The Real Estate Bloggers

Want to Buy An Island? Greece Is Holding A Fire Sale

Posted: 25 Jun 2010 06:00 AM PDT

Greek-islands If you have a few million Euros lying around this may be the ideal time to buy a Greek Island. The country has been in the midst of a financial crisis and to raise money to pay off some of their debt they are selling all or part of 900 islands. Parts of the historical islands of Mykonos and Rhodes are up for sale if you are willing to share, or you can purchase your very own 1,235 acre island, Nafsika, for under 15 million Euros.

With the political and economic turmoil going on in Greece you should not expect a stable environment for the first few years. Since the economic crisis started, property values in Greece have dropped 10 to 20 percent, and tourism is way off. However, the allure of owning your very own Greek Island and becoming a James Bond villain will have these islands swarming with Russian Oligarchs.

Now Greece is making it easier for the rich and famous to fulfill their dreams by preparing to sell, or offering long-term leases on, some of its 6,000 sunkissed islands in a desperate attempt to repay its mountainous debts.

The Guardian has learned that an area in Mykonos, one of Greece’s top tourist destinations, is one of the sites for sale. The area is one-third owned by the government, which is looking for a buyer willing to inject capital and develop a luxury tourism complex, according to a source close to the negotiations.

Potential investors also looking at property on the island of Rhodes, are mostly Russian and Chinese. Investors in both countries are looking for a little bit of the Mediterranean as holiday destinations for their increasingly affluent populations. Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea football club, is among those understood to be interested, although a spokesman denied he was about to invest.

Greece has embarked on the desperate measures after being pushed into a €110bn (£90bn) bailout by the EU and the IMF last month, following a decade of overspending and after jittery investors raised borrowing costs to unbearable levels.

The sale of an island – or convincing a member of the international jet-set to take on a long-term lease – would help to boost its coffers. The Private Islands website lists 1,235-acre Nafsika, in the Ionian sea, on sale for €15m. But others are on for less than €2m – less than a townhouse in Mayfair or Chelsea. Some of the country’s numerous islands are tiny which could barely fit a single sunbed. via The Guardian

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Want to Buy An Island? Greece Is Holding A Fire Sale

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Can’t Reach Bank Of America Mortgage Department?

Posted: 25 Jun 2010 05:18 AM PDT

Phone If you are a Bank of America, or a former Countrywide, mortgage holder and have been trying to get someone on the phone, things may be getting better. The company has recently hired 2,000 more employees for the default management department.

What is truly amazing to me is how many calls they get a day. The reported number of calls the Bank of America mortgage department takes is 100,000 every single day. That is indicative of either a real mess or incompetence. My guess is both.

And with 60 percent of the people answering calls in the default management department being new hires in the last 18 months, odds are it is not the most competent group. There is lots of learning happening on the other side of the phone right now.

But it sounds like they are addressing the problem. Next one to tackle for Bank of America is their short sale department.

The lender now has more than 18,000 workers in “default management,” a 60 percent increase since January 2009, Barbara Desoer, president of Bank of America’s home-loan and insurance unit, said in testimony prepared for a congressional hearing on U.S. housing policy tomorrow. Those workers handle 100,000 calls a day, she said. Wells Fargo & Co., the largest U.S. home lender, Bank of America and other companies have hired thousands of employees or shifted staff from other departments to work with borrowers who have lost jobs or experienced declining incomes. Banks repossessed a record 257,944 homes in the first quarter, 35 percent more than a year earlier, according to Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac Inc. More than a fifth of U.S. mortgage holders owed more than their homes were worth, Seattle- based real estate data provider Zillow.com reported last month.

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.

Can’t Reach Bank Of America Mortgage Department?