Every big-time banker saw Angelo Mozilo sell off stock and pocket $17 million per week during the final sunset of Countrywide, and then he walked with immunity. Who doesn’t want that package?
These people think they are above the law, and the way the feds ended this chapter will only make other bankers want to hatch their own scheme.
P.S. The long-time Wells Fargo employee who ran the scam was not prosecuted. On no, instead she walked with $125 million in stock options.
Manuela Manetta went to the Seattle Street Food Festival last month thinking about Afghani naan bread and hot dogs. She came home with a new condo.
While walking through the festival, the 33-year-old squash coach stumbled upon a booth hosted by the sales team for Nexus, a high-rise condo with a daring design that starts construction in November in downtown Seattle. The booth had a lounge area, along with architectural models and video tours with renderings of the building. Ms. Manetta and her partner put down a deposit for a $350,000 one-bedroom unit. “It was completely out of the blue,” says Ms. Manetta, who currently lives in a condo in Seattle’s Belltown district.
In all, seven condos were reserved for pre-sales by the Nexus team over the festival weekend and following Monday, according to the sales team. The building, which will have 374 homes ranging from the low $300,000s to $3 million, is scheduled for completion in mid-2019.
Real-estate developers and brokers are increasingly using food festivals, private dinner parties and other epicurean events to sell high-end homes. The affluent tend to be food enthusiasts with cosmopolitan tastes, they say. Food festivals in particular, which bring together communities, tap into a need for social affiliation that helps sell homes, says Joseph Sirgy, a real-estate professor of marketing at Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business.
“Food and wine is the new golf,” says W. Bryan Byrne, sales director at Palmetto Bluff, a 20,000-acre development in Bluffton, S.C., where homes range from the $800,000s to $6 million; homesites start at $150,000 and can top $2 million.
Kaaboo is having its second annual blowout at the Del Mar Fairgrounds this weekend. The cool people are going on Saturday to see bands like Aerosmith (who I saw at Feyline Fields as opening act for Kiss), the Gin Blossoms (from Tempe, AZ, my former hometown for a year), Goo Goo Dolls, Third Eye Blind, and The Chainsmokers.
Me? If I go, it will be on Friday night to see Jimmy Buffett:
Will short-sale agents disclose the tax? Trivia: Jerry Brown’s first term as governor followed Reagan’s last:
Legislation that would have protected homeowners from being taxed on “phantom income” after losing their homes has been vetoed by Gov. Edmund Gerald Brown Jr.
State income tax law generally defines cancelled debt as a form of income. Under current law, those who foreclose on their homes are not taxed, but those who negotiate a short sale with their lender, or re-finance their home, are taxed by the state.
Without the legislation to exclude cancelled debt, many Californians are essentially taxed on money they never received.
The sponsor of the legislation, Cathleen Galgiani, D-Stockton, says she plans to reintroduce the bill at for the 2017-2018 sessions and plans to pursue the policy through the budget process as well.
Another rule-of-thumb on how much to spend on your house:
Maintaining a home, especially an older one, can be expensive—in fact, experts say homeowners should be prepared to spend roughly 1 percent of their home’s value every year on maintenance.
The good news is, you can save on maintenance by completing simple tasks yourself. According to the experts at Underwriters, Inc. these include:
Cleaning the Gutters – To prevent costly damage to your home’s foundation, landscaping and siding, remove debris and leaves from the gutters at least twice a year. Don’t forget gloves and eye protection!
Open Garage Doors Manually – Don’t call a garage technician the next time your power’s out—simply locate the (usually red) cord, suspended from the ceiling-mounted operator, in your garage, and pull it to disconnect the cord from the motor.
Removing Stripped Screws – Avoid causing more damage when screws slip from a screwdriver. Place a rubber band or piece of steel wool over the screw and then try to remove it—if that method fails, use a screw extractor.
Repairing a Leaky Faucet – Leaks can cost hundreds in wasted water. Before you call a plumber, try DIY-ing by shutting off the main water supply, removing the faucet’s knobs, and checking the washers, stems and O-rings for signs of damage. Take these pieces to the hardware store to find exact replacements.
Stop a Running Toilet – Another plumber job you can do yourself! Remove the lid to the tank behind the toilet, and check the flush lever, rubber flapper, lift chain, float ball, pump and overflow tube. A running toilet usually requires just a simple adjustment or replacement to fix.
If you can master these essential homeowner skills, you’ll not only save money on maintenance, but also the expense of more costly fixes in the future.
Sandicor has rolled out their new mobile app for realtors, and it’s a big improvement over the old one. I know it is September, 2016, but this is the first time in history that the MLS has provided us with school information (I’ve been using Zillow for years). The new app also shows nearby comps, and it makes it easy to find out an agent’s sales history too.
If you are interested, Homesnap has a mobile app for the public too. You can take a photo of a house, and get its full history.
Speaking of Sandicor, I have been in conversation with the President of our local association of realtors since I ran the video on Friday (I sent it to her). She is confident that informing the membership is creating positive results, and that the majority of us want a statewide MLS.
She wasn’t keen on my idea of agents joining CRMLS today. She thinks we should work through the proper channels and have Sandicor create agreement with CRMLS and/or the statewide MLS when available. The lawsuit by SDAR is holding that up currently.
I asked about short-sale fraud, and how Sandicor allows the DOM ticker to keep running on short sales which helps to enable agents to commit fraud. She was unaware of the situation, but thought it sounded like a bad thing. I also asked her about the ‘sold before processing’ listings when every agent has signed an agreement to share their listings with the rest of us. She agreed that it was a bad thing too.
One of us isn’t very good at this, but it’s legit – all four of us jumped off the sand about ten years ago. And I don’t have white socks on – those are my feet!
Our local market has been solid as a rock, and we know that banks have quit foreclosing. Could we ever have another distress sale – a seller who doesn’t hold out for their price, but instead takes less in order to cash-out and go?
Can we predict who might take a quick and easy deal?
90 year-olds and up – Those who die intestate will have the public administrator sell their house the right way via an open auction with no reserve and a reasonable opening bid. Many will leave enough meat on the bone for flippers to tack on another 10% to 20%. Nothing to fear there. Or their kids will sell for retail or move in.
70-90 years old – They too own their house outright, and hopefully have family assisting them with decisions. If they had any mortgage balance left, it would be far below the retail value, so these folks are ideal candidates for a reverse mortgage. Because our tax laws favor selling the home after death, these will have their kids quietly put the house on the market once vacant and take a simple deal that is close to list.
50-70 years old – This is the category at risk, and could be the new ‘distressed’ sale for those who still have a loan. If you have 10-29 years left on your mortgage, and your health/job/spouse gives out on you, that monthly payment becomes more of a burden. If nearby home prices have flat-lined or are bouncing around, the allure of cashing out becomes more tempting. If you had to take 5% to 10% under comps, you’d still be selling for a boatload of money, price-wise, and in 30-45 days be on your way to an easier life.
This could happen to folks who have money. If your health/job/spouse gives out on you, it’s a game-changer, and the discomfort with the debt/payment could cause a rash decision.
30-50 years old – You bought in the last ten years, and are in it for the long haul – and the kids aren’t that old. Few sellers in this category.
Under-30 – No sellers this young, and anyone under 30 should buy anything they can get their hands on!
It’s unrealistic to expect a massive outbreak of cheap-and-easy sales that would torpedo a whole market. But it’s possible to see skirmishes in areas where homes were sold 10-20 years ago. If they refinanced in the last 5-10 years, they still have 20+ years left on that mortgage – and that’s a long time for people who are over 60 years old and uncomfortable being in debt.
Debt is a funny thing. As people get older, debt gets more uncomfortable, just because of the calendar – they know time is running out.
Think about it. If you have already considered moving to a less-expensive area, and thought you had $300,000 equity, but then saw two quick-sale comps nearby bring down your equity to $250,000. Your wife splits or you lose your job and you decide to sell.
But the best you could do was $225,000 equity (minus costs).
Do you sell for the discounted price?
Yes, because the outside factors tend to be more important.
