Summer is rapidly approaching... Temps are heating up, hoping for sunny days. Soon school time will be at an end, and it will be time for summer family vacations. This summer my family is going on a fun family style vacation to an amusement park. Today's "From My Travels" post are pics from last years summer trips, with the kids, and some just with the wife.
Have a Great Weekend!
I was reading the local Rutherford AM news this morning and saw an intriguing article. A living history program taking place this Saturday at the Stones River National Battlefield here in Murfreesboro, TN. Check it out HERE! All the info you need and times. Plus directions and more... These are the kind of events that make living in a place full of tradition and history fun and exciting!
There are a lot of bad things going on STILL in the mortgage and real estate industries.. Some of it has been going on for long periods of time and the fall out is beginning or just starting to show publicly. I have been watching a series of story lines coming from around the country.
It all started for me with a story out of California about a Foreclosure Rescue and Equity-Stripping Scheme. When the story broke it was with the feds indicting people. Once that story hit, there were many more to follow. Read the following story from Inman News.com regard the California Indictments:
"Federal officials announced the indictments of 20 people a couple of weeks back in two California-based foreclosure rescue and equity-stripping schemes that allegedly netted more than $12 million from more than 100 victims who were left without their homes.
A 33-year-old Los Angeles resident, Charles Head, is accused of orchestrating both schemes, which allegedly used straw buyers to obtain title to the homes of troubled borrowers.
A federal grand jury indicted 16 people involved in an alleged foreclosure rescue scam on Feb. 28, which prosecutors said netted $6.7 million from 47 homeowners, nearly all in California.
Prosecutors said victims believed that they were making rental payments to “investors” whom they agreed to add to the title of their home. The “investors” were actually straw buyers who often replaced homeowners on the title. After taking out a new mortgage to extract the home’s equity, the defendants would sell the victims’ home, stop making the mortgage payments, or begin eviction proceedings against the victims, prosecutors said.
In a second, March 13 indictment, a federal grand jury indicted seven defendants — including Head and two others named in the Feb. 28 indictment — in connection with an alleged equity-stripping scheme that netted $5.9 million from 68 homeowners nationwide."
So that made me wonder. If this is happening in California, the FORECLOSURE capital of the world. Then it is certainly happening all around the country, right? EXACTLY RIGHT! With alittle research it was not hard to find several other stories from other parts of the country where the same kinds of schemes seemed to be taking place, and seemed to be falling apart at the same time.
I found a story out of Illinois, which shows that this problem is obviously present in that state as well. The state Senate is dealing with a similar problem, by passing a bill. Read about it, Property foreclosure scam bill gets Illinois senate's approval.
Illinois mortgage companies hit with fraud suits. Just more proof that in a time when people who have made mistakes, been scammed and borrowed more money then they knew they could afford are STILL being taken advantage of by MORE LIEING MORTGAGE COMPANIES!
What really happened as far as the mortgage side of the housing problem went?
First off Mortgage companies loaned money BLINDLY! To much, to too many, with no regard for the people or what they could afford. That's the Lender's fault. Next comes the LIEING Mortgage people, who flat out lied on applications, lied to there own banks, and lied to the borrowers. Those Mortgage Lenders(originators) should be PROSECUTED! Lastly is the borrowers, who knowingly, or not borrowed WAY TO MUCH MONEY! I do find fault with the borrower who borrowed to much knowing they had 2 car payments, credit card bills, and NO MONEY! That is YOUR FAULT and I WILL NOT BAIL YOU out and neither should the GOVERNMENT! However you do not deserve to get scammed either!
Do to all of this recent news,Congress looks into foreclosure rescue scams. Wow, Congress is actually going to look into something that matters to American's everyday lives.
Here is the BOTTOM LINE!
IF you have money to put down, little to no credit card debit, little to no car payments, good job history and plan to buy a reasonable amount of home then you will qualify for a good interest rate mortgage and won't get SCAMMED!
Always work with Real Estate PROFESSIONALS!
Long-term mortgage rates DOWN for the third consecutive week:
****Currently the Dow Jones Industrial Average is UP 3.58 currently 12,749.46 from the opening bell this morning of 12,745.55. This marks a recovery that occurred since the opening bell. The market has seen an up and down day already this morning with a HIGH for the day at 12,791.31, and a LOW for the day at 12,740.50.
Market Update... This is a snap shot compared to last week:
