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS**|Commanders vs Chiefs (42)|49ers vs Seahawks - Divisional (14)| |**Q4 COMMERCIAL TIME**|Broncos vs Chiefs (17:32)|49ers vs Seahawks - Divisional (6:44)| |**OVERTIME NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS**|Packers vs Cowboys (7)|49ers vs Rams, Rams vs Bears - Divisional, Rams vs Seahawks (2)| |**OVERTIME COMMERCIAL TIME**|Packers vs Cowboys (3:15)|49ers vs Rams, Rams vs Seahawks (1:01)| |**FINAL NON-LOCAL COMMERCIALS**|Texans vs Patriots - Divisional (140)|Ravens vs Packers (81)| |**FINAL COMMERCIAL TIME**|Super Bowl (61:03)|Ravens vs Packers (36:54)| ***NON-COMMERCIAL TIME*** ***Note: I did not count the Cowboys vs. Raiders game for non-commercial time, as I attended the game but was unable to count the whole game for commercials.*** |1st Quarter|2nd Quarter|3rd Quarter|4th Quarter|Overtime|Total| |:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-| |1. Bears vs 49ers (38:26)|1. Chiefs vs Giants (47:13)|1. Cowboys vs Eagles (60:19) **NOTE: Rain Delay in Q3**|1. Packers vs Bears - Wild Card (58:22)|1. Bills vs Broncos - Divisional (26:49)|1. Cowboys vs Eagles (3:00:09) **NOTE: Rain Delay in Q3**| |2. Chargers vs Raiders (34:30)|2. Buccaneers vs Lions (46:48)|2. Rams vs Jaguars (40:48)|2. Vikings vs Bears (52:56)|2. Packers vs Cowboys (24:00)|2. Packers vs Cowboys (2:47:04)| |3. Bills vs Texans (33:15)|3. Rams vs Panthers - Wild Card (45:27)|3. Texans vs Seahawks (37:07)|3. Rams vs Seahawks (51:44)|3. Rams vs Seahawks (23:38)|3. Rams vs Seahawks (2:45:16)| |4. Cowboys vs Lions (32:30)|4. Eagles vs Chargers (44:26)|4. Texans vs Chiefs (35:28)|4. Vikings vs Steelers (51:18)|4. Broncos vs Commanders (22:18)|4. Bills vs Broncos - Divisional (2:40:26)| |5. Bills vs Falcons (32:12)|5. Bengals vs Broncos (44:19)|5. Bills vs Texans (33:29)|5. Ravens vs Bills (50:15)|5. Rams vs Bears - Divisional (22:04)|5. Broncos vs Commanders (2:40:04)| |6. Eagles vs Commanders (31:41)|6. Texans vs Patriots - Divisional (43:45)|6. Eagles vs Giants (33:18)|6. Texans vs Seahawks (50:08)|6. Eagles vs Chargers (17:51)|6. Texans vs Seahawks (2:37:55)| |7. Cowboys vs Eagles (31:38)|7. Bengals vs Ravens (42:58)|7. Rams vs Seahawks - Championship (33:14)|7. Broncos vs Commanders (48:55)|7. 49ers vs Rams (16:34)|7. Eagles vs Chargers (2:33:06)| |8. Texans vs Patriots - Divisional (31:20)|8. Steelers vs Bengals (42:39)|8. Seahawks vs Commanders (33:05)|8. Super Bowl (48:42)|8. Falcons vs Colts (14:02)|8. Packers vs Bears - Wild Card (2:30:00)| |9. Patriots vs Bills (31:18)|9. Falcons vs Buccaneers (42:13)|9. Patriots vs Ravens (32:50)|9. Buccaneers vs Lions (47:17)|9. Packers vs Bears (11:32)|9. Falcons vs Buccaneers (2:29:55)| |10. Bengals vs Broncos (30:42)|10. Seahawks vs Commanders (42:03)|10. 49ers vs Rams (32:43)|10. Cowboys vs Lions (45:49)|10. Commanders vs Dolphins (8:20)|10. 49ers vs Rams (2:29:22)| Factoid: * The game with the most non-commercial time to not feature a rain delay or be in overtime was the Texans vs Seahawks game, with 2:37:55 ***NON-COMMERCIAL TIME AVERAGES/DIFFERENCES*** |.|2024-2025|2025-2026| |:-|:-|:-| |Q1 NON-COMMERCIAL TIME|26:30|26:48 (+0:18)| |Q2 NON-COMMERCIAL TIME|37:25|36:32 (-0:53)| |Q3 NON-COMMERCIAL TIME|29:44|28:56 (-0:48)| |Q4 NON-COMMERCIAL TIME|38:26|38:25 (-0:01)| |OVERTIME NON-COMMERCIAL TIME|11:21|18:42 (+7:21)| |FINAL NON-COMMERCIAL TIME|2:13:04|2:13:07 (+0:03)| ***COMMERCIAL COUNTER PLAYOFFS:*** *The "Commercial Counter Playoffs" is something I started because, honestly, why not? We see all these brands air during the regular season, so the top 14 brands that were counted get to participate in this thing that I made up. The seeding is pretty easy. If you landed on an Odd number in the top 14, you went to the odd bracket and were ranked 1-7, same for the even bracket.* ***WILD CARD*** ***ODD:*** * (1) GEICO on BYE * (7) Taco Bell UPSET (2) Lowe's 10-4 * (6) Hyundai UPSET (3) Capital One 7-2 * (4) Allstate defeated via seeding tiebreaker (5) Amazon Prime 5-5 ***EVEN:*** * (1) Verizon on BYE * (2) Progressive defeated via seeding tiebreaker (7) NFL Shop 6-6 * (3) State Farm defeated (6) Toyota 11-3 * (4) T-Mobile defeated (5) Royal Caribbean 11-9 ***DIVISIONAL*** ***ODD:*** * (1) GEICO defeated (7) Taco Bell 10-9 * (4) Allstate defeated (6) Hyundai 7-6 ***EVEN:*** * (4) T-Mobile UPSET (1) Verizon 8-6 * (2) Progressive defeated via seeding tiebreaker (3) State Farm 6-6 ***CHAMPIONSHIP*** * (1) GEICO defeated (4) Allstate 5-2 * (4) T-Mobile defeated (2) Progressive 5-3 ***SUPER BOWL*** * (4) T-Mobile defeated (1) GEICO 1-0 NOTE FROM u/pterodaktyl4: For once, I don't have a lengthy closing note lol. But I do want to say that the support means a lot. Whether you think I'm weird, "on the spectrum," or something else entirely, I genuinely appreciate that so many of you follow along with something this niche. Unless something changes drastically, I'll be back doing this again next season. If you have any questions, I'll answer them as best I can. And if you want to use my data, go for it! Just let me know! I always love seeing where it ends up.

My wife and I refinanced at the end of February. Before we closed, I kept getting texts telling me that our mortgage (UHM) was being sold to Rocket Mortgage. My broker said there is no problem, we will close before they take over the mortgage. After we closed, I kept getting emails and texts saying my mortgage was due with Rocket Mortgage. I kept asking what was going on to my broker, he relayed the issue with our new lender, UWM. I was told don’t worry about it, UHM will forward the payoff check to Rocket and there won’t be an issue. I had setup an account with Rocket while we were shopping to refinance. I sign into the account to see if that shows anything. It shows our balance from UHM. I call Rocket Mortgage and they tell me “oh just wait a few days and we’ll see what happens.” So I wait a few days and nothing changed on the Rocket website, so I called them again. This time they say that there is an underpayment on the payoff and I owe Rocket Mortgage another $1,200 and each day I don’t pay, I owe them another $80. I freak out and just pay them the 1200 dollars. At this point I call my broker and say wtf is going on? He reaches out to UWM and they give us the information about the wire transfer and when UHM received it. I called UHM to find out if they can give me the info on the forward to Rocket and they are being really shady about answering the question. We ended up having to do a BBB complaint in order to get the information from them. They provide documentation that they did forward the wire the next day, received on the 4th and sent on the 5th (March). Rocket Mortgage is saying that they didn’t get the wire until the 9th. So someone’s lying. We’re still fighting this issue. Now this week, we are getting letters from our insurance company saying that our policy was cancelled because we didn’t get a four point inspection, which we did. So I call up insurance broker, who was recommended by our mortgage broker, and he says “oh you just have to sign these papers and you’re good to go.” So we sign the papers and think we are good and we’re told we can disregard any other letters we get. This morning the insurance broker says “you need to call UWM because your loan number isn’t matching.” Is this normal or am I just dealing with severely incompetent people?!?

Hey guys, I am mostly complaining/venting but also curious of your experiences with them during bankruptcy. We are a few months into Chapter 13 and they are not included in our payments. I am actually in disbelief at how much they have managed to confuse me and even themselves through this process. I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that in the last 4 months, my payment amount has changed 7 times. \- We had our yearly escrow analysis in December and it was short - completely expected and got our new payment all squared away. When we filed in March they did another escrow analysis and found they overcalculated and we only owed a couple hundred lump sum. Okay, fair enough. Thought it was fixed. FALSE. \- Week over week, their website shows something different in the amount due. I wait until the last possible due date because from the physical statement we get in the mail, the amount changes from that. I can't even get an escrow analysis statement from them for the new amount. When I call them, they treat me like a hot potato because the average rep can't speak to me due to bankruptcy. So I've learned to call the designated bankruptcy line, but none of them know what is going on or how to explain to me what is happening. I get different answers each time I speak to somebody. Today we received a physical statement for May that makes absolutely no sense, is less than we've ever paid and now has a $490 legal fee that is tacked onto my escrow. I understand nothing is free in life, but are they allowed to just tack on a legal fee during bankruptcy without a letter or statement for it? TLDR: I hate Rocket Mortgage and they're the worst lol **UPDATE:** Have to share this ridiculous update for you. After all the grief over the escrow, these mofos filed claim ON THE LAST BUSINESS DAY for arrears on our ESCROW!!! For a couple hundred dollars. All the calls I've had begging for an explanation on the escrow balance only to not be provided anything, they provided an escrow breakdown on the claim of payment lol. We can either pay the arrears as a one-off payment or amend our plan. I told our attorney I am happy to pay the few hundred if it means not having to deal with this crap anymore. Rocket Mortgage if you're reading this, I hate you much. I hope you stub your toe on the corner of the table every day for the rest of your life!!!

We recently put together a ranking of the [best places to live in the U.S.](https://www.rocketmortgage.com/learn/best-places-to-live-in-us), and the list is mostly cities people don’t usually think of when they hear “best place to live.”  Top three standouts:  * Lincoln, NE — comes in at #1, largely driven by affordable home prices (often under \~$300K), manageable rent, and a steady job market anchored by healthcare and university employment.   * Omaha, NE — similar affordability, but with a stronger corporate presence and a stable local economy that continues to support steady growth and opportunity.   * Orlando, FL — not just a lifestyle city; it’s seeing consistent job and population growth while still offering more accessible housing compared to many other major metro areas.   Across the board, the common thread is pretty clear: the strongest “best places to live” right now aren’t necessarily the most famous—they’re the ones where housing costs, employment, and day-to-day livability are actually in balance.  What other cities would you add to this list? 

**Location:** Bakersfield, Kern County, California **Background:** My mother passed away October 19, 2023 at hospice from metastatic ovarian cancer. She was never married and I am her only child. Her longtime roommate (let’s call him C.J.) and his sister (J.J.) hid her death from me for nearly 2 years. I only found out in July 2025 when I went to the house to pick up mail and a stranger (J.J) told me of her passing. No Will & Im the sole Heir **Key Facts:** * In early 2022 my mom asked me to stop coming around and stop sending mail there. I respected her wishes. She never told me she had cancer. I now believe she was trying to protect me from seeing her sick. * C.J. knew exactly where I lived, had my cell number, and used to drop off my mail. His claim that he “couldn’t find me” is false. * C.J. and his sister have been claiming my mom had a “grudge” or hatred toward me. She never said anything like that — we were close for years. **What they’ve done:** * C.J, Filed for Letters of Admin & Lied on probate filings claiming they were a couple for 27 years and that I wanted nothing to do with the estate. * Sold my mom’s 1978 El Camino without title. * Fraudulently transferred my mom’s 2003 Lexus IS 300 into C.J.’s name at the DMV with no authorization. * Sold expensive audio equipment that was in the Lexus. * Moved his sister (J.J.) into the house without permission. * Refused to let me on the property after I was appointed Special Letters of administrator. **Current Status (March 30, 2026):** * I am now the court-appointed Special Administrator with enhanced powers (take possession of house, change locks, deal with mortgage, list house for sale, etc.). * House worth \~$319k with only $61k owed. Foreclosure auction set for May 18, 2026. * C.J. is still driving the Lexus daily. I have audio recordings of C.J. admitting they were never a couple, that I’m the sole heir, and that he doesn’t want the house or cars. I objected to C.J.'s petition and we had a sit down with a mediator and came to an agreement I signed on C.J. signed on and the judge. The agreement was for him to withdraw his petition and support me to become Letters of Admin and my duties since the house is in pre-foreclosure (NOD) was to secure the premises, collect all estate mail and mothers mail from the estate house which C.J. And J.J. has been living there even after her passing, and get the house sold before it got auctioned off then open a secure locked bank account and put the cash from house into that then at a later date judge will see who gets what. C.J. was never with my mom as a couple or any kind if relationship other than friends/roommate but he is claiming they were a happy couple of 27 years without legally marriage or without registered domestic partnership(ALL LIES) but he is using that to try to claim some money from the estate. **Questions:** 1. Fastest way to recover the Lexus? (Only filed online DMV fraud report so far — should I file §850 petition?) 2. Can the court force DMV to reverse the fraudulent title? 3. Should I file a police report for title fraud? 4. Best way to evict C.J. and his sister quickly? 5. Tips for stopping the May 18th foreclosure with the lender Rocket Mortgage? 6. How to check for bank accounts/safe deposit box at Valley Strong Credit Union? Self-represented with fee waiver, currently low on funds/broke. Any Kern County probate experience appreciated.

**Location:** Bakersfield, Kern County, California **Background:** My mother passed away October 19, 2023 at hospice from metastatic ovarian cancer. She was never married and I am her only child. Her longtime roommate (let’s call him C.J.) and his sister (J.J.) hid her death from me for nearly 2 years. I only found out in July 2025 when I went to the house to pick up mail and a stranger (J.J) told me of her passing. No Will & Im the sole Heir **Key Facts:** * In early 2022 my mom asked me to stop coming around and stop sending mail there. I respected her wishes. She never told me she had cancer. I now believe she was trying to protect me from seeing her sick. * C.J. knew exactly where I lived, had my cell number, and used to drop off my mail. His claim that he “couldn’t find me” is false. * C.J. and his sister have been claiming my mom had a “grudge” or hatred toward me. She never said anything like that — we were close for years. **What they’ve done:** * C.J, Filed for Letters of Admin & Lied on probate filings claiming they were a couple for 27 years and that I wanted nothing to do with the estate. * Sold my mom’s 1978 El Camino without title. * Fraudulently transferred my mom’s 2003 Lexus IS 300 into C.J.’s name at the DMV with no authorization. * Sold expensive audio equipment that was in the Lexus. * Moved his sister (J.J.) into the house without permission. * Refused to let me on the property after I was appointed Special Letters of administrator. **Current Status (March 30, 2026):** * I am now the court-appointed Special Administrator with enhanced powers (take possession of house, change locks, deal with mortgage, list house for sale, etc.). * House worth \~$319k with only $61k owed. Foreclosure auction set for May 18, 2026. * C.J. is still driving the Lexus daily. I have audio recordings of C.J. admitting they were never a couple, that I’m the sole heir, and that he doesn’t want the house or cars. I objected to C.J.'s petition and we had a sit down with a mediator and came to an agreement I signed on C.J. signed on and the judge. The agreement was for him to withdraw his petition and support me to become Letters of Admin and my duties since the house is in pre-foreclosure (NOD) was to secure the premises, collect all estate mail and mothers mail from the estate house which C.J. And J.J. has been living there even after her passing, and get the house sold before it got auctioned off then open a secure locked bank account and put the cash from house into that then at a later date judge will see who gets what. C.J. was never with my mom as a couple or any kind if relationship other than friends/roommate but he is claiming they were a happy couple of 27 years without legally marriage or without registered domestic partnership(ALL LIES) but he is using that to try to claim some money from the estate. **Questions:** 1. Fastest way to recover the Lexus? (Only filed online DMV fraud report so far — should I file §850 petition?) 2. Can the court force DMV to reverse the fraudulent title? 3. Should I file a police report for title fraud? 4. Best way to evict C.J. and his sister quickly? 5. Tips for stopping the May 18th foreclosure with the lender Rocket Mortgage? 6. How to check for bank accounts/safe deposit box at Valley Strong Credit Union? Self-represented with fee waiver, currently low on funds/broke. Any Kern County probate experience appreciated.

I am looking into a home equity loan to consolidate a few credit cards, car loans, and do some improvements to our home. Has anyone worked with West Capital Lending for this type of loan? They called/text/emailed me after I entered my information into Rocket Mortgage. My local bank where our mortgage is, gave us some info, but the numbers West Capital sent are better. Can anyone tell me if they require an appraisal and how fast they can get you the money?

I bought my home in the wider austin tx area in the beginning of march of 2025, so i've been here for just over a year. Closing price was 212k and appraisal was 217k so I thought I won and that I'd definitely be able to sell it for more than that a few years down the line because my thought was that central tx is always growing growing growing. But, just like everybody else my age (late 20s), I'm now coming to understand that it's not so simple, and this area is decreasing currently. My question is multi-faceted-- Do people who know more than me think that the value will go back up to 2024-2025 prices soon? There's some foundation problems I've been avoiding- should I fix those or would it not be worth it? I honestly really really don't have disposable income of that amount. as it is right now the "value" (zestimate from zillow) of my home is less than what i owe on it, so I'm already thinking I'll have lost on it if I sell it at anything close to what current prices show. Plus I was suckered into buying a high efficiency HVAC system which, sure, adds value to the home but it was also 15k (no way it was worth it. Don't answer the door for solicitors.) so that's really stressing me out as well since I'd have to pay that off with the sale of the house. It would be impossible for me to rent it out for what it costs to live here. We're talking damn near $2500 a month for a 3bed 1bath house <1,000 sqft. that's mortgage + taxes + insurance + utilities together. I'm painting myself like a fool, but this was the second cheapest thing I could find around here, the cheapest being a new build with no yard or trees (both very important to me) and the rate was 6.49% which was, i was told by an impartial 3rd party, extremely low for that time. Can anybody give me advice or insight on how to mitigate my losses here? I'm really scared. I want to refinance for lower rates because I hear that they're dropping, but one lender (rocket mortgage) said that I don't have enough equity in the house to cover closing costs. Which, by the way, I asked the loan officer during the buying process if refinancing cost anything or like what the catch was on that and to my understanding he very much assured me that it wouldn't cost anything. So i mistakenly thought of it as a bit of a get-out-of-jail-free card that would lower your payment at no cost if the rates happened to be lower when you asked and filled out the subsequent paperwork. Sorry for the long post - I'm overwhelmed trying to read articles and things because there's a lot of language that I don't comprehend well and I'm trying to make sure I don't waste so much of my money or ruin my life due to naivety or changing markets. Thank you all for any advice or reassurances. EDIT: the reason I am looking at trying to get out from under this house is a somewhat theoretical possibility. My boyfriend rents a nice place that has access to a river - something we both love and value highly. His landlord has been open to the conversation of selling the place, so we have been talking about the possibility of me moving in with him there (we are very excited to be dual income as we are both struggling to pay our separate bills). This is still a theoretical conversation, but his lease is up in September so we are trying to figure out what makes the most sense for us to do once that time comes. There's no telling if his landlord's sell price would be even somewhat affordable for us though, unless he would be open to a rent to own by owner type situation. BF has a strong preference not to live at my house because he doesn't like the suburbs, and believes my neighborhood to be relatively unsafe for me. But he will move here gladly if I'm unable to find a way to get out from under the debt here. So - it is somewhat pressing to figure out if I'm going to try to put more money into the place or if I'm likely better off cutting losses. That said, obviously things seem pretty volatile right now with wars etc. Also to clarify I am struggling to pay the bills. It's not bad-bad, but if there is a surprise expense (i.e. vet bill or a day or two of missed work) I'm set back significantly. I can manage with slim margins, but slim they are.

Hi friends - I'm new on this sub. I bought my home in the austin tx area (i'm south of austin) in the beginning of march of 2025, so i've been here for just over a year. Closing price was 212k and appraisal was 217k so I thought I won and that I'd definitely be able to sell it for more than that a few years down the line because my thought was that central tx is always growing growing growing. But, just like everybody else my age (late 20s), I'm now coming to understand that it's not so simple, and this area is decreasing currently. My question is multi-faceted-- Do people who know more than me think that the value will go back up to 2024-2025 prices soon? There's some foundation problems I've been avoiding- should I fix those or would it not be worth it? I honestly really really don't have disposable income of that amount. as it is right now the "value" (zestimate from zillow) of my home is less than what i owe on it, so I'm already thinking I'll have lost on it if I sell it at anything close to what current prices show. Plus I was suckered into buying a high efficiency HVAC system which, sure, adds value to the home but it was also 15k (no way it was worth it. Don't answer the door for solicitors.) so that's really stressing me out as well since I'd have to pay that off with the sale of the house. It would be impossible for me to rent it out for what it costs to live here. We're talking damn near $2500 a month for a 3bed 1bath house <1,000 sqft. that's mortgage + taxes + insurance + utilities together. I'm painting myself like a fool, but this was the second cheapest thing I could find around here, the cheapest being a new build with no yard or trees (both very important to me) and the rate was 6.49% which was, i was told by an impartial 3rd party, extremely low for that time. Can anybody give me advice or insight on how to mitigate my losses here? I'm really scared. I want to refinance for lower rates because I hear that they're dropping, but one lender (rocket mortgage) said that I don't have enough equity in the house to cover closing costs. Which, by the way, I asked the loan officer during the buying process if refinancing cost anything or like what the catch was on that and to my understanding he very much assured me that it wouldn't cost anything. So i mistakenly thought of it as a bit of a get-out-of-jail-free card that would lower your payment at no cost if the rates happened to be lower when you asked and filled out the subsequent paperwork. Sorry for the long post - I'm overwhelmed trying to read articles and things because there's a lot of language that I don't comprehend well and I'm trying to make sure I don't waste so much of my money or ruin my life due to naivety or changing markets. Thank you all for any advice or reassurances. EDIT: the reason I am looking at trying to get out from under this house is a somewhat theoretical possibility. My boyfriend rents a nice place that has access to a river - something we both love and value highly. His landlord has been open to the conversation of selling the place, so we have been talking about the possibility of me moving in with him there (we are very excited to be dual income as we are both struggling to pay our separate bills). This is still a theoretical conversation, but his lease is up in September so we are trying to figure out what makes the most sense for us to do once that time comes. There's no telling if his landlord's sell price would be even somewhat affordable for us though, unless he would be open to a rent to own by owner type situation. BF has a strong preference not to live at my house because he doesn't like the suburbs, and believes my neighborhood to be relatively unsafe for me. But he will move here gladly if I'm unable to find a way to get out from under the debt here. So - it is somewhat pressing to figure out if I'm going to try to put more money into the place or if I'm likely better off cutting losses. That said, obviously things seem pretty volatile right now with wars etc. Also to clarify I am struggling to pay the bills. It's not bad-bad, but if there is a surprise expense (i.e. vet bill or a day or two of missed work) I'm set back significantly. I can manage with slim margins, but slim they are.

Frequently Asked Questions About Bad Credit VA Loans What is a minimum credit score to get a VA home loan? The VA home loan has no minimum credit score requirement. This means that technically, you can qualify for a VA loan regardless of your credit score. However, that does not mean every lender will approve you, as they often have their own additional requirements known as lender overlays. What are lender overlays? Lender overlays are additional rules or standards that lenders impose beyond what the VA requires. While the VA itself doesn't have a minimum credit score, it does have minimum standards for approval. Some lenders choose to be more strict and add their own criteria on top of VA guidelines, and these additional requirements are called lender overlays. Can manual underwriting help with approval? Absolutely. The VA home loan program is extremely flexible, and manual underwriting allows you to tell your story and demonstrate why you are a good credit risk. Automated underwriting systems might not capture the full picture of your financial situation, but manual underwriting can show things like extenuating circumstances or positive payment history that systems might miss. Many times, this approach leads to approvals in situations where automated systems might deny. What are extenuating circumstances? Extenuating circumstances generally refer to specific hardships like medical issues, job loss, or difficulty selling a previous home. These situations are important because if you had late payments in the past year due to these reasons, the VA and lenders might waive certain waiting periods. Usually, lenders will look at your payment history over the past year to evaluate these circumstances. If the late payments are related to verified extenuating circumstances and have since been resolved, it can help you get approved. Some people say the VA loan doesn't have any rules about credit issues. Is that true? The VA mainly focuses on mortgage late payments rather than collections or charge-offs. However, virtually every lender will examine collections and charge-offs from the past year. If you have recent late payments on collections or charge-offs, approval becomes more difficult unless you have a significant extenuating circumstance. Medical collections are often excluded by most lenders. Can I really get approved for a VA loan with a 500 credit score? In theory, yes. Some lenders will approve a VA loan with a credit score as low as 500. However, the challenge is that borrowers with scores under 550 often have recent late payments, which makes approval more difficult. While it's possible, the situation requires careful underwriting and often the presence of extenuating circumstances. If you have questions or want help, it's best to consult a knowledgeable loan officer. My credit score is over a 580. Why was I declined? Credit scores you see on consumer websites like Credit Karma don't always match the scores lenders use. Also, credit score is only one part of the approval process. Lenders look at payment history, debt-to-income ratios, residual income, and other factors. If you have a credit score above 580 but were declined, it's usually due to something in your payment history or debt ratios rather than the score alone. What does the minimum credit score get approved by the big mortgage lenders like Rocket Mortgage and Veterans United? Big mortgage lenders like Rocket Mortgage and Veterans United typically have minimum credit score requirements that range from about 580 to 620. These companies often change their rules, but generally, if your score is below this range, you may struggle to get approval from these big-name lenders. However, these requirements don't mean you can't qualify elsewhere, especially through brokers who work with multiple lenders. Read the full article on Scarpero.com: https://www.scarpero.com/bad-credit-va-loans-all-your-questions-answered/

Hi [r/IAmA](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/) . I’m Shane Boon, a mortgage expert at Rocket Mortgage with over 20 years’ experience. I’ve dedicated my career to helping people refinance during big life changes like divorce, new jobs, growing families, or just trying to make smarter financial decisions. I’ll be hosting an AMA this at 10AM. Happy to get into things like: · When refinancing actually makes sense · How people use their equity · The difference between HELOCs and refis · How major life changes can impact your mortgage strategy Proof: [https://www.rocketmortgage.com/learn/types-of-refinance](https://www.rocketmortgage.com/learn/types-of-refinance) https://preview.redd.it/1bhonlkyhrtg1.jpg?width=2210&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a2d8203cfffef5f3f643d2c183e771bc88b33866

A new [Rocket Mortgage article](https://www.rocketmortgage.com/learn/top-cities-for-veteran-home-buying) ranked the best cities for veteran home buyers based on three main factors: the total number of home sales using VA loans, VA loan share compared to overall home sales, and how VA loan activity has changed over time. Here’s what made the list: 1. Tampa, FL 2. Warren, MI 3. Atlanta, GA 4. Jacksonville, FL 5. Seattle, WA 6. Phoenix, AZ 7. Portland, OR 8. Charlotte, NC 9. Columbus, OH 10. Chicago, IL Does this list surprise you? Did you expect so many large cities to make the cut?