Real Estate News by Christina Inman | October 12, 2009In an article in the Tuesday, October 6, edition of the San Francisco Chronicle entitled “Layer of credit checks surprises home buyers,” a woman named Kimberly Hayes explains that when she and her husband decided to bid on a bank-owned property, they were shocked to discover that the only way the bank would allow them to do it is if they could do their own credit check beforehand.
“This unnecessary credit pulling can potentially lower my credit score and widens the exposure of my sensitive financial information,” the article quotes her as saying. “I’m concerned about another set of eyes looking at my private information in a time of so much identity theft.”
And, apparently, they are not the first potential buyers to find themselves in this situation. Though not all lenders have this policy when it comes to their REOs, (Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and OneWest Bank are all quoted as saying they do not require their own credit checks of potential bidders) it appears that some of the banks who do also insist that the bidder apply for a mortgage with them.
Real Estate News by Peter Giardini | September 29, 2009For many real estate investors, these past several months have brought a welcome sigh of relief as homeowners have come into the market in truly satisfying numbers. In many parts of the country the steady downward slide in prices has tapered off and we have been seeing what may be the bottom in terms of further price declines… or NOT!
Are Some Hyping Up the Real Estate Market Too Soon?
The numbers throughout the Summer have been promoted with great fanfare… the Schiller-Case Index and National Board of Realtors proclaiming that prices may have bottomed out and the worst is over. Great news if you can believe it!
While I am delighted that prices have stabilized and even increased in some markets and that home sales over these past several months have been solid and even matching sales volumes from 2005…I have been troubled and what I haven’t been able to put my finger on is this…
With all of the homes going into foreclosure, when will this inventory start to pull this “current” housing recovery down? This Bloomberg article is not good news… and suggests that we have a long way to go before all of the current and projected foreclosed inventory can be absorbed.
So the million dollar question is this… How long can lenders continue to hold their REO inventory?
For those of you who have lost track of where all our taxpayer dollars have gone as we bailout banks, brokerage houses, car companies, insurance companies…etc—-this sobering statistic courtesy of the 
Joshua Dorkin
Housing Prices, Consumer Mood and The Hope Of A Real Estate Turnaround In The Age Of Obama
by Charles Feldman | January 28, 2009Now what? That’s a pretty fair question to ask as the economic news gets darker with each passing day despite all efforts,thus far, from our government. As a Reuters story says today, “consumer confidence plumbed historic lows in January and home prices fell at a record pace in November…” Of course, a big reason remains [...]