Loan Modification Help

We're offering to help anyone in our market area with loan modification, without charge or obligation. The obvious question is "what's the catch?", or simply "why?" Three reasons. First, we don't think things are going to stay this bad forever, so any goodwill we can put in the bank is a benefit. We hope that you'll remember us favorably for future real estate or mortgage needs. Second, if the modification doesn't work and a short sale is the best answer, then we'd like to be the listing agent for that sale. Third, psychic income. You remember from your economic studies that one of the powerful motivators for human behavior is "psychic income". The "feel good" return on investment. Many doctors, policemen, firemen, etc. are driven to their occupations for this "feel good" return, and almost everyone to some degree derives pleasure from helping others. So their is no "catch", and those are our three reasons "why"
Government programs come and go, and are constantly being modified, but at the moment the HAFA offering for modifications is particularly beneficial to troubled mortgage holders. Call us and we'll try to walk you through the process. Let me repeat. It's free, friendly, and without obligation.
Extracting from the sea of information about the real estate market, it's up, it's down. It's improving, it's getting worse, here is a link to some hard numbers that will inform you. We don't think you want to be pacified with the spin from the government, or the the real estate industry, just facts. Employment figures are awful nationally, worse in California. Our state is on the brink of bankruptcy and the self-serving unions and politicians are not likely to come up with any meaningful solutions. New Jersey, of all places, has a governor making the hard choices, and if he can stick to his guns will correct their problems over time. Our state has the unions demanding, (demanding?), a 40 Billion tax increase. All of this of course to insure their exorbitant pay and pension benefits. Seems easy but one must remember that the businesses that pay wages will and and are leaving the state, and the government jobs will disappear when bankruptcy is declared. The revenue source of the offshore oil is still waiting for someone to act.
As usual,
Thanks for visiting

Goldman Sachs, Politics, Mortgages

The news about Goldman Sachs involvement in the financial meltdown is not "news". There are a variety of threads to follow here, but the most obvious is the fact of a hedge fund manager, Paulson, wishing to have a vehicle to sell short, approaching Goldman to put together a security instrument based on his recommendations for securities to be included, and then paying them 15 million dollars to do so and then sell it to investors expecting to profit from their investment, boggles the mind. A legitimate company would have thrown Paulson out the window for the suggestion. Goldman didn't and instead participated in a scheme to defraud the investors. They made an initial 15 million, Paulson made over a BILLION from the positions he took, and many investors lost hundreds of millions from the scheme. The talking heads in many cases have taken the position that the investors are sophisticated and should have exercised "due diligence". Goldman is even on record as saying that the investors "should have known that someone was on the other side of their transaction". Of course they should. They should also have been informed that the party on the other side had specifically contrived the debt instrument to fail. Does anyone in their right mind believe that equipped with this knowledge they would have been buyers?
At the moment the White House is pushing hard for a financial reform bill, one supposed to contain provisions that will eliminate this kind of problem, and some of the other difficulties leading to the financial melt-down. People who have had an opportunity to study the bill insist that it does nothing of the sort but instead confers an increasing amount of authority to the executive, diminishes congressional oversight, and no way guards against the "too big to fail" mentality of the past. This is becoming a familiar pattern with this administration, grabbing power not delegated to it by the constitution, note autos, finance, insurance, health care, etc.
A lot of noise is being generated about the ties of the financial markets, and others, to Washington, through very generous campaign donations. Democrats are the largest beneficiaries, but Republicans are far from having clean hands. A very large question that I have not seen addressed is why there is ANY legitimate reason for a business of any type to contribute money to any politician. It follows as night the day that a quid pro quo is the only rational reason for giving away stockholder or investor money to a politician, and it should be outlawed. Not restricted to amount. Outlawed.
Politicians have a single interest in running for office; to be re-elected once they've won. Let them pay for their election themselves and restrict the amount that can be spent to a level that will insure that any citizen can participate and win on his/her merits. Then term limits. Politics was once a calling, not a career choice, and we need to return to that concept. Very ordinary men can rise to very wise decisions if they are not burdened with self-interest during the deliberative process. Self interest is a normal human trait and can not be eliminated by edict, but the fruits of pursuing that interest can be denied by edict, and should be.
Distrust of government is over 70% and growing. That simply must be changed.
As usual.
Thanks for visiting.

Real Estate News

Everywhere we turn the media presents us with news about the real estate economy, and depending on which source one relies upon, we are either encouraged or discouraged. Like the fable of the blind men and the elephant, the elephant is like a wall, snake, spear, tree, fan or rope, depending upon where they touch, we are left with a distorted view of reality unless we exert a great deal of effort in studying the facts. The government would have us believe that they have been instrumental in reducing the problems in the real estate and mortgage markets. Actually the government has been the prime driver of the crisis, and continues, through inept handling and a total unfamiliarity with business principles, to prolong and exacerbate the problem. Home values are still declining, foreclosures are increasing, new defaults are increasing, inventories are increasing, and the efforts to"fix" mortgage defaults by encouraging modifications has been a failure. A very expensive failure. Congress is about to pass increased regulation of the financial markets, which sounds good, but is in fact a gift to their friends in the banking industry. With every move they make they increase or extend the uncertainty in the financial and mortgage community, and as a consequence banks are not lending to businesses or consumers, business is not hiring, costs driven by health care changes are going up, taxes are going up, national security is threatened. WOW.
Here are some links to sources for information on the mortgage and real estate market, in no particular order. Number One. Number Two. Number Three. Number Four. Number Five.
Foreclosure Radar reports foreclosure sales are double previous year.
Reality is not all sunshine and flowers, and facing it is necessary to formulating an intelligent coping strategy. We're committed to helping where we can and will assist anyone with modification assistance, without charge, (FREE), just for asking. We prefer you be in our market area.
As usual,
Thanks for visiting.