“With things in Minnesota not looking like they’re going to be resolved any time soon, many citizens are wondering about the effects that this shut-down is going to have. There are places of obvious effects, like state parks or organizations, but then there are also the less obvious secondary effects. One area that is feeling the pinch of the government shut down that people might not suspect is real estate.

Many areas of real estate fall under the umbrella of the state’s commerce department. The Commerce Department has several different branches that deal with such issues as consumer protection and fraud, and products like homeowners insurance. While much of the commerce department has remained open during the shut-down, the branch dealing with homeowners insurance that closed.

What effect will that have exactly? Well, products like home owners insurance are, by law, automatically approved after a certain number of days if no one in the office gets to them. With the entire office shut down, you can guarantee that no one is working on those products, and, soon enough, they’ll be automatically approved even if the products are structured badly or fraudulent. This won’t have any immediate effect, but it will affect home owners several years down the line, when they’re trying to be compensated for flood or storm damage.

The offices of the department dealing with insurance, mortgage, real estate, and debt collection have also all been shut down. With these offices closed, real estate agents can’t do things like apply to have buyers released from sales tax, nor could they found out an amount of a tax lien against a property. Both of these things could end up slowing down closings.

Even when the office begins working again, it will likely be a while before things are back to normal. Employees will most likely be under a mound of back paperwork, and will have to first deal with any urgent situations that arose during their absence before returning to the day to day duties that normally make up the bulk of their work. This means that some things could still be lost in the shuffle for a while after the government reopens.

Not everything is bad news, however. For the most part consumers and agents will be able to weather the government shut down. Some things that had the potential to turn disastrous, like agents losing their licenses because they couldn’t renew while the state was shut down, have been averted by the government allowing deadline extensions. And, since most filings happen at the county level, many home buyers won’t notice any change. Minnesota residents can also take comfort in the fact that this is a temporary situation and soon enough, things will normalize again.”

Resource link:

Commerce Department Hobbled by Minnesota Government Shutdown

Impact of impending state government shutdown in Minnesota

Impact of Impending State Government Shutdown in Minnesota

Minnesota Government Shutdown – Will It Affect Loan Approvals? Alex Stenback Answers