Buyer Beware

This is why you don’t buy a property sight-unseen.

Message to Congress on Small Home Mortgage Foreclosures

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  George Santayana 

Read this Message from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Congress. American Presidency Project, April 13, 1933. We have been here before..

To the Congress:

“As further and urgently necessary step in the program to promote economic recovery, I ask the Congress for legislation to protect small home owners from foreclosure and to relieve them of a portion of the burden of excessive interest and principal payments incurred during the period of higher values and higher earning power.

Implicit in the legislation which I am suggesting to you is a declaration of national policy. This policy is that the broad interests of the Nation require that special safeguards should be thrown around home ownership as a guarantee of social and economic stability, and that to protect home owners from inequitable enforced liquidation in a time of general distress is a proper concern of the Government.

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Foreclosures – More Profitable Than Loan Modifications?

Foreclosure & Loan Mods
photo by peternamara1

I first posted this article on November 10, 2009. I just came across it again and, unfortunately, it still seems completely relevant. I would love your feedback to know if you think any of this has changed over the past two years.

 

Have you worked on a loan modification or a workout with your lender in an attempt to avoid foreclosure?  Have you faxed pages and pages of information only to have them tell you they haven’t received it, or that you faxed them to the wrong number, or that you faxed the wrong documents??

Have you gone through the modification process but  been denied without a clear explanation as to why?  Have you received incompetence and indifference from your lender?

If you’ve jumped though all of their hoops only to come out frustrated with no work out, you’re not alone.

In the last year, Consumer Affairs has received hundreds of complaints from consumers who said they followed loan modification instructions, faxing requested documents repeatedly, only to have their applications disappear.

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Forecosure Avoidance Programs = Failure

Foreclosure

 

The following is taken almost verbatim from a Tuesday, October 11, 2011, article by Ken Harney found in Inman News™. Rather than trying to summarize, I edited to leave in highlights of this important “admission” by a group other than homeowners that the government programs have not/are not working. They, like we the people, weren’t pleased with the results. I’m thrilled about that – now anxious to see if they do anything meaningful about it.

Following are excerpts from that article:

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Current Foreclosures Could Take 45 Years to Process

Calendar

Here are some tidbits I learned this week:

“Leads convert 22 times more often when you make contact in 5 minutes” Source: study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Every 1% decline in homeownership equals 1 million new rental households.

According to Bankrate, nationally, closing costs are up 8.8% over the same time last year. The increase is attributed to all the extra work lenders have to do to approve mortgage applications. The extra work stems from increased scrutiny and more rigid lender regulations since the banking meltdown of recent years.

The most expensive states for closing a real estate transaction are:

  1. New York: $6,183
  2. Texas: $4,944

The least expensive states for closing are:

  1. Arkansas: $3,378
  2. North Carolina: $3,410 (I love this state!)

I recently read that, at the rate banks are processing foreclosures, to foreclose on all the delinquent loans they now hold, would take them 45 years. Are you looking for a quick turn around in the housing market..?

1 Million Foreclosures Delayed Until 2012

goals, success

But how does this impact you? A recent report by RealtyTrac stated:

“An estimated 1 million foreclosure-related notices for defaults, auctions, and home repossessions that should be filed by lenders this year will be pushed back until next year.” Yes, they said 1 million.

The economic recovery is far from over. “Shadow inventory” is real and, no doubt, growing. If you were hoping for a quick housing recovery, sorry.

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Foreclosure Map

hotpads map

I don’t know if you’re aware of this map or not but I was doing some research and came across it.  I had more fun playing with it and wasted a fair amount of my day on this site but oh, my goodness, there is a ton of easy to use information here and I just love it!

I hope you’ll have as much fun and use for it as I do.

Click the map for some amazing foreclosure information.

Real Estate Investors Rock

Too often, as investors, we get a bad rap. Many would have the public believe that those who invest in real estate are “scam artists”.

The truth is, what we do is vital to the economy and to literally hundreds of thousands of homeowners across the country. As a group, our goal is to buy properties from sellers who need help with their situation and to “sell” to people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to buy or live in a home as nice as what we provide. We work for the public good because (1) we care and (2) without them, we don’t have a profession.

The above video is the perfect example. It was filmed by one of our Triad Mastermind members, Garfield Duncan of Real People Real Homes in Forsyth County, North Carolina.  Here is what Garfield had to say about this video:

“Just a glimpse of why we do what we do.  This woman lost her house to foreclosure and I was able to purchase it, completely remodel it (35 days) and return it to the family using Rent-To-Own.  The family’s matriarch commented that her dead husband can finally rest in peace after which her son, not captured in the video, began to cry.”

In the next business day, the banks will commence foreclosure on another 10,000 families.  We, as investors, are doing what we can to help you and them and our economy.

Real estate investors, like Garfield Duncan, rock.

Homeowner Forecloses on Bank

Laughing.. all the way to the bank.

Foreclosure Basics

single house

Foreclosure, simply speaking, is taking possession of a mortgaged property because someone failed to keep up the mortgage payments.  The homeowner lost it, the lender now owns it.

Approximately one third of homes sold nationwide in 2010 were foreclosures. One third; that’s a lot of properties.  In the first quarter of 2011, 47% of house purchases (we’re talking almost half!) were made by investors, so know you’ll have a lot of competition shopping for the best deals.

How do you know you’re in threat of foreclosure? You’ll receive, in the mail, a formal demand for payment from the lender.  Depending on your state, the lender will issue this letter of notice or Notice of Default (NOD) when the homeowner is 3 months behind on the mortgage payments. The notice is a threat to sell your property, terminate all your rights in that property and evict you from the premises.  Many mortgage contracts state that the lender has the right to do this when you’re late with your payment the very first time.  Most won’t, they have too much going on and really just want the payments they get from you every month, but read your contract to know what they can do legally.

Foreclosures are not only a problem for the borrower.

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