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The 1986 Murder of Sherri RasmussenOn February 24, 1986, the body of Sherri Rasmussen was found in the apartment she shared with her husband, John Ruetten, in California. She had been beaten and shot three times in a struggle.The LAPD initially considered the case a botched burglary, and were unable to identify a suspect but Rasmussen's father believed that LAPD officer, Stephanie Lazarus, who maintained a relationship with Ruetten, was a prime suspect.Sherri RasmussenJohn RuettenStephanie LazarusWhile an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles John Ruetten, a mechanical engineering major from San Diego, occasionally dated Stephanie Lazarus, a fellow Dykstra Hall resident and a political science major from Simi Valley, California. Both were avid athletes; Lazarus played on UCLA's junior varsity women's basketball team. Lazarus would steal Ruetten's clothes when he showered and take photographs of him naked while he slept. Ruetten never considered the relationship as anything more than "necking and fooling around." They had sex for the first time after he graduated, when he accepted a job with hard-drive manufacturer Micropolis and she applied to the city's police academy, becoming a uniformed officer with the LAPD. In court, he later testified that they had sex "twenty to thirty times" between 1981 and 1984, but that she was never his girlfriend.Ruetten later met Sherri Rasmussen, a graduate of Loma Linda University who was on a fast career track in critical care nursing. She entered college at 16, and by her late 20s was the director of nursing at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, giving presentations and teaching classes for fellow nurses.At one point, Lazarus threw Ruetten a surprise party on his 25th birthday, unaware that he had been dating other women or that he had developed a serious relationship with Rasmussen.When she learned he was seriously involved with Rasmussen, Lazarus was despondent. "I'm truly in love with John and the past year has really torn me up," Lazarus wrote to Ruetten's mother in August 1985. "I wish it didn't end the way it did, and I don't think I'll ever understand his decision." In her own journal, she wrote, "I really don't feel like working. I found out that John is getting married."Depressed, Lazarus visited Ruetten at his condo, and the two had sex "to give her closure," Ruetten testified years later, for what he says was the only time before Rasmussen's death. Later that night, Lazarus awoke a fellow officer she roomed with to commiserate.During their engagement, Lazarus brought her skis to the apartment Ruetten shared with Rasmussen and asked him to wax them, and despite Rasmussen's objections, he complied. Rasmussen felt this was a little strange, since Lazarus was dressed in flattering workout clothes, and after Lazarus left, his fiancée asked if their relationship was truly over. Ruetten convinced her the two were just friends. A few days later Lazarus returned to pick up the waxed skis, in uniform and armed, after Ruetten had already left for work.Rasmussen was unnerved by these visits and pleaded with Ruetten to tell Lazarus to stop coming by. Ruetten only said there was nothing to their relationship and that she should ignore Lazarus.According to Nels Rasmussen, Sherri's father, Lazarus later visited Rasmussen at her office to tell her that things were not over between her and Ruetten and told Rasmussen, "If I can't have John, no one else will." Shortly before her death, Rasmussen again confided to her father her fear that Lazarus was stalking her on the street. Ruetten and Rasmussen were married in November 1985.On the fateful morning, Ruetten left the couple's condominium to go to work. Rasmussen was scheduled to give a motivational speech at work that day, a managerial tactic she did not feel was effective. To avoid it, she told Ruetten she might call in sick, using a back injury she had incurred while doing aerobics the day before as an excuse.At 9:45 a.m., a neighbor noticed that the Ruettens' garage door was open, with no car visible. Approximately fifteen minutes later, Ruetten made the first of several unanswered calls home over the course of the day. Rasmussen's sister also called without answer. At noon, two men, who the neighbor believed were gardeners in the compound, gave her and her husband a purse they found that turned out to be Rasmussen's. A maid cleaning a nearby unit said she heard something that sounded like two people fighting, and then something falling, at around 12:30 p.m.When Ruetten returned home in the evening, he found his garage door open and broken glass on the driveway. In addition, he discovered that the BMW he bought for Rasmussen as an engagement gift was missing. Because of Rasmussen's morning plans, he found it strange that she would have later gone out without letting him know. The house's answering machine had not been activated, despite both of them usually activating it when leaving the house unoccupied.Inside, Ruetten found Rasmussen dead on the living room floor, shot three times. There were signs of a struggle, such as a porcelain vase that had apparently been broken over Rasmussen's head prior to the shooting, a bloody handprint next to the burglar alarm's panic button, and a toppled credenza. It appeared that someone at least attempted to bind Rasmussen at one point. She had defensive wounds and a bruise on her face that appeared to have been inflicted by the muzzle of a gun. The gun had been fired through a quilted blanket, apparently to muffle the sound. The investigating criminalist also observed a bite mark on Rasmussen's arm, and took a swab from it.LAPD detectives investigating the case quickly concluded that Rasmussen had been surprised and killed by a burglar. Rasmussen's attire (a bathrobe, nightgown, and underwear) suggested she was not expecting visitors. Although a maid in a neighboring unit reported hearing screaming and fighting earlier in the day, she did not recall hearing gunshots. She thought the whole event had been a domestic dispute and did not call police. It appeared that the perpetrator had been in the process of taking electronic equipment when Rasmussen came upon them, and as a result, jewelry had been left behind and the vehicle taken as a getaway. The abandoned BMW was recovered a week later; it yielded no new evidence. The only other thing that appeared to have been taken from the home was the couple's marriage license.Lead detective Lyle Mayer did consider other possibilities. He quickly ruled out the grieving Ruetten as a suspect. Ruetten quit his job and moved away from Los Angeles shortly after the murder. Nels Rasmussen and his wife, Loretta, told Mayer about Lazarus' harassment, and that he made a note of it. Ruetten later told police that he and Rasmussen never discussed Lazarus.Regardless, the police remained focused on the possibility of burglary, especially in light of one reported later in the same area, in which one of the two reported suspects had been carrying a gun, possibly a .38 caliber like the one that had fired the three bullets into Rasmussen that were later identified by experts as Federal .38J Plus-P. Mayer's partner, Steve Hooks, found the bite mark unusual, as bites during struggles are much more commonly inflicted by women, while the majority of burglars are men. However, because men have bitten opponents during fights as well, the burglary theory stood.The suspected burglars to whom detectives ascribed the crime remained at large, despite a follow-up newspaper story eight months later and a reward offered by the Rasmussen family. The LAPD, preoccupied with the violence resulting from gang wars and the crack epidemic plaguing the city at the time, was unable to devote much more attention to the case. Detectives at the Van Nuys office were, the Rasmussens say, often unhelpful when the family called, hanging up or putting them on hold. A year after the murder, the frustrated family reiterated their offer at a press conference and called for more action. Nels wrote to Daryl Gates, then chief of the LAPD, about the possibility that Lazarus might have been involved. Detectives told him he "watch[ed] too much television." He continued to publicize the reward, and later worked with the short-lived television series Murder One on a segment inspired by the case.Nels in particular was unconvinced that Sherri, who had been 6ft tall, had a large frame, and was in good physical shape, had been the victim of a botched burglary. It would have been a struggle for anyone to subdue her in close quarters, and Mayer had told him at one point that the events may have lasted an hour and a half, a long time for burglars primarily after items of value in the home. Further, whoever shot his daughter had fired directly into her chest at close range and taken the trouble to muffle the shot with the quilt, suggesting that the killing was deliberate and not the accidental byproduct of a struggle.Mayer eventually retired, and the new detective assigned to the case told Nels that he was unable to follow up on Mayer's notes and did not think that any new leads would emerge. Nels was rebuffed again in 1993 when he offered to pay for DNA testing on the evidence from the murder, now that the technology was available; he was told that the police had to have a suspect in order to proceed with testing. Lazarus briefly reunited with Ruetten in 1989; Mayer's notes show that Ruetten had called him and asked if he was absolutely sure there was no evidence linking Lazarus with his late wife's death.In the meantime, Lazarus continued working with the LAPD; she went on to start her own private investigation firm, Unique Investigations. In 1987, she earned medals, including one gold, at the World Police and Fire Games in San Diego. In 1993, after stints at the department's Drug Abuse Resistance Education and internal affairs divisions, she became a detective. Three years later, she married a fellow officer and adopted a daughter with him; at work, she became an instructor at the police academy. Ruetten eventually remarried as well; he did not pressure the police as his former father-in-law had.In the late 1990s, after DNA testing had become more prominent, the LAPD formed a new unit that looked through the forensic evidence collected from the department's cold case files to determine whether any had the potential for new leads through DNA testing. Among the evidence seen as likely to do so was that collected from the Rasmussen residence. However, it was not until 2004 that another criminalist, Jennifer Francis, was able to analyze it. Some of the evidence from the Rasmussen case, including that which might have contained the suspect's DNA, was missing, having been collected in 1993 by another detective.Francis did not find any matches in the Combined DNA Index System database, but did find that the saliva in it had come from a female, undermining the initial detectives' burglary theory. Several years later, Francis claimed that, unusually, she had access to not just the sample but the entire case file, which had been given to her to help her decide which other samples to analyze. Upon discovering that the biter and likely perpetrator was female, she reviewed it and came across a report of a "third-party female" who had allegedly harassed the victim at her job and residence before the murder.Francis asked the detective supervising her if this woman had been investigated, to which he supposedly responded with, "Oh, you mean the LAPD detective." He elaborated that the woman, a former girlfriend of the victim's husband, was in fact a current LAPD detective but "she's not a part of this." He insisted that the case was simply a burglary as the department had long concluded. No other detective would pursue the case, and the evidence went back into the files.By 2009, crime in Los Angeles had declined enough from its earlier levels that detectives began looking into cold cases to increase their clearance rates. In Van Nuys, Jim Nuttall and Pete Barba reviewed the Rasmussen file and found it interesting enough to be worth pursuing. Because the DNA test pointed to a female suspect, they decided the burglary theory was invalid and they would have to start from the beginning.Nuttall and Barba looked at the case as a murder, with the burglary staged to throw the police off the trail. Many aspects of the crime were improbable for a break-in, especially one committed in daylight: Rasmussen's jewelry box, an inviting target for a burglar, was in plain view atop her dresser and had not been touched. The condo was in the middle of a gated complex, surrounded by other units from which burglars could have expected to be easily observed. The front door had an alarm warning, and had not been forced open, as it might have been if the putative burglars had not expected anyone to be at home.Inside, a key aspect of the crime scene was also inconsistent with the burglary theory. At the top of the stairs was a stack of stereo equipment atop a VCR. If, as the evidence suggested, the struggle between Rasmussen and her attacker had begun upstairs and then continued downstairs, that stack would likely have been knocked downstairs and scattered as well. It made more sense to assume that it had been stacked afterwards, when an actual burglar would have fled the scene immediately after the shooting.The forensics reinforced this theory. On a record player atop the stack was a thumb-shaped bloodstain. It had no print, suggesting whoever left it was wearing gloves to avoid leaving identification. But the blood was Rasmussen's, suggesting the equipment had been stacked after the struggle and shooting. It had been left behind, the detectives realized, to make the crime look like something other than what it really was.From the four bound volumes of the case file they developed a list of five female suspects. Nuttall was taken aback when Ruetten told him over the phone that Lazarus was a police officer. By then, Lazarus had been promoted to a higher level of detective and was working art theft cases as part of the Commercial Crimes Division.As one of the two detectives in the nation's only full-time unit devoted to that specialty, Lazarus had gained some local media attention when she and her partner had recovered a statue stolen from Carthay Circle. To better understand the field, she told a local newspaper, she had begun learning to paint. Off the job, Lazarus had been active in the Los Angeles Women Police Officers Association and organized childcare for families of officers. She also made chocolate-covered cherries and homemade soap for her neighbors in Simi Valley for Christmas.Since Lazarus was still with the department, Nuttall and Barba realized they would have to proceed carefully. Still, they ranked Lazarus as the least promising of the five suspects, since they read in the files that she and Ruetten had ended any relationship they had had over the summer before the murder.Nuttall and Barba's investigations soon eliminated all but one of the other women. The other, a former coworker of Rasmussen's who had had some disputes with her, was eliminated by a covertly collected DNA sample.With only Lazarus left, they kept their investigation a closely guarded secret; not only did her husband also work in Commercial Crimes Division as a detective, she may have had other friends who could have tipped her off. If she were the killer, she could have improved her defense; if she were not, then they could have unintentionally smeared a fellow officer who had had an unblemished service record over the course of her career, with no disciplinary investigations or civilian complaints. They only referred to her as "No.5", worked on the case after hours or behind closed doors, and developed cover stories to explain why they wanted to look at personnel records for one particular officer from 20 years ago.The detectives began looking into other aspects of Lazarus' life during the mid-1980s. Another detective recalled that at that time, most LAPD officers had preferred a .38 as their backup or off-duty carry gun; in fact they were required to only purchase weapons compatible with the Federal Plus-P ammunition that had been used in the murder. State and departmental records showed that Lazarus had indeed owned a Smith & Wesson Model 49 .38 at the time, and reported it stolen to Santa Monica police (but not to her own department's armorer) thirteen days after the murder. Since the location where Lazarus had reported it stolen from was near a popular pier, they assumed she had thrown the gun into the Pacific Ocean. Without the weapon, DNA would be the only definite way to connect the crime to Lazarus.Nuttall and Barba theorized from their own experience about how an LAPD officer would commit a murder. It would be better to do it on a day off, and departmental records showed that Lazarus had indeed been off the day Sherri Rasmussen was killed. An officer would know better than to use his or her duty gun, since it would have to be disposed of after the crime and the penalties for losing a duty gun or failing to prevent its theft were severe. Instead it made sense to use a backup gun like Lazarus' .38. Lastly, a working patrol officer would know how to do just enough to make the crime scene look like an interrupted burglary to satisfy an overworked detective.Nels told Nuttall about Lazarus' continued contact with his daughter, which had not been in the files, despite him mentioning it frequently during Mayer and Hook's interviews.Realizing that Lazarus was now their prime suspect, the detectives informed their superiors and arranged to discreetly collect a voluntarily discarded DNA sample from her, knowing they could do so without having to get a warrant, which would have let Lazarus know she was under investigation. While off-duty running errands, Lazarus discarded a cup from which she had been drinking, which other police retrieved. A sample was taken from it, and it matched the DNA from the bite mark on Sherri Rasmussen.Rob Bub, the homicide detective supervisor at Van Nuys, began letting his senior officers, all the way up to Chief William Bratton, know of the case along with senior prosecutors from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office. It was transferred to the Robbery-Homicide Division, which handled many of the department's high-profile cases, including the art theft bureau where Lazarus herself worked.Her arrest was planned carefully.On the day of the arrest in June 2009, dozens of officers arose before dawn. After being briefed on a search warrant they were told would be executed outside the city, but with few details beyond that, they went to wait near Lazarus' home in Simi Valley and that city's Metrolink station, where Lazarus commuted to the city.A short time later, detectives from the RHD who had been selected for their lack of personal connection to Lazarus called her from the lockup at Parker Center, the department's headquarters. Bratton had ordered that location be used since Lazarus would have to surrender her gun in order to enter it, limiting the possibility she might resist violently when she was arrested (immediately following the interview, as was the plan) or realized that she was the prime suspect. The detectives, Greg Stearns and Dan Jaramillo, told her they had someone in custody who wanted to talk about an art theft.After Lazarus had checked in her gun and entered the interrogation room, they explained that this was really about some loose ends they were trying to tie up in the Rasmussen case, since her name had come up in the investigation. They claimed they wanted a private setting because, while Ruetten was an old boyfriend, Lazarus had long been married to someone else and they did not want her private life to become the subject of office gossip. Stearns and Jaramillo knew they would have to tread carefully since Lazarus herself was well aware of police interview techniques and her rights to silence and legal counsel, which she could invoke at any time.They rambled and digressed from the subject at times, sometimes discussing unrelated police business, but eventually came back to Rasmussen. Lazarus claimed to recall little due to the intervening years, but gradually revealed more and more knowledge, including oblique acknowledgements of her visits to the Ruetten condo and a specific encounter at Rasmussen's office, until she accused her colleagues of considering her a suspect. The detectives mentioned it was possible they had DNA evidence from the crime scene, and requested DNA samples from Lazarus. Lazarus declined and thereafter left the room.She was immediately arrested and charged with the murder.Once she had been arrested, the teams in Simi Valley began searching Lazarus' home and car. In her house they found her journal from the mid-1980s, with numerous mentions of her love for Ruetten and her despondence over his engagement to Rasmussen but no mentions of her gun having been stolen. Her computer showed that she had searched the Internet for Ruetten's name on several occasions during the late 1990s.As the investigating detectives had been, many LAPD officers were stunned at the idea that Lazarus might have murdered someone. Fellow detectives recalled her as vivacious and supportive, although some also recalled that her behavior when angry had led some to refer to her as "Spazarus" behind her back. A case she had been developing from her art-theft work, with elder abuse and real estate fraud aspects, had to be dropped since it was highly unlikely that it could be prosecuted successfully if the lead investigator herself were facing a murder charge.Lazarus was convicted of the murder in 2012 and is serving a sentence of 27 years to life for first-degree murder at the California Institution for Women.Source:Murder of Sherri Rasmussen - Wikipedia1985 murder in Los Angeles by jealous off-duty cop On February 24, 1986, the body of Sherri Rasmussen (born February 7, 1957 [1] ) was found in the apartment she shared with her husband, John Ruetten, in Van Nuys , California , United States. She had been beaten and shot three times in a struggle. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) initially considered the case a botched burglary , and were unable to identify a suspect. Rasmussen's father believed that LAPD officer Stephanie Lazarus, who maintained a relationship with Ruetten, was a prime suspect . Detectives who re-examined the cold case files in 2009 were eventually led to Lazarus, by then herself a detective. A DNA sample from a cup she had thrown away was matched to one from a bite on Rasmussen's body that had remained in the files. Lazarus was convicted of the murder in 2012 [2] and is serving a sentence of 27 years to life for first-degree murder at the California Institution for Women in Corona . [3] Lazarus appealed the conviction, claiming that the age of the case and the evidence denied her due process . She also alleged that the search warrant was improperly granted, her statements in an interview prior to her arrest were compelled, and that evidence supporting the original case theory should have been admitted at trial. [4] In 2015, the guilty verdict was upheld by the California Court of Appeal . [5] Some of the police files suggest that evidence that could have implicated Lazarus earlier in the investigation was later removed, perhaps by others in the LAPD. Rasmussen's parents unsuccessfully sued the department over this and other aspects of the investigation. [6] Jennifer Francis, the criminalist who found key evidence from the bite mark, unsuccessfully sued the City of Los Angeles , claiming she was pressured by police to favor certain suspects in this and other high-profile cases and was retaliated against when she brought this to the LAPD's attention . [7] Background [ edit ] While an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1978 to 1982, John Ruetten, a mechanical engineering major from San Diego , occasionally dated Stephanie Lazarus, a fellow Dykstra Hall resident and a political science major from Simi Valley, California . Both were avid athletes; Lazarus played on UCLA's junior varsity women's basketball team . Lazarus would steal Ruetten's clothes when he showered and take photographs of him naked while he slept. Ruetten never considered the relationship as anything more than "necking and fooling around." They had sex for the first time after he graduated, when he accepted a job with hard-drive manufacturer Micropolis [8] and she applied to the city's police academy and became a uniformed officer with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in 1983. [9] In court, he later testified that they had sex "twenty to thirty times" between 1981 and 1984, but that she was never his girlfriend. [10] Ruetten later met Sherri Rasmussen, a graduatehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Sherri_Rasmussen#%3A%7E%3Atext%3DThat%27s_the_evidence_that_will%2CStephanie_Lazarus_murdered_Sherri_Rasmussen.%26text%3DThe_trial_began_in_early%2CSherri_Rasmussen%27s_relationship_with_Ruetten.?wprov=sfla1

There have been a couple of good answers to the question out of the ten so far. Here is what I advise clients just beginning the process.Know your credit statusYou can get a free credit report from any number of sources. Pulling your credit this way will not affect your credit score in any way—but don’t be too concerned about the effect of a “hard inquiry” (that’s when a third party pulls your credit report). It will lower your score, but not by as much as you might think. Still, in the early stages, know what’s on your credit report. Signing up for one of the free services will give you a score, but it will be based on a model different from those used by lenders. Still, it will give you an idea of where you stand now and whether there are any items needing attention now.You should know what the requirements are for the type of loan you might apply for. A conventional loan has a minimum of 620. FHA loans are more forgiving and require 580 for a loan with 3.5% down. Still, it’s important to have at least some idea of your score because it will determine the rate you get. A borrower with a score of 620 will get a rate about .75% higher for a conventional loan than will a borrower with a score of 740 or higher.Get your documents togetherAt a minimum, you should have a current pay stub, two years’ tax returns, bank statements for any accounts with money you might use in the transaction. Be aware that you’ll have to “paper trail” any large deposits. This means that if you transfer, say, $1,000 into your checking account from savings, you’ll also have to document that account. The same holds for money you might transfer from a brokerage account. If you plan to take advantage of any of the first-time buyer programs you might qualify for, you’ll need three years’ tax returns to document that you have not owned a home for at least three years. If you plan to get a gift from a relative for some or all of the cash needed to buy, you should let your generous benefactor know they’ll have to sign a gift letter. This is a simple form stating that you will not have to repay the gift. When the time comes to put up the money, they’ll have to show the source of their funds, as well.There is a spread of interest rates offered by different lenders, but (contrary to what some maintain) it is not as great as you might think. You can go to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to get an idea of what the prevailing rates are.A caveat about the CFPB rate comparison: The CFPB uses a third-party company that surveys a selection of mortgage companies twice weekly. The rates they display are the “note” rates, not APR. The APR (Annual Percentage Rate) takes into account certain closing costs, which are called prepaid finance charges. The APR will seldom be the same as the note rate. The reason it is important to know this is that paying discount points (one point is 1% of the loan amount) will lower the interest rate. CFPB has a disclaimer on their site that the rates they display charge +-.5 points. Because each point lowers the rate by approximately .25%, the rates you see on the CFPB page could have a latitude of as much as .25%. Why they don’t use APR rather than note rate is anyone’s guess.While there appears to be a wide variance in rates (this example has a range between 4.375% and 5.375%, you should consider that the extremes of the one-point rate spread are outliers.The reason the site is useful is that you can get at least an idea of the prevailing interest rates available in the market. The search I did to generate this chart assumed a purchase in California with 10% down and a credit score of 740 or higher.Other variables besides credit score and down payment are the type of property you might buy (a condominium will typically have a rate of .25% higher if the down payment is 20% or less), the length of time you plan to lock your rate and the number of units in the property. A duplex where you live in one unit and rent the other will carry a rate about .25% higher than for a single-unit building. The adjustments are cumulative.It is natural to want to get the best rate—who doesn’t want to save money? But you should keep in mind that getting a mortgage is a process, not a commodity you can pull off the shelf. In other words, it makes a difference whom you choose to handle your loan—just as it makes a difference which real estate agent you choose to represent you.With that said, you should have a strategy for finding the best lender for you. Here are some ways to shop effectively.First, you should be aware that calling a lender and asking, “What are your rates?” will not give you any useful information. A loan officer will need some critical information to be able to give you a meaningful answer. At a minimum, they need to know the following:The approximate loan amount and price of the house. This will give them a loan to value ratio, which figures into the loan pricingYour credit score. A loan officer will likely tell you that they need to pull a credit report to get your score, and that requires giving them at a minimum your address and social security number. You may not want to give them this at this early stage. This is why you should have an idea of your scoreThe type of loan you’re looking forThe type of property you’re consideringYour question to the loan officer would go something like this:“I am looking for a $360,000 loan to buy a $400,000 home. My credit score is over 740. What rate can you offer me today for a 30-day lock on a 30-year fixed rate loan for a single family detached home?”Asking your question this way eliminates most of the variables that affect the interest rate. If you are rate shopping, you should make your inquiries over as short a time as possible; interest rates change every day according to what is happening in the market. A rate quoted a week ago will likely be obsolete today.There are those who insist that you should get a document called a Loan Estimate from multiple lenders. This is a legal document that lenders are required to issue once they have collected six critical pieces of information:Consumer’s nameMonthly incomeProperty addressLoan amountEstimated valueSocial Security numberWithout having a specified property, price and loan amount, lenders will not issue a Loan Estimate. Changing any of the numbers on that document requires going through a prescribed process, so lenders don’t issue them frivolously. Most will require enough documentation to create a loan application.You should have a loan preapproval (more about that shortly) before going into the market seriously so you won’t be able to get a Loan Estimate at this stage. The document you can (and should) get is a closing cost worksheet or equivalent. This will itemize the estimated closing costs for a sample transaction. At a minimum, it will list the lender fees for the scenario you have discussed.Selecting your lenderThis is a little more complicated—and subjective. I mentioned earlier that getting a mortgage is a process, not a commodity. Especially for a first-time buyer, you should think of the loan officer you decide to work with as a partner and guide through your journey to home ownership. When you select that partner, you should think of the following qualities:Information. Does the loan officer you’ve interviewed answer your questions in plain language, without resorting to jargon and technical terms? (You may not know what the terms, DTI, LTV, Agency loan, MI premium, up-front MI, MIP mean. It’s not your job to know—and your loan officer shouldn’t confuse you with these kinds of terms)Patience. Does the loan officer take the time to answer your questions to your satisfaction? Or do you feel as though they are impatient to get to their next call? You may go through the process just a few times in your life, and the unfamiliar can be dauntingCommunication. Does your loan officer answer the phone when you call or at least return your messages promptly? How about emails, texts or any other preferred methods of communication?Familiarity with your local market. When you get to the point where you are ready to make an offer on a property, your loan officer will write a preapproval letter to accompany your offer. Have they been active in the local market so they have credibility there? Are they available to speak with a seller’s agent to make a case for what a good borrower you are? This important component essentially eliminates any of the online brokers, as they are typically not in a position to have a conversation with any seller’s agent. This can be critical in a competitive marketGut feeling. Yup, that’s a thing. You should feel comfortable with your loan officer. You should certainly not feel intimidated—they want the same thing you do. If you don’t feel good about the loan officer, you should probably look elsewhere. You could be working closely with your loan officer for a number of months.I’ll be the first to admit that there are on-line mortgage lenders who have lower rates than the brick-and-mortar lenders—but if an out-of-state lender can’t ultimately get you to a closed escrow, the matter of rate is moot.You should ask the lender you’re considering whether they can issue a “TBD approval.” This means that they collect all the documentation needed for a full underwriting approval even though the specific property is To Be Determined and submit your loan package to the underwriter. This is far stronger than a “preapproval,” which does not get sent to an underwriter. When you have a TBD approval, the letter you provide with your offer is nearly as good as a cash offer, since the underwriter has already reviewed and approved your file. They are just waiting for the purchase agreement and supporting documents, such as the title report and appraisal. It gives you far more clout in the market than a preapproval.There has been at least one person answering this question claiming that a consumer can demand a Loan Estimate from multiple lenders to compare rates and fees. Speaking as someone who has been working in this field for many years and evolving regulations, I can say that this is not usable advice.When a lender issues a Loan Estimate—a legal document—they are bound to certain fees they list on the estimate. Since one of the first things you should do when beginning to enter the housing market is to get your financing prearranged, getting Loan Estimates from multiple lenders before you have identified a property would require giving each one a “dummy” (fake) address and giving them your social security number and other non-public, sensitive information. For many people, this is outside their comfort zone. You can compare rates and fees by getting a written estimate without having your credit pulled by each lender. Your primary focus should be on finding the lender you feel comfortable with and want to work with, assuming their rates and fees are within the overall market.I hope this is helpful. Good luck!

People living longer shouldn’t be a cause for concern. It’s actually a cause to celebrate. But then, if the aging population are not cared for, or are not valued, or state-provided infrastructure to care for them could do with some improvements, then they become a problematic situation for the country.One such country is Singapore.The bustling, vibrant and enviously developing city state, has an aging population of 14.4% (as of December 2017) and this proportion has grown from 9.4% in 2007[1] . People are having fewer babies in Singapore, and growth of the young population is not happening as much as the aging population. The median age of Singapore is 41.3 years.Image Source: Singapore's demographic time bomb: Number of old people will match number of young for first time next year, says UOB analystThis means proportion of citizens aged 65 or older is expected to almost be double the present proportion by 2030:Image Source: Chart of the Day: Ageing population expected to double in 2030While living in Singapore, one can come across many facilities that assist daily living of senior citizens, such as exercising options in front of each HDB (Housing Development Board buildings), and condominiums and parks , special queuing options for senior citizens in supermarkets and so on. The government’s goodwill or wish to have a fit elderly shows:These exercising structures are there in front of almost all housing complexes in Singapore, geared towards keeping the elderly fit and healthy; Image Source: Fit For AgeBut then, while living in Singapore, a foreigner can’t help but notice a recurring aging population working as cleaning persons in buildings, hawker centres and restaurants.Everyone knows Singapore to be a clean city.What many people do not realize is that Singapore is a meticulously cleaned city. And many of these cleaners are the elderly, who need to work to support themselves, or just feel encouraged by government policies that allows them to work:The workforce in many countries is getting older and Singapore is no exception. According to Ministry of Manpower figures, the number of employed residents aged 70 and older has risen from about 16,000 in 2006 to about 43,000 last year.Ms Julia Lee, director of the department of social work at Touch Community Services, says: “From our observation, there are many seniors who are still working because they may need the money to supplement their little savings and to keep up with the rising costs of living.” She adds that many of them work as coffee shop assistants, hawker centre cleaners and security guards.Member of Parliament Seah Kian Peng, who chairs the Government Parliamentary Committee for Social and Family Development, tells The Sunday Times: “There will be elderly who work because they actually need to, but prefer to say they are doing it not for money, but to keep themselves occupied.“Some give their answers because of pride. Some are indeed not being supported by their children, but prefer... not to approach them for help.Source: Age of golden workers: Many seniors working into 80s and 90s to stay active; bold font added.According to statistics compiled by the Ministry of Manpower in 2015, 73% of cleaners and labourers were above the age of 50. Among plant and machine operators and assemblers, it was 66%.As a result, it has become increasingly common to see older workers like Kuan Ying doing difficult physical work. These are the things tourists notice quickly, and sometimes mention in online forums. “What’s wrong with old people working?” many Singaporeans ask in return. After all, they earn an independent income, and they stay active.Source: Singapore's 'silver tsunami': how the city-state depends on its elderly workforceBy 2030, the total number of senior citizens in Singapore is supposed to reach 900,000, , among which:87 percent will be healthy and independent,8 percent will require a walking aid,3 percent will require some assistance to move around and need some assistive device,1 percent will require total physical assistance for movement,1 percent will be bedridden.Source: Singapore Ranked Third in APAC for Silver Industry PotentialThis means that although a majority of the aging population would be healthy, for a particular proportion, there needs to be more convenience and assistance in living. In other words, it means that:Demand for caregivers and healthcare workers will go up, while that young, capable pool keep shrinking.Healthcare costs could go up.Taxes would be raised, associated with more complicated policy-making whereby the younger population must not feel pressurized for supporting an aging population.Opening up more immigration would be need of the day and a rational strategy, to ease the question of taxable labour supply. However, the option doesn’t look too popular or feasible, in the context of “foreigner assimilation issue”[2] [3] [4]Technology is supposed to assist:Singapore will also rely on efforts such as tele-health, for example where rehabilitation patients can conduct exercises at home under the supervision of a remote physician, he said. Technology will allow nurses to monitor the vital signs of a whole ward of patients from one desk, and allow prescriptions to be filled under automation rather than manually.“Big data” is also making it possible to predict, for instance, whether someone is at high risk for a walking aid given factors such as gait and posture, and the chances of a patient needing hospital care again after being discharged, he said.Source: Could Tech Relieve Singapore's Aging Woes?How Bad Is It?Other than those above-mentioned points, the larger society in Singapore and the government especially, seems to be more elderly-friendly:The elderly have good relationship with their children— their children are seen to care for them, and often buy houses close by, so that they can take care of their parents, including having meals together once in a while so that the elderly do not feel emotional isolation, and providing for care services.The elderly also have a strong community with other elderly: What’s known as “hawker centres” in Singapore will often have several elderly groups who would come out, sit and talk with their friends, while sharing some beer.Government has taken several pro-active standpoints with regards to the elderly/senior citizens in Singapore:Families are often incentivized to live closer to their elderly parents through allocation of grants and public housing policies.Higher tax-reliefs are given to those who have co-inhabiting elderly parents.Parents who have been neglected financially by children could go to the Maintenance of Parents Tribunal to seek justice: “The TMP, established in 1996, allows parents to take their children to court if their children are not supporting them financially. Typically, parents who want to seek recourse will go to the Commission for Maintenance of Parents (CMP) for conciliation. When that fails, parents can then file a maintenance order with the TMP”. [5]Mobility in wheelchair a guaranteed possibility all around the city-state.Compared to the above-described situation, in India, the proportion of the elderly is 8.6% of the population (by 2011 census)[6] , but MUCH are begging to be done on that sector.In terms of numbers, India has 104 million elderly people, most of them (71%) residing in rural areas, where convenience of things rank low any way.How Bad Is It?No Institutional Care System:Since the idea of senior citizen homes or “old age homes” are not culturally conditioned in India (They exist, but it’s not thought to be a good thing to send your aging parents to those “old age homes”; it’s considered shameful). The onus to care for the elderly often falls on their children. A recent study[7] (though made on a small sample of 5000, which is definitely not representative of the general population) suggests that two-thirds of the elderly are neglected by their family members and one-third have suffered physical and verbal abuse. 73% of the Indian elderly are illiterate, and this often increases their odds of being abused.[8] In any case, family members are often found to be the primary abusers of the elderly, especially in rural areas. [9]If the children live in a another city or town or another country, the elderly are pretty much often on their own, to do various things, such as:Pay various kinds of bills, such as bank, municipality, electricity, water, etcCollect pension payments.Do grocery shopping in turns, in amounts they can carry back home, avoiding crowded situations and times.Go to the doctorA few organizations have come up recently, who would do all of these tasks for the elderly, in exchange of money. Since the elderly population of India are not particularly trusting of paying bills through the Internet (they are afraid of scams) or might not know how to use the Internet, physical trips to pay various kinds of bills, through crowded and hazardous road conditions, and public transit systems, often becomes a mission day of their days. The result is that with age, few elderly people tend to venture out unless absolutely necessary, and face social isolation.Health problems: The aging population are pretty much on their own when it comes to healthcare. Considering the fact that one keeps hearing about elderly people falling down and breaking bones past the age of 70, in roads, buildings, sidewalks — the situation in case of those who have serious health problems, and might need assisted mobility (like public ramps) are easy to imagine. Lack of infrastructure is a major deterrent for the elderly to seek and access quality and affordable healthcare. Health costs keep rising each year. In India, most of the aging population do not have health insurance and do not receive pensions – about 90% of the Indian elderly lack a formal pension scheme or social security arrangements. [10] Consequently, they are completely dependent economically, and in all other related ways, on the care and goodwill of their children. Health insurance coverage is usually related to only hospitalization, and not general ailments.Crimes Against the Elderly:On August 30, 2016, the 63rd edition of “Crime in India,” an annual publication of National Crime Records Bureau, was published. Data from the NCRB report demonstrated that crimes against senior citizens rose by 10 percent in 2015 as compared to the previous year. A total of 20,532 cases of crimes committed against senior citizens were reported in 2015 as compared to 18,714 in 2014.Source: The Trials of India’s Aging PopulationThe following chart shows a breakdown of crimes committed against the elderly in India:Image Source: Centre to come out with stricter national policy to fight crimes against elderlySocial isolation/lack of social support makes the elderly vulnerable to crimes like murder, robbery, cheating, etc.The government do have a bunch of programmes to assist elderly living, but much of it need to be more intensive, and have wide-reaching intervention than be just small talk. Most of all, the elderly need to dislocated from their complete dependence on the children, and placed more squarely in state-assisted dignified living.Footnotes[1] Singapore ageing at faster pace than a decade ago[2] Foreign workers 'need to be integrated'[3] Singaporeans shouldn't blame new citizens or foreigners for our woes[4] http://newshub.nus.edu.sg/news/1205/PDF/INTEGRATE-mp-22may-pA2-A3.pdf[5] Conciliation, mediation help resolve parent maintenance cases: MSF[6] http://www.censusindia.gov.in/vital_statistics/srs_report/9chap%202%20-%202011.pdf[7] https://social.un.org/ageing-working-group/documents/sixth/AgeWellFoundationHumanRightsOfElderlyInIndia.pdf[8] Abuse against elderly in India – The role of education[9] http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0886260514555014[10] Geriatric Health in India: Concerns and Solutions