Spending 100% of ones’ preapproved loan amount to get into a new house, without a plan to improve income to have enough discretionary money to enjoy life outside the house for years to come.

Getting 100% financing on a house so it will be years before there is enough equity to be able to sell it in a pinch or when that plum job opportunity in another town comes along.

Stretching two incomes to the max to be able to buy that coveted new home.  Without furniture.  Without draperies.  Without a chance at a vacation for years.  Without a prayer to replace the car that has 150,000 miles on it already.

When maxing out the finances for a house, one often makes compromises on decisions that are not even on the drawing board yet.  One can easily and severely limit tomorrow’s choices with imprudent decisions today.

“Don’t make decisons today that will limit your choices tomorrow!”  Indeed!

More often than not, the questioner means they would like to hear about homes upon which the lender has foreclosed, that are entered into the Triangle MLS when the bank is ready to sell them.  They often are looking for foreclosures in hopes that they can gain more affordable housing around Cary, NC.

I always want to say, “Yes,” and I always catch myself and say, Well, kinda…”

See, there is no provision in our Triangle MLS rules that require a listing agent to identify a home as in the foreclosure process, or as a bank-owned foreclosure, “REO.”

Some try.  Some don’t try.  Some try to obscure the status so they can semi-pocket the listing and get the Buy side commission, I think.

Triangle MLS has taken a recent measure towards clarity.  A “Special Conditions” field will go live on the MLS on November 3, 2009.  And in that “Special Conditions” field, it will be required to indicate if a home is a short sale.   The field also offers listing agents the option to indicate if a home is in the foreclosure process, or if it is already bank-owned. 

Frankly, I don’t get it.  I understand the Short Sale, if the list price is inadequate to cover outstanding liens and pay costs of the transactions.  That is a material fact that will impact the Seller’s ability to convey title.

What I don’t understand is:  Who is served by providing confusion regarding “In Foreclosure Status,” or that fact that a property is an “REO?”  With these two options being, well Optional, we will be in the same circumstance.  Unable to build a search for one of our hottest commodities currently: REO’s.

The intrinsic value in an MLS is the data, and the integrity of the data.  Providing opportunity to obscure data, and to corrupt the integrity of the data diminishes the value of the Listing Service.  It makes that data unreliable.

I’m hoping that this is an incremental change that foreshadows a move by the Triangle MLS directors to at some point make these fields mandatory, so we can search by In Foreclosure Process and REO statuses and gain reliable information.

Cary has an Affordable Housing Initiative in place to encourage offering of affordable homes to Cary residents.  It is noteworthy that many town employees and other service industry employees are commonly unable to afford a home in Cary.

On October 31, 2009, Cary residents are invited to sit in on a Wake County Affordable Housing Project design workshop, which will be held at the Page-Walker Arts and History Center, 119 Ambassador Loop, Cary, NC 27513.

It should be interesting, with graduate students from NC State’s School of Architecture holding forth.