Tue
Dino Rossi: Profiting from the foreclosure crisis?
Posted by Marlow Harris under Politics, Real Estate
[10] Comments
Dino Rossi, who twice ran for Governor of our state and lost and is now in a senate race with Senator Patty Murray, spoke at several Homeowners Conferences this year that focused on how investors can make a profit buying foreclosed properties. The invitation and advertisements said investors can learn how to make a 50% return on investment each year from foreclosed properties. From the website: “With the current financial and real estate meltdown an opportunity has been created like never before in history.”
If you are running for public office and you want to make yourself seem more credible and caring in the eyes of your average voter, don’t peddle tips on how to profit off of human misery and suffering. Even though the owners have moved out, it is still a sad, sad story.
(Note: Dino Rossi’s smiling face has since been removed from the website, however you can see the original “ticket” for the event here:)
If one is running for public office, wouldn’t it make more sense to spend time helping and assisting those in foreclosure, rather than speaking at seminars that promote the purchase of foreclosures and profiting from human misery?
Those who use these techniques taught at the foreclosure seminars don’t care about the people who have been displaced. They only want to buy the home for a fraction of its value so they can flip it and make a quick profit.
Even if Dino Rossi is not speaking specifically about how to buy these homes for fifty-cents-on-the-dollar, his attendance there seems to condone this kind of behavior.
(Note: Rossi is not a REALTOR, though he does have a real estate license and is involved in commercial real estate sales. He gives thoughtful and ethical people in the real estate business a bad name.)
From Latte Republic:
Current law prevents distressed homeowners from purchasing their home at the Sheriff’s Trustee Auction, even though some of the distressed homeowners could afford the home if they could acquire it at the trustee sale price. (Some homeowners have become re-employed after long periods of unemployment, but the loan servicer refused to allow the distressed homeowner access to the federal Home Affordable program). For more information about how homeowners are being wrongfully foreclosed on during the modification review, see “On the Hill” blog post, Homeowners Working With Servicers Often Blindsided by Foreclosures.
In states with non-judicial foreclosure (WA is one of them). Distressed homeowners are not allowed to re-purchase their home before or after the Sheriff Trustee sale.
If Rossi truly wants to connect with the voters, he would ask the state legislature to provide distressed homeowners the option of redemption. After all, the people who are being foreclosed on in 2010 are not “sub prime borrowers.” They are individuals and families who have lost jobs or businesses due to the recession.
In most cases, the foreclosure redemption process provides distressed homeowners a lengthy period in which to save the home. ( Please note that some states have redemption periods of only a few days). Certain foreclosure laws place the redemption period before the sheriff sale, while most others place it after the sale but before the eviction.
Of course, promoting consumer protection legislation wouldn’t help Rossi raise campaign funds from Real Estate investors who are making a killing at the expense of Washington families who have lost everything they have worked for their entire lives, thanks to the Financial Crisis and wrongful foreclosures.
The big banks got a bailout – despite the contributions they made to the financial crisis. The American people who have been adversely affected by the recession are losing their homes to greedy real estate investors who don’t give a damn what happens to displaced American families.
It may be legal to strip homeowners of their primary residence – but it sure as hell isn’t moral or ethical.
Rossi getting most anonymous outside dollars campaign donations (Seattle PI)
Political Smell Test: Dino Rossi’s Foreclosure Profits (News Tribune)
Rossi Still Helping The Rich Profit Off Distressed Properties During Senate Campaign (TPMDC)
Rossi: Good time to buy a million dollar house? (Seattle Times)
