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Out of Area REO Agents

Posted by Penny Hughes on March 9, 2015 at 6:10am

I received a call a few weeks ago from an agent in Tampa (I'm in Jacksonville) requesting that I list an REO for him and he would pay the referral fee. He then asked me to do a BPO and send my vendor out to rekey the property which was done and he would pay once I sent all the docs and invoices.

I'm sure you know the rest of the story. He's never paid or listed the property in my MLS. Now he won't even answer phone calls. I have had to pay my vendor so of course I got the lockbox back and took the keys.

Beware of unscrupulous realtors. They give real estate a bad name.

Bad Choices People Make When Buying a Home

Posted by Michael Collins, CDPE, SFR on January 18, 2013 at 7:30am

Bad Choices People Make When They Buy a Home

All too often, people fall in love with a home for the wrong reason. And when it comes time to sell, they find that there are not as many people in love with the home like they were. Here are some common mistakes first time homebuyers make and how you can avoid the same errors.

Buy With Reselling in Mind

: photo credit: woodleywonderworks via photopin cc

The previous generation considered a home purchase akin to a marriage; till death do us part. The new generation does not see it in such lasting terms. Modern families may move up in the value of a home, relocate to a better school district or simply sell what they have and move to a new state to pursue a different career. For people that buy a home with a small, or zero down payment, it will be tough to sell within a matter of just a few years. Staying in a home for a number of years gives the property time to appreciate while also giving you a chance to pay down the loan.

Older homes have lots of appeal to many buyers, but they also come with some major considerations. Modern appliances, up to date electrical systems and comfort due to a good air conditioning & heating system are usually not that common in older homes. You may purchase an old house with plans to improve these things as time goes along. However, if you find yourself in a position that you must sell before the renovations are complete, it may be tough to find a buyer.

Don’t Buy a Home Just on the Payment

Many would-be homebuyers look at the principal and interest payment for a proposed mortgage and say “I can handle that.” For the majority of these people, they are correct in their statement. However, they may be overlooking some major expenses.

First and foremost, a house is like a vehicle in the respect that it must be maintained in order to provide a long, useful life. Replacing the roof, getting new appliances, repairing the occasional plumbing problem, and a host of other items are just a part of owning a home. Homes that end up in foreclosure often show signs of neglect, mainly because the owner could not afford even the basic maintenance items.

Besides maintenance, there are property taxes as well as homeowner’s insurance. Depending on the location and value of the property, these two items can typically cost between $300 to $500 a month. Potential buyers need to do their homework and get a full estimate of their payments, along with escrow, from their lender.

Location

People that are novice to the real estate industry still understand one basic rule; location is king in realty. Homes located near shopping areas, close to good schools and exhibit low crime rates are the best selling properties. If you fall in love with a home and you are the only person considering the property, there could be a reason for the lack of competition. It is important to pick a home in a place conducive to an easy sell. Otherwise, you may be in for a long wait when it is time to get rid of the home in the future.

Foreclosure Moratoriums Good or Bad?

Posted by Jesus (Jesse) Gonzalez on June 16, 2009 at 3:11pm

If you think solving our foreclosure crisis in this country is by conducting State or Federally mandated moratoriums…well, you are completely misguided. Try looking at the moratorium issue as strictly a monetary policy vs. a politically correct policy. We all know foreclosure cost money and, it isn’t cheap. We also know the longer a home stays in foreclosure or the longer a bank has to hold onto bad debt, the more expense the bank takes on in Attorney fees, public notice cost, city and state filing fees, property maintenance fees and so on. The more cost the bank takes on, the greater the bank’s loss, and that leads to the bank’s requiring higher credit scores to get a loan, higher interest rates, higher down payments and so on. My point is, all that loss is passed onto the consumer through other ancillary fees which makes the general cost of banking more expensive. In other words, the rest of us will end up paying for these moratoriums in the long run so, why make that cost any more expensive than it already is? Now in some cases, like the federal government using moratoriums, some people argue it is necessary to do everything we can to delay or trickle in the foreclosures because there are just so many that if they all came in at once, it would crash the economy in a way we haven’t seen since the Great Depression. I am no “REO Oracle” as one member once sarcastically but humorously joked (at least I think he was joking…I hope he was joking….maybe he wasn’t joking…either way, it was funny) but, I do believe that trickling in the inevitable does nothing more than create a long drawn out crash over many years. What would you prefer…a 10 year recession / bear market or a 3 year depression? I know what I would prefer and, I am not sharing because the hate mail would come in droves….lol, it really would. So, why do I keep saying, “the inevitable”. Well, the truth of the matter is that from my own experience with Foreclosure Avoidance Counseling, Loan Modifications, Short Sales and REO’s, I can tell you that these banks are still doing HIGH RISK LOANS. That’s right, you heard me correctly….HIGH RISK loans are still being used widely by many Loss Mitigation Departments that are doing loan modifications and other workouts to help preserve homeownership. The reason they are still using these HIGH RISK loans is because it’s the only way they can bow to the pressure of government to do all they can to preserve homeownership. Once again, the government is stepping in, forcing banks to make risky loans or in this case, loan modifications, that end up foreclosing in 3 months anyways. A recent Fitch Ratings survey acknowledge this fact that I had been seeing in my own business. I don’t have the survey in front of me at the moment and am working from my memory but, I believe that Fitch statistic was somewhere between 60-70 % of those who complete loan mod’s end back in foreclosure in 3 -6 months. Just so you know, in the past 12 months, I have had over 40 individual Foreclosure Avoidance Counseling sessions and out of them, almost half went back into foreclosure in less than 3 months and almost all of them ended up in default in less than 7 months. Towards the start of this blog, I told you I wasn’t going to share my opinion on moratoriums but, if you haven’t figured it out by now…….well, read this blog a couple and hopefully you will get it. Ok, I will spell it out, moratoriums suck! All a foreclosure moratorium is, is a political tool to win votes, at least that is my opinion.

Press sheds bad light on Foreclosure Avoidance Companies.

Posted by Jesus (Jesse) Gonzalez on February 10, 2009 at 6:26am

Last night, Jennifer Kraus with my local news, NewsChannel5 did a story on a company called dont4close.com. As a part of the NC5 Investigates report Mrs. Kraus chronicled a very depressing story about a family who is loosing their home due to mortgage arrearages and were taken advantage of by a less than scrupulous man who guaranteed he could save their home from foreclosure. As a Certified Home Retention Consultant with Titanium, when I saw the story come up, I was entranced and attempted to understand every detail. Ultimately, the family was facing foreclosure and contacted dont4close.com to help them save their home. Allegedly Charles Jones behind dont4close.com offered the homeowners, the Reynolds, a deal they couldn’t refuse. He offered to pay their mortgage for 1 year and after that time, the Reynolds could start paying him back. Well, to make a long story short, allegedly Charles Jones sold the Reynolds home to a third party, a woman named Gladiz Romano. After some investigative work by Mrs. Kraus she found Mrs. Romano who admitted she bought the house but has never made a single payment for the home or ever even visited the home. In closing, NewsChannel5 offered up some “tips” on how to prevent other homeowners from being in this situation. One of the tips they offered was, “If you face foreclosure, stay away from businesses that guarantee to stop the foreclosure process, require you to sign over your property deed or pressure you to sign papers you don't understand.” Web link for full story…. http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=9815589&nav=menu374_2_2 As a HRC, Realtor and concerned citizen, I totally agree with the statement but, what bothered me was, the story left it there…..they didn’t go further. They didn’t explain that sometimes banks will send out representatives to homeowners residences because homeowners loose communication with their mortgage servicers and they (the servicers) don’t have any other choice. I am sure this oversight was simply due to a lack of knowledge that a legitimate process does exist to preserve homeownership or at the very least avoid foreclosure so, I wrote an opinion editorial to Mrs. Kraus and hopefully will be able to address my concerns with the story but, either way, it’s important that those of us who work hard, legitimately, morally, ethically do what we can to create positive news worthy stories and get the message out, we are here to help!

bad (4)

Out of Area REO Agents

Bad Choices People Make When Buying a Home

Foreclosure Moratoriums Good or Bad?

Press sheds bad light on Foreclosure Avoidance Companies.

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