Foreclosure Recap – Week #46

It seems that once again the large real estate ventures are getting into trouble and are facing the foreclosure gavel. The Twin Lakes Mall in Wichita Kansas is in dire straits and is in the process of being foreclosed on by the bank. However it looks like it should remain business as usual for the tenants of the mall and the stores should remain open and unaffected by the change. It seems that the owners are in arrears to the tune of $8.6 million dollars in back payments and interests and other fees. What seems odd is that for the most part the rough spots looked like they were over and there appears to be little in the way of explanation as to why the foreclosure happened.

Not that this will come as a surprise and not that it is something that you want to hear, but this article, which is very well written I might add, tells us about a very long and tedious recovery from the current crisis that we are in. The combination of the loss in financial wealth to the people in the country and the meteoric rise in unemployment to levels unprecedented in modern times or recorded history for both the United States of America and Great Britain are going to make the ultimate recovery slow and quite painful for both countries. The story is written from a Jamaican point of view and offers some rather interesting views from that of an outsider looking in.

With the holidays nearly upon us, much of the country is concentrating on having a festive Thanksgiving and readying for the coming celebration of Christmas. But people often forget to think that at this time of year, especially in the crisis situation that we are in, there are many families that won’t have any holiday. While most of the country suffers and you might even be one of those suffering this year. There are still plenty of people in worse shape than even you are. This story goes into some more details about how people are doing what they can to help donate food and other items this year for the people that are in dire financial straits. Many families can’t afford the basic food needs this year much less the extras that are typically associated with a holiday season. If you read this story and are untouched by the content, perhaps you should check your pulse and make sure that you are still alive.

This item comes from the Wisconsin Law Journal. It is about an attorney who has noticed a sharp decline in cases. As one might expect, if there are less cases then there is less revenue coming into the lawyers business so cash flow changes fairly substantially. What this attorney has done is to modify his practice form handling primarily civil suits to those that are more in line with the current state of the world and dealing with foreclosures and landlord – tenant issues. It is merely a case of having to adapt to make the business fit the needs of the recession and to stay viable in the mix of things. The story tells how he and other attorneys who are sole partners in their practices have had to go into areas outside of their traditional comfort zones in order to generate income to stay solvent.

This article is one that most of us need to read. It asks questions about repossession of a second home and just how safe is the money that you might have in the bank after a foreclosure. There are a lot of variables to take into account but there is some very good food for thought in this article. It certainly is a situation that a lot of people are in having to let a rental property fall into foreclosure to save the main residence they are living in but the questions that it raises are some that are of universal importance to every homeowner who is either in foreclosure or in a situation where they could fall into foreclosure. It is a must read and it will give peace of mid to some and reason to think of new avenues for other. But it is something you should see.

This story is a little ray of sunshine this week from the city of Chicago. It shows the positive aspects behind the restructuring loans program offered by president Obama. One person who is discussed in the story say his mortgage payment go from $1,800 down to $800 a month under the “Making Homes Affordable” loan Modification Plan. The article goes over several options ranging from the mortgage restructuring to foreclosure and then renting in lieu of actual home ownership and the pros and cons of both of those scenarios. The article also lists ways to help you spot a possible fraud trying to help you in these trying times.

The folks at PR web tell us about thee unveiling a new website that is going to offer folks free help, information and advice on the subject of foreclosures. This information will be available to people whom are web surfing at no charge so you can go there and become enlightened about the issues and get information that could make it easier to salvage a foreclosed property and not have to shell out your hard earned cash for that information. A lot of what is there is fairly basic but it is going to consolidate all of the needed things into one easy to locate area on the web so you aren’t running all around trying to find scattered data. It will give detailed instructions on any of the guidelines that are out there so you can review all of the options at a glance and then dig into the semantics of the offer without going anywhere else, which will be a time saver and as a result, will be a help of its own.

Scammers are beginning to get some of what is coming to them. This article from the Pennsylvania area of the country where one scammer got convicted of theft by deception for promising to work with a persons’ mortgage company to resolve the issues that were going to cause foreclosure. The woman then took the money and ran and did nothing other than a few preliminary phone calls to the other parties lending institution. As a result of the investigation from the complaint that was field the woman got arrested and convicted of Theft by Deception. What makes it worse is that she had been convicted twice before on similar charges several years ago.