Daily Archives: May 18, 2011

Chappaqua NY Home Sellers Step Up as Last-Resort Lender to Poor-Credit Buyers | Chappaqua NY Homes for Sale

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Home Sellers Step Up as Last-Resort Lender to Poor-Credit

Financing provided by home sellers, popular in the 1980s when mortgage rates reached 18 percent, is making a comeback in markets such as Michigan that have been hit hard by foreclosures. Photographer: Mark Elias/Bloomberg

Sue and Douglas Reed knew no bank would give them a mortgage — not with a bankruptcy and two foreclosures fresh in their credit history.

They turned to Hilarie Walters, whose childhood home on 15 acres (6 hectares) in Marshall, Michigan, had been on the market since 2009. The unemployed single mother of twins agreed in December to sell the property to the Reeds for $105,000. She also consented to a risky payment plan that in effect makes her the couple’s mortgage lender.

Financing provided by home sellers, popular in the 1980s when mortgage rates reached 18 percent, is making a comeback in markets such as Michigan that have been hit hard by foreclosures and where tightening lending standards and years of economic distress have drained the pool of creditworthy buyers. For a small but growing number of people, it’s the only way to get a deal done.

“This is the American dream, and we’re going for it no matter what,” said Sue Reed, 56, who sells snacks from a trailer at estate auctions and going-out-of-business sales. “We’ll either make it or it will break us.”

Michigan, where unemployment is 10.3 percent, leads the nation with about 1,600 home listings advertising seller financing, according to Trulia Inc., a San Francisco-based real estate information company. It is followed by Florida, Ohio, California, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Texas.

Last year, 52,991 U.S. homes were purchased with various forms of owner financing, up 56 percent from 2008, said Realtors Property Resource LLC, a subsidiary of the Chicago-based National Association of Realtors, citing data collected from county-record offices. Such deals accounted for 1.5 percent of all transactions in 2010.

Coping Mechanism

“Anytime the market is in this much trouble, people have to find ways to get it to function,” said Dennis Capozza, a professor of finance at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Capozza has direct experience with seller financing: He purchased a friend’s foreclosed home a couple years ago and allowed him to buy it back in installments.

Home sales, weighed down by a 9 percent national jobless rate and tight credit, have languished even as 30-year mortgage rates remain below 5 percent. Loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration carried an average FICO score of 703 in March, compared with 629 two years earlier, highlighting that lenders are requiring stronger credit histories. FICO scores range from 300, the least creditworthy, to 850 for the best borrowers.

“The market is locked up because there’s no financing,” said Gordon Albrecht, executive vice president of FCI Lender Services Inc., an Anaheim Hills, California-based firm that oversees mortgages for private investors. “This is moving houses.”

Land Contracts

The Reeds are using an increasingly popular form of seller financing known as a land contract, also called a contract for deed, in which the buyer takes immediate possession of the house and the seller holds legal title until the debt is paid. Land contracts were used in 319 sales in Michigan in the first quarter, or 2.4 percent of the total, compared with 252 sales, or 1.2 percent, a year earlier, according to Realcomp II Ltd., a Farmington Hills, Michigan, multiple-listing service operator. One land contract was recorded in the first quarter of 2005.

Down payments, interest rates and other terms of land contracts are subject to negotiation. There is often a balloon payment in five or 10 years, at which time the buyer must find a way to pay back the seller or risk losing the house and the money already put in.

$565 A Month

The Reeds put down $25,000 and make monthly payments of $565, reflecting a 7 percent interest rate amortized over 30 years, with the full balance due in five years. Walters, who lost her job as an automobile engineer in 2008, the same year she inherited the ranch, hopes the Reeds can pay off the loan sooner.

“They’re paying me interest every month, but I’d rather have the money and be done with it,” said Walters, who is using their payments to cover the mortgage on her Battle Creek, Michigan, residence. “It does make me nervous.”

The Reeds, who earn a combined $20,000 a year, fell behind on mortgage payments for two homes they had borrowed against after inheriting them from Douglas’s father, and went into bankruptcy in 2007. They later spent $10,000 to make their daughter’s home wheelchair accessible after she was severely injured in a 2009 car crash, Sue Reed said.

They’re hoping for a settlement from a lawsuit stemming from the accident to make the balloon payment to Walters, she said. Their daughter, 33, died last year from her injuries.

“In five years we hope to get everything straightened out enough to have a good credit rating again,” Sue Reed said.

Hope, Opportunity

The risks in such deals are significant for both buyer and seller, said Jason P. Hoffman, a Faribault, Minnesota, real estate attorney, who calls the participants “hope-ortunists.”

“Each of them is seeking an advantage in an otherwise difficult situation, and they’re hoping everything will work out as envisioned,” Hoffman said. “It’s an act of faith.”

The riskiest gambles involve sellers who — unlike Walters — have bank loans on the properties, Hoffman said.

Most mortgages contain a “due on sale clause,” meaning the lender can call the loan if the home is transferred. While community banks sometimes grant exceptions, many homeowners take their chances, hoping lenders won’t ask questions as long as the payments stream in, he said.

A buyer in this arrangement has little protection if the seller goes into bankruptcy or loses the property to foreclosure, Hoffman said. The seller’s risk is that the borrower won’t qualify for a bank mortgage when the land contract comes due, he said. And a continuing drop in home prices can imperil the deal for both sides, he said.

Hand Holding

Rafik Moore, an investor in Minneapolis who offers seller financing for his properties, said he seeks to help buyers rebuild their credit. He counsels them to start making payments on time and open secured credit-card accounts.

“I hold their hand until they’re able to finance me out,” Moore said. “The problem is this is someone who lost their home, never understood credit to begin with and has always been struggling.”

Not all buyers are broke.

Michael Fazio, broker and owner of American Real Estate Services in Roseville, Michigan, said he’s helping one couple with a combined annual income of $100,000. They owe $450,000 on a four-bedroom house in a Detroit suburb that is now valued at $250,000. They plan to walk away from the mortgage if they find a home to buy with a land contract, he said.

Finding a qualified buyer requires careful scrutiny of credit and job histories, especially if the price of the home is too low to extract a significant down payment, he said.

“It’s gut-check time,” Fazio said. “Do you really think these people are good, credible people?”

Amenable Laws

Real estate investors prefer land contracts to private mortgages in states such as Michigan, Ohio and Minnesota, where the laws allow for forfeiture actions against delinquent borrowers, said Dale Whitman, a professor of law at University of Missouri in Columbia. Forfeiture is usually faster and less expensive than foreclosure.

Sellers may provide other forms of financing, such as leases with the option to purchase or private mortgages, in states such as Florida, where land contract laws are less favorable, according to Jeff Riddell, a real estate attorney in Sarasota, Florida.

“This has been going on for 100 years or more in Michigan,” said Allan D. Daniels, 46, whose family has been buying land contracts for three generations beginning with his grandfather in the 1930s.

Underwater Borrowers

Daniels, president of Dr. Daniels & Son in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, said business picked up in the past two years after a two-decade lull when low interest rates made traditional financing attractive. Land contracts aren’t as popular as they were during the 1980s because many underwater homeowners –those owing more than their properties are worth — can’t finance the transaction, he said.

More than 28 percent of U.S. homeowners with mortgages were underwater in the first quarter, Zillow Inc., a Seattle real estate data company, said on May 9.

Daniels often hears from sellers when they’re having second thoughts about the risks or the paperwork involved in servicing the loan. The seller must prepare an amortization schedule, send the borrower interest statements and make certain property taxes and insurance are being paid, he said.

“For some people, at first it sounded great,” Daniels said. “Then they realized there was more than they like doing.”

Market Segment

Mark Cook, 30, a real estate agent in Lake City, Florida, said he sees an untapped market in the millions of homeowners who have had their credit ruined by a foreclosure or short sale. More than 3 million homes have been repossessed since 2006, according to RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine, California-based data seller.

Cook said he is working with a Canadian investor who bought and renovated four homes in Florida’s Cape Coral and Fort Myers areas since September, selling them for a premium to buyers needing financing. One more is on the market, another is under renovation and they have contracts to buy another handful of homes.

They market homes to buyers with foreclosures in their credit history, along with second-home purchasers and self- employed borrowers who don’t show enough income on their tax returns to qualify for traditional financing, he said. Cook offers an interest rate of 9.95 percent and balloon payment after seven years to buyers who can put down 20 percent in cash.

“We are advertising in markets that are cheap and we’re satisfying the consumer’s appetite for a bargain,” Cook said. “Assuming you’re not creditworthy and have cash, we are your avenue for buying a home.”

Time Is Right

Rebecca Hill, a 33-year-old high school science teacher, and her fiancé, Nicholas Lehman, bought an almost 2,000-square- foot (186-square-meter) house in Cape Coral through Cook for $107,000 on May 4. Her credit was damaged a year ago when her ex-husband lost a home they they had purchased together to foreclosure, according to Hill.

While they paid a premium for a seller-financed home, the monthly mortgage costs are $175 less than the rent they previously paid for a unit half the size, she said.

“If I wait for my credit to be restored and then purchase, I’m not going to get a $107,000 four-bedroom home,” Hill said. “That’s not going to exist anymore.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Prashant Gopal in New York at pgopal2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kara Wetzel at kwetzel@bloomberg.net

via bloomberg.com

Will tablet computers take over for Bedford NY Real Estate Buyers? | Bedford NY Homes for Sale

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Apple’s iPad line of tablet computers has undoubtedly spurred a host of competitors—and sparked life to a category of computers that was previously unheard of among consumers. But will tablets like the iPad 2, Motorola Xoom and BlackBerry Playbook have the chops to dethrone traditional laptop and desktop computers? The answer is “yes,” say makers and retailers.

Recently, Industry analysts noted the dramatic rise of worldwide sales of tablet computers. In 2010 when Apple introduced its first iPad, only 19 million tablets were sold globally. But experts predict that tablet sales are on track to more than double to 50 million units by the end of this year. And by 2012, sales could double again to 100 million tablets.

Meanwhile, another recent survey detailed how tablet owners have essentially turned their backs on other devices.

The Nielsen Company found that nearly 77 percent of it poll of tablet owners now use the touch-screen devices for tasks that would have previously required their computers. In fact, about 35 percent of tablet owners polled said they use their desktop computer less, or not at all. Nearly a third of respondents said the same of their laptop. Time spent with other digital devices, such as e-book readers and video game systems, also fell—27 and 20 percent, respectively.

The tablets’ key attractions, said respondents to Nielsen’s poll: Easier portability (31 percent), easier interface (21) and faster start-up (11).

Analysts and retailers admit that the computer isn’t dead—yet. Laptops still dominated worldwide sales last year at 230 million units. But, the writing is on the wall.

Global PC sales in the first quarter of this year fell 11 percent compared to the same quarter last year—the biggest drop in nearly 10 years. And it’s widely anticipated that the number of tablets sold in the U.S. this year will leapfrog laptop sales—just as laptops surpassed desktops during the last decade.

Naturally, electronics stores are taking notice—and planning ahead. Retailers, such as Best Buy, are boosting in-store sales areas dedicated solely to tablets. In one Best Buy in West Los Angeles, the store’s “Tablet Central” area is quadrupling in size, from 4 to 16 feet of shelf space. Rafael Barragan, manager of that store, told the LA Times:

There’s definitely a huge swing to the tablet market. Pretty soon everything is going to be touch-screen.

What do you think? If you bought an Apple iPad or other tablet, do you find yourself forsaking your other computers and devices? Or do you still prefer the power, flexibility and familiarity of inexpensive laptops and desktop? Weigh in below.

And if you’re still undecided if a laptop, netbook, or tablet is right for you, check out Consumer Reports’ free Buying Guide to Computers.

The rise of tablet computers [LA Times]
Connected Devices: How We Use Tablets in the U.S. [Nielsen]
Tablets Cutting into Laptop/Desktop Use, Nielsen Finds [PC World]
Are Tablets Replacing PCs, Other Gadgets? [PCMag]
iPad Owns 82% Of U.S. Tablet Market [Information Week]

via news.consumerreports.org

First-Ever Gold Coast International Film Festival Brings Luminaries to Long Island

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Will Great Neck, Long Island, be the next Cannes, the next Sundance, the new Tribeca?

The first annual Gold Coast International Film Festival, puts Great Neck and the Town of North Hempstead on the map as a major cultural center, with the force to shape cultural tastes and catapult careers in the entertainment mega-industry.

Between June 1-5, some 25,000 people are expected in the various venues in the town of North Hempstead to experience an extraordinary program of some 40 films including premieres plus special events such as “Conversations With…,” intimate Q&As with notable filmmakers and “tastemakers”; Insider Industry Panels highlighting various aspects of the film and media industries; and special screenings and workshops incorporated into the Great Neck Arts Center’s arts in education outreach program.

Local communities will be able to have their closeup in the limelight, as well, timing their own street fairs and special events to the film festival.

Since the early 20th century, the Gold Coast has been the hometown of movie stars, moguls, directors, producers, composers and critics, from Charlie Chaplin and Groucho Marx to Francis Ford Coppola and Natalie Portman. (The Great Neck Park District is even creating its own film festival in July 11-August 3, “They Slept in Great Neck,” around movies of stars who lived here, including the Marx Brothers, PG Wodehouse, Rube Goldberg and Frederic March).

The festival is the brainchild of Regina Gil, the executive director of the Great Neck Arts Center which is the organizing entity, who continues to perform magic in bringing together major movers and shakers from the film industry (not to mention big-league sponsors) to make such a world-class festival materialize.

“I’m thrilled to build on the success we’ve experienced with the Arts Center and our Furman Film Series over the last ten years and take it to the next level,” says Gil, “This feels like the natural next step, bringing world-class films to an eager audience — and all in the setting of Gatsby, here on the Gold Coast.”

Just how big a deal is it to have an international film festival in your neighborhood? “It’s huge,” says Regina Gil. “For starters, if you’ve never been to a festival before, people think it is just about seeing a movie. But there is an electricity about the people who live and breathe films and filmmaking. You are surrounded by people who are experts or who have connections to the film, and you have the opportunity to interact with them. You get to understand what makes somebody get involved, care enough about a story to bring it to film.”

Bruce Dern is one of those major film personalities who will give the festival its cachet. He is the notable filmmaker/film personality who will be showcased at this inaugural festival in what will be an annual kickoff Tribute event. Dern, who coincidentally and most appropriately was Tom Buchanan in the 1973 remake of F Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby, is coming in from Los Angeles to spend an evening at Landmark at Main in Port Washington, to discuss his career and meet and greet at a reception that will follow, where he will celebrate his birthday and the receipt of the festival’s first Legend award.

The President of Israel’s Academy of Motion Pictures & Sciences (the equivalent of our Oscars) is also flying in to be part of a panel, so people can talk to him about how and why the film industry in Israel has become so big and important.

An event oriented around Indian film making sold out in an instant. (Tickets to festival events just went on sale May 16).

During the course of the festival, there will be films from Israel, China, Iran, India, France, England, as well as the United States, with a couple of New York premieres.

There will even be films with a Great Neck connection as well, including the New York premiere of Chasing Madoff, which promises to be one of the hot-tickets. Directed by Jeff Prosserman (USA), Chasing Madoff is a documentary chronicling the compelling story of Harry Markopolos and his team of investigators’ 10-year struggle to expose the harrowing truth of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme that wreaked financial havoc on so many in our own community.

Another with a local connection is Holy Rollers, directed by Kevin Asch (who began making films as a kid growing up in Great Neck), written by Antonio Macia. Inspired by actual events in the late 90s when Hasidic Jews were recruited as mules to smuggle ecstasy from Europe into the United States, it stars Jesse Eisenberg (Social Network) as Sam Gold, a young Hasid from an Orthodox Brooklyn community reluctantly follows the path his family has chosen for him, awaiting a pending arranged marriage and studying to become a Rabbi.

There’s also Beatles Stories, a feature documentary directed by singer-songwriter Seth Swirsky who was a huge Beatles fan when he was growing up in Great Neck in the 1960s. Wanting to get closer to them than their music could take him, in 2005 he set out to film people who had a story about themselves and the Fab Four. 110 interviews later (cut down to 50 for the movie), the result is Beatles Stories.

One film that looks particularly interesting and has a local connection is the world premiere of Billable Hours. Think the life of a big firm lawyer is glamorous? This comic short film, written by Alexandra Gil (a Great Neck girl) and Aleksandra Vargas, follows one young lawyer as she is slowly driven crazy by monotonous work, obnoxious colleagues, and the constant buzzing of her BlackBerry.

The festival also affords opportunities to engage with industry insiders at panels and workshops.

Bill Plymton will be giving a Master Class at NYIT: “I want to talk about my career as an independent animator who makes a good living creating independent films by way of showing some of my classic shorts, music videos, and clips from my new feature, “Idiots and Angels”. Plus, I will give a drawing demonstration and talk about how other filmmakers can make a living creating short films. And everyone who comes gets a free Bill Plympton drawing.”

David Paterson, the screenwriter of Disney’s 2007 hit Bridge to Terabithia based on the children’s favorite by Katherine Paterson, is leading a panel discussion of “Children’s Books-to-Film.” He is currently in pre-production on several films including legendary children’s classic The Great Gilly Hopkins, also for Walt Disney.

A pre-festival event featured an evening of Screenings & Conversation with Isabella Rossellini at NYIT

To create the festival, Gil has brought in some major talent, including Sean McPhillips, Senior Programmer, Festival Director, began his career at Miramax Films where he became Vice President of Acquisitions, attending festivals such as Sundance, Cannes, Toronto, Tokyo, and Fajr. He is responsible for acquiring the films — not a small feat — and his instincts in finding “winners” and interesting personalities to discuss the films has already been proved in his selections for the marvelous Furman Film Series at the Arts Center.

“I’m so proud to be associated with this lineup, which represents the kind of quality only found at top festivals,” said McPhillips who is also co-founder of Secret Hideout Films.

“Programming for year one focused on creating a varied set of experiences for the Gold Coast audience. It is my hope that people will not only find films that fit their taste but that they’ll join in the festival spirit and try new things,” McPhillips said. “Each film–drama, comedy, documentary or short–was selected for its unique value, story, and reason to be seen.”

In addition to McPhillips, the feature programming team consists of Donna Dickman, formerly of Miramax Films and Focus Features, and L. Somi Roy, Curator at Large for Asian, Asian-American and non-fiction films, who has worked with Lincoln Center, MOMA, Whitney Museum and The Smithsonian.

The festival is designed to be accessible, as well, both in the “price points” of tickets, in venues and in programming.

There will be screenings morning to night at Clearview Cinemas (a sponsor) in Great Neck, Manhasset, Port Washington, Roslyn, Herricks, and New Hyde Park. You can purchase a ticket for as little as $15 to one of the movies or panels, or purchase one of three packages: a Patron Gold Pass, at $250, provides access to all Festival screenings on a space-available basis and 25 percent discount on Festival merchandise; a Premier Gold Pass, at $500, provides access to all Festival screenings and two special events such as filmmaker panels and after-parties (you have to RSVP), Festival tote bag and 25 percent discount on merchandise; and VIP Gold Pass, at $1000, gets you reserved seating at select screenings, plus parties, panels, and special events, festival T-shirt and tote bag and discount on merchandise. Senior citizens get a discount, too.

The Long Island Railroad, one of the festival sponsors, is enabling patrons to get a discount on the film tickets by showing their railroad tickets.

This is really a community wide event, with the town and local communities linking up their own events, which expands the festival’s reach.

The Village of Great Neck Plaza, where the Great Neck Arts Center is located, is holding its annual Great Neck Plaza Restaurant Week May 29-June 5 (visit www.shopgreatneck.com), and scheduled its wonderfully festive Promenade Night on Middle Neck Road for June 2.

On June 4, the Town of North Hempstead is hosting KidStock 2011, an open-air family festival featuring a musically entertaining blend of folk, rock, “kid hop” and “kindie rock” that parents and their kids can participate in together (Noon – 5pm at North Hempstead Beach Park).

Also on June 4, there is a “Cinema By the Bay” screening of The Karate Kid at 8:30pm at the Town of North Hempstead Dock (347 Main St, Port Washington).

Nassau County Museum of Art’s is hosting an Outdoor Screening of Funny Face, George and Ira Gershwin’s airy 1957 musical starring Fred Astaire, June 4, 8:30 pm, (purchase tickets at www.nassaumuseum.org; free for Gold Coast International Film Festival VIP All Access Pass holders.)

On June 5, Port Washington is holding its 21st Annual HarborFest, with Craft Fair, entertainment, Wells Fargo stagecoach rides, Children’s Fun Park, Enviro-Expo. (Port Washington Town Dock).
Area hotels are getting involved, including the Inn at Great Neck, the Andrew in Great Neck Plaza, and the Roslyn Claremont which have allocated rooms during an otherwise busy season.

A festival “hub” has opened at 292 Plandome Road in Manhasset in a storefront supplied by the landlord and decorated by Great Neck Games like an Oscar party, across from Long Island Railroad. In fact, such a world-class festival is being mounted on such a tight budget because of the sponsors, donors and volunteers.

You can do more than be a spectator, and actually become part of the festival. There are opportunities to volunteer — as an usher, a ticket-taker, to man the information “hub” at Plandome Road, to work the parties and panels. (You can download a volunteer form or call 516-444-FILM; volunteers are asked to give blocks of 4 to 8 hours).

This is the inaugural Gold Coast International Film Festival, in what Gil expects will only grow and grow and grow year by year. But while she is positive the international film festival will grow, “it is hard to imagine what will it become.”

To see the inaugural Gold Coast International Film Festival features lineup click http://www.thefestguide.com/gciff2011

Get full schedules and order tickets at www.goldcoastfilmfestival.org.

© 2011 Travel Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. Visit www.examiner.com/eclectic-travel-in-national/karen-rubin, www.examiner.com/eclectic-traveler-in-long-island/karen-rubin or www.travelwritersmagazine.com/TravelFeaturesSyndicate. Send comments or questions to FamTravLtr@aol.com. Blogging at goingplacesnearandfar.wordpress.com.

via huffingtonpost.com

Most U.S. adults don’t expect real estate recovery until 2014 or later | Inman News on Bedford New York Real Estate

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With home prices threatening to double-dip nationwide, most consumers don’t expect a housing recovery in the near term, according to a survey from property search and marketing site Trulia and foreclosure data site RealtyTrac.

Market research firm Harris Interactive conducted an online survey on behalf of the sites from April 15-19, 2011. The survey garnered 2,018 responses from U.S. adults — 1,257 were homeowners, 704 were renters, and 57 identified themselves as neither.

More than half of respondents, 54 percent, believe the housing market won’t recover until 2014 or later, up from 34 percent in a similar survey in November 2010.

While many experts predicted an improvement in the housing market this year, “We’re actually backtracking,” said Pete Flint, Trulia’s CEO.

“Foreclosures still continue to be a major part of the housing market, and as a result housing prices continue to drop. Even with mortgage rates still below 5 percent, the fact is, against a backdrop of joblessness, (even high affordability has) made consumers more skeptical where the housing market is concerned.”

For instance, renters who were interested in buying a home said they would wait two years before doing so, Flint said.

He predicted it would be another 18 months before home prices begin to stabilize.

“I expect the rest of 2011 to continue to be volatile,” he said. “Buyers can anticipate a big summer clearance on real estate,” he added.

Rick Sharga, senior vice president of RealtyTrac, expects prices to bottom this year.

“We’re not expecting a bounce off that bottom. (Prices will) flat-line there for the next couple of years and (we won’t see) prices increasing in any real manner until, best-case scenario, 2014,” Sharga said.

While most survey respondents also chose 2014 as the light at the end of the tunnel for the housing market, 24 percent of respondents — the same share as in the November survey — believe the market will recover in 2013. Some 15 percent of respondents say the market will recover in 2012, down from 27 percent six months ago.

Three percent think the market will recover at the end of this year, down from 10 percent six months ago. The same share, 5 percent, thought the market had already recovered.

Neither Flint nor Sharga believed the possibility that the mortgage interest deduction would be eliminated was keeping buyers away from the market.

Nevertheless, about 40 percent of surveyed renters said they won’t ever buy a home. “That suggests that it’s really a bad time to take away the incentives for people to buy homes,” Sharga said.

While there has been considerable debate at the national level surrounding the Obama administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program (HAFA), the survey results indicate that nearly half (45 percent) of Americans want the government to do more to prevent foreclosures.

Of the respondents, 17 percent said too much was being done, while 16 percent the right amount was being done. More than one-fifth of respondents, 22 percent, were not sure.

“Many of these programs have been nothing more than a Band-Aid on a hatchet wound,” Flint said.

The prevalence of foreclosures in the market is likely a major factor in negative sentiment toward the government, the survey report said.

“Almost one-third (30 percent) of homeowners self-reported that they have or know someone who has applied for or received a loan modification, stopped paying their mortgage, foreclosed, walked away or … sold their home (in a short sale),” the report said.

Interest in foreclosures remains high. Among renters, 56 percent said they are at least somewhat likely to purchase a foreclosed home. Among homeowners, 47 percent said they are.

On average, respondents expected to pay 38 percent less for a foreclosed home compared to a similar, nondistressed home. That discount is fairly realistic — the average discount on an REO (bank-owned) home in 2010 was 36 percent, according to RealtyTrac.

However, “that interest isn’t quite high enough to burn through the inventory that’s out there,” Sharga said.

“Even if banks weren’t to foreclose on a single property this year, we have a nearly two-year supply of REOs before we burn through the inventory.”

“At the moment, there are over 900,000 properties on the banks’ books, but less than 30 percent are listed for sale. So there’s a 600,000 backlog. There is plenty of distressed inventory on the market with a boatload yet to come,” he added.

Sharga said he doesn’t see banks flooding the market with REO properties.

“(That) would cause another double dip in home prices and conceivably cause another wave of foreclosures as home prices (decline). They will put them on the market probably only as fast as they can sell them,” he said.

Foreclosure activity has fallen year-over-year for the past seven months, he said, largely due to controversy surrounding foreclosure documentation and procedures that prompted many major lenders to temporarily halt some foreclosure proceedings.

Lenders have had to refile tens of thousands of foreclosure proceedings, and those proceedings have received far more scrutiny in judicial foreclosure states, Sharga said. Law firms that used to handle such proceedings have also gone out of business or been ordered to stop handling them, so other firms have had to be trained to handle foreclosures, he added.

“I believe most of these things will be nailed by the end of the second quarter and we’ll start to see foreclosure activity where it should be sometime in the third quarter,” Sharga said.


via inman.com

Buy a Beautiful Home in Armonk NY | Armonk Homes for Sale – Robert Paul Real Estate | Bedford NY Real Estate for Sale

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05/18/2011

Buy a Beautiful Home in Armonk NY | Armonk Homes for Sale

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Bedford NY Real Estate Buyers Unite in a Buyers Community | Buying a Bedford NY Home on The Internet

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The goal of many companies is to facilitate a vibrant online community around a brand or product. “Engagement” is a refrain we’ve all heard time and again, but it is crucial if you want to gain traction on the social web. We can look to the undisputed champ of engagement, Facebook, to inform our own strategies, communities and web presence.

This isn’t just about creating better Facebook ads, or even in getting more “Likes.” The bigger question is, what can our brand communities take away from the success of Facebook’s platform?

1. Facilitate What Customers Already Want to Do

It’s not about ROI or advertising dollars at the beginning. It’s not about messaging and positioning. Customers will come back to a place with a compelling reason for going there in the first place. Let the user determine the model, and look at the type of user that you want to attract as the primary driver behind the online presence.

In Facebook’s case, they started with simply facilitating the sharing of information — from personal profiles to pictures. They’ve kept that same core model but expanded into everything from shopping to events. What can you facilitate that will help your customers?

2. Extend Traditional Success

Most communities, like Facebook, are natural extensions of what happens in the real world. Facebook mimics personal relationships. Your online community should mimic the positive interactions traditionally formed within your company. If connections are made at trade shows, then start discussions online that would typically take place at a trade show. If your company’s growth is from sales in a particular vertical, then facilitate connections with influencers in that market.

3. Keep it Clean

If there are two things we learned from MySpace, not everyone is a web/UI designer, and people prefer a clean community. This is online design 101, but it applies to your brand as well.

The web has the power to infinitely enhance your capabilities online, but start small. Keep a simple, clean interface with a clear direction for a user to personally benefit. It will keep your brand’s image in focus, and give users a sense of the benefits they’ll get from engaging with you.

4. Treat Engagement as a Long-Term Process

 

 

 

 

Your content should be short, frequent and easy to engage with. Facebook’s News Feed is effective because of these principles. This keeps visitors coming back and spending more time with your community.

If done right, these returning visitors will slowly phase out some other older, inferior communication tools. For example, think about the things that Facebook has trumped — from classmates.com to that old personal blog you haven’t updated in months.

5. Make Engagement Easy

Generally, most people online are “lurkers,” viewing sites and communities without ever interacting with them. Enter the “Like” button, which made engagement quick, easy and approachable. With your business, create a community of quick and easy participation. This will get people invested in your message and enable continuous interaction.

 

Mashable Article

 

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Living Rooms Will Be History in Bedford NY By 2015 | Bedford NY Homes for Sale

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A new report on house trends speculates that the living room could become obsolete by 2015.

The National Association of Home Builders recently released a special report that details several home features that will likely become the norm by 2015.

A Few Surprises
One of the more unexpected summaries in the report? A theory that living rooms will vanish, or be incorporated into other rooms. Of course, applying this report to a home depends heavily on the definition of a living room. We grew up with living rooms as formal spaces that were usually reserved for company–they didn’t have televisions, and typically had nicer furnishings and decor.

house trends

Will the living room be a thing of the past?

“An overwhelming majority of respondents do not expect the living room to stay in its current room,” according to the NAHB report. “Instead, more than half (52 percent) expect the living room to merge with other spaces in the home, while 30 percent expect it to vanish to save on square footage.”

Great Room Grows Bigger
The report predicts that an all-encompassing Great Room will likely replace the living room. Experts predict this will be a more open space that will encompass a kitchen, family and living rooms with few barriers to accessing each area.

Would You Miss Your Living Room?
Are you attached to the concept of a living room and refuse to give it up, even to save on square footage? Or do you feel this trend is part of the natural evolution of home design based on our economy, lifestyles and other defining factors?

We’d love to hear your thoughts!

And check out these other great stories from Charles & Hudson
Trend Watch: Hiding Kitchen Appliances Within Cabinetry
How To DIY With Small Children

 

Bedford NY Homes