Power of House Talks by The Cerdafied Development Group

Mortgages The New York Times By LISA PREVOST Published: September 27, 2012    FOR homeowners who have been buffeted about by the foreclosure process, the suggestion that they willingly hand their deed to the lender and rent the home instead may only add insult to injury. But such an alternative to foreclosure — variously called “deed for lease” or “mortgage to lease” — is an option for a select few. Fannie Mae introduced a rent-back program in 2009, and this year, both Bank of America and CitiMortgage announced that they would try a similar approach in a handful of markets. The programs are basically an extension of what’s known as “deed in lieu of foreclosure.” In this process, the lender agrees not to foreclose if the homeowners simply hand over the deed to their property. The new element is a rental option: after relinquishing the deed, homeowners who meet certain requirements may sign a lease to stay on as renters for one to three years (d

GRE News: Fresno Residential Real Estate Forecast by Joan Ea... : Joan Eaton, owner/broker of Guarantee Real Estate, made a presentation at the Economic Development Corporation’s Real Estate Forecast in M...

GRE News: Home Values Going UP in Central California : It’s becoming more common for home buyers to pay a seller’s full asking price or even make an offer over what the seller is asking.   In fac...

GRE News: Short Sale Debt Forgiveness Expiring Soon : In 2007 Congress enacted the Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Act (MDFA).   The MDFA allows some homeowners whose mortgage debt is partly or enti...

Structured Portfolio Plans Fund to Purchase Homes to Rent By Kelly Bit and Nathaniel Baker - Jun 19, 2012 8:44 AM PT   Structured Portfolio Management LLC, Don Brownstein’s $3.2 billion Stamford , Connecticut-based mortgage hedge fund, plans to start a pool to buy and rent out homes. The firm may introduce the fund to investors within weeks, Brownstein said in a letter to clients dated June 12, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg News. He didn’t say how much capital has been raised or targeted. Structured Portfolio Management CIO Don Brownstein Scott Eells/Bloomberg Don Brownstein, chief investment officer and chief executive officer of Structured Portfolio Management LLC. Don Brownstein, chief investment officer and chief executive officer of Structured Portfolio Management LLC. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg Sponsored Links American Express—Savings 0.85% APY Savings Acco

By Max Resnik Gallery Click to enlarge 5 photos May 21, 2012 Updated May 21, 2012 at 6:33 PM EDT FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Indiana’s NewsCenter) – Community Action of Northeast Indiana, community leaders and Fort Wayne residents cut the ribbon on a new housing development created to provide lease-to-own opportunities for lower income families. Located off Reservation Drive in Waynedale, Hopewell Pointe officially opened its doors for the Fort Wayne community to see. Hopewell Pointe is comprised of 35 lease-to-own homes, most of which are three bedroom and four bedroom properties. Families occupying these homes sign year-to-year leases and are given the option to purchase the home after 15 years. Digital Daily – subscribe to our daily newsletter Melinda Bruner is one of the new residents at Hopewell Pointe. She says she began her journey to the new development back in December when she camped out for an entire weekend for the oppor

Monday May 21, 2012 - Insider Costa Rica The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved a $10 million loan to Banco de Finanzas S.A. (BDF), a leading commercial bank in Nicaragua, to finance a pilot housing project that will pave the way for low-income families working in the informal sector to get access to mortgage financing . The program is expected to extend mortgage loans to an estimated 500 low-income Nicaraguan families. The project, the first of its kind financed by the IDB in the region, seeks to address one of the biggest obstacles facing millions of low-income Latin American families that today struggle to improve their housing conditions: lack of access to financing because they can’t document their income. Clients in the program will rent the selected property for a 24-month period in which a portion of the monthly rental fee will be kept in a savings account that will later constitute the down payment on the home. The completion of timely month

  Posted on April 11, 2012 by Foreclosure.com Newsletter With thousands of Americans still struggling to make ends meet, people are learning to get creative to make good things happen in their lives. It’s especially true in the arena of rent-to-own real estate . The concept of rent-to-own has been around forever, but it’s often overlooked because it doesn’t fall under the category of more traditional real estate investment. Rent-to-own is similar to owning your home or investment property, but with a few key differences: Instead of paying money to a lender, you are paying rent to a landlord. A percentage of your rent goes toward your eventual full and complete ownership of the property, just like with a mortgage. Renting to own is a fantastic alternative for buyers with less-than-perfect credit scores who would have trouble qualifying for more traditional methods of financing. Because the landlord is the mortgage holder, he or she bears the risk and has already gone to the

Dining with Vultures: Rent-to-Own, the Feds, and the Housing Sector By Jay Weiser Wednesday, January 25, 2012 Filed under: Economic Policy Distressed asset buyers are either ruthless or go bust, and government entities have no business co-venturing with them. Rent is suddenly the rage for solving the housing debt crisis—and vulture capital with it. But the ambivalence conjured up by private equity magician Mitt Romney, who has simultaneously restructured himself into the leading Republican presidential candidate and America's most reviled business leader across the ideological spectrum, suggests that the housing crisis requires free and clear, as-is sales, even if they increase short-term losses. The federal government should exit the real estate business and let vulture investors convert busted planned communities into rentals. The Federal Reserve estimates in a white paper that there were about 500,000 real-estate-owned properties for sale in the second quarter of 2011 (REO

Rent-to-Own, the Feds and the Housing Sector Government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, under the guidance of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), are looking for options to unload their large portfolios of distressed real estate properties. Specifically, real-estate-owned (REOs) properties -- properties where mortgage lenders have taken ownership after default -- are a growing class of assets that the FHA is hoping to partner with the private sector in order to unload, says Jay Weiser, an associate professor of law and real estate at Baruch College's Zicklin School of Business. The Federal Reserve estimates in a white paper that there were about 500,000 real-estate-owned properties for sale in the second quarter of 2011. It also suggested that there will be potentially 1 million more foreclosures in 2012 and 2013, which will further expand this class of assets. As these properties lie empty without investors to maintain their upkeep, their value automati