Ah, Barbara Holland, how we love thee! Ms. Holland, who writes a column in the real estate section of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, complains about a recent guest blog that lists some of the complaints against her: One is that she gets paid for writing her newspaper column which is massively biased in favor of Homeowners Associations.
Ms. Holland, who describes herself as the “Dear Abby of Homeowners Associations,” will never deny that writing her newspaper column has made her very rich in the real estate business. Her ‘voluntary newspaper column’ is the kind of self-promotion that every entrepreneur dreams of. Whether she gets paid ten or twenty bucks per column by the newspaper is absolutely immaterial. Barbie Baby, you started piling up your millions in the property management and Realty business the day your first column was published. In the most corrupt real estate market in the nation, most honorable people would be scared to death to identify themselves as being the “Dear Abby” or “Dear Ann Landers” of anything HOA related.
But all of that is petty infighting and beyond the point. The issue at hand is the stupidity and short-term thinking of the Nevada Supreme Court which ruled that an HOA’s Super-Priority lien could extinguish the mortgage company’s first deed of trust. Bottom line: thousands of Nevada homes that are in crisis can be snatched up by real estate bottom feeders who grab homes for a couple thousand bucks at auction, and flip them for hundreds of thousands of dollars each. A windfall profit. A disaster for those in the mortgage business. And Barbie tells us, “No big deal.”
In fairness to Barbie Baby, here’s her latest take on the subject:
(link to Barbara Holland’s column on Nevada court decision)
Now that “Dear Nevada Abby” has spoken, let’s look at some totally different conclusions made by far more astute financial folks at the Wall Street Journal, reporters like Joe Light (joe.light@wsj.com). The link below sometimes asks for a registration, but any good Internet researcher can find a way around that.
(link to WSJ article on Nevada mortgage mess)
(link to parallel article in Bloomberg News)
Now, to you, Dear Reader. Do we believe in dear ‘Self-Interest Nevada Abby?’ Or the financial folks on the national scene who are actually talking to the nation’s lending institutions about all the impending consequences?
Excellent, blog Ward. Thank you.
Just as an FYI, the Federal Court in Nevada came to a completely different decision in a similar matter approximately a week following the Nevada Supreme Court decision you speak of in this blog.
See:
09.25.14 – HOA can’t foreclose on HUD it appears – United States District Court, D. Nevada – Washington & Sandhill HOA v. Bank of America, N. A., dba BAC Home Loans Servicing LP… (HUD)…
http://dockets.justia.com/docket/nevada/nvdce/2:2013cv01845/97524
Cynthia, yes, the federal government will not allow HOAs to extinguish THEIR interests (ie – in reality the taxpayers’s interests) in HUD financed housing. There just so happens to be legal language at the federal level to prevent such nonsense.
But the state of NV and other among the 20 with super-priority HOA liens have created a new food fight between HOAs and mortgage lenders. The twisted publicly-stated logic of sham HOA “advocacy” (industry lobby) groups is that NOW banks will actually pay the 6-9 months of assessments to the HOA, to prevent HOA foreclosure. Of course, that assumes that the HOA has pure motives, and willingly provides the mortgage holder with notice and an accurate invoice for assessment liens. The CAI and Bar Associations in these states are licking their chops, waiting for some judge to decide that their priority liens can include collection and legal fees as well.
But I have a strong suspicion that mortgage lenders will be lobbying in their own interest at the federal level. Don’t forget, HOA homes cannot maintain values if banks won’t provide affordable financing. And the federal government is now working on plans to decrease levels of government-backed financing in favor of private banks. Who has the upper hand?