#700

by | Feb 18, 2011 | Bubbleinfo TV, Jim TV | 11 comments

 Another milestone today – the 700th video! 

This youtube has nothing to do with real estate sales, and most will find it over-indulgent – but if you like cars (and Chevys in particular), this might bring back some old memories:

CV Foreclosures

by | Feb 17, 2011 | Bubbleinfo TV, REOs Coming to Market | 8 comments

BofA now insists that someone from the listing office meets the locksmith, and take photos of the lockbox with the numbers set to the right code.  It’s a good time to get the first look at the interior, and size up any possible repairs. 

Then it’s off to what is the seventh new REO assignment in the last month, after getting none since June.  Plus they threw Olive back at me, probably after the auctioneer didn’t want it either.

More Shadow Inventory

by | Feb 17, 2011 | Shadow Inventory, Short Sales | 5 comments

It happens about once a week that we see an out-of-town realtor input a new listing in their hometown MLS, thinking that it somehow magically transports in our San Diego MLS here.  But it is probably due to their assumption that just because the rest of SoCal is on one MLS system, San Diego must be too – but Sandicor is holding out. 

As a result, these listings don’t get exposed to SD realtors, but Redfin picks them up because they search by area, not MLS system.  We are monitoring Redfin now, but hat tip to Genius, who sent this over.  It is a short sale, the seller owes over $1,000,000, according to foreclosureradar:

633 Rushville, La Jolla

3 br/2 ba 1,214sf

4,099sf lot

$659,000

MLS Remarks:

Wow! What an opportunity to live in La Jolla at this price. This lovely traditional craftsman home is only a couple of blocks from the beach. Home is in good condition on the inside. Tax roll says 2 bedroom but actually 3 with over 1200 sqft of living space. Hardwood floors throughout with a fireplace in living room. Great for moving in or an investment property!

Home Stretch for Foreclosures?

by | Feb 17, 2011 | Foreclosures/REOs | 17 comments

From Diana at cnbc.com

Fewer Americans are falling behind on their mortgage payments; in fact, the fewest in two years. Mortgages just one payment past due (30 days) fell to their lowest level since just before the recession began.

Is it delays in paperwork from the so called “robo-signing” (faulty paperwork) foreclosure servicing scandal? No. It’s actual fundamentals in the economy and the mortgage market. Go figure.

“As we got toward the end of 2010 we began to see another drop in weekly claims for unemployment insurance. I think that’s a key driver of the short term delinquencies,” notes Jay Brinkmann, chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association.

But even more significant is the improved underwriting that began after the mortgage market crashed. “The loans that are in the system now on average are better quality than what was in there before,” says Brinkmann, who explains that loans usually go bad in the first three years of life. We’re now past the delinquency peak on loans that were underwritten during the worst, headiest phase of the housing boom in 2006 and 2007. “These new loans are less likely to go bad,” Brinkmann adds.

The biggest issue going forward is not new delinquencies, but the huge pipeline of loans already in the foreclosure process. It stands at 4.63 percent, tying the survey’s record high. This is due to foreclosure paperwork issues that have stalled the process, especially in the key state of Florida, where nearly one quarter of all mortgages are either delinquent or in foreclosure.

Very Substantial

by | Feb 16, 2011 | Interesting Houses, Listing Agent Practices | 4 comments

Hat tip to MB who sent this from the nytimes.com:

LOS ANGELES — From Kirk Morgan’s perch, in a mansion at the top of Los Angeles, he can see it all: The snow-covered mountains from the vast windows in one of the seven bathrooms. The Hollywood sign, eye level from the kitchen. And, from the master bedroom, a sweep of Los Angeles stretching from downtown to the Pacific Ocean.

But what he likes best, Mr. Morgan said, are the fevered tales he overhears from the Runyon Canyon Park hikers who pause at the house set amid its own 22 acres that he has guarded for nine months, as they try to unravel the mysteries suggested by this foreboding hillside mansion. For all its aspirations at grandeur, the 16-year-old house at 2450 Solar Drive remains unfinished and vacant, pocked by boarded-up windows and gang graffiti, a jumble of hanging wires and holes cut in the living room ceiling. A Winnebago is parked in the gated front yard.

Many of the tales — like the murder that supposedly took place on the pool table in the billiard room — are urban legend, said Mr. Morgan, 53, the house guard, who was wearing camouflage shorts, a cap and no shirt as he opened the padlocked gate to allow a visitor inside.

“It just blows you away what you hear from these people,” he said. “Like it is owned by the Devil. I am a man of the Lord. There ain’t no Devil here. I salted this house and also had my Indian friends come over and burn sage.”

But many of the tales are accurate.

Gangs, among them the notorious Armenian Power, really did turn the place into a clubhouse, the police said. Gang tags are still visible on the walls. Teenagers commandeered the carpeted first floor for weekend raves.

Yes, over the years, 2450 Solar Drive has served as a blue-chip crack house, according to the police: its floors were scattered with remnants of crack cocaine, crystal methamphetamine and marijuana.

“And this is where the satanic stuff happened,” Mr. Morgan said as he led a visitor into a windowless room, pointing to a faded sketch on the wall. “You can see the image of a devil. And they had chicken feathers hanging on a wire.”

(more…)

Shadow Inventory – U.S. Gov’t

by | Feb 16, 2011 | Shadow Inventory

From the REChannel:

It didn’t make the headlines when it was first announced in November 2010 and it didn’t make the headlines this week.

But if President Barack Obama’s proposed 2012 Federal budget cuts involving the sale or disposition of 69,000 government-owned buildings located across the U.S. is passed by Congress, it would be the largest real estate deal of its kind in this country’s 236-year-old history, according to several almanacs and real estate industry sources which track such deals.

Instead of an outright sale, some of the properties could possibly be transferred to other agencies in need of space; or donated to colleges, parks and hospitals, according to Obama’s previous memos to federal agencies.

Peter R. Orszag, former director of the Office of Management and Budget, said in a June 2010 blog post the federal government has 14,000 excess buildings and structures and another 55,000 that are under-used or completely unused.

According to the GOP’s Oct. 6, 2010 White Paper, members of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee claimed the sale of the buildings would save the government $250 billion in maintenance, insurance and other related costs over the next 10 years.

Committee Ranking Minority Member John Mica, R-Fla., noted in October the federal government, as the nation’s largest asset holder, manages 896,000 buildings and structures with a total area of 3.29 billion square feet and more than 41 million acres of land.

The GOP committee’s report was particularly critical of the General Services Administration.

It noted the government’s landlord owns “large numbers of vacant or underutilized federal buildings” and yet “struggles to dispose of its surplus property in a timely fashion and for reasonable rates of return despite its enhanced property disposal authorities.”

The report criticizes GSA’s real property management for its “apparent inability to maximize market opportunities to house federal employees at the lowest long-term cost to taxpayers.”

Beyond GSA, the report cites potential savings by selling off or reconfiguring assets controlled by the Transportation Department, Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Amtrak and the Army Corps of Engineers.

For example:

  • The government would save $2 billion by selling 20 percent of “nonperforming” real estate assets.
  • It would save $1 billion by “reducing or eliminating spending on unneeded courthouses and excessive courthouse space.”
  • It would save up to $180 billion by “encouraging additional investment in infrastructure from the private sector by providing a better definition of public-private partnerships for undertaking highway, transit, port, rail, airport and other infrastructure projects.”

The Obama administration has agreed the federal government has surplus property.

Pin It on Pinterest