Re: Mortgage lenders and cohousing
From: Ann Zabaldo (zabaldoearthlink.net)
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2012 12:59:51 -0700 (PDT)
O this drives me crazy.  You have pending buyers for your cohousing community 
and Chase is worried about "marketability?"   Really?  Am I confused?  Isn't 
the definition of marketability people wanting a loan to buy a particular home 
in a particular community -- it sort of strongly infers marketability of the 
home and the community?  Isn't that what we call "demand?"

This is one of those "Ate My Brain" situations.  I can't wrap my head around it 
...

Anyway, Patti, sounds as if you are doing the right thing getting more 
information.  Then you can see if you can mitigate the issues. Probably take 
some time and some patience.   Someone lent you the money in the first place!!

Best --

Ann Zabaldo
Takoma Village Cohousing
Washington, DC
Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
Falls Church VA
703-688-2646

On Aug 27, 2012, at 2:01 PM, Lautner, Patricia wrote:

> 
> It's not time to panic about Chase nationwide until we know more.  Hopefully 
> they only have a problem with our condo docs and this is not a bigger problem.
> 
> To clarify, I learned from a local Broker in Boston that Chase is no longer 
> giving loans to cohousing because of 'marketability' reasons.  I asked her to 
> find out more information specifically what marketability problems meant.  
> Since this particular Broker sells mostly to Chase, she has stopped accepting 
> applications from our community.  I asked her if this was a Chase policy just 
> for JPCohousing or is Chase blocking cohousing nationwide?  She's not sure 
> and is helping me to answer that question.  
> 
> Patti
> JPCohousing - Boston
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Holly McNutt [mailto:holly.mcnutt [at] gmail.com] 
> Sent: Monday, August 27, 2012 1:47 PM
> To: Cohousing-L
> Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Mortgage lenders and cohousing
> 
> 
> Hey Coho-land,
> 
> Being in real estate and knowing a little about lending, I want to chime in 
> with my wee bit of experience here.  When we bought in 4.5 years ago, lending 
> guidelines were much more lenient, and even then my mortgage broker cautioned 
> us that it might be trickier to get a loan. He had worked on loans here at 
> Nyland before, so I knew to trust him on this.  He advised leaving the word 
> "cohousing" out of the paperwork as much as possible because LENDERS DO NOT 
> LIKE TO FUND ANYTHING DIFFERENT.  Our appraiser used the word "community" 
> which is pretty generic.  He did NOT expound on everything that is special 
> and wonderful about this place and this experience, just wrote it up like it 
> was any other HOA. And it worked!   
> 
> That being said, it's sooo much harder to get a loan now and the level of 
> scrutiny is very high.  There is no way an underwriter isn't going to notice 
> something like that.  And I"m not saying someone applying for a loan should 
> try to hide the fact that we're coho.  I'm just saying that even 5 years ago, 
> it could raise an eyebrow and probably it raises more now.
> 
> I am VERY interested to know if that is accurate about Chase's policy.  We 
> ALL know that cohousing loans are probably MORE secure than the average, 
> borrows are much less likly to walk away from a home in a coho community, but 
> don't expect an underwriter sitting in an office to get that at all.
> 
> I like Sharon's idea.
> 
> My two cents!
> 
> - Holly at Nyland
> 
> 
> On Aug 27, 2012, at 11:32 AM, Sharon Villines wrote:
> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Aug 27, 2012, at 11:00 AM, Lyle Scheer <wonko [at] monkeyhouse.org> wrote:
>> 
>>> I did some investigation and the lawyer who helped us remove the 
>>> clause told me that recently a bunch of "reforms" were put in place 
>>> for the mortgage industry in order to prevent a duplicate of the 
>>> crisis that were very poorly thought out.
>> 
>> I just did a quick search online. Articles in the NYTimes and the Washington 
>> Post, and blogs on housing are all reporting serious reforms in requirements 
>> for _banks_. They detail what banks have to do to prove they aren't 
>> deceiving borrowers or giving mortgages that can't possibly be repaid. 
>> 
>> I didn't see anything that would affect cohousing or condominiums as such 
>> but it sounds like banks are wary of any loans that anyone would say they 
>> shouldn't have made, and thus get fines or the mortgages cancelled without 
>> payment because they were unfairly awarded.
>> 
>> I think it may be time for the national organization to get legal counsel to 
>> sort this out. Or a task force of lawyers living in cohousing.
>> 
>> The seriousness in some areas and lack of problems in others indicates that 
>> the problem is not federal regulations but local interpretations of them. 
>> The task may not be to go after them for discrimination but provide 
>> information that assures them that they would be acting in accordance with 
>> federal regulations when they loan to cohousing groups that are legally 
>> constituted as required by law in their jurisdictions. 
>> 
>> No one even has a litmus test for cohousing. And Chase thinks it knows what 
>> it is? They should tell us their definition so we know who we are.
>> 
>> Sharon
>> ----
>> Sharon Villines
>> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC http://www.takomavillage.org
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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> 
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