Foreclosures

Foreclosures
10/14/09 11:31pm

What You Can Get with Bad Credit: West Main Foreclosure Second Chance

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Home Design, Homes for Sale, Townhomes, Upper Kirby
10 Comments

A reader accustomed to shaking his head when he drives along Greenbriar just north of Richmond informs us that the recently built “big, expensive monstrosity” for sale on that corner is now advertising its bank pedigree:

This long-on-the-market house/thingy now has large for-sale-by-bank sign slapped all over the very nice fence. This has all sort of ridiculous written over it: four car garages, pool, etc.

If a 7,976-sq.-ft. villa with 4-car garage for less than a million in that location sounds cheap, it’s because the building is actually 2 separate “townhomes” — each roughly half that size — with a “common element.” The $959K price tag is for the foreclosed unit at 2201 W. Main.

After a year-long run on MLS, that front unit is now listed as “pending continue to show.” Which in light of the ready-to-loan listing copy maybe isn’t so surprising:

FORECLOSURE!!BANK WILL FINANCE FOR 4.5% WITH 10% DOWN(BAD CREDIT OK)

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Foreclosures
10/08/09 2:59pm

Trolling the Town for Trump Chumps

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Hazards, Quicklink, Real Estate Investing
9 Comments

TROLLING THE TOWN FOR TRUMP CHUMPS “The seminar, one of seven held in the Houston area this week, attracted people hoping to find a gold lining in the economic downturn. Banking on the Trump name to draw crowds, the classes promoted a method of house-flipping some Houston financial advisors call a high-risk sleight of hand, difficult to pull off without a measure of deception. Trump didn’t make an appearance: the class was taught by his ‘No. 1 instructor,’ Stephen Goff, who says he has flipped 200 properties with great success. ‘People ask me, “Steve, if you’re making so much in real estate, why do you travel the country teaching people?”’ said Goff, wearing a charcoal suit and a button-down shirt the color of money. ‘If it was in your heart to help people, and Donald Trump asked you, what would you do? I got on the first plane.’ Goff led the seminar in the call-and-response style customary to revival meetings. . . . [Retired real estate agent Jayne] Pace said Goff reminded her of Houston’s ‘prosperity preacher,’ Joel Osteen, but without the same megawatt smile.” [Houston Chronicle]

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Bolivar Peninsula
09/14/09 4:34pm

Comment of the Day: A Boost for the Bolivar Buyout?

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Comments, Disaster Aftermath, Flooding, Foreclosures, Quicklink
3 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: A BOOST FOR THE BOLIVAR BUYOUT? “A large part of Bolivar is going to be turned into a nature preserve. FEMA is buying out many of the properties. . . . I suppose that buyout was made easier by the rate of foreclosures. . . .” [Raj, commenting on Where the Action Was: Houston Summer Foreclosure Map]

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Foreclosures
09/10/09 1:55pm

Where the Action Was: Houston Summer Foreclosure Map

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Houston Data
11 Comments

Just in from real-estate data firm First American CoreLogic: This handy map of the greater Houston area, showing foreclosure rates by Zip Code. And yes, compared to this time last year, the numbers are still up:

. . . the rate of foreclosures among outstanding mortgage loans is 1.20 percent for the month of July, an increase of 0.30 percentage points compared to July of 2008 when the rate was 0.80 percent. . . . Foreclosure activity in Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown is lower than the national foreclosure rate which was 2.80 for July 2009, representing a 1.60 percentage point difference.

Also in Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, the mortgage delinquency rate has increased. According to First American CoreLogic preview data for July 2009, 4.80 percent of mortgage loans were 90 days or more delinquent compared to 3.30 percent for the same period last year, representing an increase of 1.60 percentage points.

Map: First American CoreLogic

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Apartments
09/09/09 4:24pm

Plenty of Room in the Pool: What’s Available at Greenbriar Park North

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Buying and Selling, Foreclosures, Greenspoint, Renovations
4 Comments

Globe St.’s Amy Wolff Sorter says the buyer of the foreclosed Greenbriar Park North apartments near Greenspoint has “a strong track record” of rehabbing complexes. That should help:

Wade Schmitz with Hendricks & Partners’ Houston office tells GlobeSt.com that CNC Investments was the former owner and like many owners during the mid-2000s, had bought too much with too much debt that couldn’t be refinanced. Schmitz, who marketed the asset for Bank of America adds that the 1980s complex at 818 Richcrest Dr. attracted a great deal of interest. . . .

“There were down units that needed to be brought back online,” Schmitz says. “The property had been neglected, and needed someone to take care of it.”

How neglected? Of 400 units in the complex, only around 60 are occupied.

Don’t want to miss out on all the foreclosed-apartment-complex rehab fun? Be patient, more is coming:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Attractions
08/19/09 5:02pm

Pearland Mansion Mystery — Unrevealed!

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Brazoria County, Foreclosures, Manvel, Pearland, Quicklink, SouthFork
2 Comments

PEARLAND MANSION MYSTERY — UNREVEALED! Having been indoctrinated into the bizarre cult of the 64,000-sq.-ft. unfinished residence-like warehouse she calls the Pearland Mystery Mansion, Katharine Shilcutt appears dedicated to keeping its secret: “What became of the house after Dr. Watkins abandoned it and went on to build the halfling mansion next door isn’t a matter of public record, suffice to say it’s a bizarre story of its own that deserves to be told one day. What will happen to the houses is anyone’s guess. The bank that owns both houses has had a feasibility study performed to determine whether or not they would be appropriate for group homes or assisted living facilities. Having been inside, it seems like the most fitting application for at least the larger of the two, if not both. It’s difficult to imagine why someone in their right mind would build what is — essentially — the world’s largest shotgun shack (or, more to the point, what architect conceived of this monstrosity as a residence). But it’s not at all difficult to picture these two buildings on this serene piece of land housing elderly or assisted care patients one day.” [Hair Balls; the house next door, featured on the Neighborhood Guessing Game]

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Buying and Selling
08/19/09 12:39pm

Flushing Foreclosures Through the System: What’s Lurking in the Line?

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Forecasts, Foreclosures, Home Prices, Houston Data, Price Trends
3 Comments

HAR’s real estate sales report for July is out! And Swamplot’s housing-market reader-analyst uses the data to piece together a better picture of Houston’s still-somewhat-mysterious foreclosure scene:

The press releases in 2009 have included a running commentary on the % of foreclosure sales in the month. This month’s release featured an interesting nugget — foreclosure sales from the prior year’s month! It is new information, and a few future monthly releases of it will allow us to fill in the data gap in the graph [above].

The foreclosure graph can be looked at in two ways. The glass half full crowd can cite the fact that a wave of foreclosures has been passed through the system — like a painful kidney stone — and it hasn’t led to piles and piles of unsold homes on top of each other in a negative feedback loop. Inventory is down to 6.5 months, backing this view.

And what if you aren’t sure there’s enough water in that glass to, uh . . . pass those stones?

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1031 Exchanges
08/11/09 11:54am

Okun Gets 100 Years; How Many for the West Oaks Mall?

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Alief, Buildings for Sale, Commercial Real Estate, Foreclosures, Fraud, Leasing, Malls, Retail
4 Comments

High-stakes real estate swindler Edward H. Okun was sentenced last week in a Virginia courtroom to 100 years in prison for absconding with about $126 million in funds entrusted to his qualified intermediary company by 1031 exchange investors. Meanwhile, back on the corner of Westheimer and Highway 6, one of his former properties went up for sale.

Okun’s Investment Properties of America bought the West Oaks Mall for $110 million in 2005. The sellers of the bankrupt property might expect to get $20 million for the million-sq.-ft. mall today, reports Globe St.‘s Amy Wolff Sorter:

The mall’s anchors include Dillard’s and Macy’s, which own their own space, and Sears, which is on a lease. [Holliday Fenoglio Fowler’s Robert] Williamson says the Sears lease is up in 2010, but negotiations are underway to keep the retailer in place.

When Okun bought the mall from Somera Capital and CoastWood Capital a little less than four years ago, the asset was 95% leased, and sported $10 million worth of exterior and interior improvements. IPA had even larger plans for even more renovations on the 33-acre site, Williamson says.

Less than a year later, the owner was able to secure $86 million of permanent financing for the mall. Yet by late 2007, IPA had filed for bankruptcy protection to stave off foreclosure. Okun’s troubles and a failing economy dropped the mall’s occupancy to a little less than 70%.

How’s the mall looking these days?

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Commercial Real Estate
08/07/09 9:44am

Houston’s Commercial Foreclosure Boom

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Foreclosures, Houston Data, Quicklink
2 Comments

HOUSTON’S COMMERCIAL FORECLOSURE BOOM The far greater numbers of residential foreclosures — currently spiking now that moratoriums have been lifted — may be sucking up the attention. But there’s plenty of excitement in Houston commercial foreclosures too, the Foreclosure Information & Listing Service reports: “The number of commercial properties posted for foreclosure in Harris County in the past three months is up 84 percent over the same time last year. Records show 335 commercial properties were posted for foreclosure in Harris County in May, June and July compared to 182 during the same months in 2008. Just over 20 percent of the commercial properties posted for foreclosure from May through July 2009 actually passed through the foreclosure process by going back to the lender or getting purchased at public foreclosure auction by a third-party buyer. During the same time period last year, only 15 percent of the properties were foreclosed. Ralph Murdock, president of Foreclosure Information, says most postings don’t result in foreclosures, but a significant increase in the number of postings shows that more property owners are having problems.” [Houston Business Journal]

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Buying and Selling
07/22/09 10:38am

Houston Real Estate in June: Top of the Summer to You!

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Forecasts, Foreclosures, Home Prices, Houston Data, Price Trends
11 Comments

“The increase in local unemployment reported this week is sickening,” reports Swamplot’s local financial correspondent. But don’t the latest HAR numbers show Houston home prices at some sort of record high?

Historically, the peak for home prices comes in July or August every year. The increase in the median and average over the past several months has been due to two factors. First, seasonality –summer prices are always the highest. Second, a change in the “product mix” of Houston homes –the % of foreclosed homes has fallen every month for several months straight . . . So the change in the product mix means that the value of any given house probably has not risen, only a change in the product moving through the system is reflected in the numbers.

Is it okay to get excited about the foreclosures, then?

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Foreclosures
06/16/09 6:36pm

Now Haunting Theaters: Late-Payment Horror

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Hazards, Movies
2 Comments

On second thought, foreclosure is hell. That freaky-eyed lady asking for another extension on her mortgage payment? C’mon, go ahead and give it to her. You won’t feel bad about it. Plus those little in-house exorcisms have a weird way of chewing through the value of the underlying collateral.

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Condos for Sale
06/11/09 10:32am

Pine Village North Open House Welcome

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Crime, Foreclosures, Pine Village North, Public Health
37 Comments

What happens when an investor who owns 200 out of 500 units in a north Houston condo complex defaults on his loan, leaving many of his properties vacant? Reporter Allison Triarsi visits Pine Village North, just south of Hamill Rd., west east of the Eastex Fwy.:

“It’s just an open house for gang members to come. Anybody can come,” said homeowner Ann Loyd.

Walk inside any one of the open units and you could find anything from gang graffiti and dead roaches, to the bones of animals.

“I don’t know if what I’m standing in [is] some kind of mice droppings or rat droppings,” said Loyd, while escorting 11 News through a vacant unit.

In addition to debris, there were pink pills on a counter, and clothing and blankets on the floor where people have either left them behind or kept them there in case they needed a free place to sleep.

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Foreclosures
05/18/09 4:08pm

Foreclosure Homebuying Excitement!

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Homebuying, Quicklink
3 Comments

FORECLOSURE HOMEBUYING EXCITEMENT! The tally from all those rounds of speed-buying at the George R. Brown REDC foreclosure auction yesterday: 106 properties, totaling $7.7 million dollars — plus a few giddy new homeowners: “It happened so quickly that Shamika Hayes wasn’t quite sure how it happened. ‘I wasn’t paying attention and kept raising my hand,’ Hayes told us. But in an auction where houses were selling in 90 seconds or less, the family of four bought their very first home sight unseen. Understandably they were a little nervous about that last fact.” [abc13]

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Condos
04/09/09 1:40pm

League City Condo Trap: Bad Conversion at the Fairways

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Foreclosures, Fraud, Hazards, League City, Real Estate Investing
No Comments

Just how did a group of Israeli investors get stuck with 114 condo units in this quaint converted apartment complex in League City? And why are they now suing the project’s developer and property manager?

The Galveston County Daily News‘s Laura Elder explains:

The investors never intended to live in the units but instead were seeking to generate income by renting them to others, according to the lawsuit. Through agreements, the units owned by the investors were put in a rental pool managed by the defendants, according to the lawsuit.

But while Westcorp Management Group, of which Roni Amid is vice chairman, had been collecting rent from tenants, it failed to pay proceeds to the mortgage company or the investors for some units, according to the lawsuit.

Without rental income, some of the investors are unable to pay their mortgages, leading lenders to begin foreclosure proceedings on at least 30 units in the complex, said Danny Sheena, a Houston attorney representing investors.

The suit also claims the defendants used the investors’ units at the Fairways at South Shore as collateral for a $23 million loan from Deutsche Bank obtained behind their backs last August. Which means, the suit claims, the investors can’t sell their units.

And that Israeli connection? Looks like it’s all in the family:

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Foreclosures
04/06/09 1:17pm

Crumbling from the Outside In: The Poop on 2008 Houston Home Sales

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Houston Data, Online Resources, Price Trends
5 Comments

The Houston Chronicle‘s annual neighborhood-sales-data extravaganza came out this weekend. Since it covers the 2008 calendar year, the survey is timed just right to document the continuing drop in sales and prices of far-flung lower-priced homes — but maybe a bit early to catch the extended Wile E. Coyote-style midair hang a fair number of closer-in half-a-million-plus homes on the market are currently experiencing.

A few highlights:

Sales activity dropped in all counties for non-foreclosure transactions. All counties showed a rise in sales of foreclosed homes.

And those foreclosures are also clearly missing the bullseye: In 2008 there were only 362 foreclosures inside the Loop and 2,556 between the Loop and Beltway 8 — but a whopping 9,342 outside the Beltway. In total, foreclosures were only up about 11 percent over the previous year. But the number of non-foreclosure sales dropped by almost 22 percent. So in 2008 foreclosures accounted for just under 22 percent of all sales.

Where did the prices fall last year?

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