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.
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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.