Zillow and Tom Ferry Join Forces for Real Estate Product Development

Zillow, a leading real estate informational website, has announces that they have joined with real estate and motivational speaker Tom Ferry to assist in product development. Ferry will bring expertise through helping clients with lead generation as well as review page management. In the past, Ferry and Zillow have been linked together from Real Estate Bar Camps where Zillow was a sponsor for workshops and conferences.

Tom Ferry has published work in the New York Times, Wall St. Journal and USA Today and has an extensive background as a business and life coach.  To read more about Tom Ferry and his recent partnership with Zillow, read the full press release HERE

Bank of America Cuts off Fannie Mae Due to Repurchase Fear

Bank of America is cutting off the sales of new mortgages, excluding some modifications and refinances, to Fannie Mae staring this month due to the disagreement in their repurchasing stance regarding insurers dropping mortgage insurance coverage.

Fannie Mae buys mortgages sold to them by lenders and then sells them to investors by them means of packaged securities. Fannie Mae requires that borrowers obtain MI, mortgage insurance, if the loan exceeds 80 percent of the value of the home.

Bank of America is concerned that insurance rejections will result in heighten repurchasing costs for them and after the Countrywide acquisition in 2008, they are making an effort to reduce chances of any additional costs accrued through faulty loans.
 
Bank of America will be selling their new loans to Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae as well as potentially keeping some loans in house. This is causing speculation that Fannie Mae may not really worry about losing Bank of America's business as they will just be selling their loans to a different section of the U.S. controlled finance firms.

Fannie & Freddie Advanced $100 Million For Former Executive Lawsuits

According to a released report from the inspector general of the Federal Housing Administration, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have spent $100 million in legal bills defending former executives since 2004. The directors and officers of Fannie and Freddie had these payments coming to them as part of their benefit packages however it could be viewed in bad taste to countless taxpayers who have paid over $130 billion due to the housing crisis.

The main case that was evident in this report was that of three senior executives of Fannie Mae who reportedly falsely inflated the publically traded stock price of Fannie Mae and were advanced $99.4 million from Fannie Mae to cover their court representation.

The FHFA's inspector general, Steve Linick, has said that he wants to try and limit and keep control of the legal expenses allowable so this vast amount does not continue or repeat itself in the future.

 

 

 

Borrowers No Longer Want Adjustable Rate Mortgages?

Freddie Mac's Quarterly Product Transition Report was released this week and the one of the most staggering finds is that more than 95% of refinancing borrowers choose fixed-rate loans versus adjustable rate mortgages. This even took into consideration the loans that were initially set up as ARMs.

Some other interesting facts regarding this topic pulled from the report include:

• The amount of borrowers who choose to shorten their loan term was the highest since 2003
• Of the total borrowers paying off a 30 year fixed-rate loan, 43 percent reduced down to a 15-to 20-year loan
• Hybrid ARMs became much less popular with 58 percent of ARM borrowers switching to a fixed-rate loan

Further interesting statistics including the Freddie Mac House Pricing Index, the Adjustable Rate Mortgage Annual Survey and the Monthly Refinance and ARM shares can be found at
http://www.freddiemac.com/news/finance/

Deutsche Bank Sued Over $512 Million Worth of Mortgage Backed Securities

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Deutsche Bank has recently become the new face of misrepresentation of mortgage securities in the court of law. In New York, Deustche Bank AG's Ace Securities was sued for fraud by Phoenix Light SF Ltd. yesterday regarding their alleged misrepresentation of $512 million worth of mortgage backed securities.

The case revolves around misrepresentation of underwriting guidelines which were used to issue the mortgage loans. Phoenix Light is seeking $300 million in damages for securities bought under alleged pretense notions of quality which they then later sold. Phoenix Light is accusing Ace Securities of being aware of the problems with their securities but continuing to include them in the offerings being sold anyways.

Spokespeople from Deutsche Bank claim the accusations are incorrect and they will be fighting the suit.

Mortgage Lender Settlement Annouced Today

The Justice Department has announce today that Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Ally Financial will pay a $26 billion settlement to American homeowners who have suffered from high interest rates or foreclosure. It is said that about $20 billion of the settlement money will be going to homeowners for mortgage debt reduction and lower rate refinances and about $1.5 billion will be given to previous homeowners who lost their homes to foreclosure between 2008 and 2011.

The banks have three years to distribute the money, therefore creating apprehension by experts of the actual boost this may have on the economy. The breakdown of money to be given by each bank is as followed:

• Bank of America - $11.8 billion plus an additional $1 billion for Federal Housing Administration loans
• Wells Fargo - $543 billion
• JPMorgan Chase - $5.3 billion
• Citigroup - $2.2 billion
• Ally- $310 million

      

New Moble Starter Kit Offered by The Real Estate Book

The Real Estate Book, leading publisher of real estate information in online and print, is noticing the importance of mobile device marketing within the real estate industry. They are now offering a Mobile Stater Kit for all real estate advertisements at no additional cost to the marketers.

The kit allows real estate agents to create their own mobile sites which enables their buyers and sellers to have access to properties, mortgage calculators, links to social media sites and easily accessible search functions.

The Mobile Starter Kit is the latest addition to The Real Estate Book's marketing campaigns for real estate agents which currently includes QR Codes, Text Codes and single property sites.

Facebook IPO To Cause Spike in Residential Real Estate?

Facebook just had a $5 billion initial public offering filing on Wednesday and some think it may effect California real estate. It is being compared to the 2004 public sharing of Google which made many people wealthy and now has stocks trading for $580 a share. Some real estate agents believe that just like with the Google public shares, Facebook's IPO will create wealth and furthermore cause the real estate market to rise. Google's public shares also created jobs which in return caused the company to purchase more land. Speculation is that Facebook's IPO could also create more jobs which could cause a spike in the local residential market.