stabilizing finally, rates are low and I just know it's going to be an
awesome time to buy!
We here at M.J & Associates are ready to help
you find that dream home.
Don't wait give us a call or send us an
email today!
mjassociatesre@yahoo.com
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
New Year New Home
A new year is almost here and the housing market seems to be
stabilizing finally, rates are low and I just know it's going to be an
awesome time to buy!
We here at M.J & Associates are ready to help
you find that dream home.
Don't wait give us a call or send us an
email today!
mjassociatesre@yahoo.com
stabilizing finally, rates are low and I just know it's going to be an
awesome time to buy!
We here at M.J & Associates are ready to help
you find that dream home.
Don't wait give us a call or send us an
email today!
mjassociatesre@yahoo.com
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Huge Colonial Just Listed
$285,000Located at 87 Oak St., Middleboro, MA
http://www.mj-associates.com/oakst.htm
Huge Colonial located within walking distance to center of Town.
Has 3-4 bedrooms, 1-1/2 bathrooms Living room, Dining room,
Den/Office, enclosed sun porch, full basement with
lots of potential. 2 car garage-Plus much more....
Huge Colonial located within walking distance to center of Town.
Has 3-4 bedrooms, 1-1/2 bathrooms Living room, Dining room,
Den/Office, enclosed sun porch, full basement with
lots of potential. 2 car garage-Plus much more....
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Cute and Cozy Cottages
Chronicle HD's show about cute cozy cottages,
are they the next"BIG" thing?
I think they could be, what do you think?
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/video/19459988/
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/video/19459993/
Friday, May 1, 2009
First-Time Buyer Tax Credit Ends December 1st!
Despite the doors it can open for first-time buyers, many consumers still don't know about the $8,000 tax credit. The first-time home buyer tax credit, which Congress in February increased to $8,000 from $7,500 and eliminated the repayment requirement, is an incentive you'd expect consumers to be clamoring about. But many buyers who are prime candidates for the credit aren't even aware of it! A tax credit of up to $8,000 is available for qualified first-time home buyers purchasing a principal residence on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009. Frequently Asked Questions About the Home Buyer Tax Credit are at the following link; http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/2009/faq.php
$8,000 Home Buyer Tax Credit at a Glance
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
The tax credit is for first-time home buyers only.
For the tax credit program, the IRS defines a first-time home buyer as someone who has not owned a principal residence during the three-year period prior to the purchase.
The tax credit does not have to be repaid.
The tax credit is equal to 10 percent of the home’s purchase price up to a
maximum of $8,000.
The credit is available for homes purchased on or
after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009.
Single taxpayers with incomes up to $75,000 and
married couples with incomes up to $150,000 qualify for the full tax credit.
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
The tax credit is for first-time home buyers only.
For the tax credit program, the IRS defines a first-time home buyer as someone who has not owned a principal residence during the three-year period prior to the purchase.
The tax credit does not have to be repaid.
The tax credit is equal to 10 percent of the home’s purchase price up to a
maximum of $8,000.
The credit is available for homes purchased on or
after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009.
Single taxpayers with incomes up to $75,000 and
married couples with incomes up to $150,000 qualify for the full tax credit.
More Information:
First-Time Homebuyer Credit
Expanded Tax Break Available for 2009 First-Time Homebuyers
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Helping Hand or Crazy?
Well, we spent last week not only trying to keep a deal together on a short sale but also actually getting dirty and sweaty moving a sellers belongings out of her house and into her storage units. Sometimes I think I am losing my mind! It's one thing to go above and beyond the job description but to not even be appreciated for doing it, never mind compensated, but then also have the deal fall apart because the buyer just decides to walk away for no reasonable reason, she has obviously changed her mind and found another house she must like better, is just crazy! Of course the good thing is that the buyer is now out and settled into her new place and would not have been so if we did not move her and thank god for a father and son team that helped us, without them we would have never made our deadline! There are such good people around us and then there are the ones who are either crazy or just have no regard for anyone but themselves and we can only decide which one we want to be known as and run with it. In the end you might still be talked about and someone else may look at the situation a different way than you see it, but inside you know who you are and why you did what you did and if you are true to yourself and have compassion for others you wont have anything to worry about. I would rather do what I feel is right in my heart than do nothing. I just really dont like working for free!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Show Me the NOTE.......
Homeowners' rallying cry: Produce the note
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hLOuvy9fguykC2NydTDrkqqyybvQD96DHN5G0
By MITCH STACY – 19 hours ago
ZEPHYRHILLS, Fla. (AP) — Kathy Lovelace lost her job and was about to lose her house, too. But then she made a seemingly simple request of the bank: Show me the original mortgage paperwork.
And just like that, the foreclosure proceedings came to a standstill.
Lovelace and other homeowners around the country are managing to stave off foreclosure by employing a strategy that goes to the heart of the whole nationwide mess.
During the real estate frenzy of the past decade, mortgages were sold and resold, bundled into securities and peddled to investors. In many cases, the original note signed by the homeowner was lost, stored away in a distant warehouse or destroyed.
Persuading a judge to compel production of hard-to-find or nonexistent documents can, at the very least, delay foreclosure, buying the homeowner some time and turning up the pressure on the lender to renegotiate the mortgage.
"I'm going to hang on for dear life until they can prove to me it belongs to them," said Lovelace, a 50-year-old divorced mother who owns a $200,000 home in Zephyrhills, near Tampa. "I'll try everything I can because it's all I have left."
In interviews with The Associated Press, lawyers, homeowners and advocates outlined the produce-the-note strategy. Exactly how many homeowners have employed it is unknown. Nor is it clear how successful it has been; some judges are more sympathetic than others.
More than 2.3 million homeowners faced foreclosure proceedings last year and millions more are in danger of losing their homes. On Wednesday, President Obama will unveil a plan to spend at least $50 billion to help homeowners fend off foreclosure.
Chris Hoyer, a Tampa lawyer whose Consumer Warning Network Web site offers the free court documents Lovelace used to file her request, has played a major role in promoting the produce-the-note strategy.
"We knew early on that the only relief that would ever come to people would be to the people who were in their houses," Hoyer said. "Nobody was going to fashion any relief for people who have already lost their houses. So your only hope was to hang on any way you could."
Tom Deutsch, deputy executive director of the American Securitization Forum, a group that represents banks, law firms and investors, dismissed the strategy as merely a stalling tactic, saying homeowners are "making lawyers jump through procedural hoops to delay what's likely to be inevitable."
Deutsch said the original note is almost always electronically retained and can eventually be found.
Judges are often willing to accept electronic documentation. And lenders are sometimes allowed to produce other paperwork to establish they are the holder of a loan. Still, assembling such documents to a judge's satisfaction takes time, which to homeowners is the point.
Lovelace filed her produce-the-note demand last fall after the bank acknowledged that her original mortgage document had been lost or destroyed. Since then, there has been no activity on the foreclosure — no letters from the lender, no court filings.
The law firm handling the foreclosure for the lender refused to comment.
A University of Iowa study last year suggested that companies servicing mortgages are often negligent when it comes to producing the documentation to support foreclosure. In the study of more than 1,700 bankruptcy cases stemming from home foreclosures, the original note was missing more than 40 percent of the time, and other pieces of required documentation also were routinely left out.
The first big success of the produce-the-note movement came in 2007 when a federal judge in Cleveland threw out 14 foreclosures by Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. because the bank failed to produce the original notes.
Michael Silver, a lawyer for two of the families in that case, said at least one eventually lost their home. Still, he considers that a success.
"From the perspective of the person who's in the home, you may have kept them in the house another 10 or 12 months," he said. "If I can get a result with economic benefits to a client, then I think I won."
Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio endorsed the strategy in a fiery speech on the House floor during debate on the federal bank bailout last month.
"Don't leave your home," she said. "Because you know what? When those companies say they have your mortgage, unless you have a lawyer that can put his or her finger on that mortgage, you don't have that mortgage, and you are going to find they can't find the paper up there on Wall Street."
April Charney, head of foreclosure defense for Jacksonville Area Legal Aid in Florida, said the strategy has been so successful for her that she now travels around the country to train other lawyers in how to use it. She said she has gotten cases delayed for years by demanding that lenders produce paperwork they cannot find.
"This is an army of lawyers getting out there to stop foreclosures so we can get to the serious business of creating solutions," Charney said. "Nothing good is going to happen as long as we continue to bleed homeowners."
On the Net:
Consumer Warning Network: http://www.consumerwarningnetwork.com
American Securitization Forum: http://www.americansecuritization.com
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hLOuvy9fguykC2NydTDrkqqyybvQD96DHN5G0
By MITCH STACY – 19 hours ago
ZEPHYRHILLS, Fla. (AP) — Kathy Lovelace lost her job and was about to lose her house, too. But then she made a seemingly simple request of the bank: Show me the original mortgage paperwork.
And just like that, the foreclosure proceedings came to a standstill.
Lovelace and other homeowners around the country are managing to stave off foreclosure by employing a strategy that goes to the heart of the whole nationwide mess.
During the real estate frenzy of the past decade, mortgages were sold and resold, bundled into securities and peddled to investors. In many cases, the original note signed by the homeowner was lost, stored away in a distant warehouse or destroyed.
Persuading a judge to compel production of hard-to-find or nonexistent documents can, at the very least, delay foreclosure, buying the homeowner some time and turning up the pressure on the lender to renegotiate the mortgage.
"I'm going to hang on for dear life until they can prove to me it belongs to them," said Lovelace, a 50-year-old divorced mother who owns a $200,000 home in Zephyrhills, near Tampa. "I'll try everything I can because it's all I have left."
In interviews with The Associated Press, lawyers, homeowners and advocates outlined the produce-the-note strategy. Exactly how many homeowners have employed it is unknown. Nor is it clear how successful it has been; some judges are more sympathetic than others.
More than 2.3 million homeowners faced foreclosure proceedings last year and millions more are in danger of losing their homes. On Wednesday, President Obama will unveil a plan to spend at least $50 billion to help homeowners fend off foreclosure.
Chris Hoyer, a Tampa lawyer whose Consumer Warning Network Web site offers the free court documents Lovelace used to file her request, has played a major role in promoting the produce-the-note strategy.
"We knew early on that the only relief that would ever come to people would be to the people who were in their houses," Hoyer said. "Nobody was going to fashion any relief for people who have already lost their houses. So your only hope was to hang on any way you could."
Tom Deutsch, deputy executive director of the American Securitization Forum, a group that represents banks, law firms and investors, dismissed the strategy as merely a stalling tactic, saying homeowners are "making lawyers jump through procedural hoops to delay what's likely to be inevitable."
Deutsch said the original note is almost always electronically retained and can eventually be found.
Judges are often willing to accept electronic documentation. And lenders are sometimes allowed to produce other paperwork to establish they are the holder of a loan. Still, assembling such documents to a judge's satisfaction takes time, which to homeowners is the point.
Lovelace filed her produce-the-note demand last fall after the bank acknowledged that her original mortgage document had been lost or destroyed. Since then, there has been no activity on the foreclosure — no letters from the lender, no court filings.
The law firm handling the foreclosure for the lender refused to comment.
A University of Iowa study last year suggested that companies servicing mortgages are often negligent when it comes to producing the documentation to support foreclosure. In the study of more than 1,700 bankruptcy cases stemming from home foreclosures, the original note was missing more than 40 percent of the time, and other pieces of required documentation also were routinely left out.
The first big success of the produce-the-note movement came in 2007 when a federal judge in Cleveland threw out 14 foreclosures by Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. because the bank failed to produce the original notes.
Michael Silver, a lawyer for two of the families in that case, said at least one eventually lost their home. Still, he considers that a success.
"From the perspective of the person who's in the home, you may have kept them in the house another 10 or 12 months," he said. "If I can get a result with economic benefits to a client, then I think I won."
Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio endorsed the strategy in a fiery speech on the House floor during debate on the federal bank bailout last month.
"Don't leave your home," she said. "Because you know what? When those companies say they have your mortgage, unless you have a lawyer that can put his or her finger on that mortgage, you don't have that mortgage, and you are going to find they can't find the paper up there on Wall Street."
April Charney, head of foreclosure defense for Jacksonville Area Legal Aid in Florida, said the strategy has been so successful for her that she now travels around the country to train other lawyers in how to use it. She said she has gotten cases delayed for years by demanding that lenders produce paperwork they cannot find.
"This is an army of lawyers getting out there to stop foreclosures so we can get to the serious business of creating solutions," Charney said. "Nothing good is going to happen as long as we continue to bleed homeowners."
On the Net:
Consumer Warning Network: http://www.consumerwarningnetwork.com
American Securitization Forum: http://www.americansecuritization.com
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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