Archive for the ‘Foreclosure Listings’ Category

BIOTA a water bottling company based in Telluride has been ordered to proceed with foreclosure sale as per orders of USA Bankruptcy Court. An attempt to delay it has met with failure.

As per releases of the aforesaid Court in Colorado district, BIOTA (Blame it On the Altitude) owes more than 100 creditors the total amount of $10.5 million. It largest creditor is United Parcel Service’s lending depart UPS Capital Business Credit.

BIOTA is disputing its claims of $7.5 million. BIOTA says that it will first go through the foreclosure and then stake counter claims against UPS by asking of $10 million as damages for unethical lending, says Jeffrey Hart the attorney of BIOTA based in Plymouth, Michigan. Hart opines that things are just warming up for the big battle ahead.

UPS Capital was not available for comments regarding the imminent war drums except for a vague statement that BIOTA’s attitude was most unfortunate.

A part of the disputed $7.5 million is about a loan of the Department of Agriculture, USA, which UPS Capital was responsible for collecting. Unfortunately BIOTA failed to repay. These loans are federally guaranteed. It is the taxpayer who is the actual lender. It went into default two years ago. But since then all avenues have been probed without any favourable result.

BIOTA came into name and fame using biodegradable bottles. They have now negotiated with a group willing to buy its assets and save it from the debt trap. The group will either buy during the foreclosure sale or at a later date during the redemption period of 75 days. Hart was unwilling to disclose the name of the investors or say how many there are in the group. BIOTA owner David Zutler could not be contacted while another company executive refused to comment on what Hart had said.

Things have been rather down for BIOTA for quite some time. Last year their financial troubles became worse when independent laboratory tests detected mould, bacteria and e-coli traces in the plant’s water. Luckily the findings had been timely discovered and none made its way to the unwary consumers. But for BIOTA it spelt doom. The plant had to be shut down last year in September. It limped back to operations in December. However legal action by UPS Capital had initiated legal proceedings against BIOTA much earlier in May last year.

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Till yesterday lenders were amenable to suggestions about modifying loan terms it being mutually beneficial to both parties to plug the situation and avoid further drainage. At that time the strings of the purse had been in the hands of local banks that knew the borrowers and the value of the property.

But many availed of the loan through a broker who happened to be just a link in the chain involving insurance companies, mutual funds and pension funds. Another group did the loan processing and yet another were trustees of the investors and represented their cause. The result is that when a borrower wanted to contact the proper persons to negotiate foreclosures invariably it was a running merry-go-round. These symptoms are all indicative of a fraud, opine lawyers.

The chain is kicked off with rise in interest rates leading to rising defaulters and foreclosures causing the real estate market to cool off. Most of the delinquents are from the sub-prime borrowers. The alarming result has been that there has been major sell offs in Wall Street stocks and bonds with investors being frightened with the trend in the economy.

The accusing finger points to the Wall Street innovation of securitization which has never given a thought to the borrower. Defaulters try to surface from the drowning by selling off the property only to find that strict rules prevent them from taking this escape route. The outcome is that more and more house owners are pushed into foreclosures leading to further fall in property value.

It is difficult to find a way out of this complex maze. Many lenders are at their wits end trying to locate and pinpoint the lender. Others face unresponsive service providers because modifying loans would make a hole in their pockets. Even if a fraud is detected the various interested parties protect each other by withholding documents. The law, which states that with the passing of the loan to another party the first party is no longer liable for problems, further compounds the complexity.

In the entire country about 60% of home mortgages in 2006 went into securitization trusts – most of them were from the sub-prime section. Fifteen years ago the same situation had risen but operations backed by the government-modified loans had eased the situation. But with private issued loans from Wall Street there is no such respite today.

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Ghosts have the run of 1600 houses shuttered down by foreclosures in a sprawling neighbourhood in Dallas County. That is the number for the forthcoming postings next month. Banks seem to be swallowing up not just houses but entire localities as well. It is having a grim effect on solitary survivors like Edward Hoffman in Desoto, where 125 units are waiting for the anvil in August.

If the prices of property around you continue to tumble then your equity too is affected by a downward fall of 50%. Donald McMillion is sandwiched by two foreclosed units whose dues continue to rise. The honour and integrity of the entire area is at stake. Good days three years ago became a distant memory for residents of Dallas County, Desoto, Duncanville, Garland, Irving, Lancaster and Mesquite with 560 foreclosures in August 2004. But that was nothing compared to what is happening recently. The numbers have gone up by leaps and bounds. In the same cities in August there are 862 foreclosure listings. This means an upswing by 65%.

Jim Baugh, the City Manager of Desoto is optimistic that this mix up will in the long run greatly benefit development. It is the time for investments to reap rich harvests later on. But foreclosures means lower tax revenues as house equity falls. Ultimately the government will be the loser. As yet the total grim picture has not yet sifted through. It is shocking to say the least with Desoto, Cedar Hill, Lancaster and other prime southwest regions being worst hit. In ground reality foreclosed houses mean shuttered doors and windows, with overgrown lawns, reeking with discarded piled up rubbish. The gloomy isolation infects the neighbors.

Many pool together (Home Owners Association) to see to the running of essentials like mowing the undergrowth and collecting neglected mails. But for how long? A contribution is made to the HOA’s for looking after the locality, its recreation and entry points and the like.

In Lancaster foreclosures are up by as much as 116%. Cordell Ballanshaw is planting the garden of his new house with hope in his heart although he is surrounded by the eerie silence of three houses behind him. For him it is a gamble and an act of faith. He hopes and has faith that the financial virus raging all around will improve his betting chances and spell prosperity for him.

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In Carpentersville the Parrish family realized their house dreams with just the right touch in everything from the kitchen to the swimming pool. But soon the milk curdled. The man got ill. The woman lost her job. They both lost the house with memories and mementos unable to meet monthly mortgage payments. The foreclosure cancer closed in.

The Parrishes were only one in thousands in the Chicago region and across the country caught in the tentacles of the deadly foreclosure. In Elgin and South Elgin the first half saw a 32% hike since last year. It was the same elsewhere.

The blame is put not merely on unrealistic borrowers but on the general economic slowdown and changes in the lending sector. It is a raging storm. There has been a sharp shift from the traditional 30-year mortgage schemes to others with teasers like interest-only and the like. This has led to chaotic foreclosures.

Borrowers walked into it without giving a second thought to the rise in rate hake after a year or two. Many like the Parrishes complain that they were smart talked into the scheme. It was not just the borrowers but the lenders too faced a crisis. These new loans gave no importance to the equity issue. Without equity there is nothing to lose in a foreclosure. The way is open to bankruptcy. Stay put until the house is forcibly taken away.

The bitter pill for curing this ailment is to pay off the loan by selling the property and move into affordable rented quarters without the hanging sword of debts. But with hectic development work going on all around it gets difficult to sell the house. With stiff competition prices are bound to fall. The headache is not only for the borrower but for real estate agents as well where auctioneers find themselves unable to off load the weight at the end of the session. In fact the house of the Parrishes remains unsold even after a knocking off blow to the asking price.

The foreclosure numbers of 2007 will put to shame those of 2006! The faint ray of hope is that perhaps the crisis has reached its peak. This means that it couldn’t get much worse in some localities. The experience has been a shock to the Parrishes now living in rented accommodation where they continue to dream.

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RealtyTrac, made its debut two years ago by becoming the first data collector of the country’s mortgage crisis. It made its entry at a point of time when such a service was of invaluable importance. The information provided by RealtyTrac has been widely quoted by national news media and even by the Congress.
But it is not free from criticism. Colorado State Housing Division had problems with RealtyTrac figures and had to do its own sleuthing. Under pressure of censure for having played around with numbers, the company will for the first time issue a statement in its quarterly report explaining the contradictions in its data.

A spokesperson of RealtyTrac, Sharga, said that the unjust criticism is a backlash from trading groups who are uncomfortable with the bad news. Some do not understand that the foreclosure issue is not just an incident but also an ongoing process. The numbers are based on public information pointing to a problem.

Duncan of Mortgage Bankers Association agreed about the problem but said that the data was incorrect because of triple counting. It damaged the public image of the industry. Each step of a single property was counted more than once. The Association has its own data bank representing 80% of the country’s mortgage transactions.

The ace foreclosure websites like RealtyTrac.com, Foreclosure.com, Foreclosures.com and Bargain.com charge monthly fees from those interested to view foreclosure, defaulting and reversion to bank lists. The data of these data collectors varies. RealtyTrac claims to be the largest and most comprehensive publishers of national statistics relating to foreclosure and bank-owned properties – more than 1 million units stretched across 2,500 counties. The collection includes all the three steps of foreclosure – notice for default, auction proceedings and completion of it when the property returns to the bank. It is the detailing that has led people to misunderstand its method of calculation. One property cannot be in more than one phase of the process. But the explanation is given that in the quarterly report, a property may have been counted more than once. A property is sometimes foreclosed simultaneously by more than one lender.

RealtyTrac is happy about the service it has done to society as many state offices come to them for details – the objective being to find out escape routes for the unhappy victims. It has brought about cohesion between government and private enterprise.

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Of all the property listings foreclosures comprise of 10%-15%. More and more bank-owned properties are crowding into the housing market. Lenders are crying themselves hoarse in praise of foreclosure deals but it is better to test the waters before wading in. The risk factor is present.

With a record number of units going up for sale, lenders are vying and competing with each other to dispose of the properties, very often through the services of multiple listing. The falling prices have affected borrowers badly with the loss in equity. At a time when lending standards had been relaxed, mortgage rates were low and house prices were high, many had opted for mortgaged homes. But all that is in the past. The future is grim.

Numbers are confusing and contradictory. It seems that in Baltimore 10% to 15% are on the active foreclosure lists. According to Metropolitan Regional Information Systems INC in June 20,000 houses in Baltimore and five surrounding counties were on the market shelves up for sale. The number of units owned by lenders is expected to grow and swell as more people collapse under the weight of increase in mortgage rates.

The Mortgage Bankers Association reports that in Maryland the numbers in comparison to 2006 rose by 30% in the first quarter. The numbers of those lagging behind the 60 days limit rose by 20%. Apparently Maryland seems to be better off than the other regions but nevertheless about 5,700 homeowners are facing dispossession. The rising foreclosure curve might aggravate matters and prolong the depression.

The lenders cannot sit for long on the properties they have taken back, is the opinion of Celia Chen of Moody’s Economy.com. They will have to sell it. This will obviously tell on the market. The property appreciation will remain weak. Some experts opine that the worst is not yet over. Foreclosures in suburban areas are soaring too. Now it is a buyer’s paradise. More and more banks are buying back foreclosed properties as other bids fall far shorter than the target. The number of owners with little or practically no equity has increased.

More expensive housing units are going into foreclosure. It seems third parties are not buying them. It is the lenders who are stuck with it. Generally the more recent loans have far less equity. This will mean that banks will buy-in more and more properties.

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Statistics on Colorado foreclosures, on Tuesday, were largely at variance with one another. According to one online source the number is up but another one says it is down. The difference between the two figures is quite considerable and therefore confusing.

According to Bargain Network the foreclosure listings was 8,662 – that is about 3% drop from the previous month. The rate works out to one foreclosure for every 211 properties. It placed Colorado fifth in rank. In April Colorado was fourth with the foreclosure number touching 8,907. It was a considerable 22% decrease from March.

But the national picture is that listings jumped to 6% from April with 149,000 properties ready for the anvil. In November 2006 the number was 108,000. This meant an increase of a staggering 38%.

The states of Colorado, Florida, California, Texas and Illinois have the distinction of being responsible for 59% of all the foreclosures in the country. Among these Florida comes first with 29,820 houses waiting to suffer the process of being foreclosed and auctioned. Texas comes third with 11,012 units marked to be doomed. This means that on an average Texas has one foreclosure for every 732 houses.

Most of the activity in the foreclosures– that is about 87%, centred on single-family houses. 75% comprised of the market in condominiums and town-homes. The remainder was about commercial units, land, mobile homes, multi-family and the like.

A second rival company that deals with real estate, Realty Trac Inc. in Irvine, California came out with contradictory reports later on Tuesday. In its report the number of Colorado foreclosures is up by 8.5% in comparison to last month – that is April 2007. Realty Trac went on to add that Colorado listings number 6,321. This means only one out of 290 units is under the cloud of foreclosures. Nevada was rated as having one foreclosure for every 166 properties.

Realty Trac has come under criticism for doing the wrong counting. It now plans to revise its method of reporting of putting together in one basket all the foreclosures. It will now break it up and give a step-by-step statement of how many units are moving through which stage of the foreclosure process. Foreclosure is a lengthy process and does not involve one quick move. By next month the new Realty Trac figures should be available to enable analysts to assess the situation from different angles.

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Sometimes unforeseen and adverse circumstance renders one unable to repay a loan borrowed to purchase a house. In the circumstance, bank forecloses on the real estate owned (REO) property of which it already has the papers and takes possession of it.

There will be banks, both major and small ones in the local area, who will from time to time conduct foreclosure auctions for the Fort Lauderdale FL foreclosure listings.

The current public notion is that Fort Lauderdale FL foreclosure listings are sold at cheaper prices’ and that there is an increasing number of people who buy them through the bank auctions only for this reason. Industry players and experts, however, advise otherwise as there are exceptions.

Anyone desirous of purchasing a Fort Lauderdale FL foreclosure listing at auctions conducted by banks should follow some practical tips and insightful guidance handed out by experts. One must first think out and visualise the lifestyle one desires buying for a repossessed home. There are some splendid homes at the bank’s foreclosure auction but it may not be what you really want.

One should focus on the price that one’s budget allowed. It might happen that prior to closing the deal on a repossessed home one ends up paying more or beyond one’s means.

One should avoid the trap. Banks’ auctions and foreclosures for Fort Lauderdale FL foreclosure listings are after all, auctions, that is, people there would try to outbid each other while bidding for a particular home. This could make you get carried away. In which cases, one is likely to be trapped. Take heed and think again before trying to outbid another bidder. Paying up unreasonable price for a repossessed home is something that you must be avoided.

It would help to consult or bring in an experienced person while attending the bank foreclosures for Fort Lauderdale FL foreclosure listings auction. Doing this would ensure that one got appropriate and proper guidance and advice about whether buying the repossessed home for sale would be practical and affordable or not. Also, it would save the bidder from making a wrong and impractical choice.

At auctions of bank foreclosure listings, buying Fort Lauderdale FL foreclosure listings probably would not be tough if one had the right knowledge, motivation and attitude. Focus and presence of mind always help in making buying decisions.

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