Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC - News) and Reilly Mortgage Group announced today the signing of a definitive agreement for Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. to acquire the assets of Reilly Mortgage Group, a privately-owned, national, multifamily real estate finance firm headquartered in McLean, Virginia. Terms of the definitive agreement were not disclosed. Subject to regulatory approval, the acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of 2006. The business will become part of Wells Fargo Wholesale Banking’s Specialized Financial Services Group.

Reilly Mortgage was the first mortgage banker approved under Fannie Mae’s Delegated and Underwriting Servicing Program in 1988 and also one of the first companies approved as an FHA MAP (Multi-Family Accelerated Processing) lender. It has received the Multi-Housing News Capital Choice Award for Freddie Mac program Plus® Loans and FHA Loans, the Apartment Finance Today Readers’ Choice Award for FHA Loans, and was named a top multifamily lender by National Real Estate Investor, Midwest Real Estate News and Multi-Housing News. Reilly Mortgage was sold by a group of investors led by Stonehurst Capital, LLC and was advised in the sale by Beekman Advisors, Inc. (more…)

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With gas at $3 a gallon, buyers are less willing to spend hours driving from one open house to another. Real estate agents wonder whether it makes sense to burn through a tank of gas taking prospective buyers or renters around to look at places they may find of little interest. Everyone is trying to make better use of the Internet to save money on gas.

Higher energy prices are also helping push some would-be buyers out of the market. Lance McDaniel, 40, an environmental engineer with a wife, two children and a baby on the way, would seem to be an ideal homeowner candidate: stable employment with the Air National Guard, good credit and only a small amount of debt. And he’s the adult son of a banker father who knows the value of a good investment. (more…)

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Tax breaks are frequently cited as motivation for buying a home. But homeownership tax benefits are not always clear-cut. Here are five myths that could cost you. 1) My mortgage interest will reduce my tax bill. This is true for the majority of homeowners, but not for all. And this tax break won’t work forever. To take tax advantage of your home loan’s interest, you must itemize and come up with a total that exceeds your standard amount. On 2006 tax returns, the standard deductions will be $5,150 for single taxpayers, $7,550 for head of household filers and $10,300 for married couples who file jointly. These amounts increase each year to account for inflation.

Taxpayers who buy a home late in the year, for instance, might find the standard deduction is more beneficial initially. If you make only a few payments in a tax year, you might not pay enough interest to exceed standard amounts. The benefit of mortgage interest also could be a myth if you’ve lived in your home for a long time since you likely are paying more toward your loan’s principal instead of interest. 2) All costs related to my home are deductible. This is flat-out false. “Some buyers think, hope, they can write off everything connected with the house,” says Kathy Tollaksen, a CPA at Sikich LLP in Aurora, Ill. “Not so. Association fees and property insurance costs are not deductible.” Neither is private mortgage insurance. And you can’t deduct basic maintenance, repair or home improvement costs either. You should keep track of home-improvement expenses, however. They add to your home’s basis, which you subtract from the sale price to determine your profit and whether any of it is taxable. (more…)

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Assuming that John Talbott in his book Sell Now! has established his case for an actual and vulnerable real estate bubble and regardless of his reasoning as so what has caused it, where is all of this going? If you own residential property, maybe even if you don’t, you may want to sit down. Talbott sees the bubble not so much bursting as unraveling and he sees it happening on a number of fronts. He sees the biggest threat as adjustable rate and interest only mortgages coming home to roost.

With a glut of houses on the market, prices fall even further. Adding to this is the author’s perception that real estate is not subject to the usual requirements of supply and demand. That is, he perceives the housing market as being capable of instantaneously switching from a buyer’s to a seller’s market literally overnight with prices changing accordingly even if no properties have actually changed hands. Inventories can move in a matter of days from a two to three month supply to a six or eight month supply if new houses already in the pipeline are completed while sales slow and sellers need to get out or decide to cash out. (more…)

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If you would, imagine that mortgages were automobiles, and you had the power to witness every sale. Every day, you would watch, dumbfounded, as pizza deliverers passed up Priuses and bought Hummers instclick here for articleead. You would cringe as 16-year-olds screeched off the lot in souped-up cars, destined to die young.

If mortgages were cars, you would see people making these mistakes all the time. Too often, consumers get home loans that are inappropriate or too risky. Regulators are wrestling with the question of what to do about it. Whose job is it to decide that a particular loan is unsuitable for a specific customer? “Who am I to tell you that you’re eligible for this kind of loan, but you’re not suitable for it?” banker Robert Broeksmit asked at a recent Federal Trade Commission workshop. A consumer advocate retorted in an interview, “It can be boiled down to this: Don’t offer things that people can’t pay and really are rip-offs.” (more…)

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With the real estate market slower than anytime in the last three years, more realty agents and loan brokers are looking for customers in segments often forgotten by the mainstream real estate industry — minority communities. “For the longest time it wasn’t quite popular to be a minority,'’ said Hilda Ramirez, a director of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors and co-founder of the Hispanic Association of Realtors and Affiliates. “But suddenly corporate America has awakened and it’s the hottest ticket in town.”

Nationally, 58 percent of Asians, 48 percent of Hispanics and 46 percent of blacks own their homes, compared with 74 percent of whites, according to 2004 data from the U.S. Census Bureau. But 60 percent of first-time U.S. home buyers in the next decade will come from these “underserved” communities, said Maria Valentin, diversity marketing director for First American Title Company, which hosted the conference. (more…)

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A flattening yield curve and rising interest rates are usually indicators of a faltering financial sector. But the sector’s performance has risen steadily since October. In fact, since then the S&P 500 financial sector has outperformed the S&P 500 – in contrast with the preceding 15 months.

Help for Struggling Homeowners could, in turn, help the lenders. Success is tied to real estate for Old Canal Financial Corp. also, but from a different angle. The firm (number 408 on the 500) purchases nonperforming real estate debt from banks, and works out payment plans with distressed borrowers. This focus enabled the company, founded in 2003, to grow revenues nearly 65 percent in 2005, to $8.65 million. Greg Fernandez, Old Canal’s president, expects his business to grow at a similar rate in 2006 as borrowers who used creative financing such as interest-only loans and adjustable-rate mortgages experience difficulties with rising interest rates. “So many loans are tied to fluctuating interest rates,” and banks are often eager to sell non-performing debt, Mr. Fernandez explains. “After 90 days of no collection, a bank would rather get rid of that debt so it doesn’t have to increase its loan loss reserve.” (more…)

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A faulty or even fake appraisal is said to be at the basis of every fraudulent mortgage transaction. But not every appraiser is at fault, or at least willingly so. James Blaydes of Blaydes & Associates, a Peru, Ill., appraisal firm says that in many cases, appraisers can’t stand up to pressure put on them by mortgage brokers. Either they “hit the numbers” as instructed, he said at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Fraud Issues Conference in Chicago recently, or they are blackballed.

Speaking for the Appraisal Institute, which has been calling on lawmakers to address mortgage fraud since 1981, when the problem was believed to be in its infancy, the Illinois appraiser said there are plenty of ways to fudge a valuation besides packing the final number. Among other things, appraisers can ignore the best comparables, or use properties in better neighborhoods as comps, he said. They also can mis-describe a property, such as labeling a commercial building as single-family. Or they can fail to mention physical problems. But appraisers aren’t the only ones who commit such flagrant fouls, Blaydes told the conference. Sometimes loan brokers do their own dirty work. (more…)

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