Rt Brokerage Responds to WA State’s Distressed Homes Law With a Time-Accountable Real Estate Model

June 12, 2008 - PRLog -- Washington State’s amended Distressed Homes Law (RCW 61.34), which goes into effect today, has a number of new requirements that dictate how distressed home consultants (e.g., real estate brokers, agents and investors) engage and work with distressed homeowners.  Distressed homeowners are defined as owners of a distressed home.  A distressed home is a dwelling in danger of foreclosure or at risk of loss due to nonpayment of taxes; or in the process of being foreclosed due to a default under the terms of a mortgage. In other words, a distressed homeowner is someone who can no longer continue to carry their mortgage obligation forward as prescribed.  

When a seller is a distressed homeowner, the State requires the agent working on behalf of the seller to complete additional disclosures.  The law requires distressed home consultants to give consumers written documentation of the “exact nature of the distressed home consulting services to be provided and the total amount and terms of any compensation to be received by the distressed home consultant or anyone working in association with the distressed home consultant.”  If the seller needs the consultant to help negotiate a settlement with their lender, then this service needs to be documented and agreed to by both parties.  

RT Brokerage Services takes this disclosure requirement one step further by providing all of its clients -- distressed or not with a detailed Scope of Work document that describes the services to be provided by type (e.g., real estate, transaction management, administrative) along with an estimate of the total number of hours required to perform and complete the services.  The Scope of Work effectively becomes a time-accountable mechanism from which both the client and brokerage benefit: the client saves money over the traditional value-based selling model, and the agent’s time has real and payable value.  

“While the revised Law creates a little extra work for traditional real estate brokers and agents, we believe the revisions are good for consumers because it gives them the extra peace of mind, especially during a hardship, to know that the law is on their side,” says Herrera.  “Besides, if one of my immediate family members were in a distressed home situation I would rest easier knowing that deceitful investors are now on notice:  cheat at your own risk.”  

It will be interesting to see how the law changes real estate transactions in the State, particularly as the number of defaults starts to rise.  CEO Herrera remarks, “Let’s just hope the ‘distressed homeowner’ phenomenon is short-lived in Washington.”

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About RT Brokerage Services
RT Brokerage Services, Inc. is a full-service, licensed real estate brokerage in Washington State. We provide consumers with real estate services on a fee-for-service basis. That means we track our time and charge hourly rates for the services provided. The model is like any professional services profession that operates under a fee-for-service compensation basis (e.g., law, accounting, and engineering): you only pay for what you use.
Visit us: www.rtbrokerage.com

Website: www.rtbrokerage.com