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Property Types Explained 2007-11-16 00:48:00 Single-Family Home: A residential property on a single lot designed for the use of one family. Most single-family homes are built on lots larger than the structure itself, adding an area surrounding the house, which is commonly called a yard. ***************************************************** Multi-Family Homes: Multi-Family Residences consist of duplexes, triplexes and four-plexes. A duplex house is a dwelling comprised of two units, usually side-by-side, but sometimes on two different floors. **************************************************** Townhouse - 3 or more houses in a row sharing a “party” wall with its adjacent neighbor. It’s a single-family dwelling unit constructed in a series or group of attached units with property lines separating such units. A townhouse is like a house in that the owner owns both the structure and the land on which it sits; but it is not free-standing, so “the land on which it sits” is limited to the front and bac ...

Job Search 3.0 2007-11-15 21:57:39 Why do I get the feeling that this and this are just sort of expanded online resume’s? They read like someone getting their ducks in a row for the next employment opportunity. Since they’ve brought in barely $3M this year from real estate sales, they’ve still got some dough left, but not much. As intimated in the remarks, they may run out of money soon. But these essays and guest posts scattered across the internet are providing a framework for another position in some high-tech firm. By carefully laying everything out for all to see, one can write ones own history while moving through the process, and create an online resource perfect for the head-hunter looking for a new CEO. HR can easily see that the business plans were sound. Real estate was just the wrong product, unmanagable and high-touch instead of high-tech. The CEO will not make that kind of mistake again. And if the business flounders, one will be inculpable and have no blame, as the business plan ...

1,000 and Growing 2007-11-15 19:00:12 Hi Everyone - I just wanted to quickly note that today Blown Mortgage hit 1,005 feed subscribers; cracking the 1,000 feed reader mark for the first time ever. This means that in addition to the thousands of people that visit this blog every day there are at least another 1,000 that are reading Blown Mortgage content through a feed reader or email.  This number vacillates daily and I’m sure we’ll drop down in to the 800s on weekends and  slow days; but in all it’s a great milestone to hit. This is a mile stone that I’ve been excited about for a long time and am so grateful that you all have found it worth your while to read Blown Mortgage and make it a part of your daily in-take of news. I know that there are millions of blogs and news sources out there and the fact that you read and participate in this community is the ultimate compliment. Thank you to you all and as they say “the more the merrier.” I can’t wait till we hit 2,000 and beyond ...

WaMu Eliminates Option ARM, Other Changes 2007-11-15 14:30:12 The below communication was internal to Washington Mutual originators outlining the changes the bank is making to help improve the quality of loans in Washington Mutual’s portfolio and those that are pooled for sale.  Of primary import is the elimination of the Option ARM which WaMu originated relentlessly over the past several years.  In fact, while Countrywide rightfully catches the brunt of the Option ARM ire, WaMu was no saint either, with a massive amount of their quarterly “non-cash” profit booked from deferred interest associated with their Option ARM holdings. For them to go away from the Option ARM is an admission that the profits booked are not likely to be recognized and that they need to begin unwinding their profit and earnings from deferred interest originated by Option ARMs.  Needless to say quality is a big issue with WaMu since they continue to have one of the lowest loan loss reserves out of all the major banks. As I’ve said before - lots of ...

Buyers battle for Toronto condos 2007-11-15 13:07:10 Condo hysteria broke out on a Toronto sidewalk yesterday as people waiting in the cold for over a week to buy space in a luxury high-rise accused latecomers of butting into line. About 125 people “? including some brokers and many others using paid proxies “? took turns shivering in sleeping bags outside the site of an 80-storey condo tower to be built at Yonge and Bloor. Last week those camping out for a piece of the $450-million skyscraper decided to make life easier for themselves by letting people leave their places so long as they showed up for roll call every few hours. The social pact worked harmoniously until yesterday morning, when a couple of agents claimed spots at the front of the line a few hours before the sales office opened for the first time at noon. See story in thestar.com » ...

Countrywide Eliminates Interest Only Qualification 2007-11-15 10:08:52 Countrywide sent out a notice today that as of the 19th of November any loan that is requested as an interest only loan must still be qualified at the full monthly payment for debt to income purposes.  This is a major blow for many people living in high-cost areas who used interest only loans to qualify for larger loan amounts (even on fixed loans).  This removes another option for people in over their heads on adjustable rate mortgages who were using fixed-rate interest only loans as an escape route out of exploding adjustable rate mortgages. This single handedly will increase the speed of price declines in areas like California where interest only loans and other exotic mortgages make up more than 40% of the total loans written on real estate in the area. Here’s the email: To all business partners. –> As of the 11/19/2007 we will not longer be qualifying off IO payments on IO first trust deeds. –> DTI’s calculated on IO payments must be locked an ...

The Pinnacle of Mortgage Fraud 2007-11-15 05:25:33 Hat tip Chris, who sent me this Reuters article that highlights the rampant fraud that took place within the mortgage industry as a result of the recent housing boom.  The story highlights the fate of a particular downtown Miami condominium building where nearly 1/3 of the building 640+ condos are now in foreclosure.  The reason?  Straw-buying, cash out at close, mortgage loans that have been abandoned. First, a primer on how these cash out at close deals work with a straw buyer.  First, you find someone with great credit who is willing to go on the loan in exchange for some money (say $5-10K).  Then you have an appraiser inflate the value of the property as much as possible so that the loan size is as big as possible.  Then you buy the property for the actual listing price and pocket the difference.  Finally, you pay the straw buyer, and then walk away.  The money in your pocket, the unit empty, the loan unpaid, and the time to start all over again. As the head of funding in o ...

Home Staging starts with top quality pictures 2007-11-15 05:24:30 Home Staging starts with good quality real estate portfolio. Since the Internet became readily available in North America, more and more home buyers use the Web to shop for properties and select the ones they want to visit. The latest statistics indicate that over 85% of the potential buyers for YOUR home will use your pictures to make a decision whether to visit based on what they see. So, if your pictures are out of focus, blurry or unclear, you’ll likely lose many of those potential visitors”¦. One important question to consider for best quality photographs is the number of megapixels your digital camera should have. (A megapixel is a measure of how much detail a digital camera can resolve and record.) The answer to this question depends on where and how you are planning to use the photos you take of a property or listing. If your photos are only going to be used online (such as for the MLS or an FSBO site, for a realtor website, or for a single-property website), ...

I am about to put an offer on a short sale property. What is a short sale? What can I expect? 2007-11-14 23:23:07 Q: I am about to put an offer on a short sale property. What is a short sale? What can I expect? Short sales sound very confusing. What am I about to get myself into? A: A short sale occurs when a homeowner who is unable to pay the monthly mortgage owes more then their house is worth, and in agreement with the lender sells the home. In the past, the only option homeowners had was foreclosure, which ruins credit scores for years to come. With a short sale you sell the home for less then its worth, with permission of the lender. If you are not in a hurry, and not trying to coordinate a sale of your home to coincide with a purchase, it can be the route to a purchase at a favorable price. If you are in a market of declining prices, you may very well find better deals on the current market. (more…) ...

Rumor Mill: Countrywide Specialty Lending Done?? 2007-11-14 19:10:26 The Implode-O-Meter is reporting a vicious, but oft-repeated, rumor that Countrywide is shuttering its Specialty Lending Division nationwide.  You can read more about it if you’re an Implode-O-Meter premium subscriber.  I can’t confirm this, although it wouldn’t be out-of-line with Countrywide’s proposed layoffs and Mozilo’s very public proclamation that Countrywide is out of subprime. If you’ve been affected or know any more about this please leave a comment or let me know. Share This ...

Another Chapter in the Slow Death of Nova Star 2007-11-14 16:59:39 Nova Star today reported nearly $600 million in losses for the 3rd quarter due to the deteriorating mortgage environment said representatives of the much beleaguered subprime originator. From Market Watch: NovaStar has been hit hard by rising delinquencies on subprime mortgages, which are offered to less creditworthy borrowers. It was a top-20 subprime mortgage lender last year, originating more than $10 billion in loans, according to industry publication Inside Mortgage Finance. The company has lost more than 95% of its market value so far this year. NovaStar said on Wednesday that subprime lending fundamentals and the secondary mortgage market have continued to deteriorate. “As the mortgage environment has grown progressively worse through 2007, we have greatly reduced our business activity and simplified our organization,” NovaStar Chief Executive Scott Hartman said in a statement. “Going forward, our strategy is to manage the cash flows from our portfolio of mo ...

The Second Time Isn’t Always a Charm 2007-11-14 16:14:39 Michael Arrington just posted onTechCrunch a Redfin essay arguing that venture capitalists put too much stock in an entrepreneur’s experience. Brimming with emotion, we saw that within seconds of publication, someone had already left a comment! What a thrill! We opened the comments page to see what our first reader had to say: “Stop with the guest posts. We only come here to hear from Mike and Duncan.” Somewhere in Seattle, a small office became very quiet. Moments later, Michael put the hammer down with his special green font: “do you guys practice at being assholes or does it come naturally?” ...

The Most Optimistic Place on Earth: CEO Camp 2007-11-14 15:41:03 Draper Fisher Jurvetson hosted a CEO Conference Monday in Half Moon Bay. Just about all the CEOs in the DFJ portfolio were there, mostly to talk among ourselves about how best to stave off the usual fate, which is to lose a lot of money and then get fired. And yet we all went into it with the unfounded optimism peculiar to California: as if we might find a new best friend, or start a religion, or get swept up in an apocalypse (fires, earthquakes, Internet bubbles) that no one could previously have been convinced to take seriously. I went curious to see what CEOs as a group would be like, as if to see what I might become: I imagined a convocation of X-Men, each with her own freakish flaws and special powers, or of business-casual, bloodlessly suave Agent Smiths. And there were plenty of both, more than can be described here in any organized way. An Israeli entrepreneur working on a top-secret project with Eastern European X-Box hackers complained that investors in his first business wo ...

Unusual convergence of events 2007-11-14 15:39:53 Christopher Hitchens represents conspiracy theories as the ‘exhaust fumes of democracy’, the unavoidable result of a large amount of information circulating among a large number of people. Other social commentators and sociologists argue that conspiracy theories are produced according to variables that may change within a democratic society. Conspiratorial accounts can be emotionally satisfying when they place events in a readily-understandable, moral context. The subscriber to the theory is able to assign moral responsibility for an emotionally troubling event or situation to a clearly-conceived group of individuals. Crucially, that group does not include the believer. The believer may then feel excused of any moral or political responsibility for remedying whatever institutional or societal flaw might be the actual source of the dissonance. So, it may be a coincidence that events of a certain importance happened on the first day of the NAR conference, however, on some oc ...

H.R. 3915 Goes to Vote in the House 2007-11-14 08:11:34 The Mortgage Reform Act of 2007 goes to vote on the House floor Edit: Thursday (thanks PJ) today. It has bi-partisan support and is expected to pass in one form or another. We’ll keep an eye on its progress and note any significant changes or amendments as it comes to a vote. From Market Watch: Passed by the House Financial Services Committee on Nov. 6, the bill includes minimum standards for approving loans and some new liabilities on those who securitize risky mortgages. It would also prohibit lenders or brokers from “steering” borrowers into some loans. Democrats like Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the panel’s chairman, say there is a national crisis to which lawmakers must respond. More than 2 million subprime mortgages are expected to reset to higher interest rates in the next 18 months. The Bush administration says current trends suggest there will be just over 1 million foreclosures this year, with 620,000 of those in the subprime market. Do y ...