Hi Everyone,

Here’s the follow up from today’s class:

Changes to the WA State Deed of Trust Act are reviewed over on this post at RCG.

Here’s the post we reviewed during the Market Update segment of the class showing the surge in prime delinquencies. 

CR had a great post today about the long tail of home value declines.

Here is the link to The Tim’s post on SB where you can find the Seattle data from today’s Case Shiller Home Price Index.  Tonight Alan posted preliminary June Notice of Trustee Sales for King County and the number is just staggering, even higher than what I would have predicted and I’m pretty bearish on housing as you all know.

and because I love all things cool, here’s a link to a very cool interactive map courtesy of the NY Times showing the house price declines in various cities including Seattle.

Hugh from the table in the back asked about the You Tube videos I filmed of a recent foreclosure auction this past spring in Bellevue.  Here’s that event, in small, manageable segments. 

Cassidy Schlicke had a question for all of you tonight as she was watching a real estate show on HGTV. She asked me if a real estate agent could ever fire a client. I answered yes, but what about you? What would have to happen for a real estate agent to decide to fire a client?

Thanks for a fun class today and I hope you all have a great Fourth!

Hi Everyone,

Here’s the follow up from class. Here is the Credit Suisse chart showing the subprime, Alt A and prime ARM resets through 2012.

Here is the article on condo auctions from Seattle Bubble.

Here is a link with more information on the FHA anti-flipping rule.

Here is a quick article on the difference between a bull and a bear market. 

Hi Everyone,

Here’s the follow up from class.  There was a request for the direct link to the IRS website explaining taxation issues surrounding debt forgiveness on a short sale. Here’s the link.

There was a question regarding eviction following foreclosure: Is it 20 days or 90 days?  Here is a link to the Bar Assoc website that discusses the 90 day rule regarding evicting tenants.  There was a question as to whether or not a new law has been passed to allow the OWNER of a residential home to stay in the home 90 days after foreclosure.  This was an excellent question and I found the answer. There was a new law signed by the Governor this past legislative session called SB 5810. Here is the link to the legislative page for the bill. Click on the “final bill report” for a quick summary. It looks like the law was changed to add an additional 30 days to the foreclosure process in a residential, owner occupied foreclosure. This adds a step. The lender MUST make an attempt to contact the homeowner and then must make a declaration that they have taken steps to contact the homeowner.  In addition, the law gives TENANTS 60 days to vacate a residential home after foreclosure (previously it was 20 days.)  Althought I sympathize with the tenants, it’s important to point out that lenders will think about this as they price new mortgage loans in Washington state.

There are some exceptions. Follow this link and click on “bill as passed by the legislature” to read along with me:

Subsections (1) and (5) of this section do not apply if any of the following occurs:
The borrower has surrendered the property as evidenced by either a letter confirming the surrender or delivery of the keys to the property to the trustee, beneficiary, or authorized agent; or the borrower has filed for bankruptcy, and the bankruptcy stay remains in place, or the borrower has filed for bankruptcy and the bankruptcy court has granted relief from the bankruptcy stay allowing enforcement of the deed of trust.

This section applies only to deeds of trust made from January 1, 2003, to December 31, 2007, inclusive, that are recorded against owner-occupied residential real property. This section does not apply to deeds of trust:
(i) Securing a commercial loan;
(ii) securing obligations of a grantor who is not the borrower or a guarantor; or
(iii) securing a purchaser’s obligations under a seller-financed sale.

This law will go into effect July 26, 2009.  Remember, it’s only TENANTS that get the additional 60 days to vacate. Owner occupied homeowners must still vacate 20 days after the trustee sale.

A student asked for the names of the three investor groups that were interviewed at the 2009 Auction. Here you go:

Vestus
Here’s the youtube interview with Vestus

Real Estate Investment Firm
My youtube interview with Matt

Foreclosure Solutions NW
My youtube interview with Rob

Thanks for a fun class!

Hi Everyone,

Here’s the updated Credit Suisse chart showing the wave of subprime, Alt-A, and prime ARMS set to adjust through 2012. Click on the image for a larger view.

There was a question about repaying the leftover debt from a short sale and how that impacts a person’s credit score. Here is one answer from Mortgage Daily News:

The credit implications for a short sale are very different for those voluntarily selling their property and those forced into foreclosure. If the property owner voluntarily selling the property can pay off the amount owed out of pocket by using assets already owned there should be no credit implications. If the property owner needs to take a new loan from a bank in order to make up the difference from the short sale, then the credit implications would be the same as the credit implications of taking out any loan. In fact, sometimes taking out a loan can improve a credit rating. Whether the new loan raises a credit score or lowers a credit score, most likely the new credit score will not be drastically different than the property owner’s credit score before the short sale
 

Here is a link to the FICO website which explains credit scores in more depth. 

Thanks for a fun class!

Hi Everyone,

Here’s the follow up from class.   I promised to post the link to the DFI website that shows the list of state-chartered banks.  Here it is.

Here’s a link to the recent, local mortgage fraud story that was in the news the day of class.

Here’s the updated Credit Suisse chart showing the wave of subprime, Alt-A, and prime ARMS set to adjust through 2012. Click on the image for a larger view.

There were several questions about the coming implosion of the commercial real estate market.  Here’s a story to get you started.

Thanks for coming to class and I apologize for the late follow up. It has been a “killer” month: just too much going on with family obligations.  End of the year school parties, graduations, soccer tournaments, final class projects, 6th grade graduation for my youngest. I’m ready to sleep for a week. How about you?

I have 4 unprocessed CFS applications from this class. I promise to process these next week.

Hi Everyone,

I arrived at Coeur d’Alene earlier today and have been driving around taking in the beautiful sights.  Had a great dinner at the Outback and then took a walk near the CDA Realtor headquarters.  Now I’m doing my research for class tomorrow and found some interesting links.

Here’s a link to Foreclosure.com which shows the number of Pre-Foreclosure, Trustee Sale and Bank-Owned listings in Kootenai County. Zillow has a few as well. I guess my question as a consumer is as follows: “Why doesn’t an agent or broker website show up when I search “foreclosures coeur d’alene?”  This agent website shows up but when agents hide the information behind a contact form, buyers will move on until they find an open source.  Where’s your local MLS listings for these homes and why are they showing up everywhere else but on agents and broker’s sites?  I’m sure someone will educate me as to why.

Here’s a local news story about a government agency buying foreclosed homes.  They say they are “knee deep” in foreclosed homes.  Hmmm.

Here are two more local stories, one on the Extreme Makeover home and the other on the Blackrock project foreclosure.  

Here’s the link to CalculatedRisk, a fun and informative blog on finance and economics. If you want to be at the cutting edge of what’s happening with the banking crisis, read this blog every day for 5 min. You don’t have to read all the comments, just read the day’s stories. I promise you will be 10% smarter in one month.  The other nice thing about CR’s blog, is that he gives readers links to other blogs on finance and econ on the right hand side of the blog.  For example, click through to HousingWire or Mortgage Insider or Naked Capitalism. 

Here’s the link to the updated mortgage reset/recast chart. 

Here is a link to the Idaho Dept of Finance and the list of state chartered banks we will talk about in class.

I’m looking forward to a fun day tomorrow!

UPDATE 1: Here is the link to the Making Home Affordable.gov program which will help your homeowners figure out if their loan is held by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

Here is the link to the Idaho Dept of Finance regarding questions about loan modification companies and licening requirements for Idaho.  Look for the press release under “News and Announcements.”  There’s a link to a word doc for you.

Here is the link to the HUD.gov website for HUD-approved housing counseling agencies.

Hi Everyone,

Here’s the follow up from class last Friday.

Here is the link to the FICO website showing the components of a person’s credit score.

Here is the link to the Chapman website. Laura from class mentioned that this is good source for research but I don’t see their research department linked from the home page. Laura, can you post a link in the comment box for us? Thank you.

Here is the website I read as a launching pad for education about finance, the economy, and the housing criss. Look at the posts just from today! You can see that by reading this website each day, you will be able to stay on top of what’s going on now and what’s coming our way soon (problems in the commercial real estate sector.)

There was a question asked about condo sales. 
Q: If an entire condo complex is sold pre-foreclosure, is that counted as one sale or do all the units count as single sales in the statistics?
A: I’ve put out a couple of emails on this and have yet to hear back from any of my sources.  I’ll update this blog post if I get an answer.  I also posted this as a forum question over on Seattle Bubble.

I received a phone call during class from a local attorney who had an update on short sales.  Here are my notes from that phone conversation:

There’s been a change in policy at Bank of America/Countrywide regarding the way they will be analyzing short sales for approval. He believes other banks will follow and this policy change will lead to many homes just going into foreclosure.

BOA will be selling off the homeowner’s debt from the short sale to 3rd party collection agencies.

Most attorneys who are representing sellers of short sales get this waived but if homeowner doesn’t have an attorney looking at everything, this might slide by some homeowners and become a liability issue for Realtors and agents.

If BOA holds the second mortgage, (and the first is selling short) BOA will not approve a short sale on their second unless BOA receives 5% of what’s owed on the second at closing.

On a first mortgage, If the balance received by BOA is under 85% of what’s owed, BOA is not forgiving the debt.

This attorney tells me that he believes other banks will follow what BOA is doing, leading homeowners to just let the house go back to the bank instead of risking the above with a short sale.

 It’s worth mentioning again that all short selling homeowners should have their own attorney reviewing all documents prior to closing. Here’s my attorney referral list.

Finally, I attached the Math worksheet from class to your email.

Thanks for an interesting class and I hope you all had a great weekend.

Hi Everyone,

Here’s the link to the myfico.com education website with the pie chart showing the components of a person’s credit score.

Here’s the link to the President Obama Administration’s Making Home Affordable website which lets you check to see whether or not a mortgage loan is held by Fannie Mae. 

Cassie Angel, I looked through my copy of this past Sunday’s Seattle Times and I did not see that advertisement regarding the short sale/investor seminar. If anyone has seen the ad and wants to send it to me, my fax is 425 673 1533. 

Thank you for your attendance!

I’ll be teaching four classes at Bellevue College this summer:

Title Insurance
Real Estate Escrow
Advanced Real Estate Escrow
Real Estate Investment Strategies