Foreclosure Freeze...What does it mean to you?

We hear news stories about loan servicers stopping or “freezing” foreclosures. Why are they doing this, and what does it mean to you? Due to the growing volume of foreclosures that the largest loan servicers (typically large banks) are dealing with, they found some creative ways to be more efficient. The process of completing a foreclosure can be time consuming and very expensive for a loan servicer, especially in the 23 states that require judicial foreclosures (Arizona does not require judicial foreclosures). To save time and manpower, loan servicers had employees sign foreclosure documents and affidavits stating they read the documents without actually taking the time to read them. There were also “robo-signers” that created computer generated signatures on these documents. When this practice came to light, attorneys drooled at the prospect of class action lawsuits on behalf of improperly foreclosed homeowners against “evil” banks. In response, loan servicers stopped foreclosures in the 23 judicial foreclosure states. In addition, the largest loan servicer – Bank of America – stopped all foreclosures across the country for a period of time. B of A has since reviewed their foreclosure practices and has re-started foreclosures. Other servicers have followed. Here in Arizona, all the major loan servicers are actively foreclosing homes. However due to the mammoth number of foreclosures, the process may take several months and in some cases over a year. Foreclosures are a considered to be a negative factor in our real estate market because they contribute to a decline in values by adding more homes to the available inventory. But they are actually very important to the recovery of the market. WHY? Foreclosures take a property that was not affordable for a person or family and resets the property to become affordable for another person or family. It takes time, but the process of taking unaffordable homes and converting them to affordable homes is the bad-tasting medicine that will cure our ailing housing market. If you are in a position to purchase a home to live in or as an investment, buying today at “reset” prices is a smart decision. If you have any questions about financing a home, interest rates, how to repair your credit score etc., please feel free to give Chris a call.

Chris Mozilo NMLS# 183726; AZ LO-0912308; BKBR-0115591; CA-DOC 183726

Facebook Announces New Messaging System: “It’s Not E-mail”

Facebook is set to launch a new “modern messaging system,” said CEO Mark Zuckerberg at a press event this morning in San Francisco. Zuckerberg says that more than 4 billion messages are currently sent through Facebook each day. He also shared that Facebook believes that modern messaging is seamless, informal, immediate, personal, simple and minimal. “It’s not e-mail,” he said. Interestingly enough, Facebook is handing out facebook.com e-mail addresses to all users. The system, however, is really modeled after chat according to Andrew Bosworth. “People should share however they want to share,” he says. The new messaging system is composed of three parts: seamless messaging, cross-platform conversation history and the social inbox. The latter is an inbox for filtering the messages you want, organized by the people you care about. So, it’s designed to highlight conversations with your real friends and be spam free. According to the blog post, “Messages is not email. There are no subject lines, no cc, no bcc, and you can send a message by hitting the Enter key.” The messaging system is also designed to be platform-agnostic, so users can send and receive messages via mobile, IM or Facebook. It’s designed to make it simpler for users to communicate in real-time with their real friends, wherever they are. The system will be rolled out slowly over the next few months in an invite-only process, says Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg also extensively talked about how people use messaging systems today. In conversations with high schoolers, Zuckerberg recounted that these youngsters told him that e-mail is too slow and that they prefer SMS and Facebook to sending e-mails. These conversations laid the foundation for the reasoning behind Facebook’s motivation to create a seamless, immediate and personal experience around messaging. As soon as the event was announced last week, speculation ran rampant that Facebook would be overhauling its messaging system and releasing its own e-mail service to compete with the likes of Gmail. E-mail, however, seems secondary to Facebook’s primary desire to be the communication platform for tomorrow’s youth. article courtesy of Mashable

TWREC Agents Support Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arizona

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As agents with the Williams Real Estate Company we believe in giving back. Art & I have a strong commitment and relationship with Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, but if you have a charity of choice we will be happy to donate to that charity.

"You Refer, We Donate"... if you are in need of selling or buying a home, let us present what we can do for you, then you decide. If you choose to use us...We Donate. Christina Catalano has been a Big Sister to Carmen for the last 3 years. On September 19th, Christina and Carmen splashed in the water, flew down the water slides and ate Pizza at the Big Brothers Big Sisters event at Wet & Wild. It's this kind of commitment to helping others that makes Christina not only a great person...but a great Realtor.

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Amanda Crossland, VP of Development for Big Brothers Big Sisters, was thinking of buying a new Home. She could have used any Realtor, but she chose Marcia Canady. WHY? Because of The Williams Real Estate Company's "Your Refer. We Donate." Program. Marcia scoured the market, found Amanda the perfect home and negotiated a sweet deal. Even more important, Marcia donated $1,000 to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arizona. Amanda was going to buy a home anyway...so why not use an Agent from The Williams Real Estate Company so that part of the Real Estate Revenues go back to local Arizona Charities?

Dan Williams presenting the check for $1,000 to Amanda Crossland for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arizona

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Erik Jensen joined of the the Professional Leadership Council (PLC) Program at Big Brothers Big Sisters. CBS-5 KPHO Meteorologist Paul Horton organizes a car wash every year...and this year, it benefits Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arizona!

So, Erik washed cars for 5 hours on October 27th....he even washed the Waste Management Truck!

Waste Management donated $5,000 to Big Brothers Big Sisters at the Car Wash!