This January 15, 2009 from 6-8:30 pm I am hosting a Volunteer Party at the Oregon Food Bank on North Columbia Blvd.  We will be doing a Food Re-pack, where we take bulk food and repackage the food for distribution to other parts of the state.  It is suitable for ages 6 and up.  If you have questions regarding the event or the Food Bank, please contact me at mricker@kw.com.

I hope to see all of you there!

The point, however, is that there are certain responsibilities that are unknown for residents of the city, and the inclement weather highlighted those responsibilities.  There was actually an Oregonian article the other day referencing the fact that residents are responsible for shoveling their sidewalks and/or keeping their walkways clear.  Any person that were to slip on the sidewalk, would have grounds for a lawsuit if the owner had not fulfilled their responsibility of clearing the walk with in 4 days of the event.

Another reason that I write this post is that residents need to be aware of city regulations concerning trees and debris on their walkways.  I have plenty of questions regarding this when my buyers are looking at homes.  We have plenty of beautiful, old trees in the city, and sometimes their roots can grow under the sidewalks and “lift” the concrete.  This is the responsibility of the homeowner, and may be an expense in the future, either legally or through repair costs.

Here are a couple of examples of what is called a “Portland Foursquare” or “Old Portland Style” home. 

These are popular with many home-buyers because the straight vertical walls usually mean that upstairs rooms don’t have the slanted ceilings that are normally seen in Bungalow style homes and that cut living space or square footage.  This means that the second floor will generally have nice high ceilings and a desirable floor plan.  A common floor plan of a Portland Foursquare will be 3 bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, with a dining room, bathroom, kitchen, and family room downstairs.  These homes are also popular because of their tall, beautiful presence lending views from upstairs windows.  A majority of these homes have the popular front porch, perfect for watching the world pass by.  A quick search on a website reveals that there are 164 OLD-PDX style homes in Portland right now throughout SE, North, and NE Portland.

Sewer scoping is one of the best things that you can do during your inspection that really doesn’t cost a lot of money and can save you a lot more.  With every new client,  I highly  recommend a sewer scope on their prospective property.   Why?  I have seen too sellers discover these costly repairs at time of sale. This can be avoided by getting a sewer scope before purchasing.  Often the seller will pay 50% or more of the costs which can be in the thousands of dollars and the scope is around $100.00.  I know that this is worth it. The picture to the right is a sample from a scope.  The technician will snake a camera down into the sewer to check for disconnection, root balls, or even lines connected from other homes.  It also measure the distance of the line.  My preferred technician makes a DVD copy for the client so that the client can present the copy at sale in the future to prove a satisfactory line.  Its also fun to show at parties! 

Earth Advantage is a Portland based organization that acts as a third-party rating organization for new and existing homes.  It sets the bar in four different categories so that builders and re-modelers have guidance in creating homes that provide the greatest comfort, enjoyment, durability and health while providing the least output of energy and pollution.    Earth Advantage uses four categories to rate their homes, and they are:

1)  Indoor Air Quality-Promoting a healthy indoor environment as people spend more than 90% of their time indoors.  Ventilation and filtration of the air is key. 

2)  Energy Efficiency-Do the appliances and home use energy in the most efficient way possible and still provide comfort and reduce costs?  Earth Advantage homes use Energy Star appliances and also stress the whole system of the home and its orientation to save energy.  This includes correct insulation, installation of CFL light bulbs, and even the position of the home toward the sun if possible.  Southern exposure, for example, helps to heat the home in the Winter, and if the roof shades well in the summer it eliminates a lot of the captured heat and uses less energy to cool.  All third party organizations conduct blower door tests to determine the energy efficiency of a home before certification.

3) Resource Utilization-Using the least amount of resources in the construction or remodeling of a home.  Are the materials of high quality and are they durable?  The cost of the material over its lifetime is the most important aspect.  Green materials that last are more important than those that might save money initially but will have to be replaced later.  Can the home utilize rainwater or sunlight by collecting it and using it in the overall system of the home?  These are some of the issues that are examined.

4)  Environmental Impact-Are the materials used easily replaced naturally and is the process to produce the product harmful to the environment?  For example, bamboo is a great product because it grows quickly and easily but most bamboo is imported from Asia.  The impact of the delivery on the environment does not yet make this a completely ‘green” product.  The goal of the Earth Advantage home is to have zero negative impact.

This is an overview of the organization, and I invite you to learn more by visiting their website.  It is a different organization than LEED, and uses different ratings and criteria for certification.  Regardless of the differences or similarities, Earth Advantage is one of the leaders in third party certification for “green” homes.

The New Math Of Credit Scores-FICO 08

Fair Isaac’s Revamped FICO Aims to Forgive Small Slips, Punish Repeat Offenders

The company that cooks up credit scores for millions of Americans is changing its recipe — and that could affect how easily you get credit in the future.

Fair Isaac Corp., maker of the popular FICO credit score used by most lenders, says its new scoring model will do a better job predicting the likelihood of a borrower defaulting on a loan. For one thing, the new model, dubbed FICO 08, will be more forgiving of occasional slips by consumers, but will take a harder line on repeat offenders. Fair Isaac predicts its new system will help lenders reduce default rates on their consumer credit by between 5% and 15%.

The rollout of the new credit-scoring system comes at a time when lenders say they are eager for more-accurate measures of credit risk, in part because of rising loan defaults as subprime mortgages go bad and housing prices fall. And there are signs that delinquencies are creeping into other types of consumer debt, including auto loans, further prompting lenders to tighten up on credit.

The FICO score, which Fair Isaac says is used by 90% of the 100 largest banks, and other similar scores hold sway over the lives of millions of people. Financial institutions use them to determine the granting and pricing of credit, insurance, cellphone usage and, in some cases, employment and utility services. Some consumer groups have raised concerns about whether credit scores are being used properly and whether they are valid measures of credit risk for some groups of consumers, especially minorities and lower-income individuals, says Travis Plunkett, the legislative director for the Consumer Federation of America.

Credit scores, which are calculated using proprietary models, also are criticized for a lack of transparency. “This is a product, per se, but it’s a product that has inordinate influence on the financial lives of hundreds of millions of Americans,” says Mr. Plunkett. Fair Isaac, based in
Minneapolis, says it believes it does a good job of explaining the factors that go into calculating the FICO score and in guiding consumers on how to manage their scores.

Consumers could start seeing the new FICO scores by the spring, though some lenders may take additional time to test the system to see how it works with their business and loan portfolios.

Fair Isaac, which last revamped its scoring model earlier this decade, says it is accelerating its FICO 08 rollout, partly in response to lenders’ demand for better risk-management tools.

The latest version of the FICO score will largely look and feel the same to consumers and lenders. Scores will still range from 300 to 850 — the higher the better — and the model will continue to look at the same factors, including consumers’ level of credit indebtedness and payment histories, length of credit histories, number of recent credit openings and inquiries, and the type of credit used, to determine scores.

But the new model will more finely slice and dice the information in consumers’ credit files to do a better job of separating the “good risks” from the “bad risks,” particularly for subprime borrowers; those with “thin,” or young, credit files; or consumers who are actively seeking new credit. “Those are the communities that lenders are most interested in” to determine credit risk, says Craig Watts, spokesman for Fair Isaac.

“Consumers who are low risk will score better with the new FICO version, and consumers who are high risk will score lower,” says John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education for Credit.com, a personal-finance Web site. Higher-risk borrowers may find it tougher to get credit, while those with less-risky profiles — though they may have gotten approved for credit accounts in the past — will start to get better deals from lenders, he says.

Two people with the same FICO score currently could see their scores diverge under the new system. One possible reason: FICO 08 gives more points to consumers who maintain a variety of credit types, such as credit cards, a mortgage and auto loan, because it shows they can manage payments on different kinds of loans. On the other hand, the new scoring system penalizes to a greater degree borrowers who use a high percentage of their available credit.

FICO 08 also will draw greater distinctions among different borrowers who are at least 90 days late in making a loan payment, known as a serious delinquency. Traditionally, many credit-scoring models grouped subprime consumers into one general category. But Fair Isaac says its new model will give a higher score to a borrower in arrears if they also have a number of other credit accounts in good standing. Conversely, a person’s score could drop if he or she has multiple delinquent accounts.

“Overall, more consumers will see their FICO scores go up slightly than will see their scores drop,” says Tom Quinn, vice president of global scoring solutions for Fair Isaac.

Despite the new scoring model, consumers still have to make sure the information in their credit reports, which Fair Isaac relies on to come up with its score, is accurate. If consumers feel their FICO score is unfair, they would have to go to the individual credit bureaus, Experian Group Ltd., TransUnion LLC and Equifax Inc., for a copy of their credit report on file and look for any errors or missing information. If there are any, they would have to contact the credit bureau or the financial institutions to dispute those errors.

FICO 08 also aims to curtail the growing business of allowing people to polish their credit by “piggybacking” on someone else’s good credit history. In recent years, credit-repair Web sites have sprung up that arrange for subprime consumers to boost their scores by becoming authorized users on accounts held by strangers with better credit. When scoring a consumer, FICO 08 won’t take into consideration credit-card accounts for which that person is an authorized user. But the move also will hurt legitimate users: People who give a credit card to a child or a spouse as an authorized user to help boost their credit score.

FICO 08 is likely to face some competition from VantageScore Solutions LLC of Stamford, Conn., a joint venture of the three credit bureaus that was rolled out in 2006. Fair Isaac has sued VantageScore and the three bureaus, accusing them of using unfair and anticompetitive practices to harm the FICO brand. Recently, Equifax linked the suit with the launch of FICO 08. The company has said it wouldn’t move forward with FICO 08 and that its relationship with Fair Isaac remains “strained” until the lawsuit is resolved, says David Rubinger, Equifax spokesman. The new FICO model has already been distributed to Experian, which is in the process of implementing it, while TransUnion expects to have the scoring model available for lenders to test during the second quarter of 2008. Fair Isaac says its intention is to provide the formula to all three credit-reporting agencies.

Happy New Year!

-Copy of sales contract

-Information on residences for the last two years

-Employer names and addresses the last two years

-Copy of the last two years of W-2 forms

-Pay stub covering full 30-day period (must indicate YTD)

-Verification of additional sources of income

-Divorce Decree (if applicable)

-Social Security # for all applicants and Drivers License

-Last 3 months of bank statements or passbook that show names of applicants, address, account #, and balance

-List of creditors (i.e. car loans, charge accounts, etc.)

-Info on cash assets, stocks, bonds, real estate, life insurance

-Check for all credit report and appraisal fees