Jun
4
There are several definitions of the word BILL:
- an itemized statement of money owed for goods shipped or services rendered; as in “pay your bill“
- a piece of paper money; as in “dollar bill“
- the entertainment offered at a public presentation; as in “what’s on the bill“
- player for the National Football League team based in Buffalo, NY; as in “Jim Kelly will always be a Buffalo Bill“
- Nickname for William; as in “Bill Clinton“
- a brim that projects to the front to shade the eyes; as in “bill of a baseball cap“
- beak: horny projecting mouth of a bird; as in “pelicans have big bills“
- a statute in draft before it becomes law; as in “I‘m just a bill. Yes, I’m only a bill. And I’m sitting here on Capitol Hill.”
Bill Ritter recently signed five mortgage and foreclosure bills into law. Here’s a rundown of these BILLS from the Rocky Mountain News:
- HB 1322, MEASURE TO PREVENT MORTGAGE FRAUD
- SB 85, PROTECTS CONSUMER REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS
- SB 203, MORTGAGE BROKER LICENSING
- SB 216, MORTGAGE LOAN ACTS PRACTICES
- SB 249, REAL ESTATE TITLE ESCROW SETTLEMENT
Summary: Mortgage brokers and others involved in real estate transactions must act for the benefit of the borrower, including making reasonable inquiries into the borrower’s financial situation and using best efforts to obtain a loan that takes into consideration the borrower’s situation.
Summary: Prohibits brokers from trying to influence the judgment of a real estate appraiser through coercion, intimidation or compensation.
Summary: Brokers must be licensed by the Division of Real Estate and must get adequate training, testing and continuing education and are prohibited from engaging in 24 specific activities, including fraud and conflicts of interest. A broker who has a license revoked for violating this legislation would not be eligible to be reinstated unless he or she provides full restitution to individuals he or she has harmed.
Summary: Requires brokers to act in good faith and deal fairly, including: not to recommend the borrower enter into a transaction that “does not have a reasonable tangible net benefit to the borrower, considering his circumstances; to make reasonable inquiry into the borrower’s financial circumstances; not to make loans where there is no reasonable probability of repayment.”
Summary: The Division of Insurance is required to provide annual reports on the number of enforcement actions taken, the market trends with title insurance and real estate transactions, and consumer complaints generated by market analysis, investigation and enforcement efforts regarding title insurance.
While this is a start but there are several areas that still need to be addressed:
What about the borrowers? Aren’t they culpable? If Joe and Jane Borrower buy a house and refuse to pay their mortgage simply because they racked up a lot of debt what’s their penalty?
What about banks? In Colorado, state and nationally chartered banks are exempt from registration: bank, saving bank, savings and loan association, industrial bank, industrial loan company, credit union, or bank or savings association holding company organized under federal law, and subsidiary or employee of the above. This is a large population of the mortgage community.
What about the Account Reps? They represent the mortgage lenders who end up buying your loan. Some will say just about anything to get mortgage brokers to send them business. In other words they’re part of the problem. Somehow there’s no law where mortgage lenders have to police their own employees.
Jan
11
Democratic National Convention is coming!
Filed Under denver | Leave a Comment
“Denver to host 2008 Democratic Convention”
Reprinted from www.9News.com
KUSA - Denver will host the 2008 Democratic National Convention, the city’s first national political convention in 100 years.
Multiple sources tell 9NEWS that Democratic National Convention will be held in Denver in 2008.
“It’s important to the City and County of Denver and to the state of Colorado just from an economic development perspective,” said Gov. Bill Ritter (D-Colorado). “It’d be an economic boon.”
The Denver Host Committee estimates the metro area will see $150-200 million in economic benefits with the convention and will continue to raise the $70 million needed to hold the event. A third of that will come from the federal government in national security grants. Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper has been among the biggest advocates for the event, calling on his peers in other Rocky Mountain states to turn the August 25-28, 2008 event into an opportunity to showcase the region and Denver.
“I don’t care whether it’s a Republican or a Democratic convention, I don’t think it matters,” Hickenlooper said. “What matters is you bring a convention to Denver and use that opportunity to put the city at its best and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Nearly 19,000 hotel rooms have been set aside for the event which would be held at the Pepsi Center. Denver was in the running for the Republican convention before that party selected Minneapolis, Minnesota to hold its 2008 convention. Colorado Republican leaders say with Democratic governors in Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, New Mexico and Arizona all elected since 2000, it makes sense for the party to hold its convention in this region, but they are not willing to concede any of those states to a Democratic candidate for president.
“There is a big difference between the two parties and we welcome that,” said Bob Martinez, Executive Director of the Colorado Republican Party. “We will take every opportunity to expose those differences so people really do understand there are two distinct political parties here and that the Republican Party stands for less government, lower taxes, and more individual freedom.”
The 2008 convention will be Denver’s first since 1908 when the Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan as their candidate to challenge Republican William Howard Taft. Thousands of people descended on what was then known as the “Municipal Auditorium” at 14th and Curtis Streets. That building is now the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Delegates were treated to snowball fights as the Moffat Railroad Company brought snow down from the mountains every day for delegates to enjoy.
Colorado historian, Dr. Thomas Noel, a history professor at the University of Colorado-Denver, said the city outbid other challengers for the convention by spending $100,000 to land it. At the time, the Municipal Auditorium was the country’s second-largest city hall behind Madison Square Garden in New York.
“Denver was euphoric,” Noel said. “Here was a brash, young, upstart city competing with the great cities of the East.
“The Denver Post (wrote in 1908), ‘Thanks to our boosters, Denver’s making tremendous strides. This is the greatest thing to ever happen to the city. It will bring in millions and millions of dollars.”
http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=62996
Jan
9
Links: just what we need, another Colorado real estate site
Filed Under colorado, mortgage, real estate | Leave a Comment
If you’re new to my blog, you’ll notice a definite sarcastic tone. That being said, here are some noteworthy links dealing with real estate and/or Denver:
- Out with the old governor of Colorado (Bill Owens) in with the new governor of Colorado (Bill Ritter). Inauguration day is today, January 9th.
- Metro Brokers here in Colorado has launched a feature laden real estate website called Colorado Home Stop. According to the site, these are the main features:
- Save & view your favorite listings.
- Receive RSS search updates via your favorite RSS Reader.
- Save & view your recent home searches.
- Schedule automated E-mail updates and more
- If you’ve ever watched the Apprentice, you should be familiar with past winner Kendra Todd. She writes for Yahoo Real Estate. In an article called Best Places in the US to Buy a Home, she lists the following places:
- Iowa City, Iowa
- Lewiston, Idaho
- Olympia, Washington
- Spokane, Washington
- Panama City, Florida
- It takes a corporation to buy a village. Albeit a very expensive village.
- Colorado Attorney General John Suthers is in the news (Denver Post) twice: Appraisal Fraud Targeted and Proposed Law Targets Appraisal Fraud
- Caribou is coming to DIA. Now if DIA could only get the security lines straightened out, I might fly more often.
Jan
2
Steps to stop foreclosures
Filed Under foreclosure, mortgage, real estate | Leave a Comment
2007 is now upon us. 2006 ended with a blizzard, two blizzards actually. Mother Nature dumped up to 3 feet of snow on us a two weeks ago and then pounded us again with another foot of snow last week. 2006 also saw a blizzard of foreclosures here in Colorado. We ranked either 1st or 2nd in the country.
According to a Denver Post article, they defined the following as ways to circumvent foreclosures:
- Restrict risky loan features
- Clean up deceptive, confusing loan advertisements
- Make appraisers more independent
- Crack down on mortgage fraud, predatory lenders
- License and train mortgage brokers
- Encourage self-policing in the mortgage industry
- Educate consumers
- Assist borrowers before they end up in foreclosure
I really would like to see the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News investigate the following:
- Are Real Estate Agencies that OWN mortgage companies part of the problem?
- Are Home Builders that OWN mortgage companies part of the problem?
- Aren’t Real Estate Agencies benefiting from listing foreclosed properties and/or short selling properties?
- Are Colorado Mortgage Companies soley to blame? How many loans were originated from out of state lenders?
- What will Bill Ritter do about the mortgage mess?
Nov
8
Bill Ritter wins!
Filed Under colorado, denver | Leave a Comment
Yesterday I was addicted to the election. I was glued to the television from 7 PM to 12 AM watching the latest from here in Denver, CO and around the country. The Democrats took over the House of Representatives (Congress) by an astonishing margin. The Senate is still up for grabs with two races that are too close to call and will probably go through a recount.
Here are all the results with almost all precincts reporting:
Governor - Colorado [Ritter, Bill DEM]
U.S. House - District 3 [Salazar, John DEM]
U.S. House - District 4 [Musgrave, Marilyn GOP]
U.S. House - District 5 [Lamborn, Doug GOP]
U.S. House - District 7 [Perlmutter, Ed DEM]
Amendment - 38 Petitions [NO]
Amendment - 39 Schl Dist Spend Rqmts [NO]
Amendment - 40 Trm Lmts Sup & App Ct [NO]
Amendment - 41 Stand of Conduct Govt [YES]
Amendment - 42 Minimum Wage [YES]
Amendment - 43 Marriage [YES]
Amendment - 44 Legalize Marijuana [NO]
Referendum - I Partner Benefits [NO]
Nov
1
Bob Beauprez sighting
Filed Under colorado, denver | Leave a Comment
When I lived in DC, I’d go to bars near the capitol. Irish Times and Tiber Creek are two bars that come to mind. My friends who were into the political scene would always spot and point out a congressman or a senator. On my own, the only politician I ran into was Oliver North (from Iran-Contra fame) who was running for the Virginia Senate seat in the mid 90’s and was pressing the flesh at the Roslyn Metro.
Denver is a different story. I’ve seen our mayor, John Hickelooper, and governor, Bill Owens, speak at several engagements. Senator Ken Salazar spoke at a dinner I attended a few years ago. Yesterday while I was eating lunch at Panera on Ulster and Belleview in the Tech Center I was stunned to see gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez sit down a few tables away to nosh (east coast term for eat) on a sandwich.
Next Tuesday, November 7th, Congressman Bob Beauprez (Republican) will be going against former District Attorney Bill Ritter (Democrat) in the race for governor. Bill Owens, our current governor, will be stepping down because his two term limit ends.
According to Real Clear politics, Bill Ritter has a sizable lead.
Jul
27
Charles in Charge
Filed Under mortgage, sports | Leave a Comment
Anyone who watches the NBA knows Charles Barkley. The “round mound of rebound” looks like he’ll be making a run for Governor in Alabama.
Barkley could run for Ala. governor in 2010
Charles has his supporters:
“I say welcome Charles Barkley. Charles Barkley has been a Horatio Alger story for many people, not only in sports but in business and broadcasting,” Turnham said Wednesday.
and his detractors:
Jim Seroka, a political science professor at Auburn University, said the former Auburn basketball star is getting ahead of himself by talking about possibly running without first building a base of support or looking at finances.
is he blue or red:
“I was a Republican until they lost their minds,” he said earlier this month at a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada.
his platform:
Barkley told the school board members that poor children don’t have a level playing field with wealthier students, because the poor children have to cope with more problems like crime, drugs and teen pregnancy. But he also admonished some black parents and their children.
Charles is a soundbyte waiting to happen. Whether or not he gets elected remains to be seen. Denver wil have a new Governor this year (Bill Ritter or Bob Beauprex) and the new Gov will be nothing like Charles.