5-9-2007 Breanna 21-6001_2

5-9-2007 Breanna 21-6001_2

Notice of Default and Notice of Sale filings out for week ending 3-1-2010

The Notice of Sale and Notice of Defaults are out for the week.  For current market trends and past files to view and download.  Just click on the links below.  Don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already. just click here!

You can also find this post and much more at AdaCountyMarketReport.com

Thanks, 

Jeremy Erickson
Ada County Market Report

Posted via email from Ada County Market Report

When It’s OK to Walk Away From Your Home -WSJ (Wow, this is Crazy Stuff) American as Apple Pie?

Millions of Americans are now deeply underwater on their mortgage. If you’re among them, you need to stop living in a dream world and give serious thought to walking away from the debt.

No, you shouldn’t feel bad about it, and you shouldn’t feel guilty. The lenders would do the same to you—in a heartbeat. You need to put yourself and your family’s finances first.

How widespread is this? More than 11 million families are in “negative equity”—that is, they owe more on their home than it is worth—according to a report out this week by FirstAmerican Core Logic, a real-estate data firm. That’s a quarter of all families with mortgages. And for more than five million of those borrowers, the crisis is extreme: They are more than 25% underwater—the equivalent of having a $100,000 loan on a property now worth just $75,000 or less. That’s true for a fifth of mortgage holders in California, nearly a third in Florida and an incredible 50% in Nevada.

Are you in this situation? Are you still battling to pay the bills each month, even when it may make little financial sense to do so?

It’s time for some tough talk.

Stop trying to chase your lost equity. That money is gone. Don’t think like the gambler who blows more and more cash trying to win back his losses. That’s how a lot of people turn a small loss into a big one.

And do the math. Even if you hope the real estate market is near the bottom—it’s possible, but by no means certain—it may still take years to see any meaningful recovery. If you are 25% underwater, your home will have to rise by 33% just to get you back to even.

Is that likely? And over what time period? Even if home prices rose by 5% a year from here, that would still take six years. And during that time you could instead be building fresh savings elsewhere.

Bloomberg News

A real-estate agent moves a torn “Lender Foreclosure” sign outside a foreclosed home in Reno, Nev., last Monday.

0225roi

0225roi

If you are reluctant to give up on “your” home, realize that it isn’t “yours.” If you are in negative equity, it’s the bank’s home. You’re just renting it. And right now you may be paying way above market rates. You need to be ruthless about your cash flow.

Are you worried about the legal consequences of walking away? Certainly, you should check with a lawyer before doing anything, but the consequences will probably be more limited than you think.

In “non-recourse” states, the mortgage lender may have no right to come after you for any shortfall. They may have no option but to take the home, sell it and eat the loss. According to a survey last year by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, such states include negative-equity hot spots California and Arizona. Even in “recourse” states, lenders may have limited ability to come after you. Often they’d have to jump a lot of legal hurdles, and it’s just not worth it for them. They’re swamped with cases anyway.

“In my experience, right now they’re not really going after anyone,” says Richard Nemeth, a bankruptcy attorney in Cleveland. “They just don’t have the resources.”

If you’ve taken smart steps to protect your money, you may be safer still. For example, money held in a 401(k), Individual Retirement Account or pension plan is sheltered from creditors.

Sure, a strategic foreclosure may hurt your credit score. But if you’re in financial difficulties, it’s probably already suffered. And your credit score is not the only thing in life that matters.

Still, when it comes to the idea of walking away from debts, many people are held back by a sense of morality. They feel it’s wrong to abandon their obligations. They don’t want to be a deadbeat.

Your instincts, while honorable, are leading you astray.

The economy is fundamentally amoral.

Sometimes I think middle-class Americans are the only people who haven’t worked this out yet. They’re operating with a gallant but completely out-of-date plan of attack—like an old-fashioned cavalry with plumed hats and shining swords charging against machine guns.

Do you think your lenders would be shy about squeezing you for an extra nickel if they thought they could get away with it?

They knew what they were doing when they wrote your loan. Many were guilty of malpractice, but they pocketed good money and they’ve gotten away with it. And if they thought your loan was “risk free,” how come they were charging you so much more than the interest on Treasury bonds?

If you’re only a small amount underwater on your mortgage, it’s probably the case that you’re going to be better off staying put. But if you are deeply underwater, it’s a different matter.

Whether we like it or not, walking away from debts is as American as apple pie. Companies file for bankruptcy all the time, and their lenders eat the losses. Executives and investors pocketed millions from the likes of Washington Mutual, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns when the going was good. They didn’t have to give back one cent of that money when the companies went into bankruptcy.

Limited liability, after all, is one of the main reasons every business from your local dry-cleaner to a major multinational gets incorporated in the first place. They’re not shy about protecting themselves if things go wrong. You shouldn’t be either.

Write to Brett Arends at brett.arends@wsj.com

I was a little taken back from this article, I don’t agree with the vibe that Brett is putting out here, If everyone walked away from their mortgage obligation that is underwater, we would have some mass bank failures… um.. well…. um…. evil banks go down in flames… I still don’t feel good about it even though I abhor some banks and think they are totally evil. There is still a lot of good banks that haven’t taken advantage of the consumer… or is that even possible to say about a bank. Either way, it goes against what we feel is right inside, even if it is a amoral economy. But I do agree with his statement about doing what is right for your family. I know that rationalizing your behavior, and saying things like “they would do it to you if they had the chance” is the same stuff that criminals think to justify their crimes. Justifying like a criminal is not “as American as Apple Pie”

Posted via web from Ada County Market Report

10 items to consider when generating leads on Twitter

10 items to consider when generating leads on Twitter

  1. Actively build your network. Add people, @mention them, retweet them. Select colleagues and potential clients in your niche or industry. Read up online on how to build your Twitter network.
  2. Tweet regularly and consistently. Visibility is key to growing your network and having people follow you first. If you were to track the growth of your network, you’ll probably notice a correlation to follower increase on those days that you do tweet.
  3. Tweet content of value to your network. That might even include what you’re eating, if you own a popular local restaurant and it’s today’s special. Be creative but be relevant to your network. Don’t be sales-y.
  4. Post about trending topics – before or as they’re trending. Twitter’s current trending topics shows in the right sidebar on your profile page.
  5. Improve your tweets. Learn how to convey ideas in the 140 characters that Twitter allows per tweet.
  6. Be retweetable. The more people that see your tweets, the sooner your network is likely to grow. Study ways to get retweeted.
  7. Prune the list of people you follow. Use third-party Twitter tools, if necessary. You don’t have to follow everyone, especially spammers. It’s more important to have a network of people who are really interested in what you’re tweeting than people who follow but don’t interact.
  8. Cross-promote. Show your Twitter profile URL through other social media and sharing sites. E.g., Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube, Scribd, Slideshare, Squidoo, your blog(s), etc. Use your profile in email signatures and in business newsletters.
  9. Build trust. Video might be better for building trust, but you can increasingly build rapport with people in your Twitter network. Rapport builds trust. Keep retweeting and mentioning them. Have casual conversations on Twitter.
  10. Convert your network. With some potential clients, you simply have to tell them what you do, after you’ve built rapport and trust. What you also might want to do is have good landing pages to convert other leads into business. You can’t build the same level of trust with everyone, but some people in your network may have no problem with being led to one your landing pages (linked to from your other web pages whose links you’ve occasionally tweeted). Tell those landing page visitors, clearly, what you’re offering, why they need it, and why you’re the person or business to deliver.

2-22-2010 Notice of Sale and Notice of Defaults for Ada County

The Notice of Sale and Notice of Defaults are out for the week.  For current market trends and past files to view and download.  Just click on the links below.  Don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already. just click here!

You can also find this post and much more at AdaCountyMarketReport.com

Thanks,
Jeremy Erickson
Ada County Market Report

Ada County Notice of Defaults as of 2-15-2010

For all the past files, you can also access the Distressed Property Reports Pages here.

Ada County Notice of Sales as of 2-15-2010

Here is the latest on the reported Notice of Sales for Ada County as of February 15th 2010. For all the past files, and charts. Go to Distressed property reports pages.



Foreclosures Deflate Home Prices for the next 2 Years

More waves of foreclosures will keep downward pressure on home prices in parts of the U.S. over the next several years, two new studies project.

The studies—by John Burns Real Estate Consulting Inc. and Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC—conclude that most efforts to modify loans with easier terms will delay, not prevent, the loss of homes to foreclosure.

The Treasury Department is expected to give its latest update this week on government efforts to avert foreclosures.

The John Burns study estimates that five million houses and condominiums on which mortgages are now delinquent will go through foreclosure or related procedures that put them on the market over the next few years. That would represent the bulk of the estimated 7.7 million households behind on their mortgage payments.

This “shadow inventory” of homes expected to hit the market is enough to last about 10 months, based on the average sales rate over the past decade, the Irvine, Calif., firm says.

The problem is concentrated in Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada. The shadow inventory is equivalent to 27 months of sales in Orlando, 24 months in Miami and 18 months in Las Vegas, the study estimates.

Over the past nine months, home prices as measured by the S&P/Case-Shiller index have risen modestly after a three-year plunge. That is largely because efforts to avert foreclosures have slowed the flow of foreclosed homes onto the market, temporarily constricting supply.

John Burns, CEO of the consulting firm, said investor demand for foreclosed homes remained strong. Thus, he said, prices were likely to be about level over the next few years, despite the looming foreclosure supply, if the economy continued to recover and mortgage interest rates didn’t rise sharply. But if the economy slumped anew and interest rates jumped, he said, “that’s going to cause prices to fall further.”

The S&P study also says that the “overhang” of foreclosed homes expected to go on the market points to lower home prices.

Some borrowers are catching up on payments after having their loan terms modified, but S&P says current trends suggest that 70% of such borrowers eventually will redefault. Loan modifications “may be helping marginally, but they are not going to solve the whole problem,” said Diane Westerback, a managing director at S&P.

Loan servicers, firms that collect payments and handle foreclosures, seem to have “nearly exhausted the supply of plausible candidates for loan modifications” and will find that many loans are “unredeemable,” the S&P study says. As a result, servicers increasingly are looking to arrange “short sales,” in which homes are sold for less than their loan balances.

Resale Market Report for Ada County as of February 2010

ACRMR 2010 Feb 2010

New Construction Market Report February 2010

I just finished up the new construction market report for Ada County.  I haven’t produced the video yet, but will have that soon.  I have added last years numbers int he tables so you could have something to compare them too. Make sure you click the download button to get a copy for yourself.

2010 NC Market Report

Borrower Eligibility and Time Requirements for New Loan after Default

Conventional Financing – Fannie/Freddie

Foreclosure/Short Sale/Deed-in-Lieu – 4 years must have elapsed – If more than 4 years but less than 7, you can only do a purchase of a primary residence and you must have a 680 middle FICO score with at least 10% down. Please keep in mind; however, if you put less than 20% down you need mortgage insurance and you can’t get mortgage insurance in Nevada without having at least a 720 mid FICO score.

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy – 4 years from discharge or dismissal.


Chapter 13 Bankruptcy – 2 years from discharge or dismissal.


FHA & VA Financing


Foreclosure – 3 years must have elapsed. In FHA’s 4155 Manual it does state that these actions were a result of extenuating circumstances beyond the control of the borrower such as serious illness or death of a wage earner and not due to inability to sell the property because of a job transfer or relocation, and they have reestablished good credit, then an FHA underwriter can make an exception to the 3 year policy. The bottom line is investors (banks) don’t make exceptions, not when we have a national foreclosure and global credit crisis. Moral of the story, if the borrower doesn’t have 3 years seasoning, don’t expect to get an FHA loan.

Deed-in-Lieu – 2 or 3 years must have elapsed depending on automated underwriting findings. Basically, I would take a full application, run credit and then run the loan through FHA’s automated underwriting engine and it would state either 2 or 3 years. We would have to abide by these findings.

Short Sale – 2 years must have elapsed. The underwriter would most likely ask for a HUD-1 on the short sale and the clock would start from the date that transaction closed. I have at times been able to do these depending on if it was reported on the credit report or not and what the statement under the account said.

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy – 2 years from date of discharge or dismissal. Once again, the 4155 Manual does state that as long as at least 12 months have elapsed and the Chapter 7 was due to extenuating circumstances that can be documented and they have reestablished credit with no derogatory credit since, an exception can be made. Investors will also not make exception. If the borrower doesn’t have 2 years, they will not get an FHA loan because no bank will loan the money for FHA to insure.

Chapter 13 Bankruptcy – If the borrower has completed a full 12 months of their payments, and provide proof (cancelled checks for example) of 12 consecutive months of on-time, complete payments, and can get a letter of permission from the bankruptcy trustee, they can get an FHA loan. If not then the Chapter 13 has to be discharged or dismissed.

USDA Financing

Chapter 7 & 13 Bankruptcies – Must be discharged a minimum of 3 years.

Foreclosure/Deed-in-Lieu/Short Sale – 3 years must have elapsed.

Subscribe

Market stats and market analysis for Ada County!

ACMR Fans

ACMR Services

ACMR Videos

Gallery

acrmr-jan-2010-007 acncmr-dec-2009-slides-002 acncmr-dec-2009-slides-003 acrmr-jan-2010-008

RSSACMR Tweets

Store Search

Video sites

Call me at (208) 991-3606

Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes