Podcast 30A Radio – Real Estate Round Up: WaterSound Beach Home Luxury Spotlight and Wild Heron Home Distressed Property Spotlight, October 30th, 2009

Podcast #20 of Real Estate Round Up, South Walton’s Real Estate News hosted by Craig and Tracy Baranowski on 30A Radio. Weekly broadcast is at 9am CST on 107.1FM in beautiful Seaside Florida, visit www.30aradio.org for a complete program guide. Featured stories are 113 South Founders Lane Home in WaterSound as our Luxury home spotlight of the week and 1303 Salamander Trail Home in Wild Heron as our Distressed Property Spotlight of the week,  3rd Quarter Economy Growth, What Happens if you don’t pay your mortgage, and Home buyer’s tax credit extension.

Home in Wild Heron 1303 Salamander Trail as Craig’s Top Distressed Property Pick for October 30th, 2009

A tremendous opportunity to buy a home in Wild Heron. This is NOT a short sale or a bank owned property. However, it is priced very aggressively as if it was. This is a beautiful two story home with hardwood floors, stained wood cabinetry throughout, granite counter tops, stainless appliances, security system, gas stove, etc. etc.

Homeowner amenities include pool, hot tub, fitness center, boathouse with canoes and kayaks for your use, boardwalks and fire pit by Lake Powell, picnic areas, playground, lots of space for bike riding and walking and places to view spectacular sunsets. This home has available Shark’s Tooth Golf Membership attached for additional fee.

Home in Wild Heron 1303 Salamander Trail MLS Listing

Homes and condos in Wild Heron

If you are interested in this distressed home in Wild Heron and would like to preview other homes in Wild Heron. Please give Tracy Baranowski 850.259.4270 or Craig Baranowski  a call at 850.259.1788 or email  us info@teambaranowski.com.

What Will Happen if I Don’t Pay My Mortgage?

I get this question asked to me several times a day. It is a question that I do not really like to answer as their are too many variables for each individuals financial situation. Additionally, since I am not a lawyer or an accountant I always recommended seeking legal counsel and speak with your account before you decide to miss any mortgage payments.

Here is a great article that talks about the big “What if”

We all talk about what if’s. One big “what if” that many homeowners have today has to do with mortgages.

About one-third of South Florida mortgages are underwater, meaning the homeowners owe more than the home is worth at today’s depressed prices, according to First American CoreLogic. Some homeowners are certainly wondering why they’re sending in the payment on, say, a $300,000 mortgage, when the house today would sell for only $210,000.

Your options: Keep paying or try to change your loan’s terms.

But some people wonder, what if I just stop paying the mortgage? It may be a tempting idea, but it quickly leads to trouble.

Here’s what could happen if you don’t pay the mortgage.

Report to the credit bureau

If your payment does not arrive, your lender or servicer will report this late payment to the credit bureau by the first day of the next month. This can happen in as little as two weeks from due date and put a negative mark on your credit report. Your credit score drops.

The late payment report whacks your credit rating. Your credit score starts to drop, by up to 200 points, if this is your only late or missed payment.

Cards are closed, rates rise

In the next 30 days, you can expect your other creditors to take note of the late payment and to take action. They can raise your interest rates, shut off your credit card entirely, or lower your credit limit. You also could face other changes in your financial life, because auto insurance, student loans and other forms of credit are pegged to your credit score.

Tightening of credit lowers your score

Credit scores feed on themselves. If your credit card limits are lowered and you are carrying a balance, you are then using more of your available credit, something known as your utilization rate. When that goes up, it lowers your score some more.

The negative mark stays on your credit report for seven years. But the impact on your credit score lessens over time. The biggest impact is for the first two years.

Lender response

The phone will start ringing. Your lender will try to contact you, try to persuade you to go into a loan modification of some kind.

But after 90 days, you cannot just start making payments again. The lender may actually send your payment back, if you send it this late and have not been in contact.

What happens next

After four months of not paying your mortgage, you will likely be served with a foreclosure notice.

If you don’t respond within 20 days, then the lender, in the following 60 days, will ask a court to issue a judgment against you.

A county sale will be arranged 50 to 120 days after the judgment. Next, 120 days after the sale, the sheriff will be at the door. Ten days after that, you’ll be thrown out of your home.

(Tip: This schedule is a general one. Courts are facing a backlog of foreclosure cases and could take longer to go through these steps. If you hire a lawyer and fight the foreclosure, you may be able to delay the sale for many months or avoid it altogether.)

Sources used for this column included: John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education for Credit.com; Barry Paperno, consumer operations manager at FICO; Attorney Roy Oppenheim of Weston, whose practice centers on foreclosure defense; and Jessica Cecere, president of the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Palm Beach.

If you are a troubled homeowner, please give us a call for a confidential consultation about the possibility of a short sale. Please give Tracy Baranowski a call at 850.259.4270 or Craig Baranowski at 850.259.1788 or email  us @ info@teambaranowski.com. Team Baranowski has a 100% success rate for all of our short sales for 2009!

Economy Grows in 3Q 2009…is this the end of the Recession?

While many are touting the end of the recession is here as the economy grew at a 3.5 pace in the third quarter of 2009. I beleive we still have a long road ahead and need to proceed with cautious optimism. We are far from getting out of recession and once the Government stimulus packages end, it will be a true test as to what our economy will do in the coming quarters.

Here is the article reported by the Washington (AP).

The economy grew at a 3.5 percent pace in the third quarter, the best showing in two years, fueled by government-supported spending on cars and homes.

The Commerce Department’s report Thursday delivered the strongest signal yet that the economy entered a new, though fragile, phase of recovery and that the worst recession since the 1930s has ended.

The much-awaited turnaround ended the streak of four straight quarters of contracting economic activity, the first time that’s happened on records dating to 1947.

It also marked the first increase since the spring of 2008, when the economy experienced a short-lived uptick in growth.

The third-quarter’s performance – the strongest since right before the country fell into recession in December 2007 – was slightly better than the 3.3 percent growth rate economists expected.

Armed with cash from government support programs, consumers led the rebound in the third quarter, snapping up cars and homes.

Consumer spending on big-ticket manufactured goods soared at an annualized rate of 22.3 percent in the third quarter, the most since the end of 2001. The jump largely reflected car purchases spurred by the government’s Cash for Clunkers program that offered a rebate of up to $4,500 to buy new cars and trade in old gas guzzlers.

The housing market also turned a corner in the summer. Spending on housing projects jumped at an annualized pace of 23.4 percent, the largest jump since 1986. It was the first time since the end of 2005 that spending on housing was positive.

The government’s $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers supported the housing rebound. Congress is considering extending the credit, which expires on Nov. 30.

The collapse of the housing market led the country into the recession. Rotten mortgage securities spiraled into a banking crisis. Home foreclosures surged. The sector’s return to good health is a crucial ingredient to a sustained economic recovery.

Brisk spending by the federal government, led by efforts to stimulate the economy and on defense, also played into the third-quarter turnaround. Federal government spending rose at a rate of 7.9 percent in the third quarter, on top of a 11.4 percent growth rate in the second quarter.

Extension for Home Buyer’s Tax Credit OK’ed by Senate Panel

We had been watching and anticipating for months that the new home buyer tax credit would be extended beyond the November 30th, 2009 deadline. Today, Senators reached a compromise to extend the $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers, a boost the housing industry expects will help it pull out of its two-year-old downturn.

Lawmakers in Washington also added a $6,500 tax credit for other primary-home purchasers and raised the qualifying income limits to $125,000 for single taxpayers and $225,000 for joint taxpayers, housing-industry sources said. This is awesome news and will be a boon to the Real Estate market.

Under the Senate compromise, buyers must have sales agreements in hand by April 30, but they will have until June 30 to go to settlement, the sources said. The measure still faces votes in the full Senate and the House. However, we fully expect this to get passed in the next week by the Senate.

The current tax credit did little for the new-home market in September, the Commerce Department reported – news that took many industry analysts by surprise. Sales fell 3.6 percent from August and 7.8 percent from September 2008.

Industry observers had expected a fifth consecutive monthly increase in new-home sales, believing that the tax incentive for qualified first-time buyers – credited with 357,000 sales of previously owned homes so far this year – would do the trick.

Instead, sales of typically more expensive newly built houses slipped.

“The decline in new-home sales seems to us to be more a function of the attractive pricing available on resales in the current environment than a reflection of weakening demand,” said Michael Feder, president of Radar Logic Inc., of New York, which tracks the market.

However, the robust rise in existing-home purchases – 9.2 percent year over year in September – indicated that the housing market was not faltering.

“Maybe the issue is supply, which fell to its lowest level in 27 years,” he said. “Builders, at least those left standing, have been making sure they don’t have any houses sitting around, and they have been very successful in controlling inventories.”

IHS Global Insight Inc. economist Patrick Newport echoed that, noting new-home inventories “sank for the 29th straight month to their lowest level since November 1982.”

As the Senate worked on the compromise, third-quarter data were released showing that the burden of foreclosure filings in the post-bubble market continued to shift from the subprime-ridden “sand” states (California, Nevada, Florida and Arizona) to areas with rising levels of unemployment and adjusting rates on the “exotic” mortgages prevalent in high-cost metropolitan markets.

Yet Las Vegas remained the toxic-loan capital, according to the third-quarter survey by RealtyTrac Inc., of Irvine, Calif. – its rate of foreclosure filings was seven times higher than the national average.

Stay tuned for more news on the tax credit.

Podcast 30A Radio – Real Estate Round Up: Archiscapes as Featured Guests, October 23rd, 2009

Podcast #19 of Real Estate Round Up, South Walton’s Real Estate News hosted by Craig and Tracy Baranowski on 30A Radio. Weekly broadcast is at 9am CST on 107.1FM in beautiful Seaside Florida, visit www.30aradio.org for a complete program guide. Featured stories are 92 Hogpenny Alley in Alys Beach as our Luxury home spotlight of the week and 88 Tidepool Lane in WaterSound as our Distressed Property Spotlight of the week,  Archiscapes as our featured guest and Southwest Airlines coming to Northwest Florida.

Splash Condo Gulf Front Unit 1707W Just Listed

Gulf Front Splash Condo Unit 1707W

This professionally decorated end unit has the best views of the Gulf and all the comforts of home! This corner unit with two master bedrooms on the Gulf with balcony access lets you enjoy the sunsets and the ocean breeze. The kids will love the bunk area for playing in their own private area.

Splash Unit 1707W also has a full kitchen, washer/dryer, HD LCD Flat Screen in the living room, spacious bathrooms with double vanities. This is the perfect place to spend your family vacations at the beach! Built in 2007, unique amenities abound at this popular beach side complex. Adults and children alike will marvel at the multiple pools (indoor/outdoor) children’s interactive aqua play area with water slides and spray toys, li’l tot splash pad, beautiful lazy river ride, dive in movie theater, arcade with mini bowling alley, beach service and water toys, pool side bar and grill, complimentary pool towels, adult only heated pools with jacuzzi, state of the art fitness facility overlooking the pool, high speed internet, covered parking, onsite beach apparel and surf shop, and ice cream shop/cafe. You’ll have to see it with your own eyes to believe it!!!! All within 2 miles of Pier Park shopping, movies and restaurants. This Splash condo has great rental history and is ready for your family to enjoy!

Splash Condo Unit 1707W

Splash Condos for Sale

Splash Condo Market Analysis and Market Snapshot

Currently Offered at $419,00

2 Bedrooms / 2 Baths

1,505 square feet

Gulf Front Condo

Home in WaterSound Beach 88 Tidepool Lane as Craig’s Top Distressed Property Pick for October 23rd, 2009

This home is NOT a short sale or a foreclosure. However, it is a distressed property as it is an unfinished home in beautiful WaterSound Beach. This is a tremendous opportunity to buy a custom designed, unfinished home in WaterSound Beach. This fabulous parkside home is situated to take advantage of the peaceful, landscaped puttering park and its lush green common areas. This one-of-a-kind residence boasts an open and spacious floor plan highlighted by its stunning 28 foot grand atrium which accentuates the homes seamless flow from inside to out. This home is a Coastal Chic Cape Cod style home on the outside, but boasts a clean contemporary design and theme on the inside.

Home in WaterSound Beach 88 Tidepool Lane  MLS Listing

Homes  in WaterSound Beach

Condos in WaterSound Beach

The four large bedrooms are perfectly designed with the master suite located on the main level and is joined by the inviting and exquisite master bath which is perfectly appointed. The expansive great room with its soaring ceilings is open to the large dining and kitchen areas. With its high bar seating, center island and generous use of space, the kitchen is the perfect gathering spot. Complementing this space is the spectacular white oak and glass “floating” staircase leading to the second level loft and additional living areas. A large screened in porch with its own fireplace as well as sitting and dining alcoves is adjacent to the great room and overlooks the beautiful park area. The second level is bright and airy with a large loft area accentuated with custom built ins as well as a separate sitting area. Two additional guest bedrooms with private baths finish off the second floor. Ascend the tower alcove to enjoy the gulf views from your relaxing third story loft and crows nest. The separate carriage house, connected via a second story bridge, allows for the ultimate in privacy. Enjoy your own fully equipped apartment with full sized bedroom, well-appointed kitchen, separate breakfast nook, full bath and a living area! This modern home has been created with only the best materials and finishes, from the genuine cedar shakes and wide-plank white oak flooring to the impact resistant windows and doors. This home has been uniquely designed with a generous use of storage space for kayaks and canoes as well as outdoor spaces for gardens and a koi pond. With the multitude of windows, breezeways, and screened porches this is the perfect beach retreat! Opportunity to purchase a Watersound Beach Club membership available.

88 Tidepool Lane in WaterSound Beach

3,400sf

4 Bedrooms / 4.5 Baths

Offered at $920,000 or $270/sf

If you are interested in this distressed home in WaterSound Beach or would like to preview other homes in WaterSound Beach. Please give Tracy Baranowski 850.259.4270 or Craig Baranowski  a call at 850.259.1788 or email  us info@teambaranowski.com.

Is Freddie Getting Serious About Helping Troubled Home Owners?

Freddie Mac has hired a company to go door-to-door to help troubled homeowners modify their mortgages. The Titanium Solutions representatives will meet one-on-one with borrowers in their home to review requirements, determine necessary documents, obtain signatures, and walk homeowners through the modification process.

The representatives will not handle any money from borrowers in hopes of deterring imposters and fraud.

This unprecedented, proactive approach will hopefully lead to a greater number of loan modifications, fewer foreclosures, and stabilized home prices.

Although this appears to be a great idea, I am not too sure I would welcome someone knocking on my door to help me modify my loan. I don’t even buy magazines from door to door sales people!

If you are a troubled homeowner, please give us a call for a confidential consultation about the possibility of a short sale. Please give Tracy Baranowski a call at 850.259.4270 or Craig Baranowski at 850.259.1788 or email  us @ info@teambaranowski.com. Team Baranowski has a 100% success rate for all of our short sales for 2009!

What is the Credit Score Impact of Loan Modifications?

The Obama administration’s Making Home Affordable program intends to help 4-5 million homeowners refinance their mortgage to stay in their home, thereby reducing the number of foreclosures and helping to stabilize home prices. However, there may be an unintended consequence to this initiative.

Up until recently, loan modifications were relatively rare and indicated increased credit risk. Many otherwise creditworthy homeowners who have modified their loan have seen a drop, possibly a large one, in their credit score. The higher the premodification credit score, the larger the potential drop.

Jack Guttentag, professor of finance at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, has said that this may deter people from trying loan modifications, possibly resulting in fewer modifications and more foreclosures.

A new classification will be added in November that will allow lenders to specify if the modification is a part of the government program. FICO may also do more in-depth research on load modifications to gauge if their formula needs to be adjusted.

The consequences of a loan modification are less severe than a foreclosure. Any troubled homeowner seeking a modification is advised to understand the exact terms of the modification, work with a nonprofit housing counselor, and ask the lender if the modification is a part of the government program.

If you are a troubled homeowner who does not meet the loan modification criteria, please give us a call for a confidential consultation about the possibility of a short sale. Please give Tracy Baranowski a call at 850.259.4270 or Craig Baranowski at 850.259.1788 or email  us @ info@teambaranowski.com. Team Baranowski has a 100% success rate for all of our short sales for 2009!

First-time Home Buyer Tax Credit Update

To qualify for the $8,000 tax credit, first-time buyers must close on their homes by November 30. As closings have been taking between 30 and 60 days to occur, time is running out for first-time buyers wanting to cash in.

Although an extension to the current bill far is from a certainty, two current mayhave the potential to pass before the deadline.

1. S (Senate) bill 1678 would extend the current credit exactly as it is for another six months, expiring on June 1, 2010.
2. HR (House of Representatives) bill 3590 would extend the tax credit for a year, but it would add a requirement that only service members who were on duty overseas for at least ninety days during 2009 would qualify.

A Zillow survey found that one in five potential first-time buyers said an extended tax credit would be their primary reason to buy in the next six months, while 43% said that it would be either the primary reason or a significant factor. The cost of extending the current credit “as is” is a major concern in Congress. This year’s credit is set to come with a price tag of $14 billion, reaching an expected 2 million new homeowners. During the additional six months, the Senate’s version of an extension would cost nearly as much and reach nearly as many people as the current bill.

While it may mean good news for those first-time buyers who miss the deadline, it would be wise for buyers counting on the tax credit to meet the deadline.

If you are interested in learning more about First-time home buyer programs, please give Tracy Baranowski a call at 850.259.4270 or Craig Baranowski at 850.259.1788 or email  us info@teambaranowski.com.

80% of First-time Home Buyers Used FHA Financing

First-time home buyers have been scrambling to get their homes purchased before the first-time home buyer tax credit expires on November 30th, 2009. According to CNNMoney.com FHA Loans continue to be popular for buyers.

80% of First-time Home Buyers have used FHA Financing

FHA loans continue to be a popular choice. With only 3.5% required as a down payment, FHA is the easiest way for first-time buyers to purchase.

So far this year, FHA loans have made up 23% of all loans, compared to 2% only three years ago.

80% of all first-time home buyers have opted for FHA as their financing of choice.

With the subprime market gone, FHA caters to those with less-than-perfect credit and those who don’t have a 20% down payment. Despite the downside of FHA, such as higher delinquency and foreclosure rates than conventional loans, FHA has played a major part in bolstering the troubled housing market this year by making homeownership more affordable to enter. FHA is taking several measures to address the risk associated with its loans and currently has no concerns about its financial position.

If you are interested in learning more about First-time home buyer programs, please give Tracy Baranowski a call at 850.259.4270 or Craig Baranowski at 850.259.1788 or email  us info@teambaranowski.com.

Survey: What are other First-time Home Buyers Doing?

As the Second largest Real Estate Company in the United States, Keller Williams does extensive market research from its base of millions of customers. The did a simple survey with the hopes to answer the simple question, “What are other first-time home buyers doing?”

The results were pretty interesting:

1. The median age is 28, significantly down  from where it was four years ago at 32.
2. The median home size was 1,600 sq ft.
3. Location or Neighborhood was the No. 1  “must-have” for 36% of buyers.
4. 2 out of 5 first-time buyers purchased a  distressed property.
5. 2 out of 3 sellers paid at least part of the buyer’s closing costs.
6. 76% used their own savings for the down payment.
7. 1 in 4 had help from their family for the down payment.

If you are interested in learning more about First-time home buyer programs, please give Tracy Baranowski a call at 850.259.4270 or Craig Baranowski at 850.259.1788 or email  us info@teambaranowski.com.

Podcast 30A Radio – Real Estate Round Up: Seaside Home Luxury Spotlight and WaterColor Home Distressed Property Spotlight, October 16th, 2009

Podcast #18 of Real Estate Round Up, South Walton’s Real Estate News hosted by Craig and Tracy Baranowski on 30A Radio. Weekly broadcast is at 9am CST on 107.1FM in beautiful Seaside Florida, visit www.30aradio.org for a complete program guide. Featured stories are 15 Pensacola Street Home in Seaside as our Luxury home spotlight of the week and 19 Calamint Court Home in WaterColor as our Distressed Property Spotlight of the week,  foreclosures rise 5%, and strategic defaulters.

Summer to Fall Foreclosures Rise 5%

We are still working our way out of this epic foreclosure crisis. As lenders such as Bank of America and Wells Fargo delay foreclosures, we see a sporadic trend of foreclosures across the country. We are anxiously waiting to see what will happen during the 2009 holiday season.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Oct. 15, 2009 – The number of households caught up in the foreclosure crisis rose more than 5 percent from summer to fall as a federal effort to assist struggling borrowers was overwhelmed by a flood of defaults among people who lost their jobs.

The foreclosure crisis affected nearly 938,000 properties in the July-September quarter, compared with about 890,000 in the prior three months, according to a report released Thursday by RealtyTrac Inc. That puts foreclosure-related filings on a pace to hit about 3.5 million this year, up from more than 2.3 million last year.

Unemployment is the main reason homeowners are falling into trouble. While the economy is likely out of recession, the unemployment rate — now at a 26-year high of 9.8 percent — isn’t expected to peak until the middle of next year.

Mortgage companies sometimes allow unemployed homeowners to defer three to six months of payments while they are looking for a job. But there’s little else they can do.

“The sheer scale of the problem is preventing the loan modification programs from having the kind of impact we’d all like,” said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac’s senior vice president for marketing.

Last week, the Obama administration hailed a milestone in its mortgage relief effort, reporting that 500,000 homeowners have received help since the program was launched in March. But new defaults are still exceeding the number of borrowers getting help.

Mortgage companies have slowed down the pace of foreclosures as they evaluate whether borrowers qualify for the administration’s program. Analysts, however, forecast that many of those homeowners won’t qualify, and foresee a new wave of foreclosed properties hitting the market next year. That’s likely to further depress home prices.

Some homeowners are in such a massive financial hole that it’s hard to design a modification that will actually provide lower payments. And some have avoided paying their monthly bills for a long time.

Carlos Estrada, 57, of Tulare, Calif., for example, hasn’t made a mortgage payment since February 2008. The construction jobs that kept him working more than 40 hours a week during the housing boom have all but vanished.

Earlier this year, he turned down a modification offer from Bank of America because it would have incorporated his unpaid balance and raised his monthly bill. But a bank spokeswoman said Wednesday that Estrada’s foreclosure sale had been postponed until late next month while the bank reviews whether he can qualify for help.

“I’m still here waiting for them to help me resolve this situation,” Estrada said in Spanish.

According to the RealtyTrac report, there were nearly 344,000 foreclosure-related filings last month, down 4 percent from a month earlier but still the third-highest month since the report started in early 2005.

It was the seventh-straight month in which more than 300,000 households received a foreclosure filing, which includes default notices and several other legal notices that homeowners receive before they finally lose their homes.

Banks repossessed nearly 88,000 homes in September, up from about 76,000 a month earlier.

On a state-by-state basis, Nevada had the nation’s highest foreclosure rate in the July-September quarter. Arizona was No. 2, followed by California, Florida and Idaho. Rounding out the top 10 were Utah, Georgia, Michigan, Colorado and Illinois.

AP LogoCopyright © 2009 The Associated Press, Alan Zibel, AP real estate writer. AP Real Estate Writer Alex Veiga contributed to this report from Los Angeles.

Home in WaterColor 19 Calamint Court as Craig’s Top Distressed Property Pick for October 16th, 2009

This week’s featured distressed property brings us to the wonderful community of  WaterColor.  One of the most sought after communities in Northwest Florida, homes in WaterColor continue to be the number one area for sales for 2009. WaterColor offers extensive amenities including, multiple community pools, Western Lake, a Beach Club, Tennis Courts, shopping, dining, a 4 Diamond Hotel and much more.

Home in WaterColor 19 Calamint Court  MLS Listing

Homes in WaterColor

Condos in WaterColor

A truly livable home in WaterColor…. fantastic walk-in closet in master; large walk-in pantry; two masters — one on each floor, 3 out of 4 bedrooms open to a porch; on a quiet street with a green space out front to enjoy; large “potting shed” and brick paver patio with built-in grill. Bonus room could be a study, bunk room, media room or playroom. Designed by Geoff Chick. There are 4 bedrooms plus bunk room. The master suite on the second-floor has a private balcony, large walk-in closet, separate vanities, and custom steam shower. Two other bedrooms with private baths are located on the second floor, in addition to a bonus room/bunkroom and an office nook on landing. The upstairs screened porch runs the length of the house and would make an ideal “sleeping porch”. The kitchen offers an expansive dine-in bar with stainless appliances including Wolf range, custom cabinetry, fire-clay farmhouse sink, ice maker and large walk-in pantry. Additional features include walnut floors throughout, 10′ ceilings on both the first and second floors, tray ceiling detail in first-floor living area. Projected rental income for 2009 of $63,000, based on similar 4 Bedroom/4.5Bath/Bunk in WaterColor Phase II. This is a short sale.

19 Calamint Court Home in WaterColor

2,464sf

4 Bedrooms / 4.5 Baths

Offered at $899,000 or $364/sf

If you are interested in this distressed home in WaterColor or would like to preview other homes in WaterColor. Please give Tracy Baranowski 850.259.4270 or Craig Baranowski  a call at 850.259.1788 or email  us info@teambaranowski.com.

Billions in Bailouts and What Are They Doing With It?

The Federal Government has dedicated billions of funds of  TARP money to help banks recover from the massive economic downturn in the housing industry. What have they done with the money and why aren’t they averting foreclosures?

I get questions every day of why mortgage modifications never apply to my customers and if they do qualify, why are the modification programs ultimately a less favorable financial solution then before the modified their loan. If there are billions of dollars being spent, where it is going?

There is a great article that talks extensively about the issue of service providers badgering, manipulating and lying to their customers. They have even stuck customers with bogus fees or improperly foreclosed on them. The article can be read below and is definitely worth your time to read.

Firms are getting billions, yet aren’t averting foreclosures

WASHINGTON – Oct. 6, 2009 – The federal government is engaged in a massive mortgage modification program that’s on track to send billions in tax dollars to many of the very companies that judges or regulators have cited in recent years for abusive mortgage practices.

The firms, called mortgage servicers, have been cited for badgering, manipulating or lying to their customers, sticking them with bogus fees, or improperly foreclosing on them.

Mortgage servicers are the middlemen between homeowners and the investors that hold their mortgages, collect homeowners’ checks and disburse payments for the mortgages, property tax and insurance. They’re a necessary player for any modification.

The reliance on such companies points to an ironic paradox for federal regulators: Cleaning up the nation’s financial crisis often rewards the firms that helped create the mess. Those Wall Street banks and mortgage servicing companies argue that they’re best positioned to repair the damage they’ve helped cause. In the case of the mortgage program, the firms getting the taxpayers’ money are, after all, the firms that control the troubled mortgages.

To make matters worse, the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ watchdog, has said that the Treasury Department hasn’t done enough to oversee the companies participating in what’s known as the Home Affordable Modification Program, which emerged from the bank bailout bill Congress passed last fall.

The modification program has been slow to get off the ground. Since it began this spring, only 12 percent of a potential 3 million delinquent mortgages have begun the process of being reworked, or put into “a trial modification,” according to Treasury Department data through August, the most recent available.

“We’ve consistently been behind this problem,” said Mark Pearce, North Carolina’s chief deputy commissioner of banks, who works with a state-level group of attorneys general from across the country. “Two years ago, maybe some were caught by surprise. But we still haven’t gotten to a point where the servicers have demonstrated an ability to handle the problem.”

Housing advocates say homeowners still face “reluctant lenders,” said Irwin Trauss, an attorney who represents low-income homeowners for Philadelphia Legal Assistance. He recently testified at a hearing of the Congressional Oversight Panel, the watchdog that monitors the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, better known as TARP, or the bank bailout bill.

Trauss said that Bank of America, at least through July, told homeowners that they couldn’t participate in the program when they should’ve been allowed to do so, and he alleges that Saxon Mortgage forced one of his clients into bankruptcy without providing a valid reason for turning down her modification request. Trauss’ comments were echoed by other housing advocates, who’ve found mortgage servicers slow to respond and confused about modification rules.

“Servicers look for reasons to avoid making the modifications when they are most needed, rather than for opportunities to make them,” Trauss said.

Saxon Mortgage said it couldn’t comment on Trauss’ testimony because it wasn’t provided with specific details of the account in question. Bank of America said there could have been instances in which improperly trained employees were confused about the modification rules, but the vast majority of customers have been given proper information.

Although it’s early in the Treasury Department’s program, housing advocates say the servicer industry for years has resisted helping customers with modifications. Donna and Ronnie Fruia, of Troutman, N.C., learned firsthand how difficult it can be.

The couple was in the midst of a series of health crises, and three members of the family – the couple’s son, Donna’s mother and Ronnie – were in the hospital.

It was then that Donna got an urgent call that somebody from her mortgage company, CitiFinancial, had just showed up in her husband’s hospital room, where he was recovering from a stroke.

“They said, ‘Some guy’s in there aggravating him,’ “ she said.

“At the time, I couldn’t even really talk that good,” Ronnie said. “But he wanted me to sign a bunch of papers.”

The Fruias had been trying to get a mortgage modification from CitiFinancial. The company, however, was pushing the Fruias to accept a modification that wouldn’t have cut their interest rate, they said.

Only after the episode in the hospital room and the involvement of state regulators did CitiFinancial cut the mortgage’s interest rate from 11.5 percent to 5 percent, lowering their monthly payment from $985 to $602. The process took from the start of the year until July.

“They were the perfect candidate for someone with a subprime rate getting a modification,” said Henrietta Thompson, who as housing coordinator for United Family Services, a United Way-funded organization in Charlotte, helped the Fruias. “I know if the banking commissioner hadn’t gotten involved, it wouldn’t have happened.”

While CitiFinancial, a unit of Citigroup Inc. – one of the largest recipients of TARP bailout funds – said it couldn’t talk about specific customers, it’s “pleased” that the case was resolved.

“We have strict guidelines concerning the behavior of our representatives, and the incident you described would not be acceptable under our policies, even if well-intentioned,” said Mark Rodgers, a spokesman.

It shouldn’t have been a surprise that the mortgage service companies would have trouble executing wide-scale mortgage modifications. They generally aren’t set up for the complicated business of reworking loans.

In 2007, an assistant attorney general in Iowa, Patrick Madigan, analyzed the looming mortgage meltdown and found that mortgage service companies have a “highly automated process, spending as little time as possible on an individual loan and preferably no time actually talking to the customer.”

“Loan modifications, by contrast, are a time-intensive process that requires a great deal of individualized attention,” he wrote. “In some situations, it may be easier and cheaper for a servicer to simply foreclose on a borrower than to try to fix the underlying problem.”

Service companies had high turnover and employees who saw their jobs as akin to that of collection agents. Some were known to hang up on callers if they started to get tough questions, Madigan wrote. He urged mortgage service companies to hire far more staff and boost training.

That year, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller convened a group of state officials (Iowa’s Madigan helped coordinate the effort), who then contacted the nation’s 20 largest servicers of risky subprime mortgages.

By September 2008, however, as the economy went into free fall, the mortgage industry’s efforts had been “profoundly disappointing.”

“Too many homeowners face foreclosure without receiving any meaningful assistance by their mortgage servicer, a reality that is growing worse rather than better,” said a report from the State Foreclosure Prevention Working Group.

By this year, more federal and private efforts were under way to modify millions of troubled mortgages, and customer service was beginning to improve. Companies, though, were still having trouble getting the job done.

“It is difficult for homeowners to initiate productive discussions with lenders because many servicers lack the capacity to deal with a large volume of modifications,” the Congressional Oversight Panel reported. “Servicers are generally understaffed for handling a large volume of consumer loan workouts.”

The panel found that it’s “unlikely” that mortgage servicers will be able to do all they’re being asked to do: “Servicers are simply in the wrong line of business for doing modifications en masse,” it said.

Madigan, the assistant Iowa attorney general, said in an interview that “the mortgage industry has responded to this crisis with a series of half steps based on a notion that a turnaround in the housing market was just around the corner.”

Under the Treasury Department’s mortgage modification program, three parties can participate: the company that owns the loan, the company that services the loan, and the homeowner. All get a portion of the more than $20 billion that the federal government currently estimates it could spend to keep homes out of foreclosure.

While the Treasury said it’s necessary to take in as many mortgage service companies as possible, the GAO found that the department wasn’t doing enough to monitor the process.

In a July report, the GAO said that the department had “significant gaps in its oversight structure,” and was short-staffed in the office monitoring the modification program. As of July – eight months into the program – the Treasury had filled fewer than half the positions in a key modification office. (Many of those jobs have since been filled, the department said.)

Beyond that, the government had conducted “readiness reviews” of only seven of 27 mortgage servicers the GAO examined; no more were planned. The reviews only included interviews with senior executives – and the information gathered wasn’t verified.

“Treasury cannot identify, assess and address risks associated with servicers that lack the capacity to fulfill all program requirements,” the GAO said.

Treasury said it’s beefing up its review procedures and also said it recognizes many of the problems and has been working to correct them. “Clearly, we’re not there yet,” said Seth Wheeler, one of the Treasury officials who oversees the modification effort. “Clearly there’s still inconsistent application of the program, even though we have made progress.”

Several companies in the Treasury program have been cited by judges or regulators for engaging in improper behavior with their customers.

They include Select Portfolio Servicing Inc., a Utah-based company formerly known as Fairbanks Capital Corp.; Countrywide Home Loan Servicing, now a unit of Bank of America Corp.; Carrington Mortgage Services LLC, based in California; Saxon Mortgage Services Inc., a unit of Morgan Stanley; EMC Mortgage Corp., now a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase & Co.; and Green Tree Servicing, a Minnesota company.

Ocwen Financial Corp., a Florida-based company that services more than 300,000 mortgages nationwide, could receive more than $200 million in TARP payments.

“Ocwen has screwed up my finances so bad you can’t believe it,” said Brad Rhoton, whose rental properties in the Houston suburbs are part of a nationwide lawsuit against Ocwen. “It’s been the most maddening process you can imagine.”

Rhoton’s lawsuit charges that Ocwen constantly misapplied Rhoton’s mortgage payments and tacked on unnecessary fees and insurance, causing his accounts to fall behind.

So far under the Treasury’s modification program, Ocwen has started trial modifications in 8 percent of potential mortgages – below the national average and well below some other servicers.

Paul Koches, a company spokesman, said the number is misleadingly low. Ocwen, he said, has set rigorous standards in documenting its modifications and is therefore likely to have a far higher share of its modifications stick than other companies. He said that Ocwen undertook its own loan modification program in 2007 and has beefed up its staff substantially since then.

As for the suits against it, Koches said they represent a fraction of the firm’s customer base, and many were copycat lawsuits that tried to paint Ocwen with the same brush as other mortgage servicer firms. He said the company continues to vigorously defend itself against lawsuits.

Over the years, Ocwen has lost other lawsuits and has been slapped down by a federal judge for its conduct.

In one Texas bankruptcy case, for example, a federal judge blasted Ocwen after it tried to pass the cost of a $1,000 sanction onto the customer it was cited for mistreating. When the judge found out, he said, “Ocwen’s course of conduct in this proceeding bordered on the outrageous.” He fined the company an additional $27,500.

The case was far from isolated, however. A jury in Galveston, Texas, ordered the company to pay $11.5 million, and one down the coast in Corpus Christi ordered it to pay $3 million for unfairly foreclosing on homeowners (both cases were then settled in the appeals process for undisclosed amounts).

In both cases, the plaintiffs were on the edge financially, and so when Ocwen added extra fees to their accounts, they quickly fell behind.

That was part of their strategy, plaintiffs’ attorneys said. One of the key witnesses before both juries was a former Ocwen account officer who said the company trained its sights on customers who had substantial equity in their homes. In those cases, the company had the most to gain if customers lost their homes in foreclosure.

“We didn’t treat the people very well, but the money was pretty good,” the former account officer, Ron Davis, testified during one of the trials. (Davis couldn’t be reached for further comment.)

The motive, he said, was simple: force people into foreclosure as a way to earn higher bonuses.

“We would call the customers and ask them what bridge they were going to live under,” Davis testified.

Ocwen lost that lawsuit. A Texas jury found that the company engaged in “fraudulent, deceptive, or misleading” tactics that it called “unconscionable.” The case involved an elderly Texas woman the bank tried to evict from her home even after a local judge had ordered it not to. The jury awarded her $11.5 million, which was reduced to $1.8 million, according to Ocwen’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings; the case was settled during appeals.

Outside the courts, federal regulators in 2004 approached Ocwen to request that the company enter into a formal supervisory agreement under which it promised to improve its customer service. It required, for example, that Ocwen beef up its ombudsman to take customer complaints; adopt a “borrower-oriented customer service commitment plan”; take reasonable actions to see if homeowners already have hazard insurance before adding it to customers’ accounts; and regularly report to federal regulators about outstanding customer complaints.

Koches of Ocwen said the agreement was merely an attempt to formalize many of the steps the company was already taking – and that the company and federal regulators wanted to avoid the kind of problems other firms had experienced.

Later that year, however, Ocwen took steps to ensure that such regulatory findings wouldn’t come again.

By successfully petitioning to have itself removed from the oversight of the Office of Thrift Supervision, the supervisory agreement hatched just months before was ended, according to Ocwen’s regulatory filings. Ocwen said it removed itself from OTS oversight for business reasons unrelated to the supervisory agreement and that it continues to follow the intent of the agreement.

© 2009 McClatchy-Tribune Information Services, Chris Adams. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune News Service.

Home in Santa Rosa Beach 221 San Juan Ave as Craig’s Top Distressed Property Pick for October 9th, 2009

San Juan Avenue has some excellent properties and this home I chose for my top distressed property pick is a winner. San Juan avenue intersects Scenic Highway 30Aon both the north and south side. The south side have very few homes and one of the best public beach accesses in the area in addition to the deeded access for the Gulf Shore Manor development on San Juan Avenue. From the north side you can see the gulf from the street almost a quarter of a mile north of scenic highway 30a. Just east of highway 395 San Juan avenue offers quick and easy access to the dining and shopping along Scenic 30A as well as quick access to Seaside and WaterColor. This make properties along San Juan Avenue so desirable.

221 San Juan Avenue a Bank Foreclosure and definite gem on 30A. This 2 story home is a must see for the price. This beautiful home has the master is on the main, high ceilings, crown molding and an open floor plan. It is a short stroll to the Public Beach access. This will be a fantastic rental. Do not forget the beautiful pool in the back yard for relaxing and entertaining! This 2 story home is a must see for this price.

221 San Juan Avenue

1,783sf

3 Bedrooms / 3.5 Baths

Offered at $310,000 or $173/sf

Home in Santa Rosa Beach 221 San Juan Avenue MLS Listing

Distressed properties along Scenic Highway 30A

If you are interested in this distressed home in Santa Rosa Beach and would like to preview it. Please give Tracy Baranowski a call at 850.259.4270 or Craig Baranowski at 850.259.1788 or email  us info@teambaranowski.com.

Bank of America formerly Countrywide NEW NEW Short Sale Process…REOTrans.com

Yes you heard that right. This is the NEW NEW short sale process. Just being rolled out at the end of September 2009. I believe there are doing a phased roll out as there has not been any formal announcements as to the new process.

This week I had a cryptic voicemail that one my short sales for Bank of America was being moved into the REOtrans.com system. The voicemail informed me that I needed to register with REOtrans.com and have my seller register as well. My seller would then need to select me as the agent associated with the file. At first I thought this was a scam, however, I called Bank of America and confirmed that this is a new streamlined short sale process that Bank of America will be using. According to Bank of America this will dramatically increase the efficiency of short sale processing.

From what I was told, Bank of America will be not taking any more short sales while they transfer the processing to REOTrans. This will be for a very short period of time and would explain why many of my Bank of America short sales and my colleagues’ short sales in my distressed property network were having issues getting new short sales into the Bank of America system.

So, I have initiated my first REOTrans.com formerly Bank of America formerly Countrywide short sale. The future is bright…I hope!

I will keep everyone updated as I get new information.

Homebuyers Hit with Guilt Buying Foreclosures and Short Sales

Reality hits hard when many of my potential buyers walk through a short sale or foreclosed property. They see children’s hand prints in the concrete driveway, children’s names stenciled on walls in their bedrooms…they see firsthand a home where someone’s lives and dreams have been shattered by the economic downturn. It is easy to feel guilt profiting off someon else’s misfortune. As short sales and foreclosures become the norm, this issue of buyer’s guilt has been more common across the United States.

Below is an excellent article that details one such story…

LAS VEGAS – Aug. 27, 2009 – Right about now, Anya Sanko should be enjoying the thrill of being a first-time homebuyer. She bided her time, saved her money and jumped into the market in time to snap up a 1,785-square-foot home with a pool for $143,000.

Yet Sanko, 37, is having a hard time celebrating. Her parents lost their house in Michigan to foreclosure after her father lost his job, her sister’s home equity has evaporated and friends struggling with mortgages don’t want to hear it.

And then there’s that slab in the backyard of the foreclosed house she bought. The previous owners and their children had scrawled their names in it when the concrete was poured, back in 2005 when they bought it for $287,500 amid the Vegas housing boom.

“I think about them all the time,” says Sanko, who works for the city of Las Vegas. “I see the names in that concrete slab, sometimes I get their mail, I see all the work they put into this house.

“It’s sad that they never got the reward from all of that work.”

Living with the past

This sentiment – call it economic survivor guilt – is a little-noticed emotional byproduct of the financial devastation wrought by the housing and banking meltdowns of the past year. Sanko was always frugal, has a stable job and bought within her means, and yet there’s a lingering sense, as she puts it, that “you’re capitalizing off of somebody else’s misfortune.”

“I do hear this from people who are looking, that it feels strange to be getting a great deal because someone else couldn’t afford their home,” says Jack LeVine, a local real estate agent. “I just remind them that it’s not their fault and that they need to take advantage of the market for the good of their families.”

Monique McCoy, 44, knows this logically, but it doesn’t keep her from reacting emotionally as she visits one foreclosed property after another with her real estate agent. Sometimes, she says, she can sense the drama that must have occurred within the walls, especially the angst that drives some evicted residents to trash the place on the way out.

“Some of the foreclosures are in such bad shape that the people obviously felt so bad losing their home,” says McCoy, who has a $113,000 bid in on a short sale for a home that last sold for $244,500 in 2004. “You sense the feeling that something went very wrong. I just don’t want that kind of vibe.”

People are actually living in the same space as the people who suffered financial misfortune.

‘A human face’ on the issue

“I think there is a guilt of survivorship that is real,” says Lafair, who is based in Santa Fe and has provided counseling for real estate agents who say clients express this concern.

Mixed into the guilt, however, is some anger. Sanko notes that she was left out of the conversation earlier this decade when all her friends were bragging about the home they bought and the equity they had accrued. Being house-proud, once trendy, is now socially awkward.

In most cases, folks who buy foreclosed properties never deal with the previous residents, but Jesse Chase, 30, of Las Vegas came home one day to find his life partner sitting with the woman who owned the house before her. The two were weeping.

“This lady came by just to look around,” says Chase, who bought the 1,800-square-foot ranch home for $130,000 in April. “Her husband had lost his job because he got cancer and couldn’t work, and they couldn’t afford it anymore. My partner invited her in and it totally put a human face on what’s happening.

“I really wish she hadn’t done that to us. We cried about it for days.”