The Real Estate Bloggers |
- Foreclosure Avoided For Mother Of Slain Soldier in Georgia
- California Revokes Record Amount Of Licenses
- New Jersey Housewife Teresa Giudice To Auction Off Household Items
- Long Island Man Has Mortgage Payout Cancelled Day After Wife Dies
- Cash In Refinancing May Be A Smart Move
- Top 10 Youngest Cities In The United States
- Mortgage Default Notices Down 43 Percent in California
- E-Verify Coming To a Construction Site Near You
- TARP Inspector Slams Federal Government Housing Programs
- Toll Brothers: If You Can Not Build Them, Join Them
| Foreclosure Avoided For Mother Of Slain Soldier in Georgia Posted: 31 Jul 2010 06:48 AM PDT 
SunTrust Bank told the family that they would indefinitely postpone the foreclosure of the home and rework the mortgage in the coming months.
From a publicity perspective this is the right move for SunTrust, and it is a heartwarming story. Our soldiers are giving their lives to protect ours and our way of life and should be held in the highest esteem. However there is something nagging at me at the same time. The family lost this soldier many years ago. They are doing the noble thing by raising their grandchild and should be commended for their sacrifice and their dedication to their family. Yet the use of their plight to avoid losing their home seems like they are pushing that line right to the edge of propriety, if not over it. We all have tragedy touch us. To take the absurd point of view, does this make a precedent for banks to never foreclose on homes owned by dead service people or their immediate families? If that is the case, we may hear about service men and woman having a harder time getting a loan. Actuarially the odds of dying in the service is not high thanks to the efforts of our leadership. But they are worse than the average citizen in times of war. Banks have to protect their self interests to remain in business so if they have to worry about writing off loans in this instance they may just avoid writing them. Again, I applaud SunTrust for trying to work out an arrangement for this family. It seems that it is the right thing to do. I just hope this does not open the door to the “Law of Unintended Consequences”. Thanks for reading this post. If you would like to see more articles like this, please come visit The Real Estate Bloggers. where it was originally published. Foreclosure Avoided For Mother Of Slain Soldier in Georgia Related posts:
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| California Revokes Record Amount Of Licenses Posted: 30 Jul 2010 04:47 AM PDT 
Either way, the record shows that in California we are seeing a record amount of real estate licenses being pulled by the California Department of Real Estate. Last year 633 licenses got revoked for cause and 886 agents gave up or lost their license in total
The other shoe to drop is that there is much more to come. An overloaded California Department of Real Estate still has nearly 5,400 open investigations that they are working through. In tough times it is tempting to cut a corner or try to make something work to get a little extra income through the door. If you value your license and your reputation, think twice before crossing this line. Thanks for reading this post. If you would like to see more articles like this, please come visit The Real Estate Bloggers. where it was originally published. California Revokes Record Amount Of Licenses Related posts:
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| New Jersey Housewife Teresa Giudice To Auction Off Household Items Posted: 28 Jul 2010 06:12 AM PDT 
For many of us in the real estate world, this is not an uncommon occurance as companies that held out in hopes of surviving the downturn are now going under on a regular basis. This one is just going to be in the spotight of the Bravo network’s cameras.
Thanks for reading this post. If you would like to see more articles like this, please come visit The Real Estate Bloggers. where it was originally published. New Jersey Housewife Teresa Giudice To Auction Off Household Items Related posts:
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| Long Island Man Has Mortgage Payout Cancelled Day After Wife Dies Posted: 28 Jul 2010 06:00 AM PDT 
The day after George Baumann’s wife died, the loan officer at a branch of the Hanover Community Bank refuse payout of a loan that closed 5 days earlier. First of all, the lack of empathy is amazing but the bank has dealt with that and that loan officer is “no longer with the bank”. But the timing of it is even worse. Here is a man who knows money is tight, has lost the love of his life of over 50 years, and now has to worry about a bank paying out an already approved loan? As they say on Long Island, “You got to be kidding me?”
Thanks for reading this post. If you would like to see more articles like this, please come visit The Real Estate Bloggers. where it was originally published. Long Island Man Has Mortgage Payout Cancelled Day After Wife Dies Related posts:
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| Cash In Refinancing May Be A Smart Move Posted: 27 Jul 2010 06:26 AM PDT 
What is Cash In Refinancing? Cash in Refinancing is the cousin of cash out refinancing that was all the rage in the early part of the century. With cash out refinancing you would refinance your mortgage to get money out of it to spend on other things. With cash in refinancing you reverse the trend. Typically done by people who are slightly upside down on their mortgage, those that are doing a cash in refinance of their mortgage bring money to the table in exchange for getting a much better rate on their mortgage and saving money in the long run. Who Would Do This? Surprisingly, according to a report from Freddie Mac, 18 percent of refinances done in the first quarter of 2010 were cash in’s. If you are planning on staying in your home for the long term, the math makes sense. Lowering your interest rate will more than pay back your re-investment into the home. This especially makes sense if you have money sitting in a low interest savings account or an investment that you want to liquidate. Thanks for reading this post. If you would like to see more articles like this, please come visit The Real Estate Bloggers. where it was originally published. Cash In Refinancing May Be A Smart Move Related posts:
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| Top 10 Youngest Cities In The United States Posted: 24 Jul 2010 03:46 AM PDT  I remember moving to Atlanta back in the early 1990s and being amazed how young the city was compared to the New York metro area I came from. The city felt like there was so much more opportunity for younger people than up north. When I saw this list of the Youngest Cities in the United States I figured it would be of interest to those who are looking for that same feeling. These cities tend to lean more towards university towns and military bases but they offer a dynamic environment. If you are an under 30 entrepreneur, who do you want to live around? Would you prefer an older demographic or a younger one? Top 10 Youngest Cities In The United States Rank City Median age 1 Jacksonville, NC 22.8 2 Provo, UT 22.9 3 College Station, TX 23.6 4 Auburn, AL 23.7 5 San Marcos, TX 23.8 6 Logan, UT 23.9 7 Normal, IL 24.3 8 New Brunswick, NJ 24.7 9 Orem, UT 25.1 10 Bloomington, IN 25.4 Thanks for reading this post. If you would like to see more articles like this, please come visit The Real Estate Bloggers. where it was originally published. Top 10 Youngest Cities In The United States Related posts:
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| Mortgage Default Notices Down 43 Percent in California Posted: 23 Jul 2010 03:41 AM PDT 
There are a few reasons for the reduction in default notices, but they are all good ones for the industry. First, banks cut way back on subprime mortgages which means the quality of the loans out there has improved. Add into the equation an active housing market in the 2nd quarter with the home buyer tax credit to provide activity in the market and an uptick in the economy you can see why people were more secure in paying their mortgage on time. What the next challenge for the real estate industry is now in California is how the economy does. Unemployment and underemployment is the challenge that the people will face when it comes to paying their mortgage. If the pressure from foreclosures hitting the market lessens housing prices will stabilize and people will trust the market.
Thanks for reading this post. If you would like to see more articles like this, please come visit The Real Estate Bloggers. where it was originally published. Mortgage Default Notices Down 43 Percent in California Related posts:
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| E-Verify Coming To a Construction Site Near You Posted: 22 Jul 2010 05:39 AM PDT 
I bet it is meeting a great deal of resistance by every construction contractor in Denver. Resistance mixed in with a little fear. Because we all know that the language of the construction site has turned to Spanish over the past decade. When construction companies large and small started getting overwhelmed with demand around the turn of the century the workers they found were illegal aliens. These employees worked hard, showed up on time, and were inexpensive. The nature of construction with lots of subcontractors allowed illegal workers to fly under the radar screen when it came to residency checks. Now that we are in a deep recession with 10 percent unemployment legal residents want these construction jobs, the City Council of Denver is getting pressured to stop illegal aliens working on their construction projects. The way to do this is implement the E-Verify system.
This is a testimonial to our failed immigration policies. We in the United States have a variable labor market. Just 5 years ago we had full employment plus a huge demand for additional labor. The boom in construction created the need for additional workers and illegal aliens filled that need. If we had been honest and developed a guest worker program that could manage these people and remove them from the shadows, we all would be better off. With unemployment around 10% and jobs being scarce, we really have no understanding of how many illegal workers are here. Even if we pass immigration laws, the shadow market will remain as employers will try to maintain the low wages of illegals and those illegals will remain in the shadows so they do not lose their jobs to legal residents. Immigration is a mess and the construction and real estate world is knee deep in it. However, I am glad to see Denver taking a stand. The quicker we get legal residents working the quicker we will get out of the this recession. Thanks for reading this post. If you would like to see more articles like this, please come visit The Real Estate Bloggers. where it was originally published. E-Verify Coming To a Construction Site Near You Related posts:
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| TARP Inspector Slams Federal Government Housing Programs Posted: 21 Jul 2010 07:07 AM PDT 
That is 700,000,000,000 dollars folks. Into our industry. By any measure we are not any better than we were last year. Of course, it can and probably should be said without the governments intervention we could be in a much worse place. But this is the cost of not letting the market fall to it’s natural bottom but instead of trying to manage it down. 700,000,000,000 dollars. And the irony is the TARP Special Inspector General, Neil Barofsky, is not happy on how the effort is going. In the politically circumspective world of Washington D.C. he has issued a scathing report on the governments handling of the housing market.
As I have said so many times before, instead of creating a gentle landing for the housing and banking markets, we should have let the carnage happen. Sure there would be pain, but it is the pain of a band-aid being ripped off quickly. It stings like a bastard but it is done. Right now we are removing the band-aid slowly. Very slowly. And instead of a sharp pain, we have a lingering pain intermixed with moments of respite. But as anyone who knows about removing band-aids, the quick pain is much less painful in the long run than the slow removal. The problem is that the collusion between the politicians and big business is the driver here. Everyone is so worried about protecting the vested interests instead of doing what is best for the country. Ah, but that is for another post. Thanks for reading this post. If you would like to see more articles like this, please come visit The Real Estate Bloggers. where it was originally published. TARP Inspector Slams Federal Government Housing Programs Related posts:
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| Toll Brothers: If You Can Not Build Them, Join Them Posted: 21 Jul 2010 06:35 AM PDT 
Yep, a top homebuilder is going into the REO game. And it is a brilliant move. One of the biggest fears when buying a foreclosure or short sale is the problems in the property that you can not see. The unexpected surprises you might say. But Toll Brothers has the contacts for construction professionals in every trade and expertise. They have the resources to buy a home on the cheap at the courthouse, refurbish it quickly and efficiently, and then has the sales tools to drive the consumer to their homes. This change if picked up by others in the building trade will put pressure on the local guy doing a house or two at a time.
Thanks for reading this post. If you would like to see more articles like this, please come visit The Real Estate Bloggers. where it was originally published. Toll Brothers: If You Can Not Build Them, Join Them Related posts:
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SunTrust has come through for the family of the first soldier to be killed in combat in the Iraq war from the state of Georgia. The family, who is raising the son of their slain son, was to be foreclosed upon and evicted this coming Monday.
With all the turmoil going on in the real estate market, the opportunities for real estate agents to cut corners or commit outright fraud has increased. Some of this fraud may be done trying to be sympathetic to ones clients while for others it is greed or just trying to find a way to cut a corner and put food on ones table. 
For those in the real estate industry it has been a rough time. Teresa Giudice’s husbands construction company is in Chapter 7 bankruptcy and the family is having to liquidate their household to meet the creditors demands of 10.85 million dollars in debt. 
Your heart has to go out to people in this situation. We know qualifying for a mortgage is hard, even harder for a mortgage at age 84. But when you get approved and then your spouse dies, it should not be this difficult to get the payout. 
If you are underwater on your present mortgage you probably think refinancing is insane. But with the low interest rates available for homeowners with good credit it may make sense. 
Some good news for the California real estate market came out, mortgage default notices for the 2nd quarter of 2010 are down 43.8 percent. That is great news as the pressure of foreclosures on the housing market has been weighing down the California real estate market. 
E-Verify, the government program designed to determine if an employee is legally able to work in the United States, is about to be required at all city run job sites in Denver if a bill passes the City Council. 
The federal government invested 700 billion dollars in the housing industry during it’s past fiscal year. Gulp. 
The construction market slowdown to historic lows has the braintrust at Toll Brothers reconsidering their business plan. Since they can not sell new homes right now they have announced a plan to buy distressed properties.| You are subscribed to email updates from The Real Estate Bloggers To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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