Hathaway Duke

Arelia Taveras, 46, Bloomington, Minnesota, and Mark Jacobs, 58, Glen Head, New York. Taveras, who is accused of stealing a total of $99,142 from four clients, is charged with three counts of third-degree grand larceny, second-degree forgery, first-deg…

Dawn Renee Harpster, 38, Kidder, Missouri, pled guilty in federal court to defrauding a North Kansas City, Missouri bank in a series of loans. Harpster, formerly doing business as Northwest Missouri Title Co., LLC, Gallatin, Missouri, admitted that she…

Theresa Boardman, of the always excellent St. Paul Real Estate Blog, muses on the fate and future employment prospects of the growing list of unemployed mortgage brokers in the Twin Cities. (2600 0f 4000 mortgage brokers did not renew their licenses this year): [W]here will the 2600 local lenders who decided not to renew their licenses go? I have an idea. Perhaps the over worked REO* departments at some of the local banks will add staff. That would help the economy by providing jobs and by making it possible for the banks to actually sell the properties that they own instead of leaving them abandoned and vacant becasue there isn’t anyone at the bank who is actually available to return a phone call or make a decision. On the one hand, this is a pretty good idea - put all these people to work in the loss mitigation and REO departments - they obviously need the manpower. Supply meets demand and all that. On the other, we can assume that a goodly portion of these these 2600 + brokers were the amateurs that flooded the market to make a quick buck, and also were inflating appraisals, dotting the “i’s in liar loans, and involved in the other sketchy behaviors that got us into this mess in the first place. Though the idea of having those that made the mess help clean it up appeals to our sense of irony and poetic justice (in a “make the war criminals dig their own grave” sort of way) we’re not sure that this is who we want running Loss Mit/REO depts. Especially if the standard is “actually available to return a phone call or make a decision” since these are THE specific skill sets that the crap brokers universally lack. To the Realtors out there: Do you really want those half-assed brokers (who would never give a straight answer, never return a phone call, and screw up your deals) on the sell side, where you HAVE to deal with them? Didn’t think so.

Local Bridges of St. Paul: Keeping the Dream Alive [MNPost/Kimball] Tougher Sell at the Whitney [Strib] On the Front Lines of Foreclosure Counseling [Strib] Dolan Media Emerges as Foreclosure Play [MNPost/Beal] Elsewhere & Otherwise Cue the Morrisey: Housing Depressed [WSJ] New Home Sales Up, Prices Drop [WSJ] How to Know if Your Bank Deposits Are Insured [TheStreet]

Edward “Ted” House, Nathan Frisbie and Jerry Crenshaw, all of Louisville, Kentucky, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud. House pleaded guilty on November 28, 2007.  Crenshaw pleaded guilty on October 31, 20…

Randall Tharp, Atlanta, Georgia, a builder for Tyson Homes, Inc., and the Paddocks Development Group, Inc., was acquitted on all charges via directed verdict at the close of the government’s case.  Tharp was indicted in April 2006, and faced…

The previous post on foreclosures inspired some quick back-of-the notepad calculations to put the numbers into perspective. In other words, how large a problem is this, relative to the broader real estate market? According to the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors, there have been 35,061 closed sales through October of this year. According to a count performed by the Pioneer Press, there have been 10,521 homes foreclosed (sold at Sheriff’s Auction) through October of this year. That’s 1 foreclosure for every 3 homes sold in the Twin Cities this year. Trot that one out at your next cocktail party.

Foreclosures, near-North Minneappolis, Via Star-Tribune Foreclosure Map It’s getting hard to keep up with the now daily real-estate-is-going-to-hell in-handbasket data stream, but we wanted to point out a couple of stats from some of the recent coverage that had us pausing mid-read. For instance, from the Pioneer Press, on North Minneapolis, which as you can see from the map above, is Ground Zero for the Twin Cities foreclosure problem: In the Jordan area of North Minneapolis, banks are repossessing homes at a rate of about 200 per half-square mile — the highest rate in the Twin Cities And this, from the Strib, detailing an FBI raid of perhaps the biggest fraud-for-profit outfit yet: “The affidavit indicates that about 150 north Minneapolis properties foreclosed on in one six-month period earlier this year passed through TJ Waconia’s hands. That’s one in every five foreclosed properties in that area in that period,…” Just jaw-dropping stuff. More Trouble in Sight [Pioneer Press] FBI Names Two in Latest Mortgage Fraud Case [Strib]

Dan Eddie Paschall, 33, Allen, Texas, was indicted on charges of making false statements to obtain credit or property, money laundering and conspiracy.  According to the Indictment, on or about December 16, 2006, Paschall brokered several loans fo…

Bennie Clark, indicted earlier this year for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme centered around the illegal flipping of properties has been sentenced. Clark, who pled guilty in August of 2007, must serve a total term of 24 months in prison followed by…