New Law Could Free Up Escrow Money

HARRISBURG PA – A change to the Pennsylvania Real Estate Licensing and Registration Act, signed into law last Monday (July 6, 2009) by Gov. Edward Rendell, might prevent heartache for future purchasers who find their dream home deal has fallen through.

Senate Bill 241, written by Bucks County (PA) state Sen. Tommy Tomlinson and passed unanimously by both the House and Senate, alters “the way consumers may receive escrow funds in real estate transactions,” a press release from his office reported.

Current law requires that escrow funds – monies held on deposit while a real estate deal is pending – get tied up if it isn’t completed. Unless the buyer prospects file a lawsuit to retrieve their funds – and even if they do, there’s no guarantee they’ll win – the money remains inaccessible.

When the new law takes effect, on Sept. 6, escrow funds could be released if all parties have earlier agreed in writing.

Escrows have become a much-lamented problem as, given financial difficulties presented by the current economic recession, a number of new home builders filed for bankruptcy. Several purchasers reported they had amounts of $20,000 or more tied up in escrow accounts, and they could neither close on the home they wanted or have their money returned to buy a different one.

“This legislation will provide that escrows may be released if there is a prior agreement and the parties agree to the release of some or all of the monies, or a court orders release of the monies,” Tomlinson said. “This will provide clarity and protections to a process that presently ties up money and fails to give direction on how the money is distributed.”

The change which is not retroactive.

How do you keep up with legislation affecting your real estate practice? Polley Associates‘ Real Estate Law broker course addresses what brokers must know about real estate law and its interpretation. The course is scheduled to start Aug. 17 in State College PA, Sept. 29 in Cranberry Township PA, and Oct. 8 in Newtown Square PA.

Shafer Keynote Speaker At Triple Play

Ross Shafer

ATLANTIC CITY NJ – Keeping the practice of real estate fresh with innovation and engaging clients of all ages will be the theme of a keynote speech by Emmy Award-winning comedian and writer Ross Shafer during the return of Triple Play, the annual Realtor Convention and Trade Show, from Dec. 8-10 at the Atlantic City Convention Center.

Shafer will offer his remarks, titled “Are You Relevant?,” to the grand assembly Dec. 9 (2009; Wednesday) from 12:15-1:45 p.m. He will offer real estate licensees, attending the show from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, advice on how they can become their clients’ trusted adviser.

Shafer, who switched gears from being a comic to a trainer, is one of the nation’s most sought speakers on maintaining market prominence. He has written 14 human resource training films, and authored “Nobody Moved Your Cheese!,” “The Customer Shouts Back!,” “Customer Empathy,” and “Are You Relevant?”

Triple Play is the yearly event sponsored by the three states’ associations of Realtors, and targeted to real estate agents, brokers, appraisers, owners and managers, investment specialists, and association executives. Registration opens in September for the December event, and will be available online.

Program Helps Create Apartment Networks

PHILADELPHIA PA – A Neighborhood Networks Regional Technical Assistance Workshop, intended to help residents of federally assisted multi-family housing projects become more independent, will be conducted July 15-17 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Philadelphia.

HUD announced the seminar in a press release issued Wednesday (July 8, 2009) from its website.

The three-day professional development workshop, which labels neighborhood networks as community assets, features Carol Galante, HUD’s new deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Multifamily Housing Programs, as its speaker during the opening ceremony.

The Philadelphia event is the second Neighborhood Networks workshop held this year. The first was during April in Dallas TX.

Like the Texas workshop, The Philadelphia edition presents 14 sessions. They include how to start a financial literacy program, teach more effectively, negotiate for results, secure funding in tough economic times, assess changing job markets to identify growing employment sectors, meet the unique needs of special audiences, promote center programs, launch a cyber fundraising campaign, and take workforce development programs to the next level.

These new sessions will complement core workshop sessions such as partnership development, volunteer recruitment, and program planning, as well as a greater number of peer-to-peer networking opportunities.

Rendell Signs 2 New Mortgage Laws

HARRISBURG PA – Two additional bills aimed at preventing mortgage fraud were signed into law Monday (June 29, 2009) by Pennsylvania Gov. Ed. Rendell, joining a package of five laws approved last year to target different aspects of the same problem.

The two latest pieces of legislation were spurred by a case in Berks County PA, Philadelphia’s KYW-AM Newsradio reported. Homeowners there were defrauded by a mortgage broker who took payments but never passed them on to lenders.

One of the new laws ensures that all communications regarding a loan go from lenders to homeowners, and not just go-betweens or third parties. The other protects mortgage company employees who blow the whistle on illegal practices.

Addenda: uwyzbskpjd

BOMA Holds Convention In Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA PA – Members of the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International gathered Tuesday (June 30, 2009) at the Philadelphia Convention Center to strategize on how commercial real estate brokers, agents and investors can deal with the down economy.

Philadelphia news radio station KYW-AM carried a story.

Polley Tweets For June 21-27, 2009

NEWTOWN SQUARE PA – Many of the entries made daily on Polley Associates’ Twitter account link to stories we think our readers and learners will find valuable. Here is this week’s Tweet summary:

• Mortgage apps up for first time in a month. reasons: fed tax breaks, falling home prices. From Bloomberg. http://is.gd/1c040
• Still a lot of new home inventory out there, competing against existing and foreclosed. From The AP. http://is.gd/1c02O
• Driving a clunker? Trade it in, get credit. From the Polley blog. http://is.gd/1c01I
• Owe taxes to Pennsylvania? Your real estate license could be affected. From the Polley blog. http://is.gd/1c00H
• When looking for open houses, propspective buyers like online sources twice as much as print. http://is.gd/19yeU
• Mortgage bankers expected to make fewer 2009 loans than forecast earlier, due to rate jumps, association says. http://is.gd/19y4D
• Boomers’ children will resuscitate housing market for next 10 years, not immediately, according to Harvard report. http://is.gd/19xWG

We’d be honored to have you join the people who follow Polley Associates on Twitter.

Related:

• Polley Tweets For June 14-20, 2009
• Polley Tweets For June 7-13, 2009
• Polley Tweets For May 31-June 6, 2009
• Polley Tweets For May 24-30, 2009
• Polley Tweets For May 17-23, 2009

Image from Icontexto.Blogspot.com

Owe State Taxes? Your License Could Be Affected

HARRISBURG PA – Pennsylvania real estate sales persons and brokers who owe outstanding or unpaid state taxes: beware. The PA Department of Revenue could ask the State Real Estate Commission to consider imposing an action against your license if you don’t make arrangements to pay up.

It’s apparently happening already with licensees governed by the state Insurance Department.

Mark Vessella, deputy commissioner of Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs – the agency which issues licenses to real estate practitioners and other professionals – recently confirmed impending enforcement of an executive order that requires “all applicants seeking to receive or renew various state licenses, permits and registrations (to be) compliant with their state tax obligations.”

Vessella’s acknowledgement was in response to an inquiry made by Commission counsel Judith Pachter Schulder, who in turn was following up on questions posed by Polley Associates. Pachter, in a letter to Polley Education Director Hugo Weber Jr., reported the matter was discussed during the Commission’s June 9 meeting.

Polley had been supplied with a May (2009) letter to Pennsylvania insurance licensees who were notified by the Insurance Department that they were “not compliant with Pennsylvania taxes,” according to Revenue Department records. “Please be advised,” the letter continued, that the Insurance Department “may consider appropriate enforcement action” if licensees failed to comply, including but not limited to “cease-and-desist orders, imposition of a civil penalty, and/or licensure action.”

Letter recipients were told to contact the Revenue Department within 20 days “to avoid enforcement action and resolve your tax issues.”

“Like the Insurance Department, the Bureau (of Professional and Occupational Affairs), beginning with the State Board of Accountancy, also will be sending letters to licensees who the Revenue Department advises is not compliant with Pennsylvania taxes,” Schulder’s letter to Weber said.

That means, sooner or later, real estate licensees will be due for similar tax scrutiny.

Continuing education keeps you up-to-date. Learners who took Polley Associates’ “Legal Issues 2006-2008” CE course will recall that potential effects of state tax delinquency on real estate licensees was a course discussion topic then. Our “Legal Issues 2008-2010” course will keep you similarly abreast of what’s happening in the industry now. Look for it beginning in this Fall.

Polley Tweets For June 14-20, 2009

NEWTOWN SQUARE PA – Many of the entries made daily on Polley Associates’ Twitter account link to stories we think our readers and learners will find valuable. Here is this week’s Tweet summary:

• New appraisal rules complicate home selling. http://is.gd/15rqV
• Reuters advises first-time buyers on ways to research the housing market. http://is.gd/15mLD
• In Michigan, aggressive commercial real estate incentives lure new tenants. From Ann Arbor Business news. http://is.gd/14I6O
• Apartments lead the U.S. property default parade, Reuters reports. http://is.gd/14I6n
• Foreign real estate investors expect recovery in U.S. real estate market by end of 2Q2010. From MarketWatch. http://is.gd/14I5G
• Preferred news sources should matter to real estate brokers, agents. Here’s why. http://is.gd/14HmF
• PA Real Estate Commission extends use of old consumer notice until Sept. 2009. http://is.gd/14zvs

We’d be honored to have you join the people who follow Polley Associates on Twitter.

Related:

• Polley Tweets For June 7-13, 2009
• Polley Tweets For May 31-June 6, 2009
• Polley Tweets For May 24-30, 2009
• Polley Tweets For May 17-23, 2009

Image from Icontexto.Blogspot.com

Commission Extends Old Consumer Notice

HARRISBURG PA – In an announcement posted this week (Wednesday, June 17, 2009) on its website, the Pennsylvania State Real Estate Commission said it was extending for three months – until Sept. 15, 2009 – the deadline to implement its new consumer notice. Before the announcement, the deadline had been set for June 15.

The Commission reported it had received “numerous calls” about the implementation date of the new, shorter-form notice from licensees whom, it said, “may still have a substantial supply” of older, long-form notices available. Because “there is no substantive distinction” between the two forms, the Commission said, it decided to allow continue use of the long form through mid-September.

Licensees can use the short form too, if they want, but one or the other must be presented upon an initial interview with a prospective client, the Commission emphasized.

As of Sept. 16, the Commission added, the long-form will be officially phased out and only the new short form will be acceptable.

Related:

• June 13 Deadline Looms For PA Consumer Notice

Art from Clipart.com

PAR Likes State Funds For First-Timers

HARRISBURG PA – The Pennsylvania Association of Realtors (PAR) endorsed a plan announced Wednesday (June 10, 2009) by Gov. Edward G. Rendell to use part of $380 million in federal economic recovery funds to help the state’s home buyers.

Under Rendell’s proposal, the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA) will allocate $5 million for the Keystone First Program, a down-payment assistance initiative that provides up to $6,000 in down payment funding to at least 1,000 first-time home buyers.

“By initiating this program, the governor and PHFA are making significant strides in helping reinvigorate the real estate market and the economy in Pennsylvania,” PAR President Greg Herb said.

In addition, the state Department of Community and Economic Development’s (DCED) Neighborhood Stabilization program will provide $57 million to local governments to buy, rehabilitate and resell blighted and foreclosed properties. “With these funds and programs in place, we may be able to see a faster recovery of the housing market in Pennsylvania,” Herb added.

Read the PAR press release here:

• PA Realtors(R) Laud Gov. Rendell and PHFA for Creating Initiative to Benefit Homebuyers

What’s the best way to help first-timers get into a home? There may be several! Helping first-timers find funding are among strategies taught by Polley Associates in its Real Estate Finance broker course. It’s being offered beginning June 17 in State College PA, Aug. 6 in Cranberry Township PA, Oct. 2 in Newtown Square PA, and Oct. 13 in Greensburg PA.

Photo from Clipart.com