The growing challenge of vacant and abandoned foreclosed properties has been taken up by a new group. Center for Land Reform has a perch in Washington. But Dan Kildee of this non-profit body promises those who are working under its banner will remain rooted in Flint – its home centre.

Kildee has been a politician with Democrat leanings for a long time. In 2002 he helped to set up Genesee County Land Bank. He said the office of the new centre would function from a historic hotel in downtown Flint – the property that this land bank was instrumental in bringing back from the edge.

Kildee remarked, “The U.S. doesn’t need another Washington-based think-tank. We need to have our feet firmly planted in communities that are facing this problem head-on. Flint really is, as much as any other community the country, a good place for us to be to continue to keep our work relevant.”

This work involves giving to government and other non-profit leaders plans, research facility, training and other types of help on land related matters. One of the main goals is to take up the issue of abandonment of property on a national level to feel the pulse of the response so as to plough back the properties into productive utility.

Kildee elaborated that Michigan has always given the lead in the use of land thanks to two important developments. In 1999 a law was introduced facilitating the making of land banks and also general alterations to the tax-foreclosure-system that kept unchecked commercial speculators in control. He explained that of the 83 counties in Michigan, 31 have taken measures to set up a land bank. However not all are making use of it in such a way so as to divert the attention of the speculators from these properties.

The land bank in Flint is a public body that has the authority to try to stabilize the localities by taking over, maintaining and or re-developing the foreclosed units. It has already taken over the ownership of nearly 7,000 vacant units. Out of these it has sold 1,774. Another lot of 1,022 plots are ready for resale.

Despite these encouraging figures the task ahead is astronomical. There are 18,000 vacant properties inclusive of 6,000 abandoned residential houses. The unemployment figures are one of the highest in Flint. Kidd commented, “The (land bank) model is far preferable to the alternative," Kildee said. "It’s also proven to be not a solution unto itself but a system that delivers better outcomes.”

A guide to buying foreclosed properties in Fort Lauderdale would come in handy to the potential buyer considering the flood of bargains in the real estate market. The investors would do well to first glance through the postings in the pre-foreclosure listings. In this stage not only are lenders and sellers eager to sell but the properties too are in a better condition because of their eagerness to sell before it slips into foreclosure.

The first step then is to find the best in the pre-foreclosed units and can be located by browsing through the listings. Once the unit is located it requires to be tracked to know about its changing status. It is advisable to keep options on a good number of properties and not target only one or few.

The second step is to confirm the status of the pre-foreclosure units chosen. The owners are generally allowed a fixed time to reclaim the house. Thus before launching forth one should ensure that the property has not been taken back.

The third step involves contacting the owner and open negotiations. Before offering a price the potential buyer should have studied the local market to get a clear picture of it. Only this would lead to a satisfactory bargain. It requires extreme patience on the part of the would-be buyer because the owners will sit down to talks only with serious buyers. The seller has the onus of contacting the lender and getting the nod from the latter before a sale can be closed. It is advisable to send a written communication to the seller and then follow it up. The initiative should be preferably taken by mail.

After getting the green signal from the seller negotiations should start. Since the units are poised to enter foreclosure it means the owners are in extreme financial circumstances. Thus many parts of the house will be in disrepair. The potential buyer has to sell it on an as-is basis but while doing so the cost of repairs should be estimated and kept in mind while offering a price.

After having come to an understanding there is nothing more to be done but to close the bargain. For this it is best to take the help of a lawyer as each region has certain specific rules and regulations. In Fort Lauderdale there has to be a purchase agreement and full title search by an attorney dealing with real estate.

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Sale of foreclosed homes is at an all time high in the ten states that are reeling with budget problems. These ten states are facing unprecedented economic challenges.

California is not alone in its struggle with the budget. There are nine other states in the fray – Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Illinois, Nevada, Oregon, New Jersey, Wisconsin and Rhode Island. If timely proper intervention is not made the states are heading towards economic disaster. A recent report from Pew Center noted that the states are running double digit deficits aggravated by record breaking unemployment numbers and huge number of foreclosures.

Susan Urahn from Pew Center noted that so far California has been in the centre of attention but other states are now in the same boat battling finances during the past couple of months. She felt that the governors and law makers of these ten states should act with speed to cut off the onrush of disaster. The population and the economic output of these states are responsible for more than 33% of the total of the entire country.

The findings of Pew Center show that prior to and after any recession the tax revenue of states decreases. But the present recession has weighed down the state administration because of an increase in the number of citizens requiring the help of the state in matters relating to health and social needs as well as housing.

California stood out in the report as suffering from the worst economic blight because of poor management. California has also the steepest foreclosure numbers during the third quarter of this year. Over 250,000 residential units are undergoing the initial stages of the foreclosure process while 51,000 are ready to be sold being repossessed by the banks or lenders.

From the beginning of this year California has started enforcing steps to stop this financial bleeding. It has been snipping off funds to social and educational services and temporarily increasing taxes. It is also making use of stimulus money by way of grants. The Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger contends that the state should be prepared for more trimmings because the budget is apprehended to touch a deficit of $14.4 billion when it will be presented in January.

The report alleged that the states are continuing with the pain because they have been applying temporary measures to ease the fiscal problems.

Vandals are posing serious problems to foreclosed homes as incidents are occurring with more frequency with the escalation of the housing crisis. Tom Farley of Arizona Association of Realtors said, “These crimes are happening with enough frequency that it has caught the attention of law enforcement, Realtors and lenders across our state.

Many Realtors are taking photos of the interior of the home as soon as they take a lender-owned listing to document the condition of the property in case of vandalism.”

Recently the attorney’s office of Maricopa County reported five recent cases of prosecution of vandals who had stripped foreclosed houses. One was a realtor trying to sell houses. Julie Halferty of FBI Mortgage Fraud Task in Phoenix is hopeful that the circulation of news regarding these strippers will educate homeowners as well as other residents in the neighbourhood about the fact that it is grossly illegal to tamper with fittings and fixtures in empty houses.

Real estate agent John Lincoln said, “Take a look at Craigslist. It’s full of things that have been stripped out of houses.” Halferty noted that the website of Craiglist gave the tip to the task force about the enormity of the problem. She explained that as per the law there should nothing termed as foreclosure sale. Legally speaking anything that is fixed to the house (cabinets, stoves, lights as well as ceiling fans) is part of the property and should as it is until the time of the sale of the house.

Lincoln operates all over the Phoenix from his base in Ahwatukee Foothills. The problem is more rampant in the Valley areas where houses had come up during the time of the housing zoom and boom a couple of years ago. He said, “Mature neighborhoods aren’t seeing this as much as the newer neighborhoods in places like Avondale and Tolleson.”

Often it is the frustrated owners who are hungry for cash who do the damage before departing. Others are strangers and trespassers. Lincoln narrated about one of his customers who had bought a bank repossessed house in Tolleson. Before the deal was finalized, vandals posing as pest control officials broke into the house and removed appliances worth $4,000.

Although the police have been notified so far there has been no breakthrough. He described, “Neighbors said two guys drove up in a white truck and said they were there to spray for bugs. What they really did was go in the backyard and bust a window to get into the house.” The deal was inked but the price came down by $6,000 less.

A ceremony was held at Housatonic Community College in which foreclosure relief was promised by Governor Jodi Rell. $2.5 million was earmarked for the redevelopment of Brownfield. She said, “The recession has caused casualties at every level in the state.” She was recalling how in one year the socio-economic climate of the nation had changed. At that time there was no utterance of ‘recession’ and the talk was only about sub-prime mortgages. But today more families are facing risk of losing their foreclosure homes and are badly in need of help. In many houses where two people were working now there is only one breadwinner. Sometimes although there has been no outright loss of job, the hours of work and consequently pay packets have been reduced.

Connecticut State has widened the eligibility circle for Connecticut Fair Alternative Mortgage Lending Initiative and Education Services (CTFAMLIES). The scope of Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program (EMAP) has also been stretched to include more families in need of help.

CTFAMLIES sanctions 30 year fixed rate mortgages to house owners. Originally it was meant for those with sub-prime and ARM loans but now as per the new law it widens the net by allowing all kinds of mortgages to be refinanced. The programme was started in the last weeks of 2007. It was criticized for not being effective enough. Since its start in 2007 only 72 borrowers had benefited.

Heavy criticism has also been directed against EMAP for its poor performance. Only 50 families have benefited. EMAP offers loans to borrowers with very low interest to allow them to catch up on their missed mortgage payments when their earnings have dropped.

As per the previous law the drop in income had to be by about 25% but the new clause removes that condition. On the other hand it includes emergency household expenses and permits borrowers who fear a fall in their income to also apply. On 10th July the law came into force and since then 19 more families have come forward to apply for loans amounting to $1.4 million during the forthcoming 60 months.

Rell also inked a law that will make it mandatory for courts to mediate between lenders and borrowers prior to starting of foreclosures. So far since last year 12th June the mediators have been able to sift through 2,233 applications; of these 1,313 have met with success.

A modern day Robin Hood is rampaging through foreclosed houses. Randy Young calls himself the saviour of sex-offenders. But neighbours are saying he is ruining neighbourhoods. For running three years Young has been purchasing and renting various houses, condos as well as trailers – some being foreclosed units, to registered sex-offenders as “habitats.”

He focuses mainly on foreclosed property in the limited zones where the convicted sex- offenders can live in Florida without breaking the law. Previously Young operated a whole trailer park in Orange County for the sex-offenders. It has been alleged that he crammed two dozen men into a house containing only three bedrooms in central part of Broward County.

Young is in his early fifties and is quite happy with his activities. He said, “I am providing a service people need. In the world of sex offenders, it’s either a mattress inside a room with other offenders, or living under a bridge.”
But for the neighbours of the locality the business of Young translates into a nightmare. One of the sufferers is Wilfred LLantos who resides in a house next to one owned by Young in Broadview Park locality of unincorporated Broward. LLantos said, “He has no respect for us, and no shame for what he’s done.”

Young’s mode of operation is simple and straightforward. He projects himself in advertisements as provider of habitats for sex offenders on his own website – Housingforsexoffenders.com. Those visiting the website are helped to be connected, if they so desire, to legal personnel, counselors and employers who are “sex offender friendly.”

Officially Young is registered as residing and working in and from Cocoa. He is also a part time resident of Broward, Zephyrhills and St. Petersburg in Florida. By training he is an accountant and was once the owner of a business dealing with upholstery.

In 2003 he was convicted in Volusia County for sexually improper behaviour towards a minor. This won for him a prison term of 11 months followed by a probation period of 11 months. He has been labeled as a sex offender for life.
Young was reluctant to give details about the location of his houses apprehensive about being harassed by neighbours and local officials. Since the last three years he has bought 15 houses in Florida and housed 300 sex offenders. He takes $400 per month for each of those who are provided with only a mattress. His rate is $1,000 for those who enjoy a personal room. Young does not give details of his income but says it is modest.

Times are indeed tough for the US economy. Unemployment is at its peak and as people fail to make mortgage payments, their houses are being taken over by banks. Subsequently, foreclosures have common in some neighborhoods. The erstwhile owners are fleeing the foreclosed homes. Now the properties are up for sale.
Habitat for Humanity of Charlotte is one of the first to show an interest in buying foreclosed homes.

The organization says it is cheaper to buy an existing home than build one. A newspaper, The Charlotte Observer, says the foreclosure crisis in the industry has made it easier to buy and renovate homes than to build it. Meg Robertson, an associate director with Habitat, says that the company is buying a house for as cheap as $30,000 and renovating it with another $10,000. However, to build a new home, one has to spend over $60,000. So buying a foreclosure is definitely cheap – by almost $20,000 to $30,000.per home.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has assured that all the costs will be reimbursed. The department has come up with a program to stabilize neighborhoods riddled by foreclosures. Foreclosure filings had reached a record high in Charlotte last year – nearly 8000 houses were foreclosed. Even this year, filings have gone up by 30 per cent. In many localities, houses built five years ago, are being boarded up.

Habitat will now start Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative in 11 such places. These houses will be renovated and palmed off to families that have a fixed salaried income. They will not have to make any down payment or pay any interest. The only condition is that they will have to voluntarily work for 250 hours for renovating the building they buy.

Linda Blum, the agency’s development director, says revitalization of neighborhoods will not be a permanent business for Habitat. The company is only ensuring that the donors’ dollars are spent in a judicious manner. The company is not merely taking advantage of the crumbling housing market. Linda also says that the company is not evicting anyone. People are not being thrown out. It is merely renovating homes that are empty.

Five homes have been bought from Grass Meadows, Windy Ridge and Barrington sub-divisions. Charlotte will be given $5.4 million in the next one-and-a-half years. The amount will be given to various partnership companies that include Charlotte’s Habitat amongst others. These companies will buy and renovate around 110 homes.

One of the worst fallout from the foreclosure crisis is the curse of abandoned homes. There are thousands of them dotting the entire country. The local administration is no longer willing to wait for Washington to take steps. Palm Beach County is one of the many regions, introducing new rules for vacant foreclosed houses. The houses attract criminals, drug peddlers and prostitutes. The unkempt gardens and stagnant pools become breeding grounds for rodents, snakes and disease carrying mosquitoes.

The neglected yards turn into dumping spots. The entire mood of decay tells on the adjacent houses and brings down the prices of even those houses that are not in foreclosure. With real estate market coming to a grind the local administration revenue collection suffers and this in turn leads to budget cuts and reduction in quality and quantity of services offered to the citizens to lead normal peaceful lives.

Recently the commissioners of Palm Beach County agreed to enforcement of new regulations that will permit boarding up of abandoned houses. Hitherto it was expected of the owners to do so but with the borrowers themselves drowning and abandoning the houses it became an unreal expectation.

The banks wiggled out of the responsibility quoting technicalities in the law. Meanwhile the communities suffered. The authorities are flooded with complaints regarding these derelict foreclosed houses. Previously the county would not allow the boarding of these houses with planks.

Also new mowing instructions were laid down. The vegetation on any unit would not be allowed to exceed 7”. Previously the limit had been 18”.

The owners would now be expected to pay for the boarding up of the units and the mowing. But concerns were raised about whether the plan would be realistic and viable. There are many problems – the departing owners are reluctant and also unable to attend to repairs.

They ignore code enforcement warnings. The new owners, the banks, refuse to do anything until they get the title deed – this being a time consuming process.

The owners will now be fined $1,000 daily but if the owners are in distress this sort of law will not work said Commissioner Steven Abrams. It has been suggested that fines could be lessened for the foreclosure victims but remain as it is or increased for the banks that ignore the houses even during the run of the foreclosure, suggested Commissioner Burt Aaronson. He firmly stated, “The banks have to work with us. We are bailing out the bank.”

Search Foreclosure Houses in Florida by Top Counties

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It is evident from a lawsuit that the Hispanics have been victims of foreclosed loan modifications. Bill McCollum the Attorney General of Florida brought charges against a Miami based company for targeting specifically the Hispanics who were facing foreclosure. The firm wanted extra fees and charges before loans could be modified.

This civil suit was filed in the Circuit Court of Miami-Dade County against one Lincoln Lending Services LLC that deals with loan modification and foreclosure rescue. Its owner was Rita Gomez. The suit alleges that the firm transgressed the laws of the state regarding deception and unfair practices. In so doing the firm had cheated 10 owners of residential houses. McCollum wants the court to give orders to close down the firm. McCollum said, “Our citizens should not be targeted when they are in a time of financial distress.”

Rita Gomez did not respond calls reporters of Sun Sentinel had made trying to contact her over the mobile phone as well in her residence.

According to various complaints coming in from consumers, Lincoln Lending asked the homeowners to cough up $2,700 for services pertaining to forensic analysis that would find out discrepancies in original mortgage documents or in the closing papers. This strategy was used by the firms to go around the laws of the state that prevents foreclosure rescue companies from taking payments until completion of the services.

The homeowners were made to ink a second contract for the modification of loans. In it was stated that the company would have to be paid $999 after completion of the services. But the borrowers were informed verbally that this money would in reality be paid by the bank being part of the Obama scheme of stimulus funds.

Carlos Ruiz, a resident of Weston said that few months ago this year he had paid the firm $3,500 in the hope of saving his house. He was employed in a pest control company and due to circumstances defaulted in his payments. But even after giving the money he lost his home despite the assurance that the loan would be modified and the mortgage payment amount reduced. With no hope in sight he now packs up belongings with his mother to shift to the shelter of a relative’s home.

Scrutinizing the papers it appears that the firm made it a point to target the weaker section of society in that region – the Hispanics.

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Foreclosed houses are being restored in southeastern Massachusetts and getting a new lease of life. A programme was released by government officials and housing advocates for reclaiming foreclosed houses and converting them into affordable living quarters.

A housing agency (non-profit) known as Citizen’s Housing and Planning Association will be functioning as a clearing house to help the organizers in the community to buy the vacant foreclosed units and repair these by converting into houses for the middle class.

Aarton Gornstein the director of CHAPA said, “Our goal with this program is to stabilize neighborhoods affected by this crisis by reducing vacant and abandoned units and by providing property tax revenues to municipalities, who need it now more than ever. We are also aiming to ensure that the sales of these properties are done in a sustainable manner that does not set the stage for a future cycle of foreclosure or property decline.”

By taking these steps the properties will be kept out of the clutches of speculators who could be tempted to undertake minimum repairs while biding their time for the market to recover.

The objectives of Massachusetts Foreclosed Properties Initiative was detailed by the Governor Deval Patrick and Gornstein in New Bedford – the latter being one of the many cities badly mauled by foreclosures. In 2008 the banks repossessed over 12,000 foreclosed houses in Massachusetts – three times the number of 2006 as per the findings of Warren Group that deals in tracking real estate deals.

CHAPA will take the lead in connecting the lenders owning the foreclosed units with the local housing bodies and the municipalities. The companies taking part (inclusive of giants like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as Bank of America) would permit the purchasers who have been selected to be eligible to inspect the units before they are posted on the general markets. The banks were also agreeable to sell innumerable foreclosed units in particular localities to local bodies.

The agencies operating in the communities would be able to tap about $54 million from federal funds released for this purpose of buying and renovating foreclosed houses. Other public funds would also be available. The groups would either lease these out on rent or sell the houses to qualifying candidates at reasonable rates.

Before the unveiling of the project the officials made a tour of the waterfront near New Bedford and marked out many multi-family apartments that have been bought and repaired profitably by an investor.

Massachusetts Foreclosures by Top Cities

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