Loan Servicers

The Kansas Supreme Court recently ruled in a case that will likely have national implications.

The ruling effectively seems to say that loan servicers have no authority to foreclose on behalf of the lender.

If the ruling gets appealed to the Supreme Court and stands, given the number of foreclosures happening, it could mean tremendous changes in the industry and, in the short term, a real mess.

Of course, first the ruling has to get appealed. Then the Supreme Court has to agree to hear the case. Then it has to get on the calendar.

Maybe the real estate market will be so improved at that point that it has little impact.

A girl can dream!

What if That's All There Is?

If you're selling your home or thinking about selling your home, your biggest question is probably "when will prices get back to where they were?"

According to a new study by Moody's and Fiserv the answer, in Virginia, is after 2023. They recently published a study showing, by state, when housing prices would rebound to their 2005-2006 peaks. Virginia is in the worst category in this study with prices not rebounding for over 12 years. If they're right we likely won't even see any sizeable increases over the next five years.

Note that I'm not saying they've got it right. None of the financial institutions or economists did a very good job of predicting what's happened to the economy or real estate in the last few years.

But you should ask yourself, what if...

What if they're right? How does that change the decisions I'm making for myself and my family? If you've been staying in place assuming that a return to higher prices was just a year or two away, do you now just go ahead and sell?

My two cents, for what it's worth, is that appreciation will be miniscule for at least the next three years.

By the way, in case you're wondering, Maryland beat us. Prices there are expected to return to their peak between 2018 and 2022. (If you're curious about any other states, let me know and I'll get you the numbers.)

Let it Expire

I am going to annoy, anger and irritate a lot of my fellow real estate agents with this.

Let the $8000 first time home buyer tax credit expire at the end of November. Congress should not vote to extend it.

It is not that I want the market to slow further, prices to drop more or the real estate market overall to get worse than it currently is.

I do have several reasons for my belief that we should let it go...for  now.

1. Deadlines are good!

The credit was out there a long time before people really started to focus and pay attention. What got them to pay attention was a deadline! An indefinite tax credit does very little to help the market. Human nature is to procrastinate. Deadlines give them a reason to stop procrastinating.

2. Fraud

Apparently there have been a fair number of people claiming the credit who are not eligible for it. These are people who are either not first time home buyers, or who never actually even bought a house. The IRS is not requiring proof that you qualify for this tax credit and so there are some people taking advantage. If you're tempted, be aware that there are now over 100,000 tax returns flagged for an audit because of this and one tax preparer is already headed to jail!

Let them work out these issues before they give another tax credit or extend this one.

3. Assess

There are a multitude of arguments both for and against extending this tax credit. Each side has their economists with their data. Let's take some time to assess how much good this is doing and whether to extend it and what form that extension should take. Should it be more or less than $8000? Should it apply to more than first time home buyers? The current guidelines are not because data showed this was the best solution. It was a political compromise. Why not look at actual data now, analyze it and determine what makes sense?

I'm not anti-credit. I'm pro a thoughtful approach to this.

Another Opinion on VA Real Estate

You've heard what I think about the area's real estate market. Here's the view from 30,000 feet from a real estate investor.

He's definitely also optimistic, with some mid-term concerns about Northern Virginia.

A Really Bad Mortgage Company

I've posted here several times about the importance of choosing a good lender. If this story doesn't convince you, nothing else I could say will!

I've cut and pasted this from another blog. The writer is a real estate broker who wanted to remain anonymous for professional reasons. Hey, it can happen to anyone!

After an exhausting fight with Taylor, Bean, & Whitaker my mortgage has been sold to Bank of America.

The year leading up to this event has made me an emotional mess. Never have I felt so helpless and small. I was so distraught I sought out comfort from other victims of TBW scams. Some of those new found friends had lost their homes in foreclosure. The rest of us were holding on by a thread for our dear lives.

Now, for a real estate broker, foreclosing on your home is simply embarassing. Seeing my name in the legal section was my worst fear. People would automatically think I was in financial trouble or irresponsible. So my husband hugged me every day and told me there was nothing more I could do. The lawyer in my said otherwise.

So I went in search of others who were facing problems with TBW and found a class action lawsuit against them for effectively forcing people into foreclosure. The stories sounded eerily similar to mine.

1. The online bill pay site was down almost 24/7. When you did happen to find the website running they made it virtually impossible to pay online by hiding their payment system somewhere within the site. After 4 hours one day I managed to find it. I tried to pay and the system would not process the payment due to technical difficulties.

           Because online bill pay was down we tried to mail our payment in.

2. I keep immaculate payment records. So I sent my payment through the mail.

25% of the time TBW claimed they never received the payment(even when mailed in their own envelope) and it never was seen again.

50% of the time TBW claimed they never received the payment and it showed up as being cleared on my bank statement. They refuse to use bank statements as proof of payment and marked my mortgage as late.So who was cashing my checks then?

25% of the time they received the payment but took 45-60 days to process it. Because their billing system took that long they tacked on late fees.This happened even if my payment was received weeks before the due date.

Now I am three months behind on my mortgage and receiving demand letters from TBW. I write them a long letter begging them to TAKE MY &**$% MONEY. I have been sending the payments but no one will process them or acknowledge ever receiving them.

3. I send by certified mail a payment for all that is currently and past due. I receive verification that they have my letter.

4. I receive a foreclosure notice because I have not paid(according to them). My credit is ruined at this point. I call them and am put on hold for 4 HOURS until their business is closed. I get a message that says to call back tomorrow.

5. I call back every day and wait on hold. My maximum record was 7 HOURS.  I pressed the operator buttons, trying to trick the system into giving me a live person. No luck.

6. Even though I have verification of them receiving my payment it has not been processed yet.

7. I try the Pay-By-Phone option. They have a live version(supposedly) so maybe they will talk to me if I offer to throw more money at them. No such luck. The operator told me my account was in "Lockdown Status" and I needed to contact their attorneys in order to pay.

At this point I was pulling out my hair, drinking every night, and my temper was flaring. I wrote them one more nasty note before I intended on joining the lawsuit. They responded: You're mortgage has been sold to Bank of America. All payments received by us will be forward to BOA as required by law.

BANK OF AMERICA SAVED ME! I have contacted them and they have no records of any forwarded payments from TBW. So TBW has approximately $4800.00 in complimentary payments from me that disappeared from my bank account but was never credited to my account. And yes, I did verify the mailing address because at one point I thought I was being scammed by a private individual.

I wanted my story to be told because there are still at least 100 people that I know of who were forced into foreclosure or on the brink by Taylor Bean & Whitaker. And no, they were not doing this randomly or to everyone.  Being a real estate agent I instructed other individuals to get a BPO or appraisal done on their house just in case they needed to sell fast. I presented their findings to an anonymous banker who knows the costs of foreclosures. He noted that TBW stood to make a sweet profit on each of properties if they foreclosed and sold themselves. Whether or not that is what they were planning I don't know.

I haven't followed the class action suit. From what I heard the majority of them were suing because TBW refused to take their monthly payments and forced them into foreclosure. But TBW has received a cease and desist order for FHA loans and are under investigation for fraud.

Just remember when you talk to people who are foreclosing, it  isn't always their fault.

Now I'm with a new mortgage company so hopefully I don't get screwed again and this is all behind me. And I hope this never happens to any other person.

A Good Laugh

This video is hilarious, mostly because there's so much truth here!

Now someone needs to do this for short sales. Now there's a subject so painful it's got to be ripe for humor.