For those of you reading the news, you probably noticed some significant changes planned for the Huntsman Springs development. In a nutshell, they are to:
-Consolidate a variety of parks scattered throughout the project into one large 7.5 acre public park at the entry of Huntsman Springs across from the Teton County courthouse.
-Add acreage to the project, but lower the overall density of the project to include larger ranch-style acreages on the North end of the development.
-Privatize internal streets with gates, and take over the maintenance of these streets.
-Solidify a location for future employee housing for the project.
In a public hearing and city council meeting on April 10th, there were obviously some concerns with the public. The public was in favor of the consolidation of the parks and overall density reduction of the project, though some were opposed to the privatization of the streets. A number of homeowners in the community East of the proposed employee housing also expressed concern.
It was concluded that the project amendments would be granted preliminary approval with the contingency that a final determination is made with respect to the location and accessibility of the employee housing site, amongst a few other clerical items as required by the city and county.
Though some expressed concern regarding the privatization of the internal roads, it was concluded that the benefit of overall maintenance reduction would be reduced significantly, even with the future maintenance required for the proposed park to be built in phases over three years.
I’ll be interested to see how the development changes. I am speculating a name change, and I understand we will see an increase of amenities for members.
Wire Fraud & Real Estate
As one might imagine, fraud is a word used abundantly in the real estate industry. Here are a few examples, and how to handle them.
Wire Fraud:
Usually wire fraud is associated with email. In order for a hacker to get you to wire money to them, they’ll need to intercept and change account numbers for what would be an otherwise unassuming, planned transaction. Scenario: A hacker is monitoring a title company’s emails. The hacker sees that you plan on purchasing a property. He’s monitoring emails that have the key words “wire instruction”. He intercepts an outgoing message with the title company’s wiring instructions attached. He simply changes the numbers to reflect his bank account he previously setup with a fictitious name. You receive the instructions, and send the wire. Since wire transactions are usually instant, (the reason we like to use them) he immediately transfers or withdraws money, and it’s gone. This scenario is less likely to occur based on recent diligent efforts on behalf of these companies, but what if you received and impersonated email from your real estate agent? In almost all cases, these are honest mistakes, but they can cost the sender thousands of dollars of unrecoverable funds.
The Solution is easy. ALWAYS verbally confirm wire transfers with the recipient including the account numbers before sending any wire.
Paper Check Fraud:
Fortunately for the consumer, these cases are more typically aimed at real estate brokerages. Scenario: Thief 2 poses herself as a real estate buyer. She contacts an unassuming real estate agent and informs the agent she would like to make an all-cash offer on a property she viewed on her own the prior summer. She’s willing to offer full price, and wants to put down $10,000 of earnest money that can be refunded within 10 days to give her time to perform due diligence and inspections, which is very common. She is of course emailing using a fake name, and is working overseas, so prefers email as opposed to conversation. The real estate agent secures a contract very easily with her full price offer. She sends a fake cashier’s check in the amount of $10,000. Shortly after, she changes her mind and asks for a refund. Because she is traveling and working in Ukraine, she asks if the funds can be refunded via money transfer or wire to her account, of course setup using her fictitious name. The agent is disappointed, but she is still within her inspection time frame. He terminates the contract, and wires the money back to her. 10 days later, the bank notifies the real estate broker that the cashier’s check has bounced. Unfortunately these situations do occur, and cashier’s checks can be fraudulent as well.
There are many circumstances in which hackers and thieves can take serious advantage of consumers, the public, and even government as we have seen. It’s easy to fall into these traps, just remember, always verify. Confirm account numbers, call the bank associated with a cashier’s check, etc. Verbal communication with real institutions is absolutely key when dealing with these large transactions.
The Government Shutdown and Real Estate
As we know, not ALL government agencies shut down. For example, those “non-essential” agencies, such as those needed to ensure public safety, remain open.
For most of us, government agencies related to real estate are not essential…
Rather than listing the real estate related effects of (this) a shutdown myself, I’ll leave it to the Wyoming Association of Realtors (Iam a member of both the Idaho and Wyoming Associations since I try to sell real estate in both Teton Counties).
There are three areas of concern for your business: 1) the availability of federal flood insurance under the National Flood Insurance Program, 2) delays in processing of FHA-backed mortgages, and 3) slower response times by IRS offices for tax information needed for real estate transactions.
Flood insurance
Update 12/21, 8pm ET: Flood Insurance Extended Until May 31
NFIP’s authority to sell flood insurance policies expires at midnight tonight. Should the program lapse, NFIP will not be able to sell or renew policies. Existing NFIP policies will remain in effect until their expiration date.
NAR FAQ Sheet: Flood Insurance Extension Update(link is external)
FHA programs
Under a shutdown, FHA will furlough non-essential employees. Delays are possible in loan processing and approval. Mortgages backed by secondary mortgage market companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not affected, nor are mortgages backed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Tax information
To the extent taxpayer information from the IRS is needed, transactions can face delays as IRS offices, subject to furloughs of non-essential employees, take longer to reply to requests.
November ’18 Market Stats
For November 2018’s Teton Market Update, I compared Teton Valley sales stats compared to November of 2017. In a nutshell, sales are down 24% from one year ago, while dollar volume is only down 18%. My interpretation of this was that supply remains low, which is driving prices up. This is consistent with the data for 2018 vs 2017, the average sales price in Nov. ’18 was around 350k, while Nov. ’17 was about 5% less. Sales volume is down due to inventory levels (as mentioned) which is likely because of high construction costs, which has been the trend for the past few years.
Victor, ID seems to be building a healthy supply, so we’ll see if these numbers switch places in the coming months.
