This home is in Snohomish and is probably familiar to a few who visit the area or live in the community.
Homes that seem made for Halloween
Historic homes made for Halloween
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Author Archives: Tim
Distressed property rental income: Who’s money is it when a home goes into default?
This is both a legal question and an ethical issue.
I’ve bumped into this, not in the workplace, but out looking at property : A home that is in process of either a short sale or heading to foreclosure has tenants. It is not that a homeowner does not have a right to rent a home or even part of their home, but when a homeowner is involved in a short sale, is in arrears (default), most lenders require substantial paperwork from the owner justifying their hardship. My guess is that the rental income could be kept under the radar. Many homes in default are the result of job loss or other hardship due to medical reasons or other life issues. In some cases though, defaults are a result of excessive equity withdrawal from serial refinancing.
Homeowners in a short sale are typically not allowed any proceeds from the sale as a condition of approval. But, if the homeowner is receiving rental income from the property, should that money be forfeited to the lender to help cure the debt?
I have not been able to find the languange in a standard Washington State Deed of Trust form, but I thought I read somewhere that rents are collectible by the lender to help cure the debt when a default has occurred. I could be very mistaken.
Collaboration: The important DNA in any small business
Collaboration: Do you have this DNA in your small business? Is it part of your mission statement or mantra?
This is not so much an insight into how a successful real estate transaction comes to fruition as much as it is a testimony of what makes any task, job, objective or goals conclude with a positive outcome. Whether you are in the military and command a small unit of soldiers or, what I commonly describe the role of a Realtor as, “the Conductor
Mukilteo Real Estate: #10 best community in America by Money Magazine
This past week I retrieved my latest issue of Money Magazine from the mailbox and was pleasantly surprised to find that Money Magazine ranked the seaside community of Mukilteo as among the very best communities to live in. Ranked number ten in the country by the magazine, the town offers spectacular views of the Puget Sound, the Olympics, and the Cascades if your home is situated to look east. Among the reasons to consider living in Mukilteo were the good schools and lower property taxes when comparing to other communities in the study.
In today’s market, when you consider the housing price pullback, community, schools, employment and intangibles, Snohomish County offers some of the very best real estate in the Northwest.
I can certainly attest to the spectacular setting in Mukilteo. While waiting for the Ferry to sign some clients on Whidbey Island this past Spring (one of the perks of being in the escrow business is traveling to different communities) I took some pictures of the “glass-like” water scenery (can be very rough) in the morning. I’ve never seen any portion of the Puget Sound water so calm.
Mukilteo Ferry Landing & Lighthouse -Photo Copyright Tim S. Kane 2009
Mukilteo Ferry at Ivars Fish Bar - Photo Copyright Tim S. Kane 2009
Mukilteo Ferry & Fishermen - Photo Copyright Tim S Kane 2009
Snohomish Kla Ha Ya Days festival this weekend
If you like any of the following then make time to visit Historic Snohomish this weekend during the Kla Ha Ya Days Festival:
- Music
- Friends, people watching
- 80 degree weather
- Parades
- Historic downtown shops and eateries
- Hot-Rod cars (Sunday event)
- Food (Salmon, Fish n Chips, Burgers, Ice Cream, Pizza, Thai food etc…)
- Aircraft
- Hot-Air balloons
- Skydivers
- absolutely gorgeous Snohomish Valley
Car Show - Photo by Brian Thompson Photography
Harvey Airfield
Tonight (Friday) offers a treat for family night at Harvey Airfield featuring “Balloon Glow-Fire in the Sky” event with live Bands and a fireworks show at 10pm. So, pull out the Harley Davidson from the garage and bike on over to Snohomish for the Kla Ha Ya Days (schedule) festival going on full throttle this weekend. It’s a great community and one that residents and future residents are sure to enjoy.
Saturday is the grand parade sponsored by my friend and fellow Seattle Pacific University Alum, Brad McDaniel of Snohomish’ McDaniel’s Do-It-Center.
Snohomish Valley Summer 09' - Courtesy Snohomish-Today.com
Tonight watch the Fire in the Sky Hot Air-Balloon event at Harvey Airfield and at 10pm you will be dazzled by a fireworks show.
Snohomish Skydivers July '09 - Courtesy Snohomish-Today.com
Settlement Statement: Is the interest rate of the Note disclosed on the form?
It is routine for escrow departments of title companies and independent escrow firms to provide a Settlement Statement to a loan officer (and agents) prior to making appointments with clients to sign their paperwork. Once loan documents are received by escrow the closing staff move to get this accomplished as quickly as possible. This is done for a variety of reasons but mostly to assist in ironing out any discrepancies prior to meeting with the client.
If you reconciled a “yes,” the interest rate is on the Settlement Statement, you are correct. So, where is it:
- Line 901 of the Settlement Statement
- If a borrower has a loan, it is on Line 901 to calculate interest (see screenshot)
Can this be missed even after escrow receives a HUD approval “green light,” “all OK,” “call the borrowers to make an appointment?” Unfortunately, yes. Hopefully this post will assist consumers and those in the business that were unaware that this is on the Settlement Statement and to prevent situations where escrow is meeting a client at their home at 8pm to sign docs and hear the client remark, “this is not the rate/program we were quoted.”
Spring Home Improvement: Deck maintenance
One of the things I enjoy about home improvement is trying out different products so see how they stand up to our Northwest climate. The project that my wife and I knew was on our top five to-do list was to remove an on-grade slab of concrete which was our patio. When we purchased our home the only access to the outside patio was through the garage door or walking around the house–a real drag that we had to change. After we installed an Anderson sliding door from the kitchen and dining area for easy access to the back yard where the concrete patio was, we put our savings in high gear for our on-grade deck where we could lounge and watch the scenery and enjoy our Summer-like weather we are now experiencing.
Spring 09' Copyright Tim Kane
I’ve repaired, cleaned and stained numerous decks for family and friends and after considering what products seemed to work well and what types of decks gave me the most frustration in repairing or maintaining, we settled on a composite deck system by Xtendex sold at retailers around Puget Sound. This decking is extremely dense and has a wood-grain feature that is embossed into the board lengths during the manufacturing process. My initial concern was that this would wear away, but after three years it still looks very good.
We purchased our deck and railing system at Dunn Lumber. The color that worked best for us was Redwood. I’ll be the first to admit this deck has taken a beating both with fireworks landing on it (and being launched from thanks to a creative son), numerous food spills, ice, snow (and me shoveling it off with…a shovel), and deck furniture. This past Fall and Winter weather was as brutal as I can remember since we’ve lived in our home. A lot of grime and dirt built up since last Spring when it was last cleaned.
Grime vs clean
See the pictures of how clean this deck looks after three seasons. I used a mild detergent and then pressure washed the decking. About 750 sq. ft was cleaned in about 90 minutes start to finish. I couldn’t help but look at my neighbors house (Joy, I hope you don’t read this post and if you do I’ll buy you a Mocha) where their decking looked haggard, worn and peeling paint everywhere. To have a wood deck refurbished, stained and railings painted would cost a bundle and the refurbish cycle would have to be close to every other year depending upon the quality of the materials, workmanship and finish. Washing down our decking is about the only maintenance I have to look forward to for a number of years. I we had to do anything all over again it would be to change the fastening system from what we have (Stainless Steel Top screws) to a hidden fastening system.
Detergent w/ pressure washing
clean deck
Good luck to all the D-I-Y ‘s this Spring and Summer.
County recording office closures creating frustration
The past couple of days our escrow office has received several phone calls from frustrated loan officers handling both purchase and refinance transactions. The frustration has come about due to the county recording office closures and furlough dates. Contact your escrow or title office to confirm closure and furlough dates/times. In Snohomish County they have recently indicated that the entire excise, recording and Dept. of Licensing floor will be closed during lunch time, in addition to their shortened hours and closure dates.
Much of the frustration has been directed at loan officers and escrow. Both escrow AND title offices have for months been active both calling on offices and online via website and blogs sounding the alarm about the impact of county office closures for agents writing purchase and sale agreements.
Behold, I give you some relief to help assist your buyers and sellers through tomorrow’s (May 22nd, 2009) county closures for recording sales and also being that recording offices are closed on Memorial Day.
From your very own NWMLS Form 21 purchase and sale agreement it appears (I’m not giving advice nor am I an attorney giving advice) that the contract is NATURALLY giving you an extension whether or not you were aware of it.
Computation of Time
Paragraph “I
ING Bank suing under RICO statutes to recover losses by alleged local real estate fraud ring.
Here is the article from the Seattle Times.
Excerpt:
In one deal, the bank loaned a borrower $935,000 to buy a Tacoma house for $1.35 million — a house that, according to the real-estate Web site Zillow, is valued higher than 99 percent of homes in its ZIP code. Nationwide Home Lending was paid nearly $30,000 in fees on that loan.
I’ve just dropped an entire commentary I wrote within this post regarding the fantasy idea some people believe that our local area is somewhat insulated from the garbage and degenerates destroying our markets and economy due to greed and fraud.
In essence, my post can be wrapped up in these questions:
- Ethically, is this industry too far gone to recover any resemblance of credibility, trust and moral foundation?
- How will the real estate brokers weed out the bad actors? We know DFI is going after loan officers and others.
Fortunately, I know and work with quite a few agents and loan officers who genuinely try to do their very best for their customers. Unfortunately, many of them and others who work in real estate are caught in the enormous wake of the problems the fraudsters have created.
Is it possible we are at the bottom?
***Updated/Revised 4:30pm 02/08/2009 PST: Here is the link to the “Memorandum” (.pdf document) showing how this mortgage broker, in his own words, fraudulently originated millions in loans and how the fallout will plague our economy. Big thanks goes to blogger “Scotsman” for the getting the document to me.
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This is how is it possible………..we may not be at the bottom.
Ardell, I share your hope. My hope for change is that real estate and lending industry comes to grips with how out of control the core players were that led us to the crisis we are in. If we all point incriminating fingers to other people in our industry from escrow people to mortgage brokers to agents to Wall Street, pretty soon there’s nobody else to point to. It circles back to all the players who participated. Too simple of an explanation of a complex problem? Maybe. But, it’s fix has got to start with people in the trenches who are transacting the sales and arranging the financing.
But my hope and Country fight an uphill battle because of people such as Christopher Warren, the mortgage fraudster who wrote the above missive, “how is it possible”. Christopher Warren skipped out of the country on a private plane this past Monday.
See his incredibly clear picture of what is facing our markets by his “memorandum.” (.pdf document).
If one man’s expose of what went on in lending by one person does not make you pale, then I don’t know what will.
An excerpt from Christopher Warren’s “how it is possible:”
- That CITI Mortgage didn’t catch correspondents Mortgage Bank of California and Bondcorp Realty Services over-financing over $30,000,000 in bad mortgages with cash-back purchases for straw buyer groups? How many of these loans are already now owned by our government, tax-payer subsidized, FNMA and Freddie Mac?
- That GMAC Mortgage LLC., bought over $3,000,000 in mortgages secured in the Orlando Academy Cay Club aka “The Greens