Louise Scoggins' Blog: Foreclosures

I have been in Real Estate for about 9 years now, so I have been around the block a few times. I have seen many things and experienced many different situations that have made me a better agent. But last week, I had a Real Estate First…my first “First” in a while.

I am working with some buyers who are specifically looking at short sale and foreclosure properties. This past week, they asked me to show them a home we looked at when we first started looking a couple of months ago. When we first looked at the home, it was being sold as a short sale. It is now on the market as a foreclosure. I pulled an archive search on it and saw that it has been under contract twice, only to come back on the market a few days later. Each time the home has been re-activated,…

Today I am frustrated. I have a cash buyer who has made an offer on a foreclosed property in desperate need of a total overhaul. And when I say total overhaul, I mean total overhaul…there’s no kitchen (no cabinets, counters, sink, appliances…nothing...it's all gone), all the bathrooms need renovating, the home needs all new windows, trim, and siding, all new carpet, new paint, the deck is not to code and unsafe to walk on, there’s moisture in the basement, and the basement is only half-way finished. In my experience, without a kitchen, the home won’t qualify for standard FHA financing and perhaps not even for conventional financing. It would only qualify for some sort of renovation loan, most of which have a cap on the repair allowance (in the $30,000…

With the recent catastrophic floods in the Atlanta area, many residents have been left wondering what to do with their severely damaged homes. Facing major repairs and no flood insurance, what options do you have? I recently heard of a couple that had just spent their life savings renovating their home in East Cobb. Sadly, the home was destroyed in the floods. Without flood insurance and not having any money in the bank, they feared their only option was to let the home go into foreclosure. What a devastating realization! Not only to lose your home and all of your possessions, but to be forced into foreclosure. It’s a terribly sad thing to think about, yet alone to be faced with.

Hearing about this sparked my thinking into the hundreds of homes that were…

Foreclosures Hit Record Highs…Again

In a report published by the Mortgage Banker's Association last week, research shows that foreclosures hit another all time high for the 4th quarter of 2007. The 4th quarter statistics show that 0.83% of all mortgages are now in foreclosure, beating out the previous high of 0.78% -- set (oh so very long ago) in the 3rd quarter of 2007.  The last time the foreclosure rate was this high was some 20 years ago in 1985.

A whopping 30% of all foreclosures are found in the notoriously popped bubble markets of Florida and California. These two states, along with Arizona and Nevada, are also so overbuilt with new construction homes that the Mortgage Banker's Association predicts it will be a long time before the housing economy…