San Francisco Foreclosure fraud leads to Prison

All kinds of things are happening across the US as well as in San Francisco and the one situation to blame of worsening of conditions is San Francisco foreclosure homes. In the first quarter of 2008, San Francisco recorded 2,163 properties in San Francisco foreclosure listings and the rate was one per 338 homes. The percentage from the last quarter of 2007 was 17.43% and the percentage change from the first quarter of 2007 was a whopping 154.17%. In such a situation, you can only expect a worse case scenario.

Different incidents including that of violence and theft were reported from neighborhoods that lie vacant in the wake of foreclosures. One of the recent incidents is that of fraud and this has been committed by a former resident of Tiburon. The court gave its verdict and he has got a 7 year sentence in federal prison. The crime he committed was stealing money directly from the bank accounts of almost 800 people who trusted him to provide information regarding different government foreclosures.

According to the court, Mark Allen Davis has been charged with fraud and will have to serve 81 months in the Federal prison and has to pay an amount of $328,000 in restitution. This sentence was passed by the U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in San Francisco.

Due to the increase in foreclosures, a huge repository of San Francisco cheap homes has been created, which is drawing more and more investors and first time homeowners. After all, where one family loses their home another family gets them for cheap. This is the reason why Mark Allen Davis almost succeeded in duping so many people of their money.

Davis had given advertisements in several newspapers across US in the period from 2004 to 2007 and promised that anyone who called on the toll-free number provided in the advertisement will get a list of San Francisco bank owned homes and government foreclosures in their respective area. The one time fee for the service was $83 or $93 according to the indictment. Well! Quite predictably Davis never really mailed the list and hence the sentence.

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Mike Upshaw

If you want to make BIG money in the Real Estate Business you must know the ‘truth’ about preforeclosures; not only do you need to know exactly what preforeclosures are, but you also have to learn how and when to invest in preforeclosures.

As an investor you’ll have to understand and be up-to-date with the foreclosure laws in the state where you live.

A foreclosure takes place when the owner (borrower) is unable to pay his lender the monthly mortgage payments; the lender will notify the borrower and let him know to find the money within a specified amount of time (varies in each state) otherwise the lender will be forced to repossess the home and begin the foreclosure procedure.

The borrower will have to leave his home; more than that, he will not be able to save his credit for other purchases.

The lender will try to sell the home at public auctions for a price lower than the actual market value of the house simply because he wants his money back.

Sometimes the house sells quickly, but often the lender is unable to sell the house and it will remain unoccupied.

Hope you get the BIG picture about foreclosures. Now, you must understand what a preforeclosure is.

A preforeclosure happens before the foreclosure procedure has taken place. In a preforeclosure, you contact the borrower yourself and let him know that you have a serious investor who is interested in buying the home from the borrower.

The borrower has the advantage of receiving money from the investor so he will not be forced to leave his home and his credit will not be ruined.

The lender receives the rest of his money (the borrower’s mortgage) from your investor. Once you resell the house both you and your investor will remain with a NICE profit.

In a preforeclosure, ALL involved parties benefit: the lender, the borrower, you and the investor. It’s a Win-Win situation.

Most real estate agents want to keep the information above SECRET because you are ’stealing’ the business from them.

One of the ‘BEST’ ways to make profits with preforeclosures FAST is by looking on the Internet for preforeclosure listings.

Sign-up with a service that sends you preforeclosure listings (lis pendens) You’ll receive official notices when a NEW foreclosure process is about to begin. You will also receive information on the house, the names of the lender and the owner (borrower).

Make sure you CREATE a list of the homes you are interested in and start contacting each owner (borrower) by phone or e-mail. It’s faster than by doing it in person.

Talk with each person in a serious and warmly manner, pay attention to their wants and needs. Let them know that a preforeclosure is really their ‘BEST’ option and provide your SUPPORT and help along the way until you successfully make the deal and beyond.

If they are happy most will tell others about your HELP (e.g. friends, partners, contacts, etc.) thus generating for you more loyal LEADS for future business deals.

Remember: be persuasive, kind and helpful to ALL serious people in the real estate preforeclosures business and you’ll succeed no matter what.

- Copyright C Mike Upshaw

Mike Upshaw
http://www.BigProfitsInRealEstate.com

For a ** FREE *** mini-Real Estate E-course click here mailto:BigProfitsInRealEstate@getresponse.com

or send a BLANK email to BigProfitsInRealEstate@getresponse.com

NEW Real Estate eCourses (INSTANT Download!) offered:

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Corey Senn

With rising interest rates and a softening housing market in states such as California and Florida, the number of foreclosures and notice of defaults has risen steadily over the past 12 months. Facing a foreclosure on your home can be a scary and unsettling prospect for a borrower. There are steps that homeowners can take to protect their most important asset from foreclosure proceedings. One note: if you are a homeowner and are in serious financial difficulty, you need to find a professional attorney to help you keep your home.

The most important step is to act ? don?t put your head in the sand and expect it to all go away. Be ready to discuss your financial situation honestly and open.

A great first step is to get in touch with your mortgage lender. Borrowers often assume that the person or institution that is funding their loan wants them to default on their loan so that they may repossess the home. Banks and other lending institutions are typically large corporations that based their businesses and revenue projections on specific income levels each month. Foreclosures disrupt this process and may be seen as more of a headache than anything for these lending institutions that simply want to recoup their initial investment.

Prepare a series of questions for the lender that shows that you care about the situation and want to resolve it as easily as possible. A great source for this information is entitled, ?Getting Out of Debt, Virginia Cooperative Extension publication 354-027? and can be found online at www.vt.edu. This paper can help you formulate the right questions to ask and also has useful suggestions for how to handle your financial difficulties.

A foreclosure loan or emergency loan is simply one that helps you avoid foreclosure. It may be structured to help you reduce your debt down to a manageable level. Talk to your lender to find out the most appropriate loan to help you avoid foreclosure proceedings.

Corey Senn is a Senior Partner with Bad Credit Lender, a California based private lender that specializes in hard money loans and bad credit loans. Located in La Jolla, California, Bad Credit Lender provides competitive private California hard money loans, bad credit home loans, and bridge loans. In addition, Corey is one of the main contributors to the California Home Mortgage Loan web blog.

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Ralph Maupin

Investing In Foreclosures

What are Pre-foreclosures?

A property enters into pre-foreclosure when the homeowner/s fail to submit their mortgage payments for two or more months. When the minimum time has been reached, a notice is issued with the County Clerk’s office in the homeowners’ state of residence. Depending on the state, the initial pre-foreclosure notice may be called Notice of Default, Notice of the Trustee’s sale, or Lis Pendens.

How do I contact the homeowners?

Because homeowners in default are anxious to list and sell their home before foreclosure occurs, it is important to be assertive. You may benefit from traveling to their home and meeting with them personally. If you have a homeowner’s phone, it is in your best interest to give them a call as soon as possible. You can also contact homeowners via the US Postal Service.

Today?s questions are several. Can you buy a house in foreclosure and resell it on a land contract (contract for deed) or lease option to the person losing it? Can you buy a home on a new mortgage and resell it on a land contract?

It is very common for someone in foreclosure to ask someone to buy their home out of foreclosure and resell it to them on a land contract or lease option. Does it seem ok to buy a house out of foreclosure for $100,000 and then give the person who was foreclosed on a one-year lease option for $130,000?? In my world, the answer is no! If you are in front of a judge, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and acts like a duck, it is a duck. The interest earned on this transaction is 30%. If this is declared an equity loan, the Optionee can use usury as a defense against you. The result could be high legal fees, and a loan re-computed to zero interest. You are also subject to penalties by law. A better solution to the above situation would be to do a lease option for this person on a different property if you feel that he is credit worthy.

What is the proper way to resell a house in which you have purchased on a new mortgage? It has been a very common practice to sell the house on a land contract. The new owner then continues to make payments on the mortgage without the mortgage company knowing that there, as been a land contract sale. I recently attended a Continuing Education class for realtors and learned that this is in violation of Federal law. Rather then sell the property on a land contract you might consider doing a lease option on the home thus not being in violation of any law. You should be aware that mortgages generally have acceleration clauses that allow them the discretion to declare the mortgage balance due if you violate their prohibitions against re-selling or doing conveyances that look like a sale.

Disclaimer: Real estate investing by nature is risky. You can win, lose or break even. We cannot guarantee a profit or loss. We do not provide legal, accounting or contracting advice. Real estate investing by nature is risky. You can win, lose, or break even. I cannot guarantee a profit or loss. We do not provide legal, accounting, or contracting advice.

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Ralph Mark Maupin has purchased and sold in excess of 3,500 single-family homes and many multi family properties. Mark teaches real estate investing seminars, and has real estate mentoring program. http://www.detroitinvestmenthomes.com
http://www.mrleaseoption.com
http://www.megaeveningevent.com

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Shawn Daren

Sure you know what’s auction. But do you know by buying foreclosure in auction, you can actually earn up to 100,000USD; or save up to that amount if you are buying a foreclosure home for residential purpose? Of cause, those profits happen with the conditions you have the resources needed.

Buying great foreclosure bargains in auction at local country house isn’t that easy at all. It’s not about how much you afford to pay, it’s about how many info you have and how well you use the info. Thus, do research before stepping in the court house is very important. Find out the true value of a foreclosure home so that you know what your bidding limit is. For example, if the result of your research tells you that a foreclosure home’s market value is 200,000, after deducting the repair cost, let say 20,000, you will still be earning a great amount if you bid at 130,000 after the last and nearest bid of 100,000. Yes, it’s all about business in auction. You got the info, you got the money.

Thus, research the foreclosure home in details. Check the neighborhood of the foreclosure home. Is it near a field? How far is the foreclosure home from town? Is there any factory near by? How’s the piping system? What’re the market current needs? These are factors affecting the market value of a property. And those are why foreclosure listings are growing more important in this buying foreclosure business. Foreclosure listings gather all the necessary info of a foreclosure home. You can always start your foreclosure research from the listings.

To win in auction, you need skills and info. You need to first find out the market value as well as other details of the foreclosure home. Knowing those things help you in setting your bottom line, your bottom line of bidding price. Because to win in auction, it doesn’t mean how less money you spend to get the property, but how big is the difference between your bidding price and the market value of a foreclosure home. Set a bottom line for yourself based on your research. If the market value of the foreclosure home is 150,000, your bottom line would be around 130,000. (Lesser down your bottom line a bit from the market value in case of some calculation mistakes or changes of the market.) Stick to your bottom line in auction, because if you exceed your bottom line, you would have to bear unpredictable losses. There is no point to buy a financial burden instead of a bargain at first, isn’t there?

There is no short cut for winning in a
foreclosure auction. You will need to research and research to gather info as much as possible. Yes, it’s not easy at all to win in foreclosure auction. However, the good news is, it’s not that hard too to win. As long as you have the persistence, you will win. Seeing the fruitful return in foreclosure auction, it’s worthwhile to put in efforts. To know more on foreclosure auction, I suggest you to get a foreclosure book as the book can show you more things which a piece of article can’t.

Shawn Daren makes it clear on how to pick up great bargains on foreclosure home.Learn the key of earning 100k in buying foreclosure.To know more on foreclosure,visit his buying foreclosure website.

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Trent Smith

Lubbock foreclosures are reaching upwards of 100 per month. And, while is is unsettling to see such a high number of Lubbock foreclosures each month, it also presents a great opportunity for investors to purchase Lubbock Foreclosures. There are several ways to purchase foreclosures in lubbock, and it follows in 3 stages:

Pre-Foreclosure: All Lubbock foreclosure start off in pre-foreclosure. This is when a posting is made at the Lubbock county courthouse notifying the public that a property is in foreclosure. This presents an excellent opportunity for savy Lubbock Foreclosure hunters. These properties can be bought FROM THE OWNER before the lubbock foreclosure reaches auction. You can get a new loan on the property, or take over the existing financing. There are seval lubbock real estate attorneys that work with lubbock foreclosures.

Foreclosure Auction: The monthly Lubbock foreclosure auction is held on the 1st Tuesday of each month at the courthouse steps. Here, you can bid on the Lubbock Foreclosure live and in person. There are about 20 people that show up each month to bid on these properties. Whiles you can land an excellent Lubbock foreclosure by doing this, I recommend getting the property while it’s in pre-foreclosure.

Post-Foreclosure (Bank Owned): Some of the lubbock foreclosures do not go at auction if the starting bid is too high. These lubbock foreclosures then become HUD properties listed by Century 21 realtors. You can bid on these lubbock foreclosures by contacting them or using a realtor.

I hope I have helped you better understand how lubbock foreclosures make their way through the system. With that overview, you are much more equiped to start making thousands in the lubbock foreclosures market.

HubCityHouses.com provides up-to-date Lubbock Foreclosure Listings for the lubbock area. In addition to Lubbock Foreclosures, They also provide access to other bargain properties!

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Mel Goodwin

Finding yourself lost worrying debtors knocking at your door is certainly not the most favorable position to be in! Every year thousands of people and homeowners fall into this trap where they hide behind closed doors hoping that the debt collectors would just go away. The truth is you can indeed make them go away- but only if you take decisive action as early as possible.

In fact, it’s a tremendous travesty that all too many individuals in the end foreclose on their homes which could have been prevented if they took action up to the situation and kept up through with some basic actions. Many of them simply sit on their hands and hope for a miracle. Although that might work in some cases, you still ought to give it a good ol college try- because at this point you’ve got nothing to lose for trying.

The first steps that anyone facing this difficult situation should do is contact their loaning bank or credit union to see what can be done. Here’s a big secret for you, your debtors actually want to help you! They have a lot of things keeping them at bay with their work as it is and it’s a huge bother for them if you go into foreclosure- they’d much rather get you out of it. It’s simply good business sense.

In many cases, especially if you catch onto the early stages of this process, your credit union spokesperson will offer help so that you can nullify foreclosure- by a long shot. Until this first step is done, do not work with private individuals claiming to be investors who want to get the home off your hands. Not all of these guys are preying on your emotions, but if you do decide to work on selling off your home or negotiate a deal with a third party, it’s advisable to have a knowledgeable real estate attorney with you during your talks.

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John Nazareno

It is everyone?s dream to own a home or built a house for his or herself. There are a few who are fortunate enough to secure one paid in full while many others try to buy one through financing or securing loans.

However, even you are religiously saving for the so-called rainy days and even if you have sufficient finances, there would come a time that you would find it difficult to face up to your obligations. Sicknesses in the family, a possible retrenchment at work or emergency purchases are unexpected instances where you could find yourself in arrears with your payment and then suddenly you are now facing foreclosures.

When legalities come into play in your financial situations or mortgages, it means that your predicament is deep serious. Foreclosures are one of those legal terms that everyone detests, especially the homeowners and the financers or banks themselves.

In exchange for lending the money, the lender would hold a lien against the property, If the borrower does not make the required payments, then the loan goes into default and the lender could exercise the lien against the property, in order to take legal possession of the property for the purpose of selling the property to pay off the borrower?s loan. This process is called foreclosure.

CAN FORECLOSURES BE STOPPED
HOW TO STOP FORECLOSURES

Aside from the obvious reason of not paying their loans on time, homeowners get into foreclosures, even if they have avenues to explore, simply by ignoring calls or letters from their banks and lenders or just simply giving up on his/her property in the hope that the tide of things would turn favorable on them.

Although foreclosures are eventualities in securing homes through financing, it does not mean that this could not be stopped or remedied. The matter hinges on the homeowners themselves if they want to keep the property for sentimental reasons or just simply foreclose it and just face the consequences of their action, notably severe damage to one?s credit rating.

If you are delayed in payments to your mortgages and there is no relief in sight, in the immediate or near future, then you have to put the problem in perspective and make a contingency plan or efforts.

The standard measure of keeping or selling the property is that if your monthly house payment (including property taxes and insurance) does not exceed 40% of your gross monthly income, it should be possible for you to keep the property. If the payment is greater than 40% of your gross monthly income, consider selling or transferring the property to avoid negative impacts on your credit. This option would more likely be the path to be taken by borrowers who have equity in the property. By selling the property, the borrower could then pay off the mortgage, and pocket the difference if there is equity remaining.

If the financial setback is temporary and you need immediate money to make your loan current so that you could continue paying your debts, it is best to approach family and friends instead of hard money loans since they would lend money based on equity in the property. Just make sure to pay off your loans to your relatives or close friends for it is much difficult to have them foreclose on you to get their money back.

The best and simple solution to foreclosure proceedings is to deal directly with the situation. Be brave enough to talk with your banks or lenders and explain your situation. Remember, they do not want to foreclose on you they just simply want their money back plus interest. By exploring this angle, the lender and the borrower may arrive at a common ground to work on and resolve the situation in a way that is agreeable to both parties. The Loss Mitigation Department would deal on cases like this.

Basic lending guidelines would require all home loans would total up to less than 70% of the current market value of the property. If you have more equity than that, you should have no difficulty in obtaining a new refinancing deals or second trust deed to bring your loan current. Expect higher interest rates and loan fees.

There are several other alternatives available to you depending on the situations of the borrower, laws of the state and policies of the lender. You may consider forbearance, refinancing, modification, deferral of principal, a temporary indulgence and a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy.

In applying forbearance, your lender may be able to arrange a repayment plan based on your financial situation and may even provide for a temporary reduction or suspension of your payments. You may qualify for this if you have recently experienced a reduction in income or an increase in living expenses. You must furnish information to your lender that there is a temporary problem and it would be resolved in the near future and show that you would be able to meet the requirements of the new payment plan.

A similar portion is deferral of principal in which the borrower agrees to pay the interest only for a certain period of time and then making the usual monthly payments. But just like in forbearance, this is very difficult to obtain unless the bank is familiar with the borrower or the borrower has an excellent credit stature in the bank.

If you have recovered from a financial problem you may able to apply for a mortgage modification. This process involves renegotiating the terms of debt and/or extends the term of your mortgage loans, changing the interest rates or additional surcharges to the principal with the current lender. This may help you catch up by reducing the monthly payments to a more affordable level. Refinancing, on the other hand, means that the borrower obtains a new mortgage with a different lender; the operative word here is different. As much as possible this alternative should be avoided since it would make your problems worse for borrowers in distress would tend to agree to onerous terms just to get a lease on their loans.

A chapter 13 Bankruptcy could be another option for it gives the borrower the time to ?re-organize? his finances and work out a payment plan prior to resumption of payment. This would help keep the property and not blemish your credit rating compared to a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, which completely discharges any debt the borrower had accumulated under the mortgage.

As a last resort, you may able to voluntarily ?give back? your property to the lender or a ?deed in lieu of foreclosure.? This would not save your house, but it is not as damaging to your credit rating as a foreclosure. This may be availed of if the borrower is in default and do not qualify for any other options and your attempts at selling the house before foreclosures were unsuccessful.

In some other states, there are laws and other options that are available to borrowers with mortgage problems. There is the option of reinstatement which means that the borrower brings the foreclosed mortgage current, including all overdue amounts, as well as fees and costs. Likewise, there is the co-called redemption, however it is usually limited in how often he or she could take advantage of this option and this is limited to some states.

A foreclosure procedure takes a long time to materialize and homeowners are given the chance to bail themselves out of their predicament. Sometimes the best defense against foreclosure is just to make a response on their inquiries or demand letters. Ultimately, the only thing that would stop foreclosure proceedings is repayment of the debt, for every option mentioned here is just a delay in the proceedings.

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