Taunton, MA - July 24 2008 - The husband of a Taunton woman who police say shot herself after faxing a suicide note to the company foreclosing on her home had a troubled financial history, including three recent bankruptcy attempts and an earlier foreclosure filing, the Herald has learned.

Taunton police said Carlene Balderrama, 53, shot herself to death Tuesday after faxing her mortgage company a note implying suicide hours before her home was to be auctioned off.

“ ‘By the time you foreclose on my house, I’ll be dead,’ ” Police Chief Raymond O’Berg said the note read.

PHH Mortgage Corp. received the fax at 2:27 p.m. and called police at 3:38 p.m., less than 90 minutes before the house was to be auctioned off.

When police arrived at 103 Duffy Drive minutes later, O’Berg said, they found Balderrama dead from a single gunshot wound from her husband’s rifle.

Next to her body, the chief said, was a note telling her husband and their 24-year-old son Jamie, a cook at the local 99 Restaurant, to “take the insurance money and pay for the house.”

“It is a tragedy,” O’Berg said. “There’s victims all around in this. . .Something’s wrong with the system when you have working people being foreclosed on.”

Although the mortgage company called off the auction, prospective buyers began arriving at the house at 5 p.m., while Balderrama’s body still lay in the house, he said.

A spokeswoman for Harmon Law Offices, the Newton firm handling the foreclosure for PHH, said, “We are shocked and saddened by what has occurred. Our deepest sympathies go out to the family for the terrible loss it has suffered.”

When Balderrama’s husband, John, 52, a plumber and longtime employee of North Shore Mechanical Contractors, arrived home from work, he “just went into shock,” O’Berg said.

“He told us she handled all the finances,” the chief said. “He had no idea the house was being foreclosed on.”

Court filings show that John Balderrama had a history of financial problems. Three times since 2004, he sought protection from his creditors by filing for bankruptcy, according to court records. When the court dismissed his third bankruptcy filing in 2006, Balderrama was still $45,000 in debt.

Yesterday, the family declined to comment. Neighbors on their quiet, middle-class street were stunned by the suicide. Although the couple bought the split-level ranch-style house six years ago for $232,000, according to city records, few neighbors knew them.

Noreen Mendes, who has lived on the street for 34 years, said only two weeks ago, she had seen Balderrama in her yard, talking to a contractor about repairing the roof of the house.

“There were no family problems that I knew about. She was just a nice person to talk to - quiet, sweet,” Mendes said. “I always figured her husband didn’t want her to work because he was of good means. . .I just can’t fathom (her suicide). You try to make do, and if you can’t make do, you try to find other avenues.”

Fatal foreclosure
by Marie Szaniszlo and Jerry Kronenberg | BostonHerald

Police said 53-year-old mother Carlene Balderrama used her husband’s high-powered rifle to kill herself shortly after faxing the letter at 2.30pm (4.30am AEST) on Wednesday.

Her husband had petitioned unsuccessfully for bankruptcy three times.

The mortgage company phoned police in Taunton, Massachusetts, who found Mrs Balderrama’s body an hour later.

The auction was scheduled to start at 5pm and interested buyers arrived at the property while her body was still inside, Taunton police chief Raymond O’Berg said.

Taunton is about 60 kilometres south of Boston.

Police did not release the name of the mortgage company.

Mrs Balderrama’s fax read, in part, “By the time you foreclose on my house I’ll be dead.”

Mr O’Berg also said a suicide note found next to Mrs Balderrama told her husband, John, and 24-year-old son to “take the [life] insurance money and pay for the house”.

“I had no clue,” said John Balderrama, explaining that his wife handled all the couple’s finances. “I’m just lost. I tell you, I’m beside myself.”

He said his wife had been intercepting letters from the mortgage company and shredding them without his knowledge. He had no idea she hadn’t paid the mortgage in 42 months.

“She put in her suicide note that it got overwhelming for her,” he said.

“Apparently she didn’t have anyone to talk to. She didn’t come to me. I don’t know why.”

Mr Balderrama filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy three times from 2004 to 2006, but the courts dismissed the petitions. Debtors who declare bankruptcy under Chapter 13 generally can keep their homes while paying off their debts under a court-approved reorganisation plan.

Owner shoots herself after foreclosure

San Francisco, CA - July 24 2008 - Real Estate Promoter, a division of eHarbor, Inc. and provider of the Real Estate Promoter Hybrid Stealth™ websites to thousands of real estate agents and investors, and eRealInvestor, LLC, developers of eRealAnalyzer™, the real estate industry’s first dynamic, “one-click away” financial analysis solution, have launched an integrated service to enable real estate buyers, sellers, and agents to simplify the determination of a property’s affordability, cash flow, and rate of return characteristics under different ownership scenarios.

Real Estate Promoter CEO Oliver Bigler said, “We are excited to have eRealInvestor in the Real Estate Promoter system. Their technology is unique in the real estate industry and will be an integral tool for both our real estate agents and investors. Additionally, they provide an easy marketing portal for our existing customers to get more eyeballs on their properties, a must have for Real Estate Promoter clients. As we choose the best-of-breed tools to provide to our customers, a partnership with eRealInvestor just makes sense.”

eRealInvestor CEO Mike Genstil said, “eRealInvestor’s mission is to deliver the best online analytical experience to buyers and sellers of real estate. In today’s market, sellers must make their properties attractive to all possible buyers - primary homebuyer and property investor; local and remote; domestic and international. Similarly, buyers need to understand all the elements that determine a property’s value, including for sale comparables and trends, rental comparables, neighborhood factors, etc. For buyers and sellers, eRealInvestor provides the industry’s first standard platform for the comparison of all these factors, and we are pleased to integrate our service with Real Estate Promoter’s best-of-breed custom website hosting solution.”

To help different types of buyers with different financial needs and purchase criteria perform financial analysis, eRealAnalyzer™ provides an intuitive, graphical interface that enables users to easily combine different ownership types, such as “live in,” “rent,” or “re-sell,” with assumptions for down payment, rent, property appreciation, interest rate, purchase price, and several other key variables. Assumptions can be easily increased or decreased by moving sliders with the user’s mouse, empowering the user through a “dashboard-like” look and feel.

Real Estate Promoter subscribers can access the eRealAnalyzer™ functionality through two means:

- For subscribers to Real Estate Promoter websites, the Property Analysis module which is included in the Real Estate Promoter sites links to eRealInvestor. In this module, users can enter multiple properties which they own or are considering purchasing. They can analyze and compare these properties side-by-side.

- For visitors to websites of Real Estate Promoter subscribers, the eRealAnalyzer™ “Analyze” button is included side-by-side next to the property listing data. eRealAnalyzer™ is embedded directly on the thousands of properties available for sale on Real Estate Promoter subscriber sites. Examples of websites which include the “Analyze” button include:

http://www.praedohomes.com/index.php?base=featured
http://www.lawrencehomesforsale.com/index.php?base=featured
http://www.glenn-welker.com/index.php?base=featured

Integrated Rental and Appraisal Comparables

eRealAnalyzer™ is the first real estate analysis application to include live rental and appraisal comparables to help buyers understand the income potential of a property and its appropriate purchase price. The Rental Comps feature, accessed by clicking the button which says “Comps” next to the property’s rent variable, provides a list of recently listed rental properties in the local area. Potential buyers can click through to active listings, identify property managers, and contact the property managers to discuss the actual property being considered for purchase.

Aggressive, Moderate, and Conservative Scenarios

As buyers often like to compare a favorable forecast with a less favorable forecast for a particular property, eRealAnalyzer™ provides for up to three scenarios for side-by-side analysis. When the user identifies a scenario which is attractive, he can save the scenario, or view and print a spreadsheet containing the property data for that scenario. The benefit for buyers and sellers is a more informed and faster decision.

“When we designed the application, we intended first and foremost to save time for buyers from having to create, populate, and then modify spreadsheets. The pre-populated, dashboard-like interface allows buyers to visualize which combination of variables will make a property an attractive purchase over the period of time the buyer owns it,” Genstil said. “We believe integrated, usable analytics will soon become a ‘must-have’ in online real estate.”

eRealInvestor, LLC

eRealInvestor, LLC has developed eRealAnalyzer™, the real estate industry’s first one click away financial analysis application. eRealAnalyzer™ powers the online analysis of thousands of properties listed on real estate portals and thousands of real estate agent websites. The company was founded by executives with decades of real estate investment and software development expertise to simplify the process of identifying and analyzing real estate purchase opportunities. More information is available at http://www.erealinvestor.com.

Real Estate Promoter

Real Estate Promoter is a division of E-Harbor, Inc. and is the market leader in search engine marketing technology and search engine lead capturing services for the real estate industry and is also on the forefront of Web 2.0 technology for real estate, applying that expertise in creating real estate websites light years ahead of the industry in functionality, usability and design. Real Estate Promoter’s Hybrid Stealth™ website system currently holds title as the highest converting real estate website on the net, with conversion rates exceeding 20%.

Charlotte, NC - July 24 2008 - In each of the past four years, investors have set sales records in the Triangle by dumping more and more money into shopping centers, skyscrapers and other kinds of commercial real estate.

But more than halfway through the year, the streak is waning, as stricter lending standards make it harder for many to buy, and as sellers refuse to budge on the overheated prices common a year ago.

At least $1.2 billion in office, industrial, retail and apartment properties were sold through June 30, CB Richard Ellis data show.

The total, bolstered by $850 million in apartment sales, is on pace to eclipse all but one full-year tally by the brokerage’s Raleigh office.

But a closer look at the other types of properties sold shows why the total could fall far short of the record $2.6 billion in sales tallied in all of last year:

Only $20 million in industrial-property sales closed through June 30, down 86 percent from the same period last year.

Just $242 million in offices were sold in the first half of the year, down 47 percent from the first half of last year.

And the $91 million in retail centers sold though June 30 – on pace to beat the 10-year annual average of $178 million by a hair – is a paltry sum compared with last year’s $523 million.

Higher borrowing costs and the need for more equity have hurt sales.

But so have sellers. There are still prospective buyers who are encouraged by the region’s employment growth. But asking prices rarely have gone down even though competition for properties has waned.

Until the gap closes, fewer deals will get done.

“There’s a lot of bark, but not a lot of bite right now,” said Jim McMillan, a Grubb & Ellis/Thomas Linderman Graham broker who specializes in property sales. “It’s probably going to be this way for a while. … Sellers are going to have to (budge).”

Still, the shining star this year has been apartments. Sales have surged as companies such as Equity Residential of Chicago and UDR of Denver unload dozens of properties across the country, including at least 26 in the Triangle.

Lenders have been willing to support those deals in part because rental demand is growing as fewer would-be homeowners are able to qualify for mortgages.

Commercial real estate market cools in Triangle
by Jack Hagel | (Raleigh) News & Observer

High-End Homeowners Still Aspire for a Dream Home; 17 Percent Have Considered Moving to Obtain a Specific Zip Code

85 Percent Expect Home Prices to Increase Over Next Five Years

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - July 24 2008 - Homeowners at the highest end of the real estate market still have a dream house in mind and zip code does play a factor in where some call home, according to the 2008 Coldwell Banker Previews International® Luxury Survey. Top locations for a dream home among those surveyed were on an island (27 percent) or in a rural country setting (22 percent), followed by the suburbs (18 percent) or an international destination (18 percent). Additionally, 17 percent of those surveyed confirmed that they have considered moving expressly to obtain a specific address or zip code. Eight percent of respondents actually admitted to having been influenced to purchase a property to “keep up” with friends or family.

In addition, high-end homeowners remain optimistic about home values with a strong majority of the affluent homeowners surveyed (85 percent) expecting the price of their homes to increase over the next five years, a sharp increase from the 66 percent tallied in the 2007 survey. In addition, four out of five of these homeowners surveyed believe the increase in value will be “significant” to “moderate” (81 percent).

“Key findings from our annual survey of the luxury market demonstrate that the typical million-dollar homeowner is invested not only in the value of their home as a current part of their portfolios, but also see long-term gains coming from this investment,” said Jim Gillespie, president and chief executive officer, Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. “Interestingly while 44 percent of those surveyed indicated that they plan to stay in their primary residence for at least 10 years, they also dream of owning the perfect home.”

The 2008 Coldwell Banker Previews International Luxury Survey polled 305 U.S. homeowners whose primary residence is valued at over $1 million ($2 million for California residents*) and who have investable assets of more than $1 million. The average annual household income of the 2008 luxury survey’s respondents is $754,000.

When asked to identify a location for a dream home, the following were cited by respondents:

Location of Dream Home	Percentage of Respondents
Island				27%
Rural / country 	  	22%
Suburbs				18%
International destination	18%
City / hi-rise with amenities	13%
City / single-family home	10%

Second Homes and the Lure of the Beach

The survey revealed that about half of the affluent homeowners surveyed (48 percent) own at least one secondary residence. Most of these properties are located in beach areas (45 percent). For those who own second homes, significantly more men than women cited that the primary purpose of the residence was a retirement property (17 percent versus 8 percent).

Interestingly, a significantly greater percentage of older respondents (ages 65-plus) said they are considering purchasing an additional property as a new primary residence (42 percent versus 19 percent of respondents ages 64 and younger).

For luxury homeowners, the following are the desired locations identified by respondents for a secondary home:

Secondary Home		Percentage of Respondents
Near a beach			45%
Near a lake or river		23%
Warmer climate			23%
In the mountains 	  	17%
Near a ski resort 	  	12%
In another country 	  	12%

“Must Have” Luxury Amenities

Whether inside or outside, “must have” luxury amenities such as designer kitchens, formal landscaping, water views, customized home entertainment centers and swimming pools are the top amenities of choice for luxury homeowners.

“Must have” luxury amenities in the home that respondents either currently have or are considering getting, include:

Must Have Luxury Amenities	% Currently Have	% Considering
Designer kitchens			60% 	  	26%
Customized home entertainment centers	47% 	  	27%
Indoor gym / fitness room 	  	33% 	  	24%
Wine cellar				31% 	  	24%

“High-end kitchens, a well-kept appearance outside of the home, and swimming pools have become the standard for luxury homeowners,” said Gillespie. “These areas of the home attract attention and have long been critical factors when considering the value of a property.”

Formal landscaping was, by far, the amenity mentioned most often by respondents as something they currently have surrounding their primary residence (77 percent). The following are additional luxury amenities that are found surrounding affluent homes:

Luxury Amenities Surrounding Primary Residence	Percentage of Respondents
Formal landscaping				77%
Water view					43%
Swimming pool					38%
Hot tub						35%
Boat dock					17%
Golf course / putting green			16%
Tennis Court					14%
Basketball court				9%

Relative to maintaining luxury homes, those surveyed indicated that landscapers (95 percent) and housekeepers (62 percent) were a must. Of note, housekeepers were significantly more common among those ages 54 and younger (72 percent versus 55 percent of those ages 55-plus).

Best In Show

Approximately three in 10 respondents have specific rooms in their homes that are used to impress house-guests (29 percent). Among these respondents, the living room (72 percent) is the primary room that is used to impress houseguests. Only one in 10 or fewer respondents said any other rooms in their homes are used to impress.

The survey was conducted online by independent market research firm, ICR, in April 2008 and commissioned by Coldwell Banker Previews International®, the exclusive Coldwell Banker® service dedicated to luxury real estate. In 2007, the Coldwell Banker system participated in more than 25,000 transaction sides of homes priced at $1 million or more in 2007 with a total sales volume of $46.6 billion.

* The survey questioned 305 owners of homes with a primary residence valued at greater than $1,000,000 and investable assets greater than $1,000,000. The survey questioned owners of homes valued at $2 million and up in the state of California. This was done because, according to the California Association of Realtors, the existing-home median price in the state is $403,870, compared with the national existing-home median price of $202,300 (as of April 2008, according to the National Association of Realtors).

ICR

ICR is a full-service market research firm specializing in designing customized methodologies across 12 industry sectors and a leading provider of omnibus research services. Our Advanced Research Methods group designs and executes custom research and solutions to complex business challenges on a wide range of issues, including global research in over 90 countries.

Coldwell Banker Previews International®

The Coldwell Banker Previews International® program has been marketing luxury homes since 1933. This luxury home marketing program has been exclusive to Coldwell Banker® affiliates since 1980. The exclusive group of certified Previews® Sales Associates make up only 10 percent of the more than 111,000 Coldwell Banker sales associates worldwide. Coldwell Banker became one of the first national residential real estate brands to launch a second Web site totally dedicated to the luxury real estate market. The Web site www.coldwellbankerpreviews.com features more than 15,000 luxury properties with an average listing price of over $1.8 million.

Coldwell Banker®

Since 1906, the Coldwell Banker® organization has been a premier full-service real estate provider. In 2007, Franchise Times magazine’s prestigious Top 200 issue ranked the Coldwell Banker system No. 1 in real estate for the eighth straight year and 12th among franchisors in all industries. The Coldwell Banker System has approximately 3,600 residential real estate offices and 111,500 sales associates in 47 countries and territories. The Coldwell Banker System is a leader in the industry in residential and commercial real estate, and in niche markets such as resort, new home and luxury property through its Coldwell Banker Previews International® division. It is a pioneer in consumer services with its Coldwell Banker Concierge® Service Program and award-winning Web site, www.coldwellbanker.com. Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC is a subsidiary of Realogy Corporation, a global provider of real estate and relocation services. Coldwell Banker® is a registered trademark licensed to Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. Each office is independently owned and operated.

REDMOND, Washington - July 24 2008 - Microsoft Corp. today announced that HomeVestors of America Inc., recognized nationally for its slogan “We Buy Ugly Houses,” has chosen Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 to provide a common platform for all its corporate and franchisee applications.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides powerful, role-based customer relationship management capabilities and will be especially valuable to HomeVestors in its efforts to track a three-way sales cycle. Headquartered inDallas, HomeVestors has 65 corporate employees and 240 franchisees who buy homes in need of repair, rehab the houses and sell them to consumers. The company must first track leads from the Internet and other sources and the purchase of those houses by its franchisees. Then it needs to track the rehabbing process. Finally, it must track the sales to home purchasers.

“No other single platform could do all that,” said David Hicks, vice president of operations at HomeVestors.

The company will use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to integrate a number of specialized Web-based applications for functions such as evaluating property, determining repair estimates and distributing leads to franchisees. Until now, recording information in those systems required multiple entries and manual processes.

Moreover, the company’s franchisees had developed a variety of systems on their own to handle their tracking requirements, and the corporate organization could not communicate with those systems directly.

“We needed a solution that would enable us to have all of our franchisees on a similar platform to train them, to work together and to give us in corporate a way to help them be more effective in their markets,” Hicks said.

HomeVestors will integrate Microsoft Dynamics CRM with the company’s current Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Office Outlook and Microsoft Office solutions. All of its franchisees use Outlook and Office.

According to Hicks, “One of the biggest reasons we chose the Microsoft Dynamics solution was its ability to integrate with our other Microsoft tools. As our franchisees were familiar with Outlook, we felt they could pick up Microsoft Dynamics CRM very quickly.”

To determine its needs, HomeVestors and its consultant developed a list of 15 potential solutions, which was narrowed to three that HomeVestors considered in detail. The two finalists were Microsoft Dynamics CRM and SugarCRM Inc. open source software.

“We knew that Microsoft Dynamics CRM, rather than open source, would be a world-class solution for us,” said Paul D’Angelo, director of IT at HomeVestors. “There is a lot of competition in the house-buying market, and we are always looking for additional tools that will convince potential franchisees to join our network. We were looking for a ‘wow’ factor, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM will offer that.”

D’Angelo also cited the ability to have systemwide statistics, share best practices among franchisees and enable franchise owners to compare their performance with that of other franchisees as reasons for the company’s selection of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

HomeVestors is working with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Tribridge to implement its new technology. HomeVestors will rely heavily on Microsoft Dynamics CRM’s workflow and reporting capabilities, and it will call on Tribridge to customize the solution to meet the needs for integrating its industry-specific applications and to track the three distinct sales cycles through which the company operates.

HomeVestors expects that Microsoft Dynamics CRM will produce numerous benefits for the corporate office and franchisees alike:

– Support for company growth. HomeVestors expects that Microsoft Dynamics CRM will provide franchisees with the ability to track and meet their goals in a much better fashion than before, and will allow the corporate office to track nationwide those franchisees who are excelling and more quickly identify and help those who are falling behind. Consequently, the company expects to improve its franchisee retention. Further, the Microsoft solution will help with company sales by offering advanced technology to prospective franchisees.

– Cost savings. Individual franchisees have spent considerable resources developing and maintaining custom tracking solutions.

“They will save thousands of dollars in writing applications, loading up servers and creating portals to develop systems that won’t do a fraction of what this one will do,” Hicks said.

– Time savings. Previously, when leads came in through the Internet via e-mail, franchisees would have to re-enter each lead in their own system. Because Microsoft Dynamics CRM integrates with Microsoft Office Outlook, those leads will now populate the database automatically, saving two or three points of manual entry.

– Better marketing campaigns. Microsoft Dynamics CRM will allow HomeVestors to track its marketing campaigns to determine which ones are successful, improving the effectiveness of its overall marketing effort. The technology also allows incoming calls to be associated with specific mailings to indicate the likely source that stimulated the call.

– Improved accuracy. With Microsoft Dynamics CRM eliminating the need to enter the same data multiple times, the chances for error will decrease. The company also expects to more accurately track its franchisees’ metrics, which previously were compiled and reported by hand and then coordinated manually. Now the numbers of appointments, offers made, sales and other metrics will be tracked automatically.

– Improved revenue. HomeVestors believes its new Microsoft Dynamics solution will help franchisees create sales that otherwise wouldn’t materialize. Often, for instance, an investor is looking for a house of a particular size and floor plan in a specific ZIP code; Microsoft Dynamics CRM will allow HomeVestors to match that investor’s request automatically with appropriate houses that become available.

– Easier reporting. Customized reports and a friendly interface will likely lead to improved reporting compared with the previous methods. For example, the company can create a report comparing the average time required for various franchisees to sell a house so that it can discover the people who are best at turning property rapidly. Also, previously reports on the numbers of offers made on houses were available only monthly, on the 5th or 6th of the ensuing month. With Microsoft Dynamics CRM, managers can see the number of offers that were made the previous day, as well as the number of appointments set by individual franchisees for the current and following days.

“Microsoft Dynamics CRM will help our franchisees better manage their business and be more profitable,” Hicks said. “In addition, it will furnish the corporate office with considerable data to track and provide the kind of technology that will attract entrepreneurs looking for a franchise.”

Hicks said the ability to share metrics and best practices will help franchisees grow, and in turn will help the corporate organization to grow.

“Franchise organizations find particular benefits in Microsoft Dynamics CRM because it unifies the organization and provides detailed business intelligence to the franchisees and corporate headquarters alike,” said Michael Park, corporate vice president for Microsoft’s U.S. Dynamics business. “As a result, the franchise network becomes stronger, more efficient and more attractive to franchisees.”

HomeVestors of America, Inc.

Founded in 1989 and franchising since 1996,Dallas-based HomeVestors of America, Inc., has more than 230 franchises throughoutthe United States. The first franchise company of its kind, HomeVestors trains and supports franchisees who specialize in buying homes in need of repair. Most commonly known as the “We Buy Ugly Houses”(R) franchise, HomeVestors strives to make a positive impact in each community. More information is available at http://www.homevestors.com.

Tribridge

Tribridge is a Gold Certified Microsoft consulting firm recently named the
2008 - Worldwide Microsoft Dynamics Partner of the Year
(http://www.tribridge.com/Library/pressrelease/pr-tribridge-named-worldwide-
poy.pdf). Tribridge implements, secures and supports critical business
applications and core infrastructure for organizations across the US.
Tribridge experts combine an average of 15 years experience with established
methodologies to generate practical results, including a 100% “go live” rate
since inception over a decade ago. Technology solutions are focused across 5
tightly integrated areas including: Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM, Microsoft SharePoint and
custom software applications,
Microsoft core infrastructure, security and
managed services.

Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of financial, customer relationship and supply chain management solutions that helps businesses work more effectively. Delivered through a network of channel partners providing specialized services, these integrated, adaptable business management solutions work like and with familiar Microsoft software to streamline processes across an entire business.

Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

San Francisco, CA - July 24 2008 - Condo.com, the largest worldwide marketplace of new and existing condominiums for sale and for lease, and eRealInvestor, developers of eRealAnalyzer™, the real estate industry’s first “one-click away” financial analysis solution, have announced that visitors to Condo.com can now use eRealAnalyzer™ to compare property ownership financial metrics instantly on all Condo.com for sale listings.

Condo.com CEO Richard Swerdlow said, “Today’s market represents a wonderful buying opportunity for creditworthy buyers who have a keen eye for value. To simplify the process of understanding the true long-term potential value of a property, we have included eRealAnalyzer™ with our listings.”

eRealInvestor CEO Mike Genstil said, “eRealInvestor’s mission to deliver the absolute best online analytical experience to buyers and sellers of real estate. In a market with tighter mortgage requirements and a greater focus on numbers, we believe integrated analytics will soon be a ‘must-have’ feature. We are pleased to extend our best-of-breed financial analysis solution to the vibrant, high-quality marketplace created by Condo.com.”

eRealAnalyzer™ is embedded directly with the more than 600,000 pre-construction, resale, and foreclosure listings available for sale on the Condo.com website. To access eRealAnalyzer™ on the Condo.com website, users click on the “Analyze Property” link on any of the Property Details pages. When clicked, an eRealAnalyzer™ frame opens inside of the Condo.com page, containing charts and graphs pre-populated for instant analysis and comparison. The benefit for buyers and sellers is a more informed and faster buying decision.

To help different types of buyers with different financial needs and purchase criteria perform financial analysis, eRealAnalyzer™ provides an intuitive, graphical interface that enables users to easily compare different ownership scenarios, such as “live in,” “rent,” or “re-sell,” with assumptions for down payment, rent, property appreciation, interest rate, purchase price, and many other key variables. Assumptions can be easily increased or decreased by moving sliders with the user’s mouse, providing the user a “dashboard-like” feel. Rental and appraisal comparables are integrated in eRealAnalyzer™ to help buyers understand the potential value of a property as a primary residence or as an investment property. Users can personalize their experience by entering their appropriate tax information.

“eRealAnalyzer™ was designed to meet the needs of the new internet buyer, who spends more time online and wants instant information at his fingertips,” Genstil said. “With more buyers focused on economic value, our application allows the buyer to attain both logical and emotional ownership of the property.”

In addition to including eRealAnalyzer™ on Condo.com, eRealInvestor will be promoting Condo.com’s listings on its search portal in August.

About eRealInvestor, LLC

eRealInvestor, LLC has developed eRealAnalyzer™, the real estate industry’s first one click away financial analysis application. eRealAnalyzer™ powers the online analysis of thousands of properties listed on real estate portals and thousands of real estate agent websites. The company was founded by executives with decades of real estate investment and software development expertise to simplify the process of identifying and analyzing real estate purchase opportunities. More information is available at http://www.erealinvestor.com/.

Media Contact
Alecia Osher
(951)837-7637

About Condo.com

Condo.com is the world’s largest condominium marketplace with inventory of over 600,000 listings valued in excess of $150 billion. Condo.com lists condos for sale and for rent in the United States and 70+ countries around the world and cost-effectively delivers exposure and qualified leads to developers, brokers and for-sale-by-owners through the seamless distribution of its listings to a global network of Real Estate websites visited by over 15 million viewers per month. Condo.com is a privately held company headquartered in Miami, Florida. For more information, visit http://www.condo.com/

Title searches are now accessible to the Fizber users via a co-branded Web site HouseTitle.com developed and hosted on TitleSearch.com servers. The customers receive a property title search abstract, which is the official document of a title search. This document shows the liens and mortgages found to be recorded according to the title search.

“We’re excited to launch a co-brand partnership with TitleSearch.com and pleased to offer our customers another benefit of buying and selling real estate with us,” says Julia Foster, of Fizber.com. “Many of our Web site users are home buyers, looking at properties for purchase, and they want to make sure that the people selling it actually have full and legal title. Also, many homeowners are now checking their own homes title status on a regular basis, to make sure no liens are attaching to the property.”

David Pelligrinelli, President at AFX TitleSearch.com, said: “Generally, you need to research a property title if you are purchasing a home, a parcel of land or a foreclosure property. That used to mean spending hours flipping through pages and pages of record books to find the information. Now it is a mere mouse click away.”

About TitleSearch.com

AFX Corp., Inc. has been providing official title abstracts to real estate professionals since 1995. Banks, attorneys, investors, and the US Government are clients of AFX.
Contact: David Pelligrinelli, 706-216-1785, TitleSearch.com.

About Fizber.com

Fizber.com is a real estate search engine that provides buyers with the most accurate listings and information possible so that they can make an educated decision based on their search. House hunters use Fizber.com to find real estate, homes for sale, recently sold properties, local school, neighborhood information and much more. Whether you are looking to buy, rent, or lease, Fizber.com provides you with for sale by owner classifieds, foreclosures, and Realtor listings all in one place. Sellers choose Fizber.com to get the ultimate exposure online; with Fizber, sellers make an ad once, and it’s automatically submitted to the 80 web’s leading classified sites, enabling homeowners to reap a response that far outweigh the effort they put in. Visit www.Fizber.com for more information.

Currently, there are very few large condo projects with multiple units listed for sale. That’s in sharp contrast to previous years, when dozens of projects were hitting the market, feeding buyers’ demand for full-service buildings with concierges and underground parking.

The citywide median price, or midpoint price, for a condo increased 5.4 percent, to $500,000, compared with the same period last year. The average price surged 8 percent, to $697,837, driven by sales of new, more expensive units with luxury amenities. The data was provided yesterday by the Listing Information Network Inc., which tracks the downtown housing market.

There are still willing buyers, real estate professionals said, but the shrinking supply of available new condos means there are fewer choices. The quarter that ended June 30 was the third straight in which sales declined compared with the year earlier.

LINK’s data show there has also been a sharp decline this year in condo sales in the city’s older brownstones, townhouses, and other row houses.

“Downtown is slowing down,” said Debra Taylor Blair, LINK’s president. “But we’re seeing at the higher end, we still have a shortage of luxury units, and they tend to sell swiftly - anything over $2 million.”

While a credit crunch and record foreclosures have created a glut of properties in many suburbs, Gary Dwyer, who owns Buyer Agents of Boston, said first-time buyers looking downtown or those wanting to trade up to units priced around $700,000 are also finding the supply is scarce.

“What I’m experiencing is very strong interest and a lack of inventory” of properties for sale, he said.

The supply of condos has fallen steadily since peaking in 2006 at about 1,800 condos. Currently, there are 1,250 properties listed for sale - roughly the same as in June 2007 - in the 12 neighborhoods tracked by LINK, which include Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Charlestown, the North End, and the South End.

Diane Maloney, whose Boston firm is marketing the 45 Province luxury development, said there are only 55 units in brand new and ready-to-move-in buildings listed for sale in all of downtown. Maloney said buyers have signed agreements for about one-quarter of the 138 condos in 45 Province, which is still under construction.

The downtown housing market is “being lumped in with the much broader real estate market, and that’s a little misleading,” said David Stenberg, who manages Hammond Residential Real Estate’s Boston operations. “The downtown market is much healthier than the rest of the market.”

Downtown condo sales slide 15%
by Kimberly Blanton | Boston Globe

Police say that Balderrama fatally shot herself Tuesday afternoon, 90 minutes before her foreclosed home was scheduled to be sold at auction. Chief Raymond O’Berg said that Balderrama faxed a letter to her mortgage company at 2:30 p.m., saying that “by the time they foreclosed on the house today she’d be dead.”

The mortgage company notified police, who found her body at 3:30 p.m. The auction had been scheduled to start at 5 p.m., when bidders showed up at the house and found it surrounded by police cruisers.

But, unbeknownst to buyers and to Balderrama, the auction had been postponed by the time she grabbed her husband’s high-powered rifle, O’Berg said.

Balderrama left a note for her family, saying they should “take the [life] insurance money and pay for the house,” O’Berg said. The chief said he did not know, however, if the family would be able to collect on the policy in the event of a suicide.

Neighbors on Duffy Drive, a forested side street on the city’s east side, said Balderrama had lived in the two-story, brown-shingled, raised ranch for about four years with her husband, John, who is a plumber, and their 24-year-old son, who works in a restaurant.

Joe Whitney, who works with Balderrama’s husband, said that she handled the bills in the household and that the husband was unaware of the foreclosure.

“John didn’t even know about it; that’s the surprise,” Whitney said outside the home, where he had come to comfort the family. “It’s just one of those awful, awful, tragic events.”

John Balderrama did, however, file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy three times from 2004 to 2006, but the courts dismissed the petitions. Debtors who declare bankruptcy under Chapter 13 generally can keep their homes while paying off their debts under a court-approved reorganization plan.

As Congress rushed yesterday to help 400,000 strapped homeowners avoid foreclosure and prevent Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from collapsing, the suicide underscored the potentially devastating toll of the housing crunch.

Bruce Marks, chief executive of the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, said it is not uncommon for homeowners to contemplate suicide when they cannot keep up their mortgage payments. Marks’ group counsels homeowners in crisis and responds to such crises by immediately notifying the police, he said.

“What gets us so angry is that people blame themselves,” Marks said. “They can’t see past their sense of responsibility to see the responsibility and the predatory nature of these lenders. The fact of the matter is, unless something dramatic happens, there’s going to be more and more people like her taking their lives.”

Police believe that when the Balderramas bought the house in a stronger market, the family chose an adjustable rate mortgage, confident they would be able to keep up the payments. But as the housing market plummeted and the rates rose, the family fell behind, O’Berg said. The house was listed yesterday on the website of Commonwealth Auction Associates Inc., but the auction, scheduled for Tuesday at 5 p.m., was marked “canceled.”

The mortgage company, PHH Corp. of Mount Laurel, N.J., did not respond to requests for comment. Harmon Law Offices PC in Newton, which represents PHH, released a statement saying that because of confidentiality and privacy laws, the firm could not discuss specifics of the foreclosure.

“We’re shocked and saddened by what has occurred,” the statement said. “Our deepest sympathies go out to the family for the terrible loss it has suffered.”

Noreen Mendes said Balderrama never spoke about financial troubles when she saw her neighbor on morning walks. Mendes said she and Balderrama chatted about home repairs and their children.

“I never would have guessed that she had any problems whatsoever,” Mendes said. “All I can do this morning is pray and pray and pray.”

Whitney said he did not believe that Carlene Balderrama had a history of mental illness.

“It looked like a happy couple,” Whitney said. “That’s why John was so blown away. Nothing medically ever came up, and I’ve known them for 20 years.”

O’Berg said he was troubled that the pressures of foreclosure had triggered suicide on a street that he described as solidly middle-class.

“That’s the real sad part: This is a middle-class family, a husband working, the son is working,” O’Berg said. But the housing crunch, he said, “is inflicting real pain on middle-class Americans.

“Put yourself in her shoes,” he added. “You handle the finances, and you’re hiding everything from family. It’s a lot of pressure.”

The anguish of foreclosure
by Michael Levenson | Boston Globe