A failed Las Vegas casino project has resulted in hundreds of millions on contractor claims against the title insurer. Fidelity National leads a group of insurers in defending the title, and is countersuing associated corporations. The basis for the suit is that the parent corporation should be held liable for the losses of the subsidiary. [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘Uncategorized’
November 5, 2009
Pros say banks are “pretending” and “wishful thinking”
The real estate industry has been gearing up for a crisis in the commercial property market for some time. Crashing property values and loan balloon payment dates have been on a collision course, with nothing anyone can do about it. I have spoken with several bank officers year who have told me that most lenders [...]
July 20, 2009
Misleading foreclosure information
It has been relatively well-known that many municipalities do not consider the sale prices on foreclosures when calculating property values, for the purpose of taxation. The position of assessors in often that these transactions are “distress sales”, and do not represent the true nature of an arms-length exchange.
Recently, foreclosures have come to represent a much [...]
June 1, 2009
Almost $2000 in court fees to file a foreclosure in Florida
The Florida legislature recently enacted law which raised various court filing fees in the state. Most notable is the fee for filing a foreclosure action in circuit court. The fee is now $1900.00 for a foreclosure of more than $250,000. It also costs an additional $1900.00 to file a cross claim or counter claim on [...]
May 31, 2009
New twist on deed fraud: duplicate name corporation
Over the years I have written several articles about instances of deed fraud. In these cases, a person intending to commit fraud executes a deed transferring a property into their name without the knowledge of the true owner. The most common method used is to find a vacant and un-mortgaged home, and then forge the [...]
May 26, 2009
Longer road to closings
It is common knowledge that real estate purchases and refinances are in much lower volume today compared with just a few years ago. The volume of interested buyers has evaporated, and the number of borrowers qualified with credit and equity are both a fraction of what they once were.
For some individual title abstractors, this has [...]
February 27, 2009
Houses stripped and demolished before foreclosure
Foreclosures now represent nearly half of real estate transactions nationwide. According to the National Association of Realtors, distressed properties already make up 45% of transactions, and climbing. Home prices continued to decline at a record pace last month, with no sign of stabilizing. further price declines could result in even more foreclosures, as homeowners are [...]
February 19, 2009
Buyer wants deposit back on worlds most expensive house
The economic decline is reaching the real estate market at the highest levels. Reported to be the worlds most expensive house, Villa Leopolda is a 22-acre compund in the French Riviera. At a selling price of $750 million, it was put under contract to a Russian billionaire named Mikhail Prokhorov. Shortly after contracting to buy [...]
February 18, 2009
Owners battle banks in foreclosure
In East Hartford CT, homeowner Lisa Murzin-Pelcz has been fighting to keep her house for more than a year. She has used the bankruptcy court, mortgage resolution centers, and debt consolidation companies to try and remain living in her home of 8 years. “When I moved here, I said I was never moving again. I [...]
February 18, 2009
Vacant homes and idle builders
New home construction slowed to a virtual standstill in January as builders recognize the almost non-existent market for new homes, and flood of foreclosures on the market. The Commerce Department reported new home construction dropping 16.8 percent to the slowest pace on records dating back a half-century.
All of the major builders cited tightened lending standards [...]
