Southern Maryland Real Estate Blog: June 2008

Another One Bites the Dust: Caruso Homes Files for Bankruptcy

As you may already know, KB Homes has pulled out of the region, Shuttering the Middletown Woods sub-division and putting the land they hold up for sale. It was a blow to local builder confidence, and now it looks like there's more evidence of how much some builders are struggling in this tough market: Caruso Homes has filed for Bankruptcy.

Supposedly they are doing this to re-structure rather than close-up shop. If it's a way for them to bring down their prices, great. Take a look at their current prices, and you'll notice that they're flat out too high. Filing bankruptcy sheds light on an interesting phenomenon: Builders profits have been cut to the core. Bankruptcy means that Caruso cannot slash their prices any further at this point without drastic measures.

Will this allow Caruso Homes to drop their prices further? Definitely! At the same time, I'm sure it's going to upset the folks they owe money to. ($500,000 from 84 Lumber alone!). As soon as Caruso announces their price reductions, I'll let you guys know. Stay tuned for more on that!

Buying foreclosures for pennies on the dollar from banks

Everybody that is looking to buy a foreclosure is trying to get a great deal, right? That's the goal at least, and a lot of people are finding it frustrating to actually find the "deal" hidden amongst the overpriced dreck that's saturated the market.

What most people don't realize is that the opportunity to buy wholesale foreclosures DOES exist, if you know where to look. People CAN and ARE buying for as little as 36% on the dollar for foreclosed homes. The challenge in doing this successfully is two-fold:

1) They're not selling properties off individually this way. This is a concept for investors, willing to spend millions or even billions at a time

2) There are a lot of people claiming to have a viable product to sell. The lists, also known as "bank tapes" are difficult to legitimately find. The risks are numerous, and it's hard to know if you're dealing with genuine individuals or not. The last thing you want to find is that their "tape" has secondary loans, credit card debt and other misrepresentation.

I've been working for months now to try and find genuine sources of product for buyers. We've met with some success, and plenty of inconsistency, false product, and other shenanigans. Finding a legitimate source of homes for sale in this manner can be a goldmine for a buyer.

Consider it like this: If you have $20m to spend on foreclosures in bulk, and you can buy them for $.45 on the dollar, taking on the task of reselling them, even at only 80% of market value can potentially earn a huge return on your money.

I've been able to find legitimate sellers, if anyone is interested in finding legitimate bank tapes and platforms, give me a call and I can put you in touch with them. Or, if you have any questions about what the process of buying property this way consists of, I'm always more than happy to answer them for you.

~Jonathan Benya

Century 21 New Millennium
9405-A Chesapeake St
La Plata, MD 20646
301-653-8116
Waldorf and Southern Maryland Real Estate
www.teambenya.com

in Bank Tapes, Buying, Foreclosure, Foreclosures, Investment, Southern Maryland, Wholesale Foreclosures | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Rosewick Crossing is growing in La Plata, MD

It's amazing how much commercial growth is happening in La Plata, MD, and Charles County in general. Rosewick Crossing is the latest addition to La Plata's shopping choices. As you may or may not know, Lowe's hardware store has already opened, and construction on the Giant grocery store is wrapping up as I ~~speak~~ type.

What I didn't realize about the shopping center is that there seems to be a ton of space for smaller retailers in addition to the anchor stores that are already in. I like the convenience that all of this new development creates, but in a way I sort of miss the "old" La Plata. (You know, pre-tornado times?)

It's all part of a larger plan that includes the addition of roughly 3,000 new homes along Rosewick Rd, so I imagine that there's not going to be any shortage of shoppers for the new complex once that development gets off the ground.

Feds Press Charges in Metropolitan Money Store Scheme

It looks like things are moving forward with the case against Joy Jenise Jackson (formerly known as a stripper named Night Rider), Kurt Fordham, and The Metropolitan Money Store.

Remember them? They're the one's accused of "saving" people from foreclosure, while stripping their equity out from under them, and leaving the victims in financial turmoil.

Former Stripper Joy J. Jackson Ran Foreclosure Rescue Scam
Uploaded by Scambuster2007

Well, now they've decided to press charges against 8 people, including Joy Jackson and Kurt Fordham, and (provided that the accused can be located), we may finally see some closure to this bizarre tale. It's bad enough that we've dealt with scummy lenders writing bad loans, scummy get rich quick schemes promising to pay your mortgage, and the real estate bubble bursting, leaving us with a serious foreclosure problems, but seriously, this too?

It's an embarrassment to legitimate professionals to see garbage like this happening in the region. I hate the fact that a few bad apples like this can really ruin the reputation of the industry as a whole.

It's great that they've pressed charges, but what I want to know is this: Where in the hell are they, and how do you plan to arrest them? This was in the news months ago that the feds were trying to build a case, and I'd be shocked to hear that they were still in the country at this point! **

**Correction** Multiple arrests were made thursday morning in North Carolina, including both Ms. Jackson and Mr. Fordham, among others.

Trying to save money on your next home? How about a rate reduction?

I just got out of a very productive meeting with a lender friend of mine from Wells Fargo. He's running an incentive plan right now that helps home buyers get 1% off of their starting rate on any property they buy and use him as a lender.

It looks like a good way to try and save some money on the monthly cost of your new home, and I'm excited to be working with him on it!

I also have to apologize, it's been nearly a week since I last posted, and it seems that I just started to run out of steam the last few days. I've been working very hard on Project Graduation, and now that grad night is behind us for this year, I'm back full speed ahead writing on the blog and helping people find their new home!

~Jonathan Benya
Century 21 New Millennium
9405-A Chesapeake St
La Plata, MD 20646
301-609-9000
301-653-8116
Waldorf and Southern Maryland Real Estate
www.teambenya.com

in Charles County, Lending | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)