Kansas City North Real Estate Blog

We can't give it to you if you don't ask

I just spoke with a friend today that has discovered something bazaar and he wanted me to know about it.

A couple of years ago, he refinanced his house with an adjustable rate mortgage that was scheduled to reset in two years time. He told me they thought they would probably move before that time, so the lower interest rate was enticing to them. Last month that interest rate jumped up enough to make his house payment go from $1,350 to $1,825 - an additional $475 a month!

When he called today, he confessed to me that his business wasn't doing very good right now and they've had to make their house payments late for the last two months. This not only destroyed his credit scores, but also made the payments go even higher with all the late payments and extra interest that was due.

Today his mortgage company called again to see when he would be making his October payment (today is October 29th) and here's the interesting part. When he told them the higher interest payments were killing him, the woman on the other end of the phone asked him to explain. He told her he needed some help to see if they could possibly work something out to lower his payments back to the old rate, so she transferred him to what she called, "our loan workout department".

Apparently, this lender has been so swamped with people having trouble making their payments and even risking forclosure, that they've created an entirely new department for helping people "work out" a new payment plan.

After taking some general information over the phone, my friend was able to negotiate a lower fixed rate interest payment and lock it in for a 30 year term, all because he asked. Apparently the woman told him, "We can't give you this option unless you ask." I suppose it's their corporate policy.

After he called me, I did some research and have since found out that this is becoming very common these days. Lenders are "working out" new plans that are more affordable, especially for people that got locked into a situation like my friend where their interest rate and payment made a huge jump seemingly overnight. These lenders have decided it doesn't benefit them financially or from a public relations standpoint to force people into these bad situations.

If you're having trouble with an adjustable rate mortgage such as this, you have 3 choices. Sell the house, refinance the loan, or you might simply try calling your lender to see if they might be willing to adjust your current interest rate.

Rezoning for Northland Schools and Residences

The Kansas City Plan Commission approved two zoning measures that clear the way for construction of two new schools in the Northland and more than 400 residential units.

Planners approved the rezoning of more than 96 acres near Northwest 108th Street and U.S. Highway 169. Part of the land will be used to construct a new Lutheran school campus that will include a 65,120-square-foot school building and parking lots; a 40,000-square-foot, two-story building and a 19,500-square-foot administrative building. The project will also include athletic fields.

The largest part of the development will be 376 multifamily residential units and 54 single-family lots on the west side of the tract.

“There were some issues on traffic congestion,” said James Kraatz of Lutjen, Inc., who spoke on behalf of the developer. “The city generally got what it wanted so we can move forward.”

The Lutheran school campus, which will be a K-12 facility, will be constructed in three phases. The two-story building and administrative building will be in the first phase, and the school building and parking lots will be in the second and third phase.

Planners also approved rezoning to allow construction of a new elementary school in the North Kansas City School District near Northeast Staley Road and Shoal Creek Parkway.

The 86,000-squre-foot school will be built next to an existing high school.

“We expect to move forward on this very quickly,” said Mary Jo Burton, a spokeswoman for the school district. “I think our plans are to have the facililty open by the beginning of the 2009 school year.”

Englewood Trafficway

Northwest Englewood Road, between U.S. Highway 169 and Northwest Waukomis Drive has some straightening out to do … literally.

The lengthy planning process has begun to give a complete overhaul to the mile stretch of road that dips and climbs its way across the Clay/Platte county line and past a Northland elementary school.

Though that overhaul will come a ways down the road — it could take five years before a design concept is completed — two possible concepts have already been considered.

The conceptual alternative alignment sketches differ in lane numbers and road usage, but each capture the goal in mind by project officials to transform the narrow, hilly roadway with no curbs or sidewalks into a safer and “pleasant” boulevard.

Abe Shirazi, parks engineer in charge of the road improvement for the Kansas City parks department, said a top priority for the redesign of the roadway was smoothing the steep vertical grade that currently makes visibility for drivers a problem.

“The profile is a pretty sharp curve in the vertical grade,” Shirazi said. “We need to straighten that out and file it down.”

The two sketches produced by consultants at HDR feature either a three- or four-lane roadway with the possibility of sidewalks and bike lanes throughout. According to Sherri McIntyre, project manager for HDR, either concept would be built along the same 150 feet of right-of-way.

With a three-lane roadway, one lane of traffic would travel in each direction with a shared middle turn lane. Each direction would also have a 6-foot-wide bike lane next to either curb. Sidewalks would be included 20 feet from the roadway curb, too.

The four-lane concept features two lanes of traffic in each direction and a bike/ped path on one side of the roadway — 20 feet from the curb — and a sidewalk on the other.

Construction would likely be extended to the exit ramps on both sides of Highway 169 and include roundabouts. The intersection of Englewood and Waukomis would also likely include a roundabout. A traffic signal in front of the entrance to West Englewood Elementary, 1506 N.W. Englewood Road, is also being considered.

Shirazi said the roundabouts would improve traffic flow, especially around Highway 169 where Summit Street runs into Englewood just to the west of the highway's exiting southbound traffic.

“We think that would be the best way to approach the intersection problems,” Shirazi said of the roundabouts. “We want to put in a really nice roadway with all the amenities to make it a pleasant place to drive.”

Funding has not been secured for the project's full design phase, which is the next step in the planning process.