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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (June 15, 2001)
Smoke Signals 7 Valerie Harjo: She Can Make Your Housing Dreams Come True JUNE 15, 2001 By Justin Phillips It's a person's most prized investment and pos session the keys to your first home. As the Home Mortgage Consultant and Regional Tribal Housing Specialist for this area, Valerie Harjo started working for Norwest Mortgage in 1994. Norwest Mortgage is now Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Harjo began working with the Tribe in November of 1997 and closed the first United States Depart ment of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) 184 loan in Grand Meadows. Grand Meadows is the Tribe's housing development in Grand Ronde. To open up home mortgage opportunities on res ervations, HUD created the HUD 184 Indian Loan Guarantee Program in 1994. "What that means is 184 is a section of HUD that allows lending a guaranteed loan to lenders to allow them to get first mortgages on Tribal trust land or allotted land," explained Harjo. Harjo was a loan officer during that time and had been working with Tribal members on the Tribe's down payment program. Harjo and her manager were calling the Housing Authority at the Tribe to see if they could offer their services like homebuyers counseling. "Linda (Layden) saw our interest in the commu nity and asked if we would be willing to take over the (Grand Meadows) project," said Harjo. "In August of 1997, we started that project and closed the first loans in November of 1997. That's what got me started doing loans specifically under the HUD 184 loan program." Harjo then started to put on the homebuyer i mn- VALERIE HARJO Phone: 503-472-0518 Toll free: 1-888-290-1601 E-mail: valerie.harjomortgage.wellsfargo.com counseling seminars with the Housing Authority. "This is how I built my relationship here," said Harjo. "Subsequently through that, we started getting calls through other Tribes." Harjo has also gained experience in Indian Country by working with the Coeur d' Alene Tribe in Idaho. She did 20 loans for that Tribe under the HUD 184 loan program. In the year 2000, Harjo was named the Market Manager for Emerging Markets for Native Ameri cans in Idaho, Oregon and Northern California. "I've closed about 55 loans on trust land," said Harjo. "I still do regular financing and special ized financing in working with Tribes to purchase homes." The Tribes that Harjo has worked with are the Grand Ronde, the Coeur d' Alene, the Coquille and the Karuk. Harjo began her career in Indian Country by working for Tribes in Northern California. She closed the first-ever HUD 184 loan in the State of California. Harjo was recently appointed to the Tribe's Hous ing Authority Board of Directors. She said she ac cepted the appointment to the board because of her strong commitment to the local community. Harjo said she was grateful for being asked to apply to the board and thought it was a great honor. "I want to just continue to meet the housing needs of Tribal members and help structure poli cies, programs and procedures that will continue home ownership and other housing needs," said Harjo. "My goal is to see more home ownership among Tribal members." Harjo resides in Carlton with her husband David and her two children John, 12, and Christine, 3. Her hobbies include spending time with her fam ily and riding her three horses. If you need a home loan or somebody to talk to about purchasing a home, contact Valerie Harjo at 503-472-0518, toll free at 1-888-290-1601 or e mail at valerie.hariomortgage.welIsfargo.com. Purchasers Have Rights Too, Know Yours By Jeannine Ferguson, Grand Ronde Legal Services Let's say you're out driving on a Saturday and you just happen to pass a garage sale where you spot the perfect pink leather cowboy hat to match your pink leather jacket. You've got to have it, but you don't get paid until next Friday. No prob lem you can just write a post-dated check that won't be negotiable until next Friday, right? Wrong, unless you have a firm agreement with the seller to hold the check until Friday. A bank can cash or honor your post-dated check before the date on the check, possibly re sulting in an overdraft or a "bounced" check if there's not enough money in your account to cover it. In 1990, revisions to the Uniform Com mercial Code (UCC) changed the previous law, which did not allow banks to honor checks until the "due date." The change was largely due to automation of the banking industry. Virtually everything is done by computers now and banks don't want to have to read dates on checks. Or egon is among the 48 states that have adopted the revised UCC; therefore, don't count on a post dated check in Oregon to protect you from an overdraft unless you have an agreement with the recipient of the check, or unless you specifi cally notify your bank that you've post-dated a check and request that it be held until the due date. The bank must honor this request if you've notified them in time and if you give the bank sufficient information to identify the check. The bank probably will charge you a fee for this. If you find out too late that a check you wrote will exceed your bank balance, you can resort to a stop-payment order, but expect to pay a hefty fee for the service. Some types of checks cannot be "stopped," such as cashier's or teller's checks, traveler's checks (once counter-signed), and money orders in the form of teller's checks. Pay ment of personal money orders (generally, those purchased somewhere other than from a bank) usually can be stopped, although this is subject to dispute and may not be worth a lawsuit. If you purchased your cowboy hat with a credit card and later have buyer's remorse, you're prob ably out of luck. Payments made by credit card can be stopped or withheld only in certain in- stances. Where the credit card issuer is "closely re lated" to the merchant (e.g., a department store credit card issued by the store) you can withhold payment while a dispute with the merchant is be ing resolved. In the case of Visa, Mastercard, Dis cover, and other bank cards, three conditions must be met: (1) you must first attempt to resolve the matter with the merchant; (2) the amount of the charge must be over $50; and (3) the charge trans action must have been done in your (the cardholder's) home state or within 100 miles of your home address. If these conditions are met, you can withhold pay ment on the credit card charge if there is a valid claim or defense against the merchant and provided you haven't already paid the disputed amount to the card issuer. The credit card company has no obligation to refund an amount already paid even if there is a legitimate dispute with the merchant. It is important to distinguish between a charge transaction and a debit transaction if you have a card that can be used as either a debit or a credit card (those commonly issued by banks where you have a checking account). A credit charge on one of these cards has the same protec tions as other charge purchases discussed above, but you cannot stop payment on a debit transac tion once the amount has been deducted from your checking account, which is usually instantaneous. Debit cards carry fewer protections and safeguards than credit cards, and may not be as safe as many people believe. Your liability for unauthorized charges on your credit card is limited to the lesser of $50 or charges made before you reported the card lost or stolen. Your liability for unauthorized use of your debit card, however, could be much higher. Although your maximum liability is $50 for unauthorized use within two days of your dis covery of the problem, your maximum liability goes up to $500 if you do not report the problem to your bank within two days of discovering the problem. If you do not report unauthorized use within 60 days of receiving your monthly bank statement (whether you read it or not), your liability is un limited! Remember, having a personal identifica tion number doesn't always protect you; debit cards Tribal members can access 44 attorneys and 17 paralegals at 11 Oregon offices. 'flw&niiwdir- i tr.y, .11 4! ' iii aril ;! : split f:i flj&t- m wcc- -ilii'-il:- often can be used to make purchases even with-, out a PIN. Therefore, if you have a debit card, it is important that you monitor its use closely, read your bank statements carefully, and if you don't use the debit card, get rid of it. All things considered, if you really want that cowboy hat, maybe you should just borrow the cash from your rich buddy with the pink Cadillac.
