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Mortgages & Lending

Mortgages & Lending

New Federal Restriction on Prepayment Penalties Won’t Apply to FHA Interest Charge

by Christina Inman | November 7, 2009

On October 1, new federal lending rules took effect under HOEPA–the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act.  One that will benefit consumers most is a restriction on prepayment penalties for higher-priced loans (those with an interest rate 1.5% above prime).  No longer will borrowers need to worry about an excessive penalty for paying off their [...]

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Mortgages & Lending

Loan Characteristics and Their Effect on Your Prospective Investment Project (Part 1)

by Kyle Koller | November 2, 2009

Most real estate investors acquire income properties by obtaining a loan. As you are probably aware, maximizing loan funds (or OPM—Other People’s Money) maximizes leverage and, thus, maximizes returns. The right loan product can easily make or break a real estate investment deal. As such, exploring various loan characteristics is more than warranted.
Lender Recourse
Regarding lender [...]

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Mortgages & Lending

Nevada’s Home Loan Modification Law Ignored

by Richard Warren | October 26, 2009
Thumbnail image for Nevada’s Home Loan Modification Law Ignored

What if you had a home modification law that everyone ignored? In its 2009 legislative session the State of Nevada passed a law requiring loan modification companies to be licensed. The law, which recently took effect, not only required a license but the companies were also required to post a $75,000 surety bond. It seemed [...]

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Commercial Real Estate

Attorneys for Commercial Loan Modification. What You Need to Know.

by Ted Karsch | October 14, 2009

Commercial real estate owners who are considering hiring an attorney to handle their commercial loan modification should investigate the background and experience of the person they hiring so that they know in advance what to expect.

In my experience as a commercial loan modification specialist I have found that many attorneys who advertise themselves as commercial loan modification attorneys actually have very little experience performing successful loan workouts. Unfortunately, as many people know, there is an over supply of attorneys in the United States. This forces many lawyers to follow the latest and hottest trends in order to get new business and survive. You may see the same people who used to do accident and injury work now advertising their services as loss mitigation specialists because it has become such a needed service. For this reason the commercial real estate owner should definitely do their homework and research the actual experience of the person they are hiring.

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Housing

Where to Invest in Real Estate?

by Ryan Moeller | July 29, 2009

When it comes to finding great real estate deals, I am a firm believer that you can find deals in any market and any time. But what is the probability that you can cherry pick from many home run deals have little competition and multiple exit strategies?

To identify markets to invest it is recommended to have not 1 or 2 of the following, but all 4:
Little chance of depreciation, lots of available deals, low competition, multiple exit strategies.

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Foreclosures

Housing Law – A New Breed Of Cat

by Tom Koziol | June 26, 2009

Nevada enters the housing law business as state number 7 enacting a foreclosure mediation program. Nevada’s law goes into effect on July 1, 2009. The other states with this type of legislation are Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Michigan, Florida, Connecticut and Colorado.
I don’t know about the other 6 states but here in Nevada the law will be [...]

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Blogs

An Inflated Appraisal Scheme With A Twist

by Richard Warren | May 11, 2009

Most people have heard of schemes in which a lender is defrauded by someone who uses an inflated appraisal to obtain a loan for much more than a house is worth. This type of scam generally requires the cooperation of several people. In addition to the person running the scam you need an appraiser who [...]

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Blogs

When A Lender Reneges On A Pre-Approval

by Richard Warren | April 27, 2009

                                          
It has become common for builders and real estate agents to require a pre-qualification or pre-approval from a lender prior to working with them on the purchase of a home. This is done so that the builder or agent doesn’t spend a lot of time with someone who will not be able to get a [...]

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Economy

Obama’s Making Home Affordable Plan Update

by Steve Heideman | April 20, 2009

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Sean Donovan was on Bloomberg this morning discussing the state of housing and the Obama Making Home Affordable Plan. There are some signs that the program is starting to work.”I think we have a good balance of carrots and sticks” said Donovan when asked about banks and servicers working [...]

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Economy

Heads I Win, Tails you Lose: This Week’s Housing Data and Mortgage Markets

by Steve Heideman | April 13, 2009

Last week mortgage rates were exactly flat confirming my forecast that rates may not rise for the third week in a row. The week started off strong but ended with a whimper for 2 main reasons:

Wells Fargo’s announcement of record $ 3 Billion in earnings
Mike Mayo’s downgrade of the banking sector. Mike has a history [...]

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Economy

A Different Take on this Week’s Mortgage Market Data

by Steve Heideman | April 6, 2009

A little bit of a different take on this week’s mortgage market data. Gotta change it up sometimes ya know?

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Economy

Mortgage Rates May Be at Bottom

by Steve Heideman | March 30, 2009

From an economic standpoint, last week was an interesting one. The stock markets made strong gains last week but the mortgage markets barely moved in the wake of the Treasury’s “toxic asset” plan.
Amongst the other news from last week:

Existing home sales showed unexpected strength
New home sales showed unexpected strength
Data showed home prices [...]

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Economy

67% Say $8,000 Tax Credit is Likely to Incent them to Buy a Home

by Steve Heideman | February 24, 2009

Okay, so despite Josh and my best efforts, we only had 6 people answer our poll through twitter . Therefore, this is by no means a large sampling fit to discern the efficacy of the tax credit, but I liked the headline–Catchy isn’t it? Of those who voted, 4 said it would incent them and [...]

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Financing Real Estate

Should you Pre-Pay your Mortgage?

by Steve Heideman | February 9, 2009

To pre-pay or not to pre-pay that is the question!
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind…okay, I am not a huge Shakespeare guru, but I do fancy myself a mortgage finance guru.
Today I want to talk about whether it is a good idea to prepay your mortgage or not. I will be using some information from [...]

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Economy

Real Estate Down Payment: Gone in 60 Seconds?

by Meghan Busch | February 8, 2009

So, a few weeks back I wrote a post “How Far Down Can My Savings Go For a Down Payment” discussing just how much first-time home buyers need to have in the bank for a down payment. And I received a few great comments. One in particular asked, “What happened to 15 – 20% equity…?”
This got [...]

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