The real estate blog.

Another real estate scam hit the news today. This time mortgage fraud wasn’t involved, but real estate was still the center of the scam.

Promising yearly returns of 18%, Kenneth K.C. Tebbs involved dozens of people for millions of dollars in a scheme he claimed was tied to legitimate real estate investments. The “investment” was backed by title to real estate, but when investors checked up, they found nothing.

KSL reported -

They thought their money would be used to purchase residential lots in booming communities in Salt Lake and Utah counties, and company notes indicate their money was secured by deeds of trust.

We asked Gomez if he has his name on a lot.

“No,” he answered. “It was never secured.” He doesn’t know where the
(more…)

After months of financial reports that should scare anybody without a sizable nest egg into holding on to their money this holiday season, Black Friday entered like a lion.

Crowds were lined up in front of every major chain in America at earlier hours than every before. Many malls opened at 12:01 a.m. Black Friday morning.

Unlike last year when sales disappointed, American consumers were ready to buy.

The nation’s retailers had a robust start to the holiday shopping season, according to results announced Saturday by a national research group that tracks sales at retail outlets across the country.

According to ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which tracks sales at more than 50,000 retail outlets, total sales rose 8.3 percent to about $10.3 billion on Friday,
(more…)

By now you’ve probably noticed you can’t escape discussion of a slowing or even crashing housing market in the United States. Rising foreclosures and tighter lending standards for mortgages are some of the reasons for this.

Housing bears and bubble bloggers argue there is no way out except for a lot of pain and severe house price drops. I submit the solution isn’t so one sided and the third quarter numbers released yesterday attest to that.

The National Association of Realtors report showed -

The median single-family house price in the United States fell to $220,800, which was down 2 percent from a year ago. Condo prices showed some resiliency: At $226,900, they rose 2 percent compared with 12 months ago.

Yes, housing prices for single family homes went down on a national level
(more…)

No matter what your moral or religious beliefs, I think everyone has a price for which they will commit a crime. For some people that price is intangible. It may be their life, or the life of their friends or relatives. For others, it may very well be a sum of money.

Over the years, I’ve seen people lose their careers, sometimes their freedom for various small sums of money. Sometimes it was a case of direct theft. Sometimes it was a matter of bending the rules. In one instance, it was a case of murder.

The loan brokers at Champion Mortgage did it for the money. Based on the fines the Division of Real Estate levied on them, I can’t see the few extra thousands of dollars they made being worth it at all.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported this morning -
(more…)

It has been said about investors that those swimming naked are only revealed when the tide goes out. In essence, it’s hard to get caught with your pants down when you’re up to your neck in water.

During the mortgage boom, lenders were so focused on expanding business, they didn’t care too much about protecting the quality of their loans. Now that things have slowed down, they are paying much closer attention to specific deals.

The latest group to get caught up are the loan officers and mortgage brokers of Champion Mortgage. In an investigation by the Utah Department of Real Estate, these brokers were found to have falsified loan documents, forged signatures and even “modified” tax records to close more deals. According to KSL.com -

Derek Miller, director of
(more…)

Despite the downturn in real estate, projections for Utah’s economy are still quite positive. A report released this morning shows Utah’s economic future is till quite bright.

In September, Utah led the nation in job creation -

Pointing to September’s job growth figures, Matthews said Utah was the top state with a 4.4 percent increase.

“We were way above everyone in the country,” he said, noting that Wyoming and Montana came in second and third with 3.3 percent increases while Arizona was fourth with a 2.6 percent jump in the number of new jobs created.

Higher fuel prices and the real estate slow down are expected to have little effect on Utah’s economy during the projected period.

Even the prospect that the price of gasoline might remain
(more…)

25 real estate markets poised to fall read the headline on CNNMoney this morning. I was curious to see if Salt Lake was on the list. Sure enough, it was. When I examined the “criteria” displayed for making the list, I was a little disappointed…again…with the reporting. The photo article showed three data points: the 15 year average price/rent ratio, the current ratio and a five year projected forecast. For Salt Lake, the forecast is -22.5%. (Is that a 22.5% decline per year or 22.5% at the end of five years which is 4.5% per year?)

Initially I was pretty peeved, until I saw this companion piece which explained things a little better. Still the negative skew on the whole has me irked. The “decline” could be avoided by an increase in rents, increased demand for housing or any other combination of unpredictable events. The pretentiousness of presenting projections as facts is misleading and tiring.
(more…)

Richard Culbertson, a mayoral candidate for Eagle Mountain, lost his bid for office in yesterday’s election by a landslide. Culbertson, recently investigated for mortgage fraud had his real estate license revoked for among other things forging the signature of his own son-in-law on real estate documents.

The fraud investigation was revealed just weeks before the election. Further, an inflammatory ad ran last week that poked at Culbertson’s marital history. Culbertson’s opponents discovered through a digital “fingerprint” the ad actually came from Culbertson’s camp. The Salt Lake Tribune got the Culbertson volunteer responsible to confess after previous denials -

An anonymous advertisement published in a community newspaper, the Crossroads Journal, encouraged residents
(more…)

South Park - Turd Sandwich vs. Giant Douche

I saw an interesting article in the Salt Lake Tribune yesterday about the rise of lease options being used in the Valley. A lease option is a type of seller financing I think will become very popular for first time home buyers and people with bad credit who want to buy homes.

The Tribune writes -

Home sales are down in many areas locally, in great part because some buyers are having difficulty qualifying for loans under tighter lending criteria put in place after the nation’s subprime lending meltdown.

Enter the lease-option or lease-to-own agreement. Through such arrangements, a buyer with credit blemishes can sign an agreement to lease a home for a specified period of time (typically two or three years), and then gain the right to purchase the property outright. In some cases, part of the rent payment goes toward a down payment on the property.
(more…)