If your home is languishing on the market, there are many tips that promise to help bring about a sale. But there’s only one that requires a prayer and a spade. The solution to your selling woes? Bury a St. Joseph statue in your yard, head down.

Joseph may have been a carpenter who couldn’t find a real roof to put over Baby Jesus’ head that fateful night in Bethlehem, but apparently he can help you move on to your new home if you just have a little faith — and you needn’t be Catholic!

Whether for superstition or faith, a growing number of people have turned to the “Patron Saint of Real Estate” in the hopes that he’ll deliver, reported the New York Times. After all, desperate times call for desperate measures. And could covering up a saint with a little dirt really hurt?
Dubbed the “Underground Real Estate Agent,” St. Joseph statues have been steadily flying off the shelves of retailers from Catholic Supply of St. Louis and StJosephStatue.com LLC, a company started on a whim by a mortgage broker.

Legend has it that if you bury a St. Joseph statue in your yard, head down, facing the direction you want to move, your home will sell more quickly. When possible, place it near the for sale sign — mainly so that you can remember where you buried it and can dig it up after the sale. Then, it’s recommended that you put old Joe on a mantle or other prominent place in your new home, as a gesture of thanks. Or, just pass it on to a friend.

No yard? No worries. Bury a small statue in a potted plant, suggests the website LuckyMojo, which also offers a couple of prayers to recite on its site.

The statues are typically sold for less than $10 in kits, complete with an instruction booklet with burial prayer and a cloth carrying bag, such as the one pictured from StJosephStatue.com, which also throws in a free real estate listing on its site with every purchase (It currently boasts more than $2.4 billion in current listings.) Some people also obtain their St. Joe’s from their Catholic church, as was the case with Joe D’Eramo, whose tale will give skeptics pause.

“We were selling a home in Taunton, MA. It was an older home with a dirt floor basement. Two buyers had come and gone, each finding something during inspection to pass on the deal,” D’Eramo told HousingWatch. “I went to a local Catholic Church and asked where I could find a statue of St. Joseph. The receptionist had never heard the legend and brought me in to see the priest. He handed me a fairly large statue of St. Joseph and wished me well. By the end of that weekend, we had another buyer and this one closed.”

“Before moving, we gave the statue to my brother-in-law,” D’Eramo continued. “He, too, had been having difficulty selling his home, mainly because it had gone through some serious wear and tear. Lo’ and behold, they, too, received an offer and sold their home.”

So who exactly buys these statues? St. Joe’s popularity has shifted recently, Phil Cates, the owner of StJosephStatue.com, told HousingWatch.

“Caifornia, Florida and Arizona have consistently held the number 1, 2, and 3 spots for the most sales since 2005,” Cates said. However, over the last 60 days Florida took over the top spot, followed by Texas and New York. California moved to the fifth place after North Carolina.

Cates, a mortgage broker by day, speculates that California may have dropped on the list because more homes are being sold by the banks that foreclosed on the homeowners. “I’m not sure bean counters and spirituality have much in common,” he jokes.

Trisha Haas, head blogger at MomDot, has so much faith, she had her St. Joseph statue blessed by her brother-in-law priest before she buried it last month and caught it all on video for her readers. It’s been about 30 days and we are still waiting to hear if she’s had any offers.

In another case, it took just one weekend for a vacation home to sell after a burial. After close to two years on the market and a 20 percent price reduction on his Boulder ski home, Bob Webster of Webster Investment Advisers recalls, “I had now become desperate, as it had been 18 months and not a single offer…not even an embarrassing low-ball salvo. So casting my pragmatism aside, but still holding onto a sense of skepticism … I ordered .” The St. Joseph statue was buried on a Friday and on that next Monday night, he says his Realtor called with a full-cash, 30-day offer. The sale closed Christmas Eve 2009.

“To quote the classic band of the 70’s, The Monkeys, ‘Now I’m a Believer’,” says Webster, who grew up a Catholic kid in Brooklyn.

Stories like these have helped build a diverse following for Joseph. “Maybe half of our clients are Catholic,” says Cates of StJosephStatue.com. “The rest are Jewish, Hindi, atheist, Baptist. This cuts across all lines of thought. Some people look at it as ‘eh, what the heck do I have to lose.’ And others look at it as very holy.”

Cates started selling the statues 20 years ago after using them as a gimmick for marketing his mortgage business to real estate agents. He adds that some agents use statues to help gain their own business. About 40 percent of his sales are to real estate professionals.

Still, Cates doesn’t have his own head buried in the sand beneath the for sale sign. “While many people consider St. Joseph the silver bullet of real estate, I think we should leave the shiny ammo to ‘The Lone Ranger’ and magic to David Copperfield,” he concedes.

If you are a Real Estate Investor, Real Estate Agent, or looking to take financial advantage of the current economic situation, this free event for you.
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By: Heather Peck, Rosen & Company West

Every state is different when it comes to foreclosures. And in times like these, things have changed. Even here in Las Vegas, it used to be if they foreclosed on your house, the sheriff showed with someone from the bank up a day to two later to evict you, lock you out and then make arrangements for you to come back and get your stuff.

But these are troubled times, and there are large numbers of homes being foreclosed on every day. Currently, at least in Las Vegas, if your house is not purchased at auction by an investor or new owner occupant, the bank will assign your property to an asset manager. This could be a real estate agent or an asset management company who takes care of the property until the bank is ready to list the house.

The asset manager or agent will come by and do an occupancy check to see who’s living in the house. If its a rental tenant, they have different rights than the previous owner.

If you’re a tenant with a lease, the bank has to, by law, give you at least 90 days to make arrangements to move. They may offer you cash to move sooner, or if you have a lease that doesn’t expire for a longer period of time, they are supposed to honor the terms of your lease. This doesn’t mean you don’t have to continue to pay rent, it just means you’ll pay it to the asset management company or whoever the bank chooses while you make plans to move. Another alternative is to go get prequalified and buy the house you’re living in.

If you are the previous owner, the process is a little different. After they do the occupancy check and discover you are still living in the house, they will probably still offer you a cash for keys offer, giving you 30 days to move and also offering you up to $1500 to move and leave the property in good condition. But make no mistake, you have to move out. You have no rights, and the bank is just trying to protect their interest by offering you cash so you won’t trash and strip the property when you move. They could call the sheriff and have you evicted if they wanted to. Once the title went back to the bank (and it usually only takes 1 day to record back into the banks name), you’re tresspassing and subject to immediate eviction.

Another scenario is when an investor buys the house. They may actually come and try to make a deal with you, offering to rent the property to you for a couple of years, and possibly sell it back to you on a lease option. Depending on your current financial situation, this may or may not be a good option for you. Rent may be less than what your house payment was, and you don’t have to move. They will probably want an option payment, but you haven’t paid a mortgage payment for 6 or 7 months so hopefully you now have a little cash set aside.

Lastly, a new owner occupant may have bought the property at the auction. This is now beginnning to occur more frequently. They have the right to evict you. They too may offer you a small financial incentive to move or they may show up with the sheriff. Its their call. Remember, once the property sold to someone else, you’re trespassing.

Foreclosure is a difficult situation and no fun for anyone. This process as I described may or may not work in other states or even cities across the country. Take the time to find out how it works where you live. Talk to a couple of agents who specialize in foreclosures in your town.

Please don’t put your head in the sand. No one wants the sheriff to show up and tell them they have to get out NOW!

If you’re behind on your mortgage, or you think you’re going to be, call a professional and find out what your options are. The sooner you do, the more options you have. They may include a loan modification, forensic audit, deed in lieu, short sale or foreclosure. Some processes are just bandaids, some are real solutions depending on your situation. There is lots of help out there, and a lot of it is free.

Contact Heather: 702-595-7380 or email: LasVegasExpert@yahoo.com

Important information for any homeowners considering doing a short sale on their home.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — As terrible as it is to lose your house to foreclosure, at least it’s a relief to put your biggest financial headache behind you, right?
Wrong.
Former homeowners may still be on the hook if there’s a difference between what they owed on their mortgage and what the bank could sell it for at auction. And these “deficiency judgments” are ticking time bombs that can explode years after borrowers lose their homes.
It can even happen to people who got their bank to approve them selling their home for less than it is worth.
Vanessa Corey, for example, short sold her Fredericksburg, Va., home in April 2008. She and her husband built the house in 2004, but setbacks, both personal (divorce) and professional (housing bust), made it impossible for the real estate agent to keep her home. So she negotiated the short sale and thought that was the end of it.
“My understanding was that the deficiency was negotiated away,” she said. “Then, last November, I got a letter from a lawyer telling me I owed my lender $65,000. I had to declare bankruptcy. There was no way I could pay it.”
Where the foreclosure plague is spreading
Many homeowners are now in the same boat. And not just those who took out bigger loans than they could afford or who did so called “liar loans” where they didn’t have to verify their income.
Because of falling home prices, borrowers who always paid their mortgage but who have run into unforeseen circumstances — like unemployment or a job transfer — can no longer sell their homes for what they owe. As a result, they are being forced to short sell or foreclose and are getting caught up in deficiency judgments.
“After the banks foreclose, it’s very common now to have large deficiencies with houses not worth the balances owed,” said Don Lampe, a North Carolina real estate attorney.
Lenders mostly declined comment. Although Corey’s lender, BB&T did indicate it was pursuing more deficiency judgments.
“They follow the rise and fall of foreclosures,” said the spokeswoman, who would not discuss Corey’s account.
Can they come after you?
Whether banks can and will pursue deficiency judgments depends on many factors, including what state the borrower lives in and whether there’s a second mortgage or other liens. But if borrowers ignore the possibility of deficiencies, it could haunt them.
“Once they have a judgment, they can pursue you anywhere,” said Richard Zaretsky, a board-certified real estate attorney in West Palm Beach, Fla. “They can ask for financial records, have your wages garnished and, if you fail to respond, a judge can put you in jail.”
In the case of foreclosure, lenders can pursue deficiencies in more than 30 states, including Florida, New York and Texas, according to the U.S. Foreclosure Network, an organization of mortgage law firms.
Some states, such as California, are “non-recourse” and don’t allow deficiency judgments. But, even there, if the original loan was refinanced, some or all of it may be subject to claims.
Check the foreclosure rate in your state
Deficiency judgments on short sales and deeds-in-lieu can happen in many more places. In these cases, extinguishing the debt is often a matter of negotiating with the bank.
But even when lenders are willing, many borrowers may not be aware that they have to ask for release. So, if you are pursuing a short sale, be sure your attorney asks the bank to release you from any further obligation.
“People shouldn’t have a false sense of security that a deficiency judgment may not be later sought,” Zaretsky said.
He expects many will be filed over the next few years, based on the fact that banks have sold many of these accounts to collection agencies and other third parties, at discount.
“The parties who bought those notes wouldn’t have paid money for them unless they had the intention of acting,” Zaretsky said.
Ticking time bomb
What can be scary is that the judgments don’t have to be obtained immediately. Lenders or collection agencies may wait until debtors have recovered financially before they swoop in. In Florida, the bank can wait up to five years to file. Once the court grants a judgment, the lender has 20 years there to collect, with interest.
It doesn’t have to be a large amount of debt for a lender or collection agency to come after borrowers. Richard Varno and his wife short sold their Nashville home back in 2004 after he lost his job.
It wasn’t until 2008, when the second lien holder asked him for $25,000, that he realized he still was liable.
“I told them, ‘Hey, you guys released the title,’” he said. “As far as I know, I’m off the hook.”
He wasn’t. Releasing title does not necessarily end the debt. It’s complicated because of variations in state law, but, generally, a mortgage has two parts: a pledge of collateral, represented by the home, and a promise to pay off the loan.
Lenders may release property liens in order to facilitate short sales without releasing borrowers from their obligations to pay under the promissory notes. The secured debt can convert to an unsecured one after the sale.
Zaretsky had one client who was so relieved to have arranged a short sale that he signed every paper his real estate agent shoved at him, even a confession that clearly stated he still owed the debt.
“He had no idea what he was doing,” said Zaretsky. “All the lender had to do was go to court to convert the confession into a deficiency judgment.”
Lenders are also very inconsistent. One of Zaretsky’s short-sale clients was ready, willing and able to pay, but the bank did not even ask; another lender always reserves the right to pursue the deficiency.
Strategic defaults
Sometimes lenders go after borrowers walking away from their homes if they have other assets, according to Florida real estate attorney Larry Tolchinsky.
“Banks are pulling credit reports to see if it’s a strategic default,” he said. “If you’re behind on all your other payments, you’re okay. But if you’re not, they’ll come after you.”
If borrowers have any doubts about their risks, they should seek legal advice. Or, at least, call non-profit organizations such as NeighborWorks for advice. According to Doug Robinson, a NeighborWorks spokesman, its counselors always try to negotiate away deficiencies when they facilitate short sales or deeds-in-lieu.
“We don’t favor any short-sale contracts that leave any deficiency that can be pursued,” he said.
Robinson himself knows what can happen. He paid off a deficiency after his own New Jersey house went through foreclosure 11 years ago.
By Les Christie, staff writerFebruary 3, 2010: 3:21 PM ET