House Bill 1728-Why it's Death to Your Business and What to Do About it

This bill was written by:
Rep. Bradley Miller [D-NC13] <----Democrat

Cosponsors [as of 2009-05-13]
Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee [D-TX18] <---Democrat
Rep. Paul Kanjorski [D-PA11] <---Democrat
Rep. Gregory Meeks [D-NY6] <---Democrat
Rep. Melvin Watt [D-NC12] <--Democrat
Rep. Walter Minnick [D-ID1] <---Democrat
Rep. Melissa Bean [D-IL8] <---Democrat
Rep. Kendrick Meek [D-FL17] <---Democrat
Rep. Barney Frank [D-MA4] <---Democrat %$#!#$
Rep. Joe Baca [D-CA43] <---Democrat
Rep. Betty Sutton [D-OH13] <----Democrat
Rep. Luis Gutiérrez [D-IL4] <---Democrat

,

Sissy,
Thanks for bringing this to our attention, the fact that I did not see another thread about it, makes me think that no one else is aware of this Bill either.
I love that you are always so on top of everything.
This, I guess, is why things get passed through the House and Senate - they slip under the radar while no-one is paying attention!
Is this really being pushed through as an URGENT Bill?
This is so ridiculous, WE are the potential solution to the troubled RE market.

You gotta be kidding me...That sound crazy...They apparently don't understand certain things...That is going to make thing much more difficult for us...

And I appreciate everyone always being on top of this kind of stuff...So thanks for bringing it to our attention

This was part of your original post ...

"completely unacceptable infringement on private property rights"

Is this just a comment?
Are there really 'private property rights' ?

Can the person who brought this to your attention, write up a VERY simplified email petition that we can all 'email' sign our names to and we can all send it on to everyone that we know, for example: friends and family in foreclosure. DG members with creative ways to buy properties locally. We can email it to each other from the site that we are in contact with and they can pass it on to eveyone that they know ... on and on and on ...

good suggestion...

This is terrible, but consistent with the current administration's "the gov't will do everything for you" mentality. I'm hoping that Dean & his crew, with all their years of experience, can decipher this for us and offer:
1) Ways to combat it
2) If passed, how to succeed within the scope of the new law
3) Provide info on which current strategies still apply
4) Provide new strategies

I've invested quite a bit of money getting my business set up and was looking forward to a lucrative career. I'm sure there are still/will be creative ways to buy/sell homes from an investor's perspective, but I'm too new at this to react appropriately to keep my business growing.

This email was sent to me by Peter Conti. I was thinking it would be nice for Bill Bronchick (real estate attorney) to write up a petition we could email to our senators asking them to vote against this bill since it infringes upon the rights of homeowners and investors. Bill is the well known real estate attorney who writes so many articles which I have posted on the board.

We can also call our Senators office and ask them to vote against this.

AMEN! I am so tired of it too.

Investors will always find a way around these kinds of things. They always seem to.

If everyone can call their senators and ask them to vote against it. The voice of the people should make a difference. Call you republican senators and you should get favorable responses.

This is a link that will get you the phone number and email address of your senators. Call them or email them and tell them you do not approve of HB 1787 and you are kindly asking them to vote against it. Always be polite with these people becasue you will get further. Sadly all I have in Arkansas is Democrat senators and they all stick together on these bills.
I will be calling them though. The voice of the people do need to be heard on these bills that are about to be brought before the senators.

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Sissy,
Can you ask him to write up an email petition?
After that, I like that you suggest that we 'email our senators asking them to vote against this bill since it infringes upon the rights of homeowners and investors'
Can you or Bill, tell us how to find the contact info for the senators in our individual states. Email addresses / phone numbers.
So, we will add our names to a petition.
We will send it to everyone we know.
We will send it on to the 'powers that be' for our state.

Any other suggestions welcomed.

Most of us are just getting ready to make this work for us, it is tough to make that first move - lets not let that opportunity be taken away from us before we even get started!
Angela

In one of my past jobs, I was responsible for lobbying our congressmen and senators regarding Parks, Recreation and Conservation issues. One of the most important things to understand is that if a Senator or Member of Congress gets a lot of correspondence that appears to be a form letter or callers follow a script that they hear a lot, they won't take them as seriously as they would if you just made a sincere appeal to them in your own words using your own thoughts.

I am sure that you all know this but your letters and phone calls will not be seen or heard by your Senators or Congressmen. They will have a staffer who is responsible for this area of legislation who will "fill her/him in" on what the public is thinking. Most times, I found that they have no clue what they are voting on. When the bell rings for a vote, they have a staffer at the door of their office who tells them we are in favor or we are opposed to this legislation.

I think that individual calls using your own words and feelings as to how this affects you personally will have much greater weight than a form letter or a phone call script.

Just my thoughts based on some past experiences.

Hi.

I took so long to send my last message, you had the answers there already!

I think I agree, petition the republicans, looking at your post #2, all the support is coming from the democrats.

That's interesting!

I was thinking, should we bombard the democrats and make them realise the error of their thinking or should we just, as you said already, petition the republicans!

This is so interesting to me, I know that most of us here are democrats trying so hard to become republicans! Whether we know it or not!

Angela

Patrick,
Thank you so much for this post.

I do know that Senators and Congressmen do not pick up their own messages, I am surprised to read though that once the bell rings, a staffer tells them what 'their opinion is'

Apparently, we need to appeal to the staffers!
Any suggestions on how to do that?
Based on your past experience?

Hello and Welcome BTW!
Angela

I got this on a website for investore:

Here’s What to Do Right Now:

This bill has already passed the house and is waiting for Senate approval. Please contact your senator via email and snail mail to let him know that this law MUST NOT PASS in its current form. You can get your senator’s contact information here:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

As always in cases like this, you have an automatic handicap to overcome… the fact that you are a real estate investor and are therefore viewed as part of the problem. So when you write, don’t emphasize the nature of your business, just that you and your buyers would be greatly aversely affected by the new law.

We need THOUSANDS of these communications to go out in the next few days to have a CHANCE of stopping this in its tracks. So whether you’re a new or experienced investor, PLEASE take the time right now to write your elected representative!

Here are some sample letters or emails…

IF YOU HAVE A REAL ESTATE LICENSE:

Dear Senator [name];

My name is [insert name here] and I am a life-long resident of [insert city name here].

I am writing you to encourage you to vote NO on HR 1728, the “Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act”.

While many of the provisions of the act are positive steps toward mortgage reform, the inclusion of private owners in the act (see section 101(3)(e)) will enormously reduce the housing choice of [Ohioans] and the ability of home owners to sell properties in this already-slow market.

As a real estate broker, I have seen several dozen cases in the past year of home sellers and buyers coming to an agreement for an installment sale on a property that the owner desperately needed to sell (often to avoid foreclosure) and the buyer desperately wanted to buy, but could not raise the downpayment needed for conventional financing.

In all cases, these sales turned out to be win-win deals for the buyer and seller; the seller was able to get rid of an unwanted property to a buyer who loved it, and the buyer was able to get his new home at an affordable payment and interest rates with none of the usual costs (points, application fees etc) inherent in more conventional mortgage transactions.

In [Ohio], these transactions are already regulated by state law: a low maximum interest rate is already in place, and both the buyer and seller are protected by other regulations at the state level.

In defense of private property rights, owners should be exempted from the burdensome and unnecessary rules that this law foists upon them. In its current form, it would all but shut off the “owner financing” market that is the only way that many sellers can sell and many buyers can buy right now.

PLEASE DO NOT LET THIS RESTRICTION ON PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS PASS THE SENATE. It is unnecessary to stop private buyers and sellers from transacting business that is beneficial to both of them-they are not the problem that the bill seeks to solve. HR 1728 would be extremely harmful to thousands of your constituents.

It will exacerbate the problem OF foreclosure, as fewer sellers will be able to sell their homes to avoid it, and CAUSED BY foreclosure, as fewer buyers who have recently experienced foreclosure will be able to re-start the process of home ownership inexpensively and easily by negotiating owner financing.

Thank you for your consideration;

Insert Name
Licensed Real Estate Broker license #
Phone #
email

IF YOU SELL HOUSES WITH OWNER FINANCING:

Dear Senator [name];

My name is [insert name here] and I am a life-long resident of [insert city name here].

I am writing you to encourage you to vote NO on HR 1728, the “Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act”.

While many of the provisions of the act are positive steps toward mortgage reform, the inclusion of private owners in the act (see section 101(3)(e)) will enormously reduce the housing choice of [Ohioans] and the ability of home owners to sell properties in this already-slow market.

As a professional housing provider, I sell several houses each year to home buyers on installment sale [or, if you have not purchased a property, add here: “I had planned to sell several houses this year on installment sale]-a practice that would become impossible under this law in its current form.

I find that in today’s slow market, the best way for me to help buyers who desperately want to become homeowners, but who cannot raise the downpayment or meet the other terms needed for conventional financing, is to allow them to make payments directly to me.

These sales are win-win deals for both the buyer and myself; I am able to turn over homes that I’ve bought and rehabbed (often from foreclosures) to buyers who love and can afford them, and the buyer can get his new home at an affordable payment and interest rates with none of the usual costs (points, application fees etc) inherent in more conventional mortgage transactions.

In [Ohio], these transactions are already regulated by state law: a low maximum interest rate is already in place, and both the buyer and seller are protected by other regulations at the state level.

Without the ability to sell homes in this way, I will no longer be able to invest in and renovate any of the tens of thousands of vacant, ugly houses placed on the market by the foreclosure crisis, and my small-but-beneficial business will literally be in ruins. Perhaps more importantly, the homeowner-buyers that I serve will be forced to rent rather than moving toward the American dream of home ownership.

In defense of private property rights, owners should be exempted from the burdensome and unnecessary rules that this law foists upon them. In its current form, it would all but shut off the “owner financing” market that is the only way that many sellers can sell and many buyers can buy right now.

PLEASE DO NOT LET THIS RESTRICTION ON PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS PASS THE SENATE. It is unnecessary to stop private buyers and sellers from transacting business that is beneficial to both of them-they are not the problem that the bill seeks to solve. HR 1728 would be extremely harmful to thousands of your constituents.

It will exacerbate the problem OF foreclosure, as fewer sellers will be able to sell their homes to avoid it, and CAUSED BY foreclosure, as fewer buyers who have recently experienced foreclosure will be able to re-start the process of home ownership inexpensively and easily by negotiating owner financing.

Thank you for your consideration;

Insert Name
Perfect Properties, inc.
Phone number
email

IF YOU BUY HOUSES WITH OWNER FINANCING:

Dear Senator [name];

My name is [insert name here] and I am a life-long resident of [insert city name here].

I am writing you to encourage you to vote NO on HR 1728, the “Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act”.

While many of the provisions of the act are positive steps toward mortgage reform, the inclusion of private owners in the act (see section 101(3)(e)) will enormously reduce the housing choice of [Ohioans] and the ability of home owners to sell properties in this already-slow market.

In the past year, I have purchased and renovated several homes-made possible only because the sellers of these homes were able to sell to me using owner financing in an unrestricted way.

For many of these property owners, seller financing was the only way to unburden themselves of an unwanted property that, in some cases, was headed toward foreclosure before I purchased it.

Without this ability, I can not continue to buy and renovate properties in the neighborhoods that so need me and my colleagues to invest our time, energy, and money in rehabbing properties. Bank financing is not an option for these properties because of the condition; only financing carried by the sellers will suffice.

Section 101(3)(e) would keep my sellers from utilizing this method of getting rid of unwanted properties in today’s market, should they have more than 1 to sell.

In defense of private property rights, owners should be exempted from the burdensome and unnecessary rules that this law foists upon them. In its current form, it would all but shut off the “owner financing” market that is the only way that many sellers can sell and many buyers can buy right now.

PLEASE DO NOT LET THIS RESTRICTION ON PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS PASS THE SENATE. It is unnecessary to stop private buyers and sellers from transacting business that is beneficial to both of them-they are not the problem that the bill seeks to solve. HR 1728 would be extremely harmful to thousands of your constituents.

It will exacerbate the problem OF foreclosure, as fewer sellers will be able to sell their homes to avoid it, and CAUSED BY foreclosure, as fewer buyers who have recently experienced foreclosure will be able to re-start the process of home ownership inexpensively and easily by negotiating owner financing.

Thank you for your consideration;

Insert Name
Perfect Properties, inc.
Phone number
email

Thanks for the great information and I am sure you helped alot of people today and we all need to fight for this and for our future in REI business.
Hopefully, we will be hearing from Dean and get his input as well with this serious issues.

God Bless !

Paul T. La Moy
Hudson Valley, N.Y.

Or government has been about people and that is the way it has been for many decades to this point. Now you may say...not for my people! And i say, That is not the point. When you talk about government by todays measure you will find everybody is apart of the make-up (USA) and you do have a voice in the area of your comment!Yes i am REI and yes i just typed about uneven playing fields of the past. I am not going to contact my senator for one reason only-When a day comes a person cannot buy and sell property...Is the day we elect people too speak for us, Not mouth peices.
I say let it run (HR 1787)and see what happens...Remember in REI less talk can make the Ave. of imformation towards your deal.

My suggestion would be to contact your Senators offices and ask to be connected with the member of the staff who deals with banking regulation. Then ask what position they are taking on the bill. Thank them for sharing their position with you if they agree with your position. If they don't agree with your position, thank them for sharing their position with you and politely ask them to explain how they formed their position on the subject. It is possible that they are trying to help the little people, but as we saw today with the hold being put on the Chrysler buyout by Fiat, they may not understand that by helping some of those who were adversely affected by a situation they may be adversely affecting others by passing the bill in it's current form.

Most bills that pass the House and then are sent to the Senate do not pass in the Senate exactly as the House version was passed so it will have to go to a conference committee.

I wouldn't focus just on the Republican Senators. I would call Democrats as well. You may not be able to persuade them to change their position but if enough people contact them to oppose their position it may cause them to at least rethink their position.

I think a big key message is that they may be preventing people who would not be able to own a home by going through the conventional lending process from owning a home with an owner finance or lease option process. Explain to them how we, as investors look at methods that create situations where the seller and the buyer win.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for those letters! Copy and paste, done!

Post #11 provides a link to find your Senators' contact information.

Couldn't be easier. Phone #, address,
Click on the link, put in your state and voila!
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

This is the info I got for NY

Gillibrand, Kirsten E. - (D - NY) Class I
478 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4451
Web Form: gillibrand.senate.gov/contact/

Schumer, Charles E. - (D - NY) Class III
313 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-6542
Web Form: schumer.senate.gov/new_website/contact.cfm

We need THOUSANDS of these communications to go out in the next few days to have a CHANCE of stopping this in its tracks. So whether you’re a new or experienced investor, PLEASE take the time right now to write your elected representative! - BostonDolfan

I have sent my letters in.

Anyone else?

Angela

Before anyone writes to their senators we should all be on the same page. Which identifying number is correct?

The Republican side of our adminstration is NOT the problem. The Democrats are the ones behind this bill, so they are the ones we need to convince that it is bad; they hold the vote count. If every Republican voted against it, it wouldn't matter because they are outnumbered by the Democrats. Concentrate on influencing the Democratic vote.

Once again, the gov't is trying to stop people from profiting in real estate market. All I have to say is that hopefully Republicans won't let it happen.
Make sure you send those letters to your senators!!!

Yuri

Thanks for brining this to our attention. I believe government does try to listen to the people. After all the people are the voters that put them in office. Thus, contact your state politicians and inquire about this issue. If they hear from the people they will listen. Also, I believe large groups such as the National Association of Realtors, Bankers, Mortgage Borkers, etc all have lobbiests in Washington and will also help to take a stand on this. We need to think positive and together we can make a difference. I would suggest not to worry or stress over this yet, that will not help. We just need to have our voice heard and good things should happen. United we stand! Believe and Achieve! - Joe

Just wanted to make sure everyone knows it is HR 1728

Thanks for the info. It was very simple, I found my state Senators info copy and pasted the applicable letter and emailed it. I will also alert those know who are Real Estate agents/brokers to do the same. There are so many of us with the same goal, hopefully if we all take action we will succeed at stopping this.

Dannette

Keep positive! There is a solution to every problem. Stay on track an maximize this opportunity! Congratulation on joing the success academy.I look forward to joining this month! Continued success to you..............Lubertha

Come on people! Fire it up! Send your Senators the letter asking them to vote against this bill.

There will be a short 30 minute conference call this Thursday for all investors concerning this bill. I hesitate to put the information and call in number here on the board until Deans board administrator OK's it

Here is what most of the email says MINUS the phone number to call in to....
___________________________________________________________________________

A New Federal Law Will Make it Impossible For You To Sell Properties Creatively!

HR 1728, which has already passed in Congress, will effectively keep you from:

Selling properties with owner-carryback or wrap-around mortgages
Selling properties using land contracts or contracts for deed
Selling properties using lease/option
And, possibly, borrowing private money to buy properties
Please Join Us for a CRUCIAL Conference Call to Learn What You (and all your colleagues)

Need to Do TODAY to Stop this Bill from Becoming Law!

We'll outline what the proposed bill says and what you need to say to your elected officials to get it STOPPED.

Please Take the Time to Join Us for ½ Hour on

Thursday, June 11th at 3 p.m. EST--

Your Business May Depend on it!