Christmas came a month late this year for Colony Capital LLC, but nobody there is complaining. Colony, a private international investment firm, bought $1 Billion in commercial real estate loans from the FDIC for 44 cents on the dollar. According to a CoStar Group report: The transaction included 1,200 loans with an aggregate unpaid principal… CONTINUE
DRE Audit Representation
Title Insurance Claims
About Christopher Hanson
FDIC: Federal Deals Incredibly Cheap?
E and O Coverage
What Brokers Need to Know About REOs/Part 3
BPOs and the Thorough Inspection The bank listing agreement may call for the broker/agent to give opinions of value (BPOs). A BPO is an in-depth analysis of a property’s value. Think of it as a mini-appraisal. To do one properly, the broker/agent needs to thoroughly investigate the property’s condition. Some might suggest even more thoroughly… CONTINUE
Adding Insult to Injury? More Like Piling On.
What is yesterday’s news (literally) may become tomorrow’s big headache for many homeowners who participate in a short sale. A Feb. 3 article for CNNMoney.com explained how banks and other lenders are now pursuing former homeowners with “deficiency judgments” – asking them to pay the difference between what they owed on their mortgage and what… CONTINUE
“Just Enough…”
There’s a proposed Federal Program to assist Banks and borrowers (one of hundreds) by paying Banks $1 for every $2 a Bank writes off on a loan. Why ‘write off’ any part in the first place? Because many of these homes are worth less than the debt; they’re underwater (banks call this “negative equity”). Sounds… CONTINUE
Cockroaches to the Court: Turn Out the Lights!
Backed by The Clearing House Association, a consortium of banks (and was there ever a better name?), the Federal Reserve has asked an appeals court to shield the names of participants in the federal emergency financial system bailout program from the press and the public. In response to a lawsuit brought by Bloomberg News and… CONTINUE
Turkeys in the Straw
A mortgage broker who took out astronomical loans on behalf of “straw buyers” has been sentenced to a five-year term in federal prison (“the big house”) for the mortgage fraud scheme. Viktor Kobzar, a Federal Way mortgage broker, and six other associates charged in the scheme had falsified income documents to obtain loans and then… CONTINUE
What Brokers Need to Know About REOs: Part 2
Welcome to the REO Business How do you start? By getting to know your local bankers. (Note: most REO properties are coming from national banks, and bankers handling the mass volume of REO properties are just too busy and losing too much money to be friendly. So be persistent. And take donuts.) We presume that… CONTINUE
