Here's a tip for the unemployed, under-employed and over-employed heard on the tele the other day: Launch or get into a business that thrives during an economic hard times because that's what Americans are going to experience for awhile.
In a bid to stave off a home foreclosure, perhaps you can become one of the 300 agents Ted Bohrer wants to hire for his Foreclosure Response Team, which aims to help people who must sell to avoid foreclosure or want to take advantage of one of the screaming deals out there.
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According to the non-notarized document I'm looking at, the Foreclosure Response Team specializes in “a market driven Short Sale solution that is made up of a
national Realtor network with advanced short sale technology, training and
expert loss mitigation support.”
In
other words, this company loves misery.
A short-sale
transaction occurs when the housing market is in decline and personal financial
conditions force a property owner to sell their property for less than what is
owed on the mortgage, and the lender agrees to accept less than full amount as
payment in full.
The seller gets no funds out of the deal. So why enter such a deal? Besides avoiding foreclosure, the seller's credit rating will not be dinged as harshly.
Meanwhile, the buyer generally get a great deal on a new home purchase, and the original lender avoids the costly foreclosure process and being responsible for
property taxes, insurance costs, property maintenance and any code violations that may arise due to the lack of upkeep.
Bohrer, a mortgage
broker with Costa Mesa-based Shining Real Estate Investments, was appointed the Southern California director of the Foreclosure Response Team by its Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based founder, Scott. D. Coloney. He claims to have more than 850 agents around the country on Foreclosure Response Teams.
His announcement about Bohrer's appointment includes this chilling statistic:
According to a
January 14th RealtyTrac Year-End
2009 Foreclosure Market Report: “A total of 632,573 California
properties received a foreclosure filing in 2009, the nation's largest
state foreclosure activity total and an increase of nearly 21 percent from
2008. After four straight month-over-month declines, California foreclosure activity
in December increased nearly 9 percent from the previous month, but the
state's fourth quarter foreclosure activity was still down 17 percent
from the previous quarter.”
So, yes, sounds like one business that's booming. If you'd like to buy, sell or join the team, go here.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.