Living inside an apartment building that has been foreclosed on can become a living hell when the building crumbles into disrepair around you and there’s no landlord to call. Bursting heat pipes, cockroaches, mice, hunks of ceiling falling on you, and black mold seeping up the walls have become the new neighbors to tenants in one low-income apartment building in the Bronx where the landlord has long since checked out. [More]
real estate
Whopping 11% Of US Homes Are Empty
By 2.1.11
The vacancy sign is blazing over house divisions across the US. About 1 in 10 houses in America have no one living inside them, according to new data from the Census, CNBC reports. (Update: while technically correct, this number includes other kinds of properties like abandoned farm house. The more typically used number, the home-vacancy rate, is 2.7%, up from 2.5% the previous quarter). [More]
This Is Why You Need To Double Check Your Statements After Prepaying Your Mortgage
By 1.28.11
For those who try to prepay their mortgages, here’s a cautionary tale from reader RM. Basically every single time that he’s prepaid his mortgage, there’s been a big problem. The bank keeps applying it to the future interest instead of the existing principal. The future interest is calculated based on the current principal, so that means they’re having him paying extra interest that would have never accrued if they had subtracted his payment correctly! [More]
Pretty Circles Tell You Whether To Rent Or Buy
By 1.27.11
For those who don’t like math but do like colored circles, here’s a graphic visualizing which cities it’s cheaper to buy in and which it’s cheaper to rent in. The redder the circler, the better it is to rent. The greener, the better it is to buy. [More]
We Were Told Snake Infestation Was "Made Up"
By 1.25.11
An interesting wrinkle to story about the house infested with thousands of snakes: when the previous owners bought it, they were told the owners before them “made up a story that there were snakes” in there to get out of paying their mortgage. The real estate agent also told them “every precaution” had been taken to make sure there was no snake problem. Unfortunately, the snakes turned out to be very real indeed. [More]
Realtor Slices Price On Snake Infested Home
By 1.24.11
Sounds like a ssssteal. A beautiful five-bedroom house in Idaho for only $109,000. It comes with a tiny catch: The house is infested with thousands of live, writhing garter snakes. [More]
Reasons It's Not So Great To Rent
By 1.20.11
Two weeks ago we told you about a couple of reasons it’s not necessarily super-awesome to own your own house. Well, now here’s the flip side of the coin. Renting has plenty of financial drawbacks too. [More]
Chase Overcharged Over 4,000 Military Families On Mortgages, Improperly Foreclosed On 14
By 1.19.11
Chase has admitted that it overcharged over 4,000 military families on their home mortgages, as well as wrongly foreclosed on 14 of them. Some of these are families of troops that are fighting in Afghanistan. [More]
Citigroup Still Selling Mortgages That Violate Quality Standards
By 1.18.11
15% of the mortgages Citigroup sold to government-owned Freddie Mac from the second half of 2009 and the first part of 2010 were riddled with flaws, according to an internal report obtained by Bloomberg. The error rate should be about 5%. The mistakes included missing insurance docs, missing appraisals and income miscalculations. [More]
Now Banks Are Also Walking Away From Foreclosures, Just Leaving Them To Rot
By 1.14.11
It’s not just underwater homeowners just flat out walking away from their houses. Now some mortgage servicers, having decided certain properties would be too expensive to try to foreclose, secure, maintain and market, are just abandoning the properties entirely, to let nature, and whatever else, take its course. [More]
Guy Recreates Steve Carell Bit To Save House From Foreclosure, Fails
By 1.14.11
All he wanted was to delay things just a little bit more so that his dad would have some more time to try to work out a deal between the lender to get that holiest of holies, a loan modification. So, in a desperate attempt to save his dad’s house, a guy shows up at the foreclosure auction and tries out two classic comedy bits. [More]
Real Estate Listing Leads To Rental Scam
By 1.13.11
Just after Thanksgiving, reader Adam’s new renter showed up on his doorstep to look at the house and pick up her keys. The trouble is, while Adam’s house is for sale, it’s not for rent. The woman on his doorstep was the victim of an Internet rental scam. [More]
Pittsburgh Man's House Gets Demolished By Accident
By 1.6.11
A Pittsburgh man came back home after the holidays to find his house was completely gone. Where it stood was an empty lot, covered in hay. It turns out the city had demolished it, by mistake. They really meant to tear down the house next door. Whoops! [More]
Repo Man Cometh For Furnace
By 1.5.11
Repossessing a car or mobile home is one thing, but a furnace? [More]
FTC Wants To Ban Mortgage Mod Services From Charging Up-Front Fees
By 12.30.10
To combat mortgage relief fraud, the FTC would like to make a new rule that would ban mortgage modification services from charging up-front fees. “Homeowners facing foreclosure or struggling to make mortgage payments shouldn’t have to contend with fraudulent ‘companies’ that don’t provide what they promise,” FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a statement. “The proposed rule would outlaw up-front fees so companies can’t take the money and run.” Indeed, there are some shady operators in this area and consumers need to beware. [More]
This Number Tells You Whether You Should Buy Or Rent Your Home
By 12.23.10
Should you buy your home or rent it? The Economix blog says one good way to figure that out is to look at your area’s “rent ratio.” That’s the cost of a typical home vs renting it. A general rule is that if that number is less than 15, you should buy. If it’s over 20, you should rent. Here’s a look at the rent ratios for some top metro areas: [More]
In Foreclosure Bungle, Banks Accused Of Illegally Breaking Into Homes, Stealing All Your Stuff
By 12.22.10
A new batch of lawsuits are accusing banks of essentially burglarizing people’s homes, reports the NYT. Before a foreclosure has been properly filed and processed, people behind on their payments have come home to find their locks changed and some or all of their possessions gone, taken by contractors working for the bank. [More]
Scams: Do You Know About Mortgage "Flopping?"
By 12.21.10
You’ve heard of “flipping” houses, well now there’s “flopping.” While the first was speculative, this one is outright fraud. [More]
