Slow Week

Not much progress will be made this week on the purchase on Rental #2 or the refi of Rental #1. The mortgage broker I am using for both is on vacation. I did mail back the paperwork on Monday, and he said his assistant would be working on it, but it's been my experience that the paperwork just sits around until the main person gets back from vacation.

I did get a call from the escrow agent asking for a payoff amount on the mortgage for Rental #1. I faxed that to her this morning.

Other than those things, I don't think any progress will be made this week. I hate that.

Foreclosures Skyrocket In Phoenix Area

The Arizona Republic is reporting that foreclosures in the Phoenix area have increased ten times over last year's number. Delinquencies are also at a four year high, so the problem may get even worse.

The reader's comments after the story are interesting. Several people say they will be picking up deals as they become available.

Zillow Ordered To Cease Estimates In Arizona

Zillow.com, the real estate value website that has been the talk of the town for the last year or so, was ordered by the Arizona Board Of Appraisals to stop providing "zestimates" of property values in Arizona. They claim the company needs an appraiser license to do this. The full story can be found at the Arizona Republic website.

This could be a huge blow to Zillow, especially if other states start following suit. On the other hand, I can't believe no one at the company saw this coming. I'd be willing to bet they have some sort of plan to deal with it.

Personally, I don't use Zillow. I've found their valuations to be a bit inaccurate. Of course, I last looked at them in detail a year ago, when they didn't have much data in the Phoenix area to work with. Supposedly, their estimates will get better with more data.

Loan Doc Errors

Last night, I got the loan docs for the refi of Rental #1 and the purchase of Rental #2. There were errors galore:

• In both packages, the last digit of my wife's social security number was wrong.
• In both packages, the Rate Lock Agreement does not list a lock-in start or expiration date.
• In the package for Rental #2, my wife's last name is spelled incorrectly on every page. (Since she has the same last name as me, I don't see how mine could be right and hers wrong.)

I spoke with the mortgage broker this morning and he said his originals are correct but the copies made by his assistant and sent to me are incorrect. I find this doubtful, but whatever... He said to go ahead and manually correct the errors and sign and send the papers backs. I'll go ahead and do that. Since these are just applications and not actual recorded documents, I'm fine with that. However, if these errors show up on future paperwork, there is no way I will sign them until they are corrected.