A select group of struggling mortgage borrowers are about to get an offer that sounds too good to be true. Executives at Bank of America say they will begin mailing 200,000 letters offering certain customers mortgage principal reduction. “If people get these things and toss them, they won’t be eligible,” says Ron Sturzenegger, the Bank of America executive charged with providing solutions to borrowers in need of mortgage...

With the Santa Fe Real Estate Market possibly making a turn for the better this year, now may be the time to start searching for your new Santa Fe home. To help avoid make the same missteps many home buyers made before the bubble burst here are a few tips to help prevent foreclosure. Buy a home you can afford: This may seem obvious, but it’s always a good idea to go over the numbers and make sure that your housing costs are no more...

Buying foreclosure properties is a great way to earn huge profits in real estate – if you know what you’re doing. Many novice investors think that just because a property is a foreclosure that it’s a good deal. Not true. In fact, many people lose a lot of money buying foreclosures. Here’s a few tips via joseph.sesso@homes.com to maximize your profits and minimize risk: 1. Foreclosure Auctions:Foreclosure auctions are the least...

While foreclosure activity fell 8% nationally in February, compared with a year ago, foreclosures appear to be on the rise in some of the country’s most populated metropolitan areas, according to RealtyTrac’s latest report, released Thursday. Foreclosure activity fell 2% on a nationwide basis in February, compared with January, statistics from the online foreclosure marketplace showed. “Although national foreclosure activity was...

Here are 10 things the Internal Revenue Service says you should know about mortgage debt forgiveness: Normally, when a lender forgives a debt — that is, relieves the borrower from having to pay it back — the amount of the debt is taxable income to the borrower. Thus, a homeowner who had $100,000 in mortgage debt forgiven through a short sale would have to pay income tax on that $100,000, as an example. Fortunately, under the...

Author: Carl Medford, a practicing Realtor with Prudential California Realty in the San Francisco Bay Area   Beginning in 2007, foreclosures rocked the real estate world. Like an out-of-control freight train, they began decimating the market, peaking in 2009. Myths and rumors began propagating like mushrooms as consumers struggled to understand the new reality. Although many misconceptions have come and gone, we still encounter five...