Intown Atlanta Real Estate News
Extreme Makeover - Is It Really Reality… TV ?
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Each week, an average 9.4 million viewers tune in to ABC-TV for what has become a classic formula: Find a struggling family with a heart-tugging story and send them on vacation as an army of volunteers work frantically to replace an existing home with a much nicer and bigger one in just 106 hours. Each episode ends with a dramatic tear-filled tour of the new home, packed with donated furnishings, and outsize extras like a carousel or bowling lanes.
ABC’s popular reality show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” makes dreams come true for needy families. But some people are tapping the equity on their expansive new homes, only to fall behind… and into foreclosure.
The house at 10512 Baldy Mountain Rd. in Sandpoint, Idaho, looks like just another vacant foreclosed home. Some appliances, a bathroom mirror and even the hot tub are missing. The dining room of the three-bedroom house has water damage. But this isn’t your run-of-the-mill problem house. The 3,678-square-foot McMansion is one of a couple of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” homes to fall on hard times. After the cameras have gone, it seems that Homeowners struggle to keep up with their expensive new digs. In most cases, the bigger, more lavish homes have come with bigger utility bills and tax assessments. Some homeowners have even gone as far as to tap into the equity of their super-sized homes only to fall behind on the higher mortgage payments. The show’s producers say they are aware of the problem and are making changes appropriate to current economic reality: downsizing.
Over the past few years, the makeovers got a little out of hand because of competition among home builders aware of the free publicity that came with the show and who tried to outdo previous projects. Today, the average size of the show’s makeovers is 2,800 to 3,000 square feet. (In comparison, a 2005 episode featured a house in Lake City, Ga., that became a 5,300 square-foot English castle boasting five bedrooms, seven bathrooms, five fireplaces and an outdoor kitchen.)
A swimming pool is no longer a must, unless it could be used for therapy. When pools are built, the show explores a well system to help reduce water usage and costs. Lavish landscaping is also out and working with the local environment is in.
Tracy Hutson, an interior designer who has been with “Extreme Makeover” since the beginning, says homes are receiving more earth-friendly products, such as low water-flow toilets and solar panels, curbing the giant electricity bills that caused a hardship for some families. “I think our hearts were in the right place, but we just got carried way”, said Ms. Hutson. Really?!
- Scott Askew
Posted in: Intown Atlanta Real Estate News
How Does The Eyjafjallajokull Glacier’s Volcano Eruption In Iceland Affect US In Atlanta?
Friday, April 16, 2010
Smoke, steam and ash clouds rose from the volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull (pronounced ay-yah-FYAH’-plah-yer-kuh-duhl) glacier in Iceland starting the first week in April but most violently on Wednesday, April 14th. The resulting ash clouds drifted across Europe and caused the largest international airspace shutdown in years and threatened to choke air travel for days and pose problems for months.
Because volcanic ash can cause engine failure in airplanes, civil aviation authorities shut down airports across northern and western Europe on ‘tax day’, Thursday, April 15th, as the cloud drifted across the Continent. Cancellations scrambled flight plans as far south as Italy and Spain.
U.S. carriers canceled about 165 flights on April 15th, or half of their daily traffic to and from Europe - which typically passes near Iceland.
Experts say it is impossible to predict how long the volcano will continue to erupt or at what intensity. Even if the volcano stops spewing dust today, flights will remain disrupted for several days because planes and crews are out of place. If you remember, after Sept. 11, 2001 - the last time authorities closed such a broad swath of airspace - it took U.S. carriers almost a week to get their schedules near normal. (I remember far too we…My wife is a Delta Flight Attendant and spent 5 days in Nova Scotia after her London-to-Atlanta flight on 9/11 was re-routed.)
But how does this affect Atlanta?
Ever heard of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport? Hartsfield in a major cog in the Atlanta economic engine. In addition, this disruption could be particularly painful to carriers such as British Airways and Scandinavian Airline, which are already facing heavy financial losses and count on Atlanta, New York and Cincinnati as their U.S. ‘gateways’. If these airlines suffer, we all will suffer in some form or fashion. Perhaps by higher ticket prices due to less competition. Perhaps by not being able to get a seat on a plane the day that suits our schedule best due to less airline options. Perhaps by putting more folks in the unemployment line.
Earth is a small planet and seems to get smaller each and every day. We all need to live peacefully and work together to make our planet a better place.
Posted in: Intown Atlanta Real Estate News
30 Days and GFE Changes
Thursday, April 01, 2010
Thirty Days. Only 30 days. That is how many days remain for you and your friends to locate and place ‘Under Contract’ a new primary home if you/they want to take advantage of the Federal Government’s Historic Tax Credit.
When you do go to the closing table to give a Seller money so he/she will give you the keys to your new abode, one of the documents you will review and endorse will be a ‘Good Faith Estimate’. “No problem, I’ve seen those before”, you say. But, wait! The government introduced a new GFE form that is longer a more complex than those of the past.
First of all, a ‘Good Faith Estimate’ summarizes the terms of the loan you obtain, gives escrow information, and lists estimated settlement charges. You are to be given this document shortly after applying for a mortgage so you can hold the lender accountable so you do not have any large ‘surprises’ at the closing table.
At the closing, a ‘new’ GFE is presented to you which should show exactly the estimates the lender gave you when you applied and the actual costs. Some of these costs should match-up exactly; others are given up to a 10% ‘adjustment allowance’.
At a closing, make sure you bring your original GFE. It may save you money!
Posted in: Intown Atlanta Real Estate News
Years after Loan Default, Homeowners May Still Owe
Friday, March 26, 2010
Homeowners defaulting on mortgages today may be surprised to learn years from now that they still owe thousands of dollars - and a collection agency is coming after them to get it.
“How is that possible?” you ask. Because lenders have been quietly selling second mortgages and home equity lines left unpaid after foreclosures and short sales. The buyers: collection agencies!
But what makes matters even scarier… these agencies can wait however long the term of the loan is to sue (15 years, 30 years, etc. whatever the term is) plus an additional 6 years after that.
Once obtained, a judgment is good for 7 years and can be renewed twice for up to a total of 21 years. So, if you have 20 years left on a second mortgage, the holder of that note could, theoretically, sue you on it 26 years from now (20 plus 6) in the year 2036. The judgment would then be good for up to 21 years from then, which brings us to the year 2057. (I would be 101 years old by then…)
Now, I don’t know that anyone would wait around that long to do this, but they could per current laws.
People who only had a first mortgage on the house in which they lived generally have little to worry about. But borrowers who defaulted not only on their first mortgage but also on a home equity loan or second mortgage are in peril. So, unless something changes, this may cause an ominous, looming echo of today’s real estate meltdown for decades.
This is a lucrative business and investors are coming out of the woodwork. Real estate insiders and financial players are calling it “scratch and dent.”
Owners are generally, but not always, on the hook for the second loans left over from a foreclosure or short sale. Most investor mortgages, too, leave the borrower liable for potential unpaid debt. In many short sales, experienced short sale specialists who have a mortgage license or attorneys can negotiate away debt obligations for the second mortgage. But many inexperienced borrowers don’t know that, and sign final-hour agreements giving lenders the right to pursue them later.
As you may have heard, currently it is a Federal crime for non-mortgage licensees to negotiate with Lenders. So, it is in an agent’s best interest to refer them to a real estate attorney or a mortgage mitigation specialist for advice and to negotiate with the Seller’s mortgage holders. And let the agent do what we do best - sell homes.
Finally - Government forces have moved to limit potential damage to millions now struggling with home loans. A new short sale program aims to prevent banks that hold second-lien loans from pursuing collections from homeowners after the short sale. It goes into effect April 5, 2010 and works this way: Sellers will receive notice that their servicer has steered part of the sales proceeds to secondary lien holders “in exchange for release and full satisfaction of their liens.” However, this release would apply only to short sales done through the administration’s Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives program. Lenders could not seek court judgments to collect from these borrowers in the event of foreclosure or short sales.
- Scott Askew
Posted in: Intown Atlanta Real Estate News
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