looking on mls 32159, shocked to see many
 

looking on mls 32159, shocked to see many foreclosure listings for the villages!

Makes me feel like my plan is only way to go "NO MORTGAGE"
if you can't pay cash retirement here may not be for you!:shrug::ohdear:barf:rant-rave:

I'm not so sure about that.
We don't know the circumstances of those foreclosures...I have heard that during the big bubble build up, TV was fertile ground for house "flipping."

What do you think happened to those homes that were in the process of being flipped when the bubble burst? The speculators just walked away.

Anyone contemplating retirement anywhere should be crunching numbers making as certain as they can be that there expenses will be covered by income, factoring in the big??? of inflation and health care. If some of those expenses are mortgage payments, and they can be made, that works.

NOT paying a mortgage would take a lot of scariness out of it, for sure, though.

I was told that if a contractor or subcontractor is not paid, they can slap a lien on your house and it goes to foreclosure. This has happened to a friend that paid a contractor in full but the contractor went out of business and did not pay the subcontractor. The sub came after my friend. It is so outrageous that this could happen.

How many foreclosures are listed in TV? And is there any way to determine in what stage the foreclosure is?

Sam --- likely ignorance on my part, but isn't title insurance supposed to protect a buyer from a mechanics lien on a new property?

Munc. Sam must be talking about a contractor hired by the homeowner to add on or add pool etc.

Could you please explain how I can view the foreclosed homes in mls 32159.

Try this link: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/class...e/foreclosure/

Put in whatever zip you'd like.

I know I defend the Villages almost to a fault, but when I put in zip code 32162, I get no foreclosures and zip 32159 produces only 5 in The Villages. The other listings are outside TV in other areas.

So five properties out of 30,000 or more is pretty low

Gracie nailed it. It was a pool company. T and D did my pool and they are the only ones I would use here in TV. This is not an ad for them. This is a CYA for the homeowner. The old penny wise, pound foolish needs to be heeded in some cases.

Do general contractors for large projects in TV present affidavits to the homeowner showing payment of subs and suppliers?

Boomer

I don't know, Boomer. I do know that I will now require proof from a contractor that all subs are paid. Maybe a notorized doc attesting all subs are paid in full might help, but who knows. I would want to know every sub on the job and make some calls before final payment is made.

A friend of ours who lives in Woodbury just got his house foreclosed by Suntrust. His wife has cancer and is dying and the doctors bills keep adding up. He tried to juggle both and finally stopped paying his mortgage. Four months later, he's looking for an apartment in Tampa to be closer to Moffitt. So very sad.

I wonder if as the operating strings get shorter in some cases if there will be general contractors who are willing to arrange for the homeowner to pay the subs and suppliers directly and to pay the general contractor separately for overseeing the job. As the market changes everywhere, it can pay to be even more cautious than ever before.

While title insurance is designed to protect the home as it is at purchase for the cost at purchase, anything afterward could be subject to a lien if the blanks are not all filled in.

I have read here on TOTV that the foreclosures there may be due to speculators caught before they could flip. I would bet that is right in most cases there. And it does not sound like there were a lot of speculators like there were in other parts of the country.

I would be sure to make sure that title was insured on a foreclosure purchase. Who knows how far out a speculator may have leveraged.(Well, for me, I would insure the title of any purchase, but that's just me.)

In the old days title insurance where I live was looked at differently from the way it is now. For those who are curious about title insurance, there is a lot of stuff in the archives here on TOTV. A search should turn up the debate.

Boomer

Coach, I just put The Villages in and I got a lot of them, haven't looked at all them yet, try that.

"A friend of ours who lives in Woodbury just got his house foreclosed by Suntrust. His wife has cancer and is dying and the doctors bills keep adding up. He tried to juggle both and finally stopped paying his mortgage. Four months later, he's looking for an apartment in Tampa to be closer to Moffitt. So very sad."

Texas, this is very sad. Is there anything we could do to help your friend? Maybe this should go into Helping Hands????

Kath, if this person is really behind the 8 ball and did not get in trouble for living beyond his means, maybe you (being a wonderful organizer) could go to the Sun and start a fundraiser to help this man. We are many.

try realtytrac.com

The Villages

Preforeclosures is 165
Sheriff Sale is 5
bank owned is 2

Realty trac charges a fee by the month i believe they give u a wk free

the link i clicked mls 32159 showed dozens not 5

Contractors Release of Final Lien
 

AT closing I asked for and received a signed and notarized "Contractors sworn statements to Owner and Final Release of Lien". All 28 subcontractors who worked on my house signed this document!! . All you need to do is ask for this documernt at closing.

Dozens, five, Fifty-Five - No offense to those in trouble but big deal. I feel for those that lost their home due to no fault of their own (like the person who got ill above) but if some investors couldn't flip it and just walked away, who's going to care about that?

As mentioned in another thread, there are over 35K homes already in TV. If 100 of them were in foreclosure it would be less than 1/3 of 1%. I'm sure that is MUCH lower than the Florida average.

This is a very sad story, I do not live in TV yet but I also think that maybe we could get him some help. TV is very large and I am sure Helping Hands could help this friend of TVs.

Any time you hire a Contractor you should get a lien release from each Sub as the work is finished I.E. Pool construction after excavation a lien release from the company that did the work, rebar, same thing, decking, electrical etc. There are laws that govern this, (spelled out in the Contract) and the funds paid to the Subs only after completion of each facet of job.

what is scarier is if there is 100 not paying amenity fees = over $168,000 a year shortage, right? unless it is tacked on to the next buyer.

KathI, sorry I didn't get back sooner. I'm down for the count with a cold and sinus infection. As for my friend, lots of people are helping. He plays softball and the guys there are holding a raffle and he works for the rec. dept and they're putting a fundraiser together. If I can think of anything TOTV can do, I'll get right back on board. Thanks for your thoughts.

Liens can be a scary subject. There are all kinds of liens. If you have a "big" job, some part of your contract should require your General Contractor to show proof that all subcontractors have been paid before you make your final payment. Good advice - seldom followed.

One thing about liens, they are fairly easy to file. Some companies use liens as a threat and file frivolous liens to "force" action by you. All a lien really does (by itself) is make sure you don't sell the property against which the lien was filed until the debt alleged against that property is settled (notice that "alleged" does not mean a valid debt and that "settled" does not necessarily mean "paid"). Once a lien is filed, the party filing the lien has to prove, in court, that the debt is valid and you have a chance to prove it is invalid. If the other party is successful and proves to the court that a debt is valid, then the court issues a "judgment" for the debt which can then be used to file a foreclosure action, seize the property, and sell it to pay off the judgment.

Title Insurance does not protect against liens - only against defective titles. If the original builder failed to pay some subcontractors and they filed liens against your home, then maybe your title insurance would help you out as the builder did not pass a valid title for the home to you. Other that that remote possibility, title insurance doesn't protect against liens.

By the way, on some liens such as a mechanics lien, it will "expire" or become invalid after one year if the party filing the lien does not take action within one year to prove the validity of the alleged debt.

No matter what, if you have a lien filed against your home, and if you think it is invalid or have other questions, best advice is to seek qualified legal advice - consult with a lawyer familiar with liens.
:beer3: