Continue reading »]]> How Real Estate Investors Can Benefit From Using Real Estate Agents

  Written by: Peter Vekselman

Developing a mutually beneficial relationship with a real estate agent can yield many profitable benefits for real estate investors. A real estate agent can help you negotiate with banks, find valuable information and open doors to opportunities. See the following article from REIClub for more on this. 

Working with real estate agents can be a challenge if the agent you’ve selected isn’t aware of your needs in acquiring property. They’re accustomed to selling at retail and any deviation from what they consider normal can jeopardize what could otherwise be a great working relationship. The good news is that you have the power to provide the education – if you’re willing to take the time. Here’s how you can do your part.

If you’re trying to work with a real estate agent that has never seen – much less worked with – a real estate investor, the first thing you need to do is have a sit-down meeting to explain your goals, your investing strategy, and your needs.

But don’t forget that your real estate agent also has needs.

The good news is that today’s market conditions make this a good time to forge what could be a mutually satisfying long-term relationship. Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’re pretty well aware that retail buyers have disappeared. Because of this – and low prices – real estate investors are on a buying spree. You can work together and turn incredible profits with the help of a real estate agent that “gets it”.

You may be an investor that typically avoids real estate agents whenever possible because you don’t want to deal with real estate commissions. That’s fine and dandy, but in some locations you may not have a choice.

More and more states are enacting rules designed to protect consumers from those who would take advantage of them. As a result, states like Oregon have passed laws requiring that real estate agents be involved in any deal that causes homeowner equity to be transferred to another party. Other states such as California could follow suit.

Instead of arguing the merits of the rules, accept them and move on. You can also use a real estate agent effectively as a negotiation tool when working short sales. If you’re new to short sales or are working with a lender with whom you’ve never worked before, you may not be aware of the specific steps involved. In addition, some lender loss mitigation departments have their own rules, policies, and procedures. If you violate protocol your offer will be delayed – or rejected.

A real estate agent is a known commodity to the friendly banker. Banks work closely with real estate agents on traditional purchases, so there’s an institutional bias that favors the real estate agent.

The bank is more likely to consider an offer that makes sense if it’s presented by someone who speaks their language. Here’s another thought to consider: If a good real estate agent can help grease the wheels and get your offer in front of a lender, you can get an answer more quickly, and potentially close more deals.

There can also be other perks to working with a real estate agent: research. Once you establish a solid working relationship, a real estate agent will be willing to share information with you that would take much longer for you to do yourself. Comps and other MLS data is available through a real estate agent; however, you don’t want to abuse the relationship.

Solid relationships with a real estate agent will open doors for you that may have been securely closed in the past. It makes sense to build relationships that will further your goals, enhance your career, and add real value to your bottom line. A real estate agent can help you as much as you can help them with repeat business and providing the means to keep earning money despite the fact that the retail residential real estate market has almost completely dried up.

This article has been republished from REIClub. You can also view this article at REIClub, a real estate investment education site. 

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Continue reading »]]> Yahoo Real Estate and Zillow Team Up for Big Real Estate Presence

Two huge names in the online real estate world have joined forces to create what is being called the largest real estate network on the web. Yahoo Real Estate and Zillow.com will partner to feature exclusive access to their vast network of real estate listings. See the following article from Property Wire for more on this.

Zillow.com and Yahoo Real Estate have launched an exclusive partnership that brings together the two sites and creates the largest real estate network on the web, according to comScore Media Metrix.

Zillow’s sales force now sells local advertising across both sites, and the four  million for sale listings on Zillow now also appear on Yahoo! Real Estate.

For the first time, real estate agents have the opportunity to advertise locally on Yahoo! Real Estate, one of the largest individual real estate sites on the web, gaining access to a new set of customers and clientele. Home buyers will now have access to more local listings on Yahoo! Real Estate, along with more photographs.

In addition to selling local ads, Zillow is also selling national display advertising across both sites to new home builders, real estate agents and brokers.

Additionally, Zillow is now Yahoo! Real Estate’s exclusive provider of for sale listings. Any for sale listing that appears on Zillow including many listings not found on other sites, such as for sale by owner listings , will automatically appear on Yahoo! Real Estate.

“We’re thrilled to be providing agents and brokers with outstanding new opportunities to extend their reach on the largest online real estate network,” said Spencer Rascoff, Zillow CEO. “One phone call can now connect industry professionals to the biggest real estate network on the web. The launch of this partnership will simplify advertising decisions and bring Zillow listings to millions of additional users every month.”

“This partnership brings together the scale of Yahoo!’s audience with the depth of Zillow’s real estate listings,” Greg Hintz, head of Yahoo! Listings, said. “No other real estate websites are better suited to bring such a vast offering to agents, brokers and advertisers.”

This article was republished with permission by Property Wire.

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Continue reading »]]> If you work as hard at the task you desire to do as the task you must do, you will go places

It’s been said that you should always work at two jobs simultaneously: the one you have and the one you desire. When you work as hard at the task you want to do as the task you must do, you are preparing yourself for the future. You are learning skills that will enable you to grow beyond your present position and into your boss’s job and your boss’s boss’s job. When the time comes, you’ll be ready. When you’ve mastered one task, don’t rest on your laurels. Instead, begin immediately to think about the future, about how you can improve what you’re doing now, and what you can learn that will allow you to progress in the future. Ours is a knowledge-based economy in which intellectual property is worth far more than physical goods. To succeed today requires continuous learning; staying current in your field means a lifetime of study in our fast-paced world.

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Title Insurance 101

When buying a piece of real property, purchasers must always ensure the title to the property is unencumbered by liens, judgments and other “clouds” on the title. To do this it is necessary to purchase title insurance. Title insurance insures to any who may question the integrity of the title that it is free of encumbrances. To do that, a title insurance company will take the insurance fee and use it to research the title. Once done, the company insures that it is good. If it is not, then the title company is responsible. That said, if a title company refuses to insure a property, it is a sure sign the title is clouded and that there are encumbrances that need to be removed or otherwise handled. That said, title insurance companies are not infallible and buyers must consider additional research before purchasing. For more on this continue reading the following article from JDSupra. 

Title insurance is deemed a prerequisite in myriad of real estate transactions including but not limited to purchasing a real property. Buyers must usually acquire title insurance as lenders require  acquisition  of  such  insurance  before  approving  a  loan.  In  addition,  for  long-term commercial leases, tenants should often demand title insurance from owners. In this article, we explore, to some extent, some of the preliminary questions confronting an average title insurance consumer including: What does title insurance do? What are some limitations to title insurance? How to select a title insurance company? What are some important items to look out for in a title insurance product mainly the Preliminary Report? And, what are some salient points in selection of title insurance companies?

SOME BACKGROUND ON TITLE INSURANCE

It is extremely important and useful to ascertain the nature of title insurance. Title insurance is not casualty insurance. For casualty insurance consumer pays the insurer for some casualty the policy is designed to cover. The casualty premiums are collected and accumulated for such eventuality. On the other hand, the amount paid to a title insurance company is mostly used by the title insurance company to underwrite the insurance, to find and if possible redress any risks. Accordingly, if title insurance company fails or refuses to insure a property, this might forebode some serious risks with the property which parties must earnestly and urgently address.

WHAT DOES TITLE INSURANCE DO?

The most intelligent question to pose in insurance context, including, title insurance is what DOES NOT title insurance do? As indicated previously, title insurance is not casualty insurance and hence it does not protect real property against fire, earthquake or theft. As the name signifies, title insurance protects title to the property. This protection encompasses only problems affecting title or improvements on the property. In addition, title insurance does not cover future title problems. Hence, title insurance ONLY covers past events affecting title or improvements to the real property. Certainly, the title insurance policy may not even cover some past events affecting title or improvements as the policy contains some exceptions.

WHAT ARE SOME LIMITATIONS TO TITLE INSURANCE?

There are some misconceptions as to the coverage of tile insurance policies. Some of the restrictions include but are not limited to:

1. Public Records Not Equal To Chain of Title: Public records provide constructive notice. Only because a document in the chain of title has been recorded does not mean such document provides constructive notice. A document recorded in the office of county recorder’s office to provide constructive notice must, among other things:

• Contain the names of all parties affected
• Contain “sufficient” description of the real property
• Contain “proper” execution (signature) and acknowledgment by affected parties

2. Preliminary Report Not Equal to Current Status of Title: Preliminary report does not reflect the current status of the title. On the other hand, preliminary report represents an offer by title insurance company to issue insurance. In other words, the preliminary report is an indication of whether the real property is insurable by the title insurance company and if it is insurable, what the exclusions and exceptions are for such issuance of title insurance. Hence, buyers and their representatives could use the preliminary report as a roadmap for their decision making process and whether they could secure a better deal.

3. Title Insurance Not Equal to Full Disclosure of Defects or Encumbrances: No matter what type of title insurance policy is obtained, title insurance policy might not disclose all of defects or encumbrances in a property. There are several reasons for such reality, among which are:

• The title insurance industry has standardized its forms through California Land Title  Association (CLTA) or American Land Title Association (ALTA)
• Such  standardization  by  CLTA  and  ALTA  may  not  encompass  some  off-record  information or indemnity agreement. For instance, if the seller provides indemnity for a recorded lis pendens to the title insurance company, the title insurance company may not disclose the existence of the lis pendens as an exception or an abstract of judgment. Nonetheless, a more prudent title insurance company should disclose it and insure it by using an endorsement.
• The title policy may be standard coverage or extended coverage.
• There might be mere error or failure to add certain facts

WHAT ARE SOME IMPORTANT POINTS TO LOOK FOR IN A PRELIMINARY REPORT?

It is incumbent upon buyer and the buyer’s representatives to carefully peruse the preliminary report for any exclusions and exceptions. The buyer and the buyer’s representatives should adamantly seek such exceptions and exclusions removed or demand addition of satisfactory adequate endorsements to address such problems.

Accordingly, the following contains SOME of the salient considerations:

1. “Minor” Exception or “Major” Exception  -Need to Narrow Down the Scope of  Exception: The preliminary title report may contain “minor” exceptions. Such exceptions may not reduce the value of the property and interfere with the current or intended use of  the property. Nonetheless, to the extent possible, the buyer could obtain an endorsement to address such “minor” exceptions. Issues of potential concern include but are not  limited  to  restrictions  limiting  the  use  of  property,  affirmative  payment  and indemnification obligations binding subsequent owners, long-term leases and third-party occupancies. As importantly, most of the exceptions contained in the preliminary report are very broad in scope. The buyer’s representatives should inquire into such exceptions and narrow, to the extent possible, such scope.
2. “Minor” Exception or “Major” Exception  – Need to Conduct Careful Review of Coverage: Regardless of the type of exception or exclusion contained in the preliminary report, the buyer’s representatives need to carefully peruse the preliminary report to intelligently and prudently advise the buyer. The buyer’s representative, mostly attorneys, should parse the preliminary report and make the title company, to the extent possible and feasible, to clarify definitions and request necessary and adequate endorsements.
3. EASEMENTS: To discover easements and avoid any problems as to future problems arising out of who owns what or who is responsible for what, buyer’s representative should negotiate and execute an easement maintenance agreement in which the rights and obligations of the parties are articulated including but not limited to obligation for conducting maintenance and providing a mechanism for dispute resolution.

WHAT  ARE  SOME  SALIENT  POINTS  IN  SELECTION  OF  TITLE  INSURANCE COMPANIES?

SOME BACKGROUND: There are two types of title companies in California: title insurance companies  and  underwritten  title  companies.  Title  insurance  company  is  an  insurer  with specialty in real property ownership and liens. On the other hand, underwritten title company is an agent of title insurance companies. Underwritten title company countersigns and issues title insurance company’s title insurance and does title search, among other related duties. While title insurance company may issue its own insurance, underwritten title company may not issue its own insurance because it is not an insurer. Note, underwritten title companies MAY NOT have the word insurance in their name.

As importantly, some of the salient points to consider before selecting a title insurance company include, but not limited to:

• The Insurer’s Financial Stability
• The Cost of the Underlying Insurance
• The Insurer’s Flexibility In Making Decisions
• The Insurer’s Flexibility and Ability to Perform Within a Prescribed Time Frame
• The Insurer’s Customer Service, Especially the Responsiveness and Professionalism of the Staff and Decision Makers
• The Insurer’s Quality of Work

DISCLAIMER
This Article Neither Supplants Nor Supplements the Breadth and Depth of Such Esoteric Topic. In fact, This Article ONLY Provides a Rather Rudimentary Synopsis of Such Esoteric Expansive Subject Matter.

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Continue reading »]]> First-Time Buyer Tips

The rules have drastically changed in the real estate market. At one time, getting a mortgage seemed to require little more than just simply stating your income on paper. Today, the credit tightening continues. Banks want extra documentation that you can truly afford the home you want to buy.

But don’t let that scare you. Your dream of becoming a homeowner is still a viable option. Here are a few tips to help you achieve your dream.

First take a good look at your credit. It’s sad, but true, many people have no idea how their credit reports look. They can’t remember if they’ve ever seen their report and they don’t know their credit score.

Unfortunately, that puts buyers in a poor position. If there are errors on their credit reports, those must be handled before you try to purchase a home. Sometimes there are marks that truly shouldn’t be on your credit. Other times there are knocks against your credit that you may be able to get removed.

Check your credit score at least three to six months before you apply for a mortgage. This will give you time to address any issues.

Start saving now. These days a downpayment for a home doesn’t come easy. You may need as much as 20 percent down. However, there are still some loan programs that will allow you to put down much less.

Make sure you are working with an experienced team of real estate professionals. This kind of purchase requires lots of information, education, and knowledge. Having a team of industry professionals to guide you through the first-time home-buying experience will make the process so much easier.

When you’re preparing to buy a home, if you haven’t already, make a budget and start watching where every dollar goes. It’s amazing how few people do this. It’s even more amazing to see how much money is wasted. Those extra trips to the coffee shop, the donuts in the morning, the manicures, or shopping sprees, all are areas where you can likely cut back to save for your downpayment.

Picture your home. It might sound silly but you need to envision the home you want to buy. This will help you tremendously once you start your search. Start looking online, in magazines, and around your chosen neighborhoods.

You can even use online tools like Pintrest.com to pin images and videos you see on an online storage board to refer to later. This is a great tool for collecting photos of home decor.

The point here is to make sure you have an idea of what is important to you in a home. Since you’ve been renting, this might not be crystal clear at first. But as you make your list and explore homes with your agent, you’ll begin to see which things are deal breakers and which things are a must-have.

Buying a home is like looking for the right relationship. It can be exciting at first, frustrating at times, and so comforting once you’ve finally found the right one. Happy house hunting!

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Continue reading »]]> Report: 25 Percent Of Paid-Search Clicks Will Come From Mobile By December

by Greg Sterling

Marin Software has released “The State of Mobile Search Advertising.” It provides yet more evidence of how the search and paid-search markets are being profoundly affected by mobile devices. In almost every category there’s triple-digit growth according to the report, which projects that smartphones and tablets will combine to generate 25 percent of all Google’s paid search clicks in the US by the end of this year.

Marin also estimates that nearly one-quarter (23 percent) of “Google’s US paid-search spend [by December 2012] will come from mobile campaigns.” These are remarkable statements, and it means that Google will be seeing billions in mobile revenue accordingly.

The report incorporates a financial industry (Cowen and Company) projection of Google’s mobile reviews through 2016. While financial forecasts such as this can be notoriously off the mark, mobile will undoubtedly be a massive driver of ad revenue growth for Google over the next several years at least.

Tablets also figure prominently in the future of mobile paid search. Marin reported that at the end of last year tablets accounted for 38 percent of all mobile paid clicks, growing to an estimated 45 percent by the end of this year.

Marin offers some general advice regarding how to allocate budgets in a fragmenting paid search universe: “In the absence of more precise data, the fraction of clicks from tablets versus total mobile clicks is a good proxy for the percent of search budget to allocate towards tablets.” Specific verticals (e.g., retail) may need to pay more attention to tablets than others.

Marin’s client data show that CPCs were lower on mobile devices and CTRs were higher. However mobile conversions were not as strong.

It’s quite possible, as Marin suggests by implication, that mobile conversion data appear the way they do because tracking from smartphones is incomplete. Indeed, a great many conversions driven by mobile search ads may come over the phone or in physical stores — where 95 percent of all conversions actually happen:

Mobile searches often result in conversions that happen via a call or a physical store. Unfortunately, most marketers lack the ability to glue these clicks together into a unified conversion funnel. Marketers should look to estimate their mobile-influenced revenue through the use of popular mobile ad formats such as click-to-call and store-locator. By combining the typical conversion rate for in-store and phone-based transactions with the average revenue per transaction, marketers can estimate a revenue per click for mobile devices, and adjust their mobile CPCs and budget accordingly.

The report includes best practices advice about mobile creative and bidding. In addition, there’s data on international mobile search trends.

Reflecting the growing importance of mobile to search marketers, SMX Advanced in June will feature three mobile sessions covering mobile SEO, mobile SEM and generating and tracking mobile conversions.

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Continue reading »]]> Columbia University’s trustees sued the biotechnology analysis firm Illumina Inc. (ILMN) and accuse it of infringing five U.S. patents for gene sequencing used in medical research.

Illumina is wrongly using the protected technology, assigned to New York’s Columbia, the school said in a complaint filed yesterday in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware.

The patents, awarded since 2009, “are important to ongoing genomics research and discovery, particularly in the emerging field of personalized medicine, which seeks to use a patient’s own genomic DNA sequence information as the basis for individualized health care,” the university said.

Illumina, based in San Diego, is the subject of a $5.7 billion hostile takeover bid by Switzerland’s Roche Holding AG (ROG), an offer that expires on April 20, at $44.50 a share.

Columbia asked the court to award damages based on reasonable royalties and for an order to stop the infringement.

“We believe these claims are without merit, and we will defend against them vigorously,” Jennifer Temple, an Illumina spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed statement.

The case is Columbia v. Illumina, 1:12-cv-00376, U.S. District Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).

Myriad’s Human-Gene Patent Rehearing Ordered by High Court

The U.S. Supreme Court (1000L) ordered a lower court to revisit whether human genes can be patented in light of the justices March 20 decision that limited the ability to obtain legal protection for some diagnostic medical tests.

The justices yesterday ordered the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to reconsider its decision that allowed patents on genetic material used in Myriad Genetics Inc. (MYGN)’s tests for breast and ovarian cancer.

The high court on March 20 said that patents shouldn’t be allowed on tests that look at such things as the proper dosage for a medicine based on a body’s reaction to a drug. The Federal Circuit, which specializes in U.S. patent law, must consider the effect of that ruling on the Myriad patents.

The March 20 decision involved a dispute between Nestle SA’s Prometheus unit and units of the Mayo Clinic and whether certain types of diagnostic tests met the threshold of eligibility for a patent. A June 2010 decision by the Supreme Court also addressed what types of inventions qualify for legal protection.

Myriad said the case doesn’t involve all of its patents that cover the screening tests. Still, the company said, it would defend the claims that are the subject of the lawsuit.

The Myriad case pits the biotechnology industry, which supports gene patents, against an array of opponents –including doctors, researchers and patients — who say gene patents will stifle innovation and improperly permit a monopoly on part of the human body.

The opponent group, whose legal team includes the American Civil Liberties Union, is pressing a test case against Salt Lake City-based Myriad. The company makes tests for the hereditary risk of breast and ovarian cancer.

The central legal issue is whether so-called isolated DNA – - genetic coding that has been removed from the body and separated from other material — is a product of nature and thus ineligible for patent protection under previous Supreme Court rulings.

In court papers, Myriad has argued that “human intervention” brings isolated DNA within the scope of the U.S. patent laws. The company says the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued 2,645 patents for isolated DNA over the past 30 years.

The case is Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, 11-725.

Egis Added as Defendant in AstraZeneca-Watson Laboratories Case

Egis Gyogyszergyar Nyrt (EGIS), the Hungarian drugmaker owned by Laboratoires Servier, was added as a defendant in a 2010 U.S. patent litigation case between plaintiff AstraZeneca Plc (AZN) and defendant Watson Laboratories Inc.

The case involved AstraZeneca’s patented technology for its cholesterol-lowering drug Crestor. In dispute is AstraZeneca’s patent RE37,314.

“Egis will vigorously defend the claims against it and further informs its business partners that the complaint does not seek a monetary damage award against Egis,” the Budapest- based company said in a statement to the Budapest bourse.

The case is AstraZeneca UK Ltd. v. Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. (WPI), 1:10-cv-00915-LPS, U.S. District Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).

3M Wins Right to Challenge Avery Dennison Road Sign Patents

3M Co. (MMM)’s patent suit against Avery Dennison Corp. was improperly dismissed, a federal appeals court said yesterday.

The suit was part of a series of patent cases between the two companies related to reflecting sheeting for road signs. St. Paul, Minnesota-based 3M filed the suit in federal court in September 2010, seeking a declaration it didn’t infringe some of Avery Dennison’s patents.

The Washington-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which hears appeals of patent cases, said the trial judge erred by dismissing the suit.

The appeals court said trial judge erred by saying the controversy between the two companies hadn’t yet reached the point at which litigation was appropriate and by dismissing the case.

According to court papers, a lawyer for Pasadena, California-based Avery told a 3M lawyer in 2009 that 3M’s DiamondGrade DG product line “may infringe” its patents, and that “licenses are available.” 3M filed the suit in response.

Although Avery had argued that discussion alone wasn’t enough to warrant the suit to challenge patents, the appeals court said the trial judge should consider the issue.

John A. Dragseth of Boston’s Fish & Richardson PC (1357L) argued the case for 3M. Avery’s case was argued by David L. Bilsker of Los Angeles-based Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP (496224L).

The lower court case is 3M Co. v. Avery Dennison Corp. (AVY) 0:10-cv-03849-MJD-FLN, U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota (Minneapolis). The appeal is 3M Co. v. Avery Dennis Corp, 11-01339, U.S. Court Of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Washington).

For more patent news, click here.

Trademark

Tougher China Trademark Laws Might Have Hurt Apple’s IPad Fight

China is proposing improvements to its 30-year-old trademark law that help household names from abroad better protect their rights. Apple Inc. (AAPL), in its dispute over the iPad name, might be better off without the reforms.

Government proposals for tackling “the rampant problem of trademark squatting” include doubling the maximum damages for infringers to 1 million yuan ($158,539). Since a court already ruled that Apple doesn’t own the iPad name in China, the company would be on the wrong side of the sanctions, said Caroline Berube, an intellectual property lawyer in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.

The Apple case “is another example of why multinationals need to do their diligence and tread cautiously in China as domestic companies have become much more savvy about protecting and exploiting IP rights,” Steve Rizzi, the former head of the China practice for Milwaukee-based Foley & Lardner LLP (1125L), said in an e-mail.

Apple’s appeal that it, and not Hong Kong-listed display maker Proview International Holdings Ltd. (334), owns the iPad name in China will hinge on contract law rather than trademark law, the lawyers said. A decision from a Guangzhou court is due by the end of May, and the new trademark law won’t be voted on until next year’s national legislature at the earliest, said Berube, of HJM Asia Law & Co.

Apple, which won a lawsuit against Shenzhen-based New Apple Concept Daily Technology Co. in 2008 for using an apple in its logo, started its legal battle with Proview in 2010, the same year it introduced the iPad tablet. A court in Shenzhen, across the border from Hong Kong, ruled against Apple last year, saying the purchase agreement for the trademarks featured the wrong Proview unit.

“As a company that generates a lot of intellectual property we would never knowingly abuse someone else’s trademarks,” Carolyn Wu, Apple’s Beijing-based spokeswoman, said in a statement. She declined to comment on the proposed laws and how they would have affected the iPad case.

The Cupertino, California-based company argued that at least three employees of the Proview unit owning the trademarks had participated in negotiations leading to the sale.

Separately, Apple has sued Proview founder Rowell Yang in Hong Kong for conspiring with his companies to breach the sale agreement. That case is in the pre-trial phase.

For more trademark news, click here.

Copyright

Pinterest Revises Use Terms, Says It Won’t Sell Users’ Content

Pinterest, the Palo Alto, California-based social media company that provides a venue for users to share information about items of interest, has changed its terms of use to clarify the rights of users to the content they post.

In a March 23 blog posting, Pinterest said its original terms of use agreement allowed the company to sell content posted by users. The company said that “selling content was never our intention and we removed this from our updated terms.”

Pinterest said it has developed “simpler tools” for anyone to report copyright or trademark infringement. And in wake of concerns about pro-anorexia “thinspiration” postings made by some, Pinterest said it won’t allow postings “that explicitly encourage self-harm or self-abuse.”

For copyright news, click here.

IP Moves

Former Righthaven CEO Steven Gibson Moves to Dickinson Wright

Dickinson Wright PLLC (1324L) now has former Righthaven LLC chief executive officer listed as a partner, according to the Detroit- based firm’s website.

Steven A. Gibson led Las Vegas-based Righthaven, which was formed to enforce copyrights for newspapers owned by Las Vegas- based Stephens Media Group. Although Righthaven filed about 200 copyright-infringement cases in 2010, courts generally took a dim view, finding that Stephens still retained control over some aspects of the copyright, and therefore that Righthaven lacked standing to sue.

Illumina, Myriad, Apple, Pinterest: Intellectual Property

By Victoria Slind-Flor

According to his biography listed on the Dickinson Wright website, Gibson has represented media, software-development and gaming/casino companies in intellectual property and technology- related disputes. Before he was with Righthaven, Gibson practiced law in Japan and with Chicago’s Sidley Austin LLP (1119L).

Gibson has an undergraduate degree from the University of Louisville and a law degree from Chicago-Kent College of Law.

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Continue reading »]]> Nine Assumptions Made By Realtors

This article is not for those agents who are professional in all their dealings, hate that the actions of their fellow agents give the over all organization a bad name and who already treat their clients/customers right. However, these are few and far in between so perhaps those bringing shame to the game will listen up and change their wayward ways. The public is not a stupid mass to be treated badly. Get with the program and avoid the following nine assumptions made by realtors. These are not placed in any order of significance – just as they came to mind for writing this article.

The first assumption is that the public needs their services. Many agents feel they are so important that the whole transaction would be a complete disaster without them. However, this is not true, the best closing I ever attended was with a Seller, a Buyer and an attorney. Whole transaction was closed for $550 by the attorney (no Title companies in that state which is another whole ball of gummy wax) and it included a Title Policy from Chicago Title. In manyleadership classes they have the suggestion: “Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way”. Realtors need to get out of the way so the free enterprise system can function smoothly.

The second assumption is that they are so much more superior to the clientele they deal with on a day-to-day basis. This is so wrong. Get out of your ivory towers and see where the rubber meets the road and you will find out you may be superior to a bump on a gnat’s behind, but not worth much more than that.

The third assumption deals with those states that continue to push “dual agency”. By definition an agent is someone who represents another person providing 100% of their effort for the person they are representing. Even in the Bible it states you cannot serve two masters at the same time. There is no way you can represent both sides in a transaction and honestly swear that you are giving both sides 100% of your time and effort exclusively.

The fourth assumption is that people should be begging their services. Many times the agent it is the other way around. The agent is so desperate to make a commission they are begging people to hire them to represent them. How professional is that? Get off of your knees and go get a real job.

The fifth assumption is that the more designations after your name the better agent you are. There are agents that are so busy getting designations – they do not have any time left over to work with anyone. The public is not deceived by this. Almost everyone is familiar with book smarts and street smarts and which one will get the job done faster. Seeing a lot of designations may raise a red flag to the public.

The sixth assumption is that if they work for a big name company the agents feel they also are entitled to big name status. No matter where you are in life – status and respect are things that need to be earned. Don’t hide behind the big name company sign and think you are “Mr Biggie”.

The seventh assumption is that realtors are too busy to return phone calls or to keep clients briefed on the status of the transaction. It has been noted that if you fail to get back with a client within a 24-hour time period – you have just lost that person as a client. Open communications would eliminate many problems before they have a chance to get started.

The eighth assumption is that the expensive ads being played by the National Association of Realtors is not a cover up for the actions of their fellow agents. As has been stated above, the public is not stupid. They understand that illegal things are being done by agents. They are investigated by a in-house panel that finds “no wrong” was committed. The ads are not working – perhaps you should ask for that portion of your desk fees back. Clean up your act so you are not an embarrassment to your friends and family.

The ninth assumption made by realtors is that they are not a dying breed. With the advent of the internet – buying and selling properties world-wide is open to anyone. No dinosaur in the middle is required to slow down the transaction or to cause loss of funds from the Seller’s net proceeds. Throw in the towel and go for the international licensing.

These nine assumptions made by realtors are some of the reasons that they are not perceived as being some one to trust to represent the public in real estate transactions. Do away with the Political Action Fund used to bribe politicians into voting for favorable regulations toward your industry. Perhaps with a major overhaul, the public would be able to trust the agents again after how many million lost their homes already?

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Continue reading »]]> Mortgage settlement is great — for politicians and banks

The settlement mostly requires mortgage lenders and servicers to comply with what I would have thought was already the law, which prohibits, you know, criminal fraud.

California Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris went before the cameras soon after that, taking credit for “a tremendous victory for California,” which has been perhaps the hardest-hit state in the foreclosure crisis.

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Then there are the banks. The signatories to the deal are Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase and Ally Financial (formerly GMAC), which handle payments on more than half the nation’s outstanding 27 million home loans and therefore have been at the center of the servicing and foreclosure abuses the settlement is supposed to end.

If you don’t listen too closely, it sounds as if they’re putting up the $25 billion. Not so. The only cold cash the banks are paying is a combined $5 billion, including $1.5 billion to compensate borrowers whose homes were foreclosed on from 2008 through the end of last year, with the rest going to the federal and state governments to pay for regulatory programs.

Most of the balance is in mortgage relief for stressed or underwater mortgage holders, including principal reductions, refinancings and other modifications.

How much of this will translate into an outlay of cash by the five banks? Not much, if any.

For one thing, even the government acknowledges that a lender typically benefits when ways are found to keep a home out of foreclosure — a lender loses an average $60,000 on every foreclosure, according to figures the federal government disclosed in connection with the settlement announcement. It’s been institutional resistance and legal entanglements, not economics, that have kept more modifications from going forward.

Many of the loans destined to be modified under the settlement aren’t even owned by the banks, but rather by investors — the banks just collect the checks.

Consequently, as mortgage expert Adam Levitin of Georgetown Law School observes, most of the settlement “is being financed on the dime of MBS [mortgage-backed securities] investors such as pension funds, 401(k) plans, insurance companies and the like — parties that did not themselves engage in any of the wrongdoing covered by the settlement.”

What about homeowners? They don’t get much, especially in relation to the scale of the housing crisis. More than 2 million owners have lost their homes to foreclosure during the last four years; this deal will provide 750,000 with a payment of $2,000 each.

Some 11 million homeowners are underwater by about $700 billion combined, or an average of nearly $65,000 each. In a transport of optimism, federal officials are projecting that this deal will help 2 million of them, to the tune of perhaps $20,000 each. By the way, loans owned by the government-sponsored firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac aren’t eligible for this relief. Since they own or control the majority of all outstanding mortgages, that’s a rather large black hole.

Supposedly a big part of the deal is the implementation of new foreclosure standards to end the abuses that made the deal necessary. These standards require banks seeking to foreclose henceforth to submit sworn affidavits that are accurate about the amounts owed and the legal right of the servicer to proceed, and require that the bank officers who sign them to actually examine the documents they swear to have examined.

In other words, no more “robo-signing.” Assertions the banks make in court will have to be “accurate.” Banks will have to give borrowers complete and accurate information about their loans, suspend foreclosure proceedings once they start working on a loan modification, apply mortgage payments promptly, keep accurate loan records and communicate effectively with borrowers.

I believe the technical term for all this is “big whoop.” The provisions mostly require mortgage lenders and servicers to comply with what I would have thought was already the law, which prohibits, you know, criminal fraud. The rest is pretty much out of the best-practices manual of customer service, which benefits both the customer and the institution.

What the standards do accomplish is to expose how sad our enforcement of the law has been up to now, and how hard it will be to enforce it in the future if this is the best we can do in the face of manifestly illegal behavior. The lesson is: Break the law, and the full weight of the state and federal governments will come down on your head to make you agree not to break the law — in the future.

It may not be long before the euphoria over the settlement evaporates in the realization that the banks that made a travesty of the mortgage market are still getting a pass — not only on their cupidity in making loans to unqualified buyers, but in magnifying their cupidity through forgery, lies and the other building blocks of foreclosure fraud.

In the words of business consultant Susan Webber, who blogs expertly on financial matters under the pen name Yves Smith, “We’ve now set a price for forgeries and fabricating documents. It’s $2,000 per loan.” She observes, quite properly, that the payoff is a minuscule fraction of the costs these practices have imposed on borrowers, the court system and the economy.

The settlement, meanwhile, provides cover for other stealth bailouts. On Thursday, the day of the big parade, the U.S. Office of the Controller of the Currency quietly settled claims against BofA, Wells Fargo, Citibank and JPMorgan Chase related to cease-and-desist orders the agency issued last year over the banks’ crooked mortgage servicing and foreclosure activities.

The agency says it settled those claims for $394 million. The actual figure is zero. That’s because the agency won’t ask for any of the money as long as the banks meet their obligations under the mortgage settlement. This is the kind of fun with math that helped get us into the housing crisis in the first place.

The settlement’s proponents have praised it for preserving the right of prosecutors to continue their investigations into the banks’ misbehavior; California’s Harris crowed that she retains the right to pursue the banks under state fraud laws. But it also narrows the breadth of a promising Massachusetts investigation and may entirely shut down cases brought against BofA by the Arizona and Nevada attorneys general.

Most troubling, compliance with the settlement terms will be overseen by an independent monitor who must rely on the banks’ own figures. If we know anything about these banks, it’s that they’ve moved heaven and earth to evade their past promises to help troubled homeowners. Time and again their loan relief programs have fallen short of their promises. Why should this time be different, when the consequence of their past misbehavior is, when you come down to it, a slap on the wrist?

Prosecutors coast to coast had the mortgage industry dead to rights this time around. That’s why the banks came to the table. The states and the feds were in a position to achieve real homeowner relief and a lasting change in the way Wall Street banks do business. But that fading sound you hear? That’s the parade passing by, leaving Main Street behind.

Michael Hiltzik’s column appears Sundays and Wednesdays. 

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Wrongful Foreclosure Lawsuits – More Nightmares For Mortgage Lenders

The foreclosure crisis is expected to continue in 2011 and beyond. Real estate reporting entities, such as Realty Trac, a well known foreclosure tracking company, predicts more than a million foreclosures will occur in 2011, which is slightly more than occurred in 2010. The foreclosure freeze, placed in effect by a number of big banks in 2010, but now in full bloom again, will have an affect on the increase in foreclosures in 2011.

The real estate industry has been upside down since the crash of the mortgage industry in 2006 which arose out of what is known as “Toxic Mortgages” issued to millions of homeowners that contained adjustable interest rates and negative amortization schedules. Thousands of these mortgages were placed on the books and given to persons who really did not qualify and whose financial documentation was often fraudulently submitted by mortgage brokerages and numerous banks themselves. As the interest rates adjusted upwards and the monthly payments zoomed higher the homeowners could no longer afford to pay.

Homeowners defaulted in droves on their mortgage loans and the ultimately this created sometime called a “mortgage meltdown”. Major banks and stock brokerages failed and went out of business. The U.S. Treasury stepped in and bailed a number of these financial entities out, but the foreclosure process had begun and continues under the weight of a bad economy that has lasted for three years and will likely continue well into 2012 or longer.

Banks and other mortgage lenders have been under a great deal of pressure recently because of the manner in which they have handled processing foreclosures throughout the country. Many mortgage lenders and their servicers have failed to follow foreclosure laws and have engaged in foreclosure fraud which has resulted in homeowners losing their homes through the foreclosure process illegally. These illegal practices have been well documented through court findings and news reports. As a result of these actions by mortgage servicers, a new legal industry has arisen in the form of wrongful foreclosure lawsuits.

Wrongful foreclosure lawsuits are a method of exercising foreclosure rights of homeowners facing foreclosure on their property. They also provide a defense to a foreclosure or a powerful weapon to recover a home that has been taken wrongfully by the mortgage servicer.

TYPES OF FORECLOSURES

There are two types of foreclosures. They are (1) a judicial foreclosure and (2) a non-judicial foreclosure. A judicial foreclosure requires that the bank or loan servicer first file a lawsuit in court and prove to the court that the foreclosure process is proper and that the homeowner has defaulted before the foreclosure sale can legally occur. A non-judicial foreclosure allows for the bank or loan servicer to simply give notice of default to the homeowner and file such notice in the county recorder’s office of the county where the property is located. Thereafter there is a time period (usually around 90 days) that the homeowner must bring the property current after the Notice of Default. If not, then the bank or servicer can file a Notice of Trustee Sale and sell the property at a Trustee’s Sale. This generally occurs within three weeks after the passage of a 90 day Notice of Default.

The crucial difference between a judicial foreclosure and a non-judicial foreclosure is time. A judicial foreclosure could take more than a year. A non-judicial foreclosure can be completed in less than six months. Where the property is located will have affect on whether the foreclosure process will be a judicial or non-judicial process. The mortgage contract also can dictate whether the process will be judicial or non-judicial. If the property is located in a judicial foreclosure state then a court process will be required. If in a non-judicial state then it will be processed through the foreclosure laws governing that foreclosure process. If the property is located in a non-judicial state but the mortgage contract states that any foreclosure will be conducted in a judicial manner, then the contract language will prevail.

THE FORECLOSURE PROCESS Regardless of whether the foreclosure is a judicial or non-judicial foreclosure there are foreclosure laws that must be followed and if the loan servicer does not follow the steps outlined then the foreclosure is subject to stoppage or being set aside if the foreclosure sale occurs. In every state, judicial or non-judicial, loan servicers are required to file or sign affidavits that proper foreclosure process has been followed. These statements, filed under penalty of perjury, must be accurate and true. If they are not the foreclosure may be deemed fraudulent and therefore illegal. Under such circumstances a homeowner, even if truly in default, can bring a wrongful foreclosure lawsuit and stop the foreclosure process or if the property has been sold can seek to set the foreclosure aside and can also seek monetary damages for the loan servicers fraudulent foreclosure.

Recently, many banks and loan servicers have committed fraud by signing bogus documents and submitting them to courts and county recorder offices falsely stating that they have complied with the foreclosure process and obtaining permission from judges to foreclose on the property or, in the case of non-judicial foreclosure, just filing a bogus affidavit in the recorder’s office and completing the sale. This process has become known as “robo signing” because those signing the bogus and fraudulent affidavits have been required by the loan servicer to just sign documents saying they’ve complied with foreclosure laws when in fact they have not. Mortgage lenders such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase have admitted that such practices occurred. For that reason several banks placed a foreclosure freeze on foreclosures for approximately 90 days the last quarter of 2010 in order to review such filings. Fraudulent affidavit singings were confirmed. The courts are now being flooded with “wrongful foreclosure lawsuits”.

THE BASIS FOR A WRONGFUL FORECLOSURE LAWSUIT

Wrongful foreclosure litigation is based on a number of arguments that can support a homeowner’s claim such as:

• Failure to follow the mortgage contract requirements of notice and opportunity to cure any claimed mortgage delinquencies before commencing a foreclosure on the property. (Many mortgage deed of trusts require such a notice and loan servicers routinely ignore this notice).

• Failure to comply with notice requirements of statutory foreclosure laws.

• Failure to or fraudulently providing an affidavit that foreclosure laws have been complied with before conducting a Trustee’s Sale of the property.

• Failure of the mortgage loan servicer having standing to foreclosure on the property. (The loan servicer or bank does not hold the note on the property and therefore is not the rightful entity foreclosing on the property).

A wrongful foreclosure can be based on any one or a combination of the above arguments for a wrongful foreclosure. One of the most common and now powerful arguments is the fact that the foreclosing entity does not hold the note on the property. Under what is known as the Uniform Commercial Code, a statutory scheme of laws governing negotiable instruments such as checks, bank notes and mortgage notes, and adopted by all the states, only the person or entity that holds the original note has proper standing to sue in court or exercise the foreclosure process.

Most mortgage lenders and services cannot prove they are the current holder of the note because of the large number of mortgages that have been bundled together and sold in packages called mortgage back securities. Each mortgage must have been signed and endorsed by the true holder of the note to the current person or entity claiming it owns the note. These mortgage backed securities were bundled together and sold to large Wall Street brokerages. The notes are more often than not lost, not endorsed or otherwise made unavailable. Therefore, when seeking to foreclosure there is more often than not inability of the loan servicer to show proof that it is the “holder of the note” If it cannot then the foreclosure is bogus. Several courts are now weighing in on this issue and finding in favor of homeowners who make this argument. Most recently the Massachusetts Supreme court ruled on two such cases upholding the lower court’s ruling that U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo wrongfully foreclosed on property because it had not shown it was the holder of the note. Other courts have held the same, including bankruptcy courts in Ohio and California. This is the start of an ominous trend for loan services and banks and a powerful weapon now in the hands of homeowners who will no longer be at the mercy of loan servicers and banks that choose to ignore the rules. Wrongful Foreclosure Lawsuits are the next wave in the mortgage fraud mess.

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