The former owner of a California foreclosure rescue firm admitted in court last week to stealing struggling borrowers’ homes during the housing crisis. Sergio Barrientos pleaded guilty last week to conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution and bank fraud. According to court documents, from about September 2004 through February 2008, Barrientos and …

Former owner of foreclosure rescue business admits to stealing borrowers’ homes, equity Read More »

The new federal tax law have given note & real estate investors a gift they might not be aware of yet. Owners of notes and investment property — from mom and pop landlords to big-time real estate moguls — could get a federal tax deduction of up to 20 percent of their net rental income …

New tax law gives many note & real estate investors a federal tax deduction of up to 20 percent of net rental INCOME Read More »

A South Carolina woman returned home from vacation to find another family had moved into her recently purchased house. Upon arriving to the home, Katherine Lang noticed a dog and a cat wandering the property, as well as a pair of women talking inside, the Beaufort Gazette reported. “I said, ‘What are you doing in …

Woman returns to find strangers living in her house Read More »

Owning a million-dollar home isn’t the rarity it used to be.  The share of homes valued at more than $1 million has surged more than fourfold since 2002, according to new data from real estate site Trulia, which analyzed the luxury real estate market in the top 100 U.S. metropolitan areas. Across those regions, about …

A plague of million-dollar homes haunts real estate Read More »

On June 8, 2017, House Republicans voted to repeal major portions of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) and simultaneously passed H.R. 10 the Financial CHOICE Act by a 233-186 vote. Despite the outcome of this vote, a simple Republican majority in the House does not guarantee legislative passage; that requires …

How to Dismantle Dodd-Frank Read More »

As 2018 sets into motion, several metros across the U.S. are emerging as possible contenders for the year’s top housing markets. To determine its predictions for the best real estate markets of 2018, realtor.com’seconomic data team looked at the number of sales of existing homes and their prices, along with the amount of new home …

These will be the top 10 housing markets of 2018 Read More »

What Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do with the money they make has long been a debate in the housing finance world. Some argued that the government-sponsored enterprises should be allowed to retain all their profits, while others argued that the GSEs’ profits should continue to flow to the Department of the Treasury, as they …

Fannie and Freddie make more money per employee than almost any other company Read More »

The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act has caused its fair share of grief among mortgage lenders who stress over the new risks it will bring to compliance in 2018. But there is some relief on the horizon as HMDA enforcement was just defanged by the now Trump-led regulators. both the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency …

HMDA enforcement defanged by Trump-led regulators Read More »

“Under the guise of practicing conservation, land trusts—operating with little, if any, oversight—are becoming states within a state,” said Bonner Cohen, a senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research, adding: Lording over millions of acres throughout the U.S., they have learned that they can harass property owners and force them into prohibitively …

How Conservation Land Trusts Are The Modern Robber Barons Read More »

The International Business Times is offering an explanation as to why GOP Sen. Bob Corker switched his vote for tax reform to a “yes.” The reason is the addition of the so-called “Corker Kickback” to the tax reform, a provision that offers a 20% deduction for so-called “pass-through” entities, such as LLCs, LPs, and S-Corporations, according …

Tax reform creates a new tax break for large landlords and real estate moguls Read More »