The comedian’s Fathertime Bourbon won Best New Bourbon at the 2026 San Francisco World Spirits Competition with a 121-proof release named for his youngest child.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development will begin considering bids in September for the auction of 5,500 units in two separate reverse-mortgage pools where the borrowers are deceased.
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A sale of 1,500 non-vacant properties, HNVLS 2026-1, which was
Units, which remain occupied, are secured by first-lien Federal Housing Administration Home Equity Conversion Mortgages, where both the original borrower and spouse are deceased. Any heirs to the properties did not declare their intent to buy out the loans within the allowable time frame.
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Participation in HUD loan sales is closed to individual buyers, with bid opportunities typically offered to nonprofits, government entities and institutional investors. Although HUD first announced the HNVLS in January, the agency delayed the auction in order to include mandatory qualification language, ensuring compliance with a Trump directive that sought to blunt the impact of large institutional investors.
Issued on January 20, President Trump’s
Falcon Asset Sales will manage both the rescheduled offering and a newly announced HVLS 2027-1.
With a bid date tentatively planned for October, the pool consists of approximately 4,000 now unoccupied HECM-backed single-family properties. No loan balance was included in the latest notification.
As with the non-vacant sale, institutional buyers will be required to sign attestations to comply with the Trump order. HUD’s last HVLS featuring over 1,000 loans drew 22 buyers and closed in December 2025.
Terms of the two new sales are also written to maintain compliance with the requirements in Title X of the recently
Excluded from the bidding process are organizations currently barred or suspended from participating in mortgage-related activity with the federal government, including companies that have had their Ginnie Mae issuance rights removed.
What is marketing? Get to Know in seconds:
Imagine you own a circus and bring it to a city:
Advertising: Putting up posters everywhere to spread the word.
Promotion: Sticking a poster on an elephant and parading it around the city.
Publicity: If the elephant enters a politician’s garden and the story gets covered in the news.
Public Relations (PR): If the politician laughs about it, creating a positive image.
Sales: Informing people about ticket prices, performances, and tricks.
And if you plan, manage, and execute all this, that’s perfect marketing!
This is How a Complete Marketing Strategy
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| Name |
Christle Stezskal |
|---|---|
| Location | Northwest suburbs of Chicago, Illinois (investing in Kansas City, MO, and Rock County, WI) |
| Occupation | Full-time real estate investor (former high school math teacher and IT professional) |
| Assets | 19 rental units, including 18 long-term rentals and one Airbnb |
| Investment strategy | Sub-$100K single-family and small multifamily, buy-renovate-refinance, out-of-state, and local direct mail |
| Financing | Delayed financing, foreclosure auction cash purchase, conventional mortgage, local community bank line of credit and cash-out refinance |
Christle Stezskal spent seven years as a high school math teacher, but after her second daughter was born, her paycheck wasn’t covering daycare anymore.
Her husband came home from a book club discussing Rich Dad Poor Dad, and they started listening to every real estate podcast they could find. Home prices near Chicago were too high for the money they had, so they looked at Kansas City instead, found an agent through BiggerPockets, and got on a plane just to walk the neighborhoods before buying anything.
Their first property cost $52,000. Today, she’s left her job entirely, self-manages 19 units across two states, and is still buying properties for around $100,000 that cash flow.
Here’s how she built it.
We networked through BiggerPockets, found an agent in Kansas City, and flew out just to meet him and see the neighborhoods before buying anything. He eventually brought us a property from a wholesaler for $52,000. It already had a tenant, needed radon mitigation and a new roof, and we did a full inspection since it was our first deal.
We bought it in cash and used delayed financing instead of waiting the usual seasoning period, which let us refinance at 75% of the appraised value right away. It appraised for $75,000, and we only left about $13,000 of our own money in it. We still own it today.
We found a guy whose whole business was identifying auction properties, inspecting them the morning of the sale, and bidding on behalf of buyers for a fee. We vetted him by asking for references from three other investors he’d worked with, and we even rode along with him to an auction before committing any money.
We won an 800-square-foot house for $21,000. The previous owner had gutted it and started renovations before running out of money, so it was already stripped down and ready for us to finish. Our renovation, including new electrical and AC, came to about $40,000, so we were all-in around $60,000.
It appraised at $88,000 right after, and we pulled almost everything back out, leaving about $13,000 in it. It rented for $800 at first and rents for $925 now.
Foreclosures dried up almost completely, so we decided to invest closer to home instead, in Rock County, Wisconsin, just over the Illinois border.
Our first property there was a 600-square-foot single-family home we bought for $57,000 in fall 2020, already fully renovated, and we financed it conventionally with 25% down instead of using cash and refinancing. It rented for $725 right away.
Around this time, our first few deals were clearly working, so I decided to leave my IT job entirely. My husband kept his W-2 as an engineer, and we’ve never actually needed my real estate income to cover our bills. We put all of it straight back into the business.
I tried bandit signs first and got nothing useful, just bad calls. Then I tested direct mail with a small batch of 83 postcards pulled from a PropStream list, including one to myself just to check the design worked. Of the 82 that went to actual homeowners, two turned into real deals.
I also started working with a small local community bank that set us up with a line of credit for renovations, then refinanced the properties into permanent financing once the work was done.
On our most recent deal, we bought it for $110,000, put about $40,000 into renovations, and it appraised at $187,000. The bank’s cash-out refi let us pull out everything except $11,000, and it now rents for $1,825.
I handle every maintenance request, lease renewal, and new tenant search myself. The key has been building the same systems in every market: an HVAC company I can call in each city, plumbers I already know, and a process with Lowe’s where they’ll deliver a new appliance and haul away the old one within 24 hours if something breaks.
In Kansas City, I have someone on the ground who runs quarterly inspections using my own form so everything stays consistent. Here locally, I do the inspections myself so I can check in with tenants directly. We keep turnover low because we treat this like a mom-and-pop business and actually build relationships with our tenants, not run it like a faceless property management company.
Check your Chase cards for a new targeted offer for Marriott Bonvoy stays. Cardholders can earn 10% cash back after spending at least $100, with a maximum statement credit of $50.
The offer expires on August 31, 2026, and is valid for one qualifying purchase. You’ll max out the offer with $500 in eligible spending.
We are seeing this pop up across various consumer and business cards, so most cardholders should be able to lock in some extra savings. Let’s dive into the details below.
Chase Offers are available on Chase credit cards and debit cards. With these offers, you usually get cashback when you use your eligible Chase card to shop at a participating store. You can see your offers in the Chase app or in your account online. Here are a few things worth noting about these offers:
This is a useful offer for anyone with an upcoming Marriott stay. A $500 charge will trigger the full $50 statement credit, although even a smaller stay of $100 or more will receive 10% back.
Make sure you book and pay directly with Marriott using the enrolled Chase card. Since the offer is valid only once, it makes sense to use it on your largest eligible charge before August 31.
Check your accounts at Chase and other banks and add the offer on as many cards as you have it. You can find more Chase Offers here.
Also take a look at similar offers from American Express, which can save you even more.
This year has been a volatile one for Microsoft (MSFT +4.82%). The tech giant went on a sharp decline in the early part of 2026 as investors grew bearish on software stocks, and even a behemoth such as Microsoft wasn’t spared. At one point, it was down well over 20%.
Recently, however, the company posted its fourth-quarter numbers, which sparked a revival. It’s been surging over the past few days, and it’s now back to around the levels where it started the year and is approaching $500. Could it be on its way to a new all-time high?
Image source: Getty Images.
Last week, Microsoft reported fourth-quarter earnings that came in well ahead of analyst expectations. The company’s revenue for the June quarter totaled $90 billion and rose 18% year over year, which was better than Wall Street projections of $87.6 billion. Its adjusted per-share profit of $4.74 was also well above the $4.24 expected by analysts.
Of key importance was also the growth rate in its cloud business, Azure. At 43%, that was a faster rate than the 40% growth it posted in the third quarter. Earlier this year, investors were growing concerned about Azure’s slowing growth rate, but with that improving in Q4, investors have become bullish on the tech stock once again.
Today’s Change
(4.82%) $22.38
Current Price
$487.10
Market Cap
Day’s Range
$475.00 – $491.37
52wk Range
$349.20 – $553.72
Volume
31.1M
Avg Vol
40.2M
Gross Margin
67.94%
Dividend Yield
0.77%
Microsoft’s stock has been undervalued for much of the year, but it wasn’t all that long ago that it looked a bit expensive; a year ago, it was trading at close to 40 times its trailing earnings. Now, with its value rising again, its price-to-earnings multiple is creeping up to around 27.
For long-term investors, the stock can still make for an excellent buy, but it’s important to consider the valuation, as that could limit returns and even lead to losses, despite the business being a solid one. It’s currently trading at a bit higher than the average S&P 500 stock (which trades at 25 times earnings), but the good news is that it’s still not as expensive as it was last year.
Shares of Microsoft may continue to rise this year and even reach new all-time highs. Last year, they hit a peak of more than $553. This is a quality blue chip stock to hold for the long haul, given its dominance in the tech sector and how prevalent its products and services are throughout the corporate world.
What if the ideas you already have are worth more than any marketing campaign you could run? That’s the question at the center of this conversation with Peter Winick, founder and CEO of Thought Leadership Leverage and co-author of The Thought Leadership Handbook: How the Experts Elevate Their Big Ideas and How You Can Too.
Winick breaks down the 5 thought leader avatars from his book, why activity isn’t the same as productivity, and how personal and systemic velocity work together to move ideas beyond 1 person’s reach. The conversation also covers where AI genuinely helps thought leaders, including how Winick’s team mined 650 podcast transcripts to write their book, and closes with the impact equation: simplicity, relevance, velocity, and share of audience. This episode is for consultants, authors, speakers, and business owners who want their ideas to travel further without depending entirely on their own bandwidth to carry them.
Peter Winick is the founder and CEO of Thought Leadership Leverage, a firm that helps experts and executives turn their ideas into a business. He co-hosts the Leveraging Thought Leadership podcast and has spent nearly 2 decades working with authors, speakers, and executives, including 3½ years building out training, development, and speaking business for Keith Ferrazzi following the launch of Never Eat Alone. Winick is the co-author of The Thought Leadership Handbook.
AI in marketing, Author Marketing, Content Marketing, Marketing Strategy, personal branding, Peter Winick, Podcast Marketing, Public Speaking, Small Business Marketing, Thought leadership
![[CO only] On Tap Credit Union $150 Checking Bonus](https://globalinvestmentstrategy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/on-tap-cu-150-1024x502-768x377.png "[CO only] On Tap Credit Union $150 Checking Bonus")
Update 8/2/26: Extended until 10/31/26
Update 5/4/25: Available again, no end date listed.
Update 3/3/24: Deal is back and valid through December 2024 (ht reader Heather)
Update 4/15/23: Deal is back through Dec 2023. Recent dp say it’s a soft pull.
Offer at a glance
Direct link to offer
This account has no monthly fees to worry about.
According to the fee schedule there is a $5 fee if the account is closed within six months. You need to keep the account open for longer than six months anyway to complete the requirements.
Very annoying that the direct deposit must be maintained for six months, not worth it for a lot of people.
Hat tip to alopez14
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
#onepiecetcg #onepiece #onepieceinvesting
source
Key Points
Georgia Tech told applicants on July 29 that it will no longer require its short-answer supplemental essay, a change that takes effect when applications open on August 1 for students entering in fall 2027. Families building out a college application checklist this summer can cross one item off.
The reasoning was blunt. Mary Tipton Woolley, Georgia Tech’s executive director of undergraduate admission, said the supplemental essay “was no longer a differentiating factor in our decision-making process.” Rick Clark, the school’s vice provost for enrollment management, framed the move as part of an effort to make applying “as straightforward as possible” — an unusually direct admission about what admissions offices actually weigh.
Georgia Tech is not acting alone. Over roughly six weeks this summer, a cluster of selective universities announced they were cutting or killing the school-specific writing that has defined the modern college admissions process. Every one of them still requires a main personal statement. What is disappearing is the second, third and fourth essay — the “Why us?” prompt, the values question, the 250-word short answer that students wrote a dozen times each fall.
The list circulating on social media and consulting blogs is larger than the list that survives verification. Below is what university sources confirm, separated by how far each school actually went. If you are still deciding where to apply, a free college comparison tool is a better starting point than an aggregator’s essay roundup.
Fully eliminated for 2026-27 (applying fall 2026, entering fall 2027):
Reduced, not eliminated:
Dropped in prior cycle:
Two cautions worth carrying into any application planning. Honors colleges and scholarship programs frequently still require essays even when the university does not — Morehead-Cain and Robertson at UNC run separate applications with their own writing, and TCU’s honors college and nursing program kept their prompts. That matters because those programs are often where the real merit money lives.
Several universities also have not updated every page of their own websites. Miami’s admissions FAQ still lists a supplemental essay as required, contradicting its own newsroom, and Tulane’s college-planning page still tells students to prepare a “Why Tulane” statement.
Colgate has been named in several roundups but no university source confirms a change, and its QuestBridge partner listing still shows writing prompts, so it is not on this list.
The simplest explanation is math. Through March 1 of the 2025-26 cycle, Common App counted 1,429,747 distinct first-year applicants (up 2% from the prior year) submitting 9,423,621 applications, up 5%.
Applications per applicant reached 6.59. Students are not multiplying but their applications are, helped along by no-fee applications and fee waivers that keep lowering the cost of adding one more school.
A senior applying to eight schools that each want two supplements is writing sixteen essays on top of the personal statement, usually in October and November, usually while taking a full course load.
That same math lands on the other side of the desk. David Graves, the University of Georgia’s executive director of undergraduate admissions, was unusually candid in the blog post announcing UGA’s change: “by the end of our review process, we have a lot of tired eyes and exhausted counselors, and anything I can do to help our team focus and get through the review stage is a bonus.” And his substantive verdict was harsher: “the second essay did not give us much beyond what the Common App prompts essay gave us.”
Then there is the number that likely moved this from a discussion to a trend. Virginia removed its supplemental prompt for 2025-26. Its early action applications went from 41,885 to 57,495, a 37% increase against a five-year average growth rate of about 11%. The early action acceptance rate fell from 16.1% to 12.4%. Total applications rose 27%, to 82,118. Notably, UVA’s binding early decision pool barely moved (up 2.7%) which is worth understanding before you commit to early decision over early action.
No one has proven the essay removal caused those jumps. UVA’s own student newspaper credited out-of-state growth, and both schools changed other things at the same time. But admissions offices noticed. Graves told Inside Higher Ed he was aware of UVA’s application growth, adding that because UGA requires test scores and UVA does not, he did not expect a comparable surge. TCU, which cut its short answers the same year, reported roughly a 14% application increase.
One common assumption deserves correcting: dropping essays to inflate applications does not improve a school’s U.S. News ranking. The magazine removed acceptance rate from its methodology in 2018. The incentive is reputational and about yield management, not the rankings formula, though selectivity does still correlate with outcomes, as data on whether expensive colleges are worth it shows.
Tulane’s Shawn Abbott, vice president for enrollment management and dean of admission, told Inside Higher Ed the school cut its essay partly because of the rise in students using generative AI to write applications. He is, so far, the only official to say it out loud. WashU’s team explicitly told the same publication that AI was not a factor, and UGA’s announcement never mentions it, which tracks with what 24 admissions offices said when asked directly about their AI policies.
The research suggests the concern is real but complicated. A February 2026 study by researchers at Cornell and Carnegie Mellon analyzed 81,663 applications to a selective university between 2020 and 2024 and found AI use rose sharply in 2024, with the largest increases among lower-income and fee-waived applicants, whose essays also became the most linguistically homogenized.
Increased AI use correlated with larger declines in admission probability for those same students.
Two earlier Cornell studies fill in the picture. One, presented in 2025, compared 30,000 human-written essays against output from eight AI models and found a detector could separate them with near-perfect accuracy. A separate 2024 study found AI-generated essays most closely resembled writing by higher-income male students.
For most applicants, this is time and money back. A student applying to ten schools may write four to six fewer essays than last year’s senior. That is a real reduction in October stress and it cuts into the billable hours behind what a college admissions consultant costs, which routinely runs into the thousands.
The tradeoff is that when the supplement goes away, the remaining signals get heavier. Grades, course rigor and test scores carry more weight, and testing is coming back.
Miami reinstated a testing requirement starting with fall 2026 entry, UGA has required scores throughout, and dozens of schools are now on the list of colleges requiring the SAT and ACT again. Common App data shows applicants reporting test scores rose 10% in 2025-26 while non-reporters fell 6%.
Behind all of it sits demographics. WICHE projects U.S. high school graduates peaked in 2025 at about 3.9 million and will fall roughly 13%, to 3.4 million, by 2041. Reducing friction in the application funnel is a rational response to a shrinking pool of applications, and the same pressure now showing up in the running list of colleges closing their doors.
Don’t Miss These Other Stories:
Editor: Colin Graves
The post Colleges Dropping Supplemental Essays 2026-27: Full List appeared first on The College Investor.
