MLS information you may not have known about

I wanted to post some information I recently found out about regarding MLS. After doing some searches for my clients, I came across a listing that stated the home did not come with certain appliances as well as having a $0 pet deposit. Unkowingly, my client had called the listing agent for this rental property and was told the home DID have these appliances as well as a $200 pet deposit. Further investigation into why this listing agent did not fill out the MLS form correctly lead to the answer of "MLS is advertising only and not a contract in any way".

I find it sad that we REALTORS have to pay so much money for these services when in fact there seems to be zero policing of the listings as far as truthfullness goes. It seems clear to me now that many agents are putting false information into thier MLS listings so that your searchs pull their listing up and then you later find out the depostits and/or price is incorrect, but there is nothing you can do about it since it's considered "advertising".

I hope change is in the near future for MLS and that some sort of fine or penatly will be standard for agents/brokers who continually put false information into MLS.

Indymac and others get sweetheart deal - Is this why foreclosures takeso long or never even happen!?

Buckeye Arizona has great homes for rent!

High Profile Realty - Chris Hanson not paying agents and others...Channel 5 report on Monday night

Should be very interesting to watch.

It will be on the 10pm news on channel 5 here in Arizona.

Investigates Chris Hanson of High Profile Realty and his business practices...many people claim he has not paid them for services rendered.

Warnings about loan modification scams

There should not be a fee to get information from either your lender or a HUD-Approved housing counselor.

Governor Jan Brewer is warning homeowners about unlicensed mortgage loan modification companies.

They promise to keep homeowners behind on payments from losing their homes to foreclosure, but end up scamming consumers.

Gov. Brewer urges consumers to beware of any person or organization that asks for a fee in exchange for housing counseling services or loan modification. There should not be a fee to get information from either your lender or a HUD-Approved housing counselor.

Free assistance is available by calling 1-877-448-1211. More information can be found on the web sites for the Arizona Department of Housing, the Arizona Department of Financial Institutions

Buckeye, Arizona home for rent

I found this short video showing a nice home for rent in Buckeye, Arizona:

Home For Sale in Peoria, Arizona

Contract worker for Fannie Mae accused of selling appliances from foreclosures

Police 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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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."

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.

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.

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!

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