First Centennial Title has grown from a small, one office operation to a community leader with offices in Reno, Sparks, Carson City and Incline Village. We have provided full service title and escrow in 
Northern Nevada for over 30 years. We are the only title company in Northern Nevada with a local title plant and the strength of four national underwriters. Locally managed with national reach and corporate support, First Centennial Title is truly your partner in title and escrow.
At First Centennial Title we feel your successful transactions are a reflection of what our company has built its reputation on; Quality, Service, Excellence and Integrity. All easy words to say, but our employees strive every day to make them a reality by providing the best service in the industry.
Follow this link to watch a short video introduction to our company:
http://youtu.be/6-p_L3dIHj0
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On January 13th the RGJ reported that since the D’Andrea golf club owed about $250,000 and until that is paid the water to the course would be shut off. D’Andrea Holdings LLC has reported because of economic conditions they could no longer pay the fees to continue to pump reclaimed water on the golf course. It has been proposed to have each of the home owners pay an additional $28.00 per month and the water will be turned back on. What this will do is to create a residents club that would give homeowners the following benefits:
- 28% discount on all food
- The restaurant would be open 7 days a week for lunch and dinner.
- 10% discount on the lowest published golf rate.
- 10% discount on all merchandise in the pro shop
- Free use of the club house for meetings.
All home owners have been mailed ballots and need to respond by March 1 to keep D’Andrea from going dry. A lot of the homeowners are playing “chicken” with their golf course, hoping that the current owners will be forced out and a new owner will take over, “really”. Even a couple of months with no water or maintenance and no one will touch it with a ten foot pole.
One other caveat, the biggest developer of houses in D’Andrea is Lennar and if they do not agree to the monthly increase there is no deal, “game over”.
Homeowners need to do the right thing and “vote yes” and keep your golf course green. This is a pretty inexpensive insurance policy to keep your property values from dropping further.
Last year Somersett had their own little crisis with the members taking over the course from the developer. Since then members have increased membership by 45% and the club is now making money and 2012 is looking great.
They are having some informational meetings before the vote, you can click here and see a schedule of the meetings and get more details of the pros and cons of this deal.
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I attended a luncheon recently where the speaker spoke about the “Big 3″ when referring to short sales. These are the 3 most common concerns for sellers when considering whether or not to do a short sale. If you are considering a short sale call an experience REALTOR today.
#1 – Deficiency Waiver
Getting the bank to release you from your obligation and waiving their right to pursue you in the future for the deficiency or short fall between what you owe and the proceeds they will receive from the short sale. Getting the bank to agree to this waiver is the primary goal in a short sale. Over the past couple years I have been able to negotiate this for my sellers 100% of the time. Often times this waiver is conditioned upon a the seller making a cash contribution at closing.
#2 Tax Liability
When a mortgage holder “forgives” debt they send a 1099 to the borrower. When you do a short sale you will receive a 1099 from your bank in the amount of the debt that was forgiven. This is taxable as ordinary income. It is vital that you consult your tax preparer or a CPA to determine what this means for your individual tax situation. There is a Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Act in place through December 31, 2012 that allows for some homeowners to be exempt.
#3 Credit Implications
The third largest concern for sellers contemplating a short sale is the effect it will have on their credit. Here is a chart from FICO that shows the impact of various short sale related events on several different credit scores. As you can see foreclosure and bankruptcy are far more impactful to credit scores than a short sale.
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http://housingwire.com/article/fhfa-will-pre-qualify-investors-bulk-reo-program
Late last year, the FHFA announced an REO bulk sales initiative with the intention of stabilizing neighborhoods in some of the nation’s worst housing markets. The program allows investors to purchase large lots of homes in these areas—provided that they have the capital to rehab them and turn them into rentals.
What does this mean for the Reno/Sparks market? Well, on a surface level, it seems like a good idea. Selling the properties in bulk certainly reduces the holding costs to the owners. Banks must continue to pay taxes and maintenance fees for homes that are in their inventory—shadow or not. Politically, it seems like a winning proposition because it should reduce vacancy rates and market times hopefully leading to a faster recovery. The numbers of relocated previous homeowners are quickly exceeding the capacity of the rental markets in harder hit areas and this phenomenon is leading to extended hostile occupancy. Entities cannot foreclose, evict, value, clear title and liquidate quickly enough and, although national news sources and NAR propagandists would like to continue to spout “buyer’s market” rhetoric, there simply is not a strong influx of quality inventory in my market area. The lack of quality inventory creates a shortage of properties offered for lease and homeowners losing their homes in the foreclosure process simply have nowhere to go. Pooling some of the nations wealthier property investors and bulking out groups of homes to be held as rentals seems like a strong inclination.
On the street level, however, this is a nightmare of unwieldy proportions. To begin with, this program was admittedly (according to DeMarco’s quote in the article) created through a collaborative effort of the stakeholders. I have a brilliant idea, let’s gather a group of individuals that you would like to please, make sure that they are wealthy, powerful and politically connected, then ask them how we could use the housing crisis to best line their pockets and feed their collective interests.
Of course investors think that it is a good idea for REO properties to be yanked from fair market and sold to them bulk for a discount. Is it a surprise to anyone that they would be so generous? They avoid the typical pesky pitfalls of real estate investment like second party valuation, fair market competition, homeowner competition and market/escrow timelines. You know, those silly little details that help actual citizens in pursuit of real estate transactions and create the fair market system that our hopefully non-socialist economy is based on?
If this article refers to the non-profit organizations that I think that it does—NTSP—I am strenuously opposed to it on the onset. The Neighborhood Stabilization Program is a great news bite—use stimulus funds to purchase REO properties in low income neighborhoods, rehab them with local labor and then sell them to first time buyers with a special government backed loan program in an effort to prevent investors from purchasing the homes to use as rentals and pushing neighborhood values down with lower owner occupancy rates. Never mind the initial problem—that this program uses tax payer dollars to invest in real estate (psst, Congress, real estate is a BAD investment right now, please don’t spend my money on it) instead of infrastructure, education, or defense. But concentrate instead on the fact that property flipping should, under even the best circumstances, be done by professionals with the skills and time to make the profit margins work. Has it occurred to anyone that the government is probably not going to be very efficient at flipping homes? By the time the money trickles down through the sticky fingers of all of the management staff that has been hired to institute the programs, the cronies that they hire based on preference, not skill or experience, hand pick the properties. The rehabs are conducted with the same reckless abandon—superior pricing for sub par workmanship (aah, the government way) and the properties are liquidated through a system that spends more taxpayer funds on buyers who should be obtaining fair market loans. Did I mention that there are no plans in place to insure that these properties don’t eventually become rentals after the close date?
Selling properties in an area en mass to an investor could also create unfair practices in rent fixing. Since this kind of bulk policy will further alter the reality of the actual market – creating an artificial scarcity, it could stretch our recovery even further.
Who will regulate this? Who will guarantee that the rents are fair? What is to keep these investors from liquidating the properties with inappropriate hard money practices, taking advantage of occupants with rent-to-own schemes, or simply re-selling the properties at a profit? How much will it cost taxpayers to monitor these wealthy investors who are getting a pat on the back for altering the reality of fair markets and what is the realistic gain from a program like this?
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The settlement that was unveiled on 2-9-2012 has the expectation of helping borrowers who are facing difficulties making their mortgage payments, those underwater and those who have lost their homes to foreclosure. It is going to take some time to see what the settlement really means for homeowners, especially since the banks have 3 years to meet their obligations.
What banks are participating? Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Ally/GMAC and Wells Fargo. But not all loans serviced by these banks will qualify. In addition if your mortgage is owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac they will not be a part of this settlement.
The key here is to be patient. It is going to take some time for an administrator to be put in place and for the administrator to work with servicers and attorney generals to iron out the details. In many cases borrowers will be contacted by their servicer if they qualify for any assistance.
Principal reductions (reducing of loan balances) will be part of the settlement but will be limited to loans owned by the banks themselves. Many loans these banks “service” are owned by other investors and the banks are just the money collectors. Again Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac owned loans will not qualify.
If your home mortgage is serviced by one of these big banks, and not owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (visit fanniemae.com/loanlookup or freddiemac.com/mymortgage) you can visit the bank’s website for more information. Again it could be some time before homeowners actually see any benefits from this settlement.
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Colleen Reynolds of Dickson Realty was part of more than 100 Murphy-Morgan family members gathered for a reunion in August of 2009, at Meeks Bay, Lake Tahoe, where their ancestors arrived 140 years ago.
The barbecue gathering brought together descendants of George Murphy, Jim Murphy and Luke Morgan from throughout California, Nevada, Arizona and Oregon. Although some of the cousins gather regularly in the summer and maintain strong friendships throughout the year, this was the first full reunion since 1999.
The family’s roots were planted in 1872 when the Murphy brothers arrived at Meeks Bay as 16 and 14-year-olds, herding cattle. They started their own cattle and dairy business, operated McKinney’s resort for 27 years and lived on in retirement in Meeks Bay vacation homes now owned by their grandchildren.
Although most of the more than 1,000 acres of land once owned by Murphy Bros. & Morgan was sold many years ago, five cabins remain on property still owned by family members. Those properties are believed to be the oldest privately-owned land, remaining in the same family, in all of the Tahoe Basin.
The Murphy Bros. purchased the 640-acre Meeks Bay parcel for $250 in 1884. They added to their acreage after their sister married Luke Morgan and that couple homesteaded acreage north of the bay, adjoining what is now Sugar Pine Point State Park.
Their first settlement at Meeks Bay included a barn, milk house and other temporary structures on land bordering the beach. It was after the family left McKinney’s (now Chambers Lodge) in 1918 that they started building the current homes across the highway from what became Meeks Bay Resort.
The first, a still-sturdy log cabin built in 1918-1920, by Jim Murphy and Luke Morgan, is now owned by Morgan”s granddaughter, Sue Cherry.
In 1923, George Murphy added a second cabin, now owned by one of his grandsons, George Reynolds, and his wife, Dickson Realty Agent, Colleen Reynolds. The Reynolds call Reno their home now, but have their roots still over the hill in Lake Tahoe.
Marie Morgan Coyle and her husband, Cyril, built on a lot above the original cabin in 1935. That home is now owned by their son, Cyril (Cub) Coyle and his wife, Yvonne.
Jim Murphy joined his daughter Margaret and her husband, Harry Lawson, adding a cabin in 1936. It is now owned by Jim Lawson and his wife, Marie.
The most recent house in the family group was built by Isabel Morgan Liddicoat and her husband, Elmer, in the late 1950‘s. It is now owned by the Liddicoat children.
The third generation of the Murphy-Morgans, the current seniors at the reunion, have only heard and read about those early days. Their memories are of full summers, every year, at a complete Meeks Bay community developed by the Kehlet family.
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Tuesday, February 28, 2012 By: Rose Echevarria
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