Bail-Out Deadlines and what they forgot to print in the Post.

Bail-Out Deadlines by E-Mail - washingtonpost.com

Bail-Out Deadlines by E-Mail

By Elizabeth Razzi
Sunday, July 15, 2007; Page F05

Buying a condominium? A house in a neighborhood run by a homeowners association? You had better stay on top of your e-mail.

A very large and extremely important document could be coming your way. Its arrival starts the clock ticking on a short period during which you can cancel the deal, should you desire to back out of your purchase contract.
New laws that took effect in Virginia on July 1 change the process for distributing the extensive disclosure packages that must be given to anyone buying a home that is part of a condo or homeowners association. While the law directly affects Virginians, buyers in the District and Maryland, where the disclosure requirements are not as detailed as they are in the Old Dominion, may find the effects spilling over as management companies that do business in all three jurisdictions adopt new practices.

If your in the District of Columbia and you happen to live in a Townhouse or Singe Family Homeowner Association you can stop reading this article here.

Why?

Because the leaders of the District have failed for years now at mine and others prodding to establish an HOA Act which is what is the triggering mechanism in this need to disclose. As the District does not have such an Act there is no specific law as is the case in MD or VA to disclose anything about rules and regulations.

Whats more in Maryland the HOA Act does not require that financial information about the community be provided to the buyer. So the budget, pending litigations or special assessments are made available to the new homeowners after they move in. Seem pretty fair to me and you too I bet. Having heard one of the principle in this ruse brag about how they fought to keep this from becoming part of the law. I have to wonder of the community and homeowners share this excitement with them. What I was told is that it would be too hard to provide this information at closing time.

So is there any wonder in what area of the housing market the last foot will fall. If you have been reading this blog you know that I know that HOA and Condo fees are not being paid and thus these communities are running negative budgets. But since the District and Maryland don't disclose this information before settlement those perspective homeowners that are buying may not and have no idea what the status of the communities financial health is or will be in the future until rules, regulations and financial information are fully disclosed.



So I have an idea for Elizabeth why not do a story on why the District has failed to enact such a law or why Maryland does not require the Financial s to be included.

Technorati Tags: Homeowners Associations, Disclosure Laws, HOA Documnets, Rules & regulations

Once again Not paying mortgage not paying association assessments.

Home sales, prices below last year’s rate - Real Estate - MSNBC.com

Home sales, prices below last year’s rate
Foreclosures in April surged, according to National Association of Realtors
Related Stories


Updated: 3:21 p.m. ET May 15, 2007

WASHINGTON - The pace of existing home sales slowed in the first quarter by almost 7 percent compared to a year ago, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday.

In the latest indication of the housing market’s slowdown, the NAR said home sales reached a 6.4 million annual rate compared to 6.9 million in the same quarter of 2006.

The report came on the same day that RealtyTrac Inc., an industry research firm, said mortgage lenders foreclosed on 62 percent more U.S. homes in April than a year ago.

I am not sure how many ways to post this but if someone is not paying their mortgage does anyone reading this actually think if they live in a Condo, Townhouse or Single Family Homeowner Association that the dues for the community are being paid.

So what happens when the dues or assessments are not paid? The community is now running a deficit budget and they means that the overall community is now not in compliance with Federal underwriting guidelines...........So let think Fannie, Freddy and any other backer of mortgages.....

Since wall street has been buying these for sometime as well do you think they are telling the investors in these companies that a potential problem exist. When I called the Wall Street Journal and talked to one of the reporters about this he pretty much blew me off.

So I wonder how long this house of cards is going to stand.....

Technorati Tags: Foreclosures, Condos, Housing, Market, Homeowners, Associations

Town allows Gore to install solar panels - Yahoo! News

Tue Apr 17, 11:14 PM ET

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Former Vice President
Al Gore's upscale neighborhood granted the environmental activist approval Tuesday to install 33 solar panels on the roof of his mansion.
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Belle Meade had blocked his application until new rules were approved unanimously late Tuesday, said Gore spokesman Chris Song. The city located within metropolitan Nashville said the panels must be placed in areas where they can't be seen by neighbors.

Gore, who starred in the documentary film "An Inconvenient Truth" about global warming, already buys enough energy from renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and methane gas to balance 100 percent of his electricity costs.

He is also upgrading the furnace,

Hello this is not a City it is a Homeowner Association..................Please do not confuses the two.......

Technorati Tags: Al Gore, Solar Panels, Approval, ARC Review,

Gee someone knew about the ARMS in 2005.

condohoaguy.com

June 10
Talking about Is Greenspan trying to cool housing market? - Martin Wolk: Eye on the Economy - MSNBC.com

AG is right to be worried about the housing market. Taking an interest loan or one with an ARM depending upon the trend may expose the mortgage holder to a situation in which they now owe more money then the house is worth.

The next hit comes from these homes reside in Common Interest Communities, CIC, and other owners experience the same thing and no one is paying their association dues. Kindof what I pointed out in my first post..

Quote

Is Greenspan trying to cool housing market? - Martin Wolk: Eye on the Economy - MSNBC.com

Look what I found a blog from me on June 10th 2005 about these ARMS......This was know because I wrote letter and faxed them to the head of the Fed. Greenspan and he never replied.



Technorati Tags: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Loans, Condominiums, HOA, Assessments

Mortgage giants may help borrowers, how about the CIC.

Mortgage giants may help borrowers - Yahoo! News

By MARCY GORDON, AP Business Writer 12 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The heads of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said Tuesday the mortgage finance giants are developing new types of loans to help distressed borrowers with high-risk mortgages keep their homes at a time of rising foreclosures.
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A key federal regulator also urged lenders to step in now and extend flexible terms to struggling homeowners.

Are these lenders going to make the community coffer hole on all the delinquent assessments. Because if they are not paying their mortgage do you think they are paying their Condo or HOA assessments.

And correct me if I am wrong but does not both Fannie and Freddie have underwriting requirements that require loans in a CIC's to have no more than 10 percent of homeowners outstanding in assessments. Even if this gets Fannie and Freddy off the hook on the loan; They are not on the underwriting....It's called a Condo, Coop or HOA certificate and it needs to say 90 percent money in the door.

Gee I have not been writing, calling, speaking with most of the major elected officials on the hill and today not one of them as done a dam thing.......I can't wait to see them showing up in their home states explaining how they missed this bit of oversight.

Please go visit the score card of the mass medias coverage on this growing scandel.

Technorati Tags: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Loans, Condominiums, HOA, Assessments

What you can do.

Well what are we going to do with the ecological and monetary disasters that we are allowing, creating, ignoring and taxing?

1.
What is your Federal Government doing about this problem?
2.
How about your local Government what are they doing?
3.
The CIC Industry and social leaders, are they doing anything?

Answers to 1-3 =Nothing

What can you do.

o
Write your Elected Representatives or click here to see list of all members of the US House or Representatives.
o
Rate your management company. - coming soon
o
Download a sample letter to write to your elected representatives.
o
Fax number for you US Senator's DC office.

Senior CIC Issues

Senior CIC Issues

While these issues face all residents of CIC there are specially hard on seniors because many seniors are on fixed incomes. Moreover the growing expenses in running a CIC and the typical burden of having to pay increased mediacal bills Senior CIC are not making the repairs or replacing worn out infrastructure –which can lead to the community losing value and in some cases the resident are forced out because of housing code violations.

Many CIC were never established with an adequate reserve budget to begin with so couple with the fixed income issue of many elder residents this problem is compounded. Responsibility to repair of common property falls on the residents not the county or city government. A special assessments to bring Reserve funds up to adequate levels would be the pratice but the senior do not have the funds to handle this cost.

We are going to have to come up with low interest loans and access to reverse mortages to help fix these outstand issues.

There is no checklist or schedule on when and why CIC need to make repair on his or her property so senior with limited resources are forced to make decisions without having the facts.

In general there is limited board training and even access to board training; so with the growing complexity of running a CIC seniors face these challenges alone. We do not have one university that offers courses on how to run a CIC.

Many seniors are refusing to serve on their boards, which currently must be an owner or relative of the community. We are going to have to come to some kind of compromise on how these boards are going to be run because all CIC face this issues .

CIC are often run by a “professional property managers” while it is not the overall state of mangers –seniors are most vulnerable to less than professional managers. And managers are not responsible to run the board. Once again there is no oversight of how these managers manage a community.

In the case of Investor owners in CIC they are less likely to approve higher assessments, which may be needed to take care of repairs. Because of their need to maximize profits so we go back to problem 1.

We have both reform and educational issues that all residents in CIC face and these concerns need to be addressed and it appears that we as a society are hoping they will go away because there is not many individuals or groups raising alarms or voicing concern about these issues.

WHERE IS THE SENIOR CITIZEN INTEREST GROUPS WHEN IT COME TO CIC PROBLEMS --THEY HAVE REFUSED TO EVEN TAKE OUR CALLS.