About Short Sales

For many homeowners, there are many who have never been late on their mortgage payments. With the tough unemployment picture deteriorating in the United States and with so many home values slashed and underwater with loss of equity, it is commonplace for many homeowners to find themselves strapped for the first time.

Homeowner Brian whose full name remains concealed for privacy reasons, was always on time with his mortgage payments. He was of the opinion that paying down the mortgage balance was something he aspired to do. His opinion changed when he watched the value of his home falter thus making him question whether it was anymore worthwhile making mortgage payments.

Brian, a police officer together with his real estate wife, Kelly had purchased their 4 bedroom home in an upscale neighborhood of Phoenix in 2005 for $650,000. They forked out 20% down payment knowing that they got a bargain and got a 30-year fixed rate loan for the remaining balance. Anticipating increasing costs for their daughter’s college, home improvements including a wedding, they took out a 2nd mortgage against their home. Currently, they owe about $647,000 on the combined 1st and 2nd mortgage.

Average home prices in Phoenix have fallen 48% after peaking in the summer of 2006 as indicated by the First American CoreLogic Index. As a result, Brian estimates his home to be worth between $375,000 and $425,000 although it has a 4 car garage, a 1.2 acre lot that includes a swimming pool. Zillow.com, a web resource that estimates national home values based on the number of sales within its neighborhoods, estimated the house to be worth $374,000.

There are millions of homeowners in the United States who are currently underwater or indebted to their lenders for more than their homes are valued. They often beg the question whether to remain paying their mortgages and hope for things to recover or leave their houses with the undesirable end result of a seven year foreclosure injury to their credit records.

Thankfully, nobody attempted to remove them from the property as they manage to reach into their savings in order to continue making mortgage payments. As with many other American homeowners who are underwater, the equity in their homes have shrunk or disappeared thus providing them with nothing to fall back on in case of an hospital emergency or an unforeseen loss of salary. Many are stuck in a limbo as a result of fallen home prices. They wish they could sell their houses for adequate funds so as to settle with their lenders but not possible given the current climate. This dilemma makes many home borrowers very likely to experience foreclosure.

The only thing that could save them is a miraculous property rebound in home prices boosting the equity of their home. However, this is very unlikely to happen in the near term.

A number of residents in their town have performed strategic default or mailed in their keys and left their properties. It is convenient for Brian and his family to perform a similar act as it is so tempting for them to rent another dwelling for much less than their mortgage payments accounted together with property taxes, insurance and maintenance costs.

Brian says that he can’t rely on the quick housing recovery. He mentioned that he had to set his limit. If the family savings fell below a certain number, they would have to consider all options including a short-sale transaction.

The definition of a short-sale is when the property is bought by someone for less than the mortgage amount owed and the difference forgiven by the bank. Brian stated that they have always made their mortgage payments. They are frustrated as they are depleting their funds so as to continue making mortgage payments. He urged that at some stage, you will need to know when to stop before hurting yourself and losing all your money.

Learn how to avoid foreclosure by keeping informed on the latest government assisted programs. Read the original article Keep Paying Mortgage Payments Or Walk Away From Your Home?

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We all know we need to invest, but how do we do it safely. Most people invest in stock market in one way or another, but how do we know we are buying at the right time. Investment advisers and the financial news tell us we need to invest steadily to take advantage of the market’s ups and downs. But what happens after we are retired, and we can’t handle the down part. For the last 10 years interest rates have been so low that it’s been almost impossible to get a decent return. The stock and bond markets are full of problems right now.

Real estate is a different story. When you buy property you’ve got something tangible. You’ve got something you can see, feel and use. You can live in it, or you can lease it out, or you can sell it. Right now if you’re investing in Santa Ana California property, you can get a great deal. There are thousands of properties, in Santa Ana, that are either in foreclosure are headed for foreclosure.

You can buy some of these properties for 50% of what the previous owner paid. You can buy residential property or commercial property that is being sold to the highest bidder. For example, on West Lucky Way there is a house that had $613,000 in loans on it and it is now valued at $320,000 as of April 14, 2010. I’m looking at another on W. Chestnut Ave. that ForeclosureRadar values at $164,000 and it has loans on it of 436,000. Foreclosure Radar estimates that the Cap Rate on that property is 19.5% and the estimated rent is $2672 a month. That sounds like something worth looking at.

Real Estate has always been a primary investment. Everyone needs a roof over their heads of some type. Over the last few years, new home owners were forced into ridiculous mortgages that created un-affordable balloon payments within 6 to 10 years. This has all come crashing down now, and these unhappy homeowners are bailing out of their now un-affordable homes. This is causing a glut of homes on the market and reducing prices so that investors can now buy a California properties that they can now rent out for a positive cash flow.

So if you can buy property for half what it sold for five or six years ago you can probably afford to lease it to the same people who tried to buy it back then. They can easily afford to pay the rent on a property that was purchased at half the price it was a few years ago.

Another great advantage that investors have today is that we currently have the lowest interest rates in decades. It can’t last long, but interest rates today are lower than 5%. My sister just bought a house in Palm Desert, California and got a 30 year fixed interest rate of 4.62%. This combination of low prices and low interest rates is very favorable to investors who want to rent out their properties for profit.

There are a lot of free financial calculators on the Internet that will let you calculate exactly how great a deal you can get. Try one and you will see that now is a great time to buy foreclosed property in Santa Ana, California.

Visit www.SantaAnaForeclosures.org and use our free ForeclosureRadar search engine to learn more about Santa Ana Foreclosures.

You don’t have to be a genius to see that Santa Ana foreclosures often represent some of the best deals in real estate. The banking business is all about making loans to property owners and collecting mortgage payments, not owning property. So whenever banks repossess a house from someone unable to keep up with the monthly bills, they look to sell it again as soon as possible — usually at a cut-rate price. So if you want to save money on a big property purchase, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on Santa Ana foreclosure activity.

In the past, only big time real estate investors were interested in Santa Ana foreclosures. That stands to reason because most of the foreclosed property was pretty beat up in inner city areas with all the problems that come with gang violence and high crime rates. But thanks to the persistent downward spiral of property prices in Santa Ana, we are seeing many more foreclosures in prime areas like, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Santa Ana and Laguna. These foreclosed homes give investors the opportunity to buy homes in great neighborhoods that they never would have considered before. It’s no wonder, then, that more and more people are shopping for foreclosed homes these days.

How do you go about finding foreclosure properties for sale? Most folks opt not to work with a real estate agent — at least initially — when trying to find a good deal. Since there are so many free websites that provide foreclosure listings, that is where they start. They list just about everything everything about a property from the size, and number of bedrooms, to the owner of the mortgage. You can even see a picture of the property on Google Maps.

Auctions are becoming very popular, both locally and on-line. At these auctions, you can bid on foreclosed properties for sale and hope to score a bargain that way. You can decide how much you want to spend for a property before hand and if you can stick to your decision you will probably get a great bargain. If you get the bid, then you might get the best possible deal. However, an obvious drawback is that you’re not guaranteed to be the highest bidder, so you always risk leaving empty-handed.

And finally, the government always maintains a list of foreclosure properties for sale on the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) website. While most of the listings are for modest single-family homes, you’ll occasionally come across exotic mansions that are being offered for pennies on the dollar. These places have likely been seized in drug raids or from white-collar criminals and are now being sold in order to pay off fines, which means bargain prices for buyers.

The mortgage crisis hasn’t been very much fun for anyone, but it does mean that there are more affordable homes out there today. If you are in the market for a new home, you should check out foreclosed properties in Santa Ana, CA, instead of just hunting for a house through regular old channels.

Looking for more information on Foreclosures in Santa Ana? Get the ultimate low down instantly in our Santa Ana Foreclosures overview.