Landlords. when renting a unit/property do you provide and document an EPA lead paint disclosure pamphlet? If you don’t you are placing yourself at serious risk.
The EPA is on a crusade, and you are the target.
The EPA has levied fines of as much as $40,000 for failure to kneel at their altar.
Read the story.
When Reuters finally figures something out we should all sit up and take notice.
Reuters has discovered that the blizzard of foreclosure laws, which were intended to solve the foreclosure problem actually caused more harm than they did good.
Nevada’s AB 284 is the case in point. When AB 284 went into effect foreclosure action ground to a halt. The banks were fearful of doing what needed to be done. Consequently, the needed cure was delayed and the crisis was prolonged.
Notice of Default Filings
The government caused the foreclosure crisis. And now the government set out to fix the crisis. And whenever the government gets involved we can be sure that the government’s solution will be much worse than the original government induce problem.
When legislators attempt to protect the homeowner who hadn’t paid his bills they actually harm the lender and anyone that may want to get a loan in the future. Why would a lender make a loan where the legislature could just declare that the loan never needs to be repaid?
“Many state laws that stretch out the period for legitimate foreclosures result in no added benefit for the homeowner and produce harm to the housing finance system and to neighborhoods,” said Alfred Pollard, general counsel to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, at a House of Representatives oversight hearing in March.
Ricky Beach, a Reno real estate agent thinks the law killed the market in the Reno-Sparks area.
Ricky Beach, a real estate agent in Reno, Nevada, said the new law, AB 284, “has pretty much killed the market here.” The lack of foreclosure activity has led to a dearth of inventory, he said, with the number of homes for sale in the area down to 778 today from more than 1,700 in September.
And,
“The bill did nothing to solve the crisis – it’s just prolonged it,” Beach said. “Sooner or later the banks will work out how to deal with the law. And then foreclosures will hit the market, and prices will crash back down.”
Malik Ahmad, a Las Vegas attorney agrees:
Malik Ahmad, a Las Vegas foreclosure defense lawyer who has spent the last six years trying to help vulnerable borrowers deal with unscrupulous banks, said the law had completely changed his view of the nature of the crisis.
“This law has become a mockery,” Ahmad said. “I am now turning down clients every day who I know have no intention of ever trying to pay their mortgage. They just want to stay in their homes for free. And that is a bad situation for everyone, lenders and homeowners.”
Read more here.
We were well informed about the solar eclipse this evening, long in advance.
I had done nothing to prepare except to find myself a comfy chair and a glass of wine. It was an added bonus to watching the sun set.
Solar Eclipse Amidst the Clouds.
What would you do if you had just lost your job? You did not want welfare? How cheaply could you live? Do you think you could live in a 168 square foot house? Along with 3 other family members. What would you be willing to do to get out or stay out of debt?
This family built their house for $12,000 and then managed to save for their next larger home. I cheer them on and wonder if I could do it myself.
Do you remember the problems with Chinese drywall. It was making a lot of people sick and I think caused some corrosion and discoloration of the walls.
I think it happened mostly in the South. I didn’t hear of any cases here in Nevada.
Well the wonderful Chinese quality control is on display once again.
Imported Chinese copper pipe already blamed for leaks in hundreds of new homes, may not even be manufactured from copper and could installing copper pipe pose serious toxic health risks, according to a U.S. consumer watchdog group.
This time it happens to be the copper plumbing is failing. Apparently the copper is not all copper. You know that real copper is expensive and the manufacturers managed to slip in a bit of less costly metal along with the copper.
The Chinese manufactured pipes are being found as defective after they begin to slowly leak in crawl spaces under homes and in basements. Standard homeowners’ insurance policies do not cover the damage since policies don’t typically cover defective materials used in the construction of homes.
Apparently this time the problem is occurring nationwide.
Read more: http://www.housingpredictor.com/2012/new-toxic-scare.html
If you ever bought or even tried to buy a short sale you are aware of the problems and difficulty in completing the transaction. You might have wondered, “how could the banks be so obstinate?”
We now learn that even though the banks may have been difficult to work with, much of the problem came from the government in the name of Freddie Mac. “But, I thought the government wanted to help us,” you say.
Freddie went out of their way to paint the investors as the enemy. They issued policy letters describing potential mortgage fraud with the intention of making the investor out to be the criminal. The only problem was that Freddie itself was the real fraudster.
The truth is that Freddie Mac actually placed their bets against the housing crisis actually ever getting solved. Freddie made money whenever they were able to stop a short sale. Freddie benefited whenever the rest of us lost.
For more than a year, Freddie Mac has adopted numerous policies designed to prevent the private purchase of toxic assets and forced servicers to enforce these policies. Demands for unreasonable offers on short sales, delays in processing short sales, affidavits preventing resale of their properties after being rehabbed and deed restrictions on real-estate-owned properties restricting resale price are among the myriad obstacles private buyers face in trying to buy Freddie’s inventory.
Besides delaying the unwinding of the troubled entity, several of these policies may in fact be illegal. Restricting the ability of private buyers to resell their properties and attempting to dictate resale value constitute unreasonable restraint on alienation. In plain English, once Freddie sells one of its toxic assets, it has no standing in future transactions related to the property.
Freddie has attempted to justify these policies through a taxpayer-funded media campaign arguing that the act of buying, rehabbing and reselling a property constitutes a crime and is inherently an act of fraud. Both Freddie and Fannie Mae have worked with enforcement officials to convince them of this lie. To the embarrassment of these enforcement officials, Freddie left out one important detail: Every time it stopped a short sale, Freddie made money.
We can expect a large increase on foreclosure activity this year. At least, that’s what the LA Times thinks. Foreclosure activity has been suppressed because the lenders have been focusing on getting their act together. Here in Nevada they face an added burden of AB 284 which forces them to certify that all their paperwork is in order.
But, they are beginning to work through their backlog so we can expect an increase in activity.
The state’s difficulties were reflected in RealtyTrac’s report, which showed California with the third-highest incidence of foreclosure filings in 2011, behind only Nevada and Arizona.
Analysts also expect CA to stabilize quickly due to their fairly fast timeline. Nevada, on the other hand, is hampered by the effect of AB-284.
Here’s another “best of”, “worst of” list and Reno wins another prize. It may not be the prize that Reno would like on its resume although it’s not necessarily our fault. It is not just a story about Reno or Northern Nevada. This is an American problem, and I believe it was completely caused by politicians.
This is a list from 24/7 Wall St. of 9 cities that the article claims were nearly destroyed by the recession. Reno was scored in second place.
2. Reno-Sparks, NV
> Pct. jobs recovered: 1.6%
> Q4 2012 jobs: 187,600
> Pre-recession jobs peak: 225,200
> Recession jobs trough: 187,000
> Pct. jobs lost: 16.9%Between 2007 and 2010, the median home value in Reno-Sparks, Nevada declined 37.4%, the 13th biggest drop in the country among metro areas. The problems of the recession have plagued states in the southwest, which once had booming housing markets, arguably more than any other part in the country. From the beginning of 2007 to the third quarter of this year, jobs are projected to decline by 38,200, or 16.9% of the workforce. And according to the report, only 600 jobs, a mere 1.6%, will be recovered by the end of the year.
Read more: http://247wallst.com/2012/01/19/the-nin-cities-that-havent-recovered-from-the-recession/
Foreclosure starts are down all across the West Coast for December. Reduced filings were reported in California, Nevada and Washington. Nevada showed drops of 14%.
According to ForeclosureRadar the drops were due to the closing of trustee sale locations in California. Riverside County passed an ordinance prohibiting solicitation on all County property. California law only specifies that the location must be within the County where the property is located and must be published in the Notice of Sale. Nevada law states
2. All sales of real property must be made:
(a) In a county with a population of less than 100,000, at the courthouse in the county in which the property or some part thereof is situated.
(b) In a county with a population of 100,000 or more, at the public location in the county designated by the governing body of the county for that purpose.
Here in Reno trustee sales are conducted on the steps of the Court House on Virginia Street.
The slow down in Nevada was attributed to AB 284 which established new foreclosure rules requiring the lender and trustee to certify that they have done everything correctly.
“Nevada’s new foreclosure rules appear on track to bring a near complete halt to foreclosures in that state,” said Sean O’Toole, founder and chief executive officer of ForeclosureRadar.
“In the near term this will certainly help homeowners who were facing foreclosure, eviction, and potentially deficiency judgements. Longer term, we believe there will be unintended consequences for the state as business declines for the many real estate related companies that would normally service, resell and finance those foreclosures.”
Are you a part of the informal economy? Do you do things outside of a formal work structure. Do you get paid in cash, under the table? Do you buy and sell using Craigslist, eBay or other routes? Do you ever hire the day laborers hanging out on Galletti Way?
The governments (Federal, State & Local) frown on this sort of behavior. After all, how would they get their cut. And, perhaps even more, how can they regulate and control you?
Here is a story of an itinerant New York City candy vendor who makes upwards of $150/day selling candy in the subway. It’s also a report on some of the facts of life about this segment of the economy.
It’s estimated that about 60% of all working people on earth work in an informal economy. A great benefit is seen because the independent entrepreneurs are not sitting on welfare or collecting food stamps.
What do you think? Would we be better off if this were legal?