Brian Brumpton, Boise Idaho Real Estate

Short Sales - MHA guidelines will allow the lender/servicer to set the list price

Are you familiar with the MHA guidelines regarding short sales and deeds in lieu of foreclosure? You'd better be.

As the Treasury Department works to streamline the short sale and deed in lieu process, lenders will begin implementing them as they bring trained loss mitigators online.

You can review the guidelines by clicking here.

The following raised an eyebrow:

"Property Valuation: The servicer will independently establish both property value and the minimum acceptable net return in accordance with investor guidance and will provide instruction to the borrower regarding the list price and any permissible price reductions. The price may be determined based on either: (1) an appraisal performed in accordance with USPAP and/or (2) one or more Broker Price Opinions either of which must be dated within 120 days of the Short Sale Agreement."

It appears that the pricing will be taken out of the hands of the real estate professional and handed over to the loss mitigators.

This largely leaves it up to BPO agents and appraisers to determine market value. My concern is not as much about the appraisers as much as it is about BPO agents. This is a wildly unregulated selection process and any agent wanting or needing make a buck is after these things. That brings the good with the bad.

Idaho state law says you have to be a broker to do a BPO but I know from the number of short sales I've done that the agents doing BPO's were in fact no brokers.

Is this a good or a bad thing? I guess we'll have to see how the values start coming in. There are many other changes to the short sale process coming and I recommend you make yourself familiar with them.

Ada county, Idaho Home sales:

September 2009 numbers are in and there's some some good and some bad.  It looks like existing home sales have continued to rise.  The total number of homes sold was 433, with approximately a 25% increase over September of last year.

Average sale price of an existing home came in at $189,284, down 19% over September of 2008.  

Average days on market came in at 89.

That's a snap shot of September 2009 real estate market in Ada county, Idaho.

Taylor Bean and Whitaker - Bouncing checks to Boise's local residents

It's seems Taylor Bean and Whitaker a lender headquartered in Florida gave one Boise couple some false hope.  A few weeks after receiving a check for $1500.00 dollars in the mail the money disappeared from there account. 

The verdict? A bounced check.  It seems Taylor Bean and Whitaker has been taken over by the FDIC and joined the long list of failed banks in the US. 

I really hope they do end up getting their money back.

You can read the original article by clicking here.

I always get a chuckle when I pass this sign sitting on on a lonely street corner.  Something about it just screams successful real estate investor (that's sarcasm in case you didn't pick up on it). 

If you were really serious about real estate investing I'm doubtful that this is the avenue you should pursue.  Chances are this investor bought into a "get rich quick" scheme and found out that the most lucrative means of making money the course taught was selling it to others.

Like most multilevel marketing practices there's probably far more money made selling the system to family, friends, and anyone desperate enough to call than is actually made through real estate investing. 

Just my two cents, I could be and have been wrong.

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