The FBI has verified, on their web site, that there is a "Jury Duty Scam". This is a phone related scam, so if you know anyone who doesn't use the Internet, especially older people, you should make sure they do not become a victim. The caller claims to be a court officer, and then accuses the victim of missing a jury duty appointment. After the victim is sufficiently worried about failing to report for jury duty, the caller then suggests that they verify if they have the correct person. It is at that point that they ask for ss number, birth date, and sometimes even credit information.
The caller works the conversation into a threat of a fine that can be paid over the phone by a credit card. What is amazing is that this has been going on in some form since early 2005! If you have one of these calls, or know someone who has, one thing to do is *69 after you hang up. This will give you the phone number that the call was made from. Then contact the FBI and report the incident.
You can also use *57 which records the phone call at the phone company as a "call trace". One web site says: "When you activate the Call Trace code (*57) immediately following the harassing call, the caller's phone number is recorded by the phone company." But *57 doesn't give you the phone number. The phone company has to get an authorization form before the harasser's phone number can be turned over to law enforcement and there may be a fee. Some phone companies charge you each time you use Call Trace and others have a monthly charge for an unlimited number of traces.
If the phone number is blocked, tracing the call may help the FBI or other law enforcement agencies gather enough information to go after the schemers even from the perspective of "Do Not Call" fines and penalties, especially if your phone is on the DNC list. In any case, don't get your identity stolen this way. Tell someone who might be a victim to be careful, too.
Heath Coker, Owner of Cape Group Real Estate www.CapeGroup.com / capegroup@capegroup.com 508-548-8888 Licensed in MA Its a beautiful day on Cape Cod! @CapeGroup
One of my agents is hosting an open house on Sunday, October 25th from 1:00PM till 3:00PM at 1618 Fish Road in Tiverton RI. This 2 bedroom house on just under an acre has been newly rennovated. Mandie Sullivan is the hostess for the open house, and we find this house to be a great location at a great price, and we welcome all comers.
The location is right off Route 24, about 20 minutes from downtown Providence and about the same to Newport. Boston is about an hour away.
I wanted to take a moment to welcome Nancy Rosedale aboard to our real estate firm. She comes to us with 18 yrs experience as a mortgage loan originator, now affiliated with Shamrock Mortgage, with many years of experience as a property investor, owning a number of multi unit apartment buildings, and with great experience in real estate sales.
Nancy will be working the Northern Rhode Island region, from Providence North, and the Southeastern Massachusetts region, including Bristol County and the Cape. She will be working with buyers, listings, and of course, investors. She has been doing a large number of BPOs for foreclosed properties as well, and will continue to do so. Welcome Aboard Nancy!
We also want to welcome Glenn Russell to the world of brokers in RI... Glenn has been a Broker with us in Massachusetts for several years now, and just received his Rhode Island Brokers license this week. Congratulations Glenn on a job well done. Glenn is also a practicing attorney in MA, and has been handling a variety of property related cases there, including a land related suit that is precedent setting. We expect to hear about Glenn's work in this regard in the local and perhaps national media over the next few weeks.
Propertyflipping is a practice whereby a recently acquired property is resold, often for a considerable profit.
Most propertyflipping occurs within days or a few weeks of acquisition and usually with only minor cosmetic improvements, if any.
While there is nothing illegal with selling properties within days of acquisition, some of these transactions are fraudulent because the condition of the property is misrepresented and/or the value of it is artificially inflated.
Effective June 9, 2008, FHA temporarily waived the propertyflipping rule 90-day waiting period, for homes that were foreclosed onand being sold by lenders or by property disposition firms on the behalf of lenders.
So if you have a property that was purchased by an individual investor, or investment group, you must must wait 90 days to DO ANYTHING! We can not order an appraisal or case #, we can't open escrow, order title or apply for the mortgage. You can't even draw up the contract, or do inspections or the buyer will be in jeopardy of losing their deposit. There basically can be no record of any sale during that 90 day timeframe.
This has become an issue in recent months because of the lack of knowledge of the guidelines along with the anxiousness of all parties involved. Day 91 is when it can all begin unless the exceptions apply.
We CAN however, apply for the mortgage with a property "to be determined "and get the buyer PRE-APPROVED.
So keep this in mind when you are putting your deal together and expecting your lender to jump through hoops on day 91 and close in two weeks!
The waiver applies to owner occupants only and does not apply to people/entities that purchase foreclosures either singly or in bulk for resale. Subsequent sales of such properties will continue to be subject to the standard regulatory requirements.
The temporary propertyflipping waiver has been extended and FHA will recognize sales agreements on foreclosed properties signed by the seller and buyer on or before May 10, 2010.
Do you want more BORING but pertinent facts you MUST know if you encounter a flip ????
The only exceptions to the FHA property flipping rule are:
1. Properties acquired by an employer or relocation agency in connection with the relocation of an employee. 2. Re-sales by HUD under its Real Estate Owned (REO) program. There are LOTS out there! And most homes can benefit from an FHA 203k streamline loan!
3. Sales by other United States Government agencies of single family properties pursuant to programs operated by these agencies.
4. HUD REO properties that were purchased by nonprofits at a discount with resale restrictions.
5. Sales of properties that are acquired by the seller through inheritance.
6. Sales of properties by state and federally-chartered financial institutions and government sponsored enterprises.
7. Sales of properties by local and state government agencies.
8. Sales of properties within Presidentially Declared Disaster Areas.
9. The restrictions do not apply to a builder selling a newly built home or building a home for a borrower.
10. The sale must be by the owner of record.
11. Appraisers are required to analyze any prior sales of a subject property in the previous three years for one to four family residential properties.
12. A lender must obtain a second appraisal by another appraiser if: the re-sale date of a property is between 91 and 180 days following the acquisition of the property by the seller, and the resale price is 100 percent or more over the price paid by the seller when the property was acquired FHA reserves the right to require additional documentation from a lender to support the resale value of a property if: the resale date is more than 90 days after the date of acquisition by the seller, but before the end of the twelfth month following the date of acquisition, and the resale price is 5 percent or greater than the lowest sale price of the property during the preceding 12 months.
Any subsequent re-sales of the properties must meet the 90 day threshold in order for the mortgage to be eligible as security for FHA insurance.
So remember to do your research! We are the professionals and it is our job to know this information for our consumers. We will save time, money and problems if we know this up front.
Below is a news brief published by Busines Week Magazine today. My question is, if the banks make it harder to obtain a short sale, will this adversely affect the rate of foreclosures? Perhaps an "unintended Consequence" of making short sales tougher to gain permission on will result in an increase in foreclosures, which will then drive home prices down further, resulting in even more strategic defaults, and a viscious cycle of downward spiraling values, sales.
What is your opinion? How would you recommend banks handle this sort of thing so that there is less negative impact?
From Business Week today, as quoted at Realtor.org:
Banks are backing away from short sales, forcing sellers to pay extra at closing or demanding a promissory note for the amount due. One-third of borrowers owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth, according First American CoreLogic.
When their situations were really tough, most banks preferred short sales because they were their best opportunity to get the most money back. But with an improving economy, and because the losses on many of these properties have already been written off the books, banks are increasingly reluctant to negotiate a short sale.
Today, banks demand 9.5 weeks to respond to a short-sale request, compared to 4.5 weeks a year ago, according to research firm Campbell Communications. Their reluctance is frequently stymieing sales and frustrating real estate practitioners.
"It drives me up a wall," says Robert G. Hertzog of Summit Home Consultants in Phoenix. "[The bank is] holding my client hostage."
Source: BusinessWeek, Christopher Palmeri (10/09/2009)
We have need of a quote for complete demolition of a 2 family house in East Providence... we are hoping to get this ASAP... anyone have a recommended vendor for this sort of thing?
It appears that the house is rotten in structurally important areas, perhaps even termite infested... the structure was built c. 1920... We are seeking to get a quote for demolition of the building as soon as possible.
If you know of a good demolition crew that you have actually used before, please either pass their info on to me, or have them call us at my direct line 401-293-0131
Time is of the essence on this, so please bear that in mind...
The vendor will also be asked to quote design build services, if they provide such services, at the same time...
We are seeking to recruit motivated buyer and listing agents for Southern RI (Westerly area and West Greenwich) and Kent County RI. We are also seeking agents in Bristol County MA and the Cape. Compensation plan is very competitive, no desk fees, free website, well established lead generation system, no charge for leads.
We need buyers agents, and listing agents TODAY!
Give us a call 401-293-0131 or email us here...
We have loads of qualified buyers, and a great team.
This is one of those posts where I wish I didn't have to write it, but felt it was so important to my readers that I would be remiss not to at least talk about it.
Everyone out there probably knows somebody who is behind on their mortgage payments, looking for alternatives and likely also just finding out that their home's value has dipped below what their loan amount is. I know some within my own personal circles. It's a tough situation for me to advise them as a professional because it's such a personal challenge to their pride and self-worth, not to mention their plans and dreams for the family. The question we're asking is "when is this going to stop and where are we heading?"
I'm going to put up a few graphs that show the trends nationally with regards to mortgage delinquincies:
This chart is by quarter - Single-family mortgages set a new record delinquency rate in the second quarter of 2009, according to a quarterly survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association. Those of us in the real estate business see the foreclosure process (just visit the local Sheriff Sale docket to see the current numbers) but the looming delinqency-to-foreclosure issue is far, far larger.
The Wall Street Journal on 8/3/09 reported the following quote: “While subprime mortgages sparked the first round of housing problems two years ago, now "troubles are lurking further up the food chain," says Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR Inc. White-collar job losses have accelerated while more adjustable-rate loans to prime borrowers are resetting to higher payments. ‘You put all that together, it leads me to believe that the next leg down on home prices is going to come from the top,’ he says.”
The first objection someone may have would be to say "yes, but historically those who are delinqent usually get their act together and come current on the mortgage after a while". That WAS true, but not anymore! We call that the "Cure Rate", that is the rate of delinquencies that go back to current. The Wall Street Journal reported on 8/24/09 about a Fitch analysis that found that the Cure Rate from 2000-2006 was 45% (which means about half of people fix their delinquency). However, as of July 2009 the rate had dropped to just 6.6%! That means that over 90% of delinquent customers are going to foreclosure. Take a look again at the above chart...
The next thing someone will say is "well, that's the 'sand states' and not my area". Here's the chart for all 50 states showing the same breakdown of delinquencies and foreclosures. Guess what - most states have a significant problem, especially compared to historical figures.
Now the next thing someone may say is "aren't those loans going to get 'fixed' by a loan modification?" I know several people right now who are applying for a Lancaster County loan modification but are waiting and waiting. I hope it works out for them...
In reality, loan modifications are hardly making a dent. To me, that's a burning question. Why arent banks being more aggressive in giving customers the option to extend their loan and/or reset to a lower rate? Why are they being SO difficult? The people I know don't want to be foreclosed. They CAN make payments. They just need the terms redrawn to allow them to catch & keep up. Loan modifications are not helping us get this crisis under control.
What are the causes of all these delinquencies? Here's a chart that is enlightening:
Keep in mind, this post is not intended to give us "good news". You may be experiencing good things in your market and that's great. My intent is to get us thinking about the challenges that aren't going away and how we're going to address them as homeowners, agents and professionals. I'd love to hear your ideas!
I thought I had heard it all, but it seems I have not: we are trying to show a house to a buyer, and in the comments the MLS listing indicates that unless the buyer agrees to allow the seller to live in the house for 3 months after closing, they wont be allowed to see the house. Now you all may correct me if I am wrong, but this means that the buyer would have to go with investment property lending, as they would not be able to call the house "owner Occupied" when applying for the loan. Most likely the lender would not grant the buyer this concession. Also, because of this, the buyer would forgo the $8K tax credit, if they are first time buyers. After all, it would not be an owner occupied house.
Note that this house is listed at market value, without a discount for the rent!
Of course, we have seen deals go through that allowed the seller to stay, at a low rent, until such time as they found a place to move to, say, a month after closing. But again, all of the above applies, and at least in those cases the seller was willing to pay rent.
This seller wants to live rent free for three months AFTER Closing... not 3 months from today, but so much after the closing, rent free.
Other than a very generous investor, who is paying cash for the house, the house becomes essentially unsellable with these conditions.
Question: Have you seen such conditions on a sale? Should this house be permitted into MLS, since the conditions are prohibitive? What would you say to such a condition? Would you list such a house? Would you advise a buyer to take the deal?
Now we are seeing the banking industry, and academic economists, supporting an extension and expansion of the home buyer tax credit: I got this from the NY Times, and I have to say I agree whole heartedly... John Maynard Keynes used to call it priming the pump, but we have seen this called "socailism" by those obviously unfamiliar with what Socialism actually is...
I quote:
More than 40 percent of all home buyers in 2009 will qualify for the federal tax credit, costing the government about $15 billion, twice the original estimate, but most housing experts applaud the policy and favor expanding it.
Now the decision is up to Congress.
Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Economy.com, believes that the credit should be expanded to all homebuyers, even investors, through summer of 2010. “The risks of not doing something like this are too great,” he said. “I don’t think the coast is clear.”
James Glassman of JPMorgan Chase also favors expanding the credit but continuing to limit it to first-time buyers.
Industry members who are lobbying for the extension are optimistic and say they believe an extension will be approved in some form. “There will be a lot of water under the bridge, a lot of compromise, between now” and a final bill, said Richard A. Smith, chairman of the Business Roundtable’s Housing Working Group.
End Quote Source: The New York Times, David Streitfeld (09/15/2009)
Given this, and the fact that the economy is still losing jobs at alarming rates, we should stimulate in many ways, and this is a good one, impacting many industries.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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