Bev Boeck

Here again is the full notice that explains in detail what the intended use of the money is. If you are part of the Meridian School District Community, please take a moment to mark you calendars and turn out the vote tomorrow. Also, please pass this link to this post to spread the word easily, and get out the vote to your email friends/address books. Thank you!

--and have a better chance of selling. Here is an Idaho Business Review Article by Dani Grigg, with one idea for areas with mounting numbers of vacant homes. This could even be a business idea for some; coordinating the short term lease of homes to renters with nice taste in furnishings and decore. In addition, the win-win for everyone--less expensive rent for the renter/decorator, and maintenance plus show readiness for the seller is just that--an all-around positive for everyone involved. In short, statistics show that staged homes sell faster.

While you're thinking about staging, check out Lori's ideas at Devine Staging while you have a few minutes too!

First, you should know, I think of the word "short" not as a measure of time that it takes to work out a short sale. On the contrary, it takes a while to make this happen, and get someone to help you who has experience and knows what they're doing if you've decided to short sale are up against the time constraints of an auction date. Instead, to me at least, the word "short" is used as if the lender/bank is agreeing to "come up short"--agreeing to accept less than the amount owed on the property. There is a lot of paperwork to be done, and many things have to happen that I would depend on a real estate professional who "speaks" short sale to accomplish.

Moreover, what gets the ball rolling on a short sale at all, and nailing down that elusive price point that the bank will take, is a qualified offer. I say qualified, because the bank will see right through it if it is not a thoroughly qualified offer; they're a bank remember? :)

Hope this helps, and in upcoming entries we'll talk about ramifications of short sale over a foreclosure on one's credit (guidelines found in a previous post), and why banks/lenders do not "like" to take back the house--contrary to (believe it or not) a common misconception that they do!

REO = Real Estate Owned (by the bank). Put simply, whoever loaned out the money to "buy" the house in the first place, now owns the house.

Through a usually lengthy and expensive foreclosure process, generally culminating in a public auction, no one else buys the house at auction--private individual or investor-- so the "bank" ends up owning it.

From the point of view of the broker acting on behalf of a potential buyer to purchase the home after it has "gone back to the bank," there is every reason to believe that purchasing an REO property is easier than purchasing a short sale property, because most everything--the paperwork, the decisions, etc.--has been "worked out" and the listed price got listed that way as a result. When the property is still in the short sale "stage" the purchase price can often still be synonymous with a moving target, but that's my next blog entry!

Hope this helps,
BB

[Get your news from online sources? If you're not a big newspaper reader, or you are and missed this legal notice, this is for you: It will be published again in the Statesman on February 23rd, 2009.]
Have children attending a Meridian District School? Will in the future? Well, you don't have to in order to be an elector, but this may interest you...

You are an eligible elector if you are a registered voter who has resided in this state and in this school district at least thirty (30) days preceding the election. Check out the full notice, from Feb 16, 2009 Idaho Statesman. Your polling place is at any school building listed on the full notice, between 8 and 8 on March 3, or you may follow the procedure at the bottom of the notice to vote absentee.

The issue: to paraphrase, to vote Yes or No to authorize the board of trustees of Joint School District No. 2 to levy a supplemental levy in the amount of $10,000,000.00 (ten million dollars--not to be confused with "trillion" --a word we have seen so often in the national news...) each year for 2 years, for a total of $20mil. "For the purpose of paying all lawful expenses of maintaining and operating the schools of the District for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2009, and ending June 30, 2011."