fareastwarriors

You guys ever try emailing him to discuss his articles?

Is the author reading this forum? :o Buffett, Not a Fan of Capital-Heavy Firms, Spends $12B on Them in 2014 http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/11/11/buffett-not-a-fan-of-capital-heavy-firms-spends-12b-on-them-in-2014/

Buffett Said He Paid a Steep Price. $15 Billion Later, BNSF Is a Cash Machine. 'He Stole It' http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-10/buffett-s-15-billion-from-bnsf-show-railroad-came-cheap.html

Fannie Mae’s Profit Trap Comes Into View Mortgage-Finance Company’s Shares Appear to Be Overvalued http://online.wsj.com/articles/fannie-maes-profit-trap-comes-into-view-heard-on-the-street-1415569299

Fannie, Freddie See Potential for Thaw in Mortgage Access Government-Controlled Companies Post Lower Profits but Will Still Make a $6.8 Billion Payment to Treasury http://online.wsj.com/articles/fannie-mae-profit-falls-55-1415277851

Yep. My mother in law once brought her bottle of Heinz ketchup to our house because we buy the cheaper store brand ketchup.. hahaha great story.

Saudi Flexing Met With Crickets by U.S. Shale Frackers http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-05/saudi-flexing-met-with-crickets-by-u-s-shale-frackers.html

How Buffett's Brooks Running plans to become a $1 billion brand http://fortune.com/2014/10/31/how-buffetts-brooks-running-plans-to-become-a-1-billion-brand/

In Oil’s Slide, Echoes of a Fall Adapted From the Paperback Edition of ‘The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatters’ http://online.wsj.com/articles/in-oils-slide-echoes-of-a-fall-1414973423

The next CEO of Berkshire adds one more loop to her belt. Advice from Buffett's 30-year-old right-hand woman http://www.cnbc.com/id/102137315?trknav=homestack:topnews:3

Buffett’s Assistant Cool Named CEO of Pampered Chef Unit http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-27/buffett-s-assistant-cool-named-ceo-of-pampered-chef-unit-1-.html

try this one - http://www.cnbc.com/id/102123997?trknav=homestack:topnews:11

Bill Ackman and His Hedge Fund, Betting Big http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/26/business/bill-ackman-and-his-hedge-fund-betting-big.html?ref=business&_r=0

Natural-Gas Bulls: Better Luck Next Year Cold Winter Isn’t Good Enough Reason to Bet on Higher Gas Prices http://online.wsj.com/articles/natural-gas-bulls-better-luck-next-year-heard-on-the-street-1414086555

Natural Gas Is Taking Over http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-10-23/natural-gas-is-taking-over-ritholtz-chart

Buffett Puts Wind in Berkshire’s Sails Billionaire Investor Doubles Down on Renewables in Energy Strategy http://online.wsj.com/articles/buffett-puts-wind-in-berkshires-sails-1414084146?mod=WSJ_hp_RightTopStories

Legal Undertow Tugs at Fannie, Freddie Courts Deal Another Setback to Investors http://online.wsj.com/articles/legal-undertow-tugs-at-fannie-freddie-heard-on-the-street-1413993808

Solar Energy Discounts Become Employee Perk in New Program http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/23/business/solar-energy-discounts-become-employee-perk-in-new-program.html?ref=business

That hasn't been my experience. The last few times I purchased a house and the last time I refinanced my mortgage, the appraisers were there for well over an hour taking measurements in every room, tons of notes/drawings and looking at pretty much everything including basement and outbuildings. I'm pretty sure what I've experienced is standard at least in New England. How can you appraise a house from the driveway? I think (hope) drive by appraisals are over with. I think they were common during the housing bubble. For my last refi (maybe 2 years ago now), the guy came in and looked around every room. Nothing too crazy. No measuring. He wrote some notes. And he was out of here within 30 minutes. I live in the SF Bay Area. "Drive by appraisals"? One check box on the form: [] House exists. hahah pretty much. ;D http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2012/08/15/no-more-drive-by-appraisals-%E2%80%93-on-some-loans/ During the housing market’s go-go years, the practice of “drive-by” appraisals, in which property appraisers didn’t physically inspect the interior of a home, was commonplace. It’s since become far less so, as mortgage lenders remain extremely cautious about the loans they are making. They want to make sure that they have an independent estimate of the market value of a home, so it stands to reason that an appraiser should actually take a look at the home’s interior. Most of the complaints about the appraisal industry these days are of a different nature – that appraisers are too conservative about how they value homes. Rules proposed by federal regulators on Wednesday would ban the practice of “drive-by” appraisals and require a physical inspection of the home. But the rules, required by the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul of 2010, would only apply to a small slice of the mortgage market – loans defined by regulators as “higher risk.” Regulators define high risk ones in which the rate is at least 1.5 percentage points above a market average. However, lenders don’t make many loans above this threshold: In 2010, the most recent year for which data are available, such high-risk loans made up only 3.2% of the overall lending market, according to the Federal Reserve. The regulators, including the Fed and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, also said they aim to combat fraudulent property flipping schemes in which a developer buys a property, makes minimal repairs and tries to sell it at an inflated price. In an effort to combat this property flipping, the regulators propose to require lenders making higher-rate mortgages to obtain an additional appraisal at no cost to the borrower. An appraisal exists to protect a lender; it is different from a home inspection done on the borrower’s behalf to see if there are any needed repairs before closing. Separately, the consumer bureau proposed that lenders should be required to provide consumers a free copy of their appraisal no later than three days before the property sale closes. That proposal, another Dodd-Frank requirement, has become standard practice around the appraisal industry in recent years, said Bill Garber, director of government and external relations for the Appraisal Institute, an industry trade group. Until around 2008, lenders didn’t provide a copy of an appraisal to borrowers unless they received a written request, but new standards for the industry changed that practice.

That hasn't been my experience. The last few times I purchased a house and the last time I refinanced my mortgage, the appraisers were there for well over an hour taking measurements in every room, tons of notes/drawings and looking at pretty much everything including basement and outbuildings. I'm pretty sure what I've experienced is standard at least in New England. How can you appraise a house from the driveway? I think (hope) drive by appraisals are over with. I think they were common during the housing bubble. For my last refi (maybe 2 years ago now), the guy came in and looked around every room. Nothing too crazy. No measuring. He wrote some notes. And he was out of here within 30 minutes. I live in the SF Bay Area.

Natural-Gas Prices Fall Even With Chill Nearing When Cold Weather Looms, Natural-Gas Prices Usually Rise—This Year They Are Falling http://online.wsj.com/articles/natural-gas-prices-fall-even-with-chill-nearing-1413762964?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

The Warren Buffett of Everything http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-17/the-warren-buffett-of-everything.html

Shale Boom Helping American Consumers as Never Before http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-16/shale-boom-helping-american-consumers-like-never-before.html

The Risks of Cheap Water http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/15/business/economy/the-price-of-water-is-too-low.html?src=me&_r=0

I added a bit to BAC WT-A