City of Aventura Mortgage Report

Today an article ran in the Miami Herald regarding mortgage fraud. It's vital that our readers know what's going on in the mortgage industry. The City of Aventura is a new town that has experienced recent growth. I'm confident that there are many Aventura residents exploring a first mortgage or refinancing in response to the city's development. This makes mortgage news highly relevant to Aventura real estate and the residents that are buying and selling condos in the area.

I hope you find this article as informative as I did. Enjoy.

Seven more arrested in mortgage fraud

BY MONICA HATCHER
mhatcher@MiamiHerald.com

Seven new suspects accused of mortgage fraud were rounded up by police, as Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez unveiled new legislation to increase criminal penalties for people convicted of real estate fraud.

The proposal would allow property appraisers to revalue assessments in neighborhoods plagued with fraud, where inflated values have driven up property taxes for nearby homeowners. It would also create a statewide mortgage fraud task force.

''A lot of people think . . . [mortgage fraud] is just a way of making money, that it's a business, it's an industry. But they are going to find out very differently, '' Alvarez said at a news conference. ``If you've done it, you might be in trouble.''

Launched in September, the Miami-Dade task force is a partnership of lawmakers, law enforcement and business leaders formed to devise ways to combat and prevent the widespread mortgage fraud that slammed South Florida during the real estate boom.

Subcommittees have been meeting over the last several months to craft reform measures, including educational outreach, an industry code of conduct and legislation. The task force recently released a standardized complaint form the public can use to report fraud. State Senators Gwen Margolis, D-Bay Harbor Islands, and Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, and state Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, R-Miami, introduced the measures and said they will back them in Tallahassee next year.

Amid the real estate market slowdown and record foreclosures that have cast a spotlight on questionable loans, police said they had received more than 1,000 complaints of suspected mortgage fraud in Miami-Dade.

Included in the recent spate of arrest is Mariana Navarrete, 44, the registered owner of Confin Home Mortgage & Loan and United Consultants Group, who was arrested last month and accused of recruiting family members to steal the identity of an employee and using it to take out loans.

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Aventura Real Estate Future - Positive Thinking

It is imperative to always study and research the investments one is contemplating on making. There are many financial institutions, advisors, and experts located in the city of Aventura. It’s important that real estate agents in Aventura and mortgage brokers in Aventura look at the past and present performance of the investment as well as the future outlook. The future is never definitive, but there are factors that help in making an educated decision for the future performance of your investment.

As opposed to stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other financial vehicles, a real estate investment does not take 100% upfront capital contribution. Finances are readily available, and help the real estate investor take the lesser of the risk on his/her investment. This is where the concept of O.P.M. (Other People’s Money) comes into play. The best way to make money is to put as little of yours at risk, while at the same time enjoying the benefits of the gains. When looking at the real estate market in Aventura or elsewhere in South Florida, one can see from the past that it had its ups and downs (way up in the last four decades!). The present is down, but the future looks bright for the South Florida real estate market – whether it’s your luxury Aventura condo or first real estate investment. I’m far from being a real estate investment expert, but if you won’t take it from me, the following article by Blanche Evans, further illustrates my thoughts…

"While real estate softens in the rest of the country, three out of four wealthy Floridians remain optimistic that their homes will continue to appreciate in value, according to a survey by Harris Interactive and The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., a wealth management company.
They are more optimistic than those in other states, the survey found. Nearly three quarters (73 percent) of South Floridians expect to see double-digit increases in the value of their primary homes over the next five years, with half anticipating an increase of 20 percent or more. By comparison, just over one in four of the wealthy outside the area expects a 20 percent hike in value, said the report."

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I like to highlight and start with POSITIVE THINKING;however, to be fair let's take a look at what Mad Money's Jim Cramer had to say about real estate investments. Again, remember there are always two sides to every story. Investors should always be well educated about each pro and con before they "put the pedal to the metal."