Bankruptcy filings show deep debt of coastal investors [Alabama]

Bankruptcy filings show deep debt of coastal investors [Alabama]

Three of Bon Secour Village’s five developers have filed for bankruptcy, putting the already imperiled Gulf Shores development at further risk and illustrating how south Baldwin County’s burst real estate bubble has hit even the most moneyed investors.

Cullman brothers Eddie and Josh Canaday — along with their business partner Michael Knight and a pair of their companies, Midnight Properties and Midnight Management & Investments — have asked for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in northern Alabama’s federal court. Such protection is generally used by debtors to stave off lawsuits from creditors while they reorganize their finances.

Messages left with the men’s Cullman office and their Decatur bankruptcy lawyer, Garland Hall III, were not returned.

Lender can’t assume loan, ask for PMI

Lender can’t assume loan, ask for PMI

Q: My mother-in-law’s mortgage was sold to another lender. The new lender is asking for PMI, which was not required by her previous lender. She has more than 50 percent equity in her home. She really cannot afford the PMI. Does the new lender have this right?

A: PMI stands for private mortgage insurance. Typically, when you buy a house and do not put down at least 20 percent of the purchase price, the lender may require PMI to ensure that the lender will be paid in the event of a foreclosure. The buyer has to pay the annual PMI premiums.

To get around this, in the past few years, lenders would make two loans to home buyers: a first trust (mortgage) in the amount of 80 percent of the purchase price and a second trust in the amount of some – or even all – of the difference. Of course, nowadays, those kinds of loans – called “piggyback” – are getting harder to obtain.

Family Narrowly Skirts Foreclosure – WSJ.com

Family Narrowly Skirts Foreclosure

A close look at a how California homeowners pulled off a short sale.

The homeowners: April Reed, 35, a real estate agent, and Eric Reed, 38, an electrician.

The home: In October 2005, the Reeds bought a house for $294,000 in Chester, Calif., a small mountain community east of Chico, Calif., and west of Reno, Nev. The three-bedroom, one-bathroom 1950s ranch home offers 2,050 square feet of space, room for their family of five.

The mortgage: The Reeds financed 80% of the home with an adjustable rate mortgage, which started at 6.6% for the first two years and reset to 8.5%. The couple got a piggyback loan for the remaining 20%, at a rate of 10%. Their mortgage payment was initially $2,050 a month but reset to $2,350 in September 2007.

Landlords fall into foreclosure, leaving tenants in shock, lurch

Landlords fall into foreclosure, leaving tenants in shock, lurch

In normal economic times, a landlord scrutinizes a potential tenant’s credit score before signing a lease.

In today’s chaotic housing market, maybe it’s the tenant who should check out the landlord’s financial stability.

Just ask Christy Orris, a single mother who last month signed a lease for a townhouse in Palm Beach Gardens and moved in with her two children, ages 5 and 12.

On Saturday night, only two weeks after she had signed the lease, a man knocked on her door. He was delivering a mortgage default notice from the landlord’s lender. The landlord hadn’t made a mortgage payment in eight months, leaving Orris to wonder how soon she would have to find a new home for her family.

Realtor knew Cape Coral in earliest days [South Florida]

Realtor knew Cape Coral in earliest days [South Florida]

Gloria Raso Tate remembers Cape Coral as it used to be, before the population hit six digits, five digits or even four.

Tate is a Realtor with Raso Realty in Cape Coral, a firm started by her late father, Joe Raso.

Just 400 people inhabited the Cape when Tate, then 9, her four sisters and their parents, Joe and Gloria, moved there in 1960 from Pittsburgh.

After graduating from North Fort Myers High School in 1967, she continued her education at Edison College and Florida State University, where she received a degree in 1971.

You Don’t Have to Be Rich to Own a Home on the Beach

You Don’t Have to Be Rich to Own a Home on the Beach

Yes, this state is on sale. But how cheaply can you get a weekend home?

After all, not everybody is in the market for a multimillion-dollar residence, or is ready to spend $1,000 a month on condo fees.

So what kind of deals are out there now for the rest of us?

The answer is that for less than $200,000 you can now get something pretty reasonable, on or near the water.