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Friday, August 15, 2008
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12 comments:
While going through the Yahoo Foreclosures web site, I came across an address that was new to me. I shouldn't quite say address, as the free version of the web site lists only the street and square footage. To identify the property in question, I go to the Fairfax county database, pull up a street, and try to find a property with the matching square footage.
So, I typed in 'Pine Oaks Way', sorted by last sale date (reasoning that a newer sale was more likely to go bad), and noticed that the last two properties sold on that street were both owned by the same person (3108 & 3110), and the transfers occurred in january. These are single-family homes that are next to eachother and sold for 800-1,000k back in 2004-2005. Sure, they could be relatives, but something seemed fishy.
A quick search of the WaPo database revealed a tale of flippers flopping. Unfortunately, there is no pretty way to format a table, so I'll leave it to the reader to do a search of the WaPo database for 'Milko Montero' and 'Milcah Moreno' (the latter also happens to be a mortgage broker).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/admin/homepricereports
[remember to check the boxes marked 'Owner/Buyer name' and 'Seller Name')
You'll see that they have several properties they weren't able to unload at the end, and that their flips moved upmarket over the years. If you google some of the later properties (e.g. 23261 Meadowvale, 1222 LONGFELLOW ST NW), they appear to have been short sales earlier this year. Although 1 or two properties might have been their residence, howmuch you wanna bet that the rest were bought with 'owner occupied' loans (i.e. mortgage fraud)?
The only way to make a lot of money in this game was to start small and leverage your way up into expensive properties. That's the danger, too, that you'd be left holding more expensive bags.
Whole thing sounds to me like The Merry-Go-Round has broken down
Harriet, thank you for the help yesterday, and allow me to ask the question one more time today:
Does anyone have recommendations on safe apartment complexes in the Manassas/Centreville/Gainesville areas? My newlywed sister has a job in Manassas, her husband takes the bus to his job in Tysons Corner, and they need the least expensive, most accessible, safest apartment possible, ASAP, since they have been living in my guest room since their wedding ;)
tabitha,
My recommendation is to get a real estate agent involved (seriously). There are a lot of good townhomes for rent, and an agent will be able to help your sister considerably. The drawback is that many agents don't consider helping renters to be as much a part of their job. However, I know a few in the area who do and can provide a recommendation if needed.
I'd strongly recommend the TH rental as the way to go. Just stay out of Irongate.
This is for LW re: townhouse purchase. My thoughts are to find a TH you love or like a lot and that will serve your needs for many years. If it is out of your price range, determine what you think the mkt value is and make that offer. Finally, ask for closing help. Be creative and don't settle. If you do settle, social science research demonstrates that people often regret what they don't do rather than what they do...
Tabitha,
I recommend looking in Centreville and considering the bus schedules for getting to tysons. Rt. 28 and 234 are no picnic getting to 66 from Manassas and the PRTC bus will only get him to WFC metro or DC.
Wherever they go, scout out the complex... check it out at 10pm on a Saturday night and see if it feels safe then.
This just in . . . Region’s foreclosures increase as prices, home sales drop, report says
The Washington Examiner
http://tinyurl.com/5bylwg
Virginia had the 10th most foreclosures in the nation during July, with 5,745.
Fairfax County had the highest foreclosure total in Northern Virginia, at 1,731. Prince William County’s foreclosures declined from June, with its total of 1,266 down 17 percent.
Ouch!
Tabitha,
I commute from Centreville into Washington, DC daily and must say that the bus service there is marginal.
The closest stop to me is at Stone Road & Rt. 29. The last bus from Vienna to Stone Road is at 7:30, and it is packed.
So, IMHO, I would find the best bus routes and work backwards from there.
So, according to that data, 2997 of 5745 foreclosures in the state of VA were in Fairfax or Prince William counties last month.
52%
1) Is that reasonable? We've argued a lot here that the inner areas will have fewer homes going into foreclosure for various reasons, but there are additional hot spots besides NOVA, such as Richmond, Roanoke, Danville, and most importantly the Hampton Roads area. Also, while I'd certainly believe FFX and PWC were top two, at least in our area, were Loudon, Faquier and Stafford absolutely silent?
2) Regardless, sheer magnitude of these numbers is bad. Almost 6K houses into foreclosure in a month. That's getting close to one foreclosure per thousand people estimated to live in the state... per month, again, it needs to be reiterated.
3) That PWC number is down 17% MOM. That must be good news right? Only when looked at with a mirror. It means last month there were 1525 in June. Taking the estimated population for PWC just as the whole state above, that's essentially four foreclosures per thousand people in the county. In one month.
Well, thank God it's only 3 foreclosures per thousand people this month! And whatever you do, don't even think about renters, multi-family units, or just plain large families.
thanks for the help RE: apartments thus far!
joyrenee, my brother-in-law would either take the PRTC bus from Manassas to Vienna Metro, or the Metrobus from Centreville to Vienna Metro. I looked up the bus maps/schedules, and am having a hard time figuring out what the maps mean (is it just me?). Under both circumstances, he would prefer to take the last stop in Manassas or Centreville before the bus goes directly to the Metro station. Do you know which stops they are?
Tabitha,
It is difficult to interpret the Metro mumbo jumbo.
Maybe the map here, http://tinyurl.com/54t9w7 helps?
I owned 3110 and sold to Milko's wife, Milcah, in 2005. Milko also purchased 3108 in 2004, but his brother occupied that home.
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