11 million Americans are underwater in their mortgages.  That's roughly 1 in 4 homeowners.  How about another government bailout to help?

The Obama administration is pulling a lever or two so this nasty problem should be fixed just in time for the election, right?  Didn't they try something like this before or did that just not work last time?

There are several reasons why we believe it won't work this time either.  The Republicans will be blocking it.  Then there's that persnickety problem of exactly where will the money be coming from.

Here's the main article from Bloomberg, plus several more interesting takes we've found across the net.

Obama Wants To Expand Government Reach Of Federal Assistance …

Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said the refinancing plan proposes “to get out of the hole we're in by digging deeper.” “He wants lenders to make more of the same risky loans …

Publish Date: 02/01/2012 17:52

http://newsone.com/nation/associatedpress6/obama-government-housing-assistance/

Geithner: More Fannie reform details in spring | Hot Penny Stocks

By Ronald D. Orol , MarketWatch WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on Thursday discussed some of his goals for financial reform in 2012, including a plan to provide more details in the spring about the … He said the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie and Freddie's regulator, is “still open to examining the economic case” for reducing the principal owed by borrowers who have mortgages owned by the two mortgage giants.

Publish Date: 02/02/2012 16:33

http://www.hotpennystocks.co/wall_street/top_stories/geithner-more-fannie-reform-details-in-spring/

Related articles

• Why Fannie and Freddie are Hesitating to Help Homeowners (propublica.org)
• Obama wants Congress to act on expanded home refinance plan (usatoday.com)

Forbes has a slide show featuring properties across the nation which are selling for around $1 million.  Some of the cities are Phoenix, Nashville, San Francisco, New Orleans, and New York, or course.

I think what is interesting is how many days the properties have been on the market which is a good market gauge.

It is not surprising that your million dollars doesn't buy you much in San Francisco for example.  When you compare that property to the one from Dallas,  it's almost a no brainer.

Here's  the list of $1 million properties

Related articles by Zemanta

• Osama bin Laden's Abandoned Florida Mansion (neatorama.com)
• In San Francisco, Shopping 3 Big-Ticket Properties (dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Mansion squatters return in a big way (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

• Make More Money With These Affiliate Marketing Tips If you still haven't gotten used to affiliate marketing, use the following tips to really boost your business and enhance your profits. {Whether|Regardless of whether|Whether or not|If perhaps} you {want|would like|intend} to target a {niche|specific niche market} {like|such as} {video marketing goldmine|video marketing goldmine|video marketing goldmine|video marketing goldmine|video marketing goldmine......
• Top 3 Places to Buy Coins When Looking for a Deal Having a coin collection is something which more and more people are getting into every year. This is because it is fun and it can be quite profitable when you get a good deal on a coin. This is because some coins can be worth nothing more than the face......
• Real-estate Hosting - Don't Overpay! Recently, I d been using WordTracker.com to see which "real estate property website" phrases get searched quite often through Google, Yahoo and similar major search engines. It surprised me that the phrase "property web hosting" and also the longer "real-estate internet page hosting" were two of the most commonly searched......
• How To Pre-Sell A Product Using Article Marketing ? We all know that selling products online is one the best method to make money from Internet. The most critical part of selling a product is showing the "right product to right visitors". I would say, that's the secret of marketing. You will get a right product (your own or......
• 10 Things To Know Before You Buy Commercial Real Estate Contemplating the purchase of your first (or next!) piece of commercial real estate is exciting.  Many investors start their real estate portfolios by owning single family homes - assets that are generally more time-intensive to care for, and which offer less cash flow as a general rule.  The switch......

Case in Point:  I have an old house with several tenants.  One tenant  has been very quick to ask for things he really doesn't need.  In fact, at times he has demanded we fix things we don't have the budget for.  How to handle a tenant like this without him moving?

Here's what we did and so far the psychology  is working. 

He has a little garden that has costs much higher water bills.  Unfortunately, all the tenants share the same water meter.  We can't change that, and that is a different subject for a different post.

We explained the water bill to him and told him we had checked the entire property for any leaks.  We think the extra $150 jump in the bill was coming from his garden.

"What?  I don't water that much."

To summarize we had all our facts and figures to present to him.  We know exactly what the averages are for the water per unit per month.  Math is math and really isn't easy to dispute, no matter how hard people sometimes try.

He tried to blame it on some of the other tenants, but we were ready for that argument also.  In other words, we had done our homework.  We know what they use too.  We were ready to go to "court". 

In the end, he saw it our way, but it took some patient convincing.    He had tried to "ask" for a new kitchen floor.  We explained to him he was not in a position to negotiate anything.  Times are hard, we told him.   Besides, we reminded him, he is paying $50 less rent per month than he should be paying. 

"We may need to do up on the rents," we said.

He is getting rid of the garden.  Case closed. 

Take Away:

1. Do your homework.  Make sure you have all your facts and figures before you approach a tenant about anything.  You will be a force to reckon with when you are armed with knowledge.  Knowledge really is power, and even your dumbest tenants will know that.

2. Be nice.  You don't have to get rough with them.   Keep the dialogue open but let them know you won't be bullied.  Adult bullying is no different from kid bullying.  Don't let them take the first punch.

3. Be confident.  Let your tenants know you are running a business.  

Related articles by Zemanta

• 51 Blog Posts Written by Landlords about Nightmare Tenants(rentersinsurance.org)

• Where I Stand on My Resolutions - 2nd Quarter Well, that's it, the year is nearly half over.  The summer is here (I hope it's a cool one, as I don't care much for the heat), and with it, it's time to look back over my goals for the year and see how I'm doing on completing them.  I......
• How To Avoid Paying $900/Month For Your iPhone If you reached this site with questions about AT&T, I can help you. I can help you get free minutes, free text messages, and your cell phone bill reduced, even if they are legitimate charges. Just send me an email, I'll respond quickly and we'll get any unnecessary charges removed.......
• Part V - Getting Your Site Indexed In Exactseek Some may disagree with me on the importance of Exactseek. After all, Google, Yahoo, and MSN are the top three sites (not in that order), and then we jump to Exactseek, which is ranked in the top 2000. However, in the search engine game, Exactseek is a major player with......
• Shopaholic Takes Manhatten Shopaholic Abroad a.k.a. Shopaholic Takes Manhatten was the fifth book I read for my book challenge. This sequel is just as funny as the first with no loss of charm, wit or sheer hilarity. Despite getting herself back on a fiscal even keel at the end of the last outing, Becky just......
• Saving Money On Your Country Garden Landscaping Projects When it comes to creating a garden landscape, the planning process can really require you to think long and hard about what you really want to do, and part of this has to do with figuring out the budget that will accompany your plans. If you do not put thought......

Those are the questions being asked since the Federal Reserve came out proclaiming it would continue to keep the bank's rates to zero, for a while anyway.

Kansas City Reserve Bank President Thomas Hoenig is dissenting with the policy.

Read Hoenig Says Rates Dangerous

XE.com – MONEY MARKETS-Interbank dollar rates fall on Fed economy view

on U.S. interest rates. Minutes of the June 22-23 Fed meeting released on Wednesday. showed officials wanted to be ready to consider additional. steps to boost the U.S. economy if an already softening outlook …

Publish Date: 07/15/2010 12:49

http://www.xe.com/news/2010-07-15%2013:49:00.0/1276889.htm

Pimco's Gross: Fed won't raise rates for at least two years …

Pacific Investment Management Co.'s Bill Gross said the Federal Reserve is unlikely to raise interest rates for two to three years as it seeks to keep the economy from slipping back into recession.

Publish Date: 08/13/2010 6:59

http://www.thetradingreport.com/2010/08/13/pimcos-gross-fed-wont-raise-rates-for-at-least-two-years/

Fed official sees bigger risks in future, not now | The Daily …

One of the many challenges of being a Fed official is having to make decisions on interest rates and other policies actions now — based on your best thinking of what the future will hold. When James Bullard, president of the Federal …

Publish Date: 08/13/2010 11:25

http://dailycaller.com/2010/08/13/fed-official-calls-low-rates-a-dangerous-gamble/

Who will fix the economy? The Fed, Congress, shoppers and …

Typically, the Fed can lower interest rates to encourage Americans to borrow money and spend it, invigorating the economy. But the benchmark interest rate controlled by the Fed has been almost zero for more than a year now. …

Publish Date: 08/13/2010 16:15

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/nation/who-will-fix-the-economy-the-fed-congress-shoppers-and-businesses-all-shrug-100638024.html

Related articles by Zemanta

• Fed economist: US must avoid mistakes of the past (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• UPDATE 1-Fed's Hoenig-Keeping rates too low 'dangerous gamble' (reuters.com)

• La Contenta Golf Course, Valley Springs, CA La Contenta Golf Course is located in: Valley Springs, CAPhone: 209-772-1081 Website: http://www.empiregolf.com/empire/lacontenta Course History: This gorgeous course was just renovated this year and it is truly a course that all golfers in the area should make the effort to play at least once. It originally opened in the......
• Haggin Oak Golf Course, Sacramento, CA Haggin Oaks Golf Course is located in: Sacramento, CA Phone: 916-481-GOLF Website: http://www.hagginoaks.com/ Course History: Haggin Oaks is known as the one of the oldest and most respected courses in the Bay Area. Numerous PGA events have been held here since it opened in 1932 and it has seen......
• Compound Interest Week: Real Interest Rates of High-Interest Saving Accounts On Monday we learned about how long it took to double your money at various interest rates. Yesterday, we learned that in order to come up with the real rate of return we need to subtract inflation. Personal Finance bloggers love to write about about high-interest savings accounts. As of......
• US Inflation Much Higher Than Reported: Get Ready For 10% Inflation Today's post is an excerpt from a letter by Martin Hutchinson. He's done a great job of explaining why interest are so low and why inflation will probably run 10% pretty soon. Back in the early 1990s, the Fed and its chairman - Alan Greenspan - had a problem. And......
• Reduced Required Rates by 0.5% for All Standing Orders with Rates Greater Than 15% After watching for several days with no activity I was getting anise.  So I decided to reduced required rates by 0.5% for all standing orders with rates great than 15%.  If that would have reduced the rate below 15% I left the rate at 15.01%.  I did this at 11pm......

Thanks to the Trouble Assets Relief Program some states will be receiving mortgage payment relief.

This is almost unbelievable.  Where will all this money come from?  

The government feels the mortgage crisis has now reached the middle class or those folks who used to be able to pay their bills.

Here's another suggestion.  Holding on to a job might be the best way to pay off a mortgage.  People are losing their jobs so therefore they lose their homes.  What people need most now are jobs.

Here's more information

• Understanding the Job of a Coin Collecting Shop Dealer Coin collecting shop dealers have plenty of things to deal with as they work to keep their coin collector shop up and running. There are plenty of different hats that the owner must wear, making the job difficult and somewhat complicated. If you are interested in owning or running a......
• Lifestyle Design In Action - Why You Should Reduce Your Monthly Expenses photo credit: 丹涅拉 - Dani Gama If money was no object, what would you do? What changes would you make to your lifestyle? Many people these days are trapped in the "rat race", that unfortunate phrase that represents the never-ending cycle of earning and spending. Most of us have......
• My Job Now Has People Asking If We Want to Do Some MLM Photo Credit: The Wandering Angel It's Monday again and I'm getting ready for work later today.Friday I found out that some people had been asked other employees (including a manager) if they would like to join a business opportunity to earn some extra money on the side. It involves......
• Personal Finance Equations You Should Know: the Cash Flow Equation Paying bills is a fact of life. We all have them, and we're required to pay them. Otherwise, after a few months of not paying them, you'll probably find yourself sitting in a cold, dark house with no electricity, no water, and probably not have a house/apartment to sit in......
• Reverse Mortgages: Are They A Good Idea? By now, most of the people across the country have seen some type of advertisement touting a reverse mortgage as the solution to all of their financial ills.  What could be better than taking out a loan that provides you with money that does not necessarily have to be paid......

Housing sales took a nose dive in July, according to the numbers crunch.  I'm using Nashville as an example because that's the real estate market I am directly involved in and I know it all too well.

The last year has been very difficult for us as landlords.  We've had a huge turnover in tenants; much larger than usual.  We're still getting 30 day notices, which is very strange for this time of year.  Usually, the season starts to wind down along the middle of August.

The article from the Tennessean sums it up.  The Obama tax credit for first time homebuyers is gone.  The article further points out  those  new homebuyers have already bought.  That means houses were sold earlier this year and sales are not being spread out over the remaining months of 2010.

I won't criticize the Obama tax credit.  I've already done that ad nausium.  But I will say this.  You can't keep on interfering with the markets.  I don't think you can tweak and play with the real estate market, or any market for that matter without causing further damage. 

The important thing is to look to the future.  What can we expect?  More of the same, perhaps?

I am guessing there won't be any more stimulus for first time buyers.   It will go the way of the clunkers for cash program, thank goodness.   What I do see as a possibility is that the Team Obama will now turn to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae distressed homeowners and will give them some sort of bailout.  I didn't think that was conceivable a few weeks ago.  I now know anything can happen with this White House.

That will be cataclysmic.  Homeowners who are paying off their mortgages will think it isn't fair and why should they keep on struggling?  One suggestion is to bring hope and change to Freddie and Fannie in the form of a complete makeover.

Still, I'm generally optimistic.  I think once we're past the New Year, things will improve.  Real estate will make a comeback.  It always has.  That is what keeps me going.  I know the cycle will turn.  But I think the government ought to leave these markets alone now and let the chips fall where they will. 

Related articles by Zemanta

• Pending Sales of Existing U.S. Homes Decreased 2.6% in June (businessweek.com)
• Freddie Mac Post Huge Loss, Wants 1.8 BILLION In Federal Aid (huffingtonpost.com)
• Gov't likely to keep big mortgage market role (sfgate.com)
• Fannie Mae Seeks $1.5 Billion in Aid as Loss Narrows (businessweek.com)

• Brief Clarifications On Internet Marketing So what is internet marketing? Internet marketing is using the Internet as a tool to look for a product or products, examining that products or product competition or competitors. Then depending on this research using the Internet as an advertising and or marketing path to endorse and sale a definite......
• The Dangers of Financial Illiteracy Financial illiteracy is a growing problem throughout the world, and as the recent housing crisis has brought to light, it can have dangerous consequences. There are a few basic financial tips that everyone can use to increase their financial literacy the easy way, and many of these tips can help......
• Home Prices Continue to Fall CNN has an article about The National Association of Realtors saying that home sales dropped 8.6% in November. That's a pretty steep drop for just one month. What I take from that is that this may be one of the best times to buy a home. Buyers have not only......
• Making Use Of The Potency Of News Reports In Your Blogging Transformations in technological innovation continue to impact bloggers. Bloggers can scarcely contend in speed with Twitter. Most markets can be associated with news stories with a little imagination. Popular trends are perfect topics to blog about if you wish to increase your site visits dramatically. Finding the best tools for......
• Using Social Bookmarking To Promote Your Online Business Social bookmarking websites have been used for several years for finding and driving high quality traffic to business websites. It's a simple idea, marketers post quality content designed to help people, and a common result is that exchange will produce quality traffic to your site. As you can guess, since......

Dean Gardens, Atlanta's pink elephant mansion has finally sold after being on the market for a whooping fifteen years.

The Pepto Bismal Pink colored manse sold finally with a $25 million price slash.  The house will be demolished soon.

It's 32,000 square feet of, well, unique decorating. The nursery  actually looks somewhat sinister to me.  Kind of reminds me of an old department store here in Nashville where they had carousel horses floating all over the place.

Reasons for selling?

"The operating expenses far exceeded my expectations," says home seller Larry Dean.

Yep, some real estate investments are like that.

Read more about Atlanta's Pink Elephant 

Related articles by Zemanta

• Atlanta's Pink Elephant Finally Sells, $25 Million Off (blogs.wsj.com)

• Housing Update From WSJ Todays WSJ had a decent article on housing, 'Housing Glut Gives Buyers Upper Hand'. Seems like certain parts of the country are in for a bumpy ride. Here are some excerpts.*A quarterly survey of housing conditions in 28 major metropolitan areas by The Wall Street Journal showed that the inventory......
• Why Real Estate Investors Should Buy Gold & Silver Real Estate Investing is the ultimate investment for passive income, without question, but only at the right time, during the right cycles!  I have been investing in Real Estate for over 5 years and have learned that there are smarter ways to capitalize on Real Estate other than the obvious!......
• Real Estate Investments - Good Idea or Bad Idea? Right now, if there was a market that had bad news written all over it, it would be real estate. The housing crisis has made investors jumpy, the economy appears to be tanking and home values are plummeting across the country. Would you believe that this is actually a good......
• Stocks vs. Real Estate May's Money Magazine tries to answer the Stocks vs. Real Estate question (see page 94). I had thought that real estate was going to come out the big winner. I know that real estate has been really popular of late, but I had it as the favorite due to the......
• Making Your Money Back: Similarities between the Tech Bubble and the Housing Bubble This post is a summary of a private discussion I've had with reader Josh regarding my post on spotting investment bubbles. He asks: When could I reasonably expect my Atlanta condo to be worth what it was 4 years ago when I bought it? I thought the discussion and similarities......

What does this mean?

We believe it's political.  He's trying to aid distressed homeowners who got on the wrong side of the real estate cycle.  But hey, people do that all the time.   They over invest or they invest in the wrong real estate at the wrong time.  Does that mean our tax dollars should be used to bail them out?

Most importantly, exactly where will this money be coming from?  They're having to look underneath the couch cushions now for coins.

Read Obama's  Freddie/ Fannie Bailout

Related articles by Zemanta

• Conservatives Already Slamming Obama Over Rumored Fannie And Freddie Mortgage Giveaway (businessinsider.com)
• Treasury Denies Talk Of Massive Homeowner Bailout (businessinsider.com)
• An Even Bigger Gigantic Bailout from the Obama Administration? (yzerfonteinchronicles.blogspot.com)
• Fiscal Stimulus, Executive Branch Style (wallstreetpit.com)

• Things to Consider Before Investing in Real Estate This post was written by Tony.  Real estate is a great investment, because as Teddy Roosovelt once said “you should buy land; they’ve stopped making it.” It’s a great uber-long term investment. But like any good investor, you need to realize a few important points before jumping into the......
• Real Estate Investments - Good Idea or Bad Idea? Right now, if there was a market that had bad news written all over it, it would be real estate. The housing crisis has made investors jumpy, the economy appears to be tanking and home values are plummeting across the country. Would you believe that this is actually a good......
• Book Review: Real Estate Investing for Dummies Ah, it's time again for another book review, one of my favorite parts of having a blog of my very own.  This week, we're looking at another book in my favorite money management series (among other things), Real Estate Investing For Dummies.  Now, there are plenty of books out there......
• All the Super Success Secrets For Commercial Real Estate Investing That The Guru's Don't Want You To Know!   In it, we will deliver a complete overview of what it takes to be successful in commercial real estate investing. This is coming from our experience, and not our desire to sell you something. It is *real*... not some hyped up, over-emotional pitch designed to get you to take......
• Rick Santelli Dropping Knowledge Bombs on Real Estate, Deflation, & Government Stimulus Rick Santelli's knowledge bombs are one of the few reasons I watch CNBC. He's one of the few who refuses to hype the pro-confidence, "sell the hope" marching meme that CNBC is promoting these days. If there are any politicians out there reading this blog -- and I know there......

The trend is that people will be moving closer to cities-again.  They will not be locating farther away in the suburbs because of higher gas prices and expenses.  Baby boomers want to be closer to what they need.  They do not want to drive everywhere.  Younger people want the neighborhood experience instead of the big lawn, super maintenance of the burbs.

That means savy real estate investors need to pay close attention to these trends.  This is very important because location is everything.  The younger generations want to connect more- and they want to do a lot of it on foot.  They want to be able to walk around and see their neighbors. 

Baby boomers will be driving less and want to be able to get groceries and supplies without getting into their cars. 

Drive around the outskirts of your city and notice the rehabbing going on in the closer neighborhoods.  If a coffee shop has already opened up, you may be already behind the trend.  Look, observe and then invest in houses that need rehabbing- easy rehabbing.  Or if zoned right, you could just tear down a old house and build a new one or two on the lot.

Read ABC's Special Report: Real Estate Investors Investing Closer to Cities

• When Will Real Estate Investors Get Government Stimulus Funds? Many, dare I say most, people believe that real estate investors caused the real estate bubble. At the risk of upsetting the entire mainstream and non-real estate investing crowds, I don't believe this is the case. Why? Because few people seem to be realize is that the real estate......
• Reversion to the Mean: Real Estate to Fall Another 20 Percent Lots of people are making big bets, even betting with borrowed money at risk to their personal credit report (e.g. taking out a home loan on investment properties), on the long term direction of the real estate market. Real estate is always influenced by local trends, but on a......
• Free audio on how to build wealth investing in commercial real estate Greetings! Below, I have some interesting links regarding 1) the impact of the economy on commercial real estate 2) Real Estate investing vs. stocks 3) Job growth or lack of. We are coming up on interesting times.....opportunities abound! Anyway.... I was going through my email tonight and read an email......
• Living off dividends [or how to invest in Real Estate for cashflow] While surfing onlne, I came across this blog post: Real Estate as an asset class. Basically this guy wants to be able to live off his dividends at some point and his blog is devoted to that. He's wondering how real estate fits in. He invests in REITS but isn't......
• The Mortgage Crisis and Investments in Real Estate According to regional and state real estate analysts, the factors which previously fueled the housing boom of the last few years are easy to explain. The factors that fueled this boom in the real instate industry ranged significantly, including: - Interest rates that were historically low. - Flight-Risk Safety Investments......

Fannie is taking them to the wood shed, so to speak and it is probably about time.

Borrowers who are walking away and could have paid the mortgage will be held accountable for their actions.

Punishment:  They won't be able to get future insured mortgages.

Get tough politics? Common sense, if you're asking.

However, another sticky point arises.  How can the government really determine who could have paid vs who didn't?

It gets curiouser and curiouser as Alice would have said.

Read Fannie Mae get tough on 'strategic mortgage defaults'

• Strategic Defaults: I Hate to Say 'I Told You So' but... I'm not much for saying "I told you so" regarding my trends that will influence the markets in 2010, but this story of a young professional getting a free bachelor pad in the gorgeous sunshine state of Florida for 28 months (and counting) is just too newsworthy to pass up.......
• Saving Money with a Government Loan Option Buying a home is part of the American dream. For more than half of a century, Americans have been set on finding homes to hang their hats. Owning a home is a sign of stability and pride. However, financing a home can be a nightmare that interrupts the American dream.......
• More signs of the bottom behind us We are now over 28% above the March 9 bottom in the S&P, one of the best run ups since the depression. A bear rally? Maybe, but obviously, all data appears in hindsight, and only when that bottom is well behind us and we are obviously in a growth cycle,......
• Debtor's Remorse, Visualized Some seriously scary underwater homeowner chartporn via Bloomberg Businessweek. Finance people and math geeks (like me) plot these types of XY graphs in their head without thinking about it, which is probably why we avoid debt like the plague, but if more people could close their eyes and visualize just......
• Who's Failed Financial Policies? It seems popular on television news today.  They love to play and replay the tired campaign line from Barack Obama blaming the "failed policies of the Bush Administration" for the current crisis.  I know people are upset and looking for someone to blame for the current financial mess, but are......