Rusty Law

Language Barrier - Realty Check

Some words you can’t say on the radio.  Some words you can’t understand in person, even in English.  Here in Florida, where people have real estate licenses like they have drivers’ permits, real estate language is comprehendible by most parties, but clarity comes in the title of the plot.  

Every good book needs a good title, just like land, but whereas two different books can share the same title, that doesn’t work in real estate.  In real estate, each piece of property needs a distinct, clear title; otherwise, it’s a piece of fiction.  

You don’t have to be a jargon-head to buy land, but you do need clear title to own it.  

Divorce & Housing in Florida

Florida is a get-your-life-in-order state.  You’re either married or you’re not.  You may have been legally separated elsewhere, but to buy a house in Florida, your spouse has to sign some documents, even if that person is not going to be on the note.  

Let’s say you move to sunny Florida for a fresh start with a new fiancé and want to purchase a home.  That’s fine, but keep in mind that Florida does not recognize “legally separated,” and the bonds of matter-money tie you back to your “legally separated” spouse when you go to borrow money.  Once the love is gone, it’s just business.  

It may not be good business.  Now’s the time to discover how very amicable that separation is.  Thus you could be motivated to tidy up unfinished matters.  A divorce may be a prerequisite to a home purchase.  The court cannot mend a broken heart, but it may enable to you to move on with your life.  

2020 Vision

Michael Jackson may have popularized the moonwalk, but Neil Armstrong introduced it.  Now an iconic image—One small step for man, one giant leap for mass media!  Last week NASA celebrated the 40th anniversary of the moonwalk with a MoonPie of astronomic proportion, and they’re looking to the year 2020 for the next step for mankind.  Down on Earth, we’re looking at the foreclosure crisis with 20/20 vision.  The process server hasn’t made it to the space station with a lis pendens, but he’s reached plenty of homes in America.  

Waiting is one of the most difficult human behaviors, especially if you’re waiting for a foreclosure complaint.  I encourage you not to wait; act.  Work with your bank toward a solution; contact a foreclosure defense attorney to discuss your options.  Look to the future with clear vision, full-knowing what to expect.  

“It is better to be making the news than taking it.” –Winston Churchill, 1906.  

Crisis Credit Video

With the blockbuster line-up of summer movies, here’s a little film you won’t want to miss:  “The Crisis of Credit Visualized.”  Whether you understand the current financial fiasco or have no idea why you have no money, this two-part film, freely available over the Internet, is a quick fix to credit conundrums.  

WYSIWIYG – or what you see is what you get – has not been the standard lending practice in home mortgage sales for quite some time.  In simple terms, you buy a mortgage from an originator, who sells that debt to a seller, who sells it to a depositor, who sells it to a trustee who turns the debt into an investment.  It’s supposed to be a four-tiered process; however, the subprime mortgage lending jumped the transaction directly from the originator to the trustee, skipping the bankruptcy firewall at the level of the depositor.  Oops, turns out that step was crucial.  

If you didn’t understand what I just said, or even if you did, I recommend Jonathan Jarvis’ short animated film to explain what is difficult to put into words:  “The Crisis of Credit Visualized.”  While lacking a strong protagonist or focused villain, this short film is a visually appealing quick take on a situation so monumentally monumental, the film is bound to be an instant classic, far better than Al Gore’s.  

In the heat of global warming on a long summer, “The Crisis of Credit Visualized” shows the frozen concoction of the financial fiasco, and is sure to serve as a companionable chiller.  

Please note, bankruptcy may not be suitable for younger viewers.  

Large Game

Large game makes for big targets, like a bull market with mad cow disease.  Investors are now wondering:  where’s the beef?  

Gaming the system to extinction has left mortgage lending susceptible to a vigorous tribe of hunters:  the regulators.  Regulators go after big prey of public outcry, like meat packing and drug manufacturing, and now foreclosures.  

The proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency is supposed to narrow the gap between the mortgage fine print and consumer illiteracy.  Transparent disclosures will draw glass curtains on the lending industry, and the regulatory system will feast into a new frontier.  

Violation of Probation - Just Say NO!

The difference between VIP and VOP is more than the letter of the law.  One might get you on the red carpet, and the other will get you straight to lock-up.  Violation of Probation does make you a Very Important Person for the police, maybe even in a sting operation.  You’ll get a backstage pass to the jailhouse, have an opportunity to sign autographs, and there’ll be plenty of bars, but the wardrobe is a little sub-flattering.       

The difference of being on probation and being on payroll is more than spelling also, though they’re not mutually exclusive.  A person on probation can hold a job and be paid, be on payroll, even if that person is sporting an attractive anklet courtesy of the Department of Corrections.  

There are two types of violation of probation:  criminal and technical.  A criminal violation is conviction of a new crime while on probation.  A technical violation is behavior against the condition of probation, though the behavior may not necessarily be illegal, for instance entering a bar if the condition of probation to avoid businesses selling alcohol. 

The Supreme Court may be on summer break, but that does not mean your probation officer isn’t paying attention.  On probation, you have to watch your P’s and Q’s, and all the other letters too!  

Audacity of Art

Just as St. Augustine officials struggle to define artisans from junk-a-thons in the Plaza, the definition of art is being argued at the federal level as well.  An iconic photograph of President Obama in graphic reduction—his head recast in gray, black, white, and red—has become a visual debate between the Associated Press, who took the original photo, and the artist who re-rendered the image and sold “Hope” posters to the election campaign.  

In the beginning, art was not sterilized into galleries, each piece to be viewed individually with little physical context.  In the beginning, art was literally a written language, pictographs played out in Egyptian hieroglyphics and other visual communication systems.  The question in this debate is to whether the “Hope” poster is significantly transformative from the photograph.  

The hand-held camera has enjoyed a hundred years of amateur history in America, and now almost anybody with a cell phone can capture an image instantly, and just about as quickly broadcast it to the world.  Not everyone runs around with a copyright tag hanging off every picture the way the Associated Press does, but we’re not professional photographers.  It doesn’t take much training to use a cell phone.  

If a horse can hold one or two riders, then a wagon certainly adds value to the horse in its passenger capacity, but in this case, it could be the surrey with the infringement on top.  

If a picture says a thousand words, why do we spend so much time typing?  

Joy of Loan Modification

Your call may be recorded for quality assurance IF YOU COULD EVER REACH A REPRESENTATIVE!!  In the meantime, your loan modification frustration is not making history.  

There’s nothing exuberant about calling your bank and waiting on hold for half an hour to speak with a representative, only to be told in an automated message that the institution is conducting a test of its telephone system, sorry for the inconvenience, and you’re cut off.  You may need a loan modification, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy to get one.  

United States property values stand to drop about $502 billion this year, spread over 2.4 new foreclosures.  To curb that decrease in value, the federal government is subsidizing mortgage modifications, through HAMP, or Home Affordable Modification Program to lower payments for the homeowner, lower the interest rates, and/or to reduce the principle.  

The problem is volume.  The 25 companies endowed with HAMP are as ill-equipped to handle the solution as they were to handle the problem in the first place.  From the desperate need to hire more representatives, to the frantic retraining of existing employees, mortgage firms were not prepared to process the loan modifications jamming into their call centers.  

Joy Bryant at St. Johns Housing Partnership is stepping in at the local level to relieve some of the stress.  She is a HUD certified counselor, and reviews with her clients their budgets and goals, and she is familiar with the NPV test, or Net Present Value test.  She helps people even in foreclosure to continue working with their bank to seek resolution.  

The worst of times brings out the best of people; Joy Bryant is one of them.  To find out more about loan modifications and the St. Johns Housing Partnership, visit www.sjcfl.us and look for Foreclosure Intervention Program.  

Lighthouse

The first federally commissioned lighthouse was erected at Cape Henry on the Chesapeake Bay in 1791.  Contracted by Alexander Hamilton, George Washington reviewed the list of applicants for the first lighthouse keeper.  Since that time, many Americans have run into trouble with the banks nationwide.  

While open to the public, the Cape Henry Lighthouse is within the bounds of a military base.  You get your car searched before you proceed to the gift shop.  Even then it’s a steep climb up, and that’s before you reach the lighthouse itself.  Inside the lighthouse, you ascend the spiral staircase, ever winding tighter, narrowing towards the top—an anxiety trap for anyone claustrophobic and with a fear of heights.  It’s very much like negotiating a loan modification.  

The foreclosure crisis has inspired beacons up and down our coasts; however, the many steps can leave you breathless.  If you’re facing foreclosure, examine your options, set your goals to be sure you’re climbing a tower that fits the vantage you are seeking.  

Gravity

In a perfect world, bills would be paid on time, credit cards would not charge interest, and your bank would not file a foreclosure complaint if you missed a few payments…for everything else, there’s the legal system.  

Walgreens does not sell a foreclosure cream, nor can you purchase a six-pack of anti-lis pendens.  A foreclosure defense attorney, however, can review your options, enabling you to determine what is best for you and your family.  Take charge of your life.  If you jump out of an airplane, you’re going to hit the ground, but a parachute can slow your descent, give you a chance to decide where you’re going to land.