Foreclosures Help Information

Archive for October, 2009

Albuquerque Foreclosed Homes For Sale

With the current chaos in the real estate market, it seems that there are foreclosures everywhere.  If you’re interested in buying a new home or an investment property, foreclosures offer a great way to get a rock bottom price on a property.  Buying a foreclosure property, however, can also have some inherent risk.  The risks associated with buying a foreclosure stem from the lack of normal protections you would get from buying a conventional house. 

Property Listings

You don’t always have to pay a fee to find listings of foreclosed properties.  Find a local real estate agent with foreclosure experience.  An agent can often give you free information on foreclosures in your area.  You can also find listings by going to the local courthouse.  The tax office will often having postings of foreclosed properties.  For more information on finding local foreclosure listings, visit GreatForeclosureListings.com.

Home Inspection

Be sure to invest in a home inspection.  Foreclosed homes are often poorly maintained and in disarray.  The property may be vandalized or appliances may be missing.  Also, do not be surprised if the utilities have been discontinued.  This can particularly be in colder climates when the heat has been shut off.  Try to have the utilities turned on before your inspection.  An inspection can cost anywhere from $250 to $400 but will save you money in the long run.

Title Insurance

Be sure to purchase title insurance.  Title insurance will protect you from any unforeseen liens against the property.  It will also protect you in case a previous owner makes a claim against the house after you purchase it.

Get a Lawyer

A good real estate lawyer is essential in any foreclosure deal.  You will need a lawyer to draw up a contract with escape clauses in case something goes wrong at the last minute.  You can find a real estate lawyer at BestPropertyLawyer.com

Final Sale?

Don’t assume that the sale is final.  In some states, the homeowner has up to six months after the foreclosure to pay any outstanding debts and reclaim the house. 

Location, Location, Location

Be careful of where you buy a foreclosed property.  In cities like Las Vegas and Tampa, widespread foreclosures are plummeting an already weak real estate market.  Thus, although there may be more foreclosures available, it may be harder to turn a profit.  It may be wiser to buy a foreclosed home in markets that are already showing signs of stabilization.  According to Forbes Magazine, the top ten markets for buying a foreclosed home are:

Charlotte, NC

 

Raleigh, NC

 

Nashville, TN

 

Oklahoma City, OK

 

San Antonio, TX

 

Albuquerque, NM

 

Knoxville, TN

 

Seattle, WA

 

Indianapolis, IN

 

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria

Buying a foreclosed property can be risky.  But with the proper protection, it can also be very rewarding.  To learn more about buying foreclosed homes, visit GreatForeclosureListings.com

About the Author:

Greg Chan is a business and finance expert. He has authored many articles on buying foreclosures. For more information, visit GreatForeclosureListings.com

Source – Tips for Buying Foreclosures

(Albuquerque Homes)*For*Sale*by*Top*Realtor

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Find Foreclosure Auctions

Question: Process to remove personal property from land obtained at a foreclosure auction?

I recently obtained some land at a foreclosure auction. There is personal property on the land such as two old cars, boat, etc. What is the legal process required to remove the personal property?

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Answer: We bought a piece of property in 2006, the previous owner abandoned a 66 Jag, 71 Mercedes, a 72 Porsche and a kit car - we were unable to contact him after many attempts with certified letters asking him to remove the items. It was in our contract that they were supposed to be removed at the close of escrow but it wasn't done. My husband was fed up so was I, I had an estimate of having them towed away at $250 per vehicle, so my huband listed them on ebay and we sold them all for $15,000 to a guy in Florida.. He was aware of the situation, that we didn't have the titles and he bought them regardless..

Foreclosure Auction: Is It Always a Good Deal?

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Columbia Foreclosed Homes

After months vehement opposition to most of what the Obama administration has tried to push forward to help struggling homeowners, mortgage investors have thrown their support behind one of the biggest failures of the Bush Administration. The Federal Housing Administration’s Hope for Homeowners (H4H) program, estimated at its outset to be able to help 400,000 homeowners, only originated one new loan.
As he Obama Administration tried to breathe life back into H4H, the mortgage investors saw some potential and started coming around. Part of what they liked was taxpayer money bailing them out of bad investments. The spin on H4H is that it aims to ease a struggling borrower’s debt burden by allowing for a principal reduction to bring a homeowner to approximately even between the size of the mortgage and the value of the home. The mortgage investors would forgive some of the borrower’s debt as part of the principle reduction and then get cashed out by receiving a check from Treasury for something less than the home’s current value.

Being able to roll up to the government sponsored trough and cash out with more taxpayer dollars is, by far, the best option presented to the investors since the bubble started popping in 2006. H4H will allow them to cash out of delinquent mortgages, convert a liability into cash, get a defaulting bond off the books, lick their wounds, and move on. Under the plan, taxpayers will become the new investors in residential real estate, at a time when professional investors are either fleeing or sitting on their hands waiting for the bottom to fall out of the market.

The Obama Administration’s Making Home Affordable home loan modification plan has frustrated mortgage investors as they have had to take a back seat in home loan modification process, with their loan servicers in the driver’s seat. The recent passage of a safe harbor bill by Congress in May added salt to the investor’s wounds by granting loan servicers even more autonomy in their loan modification negotiations. Those negotiations basically yield one of two outcomes for the investors: either a lowered interest rate on their bond with the possibility reduced principle, and a longer maturity or a home that’s going into foreclosure. With the small percentage of sales at auctions, foreclosures are building a huge backlog as bids often come in at 60% or less of the mortgage balance. The FHA plan gives them a third option of putting cash in their pockets without having to worry about selling the property.     
The recently updated version of the H4H program is simplified, costs less, and has some incentives but, in its current construct, is still a dog that won’t hunt. A bunch of details need to be worked out, like profit splits with taxpayers and lenders, should a participating homeowner sell at a profit. That part is another aspect of the plan the investors love. Being able to participate in profits after cashing out is as good as it gets coming out of a situation as convoluted and costly as the current foreclosure debacle.

Another issue is that H4H breaks a single refi into three mortgages under the original design of the plan, which is probably one of the reasons that it yielded only one mortgage origination the first time around. Scott Simon, from Pimco, likes the FHA plan but knows it still needs work. “Unfortunately there are still too many devils in the current details for it to be widely used,” he said. Investors are hoping that the plan will be streamlined in continued meetings between HUD officials, the Treasury Department, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and the White House.
Under the new design of H4H, homeowners get a mortgage with a smaller balance which is then sold to investors as a 100% taxpayer-backed bond. Ideally the mortgage balance will be reduced enough to give the homeowner an equity position in the home which, combined with lower mortgage payments, would greatly reduce the chance of foreclosure. That conclusion was backed by a recent Fitch rating report which estimated that 65 to 75% of subprime mortgages that were modified will end up going back into default, a huge jump from the current default rate of 50%. When those loan modifications include a principle reduction the default rate decreases by about 30%, according to the report.

Christopher Mayer, a vice dean and professor of real estate at Columbia University, in a recent interview said that “ …investors realize that H4H isn’t some grand solution and are championing it primarily because they see it as better alternative to the government’s modification program. They see the modifications as delay, delay, delay.”
Mayer supports the safe harbor bill that protects servicers and would like to see loan modifications increase. He doubts that the government’s efforts to subsidize this push for H4H will work out as planned. Seeing the plan for the investor bailout that it is he said, “This is just going to be a morass for taxpayers. Sometimes the best thing to do is foreclose and foreclose quickly. Speed is incredibly important in this business.”

About the Author:

About Feldman Law Center – The Feldman Law Center is owned and operated by Steven C. Feldman, attorney at law. Mr. Feldman has been a member of the California State Bar since 1983 and is well versed in federal loan modification law.

Source – Mortgage Investors Seek a Taxpayer Bailout by Feldman Law Center

Maryland Foreclosure Homes – MD

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Homes Foreclosed In California

Question: How do I buy a foreclosed home?

My boyfriend and I are going to be moving back to California soon and we were looking to buy a foreclosed home. We don’t have any money saved but we’ve heard that you can buy foreclosed homes with no down payment. You just take over the payments on it. Is this true? If not, can you tell us how to go about buying one?

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Answer: You heard incorrectly.
You have to get a mortgage and the lowest downpayment you can do right now is with FHA financing and if I am being totally honest, foreclosures are HARD to get approved by FHA. I am going through it right now and its been a CHORE...lots of work and time invested but its working in the long run. FHA has strict rules about the condition of the house so if there are problems with the house they could flag it and your financing would fall apart. Conventional mortgages right now require 10% down which sounds way out of reach for the two of you.

Pictures of Home - Foreclosures in Los Banos, California

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Hud Foreclosures Michigan

Question: Michigan Mortgage / Bad Credit / HUD homes / HELP!!?

My husband is in Michigan waiting to immigrate us from Canada. He earns approx $3200 net per month, has been at the same job since Nov 2007, but in the same LINE of work for over 10 yrs (owned his own business for approx 5 yrs during that time). He scored at approximately 600 on his credit reports due to old problems with his business. It shows $11,000 indebtedness on the report. How can he qualify to take advantage of Michigan’s foreclosures and purchase a HUD home through FHA with the $100 downpayment program. Should he take the MSHDA pre-purchase credit repair course first? How long are these courses and do they make a difference to lenders? We need to get pre-approval for the mortgage in writing and will have the $1000 EMD and $100 downpayment as required by FHA. Unfortunately, since I’m still in Canada with the kids, I can’t be added to the mortgage application until after November..and we have to be IN a new place by mid-January when the kids move over.

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Answer: I suggest contacting a mortgage company that does not charge for pre-approval and ask them the questions you pose. http://mumloans.com is an affiliated lender of my broker. According to their website they do not charge for pre-approval.

They will be able to answer your questions and give you some options.

Homeowner Suit vs. Bank CEPersVid-22

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