A record number of
The deepening residential-housing bust and widening effects of the subprime-lending crisis have Valley home builders and mortgage lenders running for cover. But those who remember the real-estate crash and savings-and-loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s insist that today’s problems pale by comparison. That meltdown indelibly changed the political, economic and power infrastructure of metro Phoenix and
SHANGHAI, China - Chinese banks are just beginning to disclose their exposure to the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, sending some bank shares plummeting in Hong Kong. Bank of China saw its Hong Kong stock price fall by as much as 8.1 percent Friday in reaction to the bank’s report that it holds $9.65 billion in subprime asset-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations. That’s 3.8 percent of its total securities investments. More…
Construction is under way on the final three buildings in the Ryan Cos.’ office and medical park at Desert Ridge. Soon to join the two medical buildings and two office buildings will be two more office structures and a small retail center that primarily will serve the people who work on the campus. Ryan’s development is prominent along
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. economists in a report Thursday said that a “pullback” in mortgage lending will prolong the U.S. housing recession and trigger job losses in the real estate, construction and mortgage industries. Home sales and construction starts will continue to decline through the middle of 2008 and national home prices will fall “modestly,” Michelle Meyer and Ethan Harris said in the report. Their conclusion: “The housing recession looks far from over.” More…
A groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for the Chandler Hilton was the first for a large full-service hotel in the city since Elevation Chandler started construction in 2005. Officials grabbed shovels and turned dirt for a six-story, 197-room Hilton on the southeastern corner of Frye Road and
Phil Marcotte was once one-half of Buckeye’s Community Development Department. Back in 1994, he would handle plans review, zoning, plot approval and building inspections for the entire town. He knew when drywall was installed in one home and the type of bolts used in another. When he arrived on a property, people knew exactly who he was and why he was there. That’s was before the growth. More…
WASHINGTON - Surging mortgage defaults whacked U.S. banks and thrifts in the second quarter. Profits fell 3.4 percent to $36.7 billion, and reserves to cover loan losses soared 75 percent from a year ago, regulators said Wednesday. Results for the nation’s financial institutions from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. showed that higher expenses for non-current loans, along with lower interest from investments, hurt profits in the April-June period. More…
LOS ANGELES - The number of foreclosure filings reported in the
North Peoria is beginning to come into its own as a luxury-home area of the kind associated with the ritzy areas of the northeast Valley, according to developer Phil Denaro Jr., president of Peoria-based Essex Cos. Essex is leading the way, poised to complete 12 high-end homes in the gated community of La Strada del Lago on the southeastern corner of Jomax Road and Lake Pleasant Parkway. More…
JPMorgan Chase plans to cut about 450 jobs at its downtown
PARADISE VALLEY - The Paradise Valley Planning Commission will review a new site plan for the proposed Paradise Valley Ritz-Carlton Resort. The plan will address concerns about size, height and density of some of the project’s residential areas. More…
Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation’s largest mortgage lender, said Monday it has eliminated about 500 jobs as it tries to ride out problems from a credit crunch that has rocked the home loan industry. The company said the cuts came in the subprime lending unit of its Wholesale Lending Division and its Full Spectrum Lending unit, which handles mortgages given to customers with minor credit problems or who can’t provide full income documentation required for traditional prime loans. More…
Home sales and building are down in metropolitan Phoenix, but there are other indicators to track where the housing market is headed. More…
American’s are hooked on credit card rewards and while those that give consumers free airline miles are pretty old hat, lenders are constantly coming up with new ways to lure the plastic addicted to switch accounts.Two of the newest variations involve mortgages and both are rather creative. More…
First a warning, then a widespread investigation, and now a fine.
You get the feeling that Mike Kreidler knows who is providing some of the wonderful food, flowers and giveaways at Realtor open houses, and he would like it stopped.
Kreidler, the
Last year, investigators found widespread and illegal spending among 10
Kreidler’s office fined Ticor for the purchase of holiday gifts, dinners and floral arrangements for real estate agents and lenders in three instances, which exceeded $25 per person and constituted violations of regulations pertaining to rebates and illegal inducements. The agency fined the company $25,000 with $20,000 suspended on the condition of no further violations and the company’s adherence to a compliance plan.
According to the insurance commissioner’s office, Ticor was fined for the following:
The findings were small potatoes compared to some of the referral-abuse announcements over the past several years. For example, three years ago, California-based Southland Title Corp. and its subsidiaries, Southland Title of Orange County and Southland Title of San Diego, were alleged to have spent at least $174,000 on food, beverages and entertainment plus $62,000 on gifts and gift certificates and $218,000 more on “business support services.”
The amazing discovery was that the same company had been fined $1.5 million two years earlier for similar practices. That’s a lot of free lunches — and it gives you an idea of what one company felt it had to do to stay in the client referral game.
Real estate is a tough, competitive and highly lucrative business. Brokers say third-party providers are constantly showering them with goodies while the providers contend that they will quickly be dropped if they don’t provide the gifts.
Great stories are common. A few years ago a title insurance company offered to furnish a real estate broker’s office if all of the agents in that office wrote in the title insurance company’s name in the appropriate spot in the earnest-money agreement. Another company offered a broker the use of billboards in public places for carrying the company’s name atop preprinted earnest-money agreements. A third company offered all-expenses-paid fishing trips.
How do you separate kickbacks from company advertising? For example, let’s say the impressive luncheon buffet, paid for by a title company, is brought to a Sunday open house by a real estate agent. Is that tray a gift to the agent for past and future business or an advertisement to induce potential buyers to use the title company when buying their next home?
The
Across the
“According to estimates, as many as 1.7 million homeowners could lose their house to foreclosure in the next couple years,” Matthew Fehling, BBB President/CEO said. “These people will be in the desperate position of trying to save their home and they’ll look for someone to trust. Unfortunately, con artists are seeing their chance to step in and make a fast buck off of troubled homeowners.”
Better Business Bureaus nationwide have received hundreds of complaints from homeowners who enlisted the help of unscrupulous mortgage foreclosure rescue companies and they all tell a similar story.
How it happens
Typically, homeowners report that they were either contacted directly by a mortgage foreclosure rescue company by phone or mail or came across a web site while searching for help to stop foreclosure on their home. The companies claimed they would renegotiate the terms of their mortgages and stop foreclosure actions, or the homeowners would get their money back. Victims, who were desperate to keep their homes, paid as much as $1,300. In the end, the companies did very little work or often nothing at all. Most victims, not only lost their homes, but they also have not been able to get promised refunds, either.
In the last three years, the BBB of Central/Northern Arizona received 111 complaints for foreclosure services headquartered in its area. Of those complaints, 34 came within the last 12 months.
“BBBs across the nation are hearing the same story from victims over and over again.” added Fehling. “Desperate homeowners are duped into a false sense of security by crooked companies and think their prayers have been answered and their homes will be saved. Unfortunately, many people are losing a lot of money and their houses through untrustworthy foreclosure rescue operations.”
The BBB offers the following advice for homeowners facing mortgage foreclosure:
For more trustworthy advice and tips for troubled homeowners, go to www.arizonabbb.org or call 602-264-1721 and 928-772-3410 in
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About the BBB
The Better Business Bureau of Central/Northern Arizona is a membership-based non profit organization funded by BBB member companies. The BBB is dedicated to promoting and fostering the highest ethical marketplace relationship through voluntary self-regulation, consumer and business education, and arbitration. The BBB receives approximately 2,400 inquires a day through our website www.arizonabbb.org and phone lines 602-264-1721 and 928-772-3410 in
Felicia N. Overton | Director of Marketing & Community Relations
Tel: 602-212-2237
Fax: 602-263-0997
Better Business Bureau of Central, Northern and
New life is being breathed into an old building along a run-down strip of