Smoking Bans

With Delaware County's New Non-Smoking Bans is this some thing we can see here or is it here and I don't know about it? California Bill to Ban Smoking in Condos and Apartments Statewide Defeated A California bill seeking to ban smoking in condominiums and apartments statewide failed in an Assembly committee. Democratic Assemblyman Marc Levine of San Rafael proposed the bill.  AB746 would have made designated smoking areas outside complexes 20 feet from the building and 100 feet from playgrounds and pools. A few California counties and cities already prohibit smoking in multi-unit residential buildings. Supporters of the statewide ban say it would protect residents from secondhand smoke while opponents say the ban would be difficult to enforce. Read More: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/04/17/5350063/bill-to-ban-smoking-in-condos.html Related Posts: Landlord Institutes Smoking Ban in 2,000 California Apartments San Francisco, CA Suburb San Rafael Bans Smoking In Multi-Family Homes Battle Over Smoking In Condo

Something Learned Yesterday That Might Help Someone

This is personal to me as a Real Estate Broker but I thought that it might help someone if you are planning on buying houses in the future.
Here's my timeline:

Closed on house November 21st, 2012 (Foreclosure)
At this point my understanding after being in Real Estate 18 years is that when a property has gone through a title company process for closing the Buyer walks out with a clear title to the property. Well, this is not always the case.
Property recorded into new owners name December 4, 2012
A trip to get Permits for work to be done
The new owner started working on the property and got to a point where there were permits needed to to do the electrical and some other things. He went to City Hall to get the permit. He was told he need to go to the Weed Control Office in the Court House. After going there he was sent to the City court to find out why he was not able to get permits. He was told that at sometime the city mowed the yard charging $75.00. They said they notified the Owner who had passed away that he was being fined and needed to come and pay the fine or he would be taken to court. Well since the man had passed away he did not show up in court so they levied more fees to the owner.
Remember this -
When the Title Company did there search for liens and such they did not check this fine because even though it goes through court it is not recorded and it states on the title work that they are not responsible for items that are not recorded. The Buyer had to pay $197.68 to clear this off and to get his Permits. If he decided not to pay there would have been more fines added to this. What I found out was that if a title company does not find these they stay with the house and the new owner is responsible.
Motto
If you are purchasing a home in Delaware County and do not want to rely on the title company to do there job you should go to the Building Commissioners office on the 3rd floor of the City Building and ask for Joyce Dick. She has all of the knowledge. If there are unrecorded fines, liens or judgments ask for a copy and take or send to the title company that will be closing your purchase. This way you should now be getting clear title to the property. Foreclosure Companies do not use a title company from Delaware County usually so you do not know actually what has been done so make sure you ask to see the title work before the closing that way you will have a chance to check to make sure that you are getting what you are paying for. The Seller pays title work normally but this is figured in the listing price. Even though it is something that is negotiable it usually is a Seller expense. They are assuring that you are getting a free and clear title. (Sometimes)

EZLandlord Forms

This is a newsletter I received today. 

It has a lot of information about forms and

has answers for a lot of the questions I have been asked recently.

 They will give you a chance to check it out free 

then there is a fee to join.

They also will do Tenant Screening.

All Forms are State Specific.

Check it out: www.ezlandlordforms.com   

Membership Dues

Membership Dues are $50.00 

They are Due the Month of April

Send them to:

Rental Property Association

P.O. Box 1129 

Muncie, IN 47308

May 16th Meeting

I am including an article that was in the paper a few weeks back. It interested me so much I thought I would ask Larry Riley to be our speaker for the May meeting. He will be joining us. I unfortunately will be out of town that evening. I hope that he will come back and speak again. He has so much knowledge about so many things. I know he will be interesting.

Tax sales process under fire

A 40-minute drama played out last Thursday at the Indiana Supreme Court over constitution­ality of the process by which Hoosier counties conduct delinquent tax sales of real property.

Two courts already have said the process does, indeed, violate the Bill of Rights and if the Supreme Court agrees — a decision likely won’t be announced for months — counties will have lots more work to do to sell properties delinquent in paying taxes. “Yeah, it will have a huge impact. The coun­ties can’t afford it,” said Jon Orlosky, Muncie attorney whose law prac­tice is devoted to tax sales and who’s at the center of the legal storm.

Orlosky argued before the Supreme Court in defense of Indiana’s system.

The case began sever­al years ago when M&M Investment Group LLC, bought a commercial property in a Bartholo­mew County tax sale for $95,000. I think M&M is an out-of-state firm that, as growing numbers of specialty investors are becoming, focus on tax sale properties with no objective of actually owning their purchase.

Instead, the buyers hope the original owners “redeem” their property to keep ownership, and when they do, the tax sale buyer gets their purchase price back plus 10 to 15 percent interest, depending on when the redemption takes place.

The redemption peri­od is only one year, so the buyer makes a quick killing. In M&M’s case here, if the prop­erty was re­deemed after a couple of months, M&M makes $9,500 profit.

But the property wasn’t redeemed, so M&M went ahead to take the property to deed.

When you have the winning bid in a tax sale auction, you don’t actu­ally buy the property. You buy a lien giving you the right after one year, if the property isn’t re­deemed, to petition a court to grant you a deed. You do have a host of steps to take, including notifying any other lien holder on the property and the property owner what you’re doing.

In Indiana, the property owner of record — the owner whose name is on the tax rolls — is always notified by the county if their property will be in a tax auction.

The county also advertises the sale in the local newspaper and must send a list of such prop­erties to any mortgage company asking for one, but the county doesn’t do a title search to see who all is a lien holder on the property, including any­one who might hold the mortgage on the proper­ty.

That’s the issue at hand. Monroe Bank, in Bloomington (now part of Old National Bank), had a mortgage on the property with an unpaid balance exceeding $800,000. If M&M gets a tax deed, the bank’s out.

The theory behind requiring the buyer of a tax sale property to noti­fy all interested parties is so those parties, should they choose, can pay the back taxes (and the 10-15 percent inter­est), keep the title in the original owner’s name and protect their lien.

For some reason, Monroe Bank did not do that during the redemp­tion period.

Afterward, the bank said it should have been notified before the prop­erty was sold in the tax sale, claiming it was denied “due process” protection of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

A Bartholomew Coun­ty judge at trial agreed. The case is complicated in that the state Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that the existing process was constitutional, but a U.S. Supreme Court case in 2006 rejected the 1992 rationale, though that rejection was in a case about notices to property owners that weren’t de­livered.

Orlosky, who does tax sale work across Indiana, came onto the case to appeal.

Last summer, the Indiana Court of Appeals upheld the trial court.

Orlosky petitioned the Indiana Supreme Court to take the case, and justices agreed. The Muncie attorney consid­ered that auspicious since 90 percent of the time the Supreme Court turns down requests for appeals.

The Supreme Court also vacated the Appeals Court ruling pending its own decision, a move that justices did not have to make, and that also gives Orlosky hope.

Orlosky thinks if the prior decisions are up­held, tax sales would be out of financial reach for counties. County audi­tors would have to do title searches on all prop­erties up for tax sale.

“It would involve a lot of work and expense,” he said. “It would just be impossible.”

The Indiana Associa­tion of Counties agreed and filed amicus briefs in the case on behalf of treasurers and auditors throughout the state.

Orlosky estimated that at typical rates for a lien search run as much as $250. Last year, Dela­ware County offered more than 1,000 proper­ties at tax auction. That math computes to a quar­ter million dollars.

The county could tack on the cost to properties sold, but half the proper­ties don’t sell (the really worthless hovels). County treasurer John Dorer is more sanguine should the county be required to do more, confident that the title searches won’t be that much, and would actu­ally clean up any ques­tions.

“I’ve been in court too much over tax sales,” he said. “The whole issue is notification.” But Orlosky also told the Supreme Court if the ruling is upheld, every property owner with a mortgage whose proper­ty sold in a tax sale could reclaim title to the prop­erty, even if the property had been resold to a le­gitimate buyer.

Larry Riley teaches English at Ball State Uni­versity. Email him at lri­ley@bsu.edu.

We will also be having another speaker. He is Gary Paul. He is an agent for State Farm. I have known him for many years and believe that with changing times it is always nice to have and insurance agent as a Member. He has shown enough interest that he will be joining our membership.

I spoke with Ona Sites the other day and met her for lunch. I was able to explain how important our association is to a Landlord and how much help she can expect from the wonderful Members of our Association that she felt she wanted to join our group before we left. Please be sure to make our 2 new Members welcome.

March 21st, 2013 Meeting

*Our meeting was called to order at 7:00pm
*We had 10 Members present and 2 Guest
*Introduction of Officers 
*Introduction of Members
*Our speaker was Al Holdren from Atlas Collections
                       Al has been a speaker many times at our Association meetings but it doesn't make a difference how many    times he comes we always learn something. He impressed on us how important it is to get as munch information as possible. Make copies of checks and be sure to get social security numbers. Place of employment is important. He said we needed to get a harder attitude about our Tenants that are not paying rent. We should at them as stealing from us. We would stand for that. You should always use your gut feeling when leasing. If you have an uncomfortable feeling while interviewing a possible Tenant.

                        There is a wording that needs to be in our leases so that any collection agency can charge the Tenant with the collection fees. I am including that wording on this Blog.

                        Al also told us as a person who lost his home recently from a fire, he has learned much. He wanted to pass on this information. Ask your insurance company if you have code upgrade in your policy for your own home or for your rentals. He also suggested using a digital camera and taking pictures of the inside of your home. Keep this on a digital card and don't keep it in your home. Keep it somewhere else.

*Minutes for the February & March newsletters. These were approved. 
*Treasures report was given by Treasurer Joann Heldenbrand. Our total shall be given at the meetings.
*There are refrigerator cards on the front table that will give you the dates of our meetings. The dates are also on this Blog.

*Our 2 Guest - Dennis Trimble & Will Baldridge came during our Board meeting but were able to come back for the meeting at 7:00. They listened to all that was said and at the end of the meeting they asked if they could ask questions. Their questions were about our association. I believe we all answered them to their satisfaction. Hopefully you will see them at the May meeting.
*The meeting adjourned at 8:45pm.
Submitted by Sara Hammas, Secretary

                        

Al Holdren - Atlas Collections

Associate Members

As investment Owners or Property Managers, we are continually looking for people to help do painting, cleaning, or repairs. This is something that has been forgotten in our group. As we concentrate of new Members this year maybe we should think about this. It would be much easier to use someone that is a member because know and trust these people. If selling or buying rental properties there are Real Estate agents that are members and if it is time to set back and relax and turn your responsibilities over to a Property Manager, we have members in this field also. Insurance is always something that is needed. Wouldn't you like to talk to someone you feel has your best interest at heart? We have some new Associate Members and we will be getting more. Do you know someone that would a great fit with our Association?

www.sherwinwilliams.com

Membership Application

          Associate Member and Regular

           Membership Invoice - Renewal form

        1 Year membership – $50

       April 1, 2013 - March 31, 2014

Please return this completed form and your

check to the above address.

NAME - Owner - Partner________________________

_____________________________________________

Firm Name___________________________________

Mailing Address______________________________

City__________________ State______ Zip_________

Phone_______________ Cell #___________________

E-mail Address________________________________

******************************************

Officers for 2013 -  2014 are:

President: Debby Gilpin   760 - 0212

Vice Pres: Mark Dunn   749 - 3620

Secretary: Sara Hammes   286 - 0787

Treasurer:          JoAnn Heldenbrand  284 - 4287

Membership