America's Most Expensive Homes

Candy Spelling, widow of television giant Aaron, has listed the Manor, Los Angeles' largest, and arguably most opulent, house up for sale at US$150-million, out-pricing every other listed home in the country. Just down the street the owner of a sprawling classical style marble mansion is asking for US$125-million, making it the second most-expensive home in America. Yet another home for sale is in the triple-digit millions, a massive but secluded US$100-million Lake Tahoe ranch.

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Banks Could Face Billions In Fines Over Foreclosures

Two of the nation's largest banks may face billions in potential fines or enforcement actions from state and federal regulators over allegations of improper foreclosure paperwork.

Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America say they're being investigated by several government agencies over their foreclosure practices.

Regulators could seek upward of $20 billion in penalties for problems with the foreclosures, which would come from the Treasury Department and Department of Housing and Urban Development, is still in the works, according to several news reports.

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Real Estate 101: What New Home Buyers Need To Know

So you've decided to buy a house, but you're not sure if your finances are quite up to speed. Even if you hope to buy six months from now, there are numerous improvements and adjustments to be made in the interim, prior to taking on a mortgage.

First-time home buying is well documented as an arduous process, and much of that can be attributed to the sheer number of new and unexpected issues. Therefore, the more you know, the better you're likely to fare. Here, briefly, are some aspects buyers should consider when shoring up finances to buy a house.

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Buying A Home Long-Distance

Although the Iribhogbes knew exactly what they wanted in a house, they were unable to shop around the traditional way. In fact, they closed on their house three weeks before they even saw it.

"I will tell you right now, everything was by faith," Alvin Iribhogbe said. "We believed in her."

"Her" was their Realtor -- Maria Vaill of Re/Max. Alvin and his wife, Adeola, had been living in Germany since 2007, where he was stationed for his job as a dental lab technician with the Army.

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Yankees' Alex Rodriguez Takes Advantage of New York Tax Loophole

New York Yankees baseball player Alex Rodriguez paid $6 million for his new five-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot penthouse on Manhattan's coveted Upper West Side. While city assessment records say Rodriguez would normally owe approximately $60,000 each year in property taxes, thanks to a loophole in the city tax code called 421A, the Huffington Post has reported that he will pay only $1,200 this year.

That loophole will let Rodriguez and the rest of his well-to-do neighbors enjoy paying almost no property tax for the next several years since the program grants a 98 percent real estate tax abatement for as much as 25 years to condominium owners in newly built housing. New York City's Independent Budget Office has reported the 421A program will cost New York City more than $900 million this year in lost tax revenues.

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Writing a Hardship Letter: Questions that Sellers Should Consider

I review short sale packages for a living. It’s what I do. One part of the package that is interesting to me is the hardship letter.

In order to participate in a short sale, a borrower must have some sort of hardship. The bank actually requests a copy of a hardship letter.

The reason that the hardship letter is interesting to me is because it’s a tell—like in poker. It shows exactly where the seller is at with regard to their mortgage, their home, and even their emotional state. Some hardship letters are longer than my kids’ book reports, and others do not share enough information.

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Real Estate Terms And Jargon Made Simple, Understandable

You may be able by now to decipher what “double, non-fat, hold the whip, caramel macchiato” means, but today’s terminology in real estate has become more technical and confusing. Just as a barista staring you down and waiting for your order can be intimidating in the coffee shop, trying to read some property listing descriptions in today’s world requires a higher level of understanding.


To help sort through the technical jargon, here are some common terms heard in real estate today.

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Buying An "As Is" Home Is Sometimes Not Clear-Cut

Buyers who are looking at listings sometimes see a home listed as “as is.” That term seems pretty obvious, but oftentimes buyers and sellers are not on the same page as to what "as is" means.

"Generally, 'as is' means you are purchasing that property in its present condition with conditions," says Phyllis J. Pezenik, the vice president and managing director of DJK Residential.

So buyers and sellers should come to an agreement on what to expect, according to Pezenik. First, both sides need to know what things are expected to be included, unless otherwise stated.

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There's Life After Bailing On A Mortgage

The typical questions about ethics and blame were not what three Huffington Post writers had in mind last year when they asked readers, "Are you considering walking away? Have you already walked away from an underwater mortgage?"

Nearly one in four American mortgages is worth more than the home it's tied to. That's about 10.8 million mortgages. Borrowers of 58 of those mortgages responded to the reporters. In the ensuing year, 10 homeowners lost touch with The Huffington Post but 48 stayed in contact and reported on their experiences. Today, just eight are still in their homes.

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Britney Spears Splurges on $20 Million Luxury Mansion?

Britney Spears, 29, may be moving into new digs. The currently-hot singer/entertainer has reportedly purchased a luxury tudor-style mansion in the Hidden Hills section of Los Angeles, for a mere $20 million, reports MailOnline. The home is only a few miles from the $1.8 million house where she lives now. Britney had a good year, financially, coming in third on the Forbes magazine women-in-entertainment list, and she may have decided to invest some of her millions  in property.

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The Foreclosure Of Patricia Kluge’s (Once) $100 Million Estate

In 1990 self-made media billionaire, John Kluge, and his third wife, Patricia, called their marriage quits.  The divorce settlement broke records, which perhaps is not all that surprising since Kluge was, with a$5 billion empire, the world’s wealthiest man that year.


Patricia Kluge walked away with alimony payments of $1.6 million per week (the interest accrued on one billion dollars per year at the time).  But she also snagged some prime real estate: a hunting lodge in the Scottish Highlands valued then at $20 million and an opulent 45-room Virginia estate called Albemarle.

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When Real Estate Means More Than A Place To Live

Residential housing, at its most irrational, is focused solely on the social-emotional needs of the buyer or seller. Many people think owning a home proves one or more of the following things:

1. Proves you are grown up.
2. Proves you are successful.
3. Proves you are independent.
4. Proves you are a good “catch” in the dating world.
5. Proves you are a good spouse.
6. Proves you are a good parent.
7. Proves you are not a “loser” in a divorce.

This is all nonsense, but it is socially reinforced nonsense. Owning a house proves none of this, but owning property (whether it is a house or a condo) remains a socially-sanctioned outward marker of responsibility and worthiness. Being unable to buy, or losing a house to divorce or financial setback strikes some people as irresponsibility or unworthiness.

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Banks Push Home Buyers to Put Down More Cash

The down payments demanded by banks to buy homes have ballooned since the housing bust, forcing many people to rethink what they can afford and potentially shrinking the pool of eligible buyers.

Last week, the Obama administration called for gradually raising down payments to a minimum of 10% on conventional loans, meaning those that can be bought or guaranteed by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And mortgage data show that private lenders are already pushing sharply higher the required down payments, mainly to mitigate their risk as home prices continue to fall.

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Oh my, oh MERS!

First the robo-signing controversy. Then the U.S. Bank v. Ibanez ruling. Now the next bombshell ruling in the foreclosure mess has just come down from a New York federal bankruptcy judge.

The case is In Re Agard, and it essentially throws a huge monkey wrench into a hugely important cog of the entire U.S. mortgage market, the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, Inc. known as MERS.

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Facing Foreclosure Without Missing A Payment: One Couple's Housing Nightmare

For the past 30 days, Kendra and Todd Parker have been trying to figure out what to tell their four children, fearing that they, like millions of other Americans facing foreclosure, could be tossed out of their home.

But unlike the vast majority of homeowners in their predicament, Kendra Parker says she can prove she and her husband have not missed a single mortgage payment.

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Which REO Should I Buy?

As we start the new year of 2011, it promises to be more of the same. The economy is still sluggish, unemployment remains high, and foreclosure rates are continuing to climb. The retirement accounts people have been counting on for years are now evaporating under the added strain of bad economic conditions, increased taxes and government intervention and a general malaise of the public towards the future.

Due to these factors many investors are finding it necessary to take a more active role in their investment strategies. They are no longer willing to let some “wall street” yuppie with no business experience handle their retirement accounts or more to the point, their family’s future. To some investors the answer is to take a more active role in controlling their investments by becoming involved with more tangible assets, ones they can see, touch, and feel – like real estate. For these awakened investors, owning rental property can be an extremely effective way to protect their capital and generate cash flow.

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Kelly-Moore Paints Unveils Its Top 10 Home Design Trends for 2011

Today's home, now more than ever, has become an epicenter for personal retreat. It's a place to escape and seek revitalization and renewal -- a safe haven and sanctuary to unwind and be at peace with the outer environment.


Mary Lawlor, manager of color marketing at Kelly-Moore Paints Company, Inc., a leader and innovator of waterborne-coating technology and the first major paint company to offer recycled paints, has identified 2011's Top 10 Home Design Trends to help homeowners reflect this sentiment.

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You’d Better Pay Attention to the Short Sale Settlement Statement

In the past, the average real estate agent didn’t spend too much time scrutinizing the estimated closing statements. Usually, that task would be left to escrow officers, title officers or lawyers. With short sales being the new normal, scrutiny of these statements in the early stages of a short sale transaction is vital.

Why? Well . . . the banks request the settlement statement as part of the short sale package. The short sale lien holders want to see their bottom line. How much money are they going to net? How many cents on the dollar will they be forgiving?

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Fed Official Calls For Major Foreclosure Reforms

A top federal regulator told bankers on Friday that a major investigation into Wall Street's foreclosure system has revealed a "broken" process that takes advantage of homeowners, further intensifying the debate over regulatory remedies to potential foreclosure fraud.

Mortgage companies have been accused of submitting fraudulent paperwork in the foreclosure process, prompting a brief suspension of foreclosures by several major servicers in the fall. This spectacle has undermined public faith in President Barack Obama's signature foreclosure-relief effort, the Home Affordable Modification Program, which relies on servicers to implement all of its critical components. The National Consumer Law Center estimates that half of the foreclosure cases it takes on are driven by improper actions by mortgage servicers, rather than fundamental problems with a borrower's ability to pay off a mortgage.

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They're Rich And Famous And In Foreclosure

How does Nicolas Cage get behind on his mortgage payments? The same way other rich and famous people do.

"They've stretched themselves higher than they probably should have," says John Anderson, owner of Twin Oaks Realty in Minneapolis and a National Association of Realtors expert in foreclosures. Some couldn't keep up when the rates on their adjustable rate mortgages shot up, Anderson says. Price drops at the high end of the market were so steep that a sale wouldn't cover the debt. In other words, high-end homeowners face the same problems that plague the not-so-rich-and-famous.

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