County resident urges building codes
My house is built on a sinkhole," Ernest O'Gaffney told the three county commissioners during their scheduled meeting time. "The county let that go through. I have a home I can't sell." And now Ernest O'Gaffney wants building codes on the next county ballot. Because Christian County is a second class county, voters must approve them. He's approached County Clerk Kay Brown on the necessary steps to get started on an initiative petition. According to state law, a certain percentage of the registered voters who voted in the last gubernatorial election must sign the petition along with other stipulations.

Inspecting the Inspectors
When you build a new home, everything is supposed to be perfect after all city inspectors have signed off. So why are some homeowners around the metro facing big repairs and even bigger bills? ... In Lee's Summit, one inspector signed off on 62 inspections in one eight-hour day. But we know why. Undercover, armed with a stopwatch, we followed inspectors to find out how much time they're actually spending looking over your largest investment. In Kansas City, we barely had time to start the stopwatch before one inspector hopped back in his truck, which may explain why Kansas City had the highest one-day total inspections – 231 by one inspector in one day.

KPRC Investigates How Politicians Spend Contributions
Local 2 investigates just how politicians are spending the contributions made to their campaigns.
Day 1:Investigative Report   Day 2: View Investigative Report Day 3: View Investigative Report

Shaky ground As lenders clamor to get paid, Kara Homes owner files for bankruptcy
Zuhdi Karagjozi stood outside the courtroom in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Trenton last month, looking defeated. His shoulders drooped. His eyes were bleary. And he pleaded in a soft, raspy voice with reporters for help...banks and suppliers are clamoring to get paid, home buyers might lose hundreds of thousands of dollars, and Karagjozi has been reduced to an observer as others try to salvage his company.

South Bay Beaches Housing Bubble 
... $3,120 a month on a high-end Fusion home. I am no financial wizard. It looks waaaaay too complicated for my taste, and I don't like prepayment penalties at all. Why all the complication? A fixed rate 150 year mortgage would be easier to understand than this gobbledygook! Show me a table of what my payment, principal, and interest are for the next umpteen years, that's what I want to see. When I studied the Centex complex, the units, and then the pictures I took, I decided it wasn't the colors that made the place seem drab to me, it was the architecture. The Centex complex strikes me as very "institutional" looking, with the units looking almost like the city tenements of 80-100 years ago.

Garrett's response to controversy: Goodbye, politics
All the accusations against him have been false, he claimed. He didn't give the governor a deal on renovations to Easley's Southport house, something the ethics board had looked into. He got out of the marina deal when it became clear the state wasn't putting the property up for sale, he said. He wasn't self-dealing when he was on the trust-fund board, he said. Related Carolina Journal article:  Board Dismisses Easley Complaint

"Death Spiral" Makes Home Builders Angry!
Yesterday, UBS analysts held a conference that brought together some of the country's top home builder CEO's in an attempt to further understand the state of residential housing. The CEO's, in an unusually candid manner, uniformly agreed that there was no end in sight for the housing downturn, squarely challenging the assessment offered by the former Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan who recently indicated that most of the downturn "may well be over".

Lenexa Woman: New House Is Falling Apart
Susan Sabin bought the house less than five months ago, and she said shortly after she moved in, she started noticing problems, such as cracks in the foundation and doors that won't shut... "It's such an accelerated rate, and the engineer told me that he didn't know what was going on with my house, but it's happening very fast," Sabin said. She said the builder, Pulte Homes, isn't helping."Warranties are only as good as what the builder will do," Sabin said.

Congressional Agenda Likely to Include Mortgage Fraud and Predatory Lending The Democratic takeover of Congress will likely place a key issue of concern to the Appraisal Institute – mortgage fraud and predatory lending – near the top of the agenda for several Congressional committees, according to Bill Garber, director of government affairs for the Appraisal Institute. Garber offered the following insights on how real estate appraisal issues may be addressed during the 110th Congress.

Bank Calls Back Loan To Home Builder
The bank is demanding Technical Olympic USA, based in Hollywood, Fla., repay money it borrowed last year to buy Transeastern Homes, the home builder involved in a handful of local developments, including Live Oak Preserve and the Hammocks in Tampa, and Tampa Bay Golf & Country Club in San Antonio. Technical Olympic USA, or TOUSA, owns Transeastern as part of a joint venture. The total purchase price was $857 million, according to documents TOUSA filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last year. A few weeks ago, TOUSA told investors that Transeastern was performing poorly and the home builder laid off 130 workers in September.

Mortgage scams increase 35% in first quarter of '06
The mortgage lending industry is increasingly plagued by fraud, with a growing number of borrowers falsifying bank statements, income-tax returns, credit scores and declarations of debt in order to qualify for a mortgage or get lower interest rates. In the first quarter of this year, U.S. banks reported 35 percent more mortgage fraud than in the same period last year, according to a report published this month by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

New Home Woes: Shoddy Construction - Elizabeth Leamy reporting
Complaints about home builders increased more than 50 percent in five years Two million brand new homes built a year and 90% of buyers say they are happy; but if you do the math that means that 200,000 new homeowners are not happy. Jerry Howard with the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) said and few as 80% of homeowners are happy. Doing the math that would mean that  as many as 400,000 new homeowners are not happy.  Consumer complaints about builders have gone up by 50% according to the Better Business Bureau.  Structurally unsound, leaking water, undersized, are examples on problems... Cross out Mandatory Binding Arbitration Clauses in the contract they deny you the right to sue your builder in a court of law.

Make Sure Your House Isn't Poorly Built by Following These Tips
There's an old joke in the construction industry that if you want to build a home, you need an architect, a contractor "€” and a marriage counselor. Many people think building a brand new house is a way to avoid buying somebody else's problems... These days, houses are built so fast, and county inspectors are so scarce that quality can really suffer. Construction crews can be obnoxiously careless. I found old food wrappers and cola cans inside the walls when I did some work at my own house. Video Report: Buying a New Home? Watch This

Watch Hidden Camera Footage: Hack Handymen
Elizabeth Leamy Reporting
States are cracking down on unlicensed contractors that prey on homeowners. Unlicensed contractors illegally performing home improvement repairs.  Home improvement scams are one of the most common complaint consumer agencies ever get.  Hire an unlicensed contractor and you run the risk of getting shoddy or even dangerous work, worse yet they may take your money and never do the work... Caught on camera.

Homeowner's Association Uses Chopper To Find Violations
KPRC investigates another aggressive homeowners association in the Houston area. A family is out thousands of dollars as they fight to save their home in court. Their HOA used some surprising methods to gather evidence against them, so tonight our investigative team turns the tables on that HOA, using the same tactics against them.  That's right. The helicopter was working for his HOA. Spiva moved his family outside Magnolia because there's plenty of land for his kids to ride and for him to build sheds for his tools. Now, his HOA is suing him over an outside shed and the horses, using the helicopter to gather its evidence.