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Strategic Mortgage Defaults on the Rise

September 25, 2009

Strategic default—walking away from your home and mortgage—is getting more common. The interesting part is who is doing it: according to a recent study, people with good credit. For such consumers, strategic default may be the best of a range of bad options.
The same study found that 588,000 people walked away from their mortgages in [...]

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FTC helping consumers avoid foreclosure rescue scams

July 15, 2009

Better late than never. Foreclosure rescue scammers claim they can stop foreclosure and save homes. They can’t. This has been going on for a while (and may be on the wane, actually), but the FTC has decided to make it a prime issue. Here is their short video introducing the problem.

If anyone tells you they [...]

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Tips for refinancing your mortgage

June 30, 2009

Bad news: property values are way down, to the point where many people are sitting on mortgages at or above what they paid for their house.
Good news: mortgage rates are low, making it a great time to refinance. You can also install energy efficient appliances to put some money in your pocket.
But before you refinance—be sure to [...]

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New York Times: Walking Away From Your Mortgage, Not So Bad After All

April 2, 2009

New York Times: Walking Away From Your Mortgage, Not So Bad After All | Consumerist

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Where to get help when you can’t pay your mortgage

December 28, 2008

If you are having trouble paying your mortgage, you need to get out your financial paperwork and seek help early. If you wait until you are already missing payments, you will not have the options that are available to you while you are still paying on time.
First, get out your bills, pay stubs, and other [...]

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5 Mistakes Home Buyers Make

September 5, 2008

5 Mistakes Home Buyers Make | SmartMoney

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Ten home upgrades that actually pay off

September 5, 2008

Real Simple has a list of 10 home upgrades you can make that will actually pay off when you sell your house. Highlights from the list:

Painting your house, inside and out (pale yellow homes sell faster and for more money, apparently);
Updating the kitchen, as long as you don’t go overboard;
Updating a bathroom, again, as long [...]

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Update: save your money; Citibank will not reopen your HELOC even if you spend $600 on an appraisal

June 9, 2008

According to Glenda, she paid $600 to get her home re-appraised after Citibank suspended her home equity line of credit. All to no avail, as she has been unable to get Citibank to reopen her line of credit, even though the appraisal shows she has equity in her home.

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Home foreclosures, late payments set records in first quarter of 2008

June 5, 2008

Home foreclosures, late payments set records in first quarter of 2008 [StarTribune]

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National Association of Realtors finally caves on internet listing

May 29, 2008

The Justice Department and the National Association of Realtors reached a tentative settlement in an antitrust lawsuit. The NAR was seriously hampering the ability of newer, lower-cost realtors to list properties for sale online. As anyone who has recently gone house-shopping knows, you have to go to a traditional broker if you want to see [...]

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Big surprise: greedy subprime security buyers didn’t listen to their own consultants

May 28, 2008

Tracy Warren was a quality-control consultant for Bear Stearns and other mortgage security purchasers on Wall Street. Her job was to review mortgage loans to determine whether they had merit for investment purposes. (She saw the loans after they were made, but before they were sold to investors and led to the national economy’s crash-and-burn [...]

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