By Stacey Moncrieff

I had an interesting discussion this week with Phoenix practitioner Jane Brunet, who specializes in short sales. Brokers in her area, she says, are telling their associates to avoid short-sale properties because of the difficulties in getting transactions closed. The transactions are complex. They require a keen understanding of financing, banks' loss mitigation policies, and bankruptcy law, among other things. Brunet says brokers should be providing in-depth education rather than discouraging their associates from engaging in such deals.

The irony of avoiding short sales, of course, is that homeowners with underwater mortgages are then forced into foreclosure leaving houses vacant — never a good thing for real estate values — and the banks gain control of the inventory.

That's a dangerous scenario in Brunet's mind. The conventional wisdom is that banks don’t want to hold REO — it’s costly to them — but Brunet’s not too sure.

Continue reading "Are You Sidestepping Short Sales?" »

Posted on June 6 at 01:04 AM | Permanent Link | Add a Comment (16)

by Amy Konstas

I learned in the Federal Housing Policy Committee meeting that FHA loans now make up 15-20 percent of the mortgage market. It’s estimated in August these loans may comprise about 40 percent of the entire market. Overall, the FHA culture has changed for the better, and FHA loans are now very valuable business and a good opportunity for REALTORS®.

More borrowers are being reached in terms of eligibility to get a loan, which is good, and the introduction of foreclosure prevention plans by Democrat Senators Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd would also help alleviate trouble within the housing market. But principal reduction must be addressed for loans already underwater.

A Q&A session followed.

Posted on May 15 at 09:32 AM | Permanent Link | Add a Comment (0)

By John N. Frank

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage took a dramatic step last Thursday to pump up the spirits of 12,000 real estate professionals while also reminding them that Wells want to stay a major force in mortgage lending.
It beamed a live telecast featuring three real estate coaches and the co-president of Wells Home Mortgage, Cara Heiden, to 50 theaters in 29 markets where it had invited real estate pros to watch and listen.

The message – when the going gets tough, the tough have to inspire others to get going.

Continue reading "Advice for Tough Times: Lead By Example" »

Posted on April 23 at 09:16 AM | Permanent Link | Add a Comment (1)

By Rob Freedman

Last summer, right before the subprime mortgage debacle exploded onto the front page of our newspapers, I had a conversation with Steven Krystofiak, a California mortgage broker who had become so concerned about the widespread use of stated income underwriting in residential mortgage loans that earlier in the year he had launched an organization called Mortgage Brokers Association for Responsible Lending. (www.mbarl.org) The group's sole mission was to publicize the dangers of underwriting loans without requiring borrowers to document their income.

Continue reading "Some Lenders Haven't Learned" »

Posted on April 15 at 11:52 AM | Permanent Link | Add a Comment (5)

By Mariwyn Evans

Just in case you needed a “wowie” figure to make you feel even worse about the credit markets, try this one — mortgage fraud increased 139 percent between 2006 and 2007, according to a presentation I heard yesterday from Merle Sharick of the Mortgage Asset Research Institute. Even scarier is that the huge jump figure is based only on federally regulated lenders and doesn’t count all those state-chartered banks and mortgage brokers backed by private capital sources.

It also surprised me that, according to Sharick, lenders are beginning to pay more attention to what he called “fraud for housing.” Unlike “fraud for money,” which gets most of the attention from the FBI, fraud for housing can be as simple as a real estate practitioner “forgetting” to show

Continue reading "“Fraud for Homes” Comes Under Greater Scrutiny" »

Posted on March 13 at 03:26 PM | Permanent Link | Add a Comment (0)