As a listing agent, how would you involve yourself in a prospective listing of a former meth house?
As a buyer's agent, how would you involve yourself in a prospective purchase of a former meth house?
May I say, that I have had the most unpleasant task of being involved in a drug house listing and sale PLUS having the home involved with a reverse mortgage. What a mess.
A little history: relative was cooking meth in the basement without owner's knowledge; health department got involved and wound up condemning the house; house had to be 'cleaned;' owner was technically no longer living in the home as principal residence; reverse mortgage was called and foreclosure proceedings were begun; 'cleaning' bill was many, many thousands and thousands of dollars; bankruptcy filing came next; time was gained in attempting to sell property; property had a magnificent view; the view sold the property (two years ago); new owner is still messing with the place.....
Needless to say, I disclosed quite properly that the home was a meth house, had county condemnation, that is was subsequently 'cleaned' up and that it was then approved for occupancy.
This is not the first time I've posted regarding reverse mortgages; and it looks like I'm not the only one who's been envisioning nightmares regarding these things.
I wonder just how many individuals in the mortgage business would arbitrarily recommend reverse mortgages to their own family members, both horizontal and lateral?
With the fallacies of human behavior being what they are, and what with the historical American Way of Life being what it is, hard core financial common sense is often found to be wanting....
Here's a few links to just two articles I came across this morning:
McCaskill holds hearing in St. Louis suburb on reverse mortgages
"Reverse mortgages, increasingly used by seniors to help fund retirement or pay unexpected medical bills, are often accompanied by excessive fees and marketed using overly aggressive tactics, Sen. Claire McCaskill said Monday."
"The US Senate Special Committee on Aging heard testimony today regarding the benefits - and potential drawbacks - to reverse mortgage products available to seniors."
Call me whatever you'd like, but you won't change my attitude towards reverse mortgages. Every time I see an article regarding them thar things, I stop and read it and what I seem to be reading MORE of is all the caveat emptor stuff rather than whatever good that might come out of one.
Frankly, as I have indicated in the past, I have had only one exposure to a reverse mortgage, but that ONE was enough for me. I can still remember the little ‘ol lady that got burned when she was forced out of her house because of a technicality which, in essence, removed her from having the home as her principal residence. That one little clause messed her up bad......
Here's the headline that grabbed my attention: "U.S. regulator sounds alarm about reverse mortgages," and here's a quote from the article:
"Reverse mortgages could be the next subprime mortgage product to experience rapid growth while taking advantage of a vulnerable segment of the population, top U.S. bank regulator John Dugan said on Monday."
Widgets and Blidgets appear to be grabbing a fair amount of interest nowadays, so I thought I'd experiment a little, myself......
Anyway, after a simple sign-up session I was well on my way to developing one. I chose the blidget route and low and behold, pretty soon there it was: my own little blidget all fresh and ready to do something with. I haven't done anything with it yet, but one of these days I will.
Here's the link that'll get you to blidget city if you'd care to follow up with any of this.....
Just last week, I presented an offer of $152,000 on a short sale home that was listed at $150,000. The listing description indicated that there was a pending sale but that the listing office was requesting backup offers. The pending purchaser was needing financing - my buyer is an investor who would just write a check for the place. So I submitted the offer. After submission, I spoke with the listing agent who informed me that my offer was superior and that she would submit it and will probably have it back that afternoon (last Friday). Yesterday, Tuesday, no word so I called her:
Well, low and behold, in the meantime, an additional offer supposedly surfaced for "in excess of $5,000 of (my) offer." Then she informs me that if my buyer was still interested in the home that he would have to beat that offer.
OK, from a listing agent's perspective, that's really great for the seller and his or her underlying mortgage company. From the selling agent's perspective, who needs business associates like that? I simply informed the listing agent that my buyer doesn't chase houses and then ended the conversation.
Oddly enough, that particular listing happened to slip through the purchase criteria that I maintain for this particular buyer which was then viewed by him. Before we even looked at the place, I reminded him about all the problems with short sales and short sale offers but he thought that we'd just go ahead and run with whatever surfaces.
Needless to say, this was my third short sale transaction: number one turned out to be an absolute clusterbundle. My second one (which I am currently working on due to an associate's one-time inability to service a particular purchaser) is still fumbling its way through the two underlying mortgages companies.
I do not believe there will be a fourth, much less a fifth.
What with the recent posting regarding REOs and Short Sales, I thought I would take the liberty and re-post an earlier message of mine for those that might be new to Active Rain and for those who might not have read it the first time around. Excuse me for possibly appearing to be conceipted, but I honestly believe this writing hits the subject of short sale relativity right on the head.
As ever, your 2c will always be welcomed:
Because of the legality and complexity of contract law, it is my opinion that short sale proponents need to get a grip on reality.
By now, I feel that I can safely assume that almost every real estate agent in this country has had at least one personal experience with a short sale scenario. But, not knowing that to be an actual fact, I will simply state that at least I have. And it is because of that personal experience that I feel I can justly and constructively critique the process and can truthfully assess a paradoxical anomaly.
Simply put, "the mortgage company" that most agents wind up working with in attempting to consummate a short sale transaction are merely mortgage service companies ---- pencil pushers receiving payments, making entries on ledger forms, depositing funds in trust accounts, making payments for the ‘owner' and then forwarding all this information to investment banks who are, simultaneously, passing on all that information to the holders of investment pools.
In other words, it would be like you going up to a janitor of a building and making a purchase offer on the building that he or she is working on, when in reality the building is simply under a rental management contract with Joe Smow Realty who is managing the building for the three guys who own the place with one of them living in the Alaskan bush and one of them living in South Africa and the other one being a fisherman who was on a boat somewhere down in Antarctic waters and who has just been washed overboard and his wife lives in some small town in Greece and they have two children, one of which is on vacation in Switzerland and the other one is in school somewhere in Memphis.
The janitor cannot help you.
One thing that I feel is relevant to the current environment is this: Washington State is a wonderful place to live when it comes to consumer laws and consumer protection. Consequently, one might assume that there is now a law on the books relating to distressed homeowners. Well, that's true (and maybe the same holds true in other states) and that new law provides for very specific things having to happen if there is even a remote chance that a property might become financially "distressed." And from a legal standpoint, as an agent, because of that law, I prefer to no longer even want to think about attempting to get involved in a short sale transaction.
The way I see it, an agent has two strikes against him when he walks up to the plate to play in the short sale game. And the third strike often comes swiftly once the owner of the property begins to throw in the towel because he or she is slowly realizing that snowballs don't last long in warm country.
However inpassionate this article might appear to be, it is just one more article that can be referenced when it comes to short sale scenarios in the light of reality.
I haven't posted for a while, but I surely want to throw my 2c in regarding my sentiments towards the missfits and fanatics of Wall St.
Today we learn that Wall St. has jeered the Obama budget plan....a plan that is heartily attempting to help bail our nation out of its worst economic mess since the Great Depression. I find it comical that such an event would take place.
Of interest, may I share a few articles that should shame the Wall St. genre:
The Madoff Economy -- Friday, December 19, 2008- Paul Krugman - Op-Ed Columnist - The New York Times "...it looks as if much of the (financial services) industry has been destroying value, not creating it...."
A Year Of Chaos In Finance -- Sunday, December 21, 2008 - Floyd Norris - New York Times News Service
What Wall St. is failing to identify TO and WITH is the fact that IT is the responsible party for destroying the economies of the world.
Of particular interest to me is the fact that I am finally beginning to read that the analysts of Wall St. are a dime a dozen and even worth less than that.
A postscript and added footnote:
A worth read: Any history of American International Group, Inc (AIG) that you'd care to read. Now there's a classic case of Wall St. bamboozlement.
The following is a copy of an e-mail I received this morning:
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Here is a quick look into 3 former Fannie Mae executives who have brought down Wall Street.
Franklin Raines was a Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Fannie Mae. Raines was forced to retire from his position with Fannie Mae when auditing discovered severe irregulaties in Fannie Mae's accounting activities. At the time of his departure The Wall Street Journal noted, ' Raines, who long defended the company's accounting despite mounting evidence that it wasn't proper, issued a statement la te Tuesday conceding that 'mistakes were made' and saying he would assume responsibility as he had earlier promised. News reports indicate the company was under growing pressure from regulators to shake up its management in the wake of findings that the company's books ran afoul of generally accepted accounting principles for four years.'Fannie Mae had to reduce its surplus by $9 billion.
Raines left with a 'golden parachute valued at $240 Million in benefits. The Government filed suit against Raines when the depth of the accounting scandal became clear. http://housingdoom.com/2006/12/18/fannie-charges/ . The Government noted, 'The 101 charges reveal how the individuals improperly manipulated earnings to maximize their bonuses, while knowingly neglecting accounting systems and internal controls, misapplying over twenty accounting principles and misleading the regulator and the public. The Notice explains how they submitted six years of misleading and inaccurate accounting statements and inaccurate capital reports that enabled them to grow Fannie Mae in an unsafe and unsound manner.' These charges were made in 2006. The Court ordered Raines to return $50 Million Dollars he received in bonuses based on the miss-stated Fannie Mae profits.
Tim Howard - Was the Chief Financial Officer of Fannie Mae. Howard 'was a strong internal proponent of using accounting strategies that would ensure a 'stable pattern of earnings' at Fannie. In everyday English - he was cooking the books. The Government Investigation determined that, 'Chief Financial Officer, Tim Howard, failed to provide adequate oversight to key control and reporting functions within Fannie Mae,'
On June 16, 2006, Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., asked the Justice Department to investigate his allegations that two former Fannie Mae executives lied to Congressin October 2004 when they denied manipulating the mortgage-finance giant's income statement to achieve manag ement pay bonuses. Investigations by federal regulators and the company's board of directors since concluded that management did manipulate 1998 earnings to trigger bonuses. Raines and Howard resigned under pressure in late 2004.
Howard's Golden Parachute was estimated at $20 Million!
Jim Johnson - A former executive at Lehman Brothers and who was later forced from his position as Fannie Mae CEO. A look at the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight's May 2006 report on mismanagement and corruption inside Fannie Mae, and you'll see some interesting things about Johnson. Investigators found that Fannie Mae had hidden a substantial amount of Johnson's 1998 compensation from the public, reporting that it was between $6 million and $7 million when it fact it was $21 million.' Johnson is currently under investigation for taking illegal loans from Countrywide while serving as CEO of Fannie Mae.
Johnson's Golden Parachute was estimated at $28 Million.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
FRANKLIN RAINES? Raines works for the Obama Campaign as Chief Economic Advisor
TIM HOWARD?Howard is also a Chief Economic Advisor to Obama
JIM JOHNSON?Johnsonhired as a Senior Obama Finance Advisor and was selected to run Obama's Vice Presidential Search Committee
IF OBAMA PLANS ON CLEANING UP THE MESS - HIS ADVISORS HAVE THE EXPERTISE - THEY MADE THE MESS IN THE FIRST PLACE.Would you trust the men who tore Wall Street down to build the New Wall Street ?
"The oil market is selling off because the early indications show Ike didn't do as much damage as feared," said Chris Jarvis, senior analyst at Caprock Risk Management."
In fact, oil was as low as $98.46 a barrel today -- the lowest since February 26th -- during a special trading session set up today (Sunday) to deal with the mess that's currently got Wall Street all in shambles.
I really don't know quite what to make of that statement by Jarvis. Maybe we could read into it that if Hurricane Ike never existed, maybe oil would be lower than that $98.
Funny thing, maybe, what with all the turmoil currently affecting world economies. The media has deluged the nation with its hyping about a real estate bubble. Maybe it's time to start hyping an oil bubble and start broadcasting about all the oil-price speculators that are maybe beginning to eat crow.
Think about it: oil peaked at $147 in mid-July. Now it's about $98. That equates to a 33% drop.
On a side note, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, AIG and Washington Mutual are in huge piles of doo-doo.
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