From the monthly archives:

March 2009

Loan Mods by Lawyers Shut Down by Massachusetts AG Coakley

by Moe Bedard

Attorney General Martha Coakley Obtains Temporary Restraining Order Against Company for Deceptively Advertising Foreclosure Relief Services and Soliciting Illegal Advance Fees
BOSTON – Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office has obtained a temporary restraining order against Express Modifications, Inc., d/b/a “Loan Mods By Lawyers, Inc.,” which ran prominent advertisements in a local newspaper last month offering to [...]

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A Solution to the Cramdown Impasse?

by Moe Bedard

The subject of cramdown legislation is widely attended to by consumers and corporate executives alike. Consumers are paying careful attention as the bill, if passed, could give desperate homeowners another exit strategy from serious hardships caused by the worsening economy.

Corporate executives argue that the legislation would result in higher interest rates for borrowers, however, most [...]

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91-year-old Ohio woman who shot herself after foreclosure dies

by Moe Bedard

AKRON, Ohio — Addie Polk’s solitude was shattered six months ago, when she shot herself in the chest as she was about to be evicted from her foreclosed home in Akron.
“She was a very private person,” said Mary Dennis, Polk’s only living sibling. “She would not have wanted people looking into her life.”

Polk, however, became [...]

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Banks Starting to Walk Away on Foreclosures

by Moe Bedard

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Mercy James thought she had lost her rental property here to foreclosure. A date for a sheriff’s sale had been set, and notices about the foreclosure process were piling up in her mailbox.
Ms. James had the tenants move out, and soon her white house at the corner of Thomas and Maple [...]

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Florida Attorney General Calls for Cooperative Approach to State’s Mortgage Fraud Issues

by Moe Bedard

~ Situation likened to a “state of emergency” ~
TALLAHASSEE, FL – Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that he has sent a letter to several state agencies and associations, including the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Office of Financial Regulation, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation and the Florida Bar, calling for a [...]

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Wells & Wachovia Suck! The Mortgage Servicing Follies Continue…

by Moe Bedard

Wells Fargo CEO Stumpf worries that economy could cancel out his efforts to revive Wachovia and deal with toxic loans.
He should be worried and the investors that own these loans  should be more than worried. They should be in court suing Stumpf and these idiots for incompetent mortgage servicing practices. I have been writing about this [...]

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State suing 4 Miami companies, alleging fees were charged for loan-modification services

by Moe Bedard

The state attorney general’s office is suing four Miami companies for allegedly charging customers upfront fees for loan-modification services in violation of Florida law.
Named in the suit filed Wednesday in Miami-Dade Circuit Court are: Mortgage Crisis Solutions Association, Property Solutions Specialists, One Source Communications and Nationwide Financial Partners. Principals Donald R. Gillette and Flynn McCarthy [...]

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Commercial Foreclosures: US programs seen too late to stem foreclosure wave

by Moe Bedard

* CMBS default rate could hit 3.5 percent by year-end
* Bank default rate could reach 4.8 percent in 2011
* Commercial real estate prices may fall 35-45 pct from 07 peak
 By Ilaina Jonas
 NEW YORK, March 26 (Reuters) – The new federal programs to aid the U.S. financial markets will likely not fend off the impending wave [...]

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Victims Sought in Mortgage Foreclosure Scheme

by Moe Bedard

SAN DIEGO – Authorities asked for the public’s help Wednesday in locating additional victims of a San Diego foreclosure fraud scam in which victims were falsely told that “land patents” would protect their properties from foreclosure.
District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said 61-year-old Larry Smith and five alleged accomplices sold the bogus “land patents” to homeowners, claiming [...]

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Homeowner Revolution Anyone? The Internet May Bring on the 2nd Revolution

by Moe Bedard

I really don’t think the government gets what is happening on Main Street and on the internet right now. The American people on Main Street are not getting the help they deserve and the criminals on Wall Street seem to get new multi billion to trillion dollar bailouts daily. It appears that some people have [...]

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Geithner says US Loan Modification Plan is Only “Pretty Good.”

by Moe Bedard

I just picked this up from Reuters. The big Obama plan gets a HUGE, ummmmmmmmmm, actually just a so-so “pretty good” rating from U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
Reuters:
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. mortgage loan modification program has “a pretty good chance” of success, though it will take a couple of months to gauge its effect, U.S. [...]

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Congresswoman Doris Matsui Advocates for Increased Consumer Protection Against Loan Modification Scams

by Moe Bedard

Congresswoman Doris Matsui Advocates for Increased Consumer Protection Against Loan Modification Scams
Presses Federal Trade Commission for Full Disclosure to Consumers of Financial Terms on New and Existing Loans
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Doris Matsui (CA-05) addressed the Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection Subcommittee Hearing today on the topic of “Consumer Credit and Debt: the Role of [...]

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‘Shadow’ Supply Of Foreclosures May Delay Housing’s Recovery

by Moe Bedard

“Everybody is stalled 100%; the lenders aren’t doing anything” with modifications, said Moe Bedard, president of Loan Safe Solutions, a Corona, Calif.-based firm that does mortgage auditing for attorneys. Some shadow inventory may not be listed publicly because some lenders sell foreclosures via in-house divisions, says Bedard. Or, lenders may be selling the defaulted paper to investors. But these gray market sales can’t account for all unlisted foreclosed properties.

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Florida Bar Ethics Alert: Providing Legal Services to Distressed Homeowners

by Moe Bedard

The Florida Bar’s Ethics Hotline recently has received numerous calls from lawyers who have been contacted by non-lawyers seeking to set up an arrangement in which the lawyers are involved in loan modifications, short sales, and other foreclosure-related rescue services on behalf of distressed homeowners.
 These non-lawyers include mortgage brokers, financial management advisors, foreclosure “consultants” and [...]

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Loan Modification Scams Shut Down by the FTC: Hope Now Modifications & New Hope Property

by Moe Bedard

The Federal Trade Commission convinced a U.S. district court to order two companies to stop advertising that they are part of a government-endorsed mortgage-assistance network. The complaints and restraining orders name Hope Now Modifications LLC, related entities and principals Nick Puglia and Salvatore Puglia as well as New Hope Property LLC and principals Brian Mammoccio [...]

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Second Mortgages: What will be done about them?

by Moe Bedard

While President Obama, Tim Geithner and Ben Bernanke continue to advance plans to improve the economy offering answers about how homeowners, lenders and even judges can modify loans, one important piece of the puzzle is often left out: second mortgages.
Current legislation aimed at incentivizing lenders to modify first mortgages may not be enough to solve [...]

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Home Loan Resolution Reality Check

by Moe Bedard

The word is out! If you just pick up the phone and call your mortgage servicer, they will take care of you and help you out of the foreclosure process holding your hand all along the way. These mortgage servicers are on your side and want to save your home.
You can trust them, right? WRONG!
To [...]

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Predatory Renting Extends its Grip to Apartments, Low Income Families

by Moe Bedard

The foreclosure crisis is something we can’t get away from if we tried. It’s on the television each night, in the newspapers and discussed actively online each and every day. And everyone’s got an opinion about the cause and the cure. But I’ve been writing on a different type of crisis, very much related to [...]

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Fed Commits to Buy up to $1.45 Trillion of Mortgage Debt

by Moe Bedard

For the first time in recent memory the markets seem to be rebounding from record losses. In an effort to continue the sustained improvement of the economy the Fed recently announced a plan to buy $300 million in T-Bills and as much as $1.45 trillion of toxic mortgage debt. The plan is aimed to get [...]

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HUD Approved Foreclosure Avoidance Counseling

by Moe Bedard

By Kenneth M. Corioso
A great deal of effort has gone in to writing articles about how to avoid becoming one of the thousands of victims of foreclosure consulting fraud. Thousands of loan modification firms have set up shop across the United States; some operating legally and others operating illegally. While I believe using an attorney [...]

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