Foreclosure Short Sale News & Training - DC Fawcett

Virtual Short Sale Investing Affiliate Registration

2009-07-14T23:15:00.000-07:00

Virtual Short Sale Investing Affiliate Registration

How Obama’s Housing Plan Will Affect the Short Sale Business

2009-02-25T22:01:00.000-08:00

Here is what Obama’s plan is all about on the surface

Watch CBS Videos Online

This is what the Video does not tell you:

This is an excerpt from the White House Blog here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/02/18/Help-for-homeowners/

My comments are in blue below:

Questions and Answers for Borrowers about the
Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan

Borrowers Who Are Current on Their Mortgage Are Asking:

What help is available for borrowers who stay current on their mortgage payments but have seen their homes decrease in value?

Under the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan, eligible borrowers who stay current on their mortgages but have been unable to refinance to lower their interest rates because their homes have decreased in value, may now have the opportunity to refinance into a 30 or 15 year, fixed rate loan. Through the program, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will allow the refinancing of mortgage loans that they hold in their portfolios or that they placed in mortgage backed securities.

D.C.: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Loans are not the problem. It’s the subprime loans that are the issue!

I owe more than my property is worth, do I still qualify to refinance under the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan?

Eligible loans will now include those where the new first mortgage (including any refinancing costs) will not exceed 105% of the current market value of the property. For example, if your property is worth $200,000 but you owe $210,000 or less you may qualify. The current value of your property will be determined after you apply to refinance.

D.C.: Most homes that we are working on the homeowners owe 130% or more of the current market value of the home. This plan says that the only homes that qualify are homes that the first mortgage including refi costs will not exceed 10% of the value. This does nothing for our customers so this creates an ever greater need for them to need a SHORT SALE.

How do I know if I am eligible?

Complete eligibility details will be announced on March 4th when the program starts. The criteria for eligibility will include having sufficient income to make the new payment and an acceptable mortgage payment history. The program is limited to loans held or securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

D.C.: This only helps people with Fannie and Freddie loans and you need to prove your income to qualify which means you need to have job. This does not help people that just lost their jobs and the homeowners that have subprime loans. These are the folks that REALLY need the help. Why is the government helping people that don’t need the help?

I have both a first and a second mortgage. Do I still qualify to refinance under the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan?

As long as the amount due on the first mortgage is less than 105% of the value of the property, borrowers with more than one mortgage may be eligible to refinance under the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan. Your eligibility will depend, in part, on agreement by the lender that has your second mortgage to remain in a second position, and on your ability to meet the new payment terms on the first mortgage.

D.C. : This is a stretch.

Borrowers Who Are at Risk of Foreclosure Are Asking:

What help is available for borrowers who are at risk of foreclosure either because they are behind on their mortgage or are struggling to make the payments?

The Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan offers help to borrowers who are already behind on their mortgage payments or who are struggling to keep their loans current. By providing mortgage lenders with financial incentives to modify existing first mortgages, the Treasury hopes to help as many as 3 to 4 million homeowners avoid foreclosure regardless of who owns or services the mortgage.

Do I need to be behind on my mortgage payments to be eligible for a modification?

No. Borrowers who are struggling to stay current on their mortgage payments may be eligible if their income is not sufficient to continue to make their mortgage payments and they are at risk of imminent default. This may be due to several factors, such as a loss of income, a significant increase in expenses, or an interest rate that will reset to an unaffordable level.

D.C. This does not help people that lost their jobs. These people will need a short sale.

How do I know if I qualify for a payment reduction under the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan?

In general, you may qualify for a mortgage modification if (a) you occupy your house as your primary residence; (b) your monthly mortgage payment is greater than 31% of your monthly gross income; and (c) your loan is not large enough to exceed current Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan limits. Final eligibility will be determined by your mortgage lender based on your financial situation and detailed guidelines that will be available on March 4, 2009.

D.C. This does not help people that lost their jobs. These people will need a short sale.

I do not live in the house that secures the mortgage I’d like to modify. Is this mortgage eligible for the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan?

No. For example, if you own a house that you use as a vacation home or that you rent out to tenants, the mortgage on that house is not eligible. If you used to live in the home but you moved out, the mortgage is not eligible. Only the mortgage on your primary residence is eligible. The mortgage lender will check to see if the dwelling is your primary residence.

D.C.: Only applies to owner occupants so all of the investors that are upside on properties facing foreclosure will need a short sale more that ever.

I have two mortgages. Will the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan reduce the payments on both?

Only the first mortgage is eligible for a modification.

I owe more than my house is worth. Will the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan reduce what I owe?

The primary objective of the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan is to help borrowers avoid foreclosure by modifying troubled loans to achieve a payment the borrower can afford. Lenders are likely to lower payments mainly by reducing loan interest rates. However, the program offers incentives for principal reductions and at your lender’s discretion modifications may include upfront reductions of loan principal.

D.C. They are still going to have negative equity in the home of 30% -40% even if they qualify for the Plan. It has been proven with government statistics that more than 50% of all of the completed loan mods went back into default again.

I heard the government was providing a financial incentive to borrowers. Is that true?

Yes. To encourage borrowers who work hard to retain homeownership, the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan provides incentive payments as a borrower makes timely payments on the modified loan. The incentive will accrue on a monthly basis and will be applied directly to reduce your mortgage debt. Borrowers who pay on time for five years can have up to $5,000 applied to reduce their debt by the end of that period.

D.C. That’s nice of them. What if you are negative $150,000. Are you going to stay in your house 5 years making a bigger payment than you can make down the street to now be $145,000 negative 5 years later. I don’t think so.

I do want to see our millions of homeowners in foreclosure in a better situation. I appreciate the government is doing SOMETHING. It would be nice if they would do something for the people that actually need help. Until, then we are on our own to help as many homeowners as we can.

For most, a short sale is their best option and we are the best solution for them. This Housing Plan proves that our services for short sales are in need more than ever.

Please post your comments or questions below and join the conversation. If you have a question you’d like me to answer, post it below and I will try to get to it as quick as I can.

D.C.

New Legal Clinic Helps Homeowners Fighting Foreclosure

2008-09-05T06:41:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK, NY —A new legal clinic is claiming great success in helping homeowners fight off foreclosure of their homes.

REPORTER: In the case of US Bank v. Deborah Singleton, Deborah Singleton is defending herself.

SINGLETON: I can represent myself, I don't have to pay thousands of dollars to a lawyer who may not help me any better than I can help me.

REPORTER: In July, the Brooklyn businesswoman was sued by her bank after missing payments. Now she's headed to court. Singleton's been trained in foreclosure law by a new nonprofit called Common Law. Co-founder Karen Gargamelli says it's a program born of necessity.

GARGAMELLI: Because there are only a handful of people that even understand the foreclosure laws, people have to represent themselves against the bank.

Foreclosures ensnare low-income renters

2008-09-02T13:05:00.000-07:00

Karen Tapia-Andersen / Los Angeles Times

At a Lake Elsinore housing office, Kelly Porec, left, goes over paperwork with Ruth Cordoba, a 28-year-old mother of three who has brought along 3-year-old Joseph. Cordoba is trying to find another place to live after she and her children were evicted from a Section 8 rental that had fallen into foreclosure.

Tenants subsidized by federal Section 8 funds are finding themselves out of a home when the landlord defaults.

Ruth Cordoba has never owned a home, but she is feeling the effects of the mortgage meltdown acutely.

Cordoba, 28, rented a three-bedroom home in Riverside for six months with the help of so-called Section 8 funds, money provided by the federal government through local housing agencies. In June, when her landlord could no longer make the mortgage payments on the house Cordoba was renting, she and her three children had to move to a hotel.

"I never missed a rent payment," Cordoba said. "Then I hear someone outside one morning, and I go outside and see a sign on my door that says they're auctioning the house."

The collapse of home mortgage lending, which according to U.S. Housing Secretary Steve Preston may lead to 2.5 million foreclosure filings nationwide this year, sent shock waves up the income strata -- from home buyers who took out subprime loans they couldn't pay, through banks that couldn't cover their losses on those loans, and onto high-end investors who had bought the banks' bad loans.

Now the mortgage crisis is radiating downward and cracking the already fragile finances of people like Cordoba. There are more than 300,000 households getting Section 8 assistance in California, and their median income is $14,428, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Read more news...

Florida foreclosures crushing property values

2008-09-01T13:09:00.000-07:00

Florida is still the No. 2 state in the nation, behind only California, for the number of foreclosures. And the Sunshine State's undesirable national ranking is not about to improve anytime soon.

Bradenton led all Sun Coast cities with 372 foreclosures in May, the most recent month for which data is available from RealtyTrac. Port Charlotte was No. 2 at 348 and North Port was close behind at No. 3 with 328 foreclosures.

The foreclosure pain is most acute in Florida and California because house flippers, dreaming of quick fortunes made from buying and selling homes fast, spent the past five years overinflating a property value balloon now burst by foreclosures, said Arthur Broslat, Re/Max Palm Realty land and investment property specialist.

"There are so many investor-owned properties working their way through the system," Broslat said. "So what's getting sold is the foreclosures. Banks are very aggressive about pricing those."

House flippers kept artificially inflating home values through rapid sales coupled with the expectation of ever-increasing home values, he said.

"In North Port, for example, there was a lot of speculative activity, people buying and holding homes with no intention of living in them," Broslat said. "They were going to flip them and become immensely wealthy."

Builders, offering nothing-down schemes, built about 500 houses in North Port, he said. An estimated 300 homes under construction in North Port were abandoned unfinished, said Carol Kozabo, property standards division manager in the North Port Building Department.

"CCI, a construction company that went bankrupt, was into that scheme," Broslat said. "Several companies were actively promoting that for little or nothing down, we'll build you a house."

North Port was hit with a perfect storm of easy home ownership terms colliding with an enviable location, he said.

"People in the construction business on the West Coast of Florida saw North Port was a convenient place to live," Broslat said. "You could get anywhere from Naples to Tampa in less than an hour in their pickup truck. Now they've gotten in their pickup truck and are someplace else."

Floridians and Californians are not alone in the foreclosure mess. Nearly three-quarters of a billion U.S. properties faced some sort of foreclosure action in the second quarter, according to the U.S. Foreclosure Market Report by RealtyTrac.com.

"Forty-eight of 50 states and 95 out of the nation's 100 largest metro areas experienced year-over-year increases in foreclosure activity in the second quarter," said RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio.

Still, Florida and California are at the epicenter of the foreclosure shakeup. Cape Coral-Fort Myers was the hardest-hit metro area in the nation with one foreclosure filing for every 64 households, more than seven times the national average.

Florida's bank repossessions rose almost eightfold in July. Foreclosure filings in the Sunshine State rose 14 percent from June and 139 percent from July 2007. It's been more than two years since the number of U.S. foreclosures dropped from one quarter to the next.

Foreclosures are adding adding yet another downward pressure on home prices in addition to bloated inventory and reduced demand from an economy with a rising jobless rate.

The median price for a single-family home in the United States dropped 7.6 percent in the second quarter, the National Association of Realtors reported. The median sale price was $206,500, down from $223,500 a year ago, according to Chicago-based NAR.

Sales of single-family houses and condominiums fell 16 percent to 4.913 million -- a 10-year low.

Foreclosures and "short sales," where lenders lose money by letting a borrower sell for less than the mortgage balance, accounted for one-third of all U.S. housing sales in the quarter. Property values for people who live near a home repossessed by a lender will drop an average of $5,000, according to the Center for Responsible Lending in Durham, N.C.

There are signs of a turnaround in at least one formerly troubled state. Colorado, where the foreclosure rate ranked No. 1 among all states in 2006, set up a foreclosure hotline to help people. Colorado also gave homeowners more time to stop foreclosures.

Colorado's foreclosure rate is down to No. 5 in the second quarter after a 15 percent decrease in activity from the previous quarter.

"Foreclosure sales didn't really take off until early this year," Broslat said. "Now it's taking off like crazy. It's a big part of everybody's sales."

TOP 5 FORECLOSURE STATES

Rank State Foreclosures

1 - California 587,157

2 - Florida 273,857

3 - Ohio 121,487

4 - Texas 88,732

5 - Arizona 88,148

Jail, foreclosures occupy Richland sheriff

2008-08-31T13:07:00.000-07:00

MANSFIELD -- Radios, Tasers, ping pong tables and inmate uniforms were all on the $93,650 list of needs the sheriff's department presented to commissioners Tuesday.

"We're kind of getting nickled and dimed to death," Sheriff Steve Sheldon said of the list compiled by Maj. Roger Paxton. "We've burned up a lot of our resources."

Sheldon said he hired four women last week and has plans to hire 10 more people. He is authorized to have 72 people on a staff that is now at 56.

The sheriff, accompanied by Paxton and Chief Deputy Rick Reeves, met with the board about some of the ongoing issues at the $21.5 million facility that houses both city and county inmates. Commissioners asked Sheldon to break down the list of needs to items that will be used for 20 years or more so they can decide where funding might come from.

Commissioner Ed Olson commended Paxton for doing an excellent job in running the 260-bed jail, but said it has numerous technology problems. The county is withholding about $200,000 in payments until vendors make things right, he said, citing the telephone system. Olson also said the county is spending less money on overtime at the jail than it will when the facility is fully staffed.

"We are in budget, if not slightly below budget," Olson said.

Paxton said the sheriff's department moved everything it could from the old jail rather than buying new. The jail population was listed at 265 Tuesday.

Sheldon, civil division deputy sheriff Kathy West and Clerk of Courts Lin Frary also discussed House Bill 138, which requires sheriffs to file deeds for foreclosure sales. The law that goes into effect Sept. 11 was designed to help properties from being in limbo if deeds aren't filed. It gives local governments more tools to get control of vacant tax-delinquent parcels.

Read more...

Unlocking your home equity

2008-08-30T13:05:00.000-07:00

(Fortune Magazine) -- The housing rescue package that Congress scrambled to pass in July was aimed primarily at stemming foreclosures and shoring up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But it also contains provisions that make reverse mortgages a better deal for older homeowners who want to turn their equity into cash.

Lawmakers are paying attention to reverse mortgages because these once-marginal products have exploded over the past decade, thanks to low interest rates and rising home values. The federal government, which backs more than 90% of all such loans through the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program, guaranteed 107,400 reverse mortgages last year, up from 7,900 in 1998. What's more, an industry group estimates that even after the drop in housing prices, seniors' equity in their homes was worth $4.2 trillion at the end of 2007. With slimmer savings and pensions than their parents had, more boomers will probably be turning to reverse mortgages when they retire. But these products are much more complicated than your garden-variety loan, so before you rush to download an application, you have to do some homework.
Here are the basics

Reverse mortgages are like home-equity loans, with a few key differences. First, they're available only to people age 62 and older. The amount you can borrow depends on your age, the value of your home, and interest rates (check out AARP's calculator at rmaarp.com for an estimate). You can choose to receive your money in a lump sum, monthly installments, or a line of credit. There are no monthly payments to make - and therefore you don't have to meet an income requirement to qualify.

In fact, you needn't repay the loan until you move out of your house, sell it, or die: The debt is settled with the proceeds from the sale of your home. If there's money left over, it goes to you or your heirs. But what if your house sells for less than what you owe? (That's not an idle question in a time of plunging home prices.) Don't worry. The federal government covers any shortfall for HECM loans, and for others the mortgage holder simply eats the loss.

Read more....

Foreclosures May Distort Housing Data

2008-08-29T13:03:00.000-07:00

As if the housing market wasn't scary enough, the record-setting surge in foreclosures could be distorting some of the closely watched housing data used to gauge the market's health.

The foreclosure glut is making listings of homes for sale a less reliable indicator, because much of the distressed inventory might be left out. In addition, fire-sale prices for such properties may also be skewing volume figures.

Some real estate analysts say this may indicate that housing conditions are worse than they now look, dampening hopes that the troubled market could soon be bottoming out.

The combination of weak housing sales, falling home values, tighter credit conditions and a slowing economy have left financially strapped homeowners in a tough spot — some borrowers have no other choice but to foreclose if they can't find a buyer for their home or pay or refinance their loans.
Nationwide, more than 272,000 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice in July, up 55 percent from about 175,000 in the same month last year and up 8 percent from June, RealtyTrac Inc. said.

Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac monitors default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions. More than 77,000 properties, or 28 percent, were repossessed by lenders nationwide in July, up from 16 percent a year ago, the company said.

"The wave of foreclosures is unprecedented, making it difficult to analyze, difficult to gauge how large it will get or how bad it will make things," Deutsche Bank analyst Nishu Sood said in an interview.
Read more...

I-Team: New Wave of Foreclosures May Hit Las Vegas

2008-08-28T13:09:00.000-07:00

Home prices may be off nearly 30-percent in Las Vegas, prompting many to predict the worst of the housing crisis may be over. But some Realtors know another round of foreclosures may happen in the next few months, flooding the valley with vacant homes. And people have two things to blame: liars and ninjas.

They may be new terms for a lot of us, but liar loans and ninja loans helped push the housing market to the brink of collapse. Now the rates are changing again in September and the scars from those liars and ninjas run deep.

Many consider them the villains in the housing crisis, and Realtor Cynthia Glickman says their reputation has been tarnished, "Oh yeah, look at these people, you know. They're liars. They're getting what they deserve."

The term liar loan comes from a lending practice allowing potential homebuyers to fib on their yearly income. Tell a white lie based on your green and you get a bigger house and avoid banking scrutiny.

"Okay, I'll pay the extra half-a-percent interest rate so that I don't have to provide you with mountains of paperwork," said Glickman.

It's the same situation for the stealthy ninja loans. Ninja means No Income, No Job, No Assets -- essentially handing out loans to people who had no right, or money, to afford a home.

"They assumed the values of the homes were going to go up. So they figured, what's the worst that could happen?" said Glickman.

The lenders were caught up partly in greed, partly in speculation, hoping the sky-high housing market would keep rising.

"It's a win-win situation. We either get the interest on the loan or we get the property and we get the money," said Glickman.
Read more news...

Official seeks foreclosure moratorium

2008-08-27T05:19:00.000-07:00

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- San Diego City Attorney Mike Aguirre will ask the City Council to declare a moratorium on home foreclosures, he told Legal Newsline on Tuesday.

Aguirre said he will formally make his request to councilors during their Sept. 9 meeting. On Tuesday, Aguirre's office submitted a draft resolution seeking the crisis designation, Legal Newsline reported.

"According to the latest reports," Aguirre said, "foreclosures in the city are up 213 percent, the highest number in the history of the city."

Aguirre's draft resolution states: "The City of San Diego is experiencing a crisis in the real estate market fueled by an unprecedented number of foreclosures in the wake of lending institutions' predatory lending practice and widespread use of sub-prime loans."

Read more...

Foreclosures Mean Crises for H.I.V. Positive Renters

2008-08-27T04:57:00.000-07:00

Andrew Henderson/The New York Times

Sabrina Wilson with her son Kevin Harris. She says she has been turned down many times in her search for new housing.

Mrs. Wilson, whose H.I.V. was diagnosed 18 years ago, had always dreaded the thought of having to find another landlord who would accept her rental subsidy from the city. But this time, because her current landlord faced foreclosure, the sense of urgency landed her in the hospital.

“I got sick because of the stress,” said Mrs. Wilson, who is 51 but moves at the pace of an octogenarian. “I cried day in and day out. Where am I going to stay? Where am I going?”

At least 50 H.I.V.-positive renters have complained to city housing organizations in the past months of being forced out or threatened with eviction because of foreclosures. The agencies say they do not know the exact number of families in housing trouble because there is no centralized system for tracking them, but all say that H.I.V.-positive renters are in a particular squeeze.

High rental rates, combined with insufficient public benefits and ineffective antidiscrimination laws, can extend their housing search to a year or more. Unless the landlord is forthcoming, or the bank is diligent in notifying them, tenants may not learn of a foreclosure until they have just a few months to move, putting them in a crisis situation.

How to Find a Licensed Contractor to Give you estimates for your Short Sale Packages and BPO Packages

2008-08-23T03:17:00.000-07:00

Its pretty easy to find contractors to give you estimates these days because they aren’t very busy and they need work $$$.

First, you need to go and look in the places these guys would advertise to get new clients.

The obvious places are:

The yellow pages

The Newspaper

Your Free Weekly newspaper (Pennysaver, Thrifty Nickel, The Flyer, etc)

The not so obvious place to look is Craiglist.org

Go to Craiglslist and click on

Your State

And

Your City

Then click on Services

Here is an example of where this page is in my area.

http://tampa.craigslist.org/bbb/

(this is also a great place to find people to help you with your deals ie: House cleaners, painters, handymen, sign hangers for your for sale signs, etc)

You will see many services here and you’ll find contractors advertising for new clients.

You are their next New Client.

Pick a few ads you like and call them to setup an appointment to give you an estimate.

Make sure you tell them you want to update the house to make it look like it’s in “like new” condition. Tell them to find anything they can that’s wrong with the house and make a big deal out of it.

There are 2 ways to handle paying a contractor for the estimate.

Option A

You can be cheap and try to get the estimate for free pretending that you are actually going to use them to do that work. (you are not). This will result in a very short relationship and you will be looking for a new contractor soon.

A Contractor is not going to continue to give you free estimates without ever be awarding any of the jobs.

Option B

Or you can establish a long term relationship with the Contractor, tell them exactly why you need the estimate and that you want it to come in on the high side and Negotiate a flat fee for providing the estimate every time you need one. This will make your life so much easier by having a contractor on your team you can rely on to get these done for you when you need them done quickly.

I recommend you go with Option B

The licensed contractor estimate is a critical part of your short sale package and your BPO package.

Just get it done and you will be happen with the results of your short sales.

Committed to Your Extreme Success,

D.C. Fawcett

The Business Building Coach to the Foreclosure Industry

How to Close Short Sale Deals without any of your own Cash or Credit in Today’s Market

2008-08-14T01:45:00.000-07:00

Because the short sale biz has been so good to me and I know how critical it is for you to have The Short Sale Strategy in your toolbox in today’s market, I’ve decided to give back by giving you this free training to help you with your short sale deals. There are so many short sales out there right now and they’re so easy to get, it’d be foolish for you to ignore them.

Most of my new students don’t understand why the banks allow us to sell the property for more than they’re agreeing to accept for the short sale. It’s all in how you structure the deal. It needs to be structured with 2 transactions. We always provide full disclosure in our contracts that we send to the lenders. They are fully aware of what we’re doing and it’s 100% legal.

Banks do this all day long when they sell their mortgages and bulk REO Properties to investors. They know that the investors that buy their mortgages are going to turn around and immediately sell them. We are doing the same thing.

Here is a Free Training Lesson for you on How to Structure and Close Short Sale Deals without using any of your own Cash or Credit in Today’s Market.

Download the Free Report Here:

How to Close Short Sale Deals with none of your own Cash or Credit

Get the Audio Here:

How to Close Short Sales with None of Your Cash or Credit

Dedicated to Multiplying Your Income,

D.C. Fawcett

The Business Building Coach to the Foreclosure Industry

P.S.

Make sure you block the time out on your Calender to attend my Online Seminar Thursday night at 9:00 pm EST.

I will be revealing advanced strategies for short sale investing that are working extremely well in Today’s market.

You’ll also find out how you can do 1 deal to pay for a Luxury Car like my $85,000 Mercedes E55 AMG. 469HP! (One deal paid for my car!)

P. P.S. If you have any questions, comments or would just like to thank me for providing this valuable free information, please post your comment below.

Craig, Merlin, bulls and bears, oh my

2008-08-05T18:27:00.000-07:00

The latest Real Estate Connect, a conference that brings together real estate professionals and technology, engaged the industry in a range of discussions: Riding out the roller-coaster housing market, taking blogging to the next level, figuring out the foreclosure market, gauging the future of multiple listing services, navigating the many online real estate sites, and managing Internet communications were among the hot topics.

Connect attendees heard insight from Craig Newmark, founder of the global network of craigslist community sites, and from Merlin Mann, a new media personality who shared tips on managing your time and whittling down the multitude of messages in your e-mail inbox. Attendees also heard a variety of views on the state of the housing market and economy, and had an opportunity to witness the launch of a national brokerage franchise network.

The following is a comprehensive list of Inman News articles that focus on events during the Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco, held July 23-25, 2008, at the historic Palace Hotel:

In "MLS stakeholders take on syndication, public sites," panelists addressed pressing issues facing multiple listing services, such as the debate over public-facing MLS Web sites and syndication of property listings data.

Construction inches up as foreclosures dip from last month

2008-08-02T17:49:00.000-07:00

The Colorado Springs housing market got a bit of good news Friday as housing construction rebounded slightly in July from June's weak performance, while mortgage foreclosures fell from the previous month for the second time in the past three months.

Single-family home building permits in El Paso County totaled 108 in July, down 37.6 percent from a year earlier but up 11.3 percent from June's dismal total, according to a report issued Friday by the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department. The increase from the previous month was the first time housing construction numbers have risen from June to July in six years.

"I think we have hit bottom (in June) and the pace is picking up a little bit," said Mike Fenton, vice president of operations for the Colorado Springs division of Century Communities LLC. "For the first half of the year we and other builders were selling more homes than we were permitting because we were selling off our unfinished inventory. Now that we have worked off that inventory, we and others will be pulling more permits in the second half of the year."

Lee County foreclosures up 3 percent in July

2008-08-02T17:47:00.000-07:00

Foreclosures in Lee County were up slightly in July from the previous month, continuing the housing market's downward trend.

There were 2,467 foreclosures last month, up 3 percent from the 2,390 foreclosures in June. In July 2007, there were 1,045 foreclosures.

"The trend continues, it hasn't abated," said Jeff Tumbarello, director of the Southwest Florida Real Estate Investors Association, which released the numbers today.

Tumarello said he expects the number of foreclosures to drop soon, it won't stay bad forever.

"Foreclosures are doing what they're doing, but the good news is that people are buying foreclosures, so at least there is a demand for these," Tumbarello said.

Read more Article...

Lee County foreclosures at 2,467 record high

2008-08-02T05:47:00.000-07:00

July was another month of record foreclosures in Lee County and very little new construction of single-family homes.

There were 2,467 foreclosures last month, up 3 percent from the 2,390 foreclosures in June, while permits for new single-family homes could best be described as a mixed bag - up in Cape Coral, down almost everywhere else, according to numbers released Friday.

Not all is bad. People are taking advantage of bargains in the real estate market, giving hope Southwest Florida could soon stabilize itself, housing leaders said.

"Foreclosures are doing what they're doing, but the good news is that people are buying foreclosures, so at least there is a demand for these," said Jeff Tumbarello, director of the Southwest Florida Real Estate Investors Association, which tracks foreclosures.

"For every two deeds they take back, they've been selling one," Tumbarello said.

Still, the numbers paint an ugly picture even for the biggest optimist. In July 2007 there were 1,045 foreclosures. Last month's record figure was the fourth consecutive month foreclosures topped 2,000.

The gluttony of existing and foreclosed homes on the market isn't doing the construction industry any favors.

Community development administrators from Bonita Springs and county government - which includes Lehigh Acres, Estero, south Fort Myers and North Fort Myers - reported drops in the number of permits issued for new single-family homes in July.

Only Cape Coral had a bit of good news, reporting 22 permits for new single-family homes were issued in July. That's the third highest monthly total this fiscal year, which began in October.

IndyMac Bank Joins Roster of Banks to Fold its Mortgage “Tent.”

2008-07-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

I knew this bank was going to go down soon. They are the only lender to require a $300 fee to consider a short sale offer. What a stupid procedure! The only outcome will be more bank foreclosures now. I guess they don’t care too much anymore.

D.C. Fawcett

www.RealEstateForeclosuresInvesting.com

Here are the Details:

IndyMac has announced that, effective yesterday, it is closing both its wholesale and retail production channel and will no longer accept any new mortgage loan submission or rate locks. It will also reduce its workforce to around 3,200 from the current level of 7,400. The bank will also, apparently, continue its other retail banking operations.

IndyMac Bankcorp, Inc is the holding company for IndyMac Bank, the 7th largest savings and loan and the 2nd largest independent mortgage lender in the nation. It claims to have financed the construction of over 70,000 new homes over the last five years but has consistently been listed among those financial institutions in serious trouble over the mortgage crises.

The stock had reached $.71 cents Monday after trading as high as 31.32 in the last year and was delisted from NASDAQ. There were no announcementS or news items on the Yahoo IndyMac website on Monday, but the company’s own website made the following statement:

“Given the continued downward trend in home prices and a resulting increase in our forecasted credit losses and the related downward trend in the pricing of all mortgage related assets in the capital markets, especially mortgage-backed securities where we have experienced significant rating agency downgrades this quarter, we expect our loss for the second quarter to be larger than Q108, but it is difficult at this time to be more precise given the significant uncertainty surrounding accounting estimates, fair value accounting and other accounting matters.

“… We have been working closely with our federal banking regulators with respect to the actions that they and we must take to meet our mutual goal of keeping Indymac safe and sound through this crisis period. In that respect, based on information we have provided to our regulators, they have advised us that we are no longer “well capitalized”, which we stated on May 12 was a possible scenario. Our regulators have also asked us to submit to them a new business plan for their review and approval, something on which we have been working with them for some time. We have agreed on the basic elements of the plan, and the regulators have directed us to begin executing on it. An important element of our plan is to improve our capital ratios. Without an external capital raise, the traditional way to improve safety and soundness is to sell assets and shrink the balance sheet, which in normal times generally has the effect of improving capital ratios and bolstering liquidity. Yet in this environment, where either there are no bids for most of IMB’s mortgage loans and securities or the bid/ask spreads are abnormally wide, “fire-selling” assets would actually deplete capital further. As a result, the most realistic and cost-effective way to shrink both our balance sheet and our servicing rights asset (which, as discussed in previous communications, is up against the regulatory cap limit), is to curtail most new activity.

“As a result of the above, we have made the difficult decision, effective July 7, 2008, that we will no longer accept any new loan submissions or rate locks in our retail and wholesale forward mortgage lending channels, except for our servicing retention channel. We plan to honor all of our existing rate-locked loans and will continue to fund these loans in the coming weeks. While the managers and employees in these units have worked incredibly hard, these units are not currently profitable due to the continuing erosion of the housing and mortgage markets. At the same time, these operations take up significant balance sheet capacity and “feed” growth in the servicing asset, an asset we need to shrink given its size relative to our existing capital.”

Unfortunately, the above actions will necessitate the reduction in our present workforce from approximately 7,200 to roughly 3,400 or so over the next couple of months, which should reduce our operating expenses by roughly 60%. We will retain about 1,100 employees in loan servicing in Kalamazoo and Austin; 350 in our servicing retention group in Irvine and Kansas City; 800 at Financial Freedom, primarily in Irvine, Sacramento, and Atlanta; 400 in our Southern California retail and web bank; 500 in portfolio management and administration, largely in Pasadena; and 250 in discontinued businesses. In building Indymac up from 4 employees in 1993 to its present size, we have had to retrench and then rebuild several times over the past 15 years, but clearly these are the largest and most difficult staff reductions we have ever had to make. If we had another alternative, we clearly would have chosen it, as we understand how painful these workforce reductions can be for the affected employees and their families. Given Indymac’s current financial position and these significant layoffs, I strongly believe it is appropriate that I further materially reduce my own compensation. As a result, I have requested of Indymac’s Board of Directors that they reduce my base salary by 50%.

The memo was signed by Michael W. Perry, CEO.”

Could foreclosures help the Valley's housing market?

2008-07-27T13:50:00.000-07:00

As the number of foreclosures increase in the Valley, some believe it may help the ailing housing market by attracting buyers looking for a good deal.

"The market is still sinking, but it's exciting, the banks are about to become the major player in the Valley," said real estate agent Stanley Fosha.

The banks will become critical because of the number of foreclosures and more and more people will be dealing banks rather than a seller when buying a home.

"Organic sales will decrease significantly, private party to private party are going to be the minority of transactions that happen in the Valley," Fosha said.

Fosha expects many more foreclosures to pop up within the next few months.

"There are 24,000 homes in foreclosure right now, 15,000 have been taken back, that's 38 to 39,000 homes right there that could be on the market in the next 90-days," Fosha said.

The John Hall & Associates agent points to an area north of Paradise Valley in Phoenix as an example of foreclosures fueling buyers.

Foreclosures: Worst still to come, experts say

2008-07-26T01:48:00.000-07:00

Phoenix had a staggering 534 percent increase in foreclosures in the first half of 2008, and it appears the worst may be yet to come.

The percentage gain represents an increase of about 5,000 homes foreclosed from year to year, according to data provided by Information Market.

"This is not surprising," said Phoenix City Councilman Claude Mattox, who represents the hardest-hit areas of the city. "We're well aware of the problem, and we are doing all we can to mitigate it."

The real tidal wave may be yet to come.

Phoenix had 12,573 foreclosure notices for the first half of the year, and experts say more than half of them are likely to become foreclosures.

The hardest-hit parts of town were the west and southwest sides, where increases of 700 percent or more were common. Only one other area, the eastern portion of northeast Phoenix's Desert Ridge, had a similar increase, but it had far fewer foreclosures.

US home foreclosures jump 14% in 2nd quarter: survey

2008-07-25T05:45:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US home foreclosures leapt nearly 14 percent in the second quarter from the previous quarter, research group RealtyTrac said Friday in a sign of deepening housing woes.

On an annual basis, home foreclosure filings soared 121 percent from the same period in 2007, RealtyTrac said in releasing a survey of the country's 100 largest metropolitan areas.

Foreclosures have spiked in the worst housing slump in decades and a related credit crisis that have brought the economy to a crawl.

With home prices falling and unemployment and inflation rising, homeowners are increasingly hard-pressed to make their home loan payments.

RealtyTrac said that foreclosure filings were reported on 739,714 US properties during the second quarter.

The California-based company said that one in every 171 US households had received a foreclosure filing and the distress was nationwide.

According to the survey, 48 of the 50 states and 95 of the 100 major city regions had experienced year-over-year increases in foreclosure activity.

"Although much of the fallout from foreclosures is being driven by rampant activity in a few states, such as Nevada, California, Florida, Ohio, Arizona and Michigan, most areas of the country are seeing at least some increase in foreclosure activity," said RealtyTrac chief executive James Saccacio said in a statement.

Nevada, California, Arizona and Florida, where home prices had boomed for several years before the collapse of the US housing market in 2006, led the country in foreclosures.

Foreclosures shutter Sorrento Springs homes

2008-07-22T03:04:00.000-07:00

Sheila Ruest (left) and her daughter, Shelby, walk along Terragona Drive in Sorrento Springs. (ROBERTO GONZALEZ, ORLANDO SENTINEL / July 16, 2008)

It was once a young couple's dream house -- a four-bedroom piece of paradise overlooking a golf course.

Now it is a financial albatross.

A phone book, soggy from weeks of afternoon rain, lies in a puddle by the doorstep. A family of wasps nests in the once-grand entryway. Weeds sprout between the brick pavers of the driveway. The place sits empty -- just like the house next door and the one across the street and a half-dozen more down the block.

This is Terragona Drive in Sorrento Springs, an upscale development amid the lush, rolling pastureland of rural Lake County. It has an 18-hole golf course, a resortlike clubhouse, tennis courts, walking trails and neat rows of two-story, earth-toned homes with architectural flourishes.

But like dozens of developments throughout Central Florida, Sorrento Springs blossomed circa 2005, just as the housing market began to wither. Now it is rife with foreclosures.

There are investors who gambled on ever-rising housing prices -- and lost. There are families whose breadwinners lost their jobs -- and now face losing their homes. There are kids who have lost friends; moms who've lost support networks; renters who have been booted out because the banks are foreclosing on their landlords.
Read more Article....

Shelters get more animals due to foreclosures

2008-07-18T14:40:00.000-07:00

PHOENIX - People who face foreclosure and have to get rid of pets are contributing to an increase in the number of animals at shelters across metropolitan Phoenix.

Some distressed homeowners often find themselves in smaller rental homes or apartments after losing their home, and many of those rentals don't allow pets.

Many owners take their animals to shelters, hoping their pets will find new homes. Others simply move without their pets, leaving them behind in the backyard or abandoning them on the side of the road.

The Arizona Humane Society has received more than 1,000 abandonment calls this year, nearly double the number at this time last year. Other shelters and rescues also have reported significant increases because of foreclosures.
Read more Article...

Metro foreclosures drop

2008-07-17T14:38:00.000-07:00

Finally, some good news on foreclosures: Filings in the seven-county Denver area in the second quarter fell by 7.5 percent from the first quarter.

There were 6,992 foreclosure filings in the metro area in the second quarter, compared with 7,565 filings in the first quarter.

In the first half of the year, however, foreclosures are still up 15.6 percent from the same period in 2007.

Foreclosures remain on a record pace with 14,600 filings received in the first six months by public trustee offices in Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties, compared with 12,626 in the same period last year. But experts are encouraged that the pace of foreclosures is slowing.

In the first half of 2007, foreclosures rose by 25 percent from the same period in 2006, for example.

Adams County saw a 48 percent increase in foreclosures in the first six months of 2007 compared with the same period in 2006, while this year foreclosures are up 12 percent compared with the first half of 2007.

"I'm hoping that this foreclosure tsunami that has wiped out so many homes is starting to roll back," said Ed Jalowsky, principal of Hottest Homes Realty. "But I still think it is going to take six to 12 months for it all to work itself out."
Read more Article..

Help for Foreclosures in Region 8

2008-07-16T14:37:00.000-07:00

JONESBORO, AR (KAIT) -- In the past two years the number of foreclosures has doubled nationwide and we're starting to see the impact here in Region 8. While there are a lot of people in Region 8 that haven't been touched by the mortgage crisis, that doesn't mean there aren't those out there that are struggling with it right now.

A recent grant from West Tennessee Legal Services is helping legal aid of Arkansas help residents try to save their homes from foreclosure.

"It's called housing counseling. Someone will come in and they're a few months behind on their mortgage and we'll look at their budget and look at what caused them to get behind," said Legal Aid of Arkansas attorney Brian Miles.

Attorney Brian Miles said in a lot of cases you can save your home and they are here to help you try to do it.

"Maybe they've had medical problems. Maybe their interest rate's gone up. They had an adjustable rate mortgage, but now it's gone up to where they can't make the payments. We find out what they can pay and then we make proposals to the lenders to try to save their home," said Miles.
Read more Article...