Foreclosure

Countdown To Buy, an online real estate marketplace, announced Tuesday that it has entered its 19th state, with foreclosed residential properties now featured from Florida. In addition the company announced that it has received a new group of foreclosed properties located in Maryland and Hawaii from an existing client.

As foreclosures continue to flood the market, lenders are becoming overwhelmed with repossessed properties that may stay vacant or unfinished for months or years, making them susceptible to various types of damage. To avoid this risk, some lenders are seeking to maximize the value of their REO assets. In an effort to help lenders with this process, Aon Risk Services, the risk management and insurance brokerage business of Chicago-based Aon Corporation, has launched the Comprehensive Asset Maximization program.

Home prices nationally bumped up 0.9 percent in April, according to new data from Integrated Asset Services (IAS). That follows a 1.1 percent monthly gain in March -- the first time in eight months that IAS' home price benchmark inched into positive territory. But even with April's increase, IAS says home prices nationally are 23.9 percent below the peak hit in July of 2007, and with market pressure coming from the expiration of the tax credit and the industry's shadow inventory, IAS says even the recent improvements may be fleeting.

As part of plans to expand its data offerings to consumers through key partners, CoreLogic, a Santa Ana, California-based provider of information, analytics, and business services, announced Tuesday that it will provide foreclosure data and property information to the Yahoo! Real Estate foreclosure service. The company said this partnership will enhance Yahoo! Real Estate's foreclosure offerings by providing access to listings of properties at various stages of foreclosure or REO.

Technology provider Pruvan unveiled a new photo management solution Monday that the company says will revolutionize the field services industry. The technology is designed to make the work order management process faster and more seamless for property preservation specialists and asset managers by allowing field crews to upload photos from the job site and document the work they've done, virtually in real time. Field Asset Services is the first user of the technology and the company says the results have proven to be a ""game-changer.""

Default Mitigation Management LLC recently announced the newest user of its loss mitigation Web Portal -- Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Delaware Valley, a housing counseling and mediation provider for borrowers in the Philadelphia and greater Delaware Valley area.

According to QualityFirst Real Estate, a San Diego-based firm that specializes in REO, local market conditions are primed for a buying spree of bank owned and short sale properties. QualityFirst says property values there are headed back up and foreclosure numbers are dropping, with many real estate professionals now operating under the premise that the economy is finally beginning to turn around - the firm says all this makes now the time for homebuyers to pursue short sale and REO deals.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has issued new guidelines for modifying VA-guaranteed home loans. The new procedures are effective immediately, and give servicers the authority to restructure distressed loans in accordance with the administration's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) if other loss mitigation options have been exhausted. VA says it expects servicers to exert all reasonable efforts to assist veteran borrowers in retaining ownership of their homes or mitigating losses by pursuing alternatives to foreclosure.

Real Estate Disposition, LLC (REDC) announced Thursday that it will auction more than 370 Northern and Southern California bank-owned foreclosures, including 76 occupied properties, over the next two weeks. The Northern California homes will be auctioned online from June 8 through June 12, and the Southern California homes will be auctioned both live and online on June 19 and June 20.

The California Senate has approved a new foreclosure bill and sent it to the Assembly for review. It lays out two major provisions intended to deter lax behavior on the part of servicers and prevent avoidable foreclosures in the state. The legislation would provide a means of recourse to homeowners whose homes were lost to foreclosure due to serious servicer errors, and it would prohibit servicers from starting the foreclosure process until a homeowner has received a final decision on their modification.