July, 2010

Teresa Giudice, "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" and her husband are facing bankruptcy, so August 22 will be a very important step in their lives, because their belongings will be auctioned off to help pay their $11 million debt.

Teresa and her husband filed for bankruptcy last october, when they couldn’t keep up with their bills, plus their $11 million in debts. Their belongings will be soled on an auction arranged by the court and trustee, though it might be a little hope not to do so. Their lawyer is still fighting the auction.

The star has managed to rack up serious debts in the past years, although they claim an income of $79,000 per year. Teresa Giudice herself has a monthly salary of $3,333 from Bravo TV and her husband claims $3,250 per month income from his stucco and stone company. The couple has a mansion in Towaco, N.J., that worth $1.8 million. The bills have overwhelmed them on two other homes, so they are into foreclosure : one in Lincoln Park and another on the Jersey Shore. They owe $12,000 to a fertility clinic and more the $5 million to a former real-estate partner. As an additional information can be noted that, Teresa claimed to spend around $400 a month on clothes – however, she has been filmed spending more than $2,000 in a 10 minute clothing shopping spree.

During the auction, scheduled on August 22 buyers will have to opportunity to purchase two flat-screen televisions, a pool table, sofas and chandeliers.

Category : Celebrities &Distressed Luxury Real Estate News &Headlines

The name of Damon Dash will sound familiar for many, they know him as the mogul of the hip-hop music. However, New York lenders are also familiar with Damon Dash’s name, who defaulted few years back on his mortgage payment. The $78,504.20 per month mortgage was too high for him to afford, so he reportedly stopped paying it. His $7.3 million loan was for a pair of Tribeca lofts, one at 72 Laight Street and the other one is a 5,200 square foot duplex in The Atalanta at 25 N. Moore Street. This is one of the neighborhood’s power buildings. Damon Dash tried to sell the duplex for $7.9 million – he bought it for $3.875 million back in 2004, but he couldn’t get a deal, so the money problem remained and the condo is a good part of the debt. After Dash’s default, the bank secured a judgement March 1, this year for $8,960,752.

The condo will have a new owner on July 28th, after the auction scheduled  at the New York County Courthouse. According to the listing on the duplex has 20 foot ceilings in the living room, four bedrooms and a large kitchen. The 17-story building was designed in 1924 and converted into condos in 2001.

Category : Distressed Luxury Real Estate News &Manhattan

Foreclosure threatens the luxury homeowners, again. Bayview Loan Servicing LLC made a foreclosure filing against the luxury home on 855 Visionary Trail, Golden, CO 80401. The address may sound very familiar to lots of people. They know the home that is located there as the "Sleeper House" or Sculptured House. The home, built by architect Charles Deaton in 1963 is a distinctive elliptical curved house that featured in the 1973 Woody Allen sci-fi comedy, Sleeper and since then it is inevitably linked to futurism and UFOs.
The architect, Deaton never occupied the home and sold it to John Huggins in 1999 for $1.33 million. He poured in additional funds and drew on the services of the Praxis Design team of Nicholas Antonopoulos and Charlee Deaton and completed a planned extension. The home now has 7,000 square feet of living space: five bedrooms, five bathrooms and a four car garage.
Huggins sold the house in 2006 for $3.43 million to Dunahay, a Denver businessman, founder of Vacation Solutions. Dunahay got a a $3.13 million mortgage on it from Bayview Loan Servicing LLC and according to the foreclosure filing he still owes $2.77 million of that amount. The foreclosure filing was made against the home in JUne by the Lender. Bayview previously initiated foreclosure action against the house back in 2009, but withdrew it last May as the county foreclosure records show.
In a foreclosure process, the foreclosure filing with a county public trustee’s office represents the first step. And if the mortgage debt is still not paid, the home is sold at auction.

Category : Distressed Luxury Real Estate News

If you are suffering from foreclosure then you are certainly not alone, the people who are facing foreclosure ranges from bankers, financers to celebrities. Now days, one bad sign of our economy is a recent wave of celebrity foreclosures. The economy has not only affected common person but also the well-known stars. One of them is Fantasia Barrino, the winner of season 3 American idol. She is a single mother to daughter Zion and her duet with Jennifer Hudson named “I m his only woman” was nominated for Grammy. She has a house on Bevington Place, North Carolina. The property is of 1.3 million that consist of 6,232 square foot with 6 bedrooms and a beautiful pond in front of the luxurious house. The reason behind its auction was none paying of necessary taxes. She bought the home in March 2007 that had to face foreclosure on January 12, 2009 but was not foreclose as all parties reached an agreement.

Not everyone is Fantasia Barrino who will be able to escape from foreclosure at last moment. The foreclosure is one of the disastrous processes, which makes a person life miserable.  For more details how can we work with you while keeping you away from public exposure please CLICK HERE.

Category : Avoiding Luxury Foreclosures &Celebrities

There are people taking it as a business to buy foreclosed properties on bulk. But while buying such homes or properties they won’t expect alluring outside views, sophisticated swimming pool and well decorated rooms. Studies reveal that most of homes foreclosed recently costs million dollars. Banks have seized such homes due to non-repayment of mortgage or any other debt taking the home as a pledge or collateral security. Many luxury homes have fell in the hands of banks due to foreclosure. Foreclosures of million-worth homes began rising at the end of 2009.

Studies reveal that more than common people with much money, celebrities get involved in the list of foreclosed property owners. As per recently published data, famous celebrity Victoria Gotti lost her $4.2 million costing long island estate due to non-repayment of mortgage. What makes celebrities to loose their alluring homes? Problems can be many but mainly because of their rights to borrow big amounts of money using sizable paychecks at the time of boom period. Currently Hollywood is volatile; certain well famous celebrities struggle with low income streams and mortgages which worth more than the cost of their homes.

But these dreadful foreclosures can be avoided by taking right steps at the right time. Don’t become nervous or tensed while hearing the term ‘foreclosure’. There are solutions to avoid it till the last second of auction. There will be counseling agencies and financial advisors in every country who can help you with adequate information and assistance to avoid foreclosure. Some countries give refinance loan and financial assistance based on special plans and strategies. These financial supports will help you reduce the monthly payments and keep your home with you.

Internet will feature tools to find counseling agencies offering foreclosure-avoiding techniques. If the agency finds you as eligible for refinance program or loan modification, counselor will work effectively with you to save your home from foreclosure. There are non-profit counseling agencies striving to help as people as they can in keeping their home with them. Another way to avoid foreclosure is to talk with your lender. Majority of people hesitate to display their hapless financial condition before the lender. Sometimes, lenders can do some favors in your case to avoid foreclosure. Lenders are provided with workout options to be used to save people from home foreclosure.

Don’t waste your precious time by being very optimistic. Immediately contact your lender to discuss your poor circumstances when you have realized that you can’t make mortgage payments. Never ignore phone calls or mails from your mortgage lender as it may be intended to help you. If you resist for reply, your lender will start legal actions to execute foreclosure. Apart from these, there will be programs and options sponsored by local or state government to save their citizens from foreclosure. Be brave and optimistic when you receive the notice of foreclosure. There are solutions to save your home. Search it and save it!!

Category : Avoiding Luxury Foreclosures

With the changing market environment the world of real estate is also altering every moment. At this time one of the best things to do is opt for the short sales measure to purchase homes rather than choosing foreclosures and downturns. Short sales have been found to be among the best methods to buy a home and get a good deal. Short sales usually occur when the owner of the house makes a pre-foreclosure arrangement with the loan providing bank to sell their home at a price set at values lower than the mortgaged value. It is a good way to avoid foreclosure or having to face bankruptcy. There are various pros and cons attached with the deals completed through short sales.

Thought short sales is a very good approach to sell properties but it is also a time consuming procedure which requires a lot of investment and time to finalize the deal. With efforts and hard works short sale can come out to be a very good venture. Another interesting point to be known is that short sales can only work out when it is accepted by both the parties as well as the bank. Usually it is the bank that agrees to sell the property at price lower than the actual value because all they are concerned about is the money they have to reimburse. This deal helps the owner come out of their financial bind and pay some money back to the bank. It is because of this factor that the banks take a considerable time to make their decision and finalize the short sale offer.

Short sales can definitely be frustrating because of the long waiting time. It is possible that the finalization of deal may even take up to six months for the bank to take the decision which is the main reason why buyers usually shriek away from making short sales. While on the other hand with some patience and willingness the buyer can fasten the process and get a good price.

There is also a possibility that there may be tax ramifications when going through a short sale. Thus it is important for the buyer to make sure and check all the account information before making the final purchase. As some part of the debt is written off, there may be income by the IRS which can increase the tax reliability of the property.

From the starting of the process to the end every step should be clearly understood and right measures taken to make the purchase turn out to be a successful deal and not a tension in mind. Short sale purchase should only be made after a lot of research and background knowledge.  Though Short sales have a lot of benefits, they sometimes may also turn out to be a tiresome experience. Having a third party such as Eureka involved in the transaction is fully justified to avoid these obstacles.

Category : Luxury Short Sales

Prior to the bursting of the property bubble in the United States, the infamous lending device known as the sub-prime mortgage allowed borrowers to enter the property market at exorbitant rates of interest. Typically, these onerous terms would mean that modest repayments were made for the first 3 years, and thereafter interest repayments escalated sharply or a balloon payment was required in addition to large interest charges. Of course, access to the market was also facilitated 30 years ago before electronic records enabled the verification of loan applications.
This type of unbridled access was the exploited by some for profit and by others to eventual detriment.

One of the precepts adhered to by borrowers pursuing patently impossible financial agreements such as a sub-prime mortgage was one that advocated obtaining the largest mortgage possible. Once acquired over the longest period of time such a mortgage would be paid off as quickly as possible. With a monstrous mortgage that was never able to be maintained over the long term, an expensive luxury property utilizing the entire mortgaged amount was purchased. The strategy lay in a capital gain being made on the property prior to any default occurring. In a rapidly appreciating property market this appeared to make perfect sense.

Luxury property in particular has an expensive entry value upwards of $1m. While leasing returns are minimal on these types of properties (approximating some 2% at best) the capital appreciation on upper market properties has historically been spectacular during a property boom.
With up to 14 % of the luxury property market consisting of buyers simply relocating from one luxury residence to another, it is often the case that aesthetic appeal and market sentiment plays a larger part in the luxury property market than the fundamentals. Most people would agree that their family residence can hardly be expected to be borne out of a desire to profit, and when a solvent buyer with large disposable income is similarly endeared to a luxury property, this fact is all the more reflected in volatile prices being paid for comparable property.

In many ways, the luxury property market is a second tier to the regular property market. Often when the broader property market is performing poorly, the luxury property market will flourish. At this level of prestige property, fundamentals give way to the emotion of raw market demand.

So the strategy employed by borrowers subject to a sub-prime mortgage gains some credence with this backdrop in mind. If the property was marketed as soon as it was conveyed, the right buyer could mean a handsome net capital gain of some $100-$200k in a matter of months. Indeed, when the property market is overheating, buyers will be scrambling over each other to acquire property, and when wealthy investors are involved the potential for profit is virtually unlimited.

Certainly, it appears that the majority that ventured into these investment strategies were sorely disappointed as capital gain was delayed and the burden of maintaining an impossible financial commitment took its toll. Subsequent foreclosure sales in enmasse drove the US property market into oblivion.
For academic purposes however, it must be remembered that prior to the onset of mass default in the housing market, many of these sub-prime risk takers actually executed the strategy to perfection and walked away with an astonishing yield on an investment with very little of their own capital (if any). The mechanics of this strategy are best kept in mind by any owner of luxury property in order to remind themselves of the true predicament that they may be in when threatened with foreclosure. Sometimes the luxury property market simply demands timing.

Category : Distressed Luxury Real Estate News

Rarely would a developer build a luxury home on poorly located property, and so it will be the case that luxury property is invariably situated at close hand to property of the same ilk, and will be in prime locations around the country.
It is no accident that location for the luxury market is the focus of development, as it is always the land value of a property that appreciates not its structures. In times of strength in the property market, the luxury property will experience unprecedented capital again while rental returns are negligible. It is for this reason that the cost of luxury property is a barrier to most.

With the average home in the US reported to be in the vicinity of $400k, it stands to reason that most homeowners are led to this type of housing. Suppliers of housing therefore need to align their expertise with the strongest point of demand. The luxury market then, is left to a select few who choose to specialize in a rarely visited niche market, and as such, structures on luxury property are unique and spectacular, often reflecting the consideration and attentiveness not of a developer but of a homeowner with a vision for their own home.
Of course, in the fullness of time property changes hands, but the same luxury home will change hands to a select few who shared their enthusiasm for the design and were willing to pay handsomely for the privilege of owning it. From here it comes as no surprise that the luxury property market is a niche market that has limited supply.
Particularly as luxury property is expensive to maintain, times of economic downturn effectively make this type of property affordable to only a select number of people.

These few buyers however, rarely move vertically through the property market and will turnover luxury property consistently in their lifetime. Indeed 14% of the buyers in the market are repeat purchasers of property at the top end of the market. These people have varying motives, and come from a variety of motivations and origins.
Sometimes it is a change in employment that engenders the need to relocate from one luxury property to another. At other times it will be a shift in overall asset prices, or individual commodity prices. For example, when the stock market experiences exceptional prosperity, much new money enters the luxury property market. Similarly, when economic downturns are upon us, a certain amount of luxury property is sold on the market but history shows that it is eventually absorbed rather quickly due to it being in relatively short supply. Economic unrest can cause fluctuations in currency markets and particularly when the flight to quality mentality occupies the markets, the US currency and her collateral investments such as gold, equities and property, are the first on consideration.

Essentially, the luxury property market is a second tier of the economy. When residential property is performing poorly, and economic unrest is stripping value from commercial properties, luxury property is often found to be achieving record sale prices due to its adherence to the greatest precepts in modern economic theory – short supply and location.

Category : Distressed Luxury Real Estate News

The fact that a homeowner is facing foreclosure may have resulted from a variety of diverse reasons, some of them to do with the circumstance if the homeowner, or others that may be to do with external influences outside of the homeowners control.
If for example the homeowner has overextended themselves in purchasing a luxury property, this position has vastly different potential for remedy than if the purchase of the property was well within the means of the borrower, but for external force emanating from the broader economy, or legislation.

In the case of the broader economy experiencing a downturn for example, the property may well fall in value, but this will be consequential to a far more fundamental reason, namely, unemployment. Directly affecting the homeowner will be their income and if this is affected by redundancy or the after effects of subdued economic demand, it is quite natural for a mortgage commitment to come under threat.

Objective consideration of the predicament may reveal to the homeowner that the property should not have been purchased in hindsight. Certainly, most individuals that purchase a luxury property would do so in order to be able to live in it, but the fact that it is highly geared with borrowing, demands that a broader view of the investment always be borne in mind.
On the other hand, a dispassionate deliberation may suggest that the property is a sound investment and that if it was possible to retain the property a capital gain would ensue. Of course this would also require that economic fundamentals be sound. The capital gain will necessarily increase the equity in the property which can always be liquidated in favor of the homeowner in the future.
If this is what presents itself, the homeowner ought to investigate the possibility of financing the property through other than conventional methods. If other assets are able to be liquidated in order to save the luxury property from foreclosure, this should be the first preference.
Secondly, finance from other lenders may be possible. If there is any equity in the property at all, this may prove sufficient security for a second mortgage to be taken out, however in times such as the present, the equity securing such a second mortgage will need to be substantial.
Unsecured loans are available from some lenders at extremely high rates of interest, but here too some form of income stream is required in order to indicate ability to honor repayment.

In situations where these forms of financing are unavailable, if the property is of high quality, it may be prudent to investigate the possibility of raising capital from private financing. Family members or associates may be interested in making an investment in the property. If so individual shares in the property may be able to be offered, but in the event of only a portion of the property’s value being covered in this manner, the lender may require a new financial agreement to be entered into. Ideally, the entire value of the property will be raised in order to pay out the existing financial obligations and then the risk will be shared amongst the shareholders rather than the individual homeowner.

Category : Avoiding Luxury Foreclosures

Most of us are still suffering after effects of financial crisis and staying current with mortgage payments is difficult these days. This at times results in inevitable foreclosure but the good news is that there is an alternative to bankruptcy and foreclosure- short sale. However, it can be one of the most difficult decisions for many people but might be the only option for you. Short sale certainly makes financial sense for people in such a situation. People might have concerns about choosing the short sales than going through foreclosure. It is smart decision to take the measures to get out of the situation than to do nothing at all.

If you are already underwater, meaning you owe more money than value of your home or you are not able to sell it due to negative equity, contact the lender and check out the options that you have. Keeping all the options in mind, you can make an informed choice. Do not forget that lenders are not in favor of foreclosure as it is stressful for everyone involved in it. Though there is a damage to the credit with sale but it is surely not as bad as foreclosure. Such sale will help in avoiding purchase residence with mortgage backed up government for a span of 24 months. With foreclosure, period to qualify extends four to five years. And the worst part is that you will have to mention that you have had a foreclosure in the mortgage in the application. When making loan payment is monthly struggle and homeowners have huge negative equity amount, short sale can prove to be the best option.

In cases where homeowners are walking in eventual foreclosure, one clear advantage would be to utilize short sale. Such a sale would allow homeowner to purchase home much sooner and allow the family to rebound quickly. Despite of its negative influence on your credit, short sales makes financial sense in many cases.

So analyze your case well to see if it makes sense to invest time and efforts in short sales. In most of the cases, short sale is the best way out of the financial trouble.

Category : Luxury Short Sales