LaserShield DIRECT Home Security Blog

Prime Borrowers beginning to default on mortgage payments

LaserShield Direct (LaserShield DIRECT) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:06:50 -0600

13.16% of all residential mortgages are in trouble.

With about 51 million houses with mortgages in the country, that means 6.71 million bad mortgages out there.

With the number of people out of work still rising, the problem is likely to continue to get worse for quite a while according to an article on the investing blog site Seeking Alpha. At the end of the second quarter, 4.3% of all residential mortgages were in some part of the foreclosure process, up from 3.85% at the end of the first quarter and 2.75% a year ago. In addition, on a seasonally adjusted basis, 9.24% of all mortgages were delinquent (behind by at least one payment), up from 9.12% at the end of March, and just 6.41% at the end of June 2008. As a result we have seen a pickup in sales of home alarm systems as people begin to protect their property.

You can read the full article here from personal finance site RateNerd.com.

Help for first time homebuyers

LaserShield Direct (LaserShield DIRECT) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 07:57:47 -0500

A couple of interesting articles that could be of interest to first time homebuyers, especially those interested in the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit -

How to establish credit history - good article on how people with no credit history can build one quickly.
How to boost credit score to obtain a loan - 5 step plan with a funny name ("Your Credit Sucks") shows how to do it.
How to buy a home owned by the bank - REO and Foreclosure listings from banks themselves
Nationwide foreclosure listings
Be sure to check out the video from "Flip This House" that shows how quickly vandals can destroy a vacant home before you decide to pursue a foreclosure or REO home - not for the fainthearted.

Any other resoucres you can share?

13.16% of all residential mortgages are in trouble.

LaserShield Direct (LaserShield DIRECT) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 07:42:11 -0500

Not sure if everyone saw this, but this post on "Prime Borrowers Now Going Into Foreclosure" from RateNerd.com.

Here is an excerpt:

13.16% of all residential mortgages are in trouble.

With about 51 million houses with mortgages in the country, that means 6.71 million bad mortgages out there.

We continue to have a number of realtors and banks who own REO's purchase LaserShield systems to protect thier REO homes. The LaserShield Cellular Monitoring bundle pak is particularly well suited for REO homes which typically have electric power but no phone line.

How to buy an REO Bank Owned Home

LaserShield Direct (LaserShield DIRECT) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 15:05:30 -0500

Reposting from Ratenerd.com - click here to see the original post.

If you’re looking for a great deal on a home, check with the bank. Due to high foreclosure rates, banks have tons of inventory they want to get off their books. They wont give it away for nothing, and you need to make sure the property has not been stripped to the bone, but bank foreclosed homes for sale are a great deal.

Bank websites have their foreclosed home inventory available for you to search – if you want to find bank foreclosed homes for sale, two of the largest are Chase Bank Mortgage and Bank of America Home Loans.

Banks holding REOs (Real Estate Owned) are pretty easy to deal with. Typically, the property is listed through an agent who may have an asset management company between them and the actual lender. In this case, you can make an offer through your agent or the listing agent and receive a response in a day or two.

Short sales are entirely different and much more difficult. Banks require proof of hardship of the home owner in order to consider allowing a short sale. This usually requires extensive document gathering from the distressed homeowner, followed by a lengthy 2-3 month review period from the bank with no guarantee that the short sale will be approved. This doesn’t mean short sales aren’t worth pursuing, just be prepared to wait for answers and be patient.

How to Buy a Bank Owned Home (REO)

Know Why You’re Buying. Do you want cash flow or appreciation? Let the math dictate the offer price and know how far you are willing to deviate from your baseline. Real Estate investing is too important to do based on feelings or hunches, if you don’t want to crunch the numbers, work with someone who will.
Line up your financing. Timing counts when buying REOs. There are other investors looking at the same properties so a deal for you is probably also a deal for a dozen other investors. There are bargain hunters in every market so you must be prepared to act when the right deal comes along.
Stay Focused. Don’t be disappointed by rejection or failure. It’s called a buyer’s market for a reason; other opportunities will come along as long as you aren’t too busy moping over the one that got away.
Make An Offer They Cant Refuse. Write a clean, straightforward offer. Put down at least 1 percent, have reasonable straight forward contingencies, have your financing ready and show you are willing to close in a reasonable amount of time.

What's in a GFE Good Faith Estimate

LaserShield Direct (LaserShield DIRECT) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:36:42 -0500

I thought this was a pretty good post and worth passing along - explains what a GFE is and how to use it when comparing loans: http://ratenerd.com/whats-a-good-faith-estimate-gfe-from-my-mortgage-lender-1024

Only wire - lets you hit all your social sites

LaserShield Direct (LaserShield DIRECT) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:57:15 -0500

Check out this book marking tool from Only Wire

Unadvertised Good Deal on Medical Alert Systems

LaserShield Direct (LaserShield DIRECT) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:40:44 -0500

I thought I would pass along an unadvertised deal from Medical Home Alert. This is for the personal emergency response buttons that seniors living alone wear in case they fall or just need help.

Their standard internet deal is free equipment, free shipping and monitoring for $29.95 a month with no long term contract. but there are two deals you can get if you ask:

1) they will give you an extra pendant or wrist band for free which is good to keep in the bathroom or other area where they may slip and fall, and

2) you can get a free month if you pay for one year in advance.

I thought this was a pretty good deal - your thoughts? here is the link: www.medicalhomealert.com or 800-800-0213

How the stimulus plan may affect your mortgage

LaserShield Direct (LaserShield DIRECT) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:31:05 -0500

Thought I would share this article that outlines the impact of the new federal stiumlus bill on mortgages - does anyone else see any other impacts we can take advantage of?

http://ratenerd.com/how-the-federal-stimulus-plan-may-affect-your-mortgage-717

Targeting Foreclosed Homes

LaserShield Direct (LaserShield DIRECT) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 09:48:13 -0600

I thought this comment from the Washington Post was interesting:

"In some localities, officers are targeting vacant houses on regular patrols, using maps of foreclosed properties as guides, while working with community watch groups to identify trouble spots. Empty driveways, overgrown lawns, realty signs, lockboxes and "No Trespassing" notices in windows are all signals to would-be violators, police said."

We continue to get orders for home alarms from property owners, banks, builders who are sick and tired of having the double whammy of being ripped off and vandalized.

We are currently offering a two month free trial of our monitoring service, along with a 10% discount on every home alarm system through the end of the year. Give yourself or your clients the gift of peace of mind this season.

$40 Instant Rebate on all LaserShield Home Alarms

LaserShield Direct (LaserShield DIRECT) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 09:32:09 -0600

Just to let you know we have special "Black Friday" pricing on all LaserShield home alarms this weekend - a $40 Instant Rebate. Brings the Starter Kit home alarm to $159.99. Good through Monday December 1.

If you have a vacant property - please invest in a system to protect your home from being vandalized. Copper pipe thieves can cause thousands of dollars in damages to steal $100 worth of scrap metal.

Read the comments from Realtors on this blog and you'll see how pervasive this kind of theft is. It's crazy what these guys will do! Laser Shield Home Alarms

Something for Nothing - Works for me!

LaserShield Direct (LaserShield DIRECT) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:25:15 -0600

Usually I write about vandals stripping homes of their copper wiring and stealing all the appliances. Today I am taking a break from that (even though it is still going on!).

Today I want to share a free resource for folks in Construction, or Sales/Marketing - Here is a link which gives you access to free trade magazines and white papers.

Click here for free Construciton/Building industry Magazines.

Click here for free Sales and Marketing Industry Magazines.

Alot of the marketing white papers are geared toward internet marketing - good for those of you looking to build your website traffic.

enjoy - I will get back to vandalism next week!

Home Stripping gets Sophisticated

LaserShield Direct (LaserShield DIRECT) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 20:52:26 -0600

If you think foreclosed homes or vacant homes are vandalized by random thieves, think again.

Today's Detroit Free Press reports on an organized ring which has been stripping homes of copper pipes, wire, appliances and more for nearly seven years.

"Bill Heaney of Heaney Plumbing & Heating on Gratiot was taken into custody by Detroit police in April after an undercover sting recovered more than $200,000 in stolen fixtures and materials. Police needed 12 hours and two tractor trailers to haul away the stolen items -- including 42 water heaters and 27 furnaces."

If you own property that sits idle, even for just a few months, you need to take steps to protect your property from this crime. Turn lights on, notify police, keep the proptery looking presentable. A wireless home alarm system for just $200 can save you thousands of dollars by preventing lost property and damages.

HUD Selling Stripped Foreclosed Homes for $1

LaserShield Direct (LaserShield DIRECT) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:39:29 -0600

Today the Atlanta Constitution reported that HUD is selling some foreclosed homes for just $1.

The most surprising part is that there are not many takers.

From the article itself:

";So what does a buck buy? On Sims Street, a 1920 vinyl-clad house with three bedrooms and 1 1/2 baths.

It doesn’t buy air conditioning, a stove, a kitchen sink, plumbing or wiring. Those were all stolen.

Vandals carved up the walls to grab some of the plunder.

Maybe even more surprising than the extraordinarily low price is the number of dollar homes that have sold in Georgia — just one since December 2006.

“You can get it for $1 but if you’ve got to put $90,000 into it, it’s not really affordable,” said Hawthorne Welcher, Augusta’s assistant director of housing.";

The damage inflicted by thieves and vandals on vacant homes is staggering. The lost value of the stolen goods (copper pipe and wire, appliances, counter tops, etc), plus the damage to the home when stripped, and now the accelerated depreciation of the home itself, and the neighborhood.

This afternoon I got a call from a bank to purchase a bulk order of wireless home alarms to protect their bank-owned properties. It's not the first one. This is a national problem and needs to stop.

Wireless DIY Home Alarms Popular - New York Times Article

LaserShield Direct (LaserShield DIRECT) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:29:00 -0500

Today there is a great article highlighting the popularity of wireless home alarm systems. One customer nicely sums up the benefit of doing it yourself by saying:

“What most people do not understand is that a residential alarm prewire is a come-on by alarm companies to get you to sign up for their — usually expensive — monitoring,”

Most insurance companies will offer discounts of 5-20% when the homeowner has a monitored alarm system. At an average of $19.99 a month, the insurance savings alone can pay for the service.

Here's a link to the article : http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/technology/personaltech/30basics.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Video: Copper Wire Thieves Destroy a Vacant Home

LaserShield Direct (LaserShield DIRECT) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:59:04 -0500

This video from A&E TV's "Flip This House" shows exactly how much damage copper wire thieves can cause when stripping a vacant home.

Vacant Home Protection - Stop Copper Pipe Theft and Vandalism

LaserShield Direct (LaserShield DIRECT) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:04:29 -0500

The recent rise in foreclosures has created a wave of vandalism and theft among vacant homes. Copper, wire, HVAC units, appliances, hardwood floors, granite counter-tops and more are all targets of these thieves who cause thousands of dollars in damage to recover a few hundred dollars worth of scrap metal.

We have recently seen an increase in orders from contractors, builders, property managers and owner/investors for our LaserShield wireless home alarm systems with 24/7 cellular monitoring to protect their vacant homes.

The systems set up in just a few minutes, and are portable so they can be moved to other properties as needed. There are no long term contracts for monitoring, so the owner can go month-to-month and have the alarm monitoring only when needed. When the alarm is triggered, the cellular unit calls the dispatch center who will call the owner to verify if there is a problem (or just a false alarm) and then will dispatch police.

Average cost of a system is $429.98 - well under the cost of the damage that can be inflicted by a copper thief. To learn more, check out the LaserShield Cellular Monitoring Bundle Pak, or send me your comments.