Have you called your Senator? LC Kelly sent me a script of a great conversation that she had with one of her Senator’s staffers. Click the link to get and get motivated!
Even though I reported that Senator Dodd is indicating this bill will die in committee, you should still call. The Senator could change his mind, or he could have been misquoted. Also, the folks in Washington DC need to hear from us or they will pretend to know what we think.
Give them a call!
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Yesterday, I sent out an email to a bunch of folks expressing my concerns about this bill. My broker forwarded my email to a contact who is involved in lobbying for the National Association of Realtors (NAR). I don’t have permission to post the entire response, but I will give the synopsis.
It looks like this bill will die in committee because it is not a high priority item for Senator Dodd (chairman). Dodd’s comments appeared in a May 28th release of Inside Regulatory Strategies and these comments indicate that he believes that the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market has reduced predatory practices and 1728 is not really needed at this time.
Evidently, the original language in the bill caused real estate agents to be classified as ‘mortgage originators’ as well as ALL sellers who provide seller financing. NAR was involved in getting the current language to both exclude real estate agents and to provide some exclusion for sellers who provide financing (the 1 in 36 month exclusion).
It sounds like NAR supported seller financing, but could not convince the bill writers to provide a complete exclusion.
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There is quite a bit of email being sent regarding H.R. 1728: Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act (see it yourself). Wendy Patton describes it here.
Bill Bronchick started a thread over at CRE Online stating that he did not think investors had anything to worry about regarding the bill.
Unfortunately, in the followup thread started by James (James 17:16:43 06/09/09), Bill (William Bronchick 11:43:47 06/11/09) reveals another side with the comment:
Licensing, in my opinion, is a good thing. It weeds out competition so I can charge more for my houses. Getting licensed is not that big a deal, a surety bond only costs a few grand. If you don’t want to be licensed, then have a licensed originator do it for a small fee and charge that to the buyer. In fact, you’ve given me an idea – I will get licensed in my state and charge others $1,000 to draft a few documents!
So we went from ‘no problem’ to a limited number of people with licenses (or an extra expense) being able to use seller financing.
Disappointing!
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To use them, or not – that is the question!
Bandit signs are those small signs that are stuck up on telephone poles or staked into the ground. They say things like “we buy houses” or “stop foreclosure”. The plus side seems to be that people do call in response to them. The negative side is they are often illegal.
Tulsa, as well as other cities, have ordinances that restrict the use of signs. Bandit signs can bring you a fine of $100/day per sign.
The questions are:
* would you call in response to one of these signs?
*If you use them, have you been fined?
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