11/12/2009

Dear Jessica
Alvarez and Marsal


Thank you for your telephone call about my Washington Mutual accounts.
It seems your law firm is unable to find the various accounts which I own/ was trustee
For before the crash in September 2008.

It shocked me that the law firm that has billed $ 2,701,857. to me and my fellow
WM bankruptcy partners doesn’t even send me a twenty dollar gift certificate
towards a Thanksgiving turkey. Your voice sounded young and fresh. I recall
myself working a 75+ hour work week with all the enthusiasm of a young bull.
Good luck to you and the generation in America who has no idea how many pieces
of green paper dollar bills equals a trillion in miles ( enough to wrap the earth almost four thousand times) or how long it takes to save even $ 8000.

Yours truly,
"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." - Albert Einstein



All around me the beauty of this world astounds me. Did you see the cloud formations in the East today?

11/09/2009

Flip This House - Flipper Under the Sea

Caroline Gerardo
copyright © November 6, 2009


11/6/2009
Flip This House
It sounds so easy.


Gathered by the flagpoles at 700 Civic Center West fifty people dressed down in baseball hats and hoodie sweatshirts raise their arm to bid on a house. It’s a cool November morning, but the real reason to cover your head is carrying million dollars on your body in cashier’s checks and cash requires a low profile. It is important to be unrecognizable as a representative of hedge fund or cash offshore money.

A flip real estate transaction is a purchase for of property that has recently been acquired by the seller and is being sold for a quick profit. Rapid resale of property was layered with fraud in the past. Flippers are not evil, they are business people. Flipping poses large risks. Failing with your own cash is painful. Unknown title liens pop out of the woodwork, tenants in the house with weapons may threaten, once a flipper found a dead horse that the owners purposely left behind. Property can be purchased by reviewing verbally with the last listing agent as to condition and general value, but it is bought unseen in current state.

Our government is trying to stop mortgage fraud by hanging someone in a tree. It’s going to be the flippers who get pinched in the next wave of regulation. Coming down the pipe are crack downs on the profits a cash buyer at the courthouse can garner.

Back in May 2009 Federal Housing Commissioner Brian D. Montgomery extended the temporary property flipping waiver to May 10, 2010. Under the waiver, "homes that were foreclosed on and are being sold by the mortgagee or on its behalf may be purchased by FHA borrowers without regard to the 90-day seasoning period. The waiver does not apply to entities that purchase foreclosures either singly or in bulk for resale. Subsequent sales of such properties will continue to be subject to the standard regulatory requirements."



Today mortgage insurance companies, lenders, and Fannie/ Freddie/FHA (mien government loans) have imposed tougher standards on the profit flippers enjoy. Underwriters want to see the original transfer deed, and any subsequent transfers. It’s common to ask for a 24 month chain of title and a list of capitol improvements. Transfer deeds can be blacked out at recording but an Underwriter wants to verify if the Borrower and Seller are related. The deed might be transferred from one LLC to another. A click of internet access will check to see if the LLC is registered, therefore leading to five more questions.

Lenders want to see exactly how much profit the flipper is making to "protect the buyer". If the profit exceeds certain percentages, the flipper may have to provide actual receipts, just as if they were audited by the IRS. Mein government will require a) more down payment to secure against inflated value b) longer seasoning time (90 days was the old FHA rule could be six months or a year) c) not allow purchases or refinances on flipped properties.

So how do you improve your chances of closing? Personally knowing the listing agent and having a conversation about the documentation that may be required of a seller (many loans require seller signatures of their own unique disclosures) certainly will lead to a smooth
transaction. These days being ready in advance makes for closing more deals.




C. G. Barbeau