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Real estate broker, civil engineer and general contractor.
Real Estate

New Mortgage Deal Could Bring Billions In Relief

English: A Wells Fargo bank on College Avenue ...
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On Thursday, federal and state officials announced a $26 billion foreclosure settlement with five of the largest home lenders.  California is expected to receive approximately $12 billion in principal write-downs, including through short sales, over the next three years, according to the state attorney general‘s office.

 

  • The deal settles potential state charges about allegations of improper foreclosures based on robo-signing, seizures made without proper paperwork.
  • The settlement sets up a federal monitor to oversee the process and try to prevent the challenges that tripped up many homeowners seeking help in earlier programs designed to address the housing crisis.
  • Most of the relief will go to those who are underwater on their homes.  That relief will come over the course of the next three years, with banks having incentives to provide most of the relief in the next 12 months.
  • At least $17 billion will go to reducing the principal owed by homeowners who are underwater and behind on their mortgages.
  • Up to 750,000 other underwater homeowners who are current on their mortgages will be able to refinance their current loans at lower rates.  They will not receive a reduction in principal, but with mortgage rates near record lows, they could receive substantial savings on their monthly payments.
  • Approximately $1.5 billion will go to homeowners who had their homes foreclosed upon between Jan. 1, 2008 and Dec. 31, 2011, and who meet other criteria.  They will receive up to $2,000 each.
  • The five mortgage servicers that are parties to the settlement include Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Ally Financial (formerly GMAC).

Read the full story

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For all your real estate needs:
Call or email
John J. O’Dell Realtor® GRI
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Email jodell@nevadacounty.com

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Real Estate

$26 Billion Deal Could Offer Relief to Home Owners

Freddie Mac
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Daily Real Estate News | Thursday, February 09, 2012

After months of tense negotiations, the nation’s five largest banks and state and government officials have agreed to a $26 billion settlement aimed at holding banks accountable for the mishandling of some foreclosures.

The settlement is expected to help 1 million home owners, by having lenders reduce their mortgage debt or refinance into lower mortgage rates to reduce costs of their monthly payments. Also, about 750,000 people who lost their homes to foreclosure from September 2008 to the end of 2011 are expected to receive checks for about $2,000. The aid from the settlement will be distributed over the next three years, The New York Times reports.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a panacea for the housing industry but it is good for the banks to get this behind them,” Jason Goldberg, an analyst with Barclays, told The New York Times about the settlement.

Details of the settlement still need to be finalized, including how many states will participate. Also, federal officials say the final figure could move upwards to $39 billion. Mortgages owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will not be part of the deal.

The banks involved in the settlement are Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and Ally Financial.

Source: “States Negotiate $26 Billion Deal for Home Owners,” The New York Times (Feb. 8, 2012)

 

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For all your real estate needs:

Email or call:
John J. O’Dell Realtor® GRI
(530) 263-1091
Email jodell@nevadacounty.com

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Real Estate

Major Foreclosure Servicer Charged With Forgery

 

Photo courtesy of Riverfront Times
Photo courtesy of Riverfront Times

Finally, someone is getting indicted for robo signing. Robo signing, if you haven’t heard or know what it was, is having  employees signing thousands of  false mortgage documents. Read the story below from the New York times for further explanation:

“DocX, one of the largest companies in the nation to provide foreclosure services to lenders nationwide, has been indicted by a Missouri grand jury on forgery charges stemming from foreclosures against home owners in the state.

The indictment marks one of the “few criminal actions to follow reports of widespread improprieties against home owners” nationwide, The New York Times reports.

According to the indictment, DocX is accused of making “mass-produced fraudulent signatures on notarized real estate documents” and could face up to 136 counts of forgery in the preparation of documents used to evict defaulting home owners from their homes. DocX could face a fine of up to $10,000 for each forgery conviction.

DocX is a unit of Lender Processing Services of Jacksonville, Fla. The company is accused of executing and notarizing millions of mortgage documents for banks and lenders the last few years. Lender Procession closed in April 2010 after allegations surfaced of alleged forged documents.

Some of its employees were also indicted last week and could face several years in prison if found convicted.

An attorney for DocX says the company will enter a plea of “not guilty” and declined to comment further about the charges.”

Source: “Company Faces Forgery Charges in Mo. Foreclosures,” The New York Times (Feb. 6, 2012)

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Thinking of buying or selling?
For all your real estate needs
Email or call:
John J. O’Dell Realtor® GRI
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Email jodell@nevadacounty.com

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Entertainment, Grass Valley

Land Of Nod – Chris Crockett (with Connie Crockett)

httpv://youtu.be/-_JTE_u3BSA

I’ve always enjoyed listening to Chris wherever and when ever I get a chance to hear him play in Grass Valley  or  Nevada City. He has a great voice and this is one of his latest videos he posted on Facebook. Here’s  what he has to say about himself on his website:

Chris Crockett began creating songs at age 13 and has a compilation of hundreds of songs written over the past 44 years. Chris is the 3rd generation of the Crockett family of musicians who were instrumental in bringing country music to California.

Chris was born in Los Angeles, California in 1943. In the early 1960’s Chris coaxed his brothers Joel and Jeremy Crockett to form The Crockett Brothers trio. During the Crockett Brothers era Chris and the boys recorded two classic surfing/hot rod songs, “Mother Mother May I Go Surfing” and “Fastest Car In Town”. Both songs are highly prized by collectors on 45 rpm, and have recently been re-released on CD by
Del-Fi/Donna Records, the label which originally recorded these two classics.

Chris is a 30 year member of the National Academy of Recording Artists and Sciences (NARAS) and a member of the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI). He has had several published songs and has written for major artists, motion pictures, independent artists and commercials. In 1975, Chris became a staff writer for music publisher Snuff Garrett (Garrett Music Enterprises, Inc.) During that time, he wrote songs recorded and performed by artists including Brenda Lee, Larry Mahan and several others.

Since 1979, Chris has been performing in Northern California’s Gold Country, primarily in Nevada City and Grass Valley. He is a traveling minstrel on “The Fun Train” which travels from San Francisco to Reno almost every weekend in January, February and March. Chris also warms up the crowd every Friday and Saturday night at a Nevada County Theater, “Off Broad Street”, where he also performs in several musical comedies written and produced by owners John Driscoll and Jan Kopp.

Source:  By permission of  Chris Crockett

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Bits & Pieces

The Power of Words

httpv://youtu.be/Hzgzim5m7oU

How we use words in our every day life can have such an impact.  How the world perceives us, how we mean to inform people of our needs.  Even the words we use in every day life, to strangers to our love ones. This video The Power of Words really underscores this.  A well thought out presentation illustrating how powerful words can be. The video have been viewed worldwide over 12,750,000 times, which if I might say speaks for itself.

John J. O’Dell

Credits:

The Story of a Sign by Alonso Alvarez Barreda Music by: Giles Lamb http://www.gileslamb.com Filmed by www.redsnappa.com Director Seth Gardner.
Cast: Bill Thompson, Beth Miller http://www.uk.castingcallpro.com/view.php?uid=217905

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For all your real estate needs:
Call or email
John J. O’Dell Realtor® GRI
Real Estate Broker
(530) 263-1091
Email jodell@nevadacounty.com

DRE #00669941

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Real Estate

Mortgage Relief From White House – But You know Congress

Official photographic portrait of US President...
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More mortgage relief from the White House – but congressional OK doubtful

In his State of the Union Address, President Obama laid out a plan to help responsible borrowers and support a housing market recovery.  Details of that plan were released yesterday.  However, funding for the proposed program must be approved by Congress, lowering the possibility that it will be implemented quickly.

Making sense of the story

  • Operated by the Federal Housing Administration, the plan would allow underwater homeowners to refinance into cheaper federally insured loans.  Borrowers with good credit who are current on their loan payments are eligible.
  • The measure also streamlines the process of refinancing an underwater mortgage, eliminating the need for an appraisal or submitting a new tax return.
  • To qualify, borrowers must be current on their mortgage, have a minimum credit score of 580, and must be refinancing a loan on a single-family owner-occupied principal residence.
  • Lenders only need to confirm that the borrower is employed.  Loans that are more than 140 percent of the home value probably would not qualify until banks wrote down part of the balance.
  • Congress must approve $5 billion to $10 billion in funding, leading housing experts to praise the plan’s objectives with skepticism of it passing this year.

Read the full story

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Thinking of buying or selling?
For all your real estate needs
Email or call:
John J. O’Dell Realtor® GRI
(530) 263-1091
Email jodell@nevadacounty.com

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animals

Dogs Welcoming Miltary Coming Home From Deployment

httpv://youtu.be/iD3cgDRsDck

 

I’ve just learned that there is website called Welcome Home Blog that has daily videos of military homecoming. Sure, it’s probably impossible to have a military homecoming video that isn’t wonderful, but this one’s a little different. In it, the returning soldiers are greeted by their dogs who welcomes them home with all the excitement one would normally expect from the more human members of the family.

 

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Real Estate

Real Estate Investor Busted – Sacramento, California

English: The Seal of the United States Federal...

SACRAMENTO, CA—A real estate investor pleaded guilty today in United States District Court in Sacramento to conspiring to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions held in San Joaquin County, Calif ., Sharis A Pozen, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, and Benjamin B Wagner, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of California, announced.

Kenneth A Swanger pleaded guilty to conspiring with a group of real estate speculators who agreed not to bid against each other at certain public real estate foreclosure auctions in San Joaquin County. The primary purpose of the conspiracy was to suppress and restrain competition and to obtain selected real estate offered at San Joaquin County public foreclosure auctions at noncompetitive prices, the department said in court papers.

According to the court documents, after the conspirators’ designated bidder bought a property at a public auction, they would hold a second, private auction, at which each participating conspirator would bid the amount above the public auction price he or she was willing to pay. The conspirator who bid the highest amount at the end of the private auction won the property. The difference between the price at the public auction and that at the second auction was the group’s illicit profit.
Continue reading Real Estate Investor Busted – Sacramento, California →

Real Estate

President Gerald Ford’s Home Up For Sale For $1.699 Million

English: President Gerald Ford appearing at th...
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The 6,316-square-foot Rancho Mirage, Calif., home belonging to the late President Gerald Ford and First Lady Betty Ford is up for sale at $1.699 million.

The one-story, flat-roof home overlooks a golf course and features his and her offices, five bedrooms, and six-and-a-half bathrooms. The Ford’s moved into the home after leaving the White House in 1978.

The home still contains the original furniture and looks very similar to the way it did when the Ford’s first moved there, says the real estate agent listing the home, Nelda Linsk. The home still has floral patterns in the bedroom and lime and avocado fabrics featured in the dining and great rooms.

“They were very private people,” Linsk told the Gannett News Service. “They didn’t want anything showy.”

President Ford passed away in December 2006, and Betty Ford died in July 2011.

Source: “Fords’ Rancho Mirage Home Goes up for Sale for $1.7 Million,” The Desert Sun (Palm Springs) (Jan. 23, 2012) and “President Ford’s House for Sale,” Gannett News Service (Jan. 25, 2012)

 

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Real Estate

Unemployed Borrowers Get Reprieve On Their Mortgages

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recently extended their foreclosure forbearance programs to give short-term aid to unemployed homeowners, but housing counselors warn that these borrowers will need to look at longer-term solutions.

Making sense of the story

  • In a forbearance program, a lender agrees not to foreclose on a property and gives the borrower several months’ grace from or reduction in monthly mortgage payments.  The programs work best for temporary setbacks, like job loss, health problems, or natural disasters.
  • There are drawbacks to the forbearances though. The most-significant drawback is a larger total debt from the smaller payments.  The unpaid balance continues to increase during this time.
  • The new temporary mortgage payment is often set to 31 percent of the household income; in some cases lenders agree to accept no payments.  Fannie Mae’s extended unemployment program, first offered in the fall of 2010, limits any nonpayment or other forbearance plans to one year, with the second six months requiring approval by both Fannie Mae and the lender.
  • However, even with the program in place, the lender could still report a mortgage as delinquent, which could adversely affect the borrower’s credit score.
  • Because some agreements add onerous term and conditions, homeowners should also consult with a housing counselor certified by the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development.

Read the full story

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For all your real estate needs:
Call or email

John J. O’Dell Realtor® GRI
Real Estate Broker
(530) 263-1091
Email jodell@nevadacounty.com

DRE #00669941

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