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Marietta employees sentenced for Section 8 fraud

Submitted by Beth Sawicki, Where U Live Producer
Tuesday, September 30th, 2014, 8:08am
Marietta employees sentenced for Section 8 fraud

MARIETTA, Ga. -- Two former City of Marietta employees are among four people charged with stealing from the federal Housing Choice Voucher Program.

The program, also known as Section 8, helps low-income families pay their rent. Shantel Bowens and Debbie Bailey worked for Marietta's Housing Choice Voucher Program, which oversees local tenant and landlord participation.

Bowens and Bailey pleaded guilty in July and May, respectively, to conspiring with two landlords to steal money from the program.

According to federal prosecutors, Bowens, 43, of Atlanta, reactivated the closed accounts of former Section 8 tenants. She then altered computer records to link the tenants to two co-defendants, landlords Babatunde "Babs" Abass and Tunji "Chris" Imoukhuede.

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Metro Atlanta foreclosure rate 16th highest in nation

Submitted by Atlanta Busines... on Thursday, July 28th, 11:54 am
Metro Atlanta foreclosure rate 16th highest in nation

ATLANTA -- Metro Atlanta's foreclosure rate slowed by the middle of 2011, but remains among the metros with the highest rates.

Atlanta had 44,1560 foreclosure filings from January through June, down about 16 percent from the first half of 2010. This gave Atlanta the 16th highest rate of foreclosures, according to RealtyTrac, which publishes the largest list of foreclosures in the country.

The company defines a foreclosure as default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions. 

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Real Estate has a Long Road to Recovery

Submitted by Chris Lazarus, DPP, Real Estate Professional
Saturday, July 23rd, 2011, 5:54am

 

The next years of real estate are not going to be positive for homeowners. In fact, it’s estimated that in 2012 over 60% of all home sales will be foreclosures or short sales. This means that the banks will control the pricing of more than half the real estate market and we can expect continued declining values. This idea may not sit well with many after the mortgage meltdown and moral hazard issues we had over the past five years.

Further, we at Sellect Realty believe that it will be another five to seven years before we see home values near their previous peaks and then we expect a plateau for several years to follow before growth. Currently our market is still declining. Despite month-over-month gains we have had another drastic decline in home values over the past 12 months. According to the recent statistics released by Realtor.com the average listing price decreased by 11.42% from June 2010 to $250,933.  

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Things to Avoid When Holding an Open House

Submitted by Chris Lazarus, DPP, Real Estate Professional
Sunday, June 5th, 2011, 8:30pm

This weekend was national open house weekend. I had the opportunity to see an open house go wrong in a million dollar neighborhood, so I'm going to share some pointers to help your open house go smoothly.

1. Ensure that there are no malfunctions with the home. A defective air conditioner ruins the experience for everyone including the agent. You do not want the agent to be in a bad mood!

2. Have an agent who will not push prizes, giveaways, or follow prospective buyers as they look at the house. The idea is to make everyone comfortable and the way to do that is by making all information readilly available and be available to answer questions.

3. Have drinks and/or snacks on hand, especially on a hot afternoon. At a minimum, bottles icewater and soda is a must.

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Loan Modification Could be Good, but Short Sale is Better says 1 Expert

Submitted by Marc Richardson, Where U Live Producer
Friday, August 27th, 2010, 11:06am

Atlanta, GA--  As more and more Atlanta homeowners find themselves in financial distress and are forced to make tough decisions regarding their homes and specifically their dropping values and ballooning mortgage payments, we turned to a housing expert to help us navigate this complex situation.

Marian Anthony is a real estate finance expert and author of Short Sale RUSH- A How To Guide for Nonperforming Assets.  According to Marian, a Short Sale is more advantageous than a Loan Modification or a Foreclosure because "the reduced payoff in a short sale releases you from the debt obligation." He states that a foreclosure will ruin the homeowner's credit, and "a loan modification actually builds a debt trap around the borrower, milking them for every last nickel."

With so much information and marketing dollars being spent on homeowners getting into Loan Modification programs which may keep you bogged in debt for years, take Marian's su

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