MISCELLANEOUS COMMENTS ABOUT THE FINANCIAL CRISIS, REAL ESTATE, MORTGAGES AND OTHER RAMBLINGS



Monday, May 24, 2010

More HOA Woes...

My mother-in-law recently ran into a problem with her Home Owner's Association. Again. This time, it was not an increase in fees or decrease in services or whatever. It was a lack of communication from the HOA to the property owners.

The HOA never paid the bill for the trash disposal service. They were not required to pay, so they didn't. However, instead of informing the property owners that they would have to pay for the disposal service themselves, they just kept silent. No invoices were sent. No mail notifications. Nothing.

So what happened ? She put her recycle bin and trash bin out to be emptied one day, and the the disposal service TOOK HER BINS...

She had to find out the hard way to whom and where to send the check to pay for the service, just so she could get her trash receptacles back and empty her trash.

Now this is pretty benign, but I wondered why HOA's are so notorious for being uncooperative. Maybe it's a power trip. Maybe it's because the property owners are just bad, and the HOA is just tired of dealing with them. All property owners and tenants can't be that bad, can they ?

Problem is, HOA property management companies seem to all to be the same - awful. Why is that ?

Well, I have not found the definitive answer to the question, but I did come across an article written online by Yahoo! Finance about the "10 Things a Homeowners Association Won't Tell You". It's horrifying.

I just thought I would forward the article to those who have clients that are purchasing properties with Home Owner Associations - pass this information on to them. It's good for the homeowner to know what kind of difficulties they could run across with their HOA in the future.

I will continue my quest to find the answers, but in the meantime - Home Owner Beware...

Thursday, May 20, 2010

GA DBF Allows MLO's to work until July 31st Unlicensed

The Georgia Dept. of Banking and Finance has a press release today that states the Dept. will allow Mortgage Loan Originators (MLO's) to continue working unlicensed until end of business July 31, 2010.

That's a relief, because this will allow those MLO's that may have one or another issue concerning license approval a bit of extra time to get things straightened out before the deadline. I was told by more than one party that the deadline was June 30. The extra 30 days should be good news to all MLO's.

If you are a MLO who is currently working with a Georgia licensed bank (non FDIC) or mortgage broker but you did not meet the April 16, 2010 MLO application deadline, the Georgia DBF will process your application on a First Come, First Served basis. This could be a potential problem, because after July 31st, you will not be able to originate until your licensed is approved...

Moral of this blog - Get your MLO applications in as soon as possible !! There appears to be a little more time available to get it done, without a lapse in employment and compensation.

Otherwise your going to have to allow others with licenses to originate your deals...

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Strategic Default

Unfortunately, the public and homeowners are being bombarded with all kinds of conflicting information, as well as disinformation.

Along with the 60 Minutes segment on Strategic Default, Roger Lowenstein, a New York Times Magazine contributor, wrote an article for the magazine that was published on January 10, 2010 titled "Walk Away From Your Mortgage!".

I do not know how many subscribers the NY Times magazine has, but you can bet millions of people have read this article.

Until there is consensus throughout our society on what should be done and how to handle the current housing/foreclosure/financial crisis - mass confusion will continue at every level. Foreclosures have moved from a homeowner/bank problem to a social problem...

You can view the 60 Minutes segment on Strategic Default right here:


Watch CBS News Videos Online

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

O'Brien Versus Leno

Welcome...

This is my first stab at web logging or, in today's terms "blogging". Never done this before. I thought I would start off with something benign and easy.

Then I watched the Conan O'Brien 60 minutes interview. And I am not happy about what's happened. I like Jay Leno. I have spent hours watching "Jay Leno's Garage" videos on YouTube. He's a car guy's car guy, and I love cars. But I do think Mr. O'Brien being forced out of his job as the "Tonight's Show" host because of Leno's ego is just wrong. I think O'Brien just got the bad end of the deal, if you know what I mean.

It's just that it seems the small guy is always getting crushed, or tossed, or is forced into obscurity (although Conan's $30+ million settlement deal to leave is nothing to sneeze at).

With the current financial crisis, it just seems that the "big guys" always win, whether they are going gang busters and making record breaking profits, or totally trash their business, just so the little guy (tax payers) can bail them out.

The little guy (tax payers) is being crushed when things are good (where do you think the profits come from ?) and being used as a safety net when things are bad.

I see the O'Brien/Leno debacle as a metaphor of what looms very large in American Society today. And I don't particularly care for it...

What do you think ?