Mortgage delinquency of at least 30 days and including foreclosures was unchanged between the first and second quarters of this year. Completed foreclosures — including short sales and deeds-in-lieu — climbed 5 percent. Real-estate-owned filings have risen each period since the fourth-quarter 2008.

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History of Reits :
The concept of Reits originated in the USA. These products grew in popularity over a period of time, as the returns generated by these funds were much better than that from other forms of investments such as bonds, government savings schemes and the like. Now, such products will be soon available in India with SEBI having taken the first few steps to allow mutual funds to set up such funds.

Functioning of a Reit :
A typical real estate investment trust will be structured like a mutual fund. It will pool resources from investors and will invest in different forms of real estate such as commercial complexes, the housing sector, land bank and so on. It is also possible that such funds will have rental income from real estate owned by it. They will not be allowed to invest in equity and debt securities of real-estate companies; they must invest only in real estate directly. The income generated from these investments will be distributed amongst various investors who buy units of these funds or trusts. These are essentially income-earning rather than capital-growing instruments. These funds also have to declare their net asset values on a daily basis and the units are close ended and traded on the stock exchange.

Advantages of investing in Reits :
The benefit of real estate investments is long term appreciation, which can negate the ill effects of inflation on your income. In fact, research has proved that after stocks, real estate generates the highest real long term and sustainable returns. It is even better than gold and of course, way above the returns generated by debt instruments and similar investment tools. Stability of returns is also assured as the property market is relatively less volatile than the stock market. So, even those who do not have the nerve to see their investment gyrate up and down on a daily basis can invest in these funds.

Reits are a long term investment bet :
Real estate investments require patience and a longer time horizon to give you decent returns. This is because it takes time to buy a property, develop it, make it ready for generating income by way of rentals or resale, manage it, etc. Hence, it may take a longer time period for your fund to start generating income for you. However, the wait is worth all the efforts as you would be sitting on a good portfolio at the end of the day. So, if you are still thinking of what to do with that extra income which you want to invest, consider real estate investment for your benefit. It is bound to increase in the long run.

Fha purchase financing is financing insured by the Federal Housing Administration which is a government owned organization that works to extend mortgages to people who do not meet traditional lending criteria. The Fha was established under the National Housing Act, with their goal being to extend financing to people with repayment abilities who otherwise lack the ability to get a traditional loan. The FHA does not provide the finances necessary to fund a loan, however, they insure the loans of those buyers who use their programs allowing lenders who would not otherwise be able to extend them financing to give buyers a loan.

Because the Fha insures loans against default, they have opened up the prospect of homeownership for people who had previously been unable to get a loan. First time homebuyers, minority borrowers, buyers with a poor credit history or a lack of credit, and prospective homebuyers who do not have a lot of money for a down payment or closing costs can purchase a home because of Fha purchase financing.

Fha mortgages have many benefits. The major benefits to Fha mortgages are that they require a low down payment, usually 3% of the home’s purchase price which is much lower than the conventional 10 to 20%, closing costs can be included in the loan, credit requirements are much lower than with traditional loans, and other requirements such as cash reserves may not have to be met like with traditional lenders.

If you are trying to purchase a home and have had trouble attaining financing you should speak with a Fha approved mortgage broker. They will be able to tell you the details of Fha purchase financing and what qualifications you will have to meet in order to get financing. Fha approved mortgage brokers can help you navigate the process of home buying and find a loan that is compatible for your unique situation.

Yanni Raz is a mentor for many in the Real Estate Mortgage industry, Yanni Raz is been tutoring many homeowners in California and help some also to save their homes.
current mortgage interest rates

Real estate can cost investors a lot of money up front, but it can promise a higher return in the future. One basic characteristic a real estate investment has is that the payment can be amortized for a longer period of time on an installment basis. In this case, the investor will only prepare for a down payment and the remaining amount will be paid on a monthly basis. Aside from that advantage, this kind of investment has the capacity to increase its appraised value up to 10% every year depending on the location and the development of a given investment.

Real estate investment can contribute a lot to the income of an investor. But with this income, there is a corresponding cost to it. As it is said that they higher the return, the higher the cost involved. This kind of real estate investment needs proper maintenance and development in order for it to increase its value over a short period of time. The development cost for this kind of investment can require a higher cash outlay to the owner of a certain property but the fruits of his labor will be abundant.

The investor can earn a large income in the near future as long as he invests proper management into his investment. Aside from the income that the investment can provide, it can also provide the owner security for his investment. Because of its tangible but immovable characteristics, this kind of investment is secure in the hands of the owner. These are the basic things that can make the real estate as a good investment opportunity.

Clive Green is a writer with expertise in the fields of self-improvement, real estate and finance. Look here for info on real estate

Once the homeowner is 90 days behind on their mortgage, the lender will invariably send the homeowner what is called a “pre-foreclosure letter.” This letter explains to the homeowner that they are in default (violation) of the terms of their mortgage agreement and if payment of the past due amount, including late fees and interest, is not paid immediately the lender will file a foreclosure lawsuit seeking to ‘re-possess’ the house.

Once the lawsuit is filed, the homeowner is also responsible to pay the lender’s attorney’s fees and the other costs of the lawsuit. As just one example, in South Florida, where the foreclosure rates are among the highest in the country, a foreclosure attorney’s fee of $1,200.00-$1,500.00, with additional court costs of about $500.00, is considered reasonable by the courts. Supposing the homeowner had a monthly mortgage payment of $1,500 and was six months behind in payments, the homeowner has to pay $9,000 (called arrearage) in past due monthly payments and additional $2,000.00 in fees and costs to stop the foreclosure lawsuit once it is filed.

Fortunately, there are several manageable remedies for homeowners in foreclosure. These remedies are known in the industry as ‘work-outs.’ The lenders would rather have the stream of monthly mortgage payments flowing in than thousands of re-possessed properties. As a result, many lenders allow the homeowner to pay one or two months worth of the arrearage, along with the attorney’s fees and costs, to stop the foreclosure. The rest of the arrearage is added to the loan and due at the back end of the mortgage. This is called a forbearance plan. Sometimes the lender will agree to a forbearance plan where the homeowner pays only the fees and costs up front and the entire arrearage is added to the back end of the loan.

Another type of work-out is the stipulation to modification plan, or ‘stip to mod.’ In this case, the homeowner agrees to make a certain amount of negotiated payments, generally about 1-2 monthly payments for a fixed period, generally 3-5 months. If the homeowner lives up to the deal, the loan is then modified in writing by the lender, to include a lower, fixed rate of interest, which substantially reduces the amount of the mortgage payments going forward .

“The lenders and banks simply can’t afford to sit on a huge inventory of foreclosed homes, so they have started to bend over backwards to give homeowners workouts,” advises Richard Rolland, who runs Home Safe Arbitration near Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Home Safe Arbitration is one of hundreds of companies throughout the nation that specializes in negotiating work-out plans between homeowners and their lenders.

“A company like mine will almost always work out better terms with the lender than the homeowner will for themselves,” Rolland notes. “We talk the language all day long, know what info the lenders focus on and have relationships with the lender’s work-out departments due to the sheer volume.”

Rolland further advises that homeowners also hire an attorney to represent their legal interest in the lawsuit and to ensure that companies like his have enough time to negotiate the work-out. “In Florida, a good attorney can prevent the house from being re-possessed for at least five to six months,” says Rolland, “That is usually enough time for us to finalize a fair work-out plan for the homeowner.”

Holistic Health Magazine provides current and relevant information to help you elevate in Mind, Body and Spirit. Please visit our free informational website at http://www.holistichealthmagazine.com to learn more about this article, to read some of our past articles and learn how to subscribe.

Ponzi schemes such as the one Madoff perpetrated are named after a 1920′s fraudster named Charles Ponzi. It is a “rob Peter to pay Paul” scheme whereby unsuspecting investors are sucked in by a fraudster making promises of unbelievable interest rate returns. Meanwhile he is just using that new money to payoff earlier investors. Once no new recruits can be found, the house of cards collapses, much like Madoff’s did when he could not meet $7 Billion of payouts to his investors.
In reading about this fraud, several very important lessons stand out:

1. Even rich people get duped. Lot’s of very wealthy people and institutions are going to take a bath on this one, so don’t be naïve to think that just because you have money you are smart enough to not be a victim;
2. If it’s too good to be true… Yeah, I know it’s cliché, but if this doesn’t prove it I don’t know what does;
3. Understand what you’re investing in. I’ve read dozens of books, free reports and emails on stocks, puts, calls, options, credit default swaps, CDO’s, etc.. Why does it always seem like these are just games of musical chairs in which the average American always get caught without a seat?
4. Don’t go in “naked.” This is a term used in the equities market for people that invest in stocks without putting stop orders in place to protect against losses. If you’re going to invest in something, make sure you’re principal is secure and you can control your losses.
5. The SEC can’t protect you. Will someone please explain how there could be no oversight of $17 Billion of asset holdings at a stock trading office? Will anyone get fired over this or will this be excused because of “poorly drafted regulations” and “understaffing?”

Bottom line to this outrage? If you don’t take control of or understand your investments, you risk losing your shirt to a guy like Madoff. Given the current state of affairs on Wall Street, it may be time to consider a different type of secure, high yielding investment – hard money / private mortgage loans.

A hard money loan is simply a private loan given to a property owner at a pre-determined interest rate (12%%2B). The lender’s money is protected not just by a promissory note, but also by a “mortgage” on the property, usually at a very conservative “loan-to-value.”
There are many benefits to hard money lending over equity investing:

* Safety – Your money is secured by a mortgage lien that is never more than 65% of the “quick-sale” value of the property. This leaves a lot of equity in the property as a safety cushion in the event of default by the borrower (remember, don’t go in naked);
* Completely Hands-Off – No need to check your portfolio or trade stocks every day. Once you write a mortgage loan, you simply sit back collect a check every month at a pre-determined interest rate;
* Easy to Understand – You don’t need a PhD from the Wharton School of Business to understand this investment model. Example: property owner has building worth 200K and needs a loan. You write a loan for 100K to the owner. You are protected by 100K of equity. It’s that simple;
* Predictable – You won’t have to gulp down antacids every day watching your stocks fluctuate wildly up and down like a carnival ride. Your returns are determined in advance at the time the loan is written;
* Proven – This type of investing has been around longer than Wall Street, longer than the United States – even longer than paper currency!

So what is the trick to being a successful hard money lender? i) Getting access to good private mortgage deals; ii) properly underwriting them; and iii) having a professional team of legal and mortgage experts to help you close them legally and profitably.

If you don’t want your money to fall into a $50 Billion black hole, consider hard money / private mortgage loans to supplement or replace your current portfolio. If you need help identifying and closing on these types of deals, or would like to inquire further about these types of investments, feel free to contact me. Our hard money company specializes in private mortgage note investing and provides a full spectrum of services related to private/hard money transactions including loan placement; underwriting, title and closing, and loan document production and servicing.

Jeffrey Shiller is a Maryland based attorney specializing in real estate. He is a principal of Jeffrey P. Shiller, P.A. and Hard Money Bankers, LLC. His real estate services include contracts, settlements, loan document production, pre-foreclosure consultation, and structuring creative real estate transactions and hard money deals.

Mr. Shiller can be reached at: Jeff@VIPrealestatelaw.com

On the web at: http://www.viprealestatelaw.com or http://www.hardmoneybankers.com

Basically, the government tax foreclosure houses are those real estates that have been repossessed by the government agencies and the government banks. The government agencies or banks owing to the fact that the borrower of the loan or the mortgage amount had defaulted in repaying the capital sum that he availed from them seize these real estate properties. So, the agencies or the banks seize the debtor’s property to recover their fiscal losses that they have incurred. Although, before the government tax foreclosure, the debtor is duly informed and granted a certain time period to repay at least the minimum amount of money to keep his/ her property safe from repossession. When he’ she still fails to make any payment, government banks and agencies, to reimburse their losses, sell these properties off to the potential investors and prospective buyers.

The government agencies and banks put up an auction to sell these tax foreclosure houses. All the interested buyers and investors are sent a word regarding the auction and are invited to bid. The investor or the buyer, who makes the highest bid, earns the custody or the possession of the house. After all the legal formalities, he/ she become the owner of the concerned government tax foreclosures.

The reason why these are available at such incredibly low prices is that the agencies/banks have a lot of other jobs to cater to, so they try to sell these foreclosure homes as soon as possible. They are fundamentally bothered about recuperating from their capital sum and thereby choose to ignore the profits that they can easily make from the selling of these foreclosures. More so, they are not interested in making any repairs that the concerned government foreclosures may require. So, it is majorly because of this reason that these houses come at so cheap and affordable rates.

If you are also thinking to invest in real estate but are not really experienced in the area, then investing in foreclosures for sale can be a very good start for you. You can avail all the homes associated information from any good and experienced realtor. In fact, you can also get all this information online very easily. Availing this information online will greatly reduce your legwork and will be a very convenient option for you too. You can see the entire listings of all the foreclosure houses and after you have browsed through all the available options, you can make a wise and great choice.

Search foreclosures by state or get more information on government tax foreclosures at ForeclosureListings.

Kevin Simpson, GM Sales & Marketing, ForeclosureListings.com

There has been a tremendous amount of recent focus on the housing crunch and the impact it has had on our economy as a whole. As a dedicated investor in multi-family real estate, I can tell you that the housing crunch has created a mass migration of consumers. Where are they migrating from? The homes that they purchased a few years ago, can no longer afford, and have since had to sell or unfortunately lose via foreclosure.

When consumers sell or otherwise have to leave a home, they have a number of options for where to go next. The one common element is that they generally all need to go somewhere because, after all, people still need shelter, the proverbial ‘roof over their heads’. This is where multi-family real estate gains tremendous value.

The options available to consumers who need a place to live include:

· A new single family home/condo that they purchase
· A new single family home that they rent
· A multi-family apartment unit that they rent

Given the current housing crunch and that many displaced home owners are now credit challenged, you should be able to see that being an owner of multi-family real estate makes you a source of housing, at a time when many people desperately need it.

I don’t want to overly make light of the current problems many consumers are having with real estate, as I know the current housing market has dramatically impacted many Americans. What I do want to emphasize is that multi-family apartment owners are now able to provide a valuable service to consumers who need a place to live, in addition to being able to pursue a solid and proven medium for investment.

The bottom line here is that, the sooner you see the present economy as a source of opportunity instead of a cause for panic, the better your portfolio will become and the sooner it will happen. Multi-family real estate represents one of the most logical and lucrative investments to consider and, especially in the current economy, it couldn’t be a better time to get started.

David Lindahl, also known as the “Apartment King” has been successfully investing in single family homes and apartments for the last 14 years and currently owns over 7,000 units around the US. David regularly shares his secrets and experience on the same stage as Tony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki, and Donald Trump! For two FREE copies of his highly recognized newsletter Real Estate Insights, please go to http://www.davesoffer.com/ezine

The people you’re looking for are private individuals who have money to invest in real estate. Many of these people may currently keep their money in CDs, mutual funds, IRAs, etc.

Why do they put money into these types of accounts? They want a good return on their investment. If you can offer them a higher return than they’re currently getting on their CDs, money market accounts, etc., do you think they’d be interested in talking to you? Absolutely!

However, here’s one of the challenges. These people are not knocking on your door. You’ve got to go find them. Just like the creative real estate business is a numbers game, so is the ability to find private investors.

Are they hard to find? No. It’s simply a numbers game and it takes a little detective work to ferret out these investors–but you’d be surprised what can happen in a year.

In order to be successful, though, you’re going to have to put CONSISTENT effort into finding this type of person. If you’re not putting in the effort of finding funding partners, you’re probably in the wrong line of work. However, if you’ve got the attitude of I know I can, I know I can, I know I can, and will take massive amounts of action to find these private investors, you will do very well in this business and you will find your investors. And as long you continue to find properties that are profitable to the private investor the money will stick around. You’ll even start to get calls from these investors wanting to invest in you and your business if you are successful.

Private investors are relatively easy to find. You can find them by talking to people and telling them what the type of investor you’re looking for. Believe me, if you offer the type of returns that the creative real estate business can offer, the word will spread like wildfire that there is a person out there who can give above average returns on investments in a very short amount of time.

One of the easiest ways to get in front of private investors is to meet with all the private professionals that you know. Do you have a doctor, a CPA, a lawyer? All of these people are great to start with. You’d be amazed at the amount of money that your CPA deals with on a daily basis for his clients.

You may say to yourself, “I don’t have the experience or track record to find private investors. Why would these people give me any money?” However, if you can offer them X amount of return on investment, secured by at least 70% to 80% loan-to-value on real estate, you’re going to find these people. Money follows opportunity. And in this case, you are the opportunity.

Show your potential private investor that you’ve done your homework. Provide them with the details they need to see. Provide them with the projected profit, and give them the peace of mind that you know what you’re doing. Believe me, if you continue to produce returns that excite them they may offer you more and more money and they will have friends that will do the same. It just takes time.

Just remember that most private investors who lend you money are interested in a return on their investment. If you happen to make more money than you thought you were going to make on a deal, throw the private investor a little extra. Put a little more on the top. Whatever it takes to start using a private investor, use one.

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Paul Wells has been investing in foreclosures full-time for more than 5 years. To ask Paul a question, go to his Foreclosure Investing blog here: http://www.AskPaulWells.com

Well, it opens up an amazing opportunity for those that are willing to roll up their sleeves and get to work raising private money.

Private money, unlike institutional money, is money lent by individuals that are looking to get a better and/or more stable return on their money instead of depositing it with a bank or investing it in the stock market. Usually a bank will accept deposits at a low interest rate and then turn around and lend that money out at a higher rate of return and make their profit from the difference. With private money, the private lender bypasses the bank as a middle man and becomes the direct lender.

With the stock market tanking and investors looking for a secure place to park their money where they’re not likely to lose half its value in a year, well collateralized loans against real estate have become even more attractive. For investors who buy at nice discounts and generate profits from buying and reselling or buying and holding, these private loans present a great opportunity. They facilitate investing in this buyer’s market that has forced many other investors to the sidelines because they are unwilling to do the work required to raise private money.

So, in the future, I predict that the investors who become experts at raising private money will see huge rewards and will help their private lenders too in this shaky economic time.

James Orr is a professional real estate investor, marketing expert and founder of the Learn To Be Rich™ on-line investment game.

To find out how James raises private money for his own business, please see James’ Private Money Program on the Real Estate Investor Cookbook.

He also works with a network of real estate agents, brokers and real estate investors across the United States through the AnalyzedDeals.com website.