Thursday, January 10, 2008

IDX Search Tools Give Century 21 Perfect Home’s Adnan Jabar a Competitive Advantage
EUGENE, ORE. - Eugene based IDX, Inc. today announced the addition of Century 21 Perfect Home’s Adnan Jabar to its suite of real estate clients. Jabar now uses IDX, Inc.’s primary application, IDX Broker, to display and completely integrate Multiple Listing Service (MLS) listings on his personal website. This allows him to retain leads generated from direct traffic, rather than losing out to the listing broker through the use of traditional framed MLS search tools.
The IDX Broker application provides agents, brokers and other real estate professionals with the tools needed to create a competitive advantage in a growing real estate market.
The objective in developing a website with an integrated IDX/MLS data feed is to generate new leads quickly at a low cost to the client. With automatic email announcements, custom client home views and advanced admin and integration controls, Jabar’s clients now have access to the entire MLS database on his website. This gives his website an advantage over those that don’t integrate the MLS listings with the IDX search tools and gives his listings free advertising on other real estate websites that also display the MLS data.
Additional benefits of using IDX Broker include the ability to automatically create featured listing pages, check the status of new MLS listings and generate automatic emails 24/7. As a member of Illinois’ MLSNI, Jabar’s clients can search the MLS quickly and easily using IDX search tools.
About Adnan Jabar
As a member of the Century 21 Perfect Home team, Adnan Jabar prides himself on honesty, integrity and the highest quality of service. From buying to selling to financing, Adnan strives to meet all his clients’ real estate needs.
About IDX, Inc.
Headquartered in Eugene, Oregon, IDX, Inc. is a leading provider of web-based applications for real estate professionals throughout the U.S. IDX, Inc. offers two primary applications: IDX Broker and SLM Pro. IDX Broker allows individual real estate agents and brokers to integrate listings from their Multiple Listing Service (MLS) seamlessly into their own real estate website. This integrated IDX data feed allows agents and brokers to generate and manage leads online from all listings in their respective area of specialty. SLM Pro is a Sponsored Listings Management marketing program that assists businesses with the complex task of creating and managing a dynamic online marketing plan. SLM Pro uses a unique approach to online ad placement that maximizes the overall reach of a user’s website, while delivering relevant and targeted traffic efficiently. For more information about IDX, Inc. services and products, please visit http://www.idxbroker.com or call (800)421-9668.


What's the Cause of the Massive Increase in Foreclosure Buying and will it Persist? - Part I
Skyrocketing Foreclosures- Buying by Investors
It's a fact that the number of real estate foreclosures is skyrocketing. All over the US Real estate investors are buying foreclosure homes and homes in preforeclosure at firesale prices. A quick scan of the legal part of your newspaper will reveal the large list of properties scheduled for the foreclosure auction. Statistics indicate that over 1% of the today's homeowners will be behind on their payments or this year will face mortgage default and foreclosure. Just think, almost every neighborhood in this country will have 2-3 homeowners not being able to make their house payments. So it's not surprising that some savvy homebuyers with cash, and real estate investors make low offers for buying foreclosures and preforeclosure homes.
Lenders Lure Homebuyers and Pay the Consequences
This is bad news for the homeowners and bad news for the banks and institutional lenders who are looking at billions of dollars of loans that they're not getting interest payments for. It is of course, great news for investors buying foreclosures, because when the supply is high, the prices go down. Banks are even taking less that what they're owed for the loan by accepting short sales offered by investors and at foreclosure auctions (for more information on short sales see resource box).
So why is this happening? Here's 3 acronyms that tell the story:
ARM 's - Adjustable Rate Mortgage
HELOC's - Home Equity Line of Credit
80/20 - 80/20 no down payment loan
ARM 's are the chief culprit. Those who are not familiar with these types of mortgages, the way they work is that when the loan is first issued there is a very low (below market) interest rate. Then after a set period (from 1 - 10 years), the interest rate adjusts upward as much as 2% based on an interest index. The rate then adjusts annually by as much as 2% until the cap is reached which can be 10-12%, although caps can be in the 12-16% range.
Of course
Adjustable Rate Mortgage Lures Unsuspecting Buyers
However, this apparent good fortune for the new home purchasers was often just a foreclosure waiting to happen. A day of reckoning was coming, and these homeowners would have no idea what hit them.
Here's an example of what started happening and is continuing to happen today. Let's say Jim & Sue Tenants have a fairly low income of about $2000/month. A general lending rule of thumb is that your mortgage monthly debt should be no more than 30% of your gross income. So based on this, Jim & Sue could afford a %HOUSE% monthly debt of about $650/mo.
Now let's say they could get an ARM with a 1% starting percentage value and a cap of 12%. They could qualify for a $200,000 loan with monthly debts of $643/mo. And let's also suppose the lender does not escrow the taxes or insurance. Typical taxes & insurance let's estimate to be about $2400 or $200/month. (By the way, the following scenario will play out the same, no matter what the starting percentage is).
Jim & Sue move into their new home, purchase a bunch of furniture on their credit cards, a new TV, and stereo, and some window treatments, etc. After about 6 months Sue gets pregnant. The tax bill comes due in September, and Jim and Sue are in a bit of shock. They haven't been putting away money for taxes, and it takes most of their meager savings to pay the bill.
Payment Trouble Leads to Unavoidable Foreclosure Default
Then around November, the mortgage company sends them a letter informing them that the value is adjusting upward by 2% and their monthly debt starting January will be $843 per month-a $200 increase. With their credit card debt, a new baby on the way and monthly living expenses, they're really living on the edge. When their next tax bill comes due-Jim decides the county is just going to have to wait for it's money. (In reality what will happen is that the county will put a lien for back taxes on the property and sell that lien at a tax sale auction. The real estate investors purchasing the tax lien or tax certificate (in many states) will eventually have the right to foreclose if they're not paid the back taxes and interest. Essentially buying the foreclosure for the cost of the tax lien!).
Then in November of that year, they get another letter informing them of another increase in their interest value-this time to 5% (still pretty low), and this raises their monthly mortgage monthly debt to $1074/mo - a $230 increase!
Now, Jim & Sue are in over their heads. Come January, they send in the old monthly debt amount. The bank doesn't accept it and considers them in default. They think they only owe the difference-in fact, the bank considers it as if they hadn't made any monthly debt at all. After several months, they get a foreclosure warning letter.
At this point Jim and Sue may consider selling their %HOUSE%. If they live in a rapidly appreciating market, they may be able to get out by the skin of their teeth. In most areas, after only a year or 2, most homes have not appreciated enough to sell quickly. With a realtor commission and accepting a discount from the purchaser, they'd have to come out of pocket to go through with the sale-money they don't have.
So depending on their state, unless an investor steps in, buying the foreclosure by negotiating a short sale with the lender, the property will be sold at auction on the courthouse steps according to state foreclosure laws.


In the next part, I'll discuss the insidious nature of Home Equity Loans for the unwary borrower.
SUMMARY
The rate of foreclosures is at an all time high, and many real estate investors are buying foreclosures, looking for big discounts by negotiating short sales with lenders and buying foreclosures at the courthouse steps. The reason for the high rate of foreclosures are lending practices such as ARM's (adjustable rate mortgages), HELOC's (Home Equity Lines of Credit) and 80/20 (nothing down loans) that allow home buyers to borrow more than they can afford. In part I, how ARM's create this problem is analyzed. In parts 2 and 3, the consequences of home equity loans, and no money down loans are analyzed.
KEYWORDS
Foreclosure buying, real estate investor, investing, short sales

About The Author:
Learn how to create wealth by buying preforeclosures & foreclosures and get big discounts with short sales- http://www.investorwealth.com/foreclosure.
Payoff Your Home Mortgage in 7 Years- http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=249188


What You Should Know About Foreclosure Investing
If you are interested in a way to get involved in the real estate industry you should look into foreclosure investing. Many people avoid this type of investing because they are not aware of the details that go along with it. By simply learning about foreclosure investing, you will be able to join this industry in no time at all.
The first thing that you need to know about foreclosure investing is who you will be buying the house from. Foreclosed homes are properties that have been taken over by the bank because the past owner failed to pay his or her mortgage. When this happens, the bank then needs to sell the property back to the public so that they can start to collect a profit again. The longer that the bank sits on a foreclosed home, the more money they are going to lose.
Being that banks are always in a hurry to sell properties back to the public, the buyer definitely has a huge advantage; this is what makes foreclosure investing so profitable for thousands of people ever year.
When you are looking to get into foreclosure investing you should realize that you will be able to find properties that are greatly discounted. It is not uncommon for a buyer to be able to find a property for up to 40% off of the market value cost. By purchasing properties at this price and then selling them back to the public, you can make a lot of money.
Another reason that foreclosure investing is so popular is because there are a lot of these properties to go around. In almost every city in the United States there are foreclosure properties available for purchase. The only thing that you have to do when getting into foreclosure investing is find the homes that you want, and decide how much you are willing to pay for them. This can be done by simply scouring your newspaper, or joining a service that will supply you with homes in your area.
Overall, foreclosure investing is a huge industry at the present time. There are people all over the country that have turned their love of foreclosure investing into a full time job. If you are interested in getting involved with the real estate industry, there is no better way to do it than by investing in foreclosed properties.

Masni Rizal Mansor provide tips and review on foreclosure investing, home building plans and investing in Arizona real estate.