Boise Meridian Eagle Idaho Real Estate - Homes Sales and Boise Investment Properties

Michael Hon, CEO, The Iron Eagle Realty Team Assoc. Broker, Silvercreek RG The Iron Eagle Realty Team is a Full Service Real Estate Company. Our mission is to assist our clients in the successful acquisition and sale of their personal homes and/or investment properties in the Boise Idaho Real Estate Market. We have successfully helped our clients with short sales, investment properties and foreclosed / bank owned properties in the Boise Idaho Real Estate Market.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Realtors hope $25B foreclosure settlement will spark housing revival

by John Stodder
Published: February 10,2012
Time posted: 3:03 pm
With the residential real estate industry shell-shocked from years of a moribund market, its spokespeople can be forgiven for taking a cautious attitude toward this week’s announcement of a $25 billion settlement with five of the nation’s biggest mortgage lenders over flawed and fraudulent foreclosure practices.

The money in the settlement will mostly go to borrowers and homeowners who are underwater. According to the Washington Post, the settlement “will force lenders to revamp how they interact with troubled homeowners and bar them from trying to foreclose on borrowers while simultaneously negotiating mortgage modifications.”

But could the settlement help get the residential market moving again, even in the face of historic low interest rates and plummeting prices?

“We do hope that the resolution will help more lenders with the certainty they need to kick loose more loans,” said Walter Molony, a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors in Washington, D.C. He cautioned, however, that the impact will be limited because the settlement doesn’t help the millions of borrowers with loans owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

Eric Berman, communications director for the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, was pleased that the settlement was designed to help more homeowners stay in their homes because that kind of stability slows the ongoing descent of home values in many markets – though the market isn’t as bad, he hastened to add, in Massachusetts as it is in many other areas.

But even there, he said, “Distress sales impact values of homes of people who are not in a distress situation.”

Realtors also hope the settlement “can give lenders the confidence to start up with loan modifications, short sales and principal write-downs,” Berman said. “We’re going to have to wait and see. From our members’ point of view, short sales take forever. The only thing short about a short sale is the definition.”

While realtors continue to ruminate, the blogosphere reacted quickly:

• Financial blogger Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism gives “The Top Twelve Reasons Why You Should Hate the Mortgage Settlement.” She is scathing. “We’ve now set a price for forgeries and fabricating documents: It’s $2,000 per loan,” which, as she points out, for an average loan is “less than the price of the title insurance that banks failed to get when they transferred the loans to the trust.”

• Writing at the Huffington Post, financial reform activist Dennis Kelleher calls the deal a “criminal sell-out,” because the $20 billion in loan forgiveness, though impressive at first blush, only adds up to $20,000 per 1 million homes. According to a Zillow report in November, some 14.6 million home borrowers have fallen into a negative equity position.

• Reuters’ financial blogger Felix Salmon likes the deal because the attorneys general didn’t give up too much and the banks didn’t get too much. Banks only got immunity from suits over the practice of robosigning, but can still be sued over a range of other alleged misdeeds that contributed to the mortgage default crisis.

John Stodder Jr., is The Dolan Company’s national affairs correspondent and web editor at-large.

The Iron Eagle Realty Team's mission is to assist you, our client, in the sale and acquisition of real estate properties in the state of Idaho, specifically the Boise Idaho Real Estate Market. Whether you are buying or selling a home, whether it is a foreclosure, short sale or equity property, we handle our customers and clients with empathy and honest truths so they can make informed decisions as they advance in the process of buying and selling real estate that meet specific needs.

PS: We've Helped More Buyers and Sellers than 99.8% of any Local Realtor

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Regards, Michael Hon, REALTOR®
CEO, The Iron Eagle Realty Team
Associate Broker, Silvercreek Realty Group
Certified Short Sale Specialist®
Investment Property Consultant
Direct: 208.919.0458 Office: 208.939.9033 Fax: 208.514.1422
www.IronEagleRE.com Michael.Hon@IronEagleRE.com

Friday, February 10, 2012

Almost New Townhouse in Hyde Park, Boise's Premier Neighborhood!!!

The Iron Eagle Realty Team's mission is to assist you, our client, in the sale and acquisition of real estate properties in the state of Idaho, specifically the Boise Idaho Real Estate Market. Whether you are buying or selling a home, whether it is a foreclosure, short sale or equity property, we handle our customers and clients with empathy and honest truths so they can make informed decisions as they advance in the process of buying and selling real estate that meet specific needs.

Monday, February 06, 2012

Report: Freddie Mac bets against homeowner refinancings

They are all CRIMINALS!!!

NPR and ProPublica investigation shines light on investment practices
BY INMAN NEWS, MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 2012.
Inman News®

In 2010 and 2011, mortgage giant Freddie Mac invested billions of dollars on bets that homeowners with high-interest mortgages would not be able to refinance at today's lower interest rates, according to a joint investigation conducted by NPR and ProPublica, a nonprofit, independent news agency.

While legal, the bets appear to be in direct conflict with the taxpayer-backed company's public mission, as stated on its website, "to stabilize the nation's residential mortgage markets and expand opportunities for homeownership and affordable rental housing," the news agencies said, noting that refinancing terms have been getting more restrictive of late and include higher fees and new rules that prevent some homeowners from taking advantage of historically low interest rates.

Freddie Mac is regulated by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). Officials at both Freddie Mac and FHFA repeatedly declined to comment on the specific transactions, the news agencies said, though Freddie Mac did say that its employees who make investment decisions are "walled off" from those who determine the terms under which homeowners can get loans.

And in a written statement, Freddie Mac said it "is actively supporting efforts for borrowers to realize the benefits of refinancing their mortgages to lower rates," noting that it refinanced loans for hundreds of thousands of borrowers in 2011, according to the news agencies' report.

HousingWire writer Jacob Gaffney accused NPR and ProPublic of conducting a "witch hunt" of Freddie Mac.

"Who in their right mind would try to counter NPR and ProPublica articles that clearly depict the evil mortgage market behemoth undercutting homeownership initiatives and doing the unthinkable: Trying to earn money for bond investors?" Gaffney said.

Hate to say it NPR and ProPublica, but the same thing is happening at Ginnie Mae and Fannie Mae, and just about everywhere a home is bought, sold and financed."

He added, "The very federal conservatorship status that both Fannie and Freddie are under is designed to protect their assets. That means keeping performing loans right where they are -- in a position that most efficiently monetizes loans for investors" -- one of the biggest of which is the U.S. government, he said.

ProPublica characterized the investments by Freddie Mac as a conflict at the heart of the company: "In addition to being an instrument of government policy dedicated to making home loans more accessible, Freddie also has giant investment portfolios and could lose substantial amounts of money if too many borrowers refinance."

Freddie Mac, as does fellow government-sponsored enterprise Fannie Mae, repurchases loans from lenders, allowing them to keep making more loans with minimal risk. The report by NPR and ProPublica contends that in 2010 and 2011 Freddie Mac didn't just repurchase and hold loans, however -- the company reportedly also packaged hundreds of thousands of loans, chopping the securities up into two main slices:

1. One that is low-risk, and based on homeowners paying the principal on their mortgage.

2. The other, known as an "inverse floater," that is higher-risk and based on all of the interest owed on the entire bundle.

Freddie Mac would sell the low-risk slice and keep the higher-risk slice, the news agencies said.

"That riskiest investment pays out a lucrative stream of interest payments. But Freddie's slice also has all the so-called 'prepayment risk' associated with that (bundle) of loans. So if lots of people 'prepay' their old loans and refinance into new, cheaper ones, then Freddie Mac starts to lose money. If people can't refinance, then Freddie wins because it continues to receive that flow of older, higher interest payments," NPR said.

The Iron Eagle Realty Team's mission is to assist you, our client, in the sale and acquisition of real estate properties in the state of Idaho, specifically the Boise Idaho Real Estate Market. Whether you are buying or selling a home, whether it is a foreclosure, short sale or equity property, we handle our customers and clients with empathy and honest truths so they can make informed decisions as they advance in the process of buying and selling real estate that meet specific needs.

Friday, February 03, 2012

BANK OWNED 7.5+% return Cash on Cash Duplex, Blt in 2005 in SE Boise

Check out this almost NEW BANK OWNED Duplex in SE Boise. Potential for 7.5% plus cash on cash return.
Click here for listing information.

Regards, Michael Hon, REALTOR®
CEO, The Iron Eagle Realty Team
Associate Broker, Silvercreek Realty Group
Certified Short Sale Specialist®
Investment Property Consultant
Direct: 208.919.0458 Office: 208.939.9033 Fax: 208.514.1422
www.IronEagleRE.com Michael.Hon@IronEagleRE.com

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

U.S. regulator launches foreclosure sales plan

(Reuters) - The regulator for mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said on Wednesday investors could now sign up to pre-qualify to bid on foreclosed properties held by the government-controlled firms.

Those investors meeting the qualifications set by the Federal Housing Finance Agency could purchase homes and then convert them into rental units under the new program. They would be required to use the properties as rentals for a specific number of years.

Government-run Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration own a large portion of the country's foreclosed properties. As that inventory is expected to swell, the federal program is aimed to clear the backlog of distressed properties that has flooded the market and depressed prices, while at the same time meeting the increased demands of renters.

The regulator said it will announce the first transaction during a pilot phase of the so-called REO initiative in the "near term." Fannie Mae will offer for sale pools of various types of assets in the first pilot program, including rental properties, vacant properties and non-performing loans with a focus on the hardest-hit areas.

"This is an important step toward increasing private investment in foreclosed properties to maximize value and stabilize communities," said FHFA acting director Edward DeMarco.

Later Wednesday, President Barack Obama will announce a package of proposals to help the ailing housing market, including a way to help more borrowers refinance at record low borrowing costs.

(Reporting by Margaret Chadbourn; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

The Iron Eagle Realty Team's mission is to assist you, our client, in the sale and acquisition of real estate properties in the state of Idaho, specifically the Boise Idaho Real Estate Market. Whether you are buying or selling a home, whether it is a foreclosure, short sale or equity property, we handle our customers and clients with empathy and honest truths so they can make informed decisions as they advance in the process of buying and selling real estate that meet specific needs.