Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Douglas Ross Zuber, Former Scottsdale Real Estate Exec Charged with $10M Theft

Douglas Ross Zuber, a former executive at a Scottsdale real estate development company has been charged with embezzling more than $10 million from the firm.

The Arizona Attorney General's Office says 40-year-old Douglas Ross Zuber of Phoenix funneled company cash into bank accounts he controlled. He then created fictitious vendors, opened bank accounts in their name and submitted invoices for payment to his employer.

Zuber was executive vice president at Harvard Investments, Inc. from 1999 through 2006. The company discovered and investigated the fraud and then turned the case over to the attorney general.

Zuber was indicted on one count of money laundering, one count of theft and one count of fraudulent schemes and artifices. A telephone listing for Zuber was disconnected.

Contract worker for Fannie Mae accused of selling appliances from foreclosures

theifPolice say Jamie Pantastico sold appliances from foreclosed homes on Craiglist while he was a contract worker for Fannie Mae.

Chandler Police are looking for potential victims that may have been connected to a fraud scheme where appliances were re-sold from foreclosed homes.

Jamie Pantastico, 39, was employed by Fannie Mae as a contractor to clean foreclosed homes to prepare them for re-sale. He would enter the homes by having access to their lockboxes and take photographs of the appliances - then place ads on Craigslist.

Pantastico met potential buyers at the homes posing as the homeowner. After the appliances were sold and removed from the house, he would return the keys in the lockbox.

He was arrested in Queen Creek by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and Chandler Police on September 25.

Victims are encouraged to call the Chandler Police Department at 480.782.4130.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Phoenix home prices falling big time

Phoenix is faring worse than most cities according to the Standard & Poor's 20 City Housing Index.

NEW YORK (AP) _ A closely watched index shows Valley home prices tumbling by the sharpest annual rate ever in July.

The newly released Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city housing index showed a record drop of 16.3 percent in July from the year-ago period - the largest drop since its inception in 2000. The 10-city index plunged 17.5 percent, its biggest decline in its 21-year history.

Home values in all 20 cities fell year-over-year, with Phoenix faring worse than most cities. Prices Valleywide plummeted more than 29 percent in July from one year ago.

The only metro area doing worse than Phoenix is Las Vegas, where prices are plunging at nearly 30 percent.

However, the pace of declines has slowed over the last three months, but there is still no sign of a bottom, one of the index creators said.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Arizona gets federal cash on foreclosure impact

Arizona is getting federal money to help communities cope with the effects of foreclosures.

The Governor's Office says the Department of Housing and Urban Development will provide $38 million to the Arizona Department of Housing.

According to the Governor's Office, the neighborhood grant money can be used by local governments and non-profits to buy foreclosed homes, rehabilitate them and make it available to home buyers.

That helps communities by reducing the number of vacant homes, a step that helps combat crime.

I'm not so sure how this will be conducted. This story leaves me with a lot of questions to tell the truth.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

FBI investigating companies at heart of meltdown

The FBI is investigating four major U.S. financial institutions whose collapse helped trigger a $700 billion bailout plan by the Bush administration, The Associated Press has learned.

Two law enforcement officials said Tuesday the FBI is looking at potential fraud by mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and insurer American International Group Inc. Additionally, a senior law enforcement official said Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. also is under investigation.

The inquiries will focus on the financial institutions and the individuals that ran them, the senior law enforcement official said.

The law enforcement officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigations are ongoing and are in the very early stages.

Officials said the new inquiries bring to 26 the number of corporate lenders under investigation over the past year.

Spokesmen for AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did not immediately return calls for comment Tuesday evening. A Lehman spokesman did not have an immediate comment.

Just last week, FBI Director Robert Mueller put the number of large financial firms under investigation at 24. He did not name any of the companies under investigation but said the FBI also was looking at whether any of them have misrepresented their assets.

Over the past year as the housing market cratered, the FBI has opened a wide-ranging probe of companies across the financial services industry, from mortgage lenders to investment banks that bundle home loans into securities sold to investors. Mueller has previously said the FBI's hunt for culprits in the nation's subprime mortgage crisis focused on accounting fraud, insider trading, and failure to disclose the value of mortgage-related securities and other investments.

The investigations revealed Tuesday come as lawmakers began considering whether to approve emergency legislation that would give the government broad power to buy up devalued assets from troubled financial firms.

The bailout proposed by the Bush administration is aimed at helping unlock credit and stabilize badly shaken markets in the United States and around the globe.

In the past two weeks, the government has taken over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the country's two biggest mortgage companies, with a bailout plan that could require the Treasury Department to put up as much as $100 billion for each of them over time if needed to keep them afloat as mortgage losses mount.

Last week, the Federal Reserve provided an emergency $85 billion loan to AIG, which teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. Lehman Brothers was forced to file for bankruptcy after attempts to engineer a private rescue fell apart. All the companies were laid low from bad bets on complex mortgage-related securities.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke made the joint decision last week that the only way to stop the carnage was to deal with the root cause of all the troubles, billions of dollars of bad mortgage debt sitting on the books of major financial companies. This debt has triggered the worst credit crisis in decades, causing credit markets to essentially freeze up despite the fact that the Fed joined with major central banks around the world to pump billions of dollars of reserves into the financial system.

Additionally, the FBI is investigating failed bank IndyMac Bancorp Inc. for possible fraud. Countrywide Financial Corp., formerly the nation's largest mortgage lender and now owned by Bank of America Corp., is also under scrutiny.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Could the Fannie and Freddie collapse help borrowers?

The government's takeover of mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should provide an opportunity to modify more home loans for troubled borrowers, a top government official said Wednesday.

The takeover, announced earlier this month, will allow regulators to ``take a look at the loans and see what can be modified,'' said Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., in testimony before a House committee.

With 1.5 million foreclosures last year and 1.2 million already in the first six months of this year, the foreclosure crisis is accelerating, she said.

``There are still a lot of mortgages out there that need to be restructured and families that can still be helped,'' Bair told the House Financial Services Committee.

Under her stewardship, the FDIC has rolled out a plan to help refinance delinquent homeowners into 30-year mortgages with interest rates currently capped at 5.9 percent. The FDIC introduced the program about a month ago after it seized IndyMac Bank.

Some lawmakers want to see if the program can be replicated among loans held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bought loans from IndyMac, Washington Mutual and many other banks as part of their official role in supporting the housing market. But the government-sponsored companies ran into trouble when those loans started defaulting at an alarming pace, scaring off investors and putting upward pressure on interest rates.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and James Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency ``actively looking'' at expanding loan modifications among the more than $5 trillion in loans that Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee, Bair said.

Her efforts have the backing of the committee's chairman, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.

``We will be urging others to follow your model,'' Frank told Bair. ``I think you are setting a very good example here.''

More than 1,200 homeowners with mortgages from failed IndyMac Bank are participating in the agency's effort to refinance the loans and stem the tide of foreclosures _ a number is expected to rise dramatically.

So far, the FDIC has mailed out more than 7,400 offers to modify loans, and participating borrowers have saved an average of $430 on their monthly payments. The agency estimates that about 40,000 of IndyMac's 60,000 delinquent mortgages are eligible for the program.

The agency has been operating the Pasadena, Calif.-based bank, now called IndyMac Federal Bank, under a conservatorship since July 11.

And there are concerns on the FDIC might get saddled with an even bigger problem: Washington Mutual Inc., the nation's largest savings and loan.

To avoid that, the government has been reaching out to large banks in an effort to organize a buyout of the beleaguered lender, according to a person briefed on the talks between regulators and banks.

Shares of Washington Mutual have plummeted in recent weeks amid continued concerns about mounting losses in the bank's lending portfolios. The lender lost $3.33 billion, or $6.58 a share, in the second quarter and set aside more than $8 billion to cover souring loans.

Earlier this summer President Bush signed a bill that aims to prevent foreclosures by allowing an estimated 400,000 homeowners to swap their mortgages for more affordable loans, but only if their lender agrees to take a loss on the initial loan. That program starts Oct. 1, but some lawmakers are questioning whether that program will do enough to stem the foreclosure crisis.

``Voluntary may just not be good enough'' said Rep. Jackie Spier, D.-Calif.

Executives from Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America and Wells Fargo, all told lawmakers they are boosting their staff and making preparations to put the new program in place. Bank of America and Wells Fargo officials said they are postponing foreclosure sales for customers who may qualify for the government-backed refinancing effort.

Mortgage interest rates dip to lowest levels thus far

The credit crunch has made it tough for people to get home loans, but those who do manage to qualify could be getting lower interest rates.

Valley mortgage broker Dean Wegner said home buyers with good credit could be looking at the lowest rates this year -- 5.75 to 6 percent.

Interest rates have dropped by one-quarter to one-half of a percent in the past two weeks, a drop that usually takes six months, Wegner said.

The rate drops were due mainly to the government takeover of mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Wegner believes rates will go even lower, although he said everything depends on the federal government right now.

``It's very hard to say, but assuming that you have good credit, you could be in the mid 5s to the low 6s," he said, referring to interest rates somewhere around 5.5 to 6 percent.

``I think if you ask anybody in the real estate or mortgage or homebuilding industry, we all are real pleased with the way things are going right now," Wegner said. ``Basically, what it means is you can get a lot more house for a lot less money."

Lower interest rates mean ``more people are going to engage in real estate, and the buyer pool will increase and hopefully buy more of the inventory that's up there," Wegner said. ``Then we can see a rebound in home prices and home prices go back up where they should be."

Friday, September 12, 2008

Foreclosed homes in Phoenix nearly half of all sales last month according to ASU

That's a two percent increase from July and more than double the 20 percent of sales recorded in August 2007.

Sales of foreclosed homes in the metro Phoenix area made up nearly half of all existing homes sold in the area last month, a new study shows.

Of the 7,505 resale home transactions recorded in Maricopa County in August, 44 percent were bought out of foreclosures, according to the Realty Studies department at Arizona State University. That's a two percent increase from July and more than double the 20 percent of sales recorded in August 2007.

There's no end in sight for the housing market slump, according to the director of Realty Studies at ASU's Polytechnic campus in east Mesa.

``Most potential buyers still confront a weak economy, slumping levels of confidence and tighter underwriting guidelines,'' Jay Butler said. ``Thus, the local housing market still contains considerable uncertainty over when any potential strengthening can be expected.''

The federal government takeover of the Federal National Mortgage Association and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) has driving mortgage prices down, bad economic news is keeping buyer sentiment low, Butler said.

The median price of a home bought out of foreclosure in August was $161,875, compared with a non-foreclosure price of $193,550. A year ago the median prices were $220,010 and $258,000 respectively.

Prices varied widely by location. In North Scottsdale, the median price in August for a foreclosed property was $545,000, while the traditional market was $525,000. In South Scottsdale the splits were $219,855 and $242,000, respectively. In Maryvale, traditional transactions were $98,000 and foreclosures were $123,580.

The steep drop in prices is beginning to bring out investors expecting to see prices rebound in the next few years, Butler said.

Interest is especially high in the lower-priced ranges because more capital is available for those homes, he said.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Failed Silver State branches in Arizona will reopen Monday...

The four Arizona branches of Silver State Bank, which was shut down by Nevada regulators Friday, held $183 million, or about 10 percent of the bank's $1.7 billion in deposits, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Nevada-based Silver State also had $2 billion in assets as of June 30.

The FDIC said Friday that the bank's insured deposits will be assumed by Nevada State Bank of Las Vegas. Its branches will reopen Monday as offices of Nevada State Bank in Nevada and National Bank of Arizona in the Valley.

Silver State Bank in Nevada is shut down

Regulators on Friday shut down Silver State Bank, saying the Nevada bank failed because of losses on soured loans, mainly in commercial real estate and land development.

It was the 11th failure this year of a federally insured bank.

Nevada regulators closed Silver State and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of the bank, based in Henderson, Nev. It had $2 billion in assets and $1.7 billion in deposits as of June 30.

Andrew K. McCain, a son of Republican presidential nominee John McCain, sat on the boards of Silver State Bank and of its parent, Silver State Bancorp, starting in February but resigned in July citing "personal reasons," corporate filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show. Andrew McCain also was a member of the bank's audit committee, responsible for oversight of the company's accounting.

The younger McCain, who is the chief financial officer of Hensley & Co., the beer distributorship of which Cindy McCain is chairwoman, is the Arizona senator's adopted son from his first marriage.

Andrew McCain's position on the Silver State board and departure were first reported Friday by The Wall Street Journal online.

Silver State Bank ran into difficulty because of a substantial amount of "poor-quality loans primarily related to real estate development" in southern Nevada and other distressed markets, FDIC spokesman David Barr said.

"When the housing market slowed down, people who bought raw land to build new homes didn't need that land so they couldn't do anything with it and repay their loans. So those loans went bad," Barr said.

Silver State Bancorp recently reported a net loss for the second quarter of $73.2 million, or $4.84 a share, compared with net profit of $6.2 million, or 44 cents a share, in the same period last year.

Construction and development loans have been the fastest-growing category of troubled loans for U.S. banks, and many banks have heavy concentrations of them in their lending portfolios, according to the FDIC. Some small banks are considered especially vulnerable. Delinquent loan payments and defaults by commercial and residential developers have surged to the highest levels since the early 1990s — the latter part of the savings and loan crisis.

The FDIC said Silver State Bank's insured deposits will be assumed by Nevada State Bank of Las Vegas. Its branches will reopen Monday as offices of Nevada State Bank in Nevada and National Bank of Arizona in Arizona.

The agency said depositors of Silver State Bank will continue to have full access to their deposits.

The 11 failures so far this year compare with three for all of 2007, and federal banking officials have said that more banks are in danger of collapse.

Silver State Bank has operated 13 branches in the greater Las Vegas area and four in the greater Phoenix-Scottsdale area of Arizona as well as loan offices in Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, California and Florida.

The FDIC estimated its resolution will cost the deposit insurance fund between $450 million and $550 million.

Regular deposit accounts are insured up to $100,000.

There were about $20 million in uninsured deposits held in roughly 500 accounts at Silver State that potentially exceeded the insurance limit, the FDIC said.

Concern has been growing over the solvency of some banks amid the housing slump and the steep slide in the mortgage market. The pressures of tighter credit, tumbling home prices and rising foreclosures have been battering many banks, large and small, across the nation.

The largest bank failure by far this year has been that of savings and loan IndyMac Bank, which was seized by regulators on July 11 with about $32 billion in assets and deposits of $19 billion.

The seizure of Pasadena, Calif.-based IndyMac, which was the largest regulated thrift to fail in the United States, prompted hundreds of angry customers to line up for hours in Southern California to demand their money. IndyMac also was the second-largest financial institution to close in U.S. history, after Continental Illinois National Bank in 1984.

The FDIC has been operating the bank, now called IndyMac Federal Bank, under a conservatorship.

The FDIC plans to raise insurance premiums paid by banks and thrifts to replenish its reserve fund after paying out billions of dollars to depositors at IndyMac. The fund, currently at $45 billion, is expected to take a hit from IndyMac of $4 billion to $8 billion.

Federal officials expect turbulence in the banking industry to continue well into next year, and more banks to appear on the FDIC's internal list of troubled institutions.

Of the 8,500 or so FDIC-insured banks in the country, 117 were considered to be in trouble in the second quarter — the highest level in about five years and up from 90 in the first quarter. The agency doesn't disclose the banks' names.

___

Silver State Bank customers with accounts exceeding $100,000 can contact the FDIC at 1-800-523-8177 to set up an appointment to discuss their deposits.

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae taken over by US Government Sunday

The US government today announced the biggest financial bailout in the country's history as it took troubled mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae into temporary public ownership to save them from collapse.

The US treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, said the Federal Housing Finance Agency, hitherto the two companies' regulator, would henceforth run the companies in a state of "conservatorship" and the two chief executives would be replaced by new men.

Paulson had briefed presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain over the weekend about the plan. McCain gave it his immediate backing but Obama said he would reserve judgment until he saw further details, adding that determining the future of the companies would be a top priority if he won the White House.

"We have to protect taxpayers and not bail out the shareholders and management," he said.

The plan received the full backing of the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, and financial markets appeared likely to be cheered by the news. The move helped put a prop under one part of the financial system that had been looking particularly shaky for several months.

Rumours of the move on Friday were sufficient to push shares up on Wall Street after the London stock markets had ended a bad week by shedding another 2.25% to close at 5,240.7.

The US government was forced to announce a plan to prop up the finances of the troubled mortgage giants in July. Paulson said then that Washington would buy up shares in the two companies and underwrite their ballooning debt, which has risen to around $800bn each. Congress at the time approved lending unlimited amounts to the two companies or taking a stake in them if they ran into real trouble.

The two companies have lent or underwritten about $5.3 trillion of the total $12tn of outstanding mortgage debt in the United States. Freddie and Fannie have long been considered as being too big to be allowed to fail.

The collapse in the housing market and surge in mortgage defaults meant the two groups racked up a combined $14bn of losses over the past year.

Although there are increasing signs from the US that house prices are stabilising after falling for two to three years, many analysts say the housing market's problems are far from over.

"Mortgage delinquencies continue to set new records, promising more losses and future write-offs for banks and other mortgage lenders," said economists at investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort.

"The problems are spreading from the subprime sector to prime loans, particularly to mortgages with adjustable rates and optional payment features. With unemployment rising faster, cyclical problems will now compound the damage caused by falling house prices."

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Arizona Title Company shuts down suddenly

The Arizona Department of Financial Institutions confirms that the Arizona Title Company, a licensed escrow company in the state, has shut down.

Customers were greeted with 'closed' signs and vacated offices in Phoenix Wednesday afternoon. The closure came suddenly and with out warning.

Below is a statement from the corporation regarding the closure:

The First American Corporation has issued the following statement regarding the recent decision by Arizona Title Agency, Inc. to discontinue operations in the state of Arizona:

“First American Title Insurance Company is the sole title insurance underwriter for Arizona Title and in that capacity, has assured state insurance regulators of its commitment to fulfill its duties and responsibilities and assist them as may be necessary or appropriate under the law to ensure that transactions involving the customers of these two companies, and the policyholders of First American, are successfully processed to completion. As a first step, First American has set up a dedicated customer service center to field questions from existing customers of Arizona Title. Customers with pending transactions may call 925-249-2819 to receive further information.

First American has had a long-standing relationship with Arizona Title and we regret that the current market conditions have forced them into this very unfortunate situation.”

About The First American Corporation
The First American Corporation (NYSE: FAF) is a FORTUNE 500® company that traces its history to 1889. With revenues of $8.2 billion in 2007, it is America’s largest provider of business information. First American combines advanced analytics with its vast data resources to supply businesses and consumers with valuable information products to support the major economic events of people’s lives, such as getting a job, renting an apartment, buying a car or house, securing a mortgage and opening or buying a business. The First American Family of Companies, many of which command leading market share positions in their respective industries, operate within five primary business segments, including: Title Insurance and Services, Specialty Insurance, Information and Outsourcing Solutions, Data and Analytics Solutions, and Risk Mitigation and Business Solutions.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Video tutorials for the new flex mls

If you had watched some of the video tutorials for the new flex mls system, but can't find them anymore, here is what you need to do:

Go to http://armls.flexmls.com/ and log in with your same username and password for the old mls.

Once you are logged in you can find the video tutorials on the left side lower nav bar under "User Guides".

Have fun!

Friday, July 25, 2008

More foreclosure news for Arizona

The highest rates of foreclosures in metropolitan Phoenix have moved from the farthest flung suburbs to neighborhoods closer into the area, particularly some in south, west and central Phoenix.

That's according to an Arizona newspaper's analysis of real-estate data from the Information Market.

When foreclosures started to climb last summer, the highest rates of home defaults were found in farthest flung areas where buyers had gone to get the most house for their buck.

Although some of the metro area's fringes such as Surprise, Anthem and Buckeye continue to have high foreclosure rates, the problem has moved inward.

Foreclosures across metro Phoenix number 16,647 for the first half of the year compared with 9,966 during all of 2007 and 1,070 in 2006.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Phoenix Home Prices Down 18 Percent

Arizona - A new report show prices of existing homes in metropolitan Phoenix plummeted by 18 percent between April 2007 and April 2008.

The report compiled by Arizona State University researchers puts much of the blame on foreclosed homes being dumped on the market by banks.

The dramatic price drop was much steeper than reflected in March, when prices showed a 13 percent drop from a year earlier.

ASU real estate professor Karl Gunterman says the rise in foreclosures has banks discounting homes they repossess, which drives down overall prices.

Hardest-hit are the southwestern Phoenix suburbs of Avondale, Buckeye and Goodyear, which saw 30 percent declines. To the southeast, Mesa saw the steepest drop at 18 percent. Even Scottsdale and Paradise Valley recorded double-digit price drops.

In my opinion, the banks need to step up and start to work with Realtors on selling these homes. You can have a buyer and seller in total agreement and it still takes 2-3 months for the bank to get back to you! It's madness.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Cell phone usage and the IRS

NAR is participating in a broad-based coalition to help ensure the clear tax deductibility of business cell phone use after a U.S. Tax Court decision muddied the waters.

NAR and it's coalition partners are working hard with members of Congress on potential legislation to address the situation. For more information please contact Linda Goold at NAR. 202-383-1083 or send an email to her at lgoold@realtors.org

News from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae

Fannie Mae will no longer require borrowers to put up an extra five percent down payment when purchasing homes in areas deemed "declining markets". NAR met several times last spring with Fannie Mae officials and sent letters reflecting members unease with the policy.

Starting June 1st, 2008 Fannie Mae started to accept up to 97% loan-to-value ratios for conventional, conforming mortgages processed through it's desktop underwriter automated system, and 95% loan-to-value ratios for loans underwritten outside of desktop underwriter, in all locations in the United States.

Freddie Mac has also stated they will scrap their policy.

Ethics training information

There are two online ethics training courses available on Realtor.org. Each course meets the specific criteria and learning objectives required for either new Realtors or existing Realtors as established in the statements of professional standards policy #47.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Gov. Janet Napolitano signs mortgage-licensing bill

Gov. Janet Napolitano has signed a proposal to license loan originators, a measure strongly backed by Arizona real estate professionals, financial institutions and housing officials.

The Senate had passed the bill, 20-6, after a long battle by the bill's author, Sen. Jay Tibshraeny of Chandler, to bring the proposal up for a vote.

The Chandler Republican resorted to a parliamentary maneuver on June 25 to bypass his caucus, where the bill had languished for some time.

Democratic lawmakers had pressed for legislative action to address the housing crisis during a forum in the Executive Tower on June 3 and followed up with pleas on the Senate floor.

The appeal was backed by officials of the Arizona Department of Financial Institutions, the Department of Real Estate, the Department of Housing and the Attorney General's Office. Industry insiders, including appraisers and loan officers, also urged legislative action to address mortgage fraud and the soaring number of foreclosures that have hit the state.

Many of those who spoke during the June 3 forum pushed for the licensing of loan originators. But critics said they don't believe a piece of paper in the form of a license will stop somebody from committing fraud.

Citing studies, the Pew Charitable Trusts reported that one in every 18 homeowners in Arizona could face foreclosure primarily in the next two years because of their sub-prime related loan.

"You walk down your street and count 18 homes, for the next two years, one in 18 Arizona homeowners will be in foreclosure. That is significant," said State Real Estate Commissioner Sam Wercinski.

IndyMac to Sell 60 Branches

IndyMac Bancorp Inc., which on Monday said it would lay off 3,800 workers and stop accepting new loan submissions, has reached an agreement to sell more than 60 retail mortgage branches to Prospect Mortgage.

Under the deal, the branches will be rebranded as Prospect branches and approximately 750 employees will join the company, according to an internal e-mail sent to employees on Tuesday. Financial terms were not disclosed.

“This is a tremendous development for our organization,” said Prospect Chief Executive Mark Filler in the e-mail, which was provided to the Business Journal. “This transaction is proof that we are on our way to becoming the nation’s largest independent retail mortgage company.”

Prospect was started in 2006 and is backed by private equity fund Sterling Partners.

Executives at Pasadena-based IndyMac had been working since last week with Prospect in an effort to pull off a deal. On Monday, IndyMac Chief Executive Michael Perry said in a letter to stakeholders that the company would stop taking most loan applications and close its roughly 150 branches.

Through the deal, 750 employees who on Monday were told they would be laid off will keep their jobs under Prospect’s management, said IndyMac spokesman Evan Wagner.

“We wanted to mitigate our own losses and we wanted to find them a home,” Wagner said of the deal.

Additionally, IndyMac will continue to originate loans “without interruption,” the company said in a separate e-mail to IndyMac employees.

“Between now and the time that that (the deal closes), our retail sales force is still going to be doing business under our brand,” Wagner said. “Whatever loans they originate, they’ll go through our systems, but Prospect will fund them.”

Separately, analyst Paul Miller of Friedman Billings Ramsey & Co. lowered his target price for the company’s stock from $1 to zero on Tuesday. Miller said he does not expect the company to go under, but he wrote in a research report, “We do not believe that there is any value left for common shareholders.”

Shares of IndyMac closed up 4 percent to 46 cents in after-hours trading after plunging 38 percent in the regular session.

About Prospect Mortgage

Prospect Mortgage

Established in 2006, Prospect Mortgage specializes in acquiring midsized residential lenders, providing them with capital, cost-efficiencies, and increased resources while maintaining a decentralized, entrepreneurial business model. Prospect is backed by Sterling Partners, a multibillion-dollar private equity fund based in Chicago and Baltimore. To learn more, visit www.prospectmtg.com.

Some products may not be available in all states. This is not a commitment to lend. Restrictions apply. All rights reserved. Users of this information should not assume that it remains effective at a later date. Programs (including, without limits, fees, rates, and features) are subject to change without notice.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements with respect to the Companys business, financial condition, results of operations, plans, objectives and future performance. Forward-looking statements, which may be based upon beliefs, expectations and assumptions of management and on information currently available to management, are generally identifiable by the use of words such as believe, expect, anticipate, plan, intend, estimate, may, will, would, could, should or other similar expressions. Additionally, all statements in this document, including forward-looking statements, speak only as of the date they are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update any statement in light of new information or future events. A number of factors, many of which are beyond the ability of the Company to control or predict, could cause actual results to differ materially from those in its forward-looking statements, including, among others, changes in demand for mortgage loans, the Companys access to funding sources and the terms upon which it can obtain financing, the impact of economic slowdowns or recessions, managements ability to manage the Companys growth and planned expansion, competition in the Companys market, changes in government regulations, the impact of new legislation or court decisions restricting the activities of lenders or suppliers of credit in the Companys market and the inability of the Company to manage the risks associated with the foregoing as well as anticipated. These risks and uncertainties should be considered in evaluating forward-looking statements and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. The Company does not undertake to up-date forward looking statements to reflect the impact of circumstances or events that arise after the date the forward looking statement are made.

IndyMac Bancorp to be Prospect Mortgage

Prospect Mortgage has signed an agreement to acquire the majority of IndyMac Bancorps retail mortgage branches. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The transaction encompasses approximately 750 employees along with more than 60 branch offices which will be rebranded as Prospect Mortgage. John Johnston and Ron Bergum will remain in leadership roles with the retail branch group and report to Mark Filler, CEO of Prospect Mortgage.

The IndyMac transaction benefits our loan officers, customers, sales managers and referral sources. This is growth for the right reasons, not just for the sake of growth, said Mr. Filler. The IndyMac transaction will enable us to increase our investment and success in marketing, technology, and customer service levels.

With completion of the IndyMac transaction, Prospect Mortgage projects that it will become one of the largest independent retail mortgage companies in the country.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Have a great 4th of July!

Monday, June 30, 2008

ARMLS SWITCHES TO FLEXMLS JULY 28TH

ARMLS SWITCHES TO FLEXMLS JULY 28TH

For all of the latest information about the system conversion, training, support, and a place for you to ask questions, please visit www.NewArmls.com

Thursday, June 26, 2008

More and more foreclosures in Arizona

Every week there seems to be more and more homes being foreclosed on here in Arizona. This is a sad situation for many and a HUGE boom for those who are wanting to get a home for cheap!

Each home is different of course, however the chance is there to get a great deal!

I do not see a so called "bottom" any time soon. The banks are taking forever to respond to offers and many times letting the home(s) get foreclosed on. This is a tough time for all of us given the rise of gasoline, food and other everyday needs. I wish these banks would look at offers and say yes or no in a reasonable amount of time but they don't.

Keep looking for those great property steals because they are everywhere in AZ.

Have a great day!

Friday, April 25, 2008

30-Year Rates Jump to 6.03%

Freddie Mac reports a jump in the 30-year fixed mortgage rate to 6.03 percent during the week ended April 24, from 5.88 percent the prior week, marking the first time in six weeks that mortgage rates rose above 6 percent.

The 15-year fixed mortgage rate climbed during the same period, edging up to 5.62 percent from 5.40 percent.

The five-year adjustable mortgage rate increased to 5.68 percent from 5.48 percent, while the one-year adjustable rate shot up to 5.28 percent from 5.10 percent.

Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft attributes the gains to heightened inflationary concerns.

Source: Baltimore Sun (04/25/08)

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Mortgage Brokers Get Jail Time for Scam

Two mortgage brokers and a title attorney have been sentenced to multiple years in prison for their parts in a $37 million mortgage scam.

America’s Best Mortgage Services broker Richard Crowder got 11 years for luring buyers to a fraudulent no-money-down financing scheme to purchase 17 condos complexes called Continuum and Point of Aventura, both on Miami Beach.

His accomplices, title attorney Gary Mills, owner of Four Star Title, and former Wachovia loan officer Karen Lynn Sullivan, got 46 months and 50 months in jail respectively.

Officials charged that Sullivan would draw up phony closing documents showing the would-be buyers already owned the units, then she would help get fraudulent home equity credit lines. The money was used to make down payments on first mortgages for the same units and pay the fees and commissions.

Source: Miami Herald, Monica Hatcher (04/25/08)

REALTOR.org: Updates today!

As part of their continued efforts to provide more value to members, Realtor.org is being updated today Friday, April 25. This upgrade will not significantly change the site's overall look and feel, but it will pave the way for future site improvements including increased interactivity, enhanced search, and a new design.

Please note that you may notice some minor changes on the site between April 25 and mid-summer. Some pages will have an updated look, and others will have slightly different functionality (i.e., redesigned navigation menus). You will still be able to access the information you need throughout this period.

They are looking forward to making REALTOR.org better than ever. If you have feedback about the site during the upgrade and beyond, let them know! They look forward to hearing from you.

Sounds great!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Housing prices fall again in Arizona

According to NAR, housing prices fell another 2% in March here in Arizona.

Prices keep falling on most homes in Arizona. Right now would be a great time to swoop in on some investment property or future rental property. I think the bottom has not yet been reached for the housing problems, however I do think now is a good time to start looking for property and get something you have always wanted...there are more choices and available homes on the market now than there have ever been.

Start looking around or call an agent today!

Monday, April 14, 2008

My first post as the Arizona Agent blogger

Welcome to my blog!


My goal with this blog is to provide an outlet for my Real Estate career and the things I learn everyday. Basically, I want you as the reader to gain an insight on what it's like to be an Arizona Real Estate agent and some of the new and exciting things to come in Arizona Real Estate.

Let's see how this works....!!!!

Enjoy