10 Most Undervalued U.S. Cities as of June 2009

10 Most Undervalued U.S. Cities

Housing research organization IHS Global Insight estimates that the average U.S. home is undervalued by 12.2 percent, and many previously pricey communities are undervalued by considerably more.

A recent study released by IHS used home prices, interest rates, area incomes, population density, and historic premiums and discounts to analyze housing values. It examined 330 markets and found homes are underpriced in 248 of them.

Despite the high percentage of undervalued areas, IHS says "it is too early to call a bottoming," as "job losses continue, housing inventories remain elevated, and consumers remain wary in light of economic uncertainty."

Here are the 10 most undervalued areas:

1. Vero Beach, Fla., -42.5 percent
2. Houma, La., -41.4 percent
3. Las Vegas, -40.9 percent
4. Merced, Calif., -40.1 percent
5. Cape Coral, Fla., -39.1 percent
6. Houston, -36.9 percent
7. Midland, Texas, -34.8 percent
8. Lafayette, La., -34.4 percent
9. Vallejo, Calif., -34.3 percent
10. Stockton, Calif., -34.3 percent

Source: CNNMoney.com, Les Christie (06/04/2009)

AHHHhhhhhh...... Short Sales Process or Un-Process

Falling down the short sale rabbit whole is one of the most difficult processes in the real estate business.

During the last year I have successfully completed many short sales most of the time with hundreds of hours put in on the phone, planning, anticipating and constant maintenance on the account to get the deal done.

Calling the Loss Mitigation Dept or Short Sale Department:

• A. The first line is a collection agency and their job is to not let you pass and collect a payment - equal to a couple of blows to the head with a baseball bat)
• B. If you get transferred to Short Sales - start off with level 1 (couple more shots to the head) when you find out the faxes have not gone through or have been imaged in 30 days.
• C. Level 2 Negotiator - wants to help but is still putting the file together, so react quickly and get them want they need. (Still painful because they usually don’t respond and your file is reassigned just before their 30 days to open the file is up so this should put you at 3 months in with a terrible headache.
• D. Level 3 Negotiator - File is done and is being prepped to be sent to the investor, or MI carrier. There is no time frame so your head starts throbbing because your buyers are 5 months in and ready to walk. If they walk you start over with #1.
  

Faxing Documents:
Most of the banks incoming digital fax lines are jammed/overwhelmed/under prepared or down and IF the fax goes through (I.E. - you can print out a confirmation sheet) if they appear in your clients file within a 21 day period "halanuh" but if they never appear in the file or if they get imaged into the wrong slot is spells failure.

Emailing Documents:
Negotiators do not give or dont have access to get external email so this usually doesn’t happen unless you get a supervisor and when do upload it correctly it will assist in moving the deal along.

Hitting the Moving Target Blindfolded:
The Agents role in getting the short sale completed is similar to being blindfolded and asked in order to survive and put food on the table you need to go hunting for a deer blindfolded. Every hundred thousand shots you may get lucky.

The minefield created by the banks is almost impossible to cross but we continue to push forward and inch at a time.

More to come - Stay Positive in Overwhelming Negative Times

Admin
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Green Tree Collection - Bank of America says they are working with homeowners

Short Sale 102 – Green Tree

What do you do if your 2nd mortgage is held by Green Tree? One Word – Give up these guys doesn’t negotiate, refuse to listen and speak over you in your traditional collection agency garbage.

There Policy: They are not willing to take less than $5k or nothing... I bet BofA share holders are happy with those policies or are they. You speak multiple telemarketers who ask the same mundane questions are you going to make a payment.
It seems dealing with green tree collection agency a division of Bank of America new policy is %10 of the total loan amount not their loan amount but if there is a first and second combined.

For instance a property purchased at $175k is now worth $58k the 1st mortgage is $145k and the 2nd is worth $29k.

The 1st loan is willing to accept $58k with $2,900k paid to the 2nd who is Green Tree holds. They are unwilling to accept $2,900 renegotiated dollar amount and jacked it to $5k then said $5k would be the starting point. $2,100 discrepancy they refused to budge on but kept on talking doing their best to get your blood boiling and fly of the handle so they can hang up on you. If you are polite they have to talk and talk but one harsh tone or $%� then they will just hang up. Now they can threaten to come after you even though their loan is not secured and use scare tactics to get you to bite but you need them, they don’t need you.

I have to say speaking with Green Tree is up there with getting a root canal.

Admin, Nuff Said

What’s going on in the short sale world?

What’s going on in the short sale world?

• It is common practice of distributing disinformation – if you call back 10 times a day for 5 days and ask the same questions you will get a wide variety of answers. These are not small discrepancies but black and white answers that would lead a person to believe what the representative is telling them.
• Representatives talk over you and will not listen to questions nor answer then with the intent to frustrate you. In fact, I bet they have in office bets how frustrated they can get you and keep you on the phone.
  
• Incoming fax process – no one knows how it works because it doesn’t.
• Incoming calls to short sale are redirected to telemarketing debt collectors who blatantly lie, pass phone calls back and forth to each other pretending to be supervisors then hang up on you without raising their voices, are very pleasantly trying to frustrate you to hang up or if you are on a cell phone lose your connection – What could be the reason?
• Sending out thousands of letters to customers telling them their short sale will be done within 30 days giving them hope – supposedly by mistake
• Sending out thousands of letters to customers telling them their short sale was declined – supposedly by mistake.
• 1st Tier Telemarketers/Debt Collectors push the limit with threats about payment and collection tactics.
• 1st Tier Telemarketers/Debt Collectors will not let you speak to a supervisor without repeating a scripted question over and over then when they do transfer you the disconnect you.
• Files that actually do make it into their system disappear
• Files that are assigned a negotiator after months are unassigned and kicked back to pending status
• Files that are being reviewed are not updated for weeks or reassigned to a new negotiator not escalated to a 2nd Tier or 3rd Tier Negotiator.
• 1st Tier Telemarketers/Debt Collectors are in places such as Arizona and India. *Nothing against India but these is confidential information.
• Loan Holders with some Lenders have received notices that their confidential information such as social security numbers MAY have been stolen by an ex-employee.
• Even after a short sale has approval India 1st Tier Telemarketers/Debt Collectors still call day after day wasting time and money.
• Blindly out of nowhere a representative will call you with a fake name and tell you your short sale has been declined due to no offer or documents in their file, leaving you to call a 800 number where a new representative will know nothing about it when policy dictates all contact to be noted in the file.
• When any representative is on the phone with you and is “noting the file” a person would be lead to believe that he/she is but when you call back a day or a week later to check there are no notes in the file. None. Zip.

Frustrated Admin who calls these people on a daily basis to go round and round for hours on the phone.

REO, Bank Owned Foreclosures - What am I buying?

There are auction sales, foreclosure bus tours, seminars selling books and tapes on how to buy a foreclosure with no money down (*not sure where they are getting their loans) and a multitude of other sources that pop up on radio, tv and in the mail.

First, you have to decide are you going to live in it or use it as a rental property. If you are going to buy it as an investment do you want to be a landlord or use a property manager. If you live out of state you must have someone on emergency contact with in 60 miles. A licensed real estate agent, and permitted property manager will take care of that + collect your rent, screen tenants, work with the HOA and be your presence looking out for your investment.

If you decide to live in the property you need to evaluate your property differently. If you have kids checking the school zones, crime rates, master planned assesments, etc. A big question is: "Is this a community I want to live in?" Just because I can buy this cheap house does it meet my overall goals.

These are all questions you need to ask yourself and consult with a licensed real estate agent, REALTOR® and property manager with experience.

Foreclosure slow - Sales Pickup

The foreclosure market in Las Vegas has slowed down allowing buying to come off the fences and pickup inventory at 50% of what it was 5 years ago. Homes that sold in 2006 for $680k you can now purchase at $250k on 1/3 acre lots.

There is a lot of research out there that another wave of foreclosures is coming not ARMs resetting but owners who cannot justify paying a mortgage on a $900k property while their neighbor who just moved in is paying for the same property $400k. It dosent make sense.

The question is "What would Trump do?"

Trump Tower Renting as Apartments

Trump Tower is starting a rental program to mix in with it's owner occupied units and condo hotel program. You will be able to rent out units on a one year lease for big bucks. Studios are starting at $1700 month, the shorter the lease the higher the premium which is standard for corporate furnished housing.

Yes, corporate offices everywhere will turn to this type of rental unit especially if they rotate personnel out and need them to be close to the strip. No need for a rental car, great location and they an write off the lease to the company while providing this super perk to their employees.

More details to come.