Amy Steele

Good afternoon, I attended the MAC meeting last nite for Crestline, Lake Arrowhead and Running Springs areas to hear about the proposed ordinances that San Bernardino county is looking to adopt this coming Tuesday.

The first ordinance was the one on having it made mandatory through escrow(point-of-sale) that all homes with wood shake roofs be replaced. This would make escrows extremely expensive and add undue costs on sellers and buyers in a market where even $1000 could make or break a deal. Big Bear City has an ordinance like this in place already, however, they opted not to go through escrows and only make it be a disclosure point to a buyer during an escrow. There were several Realtors in the audience and we did our best to convince the MAC council to let the Board of Supervisors know that our area simply cannot afford to have this made mandatory in a market that is already distressed.

Wood shake roofs do comprise a small percentage of homes up here in Crestline and Lake Arrowhead, however, there are many homes that have them. The ordinance will make a cutoff date of July 2014 for all homeowners to replace the roofs with non-flammable, non-organic materials.

The second ordinance is for increasing the scope of the current weed abatement. It changes from being only dead fuel removal to a live green fuel reduction. Many homes up here in the mountains have a manzanita/scrub environment in addition to having the forest. Manzanita, juniper,sage, spanish broom and etc have a high BTU release when they are burning and can discharge flames up to and over 15 feet away. This ordinace will call for the removal and spacing out of such shrubs and hedges to lessen the heat and flames that come off of these when they're burning.

All trees that are virgin growth, and greater than 4 inches in diameter are safe. Trees less than 4 inches in diameter must be spaced out, and be at least 30 feet away from the home. One of the comments was that if you tried to start a large log on fire in your fireplace, you understand that it takes an extremely loooong time holding a match(or an entire box of matches) on the log for it to ignite, and the old growth trees are fairly safe. It's the smaller ladder fuels and trees and shrubs where leaf and pine litter collect underneath close to homes that is the really big threat.

So no worries about your old growth trees. A thin forest is still a healthy forest, and there are initiatives in place that reimburse a homeowner 75% of the costs of thinning out their properties. For that information, please go here and click on the right side of the screen on the picture of the healthy forest, just above the bark beetle.

All in all, the Board of Supervisors meeting is at 10am down in San Bernardino on Tues Sept 23. I still put a call out to all Realtors who sell homes here in the mountains, as well as other communities that still have shake roofs, as this applies to them also.

Take care,

Amy

Good day all. I've been reading all sorts of articles saying that the government bailout of all of these financial and insurance companies is a good thing, a bad thing and/or an ugly thing. Not know quite what to believe, I just wanted to say my frame of mind to see what the general opinion is about what I was thinking.

I am not an economic major by any means. I sucked at math in school, and just passed calculus (which of course I have never ever used again and knew that I wouldn't) because the professor graded on a curve. So this will show my naivete for the major financial markets and those such things for sure, but I just wanted to know if I could be correct.

I was recently talking to a client who called a bank on behalf of her friend who would be losing her home in 6 months due to an adjusting loan. She had a better grasp of her emotions and so called this bank to see what could be done for her friend. She was on the phone for almost an hour on hold waiting for someone, then when she did, she had to get through two gatekeepers before speaking to a supervisor(which I'm sure we've all had experience with.)

Her friend was current on all her payments. However, when the loan had its first adjustment in a few months, obviously it was adjusting well beyond her payments. She tried to find out if there was a program that could help with modifying her loan prior to the adjustment and was told that there were no programs and there was no help until you were behind on your loan. She asked if there was any way to keep the loan from adjusting since she couldn't refinance because the property was worth less now. She got a resounding no. So she said that if she could keep her loan at the same payments she was paying, the bank would still be getting that interest payment and the payment schedule would be paying what the property was worth when she bought it, which would make the bank an extra $100,000 over the life of her loan and the bank would get back the original principal that they loaned. However, if the loan adjusted and she was foreclosed on, the bank would not only lose all that interest, but they would lose the principal on the home due to foreclosures selling for HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS less. The bank said that they would foreclose, there's no help for someone in that situation.

Let me get this straight: someone who can afford to make the payments as they are now, unfortunately got into this interest only arm loan, house worth $100K less now than it was when she bought it and wants to work it out so she doesn't lose it but CAN'T SIMPLY CANNOT DUE TO THE FACT THAT THE BANK HAS NO PROGRAMS TO HELP. THE BANK WOULD RATHER LOSE THE HOUSE AND ALLLLLLL THAT MONEY THAN HELP THE HOMEOWNER AND THEIR BOTTOM LINE AND THE ECONOMY?

I think that this is just going right down to either bank greed or now that they know they're going to be bailed out by the government, they still don't care about helping people or the economy. Wouldn't the simplest solution be to just stop the adjustments? Do the banks still think that they're going to get the money for these loans in the long run so they simply don't care about helping the homeowner? Wouldn't the downturn stop if these loans were stopped and the foreclosures were significantly less?

Like I said, I am naive when it comes to the economy. I try to stay on top of what's going on, but since I am in the trenches so to speak, wouldn't this be a solution?

What are your thoughts?

Take care,

amy

www.CrestlineForeclosures.com

Fall has started to show her colors here in Crestline and elsewhere on the mountain. For the last couple of weeks with all of the heat we've been getting, we have had huge thunderclouds putting on a display as they move from east to west over Lake Gregory and the rest of Crestline. I was driving back to the office when I passed by the Presbyterian church and the cross on top of the steeple was just in front of a huge black cloud. By the time I drove back and got out to get this picture the cross didn't have the cloud as a backdrop anymore. Still looks pretty though!

I am thinking of photoshopping this one to see what I can make of it! Any suggestions? Hope everyone has a blessed day!

Amy

www.HomesForSaleinCrestline.com

This is an open letter to ALL Realtors who do business here in the San Bernardino Mountains as well as the HOMEOWNERS that this is going to affect.

THIS REQUIRES YOUR IMMEDIATE ATTENTION!!!!

The County Board of Supervisors is having a MAC meeting this Thursday Sept 18 at the Crestforest Fire Station on Crestforest Drive in Crestline to discuss two ordinances that they are considering passing. BOTH OF THESE ORDINANCES WILL MAKE IT MORE DIFFICULT TO SELL OUR HOMES HERE IN THE MOUNTAINS AND WILL AFFECT YOUR POCKETBOOK.

The first ordinance will require that during an escrow or other voluntary transfer of your home, that you will be required to obtain a permit from the Fire Chief that your roof is made of non-combustible, not-organic fiber/materials. THIS WOULD REQUIRE AN ADDITIONAL COST IN ESCROW TO BE NEGOTIATED FOR THOSE WITH WOOD SHAKE(or other organic material) ROOFS TO HAVE THE ROOF REPLACED PRIOR TO CLOSE OF ESCROW.

In this market with so many homeowners losing their homes to banks, the banks are going to pass this cost along to the buyers. Also, so many buyers are just not going to want to come out of pocket to purchase a home here if they have to put a new roof on the home.

Of course, it's a great idea to have fire-retardent roofs up here in our communities, since we do live in a fire-hazard area. However, I don't agree with having it be put through escrows when the market is as such, where another $5000-10,000 on top of the escrow will break the deal. I've seen escrows fall out for much less than this! There needs to be some other way for the county to police this issue, rather than have it go through an escrow. The deadline to bring your property up to this new code, if adopted would be July 1, 2014. That at least gives some time to homeowners who aren't planning on selling, but if you are going to sell, this will mean less money for you on the sale of your home!

The other ordinance that will be up for public discussion is a highly restrictive weed/tree abatement ordinance that may reduce the integrity and appeal of our mountain homes. This ordinance will require homeowners to maintain a firebreak around all structures of 30 feet up to 100 feet on each side of all flammable vegetation and combustible growth. Single trees may be retained if they are spaced from each other and kept pruned.

Fire hazards: All foliage and branches within 6 feet of the ground on trees that are over 12 feet tall that are within 100 feet of a structure is considered a fire hazard. Trees that are within 30 feet of homes that are smaller than 4 inches in diameter and within 10 feet of other trees. This doesn't include ornamental trees that are pruned and free of dead/damaged foliage.

Every homeowner must maintain this firebreak of at least 30 feet. The single trees that are allowed may not be kept if they are not well-spaced. So if you have a virgin tree that is next to another huge old tree on your neighbors lot, who is going to cut theirs down? Stands of trees throughout our communities are not going to be allowed anymore? This means to me that the integrity of the forest community that we have chosen to live in because of the trees and natural beauty of the forest rather than the concrete jungle down below is in jeopardy.

I understand that there should be fire safety and responsibility in our community, and that this would most affect those who have let their properties go back to the forest or just don't care to keep them cleared. But I have several beautiful trees that are virgin trees, from when the good Lord first created this forest, and I know that I do not want to cut down any of them!! One huge tree is covered with live ivy, and is gorgeous. About 5 feet from that is a large black oak tree that helps keep prying eyes from my windows since I live on a busy street. I know for a fact that I don't want to cut those branches down since it adds to the effect of living in a forest and feeling like I am in the middle of a forest.

So homeowners and Realtors, you need to come to this special session/MAC meeting. It's Thursday Sept 18 at 7pm at the Crestforest Fire Station on Crestforest drive in Top Town.

See you there!