What to Do Right Now
This bill has already passed the house and is waiting for Senate approval. Please contact your senator via email and snail mail to let him know that this law MUST NOT PASS in its current form. You can get your senator's contact information here: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
As always in cases like this, you have an automatic handicap to overcome-the fact that you are a real estate investor and are therefore viewed as part of the problem. So when you write, don't emphasize the nature of your business, just that you and your buyers would be greatly aversely affected by the new law.
We need THOUSANDS of these communications to go out in the next few days to have a CHANCE of stopping this in its tracks. So whether you're a new or experienced investor, PLEASE take the time right now to write your elected representative!
PS Vote libertarian!
Here are some sample letters or emails.
IF YOU HAVE A REAL ESTATE LICENSE
Dear Senator [name];
My name is (insert name here) and I am a life-long resident of (insert city name here).
I am writing you to encourage you to vote NO on HR 1728, the "Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act".
While many of the provisions of the act are positive steps toward mortgage reform, the inclusion of private owners in the act (see section 101(3)(e)) will enormously reduce the housing choice of Ohioans and the ability of home owners to sell properties in this already-slow market.
As a real estate broker, I have seen several dozen cases in the past year of home sellers and buyers coming to an agreement for an installment sale on a property that the owner desperately needed to sell (often to avoid foreclosure) and the buyer desperately wanted to buy, but could not raise the downpayment needed for conventional financing.
In all cases, these sales turned out to be win-win deals for the buyer and seller; the seller was able to get rid of an unwanted property to a buyer who loved it, and the buyer was able to get his new home at an affordable payment and interest rates with none of the usual costs (points, application fees etc) inherent in more conventional mortgage transactions.
In Ohio, these transactions are already regulated by state law: a low maximum interest rate is already in place, and both the buyer and seller are protected by other regulations at the state level.
In defense of private property rights, owners should be exempted from the burdensome and unnecessary rules that this law foists upon them. In its current form, it would all but shut off the "owner financing" market that is the only way that many sellers can sell and many buyers can buy right now.
PLEASE DO NOT LET THIS RESTRICTION ON PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS PASS THE SENATE. It is unnecessary to stop private buyers and sellers from transacting business that is beneficial to both of them-they are not the problem that the bill seeks to solve. HR 1728 would be extremely harmful to thousands of your constituents.
It will exacerbate the problem OF foreclosure, as fewer sellers will be able to sell their homes to avoid it, and CAUSED BY foreclosure, as fewer buyers who have recently experienced foreclosure will be able to re-start the process of home ownership inexpensively and easily by negotiating owner financing.
Thank you for your consideration;
Insert Name
Licensed Real Estate Broker license #
Phone #
email
IF YOU SELL HOUSES WITH OWNER FINANCING
Dear Senator [name];
My name is (insert name here) and I am a life-long resident of (insert city name here).
I am writing you to encourage you to vote NO on HR 1728, the "Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act".
While many of the provisions of the act are positive steps toward mortgage reform, the inclusion of private owners in the act (see section 101(3)(e)) will enormously reduce the housing choice of Ohioans and the ability of home owners to sell properties in this already-slow market.
As a professional housing provider, I sell several houses each year to home buyers on installment sale [or, if you have not purchased a property, add here: "I had planned to sell several houses this year on installment sale]-a practice that would become impossible under this law in its current form.
I find that in today's slow market, the best way for me to help buyers who desperately want to become homeowners, but who cannot raise the downpayment or meet the other terms needed for conventional financing, is to allow them to make payments directly to me.
These sales are win-win deals for both the buyer and myself; I am able to turn over homes that I've bought and rehabbed (often from foreclosures) to buyers who love and can afford them, and the buyer can get his new home at an affordable payment and interest rates with none of the usual costs (points, application fees etc) inherent in more conventional mortgage transactions.
In Ohio, these transactions are already regulated by state law: a low maximum interest rate is already in place, and both the buyer and seller are protected by other regulations at the state level.
Without the ability to sell homes in this way, I will no longer be able to invest in and renovate any of the tens of thousands of vacant, ugly houses placed on the market by the foreclosure crisis, and my small-but-beneficial business will literally be in ruins. Perhaps more importantly, the homeowner-buyers that I serve will be forced to rent rather than moving toward the American dream of home ownership.
In defense of private property rights, owners should be exempted from the burdensome and unnecessary rules that this law foists upon them. In its current form, it would all but shut off the "owner financing" market that is the only way that many sellers can sell and many buyers can buy right now.
PLEASE DO NOT LET THIS RESTRICTION ON PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS PASS THE SENATE. It is unnecessary to stop private buyers and sellers from transacting business that is beneficial to both of them-they are not the problem that the bill seeks to solve. HR 1728 would be extremely harmful to thousands of your constituents.
It will exacerbate the problem OF foreclosure, as fewer sellers will be able to sell their homes to avoid it, and CAUSED BY foreclosure, as fewer buyers who have recently experienced foreclosure will be able to re-start the process of home ownership inexpensively and easily by negotiating owner financing.
Thank you for your consideration;
Insert Name
Perfect Properties, inc.
Phone number
email
IF YOU BUY HOUSES WITH OWNER FINANCING
Dear Senator [name];
My name is (insert name here) and I am a life-long resident of (insert city name here).
I am writing you to encourage you to vote NO on HR 1728, the "Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act".
While many of the provisions of the act are positive steps toward mortgage reform, the inclusion of private owners in the act (see section 101(3)(e)) will enormously reduce the housing choice of Ohioans and the ability of home owners to sell properties in this already-slow market.
In the past year, I have purchased and renovated several homes-made possible only because the sellers of these homes were able to sell to me using owner financing in an unrestricted way.
For many of these property owners, seller financing was the only way to unburden themselves of an unwanted property that, in some cases, was headed toward foreclosure before I purchased it.
Without this ability, I can not continue to buy and renovate properties in the neighborhoods that so need me and my colleagues to invest our time, energy, and money in rehabbing properties. Bank financing is not an option for these properties because of the condition; only financing carried by the sellers will suffice.
Section 101(3)(e) would keep my sellers from utilizing this method of getting rid of unwanted properties in today's market, should they have more than 1 to sell.
In defense of private property rights, owners should be exempted from the burdensome and unnecessary rules that this law foists upon them. In its current form, it would all but shut off the "owner financing" market that is the only way that many sellers can sell and many buyers can buy right now.
PLEASE DO NOT LET THIS RESTRICTION ON PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS PASS THE SENATE. It is unnecessary to stop private buyers and sellers from transacting business that is beneficial to both of them-they are not the problem that the bill seeks to solve. HR 1728 would be extremely harmful to thousands of your constituents.
It will exacerbate the problem OF foreclosure, as fewer sellers will be able to sell their homes to avoid it, and CAUSED BY foreclosure, as fewer buyers who have recently experienced foreclosure will be able to re-start the process of home ownership inexpensively and easily by negotiating owner financing.
Thank you for your consideration;
Insert Name
Perfect Properties, inc.
Phone number
email
.jpg)