From the monthly archives:

December 2008

Skaters Find Silver Lining in the Foreclosure Crisis

This “skate” story really hits home for me.
I used to be one of those kids that would skate abandoned homes with pools throughout my childhood in my hometown of Anaheim, Ca. in the 1980’s. Even though it wasn’t the most legal of things to do, it kept my friends and I out of trouble because we would [...]

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IndyMac to Be Sold to Group of Equity, Hedge Funds, NYT Reports

Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) — IndyMac Bancorp Inc., which failed in July after a run on its deposits, is close to being sold by the government to private equity and hedge fund firms, the New York Times reported, citing people briefed on the deal.

The buyers are J.C. Flowers & Co. and Dune Capital Management, New York-based [...]

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For Desperate Homeowners, Scams Abound

Craig agreed to pay $30,000 and to share title on her house to a foreclosure rescue company. The company said it would use equity in her house to pay off her debts, and that her credit would be repaired. After a year she thought she’d get her house back.

The company’s agreement promises that clients have [...]

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This is Why California Has 8 of the 10 of the Worst Real Estate Markets in the US

I have always said that lenders targeted homeowners in the Golden State of California. The reason that lenders made more loan here is simple, more money per unit.
Why set up operations in Alaska or New Mexico, when you can open up several mortgage chop shops in Cali, place your street level dealers on every [...]

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Mortgage Modification Can Be Trying, Chaotic

Hope Now, the mortgage industry’s alliance intended to help struggling homeowners, announced Monday it’s helped almost one-million home-owners get loan modifications this year. But, advocates for homeowners say the group is inflating its success.
Homeowners who’ve tried, say it can be trying – and time consuming – to get a bank to agree to change the [...]

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Homeowner Aid May Double Under Bush Loan Initiative

Voluntary modifications by mortgage lenders are “too little, too late,” said Nicolas Retsinas, director of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As mounting job losses cause foreclosure rates to rise, “we clearly need a more activist government intervention,” he said.
Hope Now projects 950,000 loan modifications for 2008, including 208,000 for [...]

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Washington Foreclosure Flops: New Washington Efforts Will Fail Without Mortgage Servicer Regulation

Many people wonder why lenders and mortgage servicers are not helping struggling homeowners as much as they should. Please read below and I’ll try and help you understand.
I have been researching mortgage servicers and analyzing what they will and will not do during the loan modification process for almost two years. So, I thought that [...]

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Systematic Foreclosure Prevention and Mortgage Modification Act

Rep. Maxine Waters, chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity and most senior member of the Financial Services Committee from the state of California, has introduced the Systematic Foreclosure Prevention and Mortgage Modification Act of 2008 (H.R. 7326).
The legislation is designed to dramatically reduce the number of foreclosures by establishing a systematic approach [...]

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Angelo Mozilo Email on Loan Safe Voted #1 Business Blunder in 08′

Choosing only 10 this year was next to impossible, but somehow we managed. Incidentally, we’d like to throw a special shout out to Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide for making this year’s list extra debacle-riffic. Thanks! – The Consumerist
It’s nice to know that our work at Loan Safe and Loan Workout has somewhat of an effect [...]

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Loan Modification Funny Business: Loan Mods From Your Kitchen Table

Loan modifications are the talk of the town and a new service sector of business that is quickly getting a bad name for the few and the proud. When I see ads like the one below hit my Google alert inbox, I just say, “Holy $h@ It’s some of the same ole slimy mortgage brokers [...]

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IRS Speeds Lien Relief for Homeowners

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today announced an expedited process that will make it easier for financially distressed homeowners to avoid having a federal tax lien block refinancing of mortgages or the sale of a home.If taxpayers are looking to refinance or sell a home and there is a federal tax lien filed, there [...]

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Dumb and Dumber: Loan Modification Firm Sends Fake Press Release

“However, just hours later, a Bank United spokesperson said the release was false and that the bank had no agreement in place or any intention to sign one.” Bank United spokeswoman said in regards to a fake press release issued yesterday by the Mortgage Modification Legal Network.
The ole subprime wolf in home saving sheep’s clothing seems [...]

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Mortgages Doomed to Foreclosure

The court reasoned that “Fremont as a lender should have recognized that loans with the first three characteristics …were ‘doomed to foreclosure’ unless the borrower could refinance the loan at or near the end of the introductory rate period, and obtain in the process a new and lower introductory rate.” The court also found that [...]

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Justice Department Resolves Investigation Under Servicemembers Civil Relief Act of Homecomings Financial, LLC

The Justice Department Resolves Investigation Under Servicemembers Civil Relief Act of Homecomings Financial, LLC
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Justice Department today announced the resolution of its investigation of Homecomings Financial, LLC (Homecomings), under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA). The SCRA suspends or modifies certain civil obligations of individuals serving on active duty [...]

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Meet My New Landlord, Fannie Mae

“While it may be sometimes tougher for us to sell a property when people are in it, we understand that lots of people are in tough situations right now,” said Chuck Greener, a Fannie Mae spokesman. “If a renter wants to stay in their home, we’ll make that happen. And if they [...]

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Do it Yourself Mortgage Modifications | Free Tools, Free Help and Safe Websites

You obtain a mortgage modification on your own for free or without buying a book!I have proven over the last year and a half that homeowners can get a loan modification on their own. If you visit my forum, www.LoanSafe.org, you will see over 200 documented successful stories of people just like you who have [...]

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Investors Prove Countrywide Lawsuit 100% Valid

The facts are the facts. I am not going to add much commentary to this damaging blog post because it is what it is. All I know is Angelo (Ex-Countrywide CEO) is gonna have some explaining to do to Mr. Lewis (CEO for Now of B of A) over some egg nog and whiskey.
Here are links, facts, data and concrete [...]

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Waters Backs Bair and Turns Up the Loan Modification Heat in Washington

“And so here we are and we don’t have any systematic way to help homeowners to modify these loans,” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said. “I’m not even going to cooperate with you anymore,” Waters said, turning to Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) whose tireless efforts she praised.
“I just want you to know as much as [...]

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The #1 Reason Why Loan Modifications Are Not Working: Mortgage Servicers Suck!

Many people in the media and our government are trying to figure out why loan modifications are not working and it is really quite simple to figure out. Yet, here we are almost two years into this foreclosure mess and it’s as if we are all stuck on stupid.
One doesn’t have to look further than [...]

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Fannie Mae Finally Gets Loan Modification Friendly

It looks like Fannie Mae is finally implementing stronger loan modification methods and starting to progress with the foreclosure prevention times by implementing their new “Stream Lined Loan Modification Program” or (SMP).
Read the Fannie Mae Guidelines here

What does this mean “only” to Fannie Mae borrowers?
Key changes are that Fannie Mae mortgage servicers will now [...]

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The Next Foreclosure Wave: Large Percentage of Small Business Owners Have Toxic Mortgages

“While Wall Street firms can comfortably borrow billions at 2.28 percent of interest, their smaller counterparts have no such arrangement. Tens of thousands of small businesses will fail this year due to government inaction and lack of credit availability. With 60 percent of national jobs to its credit, small business industry is clearly an economic [...]

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Bill Frey and his investors will be OK. But BofA may have their day…

“Bill Frey of Greenwich Financial – Countrywide worked out an arrangement with fifteen state attorney generals for fraudulent lending practices and they’re handing the bill to bondholders. They plead guilty and they cut a deal on hundreds of thousands of fraudulent loans that they made.
I am for loan modifications, but just not based only [...]

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Bernanke Says Mortgage Servicers Are Not Modifying Mortgages When They Should

Looks like we now have the Fed, the FDIC and Moe on the same loan modification and mortgage servicing page.
Today I watched Ben Bernanke on CNBC and listened in a trance as he said that mortgage servicers are incapable of coping with the crisis on their own and called for action for addressing the [...]

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Are Wells Fargo, Wachovia, ASC and CEO John Stumpf the Kings of the Predatory Servicing Sea?

“I just want to let the my readers and the world know that Wells Fargo, Wachovia (who they now own) and their mortgage servicing arm that they “try” and hide behind, American Servicing Company (ASC) is one the absolute worst and predatory mortgage servicers that I and thousands of homeowners have ever experienced. I feel [...]

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FYI – Mortgage servicers are uncooperative because its costs them to perform a loan modification

I love how careful government officials are in using their words when talking about the foreclosure crisis. But any well trained ear can cut through the fluff and find the real meat and potatoes of what is being actually said.
Take for instance the video below of Sheila Bair of the FDIC on CNN.
In the interview, [...]

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Commercial Foreclosure Tsunami on the Way

Looks like the commercial mortgage arena will have a rough year in 2008. It is only the next logical foreclosure wave to hit the US and this tsunami may be the mother of all waves that drowns what’s left of our economy.
Reuters – Commercial property loans originated in 2005 to 2007 that increasingly carried [...]

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Countrywide $122 Billion Mortgage Pool May Drown Bank of America

“The loan modification buy back clause is on a secret Countrywide loan pool in which $122 billion worth of mortgages sold to investors from early 2004 to April of this year. The problem with the clause is that they are policing themselves and no one is watching!”
Putting cherry red lip stick and doing major cosmetic surgery [...]

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Investors Sue Countrywide and B of A is Surprised

Investors filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Monday over the recent predatory lending settlement that Countrywide parent, Bank of America had agreed to in October with 11 state attorney generals.
The lawsuit was filed by Greenwich Financial Services Distressed Mortgage Fund 3 LLC and QED LLC, two Connecticut limited [...]

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Will Obama Stand By His Foreclosure Moratorium and Bankruptcy Promises?

Below are promises made to Main Street homeowners during President-Elect Obama‘s campaign in his own words from BarackObama.com.
“The final plan must provide help to families who are struggling to stay in their homes. We cannot simply bailout Wall Street without helping the millions of innocent homeowners who are facing foreclosure.” Obama September 2008
“Going forward, [...]

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