MortgageOrb.com is reporting that new funding from the U.S. Treasury Department will likely bring a pilot version for mortgage payment assistance for unemployed borrowers to Lee County first. Primarily due to the large economic problems in the Fort Myers area, it is expected that the Florida Housing Finance Corp. will first allocate a portion of the $656 million of federal money to Lee County homeowners to make mortgage payments for a period of up to 18 months.
Posts Tagged ‘Florida’
Mortgage Payment Assistance Likely Coming To Lee County Soon
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010Cape Coral/Ft. Myers and Orlando Top Foreclosure List
Thursday, July 29th, 2010RealtyTrac released a little more than just their monthly tracking yesterday. Also included were year to date statistics. If you read my posts you know I do not spend a lot of time on the monthly data results as I find them to be for too narrow of a window. When provided with six months of data, I think some conclusions can be reached.
According to RealtyTrac, year to date, Cape Coral-Ft. Myers is the number two foreclosure market in the country. Making its debut in the top ten, Orlando has now in at number 8. The Miami area has actually dropped a few notches to come in at #10.
Foreclosure activity in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., metro area decreased nearly 22 percent from the previous six months and was down nearly 30 percent from the first half of 2009, but the metro area still documented the nation’s second highest metro foreclosure rate — 4.98 percent of its housing units (one in 20) received a foreclosure filing during the six-month period.
Other Florida cities in the top 10 foreclosure rates were Orlando-Kissimmee at No. 8 (4.15 percent of housing units) and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach at No. 10 (3.89 percent).
It is also interesting to distinguish these foreclosure rates (% of total housing stock) versus actual foreclosure totals. When foreclosure totals are considered large metropolitan areas take over the rankings. For instance, the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Pompano Beach metropolitan area is 10th year to date in foreclosure rates, but actually leads the nation in total foreclosures with 94,466 properties receiving a notice during the first six months of 2010. This total rate beats out the Los Angeles metropolitan area in second place with 93,263 filings.
The big picture from this news is foreclosure filings are back on the upswing with 154 of the 206 metropoliatan markets in the USA, with populations in excess of 200,000, posting year over year increases in activity. These widespread increases occurred while activity actually decreased in nine of the 10 areas with the highest rates.
“While we’re seeing early signs that foreclosure activity may have peaked in some of the hardest-hit markets, foreclosures continued to rise in three-quarters of the nation’s metropolitan areas in the first half of the year,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “The fragile stability achieved in many local housing markets hinges on improvements in the underlying economy, specifically job growth. If unemployment remains persistently high and foreclosure prevention efforts only delay the inevitable, then we could continue to see increased foreclosure activity and a corresponding weakness in home prices in many metro areas.”
Make Your Offer The One That Is Accepted And Closed!
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
I follow many different periodicals, blogs and forums..both in print and on line..related to the topic of foreclosure. There is some really bad advise out there for people as to how easy it is to buy foreclosed properties. Today I am going to focus on a few simple facts that likely go against what many of these self-proclaimed knowledgeable people state.
You Should Make Your Offer At 50-60% Under List Price
Only if you wish to waste every body’s time. Most foreclosures are priced today where they receive multiple offers. The list price is where the discount to market exists. Sometimes the bank gets it right, sometimes they need to move the property. Just know that our average sale to list price ratio on bank owned homes over the last 12 months stood at 98% That is for almost 600 properties in four different markets! HINT: There are properties for sale, often by third party servicers or investors, where they do not seem to want to accept the market realities and over-price. These properties will be on the market for 90 or more days. Sometimes a more aggressive offer might fly.
Use A Superstar Agent Who Leads The Market In Their Sales Production
What..because everybody will cow-tow to their super stardom? This one cracks me up. It is a myth put forward by the large franchise real estate players in support of their top producers who are not funding as much overhead in today’s markets. Actually what you want is to find an agent who will follow the bank’s very specific instructions for how to submit an offer! If they are the superstar agent, then fine. In my experience, they often are not. For some reason, after years of foreclosures being a major part of the market, there still seem to be agents who think the banks will do business THEIR way and act like they can control the seller. If you choose one of these agents because of the confidence they seem to exude, you will likely not end up with an accepted offer. Buying bank owned foreclosures is a rather black and white program. Your agent needs to be somebody who excels at following instructions and details step by step. Find out how many bank owned homes they have sold or if you insist on using your cousin, make them share every shred of paper that comes to ensure that things are being done correctly.
The Process Drags Out So Don’t Expect Things To Happen Fast
Again, quite the opposite is true. Be Available! Whether by electronic communication, in person, or proxy, now is NOT the time to take that international vacation. Nobody from the listing agent to the bank really cares if the proposed buyer has to leave the country and will not be available to review the bank addendum contract until next Tuesday when it is due on Monday. Your accepted offer will be cancelled. Remember black and white.
The Bank Will Accommodate The Buyer’s Need For Repairs Discovered After A Inspection
Negotiation for repairs kills more accepted deals than anything else. Yes, I will admit the banks seem to have more tolerance for making a home habitable for owner occupant purchasers than ever before. Start with considering the type of buyer you are when you feel it necessary to request that the leaking kitchen plumbing be repaired. If you are investor, please refer back to some of my as-is means as-is posts. If you are going to live in the property, this request is a wild card. I do not know how the bank will respond. The first question I often am asked is “could the buyer have seen this need for repair on their own prior to making the offer?” If the answer is yes, chances are not good that the bank will front the repair. TIP-If you really want the property, do not haggle with the bank’s response. They usually make one response and if you do not accept it they cancel the deal.
A commonly heard order from Asset Managers is “BOM”. Back On The Market. Nobody is ever happy when this happens. Avoid these pitfalls in order to improve your chance for success in your foreclosure purchase.
Time To Move On
Monday, July 26th, 2010The following is written to other Realtors. Not to upset but to emphasize a point.
When you are contacted by an agent informing you that the home you have listed has been foreclosed, don’t ask or expect to receive a listing cancellation. The fact your listing is executed by a party no longer in ownership cancels your listing.
If you really do not believe the bank’s listing agent, check with your client or the public records. Don’t waste a lot of time hanging on because somebody has an offer in to your seller. Your seller has no authority to accept it and the bank is going to want to complete their own valuation before looking at any offers.
Assuming the home is vacant, the bank will likely hire a company quickly to change the locks. It should not happen but often those fancy electronic lock boxes, are left hanging on the old removed handset. So, don’t waste any time if you are informed of a change in title. Not if you want to get your lock box back easily.
Speaking of lock boxes, we have over and over again worked in a spirit of cooperation to remove a lock box for the former listing agent and leave it somewhere that they can pick it up. When we do this we are not accepting responsibility for what happen to the lock box…so don’t wait a week to come pick it up.
Same can be said for your signs. We work with the former listing agent, but do not take responsibility and don’t have room in our vehicles to throw them in.
It is common for the banks to have a property preservation company that changes the locks, mows the lawns, and removes interior debris and furnishings left behind. A certain estimated value of between $300 and $500 is going to result in a personal property posting notice. Some Realtors have been known to add a few hand towels, kitchen and bath bric-a-brac, and fake flowers in the mode of staging. Chances are these are not going to cross the threshold of being saved as personal property. I have no idea what happens to these items, but please, when you are told the home is foreclosed, just come get your stuff and then confirm. I have seen this become a big issue in several cases where the agent did not want to stop showings because they were convinced that a sale was about to occur.
Last but not least, unless you really want to make some type of point that will cause you to have a bad name with the bank seller and have a complaint filed with your local MLS, go ahead and withdrawl your listing from the MLS when informed of the foreclosure. I realize this is the last line of defense. I have never seen a bank choose to keep the existing listing agent at this point so there is nothing but bad things to occur by taking this path.
I know it is hard to do, and I do have empathy, but the truth that needs to be accepted is that it is “time to move on”.
Why Has That House Sat Vacant For A Year?
Thursday, April 1st, 2010
A common question in our two markets of Indiana and Florida is when is the bank going to put that vacant home on Elm Street on the market. The street name is fiction to protect the innocent! So common, that also is the creativity of my response.
“I don’t know!”
Why don’t I know? Why does this happen? What about the values of the homes in the neighborhood where the vacant home sits? Who is going to mow the lawn, trim the trees, fix the fence…on and on.
One of the reasons I am constantly so negative about all the efforts to save defaulting homeowners is that these efforts often seem to forget the affect a defaulting homeowner has on a neighborhood. People in trouble with their mortgages do not take care for their homes for lack of cash and the expectation they are going to lose the home. They often abandon the home and it takes months for anybody to figure it out. I am now hearing stories of homeowners still working on a HAMP modification and they have abandoned their home!
The reality of the foreclosure mess is that people have issues that can’t be fixed with a loan modification. In many circles this is now accepted but the truth, whispered in corners, is that the government is simply trying to slow the number of foreclosed homes on the market down so that values hold up. A nice thought, but one that seems to have come out of a think tank and not Main Street. (Ah..there is Main Street again….).
Now, we can add a new cause to why your neighbors home has sat vacant for the last year. Indiana and Florida are both what is called Judicial Foreclosure states…meaning a Judge signs off on the foreclosure allowing it to then be sold by the local authorities. Florida courts are so backed up they are now requesting $9.6 million from the state to hire needed case managers to process the backlog. Now, this is particularly interesting since last year these same legislators passed a law requiring a mortgage company to provide modification conferences to any homeowner requesting one. From what I am told, the request of these conferences is also taxing the system, and has become a common suggestion from attorneys advising their clients as to delay tactics to use to delay the foreclosure.
Of course they are. But, that means these cases sit in limbo during these conference periods. More delays.
In Florida, Barclays Capital estimates there are over 500,000 foreclosure dockets waiting for action. The question, that I have asked in good faith for over two years now, is when do we decide that the costs of these delay tactics is not worth the harm to our communities? When does it become the right thing to let the market finish this correction?
As an aside, and a post for another day, it appears the new tactic will be to just forgive principal. An interesting development to watch. Will these new reduced loans help states like Florida clear out their backlog? Or will we just continue to stretch out the volume of people living in limbo wondering who is going to clean up the vacant house next door?
Foreclosure War In Cape Coral Florida
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009“Take Pride In The Cape” Video from WINK News
Chinese Drywall Providing New Foreclosure Victims
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
I
have now had the opportunity to discover four homes built in Florida with Chine
se drywall. Being old enough to recall all previous scares like lead paint, radon, and mold, I must say that this threat to a home actually seems much more daunting. The mediating factor is the fact the problem is contained to a fairly small region of the country so it will likely not expand into a national issue.
What is the problem about? Homes built in the earlier parts of this decade are the ones affected. I wrote about this in March..you can read more here. The issue is contained to an area of the Southeast US including Florida and Georgia primarily.
Lead paint was a limited issue due to the number of homes with new paint jobs after 1977. Radon is a larger problem geographically, but through the years many shrouds of doubt have been cast on the real harm involved with this natural gas. Mold is much more easily controllable
and preventable. Chinese drywall, well it is a devastating issue when it comes to what we don’t know and the resulting total habitabiltiy of a home. I have yet to see any standards as to what is to be done with a home built with Chinese drywall. Is just stripping out all the drywall satisfactory? How about the studs? Cabinets? Carpet? The pictures posted here are actual pictures I took in a home with a mild case (I coul dactually do a full inspection without being knock out). Note the corroded screws in th eelectric outlet and the corrosion on the sink supply lines. Now, remember that this is a never lived in, one year old home! Where does the problem begin and end?
Having now visited these homes I can also see why it is creating a whole new foreclosure cause. Imagine a room with 100 matches that were just extinguished! I have heard other people describe the odor as that of rotten eggs. Three homes I visited the odor was so strong my nostrils started burning within just a few minutes of entering. For a few hours after, I could still taste the sulfer in my throat. I empathize with those forced to leave these homes. I do not see how anybody could live in one.
A recent article from CNN further details this issue:
Scores of home owners in Florida and a dozen other states are facing foreclosure and are blaming toxic Chinese drywall for forcing them from their residences and into rental properties.
They’re abandoning their mortgages to free up money for alternate housing and health care costs as a result of what some believe are hazardous gases released by the drywall, which allegedly could lead to respiratory infections and corroded wiring.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently tested both Chinese and U.S. drywall and found 10 times more strontium in the Chinese drywall than in U.S. drywall.
The agency, noting that no link between the drywall and home owners’ claims has been uncovered yet, added that Chinese drywall also contained sulfur and elements found in acrylic paints, chemicals that were not detected in U.S. drywall.
Lenders are moving forward with foreclosures despite the fact that the affected homes have dramatically dropped in value. Some home owners are urging banks to partner with them to sue the drywall suppliers.
I believe the government has no idea how to proceed with this issue so they are going to stick with this argument. Credit Pulte Homes in Fort Myers for taking a private approach of performing individual inspections and now addressing possible solutions. In the meantime, we have a number of homes in what we call “Unable To Market” status waiting for somebody to find a solution.
If you visit a home with Chinese drywall, there will be no doubt in your mind that ultimately this will become an EPA issue, with standards and procedures for remediation of these homes. I will write more as I learn more.
Lee County Florida Foreclosure Statistics
Saturday, March 7th, 2009There were 2,109 foreclosure actions filed in the Lee County courts in February, up 7 percent from January’s 1,963 and up 19 percent from 1,774 in February 2008.
However, February’s number was 21 percent off the all-time high of 2,665 in October, according to the Southwest Florida Real Estate Investment Association.
In January, the latest month available, of 827 total sales listed with the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Myers and the Beach, foreclosure resales accounted for 542 and short sales for 107.
That left only 181 sales — 22 percent — that were not distressed sales involving a bank.
In Lehigh Acres, the area hardest hit by foreclosures, only 8 percent were non-distressed sales.
Those lucky enough to be buyers in this market say they’re getting phenomenal deals as banks get rid of the houses as fast as they can, experts say.
There are about 14,000 houses listed for sale in the county and 30,000 foreclosures working their way through the courts.
