2E
.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2013
REAL ESTATE
THE OKLAHOMAN | NEWSOK.COM
Ruling stirs reverse mortgage nightmares WASHINGTON — The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has a birthday gift for 91-year-old widow Jeanette Ogle that should cause any senior to think twice before signing up for a government-insured reverse mortgage. Later this month, on Ogle’s 92nd birthday, her home in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., is scheduled for foreclosure — not because she did something wrong. Instead, she is expected to lose her house because during a refinancing in 2007, only her husband’s name was included on the reverse mortgage documents prepared by a loan broker. This was despite the fact that both her husband’s and her names were clearly listed as co-borrowers in the documents for the mortgage being refinanced, Ogle said, and the longtime married couple wanted no change in that status. But under a controversial policy that is drawing
national scrutiny and at least one major lawsuit, HUD, the agency that runs the reverse mortgage program, now insists that when a spouse dies, and the surviving spouse’s name is not on the loan documents, the full mortgage balance becomes due and payable. If a relative or the surviving spouse cannot purchase the house and pay off the debt, the loan may be subject to a foreclosure sale. Ogle, whose husband, John, died in 2010, said she cannot imagine why she is facing foreclosure. “We did everything we were supposed to do,” she said. “I signed every piece of paper, we followed the rules.” Jeanette and John assumed that the loan they initially took out in 2004 would allow them to do what advertisements for reverse mortgages consistently promise: stay in their home indefinitely, with some extra money for living expenses.
Kenneth Harney THE NATION’S HOUSING
But it’s not turning out that way. “I just don’t understand why they are doing this to me,” she said in an interview. “I don’t want to lose my home.” HUD’s reverse mortgage program, run through the Federal Housing Administration, has been big business. Promoted on TV by pitchmen such as Hollywood’s Robert Wagner and former Sen. Fred Thompson, there were 582,000 loans outstanding nationwide as of November 2011, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which issued a critical evaluation of the program last year. Reverse mortgages are restricted to seniors 62 years or older. The pro-
gram allows homeowners to tap into equity and pull out money for use in their retirement years. As long as they pay their property taxes and hazard insurance, generally they don’t have to repay any of the money until they move out, die or sell the house. The policy change on surviving spouses that has snagged Jeanette Ogle was not adopted until late 2008, more than a year after the Ogles’ refinancing. That change has been challenged in a federal lawsuit filed by AARP, the seniors advocacy group. On behalf of two widows and one widower — Ogle was not a plaintiff — who were threatened with foreclosure, AARP charged that HUD disregarded clear statutory language that allows surviving spouses to remain in their homes even if their name is not on the documents. In an appellate court ruling last month, U.S. Circuit Judge Laurence H. Silberman said that the court
was “somewhat puzzled as to how HUD can justify a regulation that seems contrary to the governing statute.” HUD had no comment on that ruling, which sent the case back to a lower court, and refused to discuss Jeanette Ogle’s pending foreclosure. So did Ogle’s loan servicer, Reverse Mortgage Solutions Inc. of Spring, Texas, which initiated the foreclosure action. Fannie Mae, the federally regulated mortgage investor that owns Ogle’s loan, said the foreclosure would have to proceed because the mortgage is insured by FHA and that agency’s rules effectively require it, given the absence of Ogle’s name on the documents. Andrew Wilson, a Fannie Mae spokesman, said the company has a document purportedly signed by the Ogles acknowledging that their refinanced mortgage lists only John Ogle as the borrower. Jeanette Ogle said she has no
recollection of signing anything of the sort. “Why would we?” she asked in an interview. Wilson said that whatever the facts, Fannie Mae is “sympathetic” toward Ogle’s plight, and will seek to delay any post-foreclosure eviction. Jean Constantine-Davis, AARP’s senior attorney on the surviving spouse suit, called Ogle’s circumstances “pretty horrible” and said HUD’s “current regulation has been devastating on surviving spouses.” AARP’s suit alleged that there are hundreds of elderly victims of the policy. Ogle’s son, Robert, has asked the Arizona state attorney general’s office to intervene and investigate how his mother’s name was left off the mortgage. But in the meantime, the clock is ticking toward Jeanette Ogle’s foreclosure. And her 92nd birthday. Ken Harney’s email address is kenharney@earthlink.net. WASHINGTON POST WRITERS GROUP
Taggart: Attorney loves ‘math part and the financing’ FROM PAGE 1E
in the business, including his grandmother, mother, a niece and a couple of aunts. As president, Taggart steps into a role his mother has held twice before, in 1988 and 2008. Things have changed considerably even since 2008, Pryor said, just in terms of technology. The more muscular programming underpinning the Multiple Listing Service, for example, has propelled it to the top of its game. “At least that’s what people are telling me,” she said. Home sales in the metro area were up 20 percent in 2012 over 2011, Taggart said. And his office offers evidence that 2013 could be even better. By midJanuary, associates had sold as many houses as were sold in all of January 2012. Office newcomers offer even more compelling evidence. “Typically it’s hard to get started as a new agent, but the new agents in this office are really busy,” he said. “I’m very proud of them.” Taggart decided on a law career midway through his undergraduate years at the University of Oklahoma. That prompted him to
switch his major from piano to musical composition, a more analytical pursuit to prepare him for law school. He then went to law school at OU. “My original intention was to be a copyright attorney and entertainment attorney because I had the music background,” he said. “But I got into law school, and I excelled at real estate law for some reason and didn’t do too well at copyright law.” He laughed at the memory. “So I started getting these awards in real estate,” he said. “And I thought, ‘Well, I guess this is what I need to do.’ ” Taggart’s strength could lie in the fact that he enjoys details that leave many people’s eyes glazed over. “I love the legal descriptions,” he said. “I love the math part and the financing, and I like looking at the settlement statements, closings — yeah, the math part excites me.” He went on to work for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., helping it close troubled banks during the turbulent 1980s, and lived 10 years in Boston, where he also worked as a real estate attorney for a major engineering firm. He ultimately came home, though, to rejoin the family business.
Keith Taggart is shown at the Coldwell Banker Select office in Mustang. He is 2013 president of the Oklahoma City Metro Association of Realtors. PHOTO BY JIM BECKEL, THE OKLAHOMAN
Taggart ran two real estate offices, in Yukon and northwest Oklahoma City, as well as his own agency
in midtown Oklahoma City. He also served as MLS president. In his new role, Taggart
will help Realtors navigate through big changes in financing, regulations and appraisals. That could be a
challenge, he said, “but we’ve had challenges before. I don’t anticipate that much of a problem.”
BUSINESS BUSINESS NEWS P.O. BOX 25125, Oklahoma City, OK 73125 Fax: (405) 475-3996 NewsOK.com HomesOK.com
DON MECOY Business Editor (405) 475-3942, dmecoy@opubco.com
RICHARD MIZE Real Estate Editor (405) 475-3518, richardmize@opubco.com
HOMESOK.COM
Find real estate news on the Internet at HomesOK.com
FOR EDITORIAL INQUIRIES: Contact Richard Mize
JERRY WAGNER Coldwell Banker Select has this 3,702-square-foot home at 2501 Fontaine Place listed for sale for $529,900. The home, built in 2009, has four beds, 3 1/2 baths and a four-car garage. It is in Canadian County in the Yukon school district. PHOTO PROVIDED
Assistant Classified Advertising Manager (405) 475-3475, jwagner@opubco.com
FOR ADVERTISING INQUIRIES: Contact Jerry Wagner