Credit Score-Boosting Secret Legally & Legitimately Improves UGLY Credit!

Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter - Credit Score-Boosting Secret Legally & Legitimately Improves UGLY Credit!: "My #1 rated credit score-boosting secret is the AUTHORIZED USER score-boosting strategy (aka “piggy-backing”). “Authorized User” (AU) is the practice of adding a person who has credit challenges as an “authorized user” to the account of a person who has a strong credit history. The theoretical (and usually practical) result is that the positive credit history of the account owner is then additionally reported to the credit files of the credit-challenged authorized user, bringing improvements in the authorized user’s credit rating."

Foreclosure Backlog Stands at Thirty Times Monthly Foreclosure Sales Volume

The shadow market is coming out of the shadows, and the numbers are staggering. According to a report released yesterday by LPS (Lender Processing Services), “foreclosure inventory levels [stand] at 30 times monthly foreclosure sales volume.” As a result of this massive backlog, real estate analysts expect more downward pressure on U.S. home values as most of these homes are likely to reenter the market as REO properties rather than being sold in another more profitable manner[1]. The statistics on the foreclosure backlog are also staggering, with LPS reporting that the average U.S. loan currently in foreclosure has been delinquent for 537 days, and 30 percent of loans in foreclosure have not made payments in more than two years.

Thanks to slower processing times on foreclosures, it is unlikely that this backlog will disperse any time soon. In fact, although total U.S. loan delinquency has fallen nearly two percentage points over last year and foreclosure starts are down 14 percent from last year, the actual foreclosure rate is up as banks struggle to keep their books in order and intact[2]. With the “non-current inventory” logging in at nearly 7 million, the backlog is likely here to stay.

Many analysts have been predicting that 2011 will be the beginning of a recovery for many sectors of the real estate market, though most agree that the residential market has a long way to go. With this foreclosure backlog, however, do you think that home prices are likely to start a recovery by 2012?

http://realestate.bryanellis.com/4210/foreclosure-backlog-stands-at-thirty-times-monthly-foreclosure-sales-volume/

Real-Estate Investing: the Best and Worst Markets - WSJ.com

Stay updated on the best and worst markets right here at Below Market deals!! And the the WSJ says.....

Real-Estate Investing: the Best and Worst Markets - WSJ.com

Couple Owns Home After One Payment Due to Foreclosure Glitch|AOL Real Estate

Couple Owns Home After One Payment Due to Foreclosure Glitch|AOL Real Estate

JPMorgan Chase Made Nearly a Billion Dollars from Madoff-Chase is too Gangsta for TV!

cnbc.com

A new study of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme concludes that JPMorgan Chase made over $900 million in pretax profits from the Madoff scam.

The academic paper by Dr. Linus Wilson, a finance professor at University of Louisiana at Lafayette, makes use of newly released data and different methods of calculation than previous studies.

Wilson's paper looks at total Madoff- linked account balances at JPMorgan Chase [JPM  45.25    -0.83  (-1.8%)   ] from 1986 to 2008, a longer period than earlier studies, which may have underestimated JPMorgan's profits.

The total figure Wilson arrives at is $907 million.

That figure assumes JPMorgan's reinvestment of Madoff client money, and the generation of a similar rate to that of other funds invested by the bank during a similar time period.

But even without any reinvestment at all, Wilson finds that JPMorgan's pre-tax profits from Madoff money would have amounted to an estimated $398 million.

In addition to the magnitude of their alleged gains, Wilson reaches another conclusion that is likely to give JPMorgan agita.

Namely, he concludes based on prior academic research, that enough 'red flags' existed to make a reasonable observer suspicious—which presumably includes JPMorgan Chase.

Wilson lists two facts as being particularly problematic. First, that Madoff's custody over his client accounts resulted in no third party verification of trades (which, as it turns out, Madoff seems to have never made). And second, the very size and regularity of Madoff's returns should have raised suspicion in itself.

Wilson's complete journal article—provocatively titled 'Madoff’s Dirty Money'—can be found here.

Obama hit the brakes on selling those old Government bldgs...WHY?

Obama Administration Scraps Sale of Government Buildings

Posted by Carole VanSickle on Wednesday, March 2nd 2011     

The current administration has been forced to “scrap” plans announced last summer to sell off thousands of government buildings because plan was simply “unworkable”[1]. Now, a new commission has been tasked with finding replacement savings in the amount of $15 billion, the number that the administration believed it would save by selling off the buildings, 14,000 of which are currently vacant and 55,000 of which are “underused.” Thanks to poor conditions, bad locations and sluggish real estate markets, the sales of the buildings were not only difficult to accomplish, but less advantageous than the planning commission had originally hoped. Thus, the decision to abort the plan.

The administration is not giving up on its hopes to sell of buildings entirely, however. In fact, a new commission is now in the works – although no one yet has been asked to serve on the board – to identify ways to revamp the plan and shed the excess real estate – and upkeep costs – that the government no longer needs[2]. Local governments would, in many cases, be glad to see government-owned buildings back in private hands since they often sit vacant. However, there is a “cumbersome review process” before the buildings can be sold and “most of the excess properties are likely old, poorly located World War II-era sites,” reported the Washington Post.

Many people have criticized the government’s plan to sell off “excess” buildings that it could, theoretically, be using instead of spending billions in rental dollars on other facilities. Do you think that selling off these properties is a good idea? Tell me what you think...

Mortgage servicing crackdown expected!!

Mortgage servicing crackdown expected

U.S. banking regulators are close to finalizing new national guidelines that will impact mortgage servicing shops after an interagency investigation revealed "significant weaknesses in mortgage servicing related to foreclosure oversight and operations," said John Walsh, the Acting Comptroller of the Currency, in prepared statements to be delivered before a Senate Banking panel today.  "In general, the examinations found critical deficiencies and shortcomings in foreclosure governance processes, foreclosure document preparation processes, and oversight and monitoring of third-party law firms and vendors," Walsh said.

"These deficiencies have resulted in violations of state and local foreclosure laws, regulations, or rules and have had an adverse affect on the functioning of the mortgage markets and the U.S. economy as a whole."  Walsh said even though the process of outlining new guidelines for servicers is at its early stage, regulators intend to address some of the pressing issues they discovered while investigating the servicing process — namely a lack of national standards for the foreclosure process and borrower confusion over whom to contact in foreclosure cases due to uncertain protocols.

Walsh's report on the investigation of loan servicing firms comes on the heels of a major announcement from the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, or MERS.  MERS, which is an electronic registry of mortgage records, informed members late Wednesday that they are now prohibited from foreclosing on residential loans using the MERS name. MERS has long been the target of foreclosure defense attorneys and consumer advocates for creating a foreclosure process that fails to create transparent oversight and protocols.

Walsh said as part of their comprehensive examination of servicing shops, regulators examined Lender Processing Services Inc. (LPS), MERSCORP, the parent company of MERS, and MERS itself. After reviewing the servicing shops and examining bank self assessments, as well as 2,800 foreclosure cases, Walsh said investigators concluded that there were "significant weaknesses in mortgage servicing related to foreclosure oversight and operations."  He said regulators have yet to finalize their proposed guidelines, but that will be the next step in the process.