City of Tacoma ~
Side Sewer Inspection Requirement Postponed Until October 1, 2010
The City of Tacoma passed an emergency ordinance last night that postpones the effective date of the new side sewer inspection requirement from July 1, 2010 to October 1, 2010. Beginning on October 1, 2010, Tacoma property owners are required to have a certified inspection of their private side sewers prior to the sale or transfer of a home or business, major remodel, or any construction over an existing side sewer. More information about the requirement is available on City of Tacoma’s website.
I’ll be interested to know how they expect things like this to be paid for in short sale and bank owned properties.
Over the past 10 years when the go-go markets of real estate were flying high and lots of people were jumping into the real property investment pool, not too many people worried about the consequences of losses. It was an easy game where everyone was making what they thought was easy money - who cared if the property didn’t cash-flow for a few years, you’d just hold onto it for 2-3 years and then flip it for a much higher appreciated value. Or, if you’d owned the property longer than since 2000 you could pull out equity and utilize it for more investment purchases, buying expensive personal toys like boats, flat-screen TV’s, and more. Well, in mid-2007 those days came to an end.
What we’ve been seeing since then are a lot of investment properties (1-4 units, small multi-family, small and large commercial) coming on market that are in distressed condition, meaning, the owners are in default or they’ve lost so much money over time paying out to subsidize the monthly losses of negative cash-flow that the individual(s) is in their own financial distress having burned through their other assets to maintain this one. In many cases the properties are coming back on market at prices below what the seller purchased them for so usually there is a short sale involved. In these cases, if there is forgiven debt then there are typically tax consequences involved. Some folks who are familiar with what are called tax deferred exchanges may wonder if perhaps using one of these programs might help avert the tax consequence of an investment short sale.
Read this link from OREXCO 1031 Exchange to get the info on whether or not foreclosures, deed-in-lieu, and/or short sales qualify.
Here is a link to my “August Real Estate Update“:
This Newsletter is full of interesting and useful information that I think you will enjoy whether you are a buyer, seller, homeowner, or renter.
This month’s issue includes topics such as:
“Five Keys To Successful Negotiations”;
“How to Recognize a Sellers Market”;
“Most Neighbors Still Connect The Old Fashioned Way”;
“Making Your Home Appealing On A Budget”;
“Final Walk-Through Tips”;
Plus a roundup of July real estate activity as well as much more advice and information.
I hope you enjoy this monthly newsletter. If you have any comments, please e-mail them to me. Or, if you would like to see a certain topic covered in future months, let me know that too!
When I saw this posting on the REALTOR.com weekly newsletter I didn’t really think that the Seattle and Tacoma areas would be on this list, but there we are - this isn’t necessary a list being in order of which place is better but just the top 10 overall:
- Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.
- Washington, D.C.
- Boston, Mass.
- Pittsburgh, Pa.
- Baltimore-Towson, Md.
- Denver, Colo.
- Hartford, Conn.
- New York
- Seattle-Tacoma, Wash.
- Buffalo-Niagara Falls, N.Y.
South Park Bridge Wake Event click on this link to access the PDF file with all of the details of the event.
Meet up at 14th & Cloverdale from 6-10pm.
6pm - event begins
630pm - Duwamish Tribal Drums lead procession
659-7pm - moment of silence
7-720pm - bag pipes for final raising of the leaves
730-8pm - New Orleans funeral band
8-830pm - Latino roots/folk band
9-930pm - Baby Gramps Blues
lots of other fun things will be going on at this event with food and entertainment available for all.
As the flyer puts it, “The bridge may have died, but South Park LIVES!”
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The folks at Inman released the news that the House has approved an extension of the closing timeline for 1st time buyers and move-up buyers to get the tax credits offered for purchasing during the specified time limit. However, we’re still waiting for final news that the Senate has also approved it. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for it, but in the meantime all of the escrow offices I know are working full-tilt to get as many contracts closed today as they humanely can do.
Some of the frustrations that home buyers have experienced are that a large amount of the sales going on today involve either bank owned or short sale transactions - both of which aren’t always following the deadlines put to them in real estate contracts. With short sales taking, on average, around 6 months or more to close these types of transactions have really strangled the buyers who are trying to purchase them, if they were going for the tax credit.
At Team Reba we’ve seen the reality of the concerns that buyers have had with at least one listing having had a contract cancelled due to concerns that the buyer wouldn’t be able to close in time for the tax credit. Now it’s too bad that they did so since the extension is likely here. We also had another contract where we had to push hard on behalf of our buyer because the family was purchasing a bank owned home where the Trustee and the bank were slow to respond on every deadline and request for documentation, taking upwards of 3.5 months to close the deal. We just closed that transaction last week, much to the relief of our clients.
For the rest of you out there waiting to get your closing done today, you might cross your fingers, toes and legs and knock on wood - let’s hope the Senate gets moving on this bill.
The REALTOR.org site has links to stories that cover these items. For different types of Fannie Mae backed loans there are new underwriting guidelines to help mitigate risk on these loans which means that for the public they’ll be harder to get. Not impossible, but more documentation and stricter guidelines for qualify.
Specifically, Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) loans are addressed with regard to qualifying standards (ie, customers must qualify at the adjusted rate, not the teaser/start rate) and interest only loans (yes, they still exist)now require a minimum 720 FICO credit mid-score.
Happy reading!
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