The proposal – which would sell foreclosure homes, often in bulk, to private investors from government inventory – is set to go live in the “near term”, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. According to reports, the two government-sponsored enterprises will allow pre-qualification for investors and third parties who want to bid on foreclosure properties owned by the government. This effectively opens the doors for foreclosure investors to get in line for bidding and save time before the full allotment of government foreclosure listings becomes available.

Government foreclosures come from several sources, most notably Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD homes) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA homes). These homes come under government ownership when the federal government – due to its role as the guarantor of the mortgage secured by the property in question – takes possession of the home due to the homeowner’s default.

The hope is that investors and private equity firms will want to capitalize on a large inventory of cheap residential real estate properties that can be converted into income-generating rental properties – which are in high demand and have been for the past two years from previous homeowners, those looking to avoid buying a house in this climate, and those relocating for jobs.

As it stands now, the rental market suffers from a lack of supply while the housing market suffers from a glut of supply – a glut that has kept prices going down more and more with each quarter.

Already several major private equity firms have thrown their hat into the ring and announced intentions to actively participate in the government program. Some estimate that the foreclosure-into-rental market could be worth billions in the long run, and could deliver economic benefits to the economy as a whole beyond the profits obtained by investors if mass purchases cause home values to rise throughout the country.

The timeline for the full implementation of the program is still unclear, but the FHFA is seeking to make this a reality sooner than later – especially given the political pressure from the White House to bring stability to the housing market before presidential elections in November. Chances are the housing market will be a key issue.

Federal Foreclosure-into-Rental Program Picks Up Steam is a post from: Foreclosure Magazine - Read more about how does foreclosure work.

Real estate agents and foreign entrepreneurs alike should be cautious and well-prepared when digging into local real estate for some of the best deals in the country.

Make Sure You Bring the Green

One problem that surfaced last year with foreign investors flocking to the U.S. for real estate deals and steals was financing. To put it simply, lenders are less likely to lend to foreign nationals than they are to American citizens – and they aren’t too eager to lend to Americans.

Financing stateside is still possible, of course, especially if the investor is representing or operating as a corporation (see more below for that). But having cash on hand is highly preferable. The main issue with cash is timing, so an experienced real estate agent is a virtual requirement. If you stay too long, you could be taxed as an American citizen.

Additionally, it helps to secure lending – if required – from a lender in your home country, then using the bank’s relationship to have the money transferred for the purchase.

Buy as a Corporation, Not as an Individual

Many foreign investors may already practice this, but it generally is a better idea to buy property as a corporation, rather than as an individual. There is a myriad of reasons why this is so, namely due to American tax laws (particularly estate taxes). You also avoid personal liability issues that could arise if you rent the property and hire a professional property management company to oversee it.

With a B-1 Business Visitor visa, you can even incorporate in the U.S. and buy and sell property (although you will have to have an American property management company manage your holdings).

Distressed Properties Give You More Bang for Your Buck

Finally, be sure to turn to the foreclosure market for the best deals in the market – by far. Prices are still incredibly depressed, so there is plenty of upside potential available. REO homes and HUD homes in particular are prime targets for quick purchases – perfect for foreign investors looking to make a steal in a hot market.

Tons of Opportunities and Potential Pratfalls for Foreign Real Estate Investors in the U.S. is a post from: Foreclosure Magazine - Read more about how does foreclosure work.

According to Facebook statistics, 30 percent of their 500 plus million users are in the United States and it is also currently the top social networking site beating Twitter and MySpace. It should thus be considered logical for lawyers or document servers to consider using it.

In 2009, the Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court granted a lawyer’s application to use Facebook to serve lien notices after several failed attempts of serving the documents in person and by e-mail. It was not even the first time the court has agreed to this as it previously allowed serving thru text messages and email.

Last March, a British lawyer was also allowed to serve court summons to a debtor via Facebook. It was the very first time a British court allowed this and many viewed it as the court’s way of embracing technology and making court processes efficient and effective.

It certainly looks as if more and more countries are adopting this practice of serving legal documents via Facebook. In the US, the practice has yet to be adopted and considering the growing trend among other countries, many people might be wondering if such practice will do more harm than good.

Privacy Concerns

When you hear news such as this, it is not surprising if your first thought would be about privacy concerns. For starters, Facebook is already under fire due to various issues concerning the privacy of their users and this could possibly be another.

But based on the previous cases when legal notices were served via the social networking sites, it would seem the main objective is to make sure the person is notified. If e-mail, text message, fax and even personal visits do not work, then why not consider Facebook? It can be a reliable and private method of serving foreclosure notices.

Of course, the problem is serving the RIGHT person. This part is a bit tricky and such burden will be shouldered by the lawyer, who will have to prove to the court the Facebook account holder is the person concerned.

Helping Lenders and Borrowers

Considering most banks are up in their eyeballs in terms of foreclosure cases, serving foreclosure notices via Facebook might help them move ahead. They could even utilize the social networking site to contact the borrower immediately after the missed payment. Lenders can ask for the borrowers Facebook account during mortgage application to ensure all avenues of communication are open.

Meet EForeclosureMagazine.com. Your most reliable source of foreclosure information.

Facebook – For Serving Foreclosure Notices? is a post from: Foreclosure Magazine - Read more about how does foreclosure work.

With hundreds of thousands of bargain-priced bank foreclosed homes and Freddie Mac foreclosures to compete with, new homes almost have no chance of getting noticed. Moreover, not a lot of buyers are currently in the market as the housing industry crisis has pushed a lot of potential buyers to the sidelines. Data from the U.S. Commerce Department showed that construction spending declined by 1.4% in February. Construction activities also plummeted to their lowest level in February in over10 years.

Sales of residential properties have been mostly dominated by foreclosed houses and properties in bank owned property listings in the past few months, leaving little market share to newly-built homes. The annual rate of home and commercial construction in the U.S. reached a seasonally adjusted amount of $760.6 billion in February of this year, the lowest total ever recorded for the sector since October of 1999. It also broke the lowest amount record for the recession period posted in August of last year.

Analysts have stated that the February figure showed that foreclosure homes for sale still dominate the residential property market, with spending lower by around 50% when compared with the benchmark of $1.5 trillion, the amount of construction spending associated with a normal market. Experts have stated that it might take as long as four years before construction recovers from the double impact of the nationwide recession and the foreclosure crisis.

Oversupply of repossession houses has been hammering the residential market for the past few years, but analysts have stated that it is not only the residential property sector that has suffered from the foreclosure debacle, but also the commercial real estate market. Demand for hotels, office buildings and shopping premises has also declined considerably in the past couple of years, analysts have reported. The problem is also not being helped by tight lending rules which pose massive challenges to developers and builders, analysts also said.

With foreclosure homes for sale and distressed properties expected to increase again in the latter part of 2011, real estate experts are predicting that homebuilders and the overall construction industry of the U.S will continue to face tough times. They stated that both government and private construction activities are likely to fall again.

Oversupply of Foreclosure Homes for Sale Weighed Down Construction is a post from: Foreclosure Magazine - Read more about how does foreclosure work.

With legislators currently locked in a fight with the administration over a certain federal foreclosure assistance program, the rest of the country is watching numbers in the housing industry. Analysts stated that the resale housing market is showing signs of strengthening. They reported that the resale sector hit the bottom in 2007 when nearly 24,000 sales were completed. In the past two years though, sales have not gone down from the 50,000 annual sales mark.

However, although home resales and repo property sales are up, the new housing sector continues to struggle. In February of this year, Nevada, the area hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis, only recorded 502 new home sales. The total represents a decline of 19% when compared with the same month of 2010. According to analysts, it is not only Nevada's new housing market that is continuing to struggle, but other regions as well, particularly Phoenix and other foreclosure hotbeds.

Housing experts stated that, apart from the competition posed by low-priced properties in home foreclosures list, the new housing sector is also getting hit by the economic downturn and the tight standard in lending which makes it harder for would-be buyers to secure financing. In addition, appraisal issues, or appraised value not coinciding with agreed prices between sellers and buyers, are also hurting the new residential property market.

Despite rising bank owned home listings and declining new home sales, analysts stated that there are some other good developments, primary of which is the decline in mortgage delinquency all over the country. In Las Vegas, the three-month delinquency rate has been going down since June of last year, albeit at a slow pace. As of December of last year, the delinquency rate of the metro area stands at around 19.54% of total outstanding loans. The same decline is being seen in other key markets of the U.S., analysts further reported.

Although properties under home foreclosures list are expected to rise further in the second half of 2011, analysts believe that the housing market of the U.S. is showing signs of recovering. They stated that as the economy improves, housing sales will rise and delinquency rates are likely to decline further.

Home Foreclosures List Still Climbing, but Delinquency Is Declining is a post from: Foreclosure Magazine - Read more about how does foreclosure work.

Among the report’s highlights are the declining home prices in the Western part of the country comparing quarter to quarter in the last year, which is expected to drop even further in the next months. Such decline can attract buyers into investing in bank foreclosed properties since these distressed homes are usually sold at cheaper prices compared to other existing homes for sale.

Another highlight of the report revealed an increase of home prices by as much as 4.2 percent compared to two years ago. This was the only positive market indicator observed in the report and it did not encompass the majority of the housing markets.

Clear Capital believed that, although there is still a large inventory of foreclosures putting pressure on the market and a sluggish distressed home sales activity during the winter months, the present market trends clearly indicate a softening of home price declines. The quarterly decline exhibited last December has actually given way to moderate declines. And with the national home price index down to just 1.4 percent, it can be expected that the spring season will show a leveling of home prices.

In addition, home prices are actually 4.2 percent higher than the lowest of the housing crash. This just shows that it is possible to enjoy a gain in the middle of the volatile behavior of the market in the last couple of years. Of course, it is also still clear that, with the many foreclosed homes for sale still clogging the market, a sustained recovery is still far away.

The only silver lining in the otherwise dark cloud is the growing number of buyers and investors who are realizing the great return potential of buying repossessed properties. Cash buyers are also growing in numbers as they realize that the transaction is much faster and discounts are much bigger.

Nationwide, foreclosed homes for sale continue to drag home prices down. Although the latest data showed a decline in foreclosure filings, it is unclear if the decline is the result of lenders slowing down foreclosure process in order to avoid legal issues. But it is evident that there are still plenty of homeowners who are having trouble with their mortgage payments.

Foreclosed Homes for Sale Dragging US Home Prices is a post from: Foreclosure Magazine - Read more about how does foreclosure work.

According to market analysts, even with cheap houses in abundance, buyers are staying away from the market. They stated that part of the reason is the tight lending environment which makes it difficult for buyers to secure loans. Others are waiting on the sidelines, believing that prices will decline further in the coming months. There is also the factor of unemployment, analysts have said.

They explained that even those who are willing to make a purchase now are not making a move, simply because they do not have the means to even buy a repo home for sale offered at a bargain price. A huge number of Americans have lost their jobs in the past year and most are barely getting by, so a home purchase is definitely out of the question for them. Analysts also stated that the continuous rise in the number of foreclosed properties is scaring some buyers off.

Nationwide housing data showed that recovery varies from one city to another. Those that have high unemployment levels and huge supplies of properties in foreclosure listing are more likely to struggle. A Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller report revealed that 11 U.S. housing markets saw their housing prices decline to their lowest level since the market crisis started in 2007.

Most of these metro areas have huge supplies of bank owned houses; like Las Vegas, Tampa and Miami in Florida, Seattle, Detroit, Chicago and Phoenix.  In Las Vegas, for example, prices have gone down by more than 50% last year compared with 2006 levels and houses are now being sold for a price lower than the average selling rate recorded in 2000. Las Vegas has the highest foreclosure rate in the whole country and an unemployment rate of 14.9% as of December 2010.

Real estate experts are predicting that properties in foreclosure listing will rise again this year. Most are expecting the foreclosure crisis to peak in 2011, before starting a recovery in 2012. For areas like Las Vegas though, the recovery is expected to take longer and will probably be slower compared with the rest of the U.S.

Foreclosure Listing Prices Continue to Drop in Major U.S. Markets is a post from: Foreclosure Magazine - Read more about how does foreclosure work.

Overall, there were 831,574 residential foreclosures sold, including homes with default notices, homes at foreclosure auctions and real estate owned. The said distressed properties accounted for 26 percent of the total homes sold, a small decline from 2009’s 29 percent.

According to experts, the depressed market is created by two things: the oversupply of foreclosure homes for sale and the weak buyer demand. Based on the home values index from S&P/ Case-Shiller of 20 cities, residential home prices also declined 4.1 percent during the last quarter of 2009 .

If there would be more buyers who will find a foreclosure home auction and make foreclosure purchases, it is possible that the oversupply of these repo properties can be cleared. If this happens, there would once again be a balance in the market. Of course, experts are still expecting further drop in home prices as a consequence of the flood of foreclosures in the market.

The number of distressed property for sale could increase by as much as 20 percent by the end of the year as a result of the persistent high unemployment rate and the resumption of foreclosure process after the banks lifted the foreclosure moratorium they imposed amidst allegations of illegal repossessions.

In 2010, foreclosure homes for sale were sold on the average of $172,030, an improvement from 2009’s $170,775, but a drop from 2008’s $200,708. Sales of existing homes rose to its highest levels during the last eight months, according to the National Association of Realtors, as cash buyers dominated the market and grabbed distressed homes.

Huge Discounts Offered for Foreclosure Homes for Sale is a post from: Foreclosure Magazine - Read more about how does foreclosure work.

The latest home market data showed that, as of December 2010, prices of homes sold at foreclosure home auction and those purchased by buyers from non-foreclosure channels are off by 31% from the peak period of 2006. However, analysts stated that most markets are now moving in a more predictable way, unlike before, when prices jumped one month and declined the next and with big differences in movements apparent within one single state market.

They also added that average prices of cheaper properties, such as fixer upper homes for sale, do not have as much gap when compared with higher end dwellings, unlike around two or three years ago when both ends of the price spectrum were on the extreme. Lately, prices are starting to close the gap and levels are starting to move towards the center.

Analysts stated that it is not only the number of bank foreclosure homes for sale that will decide how fast a metro area will recover from the foreclosure crisis, but also how stable its labor market is and whether its biggest industries are directly tied up with the housing market or not. As an example, Boston and New York are experiencing increases in housing prices because they are both benefiting from the rebound of the Wall Street.

In the case of Philadelphia, the metro region is recovering faster than other areas because it did not overbuild during the real estate boom, resulting in its property prices holding at a relatively steady pace. People investing in bank owned properties will not find homes in Philadelphia that are being sold for almost nothing like in other areas.

For most analysts, they believe that more buyers will enter the market to purchase bank foreclosure homes for sale and even non-foreclosed properties in 2011. They stated that people will try to take advantage of the low interest rates since they are projected to start increasing this year.

Impact of Oversupply of Bank Foreclosure Homes for Sale Waning is a post from: Foreclosure Magazine - Read more about how does foreclosure work.

A big number of homebuyers opted for foreclosed or repossessed homes last year as shown by the rise in distressed property sales in most regions of the country. Distressed and repossessed properties are far cheaper than new homes and, with record unemployment rates and an ongoing weakness in the national economy, it is not surprising that those who have the capacity to buy went for lower priced dwellings.

Because a distressed house for sale is more affordable than a new house, most buyers went for the former, resulting in fewer activities in the home construction market as builders find it difficult to compete with distressed properties. However, 2011 seemed to be starting right for the new home industry as housing starts recorded an increase in January. According to nationwide housing reports, residential construction activity last month was the highest recorded in the U.S. in the past 20 months.

Even though more people are still expected to purchase foreclosures for sale this year, home builders escalated activities last month as 596,000 new housing units and apartments broke ground in January. The total, which has been seasonally adjusted, represented a 14.6% increase compared with December 2010.

In 2010, a total of 587,600 new residences were worked on by home builders. The figure was just slightly better than the 2009 total of 554,000. The almost flat activity was not surprising, given that foreclosures at auctions were highly preferred by majority of buyers and investors in 2010. Although housing starts improved last month, analysts cautioned that the housing market is still far from a recovery as the total is still way below the number traditionally seen during normal industry conditions.

According to them, under normal market conditions, home builders usually build around one million new houses every year. They also stated that even with increased number of new houses to choose from, a big number of buyers will still purchase foreclosures for sale this year because of their low prices.

People Who Purchase Foreclosures for Sale Get Other Options is a post from: Foreclosure Magazine - Read more about how does foreclosure work.