The New Yorker profiles a local foreclosure specialist

This week's (April 6, 2009) New Yorker profiles Leo Nordine, a successful foreclosure listing agent here in the Los Angeles area. This link only provides an article abstract, but you can still pick it up on the newsstands. The amusing article, by Tad Friend, also discusses our local foreclosure market. Leo Nordine is what I call a mega-REO lister. His is one of several local operations that have hundreds of foreclosure listings.

The article discusses Nordine's problems in getting a doctor out of a Burbank townhouse. My clients made an offer on the same townhouse (8000 Via Pompeii in the Cabrini development) last month. Alas, it went into multiple offers and my clients didn't get it -- they were getting their loan through an FHA program, and I was told the seller bank did not want to accept an FHA offer. That's wrong, in my opinion. However, Nordine's office was good to work with, as far as the mega-listers go.

One thing the article didn't say: this same foreclosed townhouse owner took all of his food, including milk, sugary stuff, etc. out of the refrigerator and cabinets and placed them along walls of the living room and dining area. The food was still sitting there each time my buyers and I saw the unit. I suppose he may have been trying to encourage a big-time bug and rodent infestation. I told Nordine's office about it during the offer process; I hope they were able to clean it up before the crawlies and critters got there!

Sunday reading -- from the L.A. Times and The New Yorker

The business section of today's L.A. Times contains two excellent consumer-oriented articles about foreclosure and loan modification. The first, Headed for Foreclosure? Here's What to Expect has definitions and a foreclosure timetable. The second, Common Loan Modifications Offered by Banks, delves into the types of loan modifications offered (warning: principal write-down is rare).

This week's The New Yorker offers one of the best articles on the mortgage meltdown crisis that I have read. It focuses on Florida, and is titled The Ponzi State, but the situations described are applicable to California and elsewhere. George Packer is the author. Unfortunately, you have to be a subscriber to read the article, but here's an abstract. The article is unique in that it profiles several different individuals that have been hurt by this downturn that haven't been much written about before, including folks that have never owned a home and state officials.

A great article about eviction from The New Yorker

Remember Addie Polk? She's the 90-year-old Akron lady who shot herself just as the sheriff was coming to evict her after her house was foreclosed. Here's the story from the Nov. 24, 2008 issue of The New Yorker. The article also explores preditory lending. Cut to the end: Addie survived, but it is unknown at present where she'll live.