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redefining the flip

18.05.12

WASHINGTON – Gene Richards is a lifelong Vermonter, but on a recent weekday afternoon he found himself back on Florida’s west coast, scouting foreclosures to add to the collection of rental properties he has amassed in the wake of the housing crisis.

“I just started buying them and I haven’t stopped. I have 15 right now, and I’d buy another 15,” said Richards, 51, who runs a mortgage company and also owns rental properties back home in Burlington, Vt. “This to me is a no-brainer of an investment.”

With home prices at historic lows and rental rates on the rise, Richards and a growing number of investors with cash to spare are seeking lucrative returns by gobbling up foreclosures in distressed markets across the country and turning them into rentals.

“The investors are seeing bargain opportunities,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. “The numbers are just very attractive, given the alternatives.

Source: TheNewsTribune.com

South Florida third in US with shaky mortgages

18.05.12

South Florida maintained its position in the top five markets nationwide for suspicious mortgage activity last year as lenders continue to uncover bad boom-time loans and federal examiners note an increase in dubious short sales.

A 2011 year-end report released Monday by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network showed Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties in third place per capita for suspicious activity reports and fourth place for total volume.

Florida's overall rank last year was third place per capita and second by volume. California was first in both categories.

Financial institutions tip off the network, which is part of the Treasury Department, when they come across suspect mortgages or other housing-related deals. Last year, 92,028 reports were made nationwide, a 31 percent increase from 2010.

There was a 9 percent surge in South Florida filings during the same time period, increasing from 11,833 in 2010 to 12,919 last year.

The increases are partly attributed to reviews of loans awarded between 2006 and 2008 as investors pressure banks to buy back mortgages that didn't meet underwriting standards or were counterfeit for other reasons, such as the borrower's income was falsified.

Source: Palm Beach Post