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California targets foreclosure scams

By Inman News, Tuesday, June 2, 2009.

Saying California is "awash with con artists" who prey on families facing foreclosure, the state's attorney general is giving foreclosure consultants until July 1 to register with his office and post a $100,000 bond.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown said scam artists are posing as legitimate foreclosure consultants, promising homeowners they will prevent foreclosure but charging "huge up-front costs" without providing "an ounce of help."  more...

Phantom income haunts short sale

By Bernice Ross, Tuesday, June 2, 2009.

DEAR BERNICE: We are upside down and are thinking about selling our home using a short sale. Our agent said that because we had refinanced our property twice, that we could have a problem with "phantom income." She advised us to talk to our accountant. What does refinancing have to do with this and what is phantom income? --Paul S.

DEAR PAUL: First, no matter what your financial circumstances are, it's smart to talk to your CPA or tax attorney before placing any property on the market. For example, you might think that you can claim the $250,000 (for singles) or $500,000 (for couples) tax break on the sale of your primary residence. However, if you haven't met all the qualifications in terms of the property being your primary residence, you could end up losing the deduction.  more...

Fear factor distorts financial advice

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Tuesday, June 2, 2009.
Cover image courtesy <a href="http://www.workman.com/products/9780761151371/table_of_contents.html" target=blank>Workman Publishing</a>.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not actually following you, goes the adage. Similarly, I found with "1,001 Things They Won't Tell You: An Insider's Guide to Spending, Saving, and Living Wisely," just because the premise of the book is paranoid, doesn't mean it doesn't actually have lots of useful, consumer protection-type information. Enough with the double negatives already -- even though I believe the genre of tip compendiums charading as conspiracy busters is borderline passé, I found some valuable tidbits in this book, and I think the average reader will, too.

Based on the author's "Ten Things They Won't Tell You" column in Smart Money Magazine, "1,001 Things" sets out to be an exhaustive encyclopedia of need-to-knows compiled from the perspective of what the purported experts and insiders don't want you to know, rather than the normal lists of what they do want you to know.  more...

California: 'Zero tolerance' for inducements

By Matt Carter, Tuesday, June 2, 2009.

California regulators have suspended a title insurance marketing representative and fined her employer $21,600, in the first enforcement of a new state law with "zero tolerance" for business inducements to Realtors and lenders.

The marketing representative, Lizett Alcaraz, and her employer, Commerce Title Co., were accused of providing marketing lead lists to Realtors and lenders in Riverside County as an inducement for them to refer business to Commerce Title.  more...

Houston Realtor group doles out blogs

By Inman News, Tuesday, June 2, 2009.

The Houston Association of Realtors is offering its roughly 23,000 members free blogs as a marketing tool.

HAR has set up a blog directory that is open to consumer searches, and members who use the blogging platform can select from a list of categories in describing the overall blog and individual blog posts. Those members who maintain blogs hosted on other Web sites can also promote that blog through HAR's online directory.  more...

Buyer's agent fails buyers

By Barry Stone, Tuesday, June 2, 2009.

DEAR BARRY: We live on the top floor of a condo complex and have two questions for you. The first involves our condo board of directors. Rain leakage caused water damage in the condo below ours. The condo board refused to pay for repairs. They said the leak was from our bathtub. Actually, we never use the tub, but the board made such a stink about it that we paid the $200 repair bill just to make peace. What do you think about the condo board's position?

Next, we have a home inspection question. When we bought our condo, our Realtor advised us not to hire a home inspector. She said that the areas in need of inspection were covered by the condo board. Since the condo board dumped the leak repairs into our lap, what do you think about our agent's advice? --Michele  more...

Pending home sales leap in April

By Inman News, Tuesday, June 2, 2009.

Pending home sales rose 6.7 percent in April, as a strong surge in homes under contract in the Northeast and Midwest outweighed flat demand in the South and West, the National Association of Realtors reported today.

NAR's Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in April, rose 6.7 percent to 90.3, up from 84.6 in March and an improvement of 3.2 percent from a year ago.  more...

Mortgage crisis is crying 'shonda'

By Marcie Geffner, Tuesday, June 2, 2009.
Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinou/92858032/" target=blank>tinou bao</a>.

Trillions of words have been written about the housing, mortgage and foreclosure crisis. But perhaps it's not too late for me to add another commentary to the collection. It's important to speak out because there is one word that still needs to be said, and that is "shonda."

If I had to sum up the crisis in just one word, shonda would be my top choice. It's a Yiddish word, which isn't all that surprising since Yiddish is an exceptionally expressive language that has contributed a wealth of other barely translatable words to the English language.  more...

Family fallout fuels foreclosure fear

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Tuesday, June 2, 2009.

Q: I am a recently divorced single mother of four kids, but I earn a great salary. About a year ago, during my divorce, I lost my home through foreclosure, and then declared bankruptcy. When I lost my home, my mother and I went in together to buy a $550,000 home where she, the kids and I could all live together -- her name went on the mortgage and she provided a $60,000 down payment; I paid the monthly mortgage payments; and both our names went on the title.

Recently we had a falling out and she moved out. Now she's filed for bankruptcy herself and has notified me that she plans to give the house back to the bank, since it's upside down -- even though I live there, I'm on title and I've been making the mortgage payments!  more...

A tale of two cities Premium Content

By Marc Davison, Tuesday, June 2, 2009.

Spring 1972. We all waited with great anticipation for Dad to come home. On this day, it would not be by cab or subway.

When pop turned the corner, he didn't just come home. He arrived. And gracefully moored his shiny new El Dorado in the parking spot before us.

Personally, I favored Mustangs. But I was taken aback by the Cadillac's subtle wing curvature, roofline and sheer size. Dad called it one of the most graceful American cars to ever come out of Detroit.  more...