April 2009

By Moe Bedard Every American that has an interest in our government’s responses to Main Street’s economic problems should pay serious attention to those that are killing the cramdown bill. To me, at least, I take the imminent death of [...]

The company had all the trappings of success—its top officials lived lavish lifestyles, kept a fleet of chauffeur-driven cars, and donated generously to charities. And it used slick marketing to sell its “Dream Homes Program,” which promised to pay homeowners’ [...]

By Moe Bedard Goodbye cramdown bill, hello reality! It seems like the cramdown bill might get shot down soon. The most depressing aspect of this isn’t that the cramdown bill will potentially be shot down, or at best, passed with [...]

By Moe Bedard Today’s New York Times ran an article about the downsides of the incentivized loan modification plans citing potential contractual violations between lenders, servicers and the investors that expect returns on their investments. With the government paying $1000.00 [...]

By Nathan Fransen, Esq. The Foreclosure Consultant Act (California Civil Code Section 2945 et. al.) is being amended effective July 1, 2009 and the changes will affect many people now in the loan modification industry.  First, lets define what a [...]

By Moe Bedard Wall Street War Brewing Against the Obama Plan, I argued that bond investors were going to start taking the job of protecting their assets seriously even though doing so makes no sense for Main Street. Today’s Financial [...]

By Moe Bedard Real estate investment ponzi schemes are growing. And for one lady in Philadelphia, PA, head of Gaddel Enterprises, the scheme will cost her 10 years of her life in a Federal prison and $7.3 million in restitution. [...]

By Moe Bedard While the likes of Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, and Wells have signed on to the Obama plan, Bond managers are setting their battle plans against one of the largest government bailouts in history. Arguing that [...]

By Moe Bedard Of course we all already know that Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citi and other lending giants have received trillions in bailout aid and now, because they’re willing to modify loans based on Federal guidelines they’ll get [...]

By Moe Bedard Yet another Attorney General has gone public about foreclosure consultants in his state. Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster is fed up with scams perpetrated by foreclosure consultants and mortgage brokers in his state. Koster seems enraged, suing [...]

By Moe Bedard The cramdown bill, if passed, seems like the only way that Americans across the board would be able to reduce their principle balances, that is, if they are willing to go through bankruptcy court. Again, the program [...]

By Moe Bedard A recent article in the Orange County Business Journal argues that Loan Modification firms are helping stimulate the local commercial real estate market as they’re snapping up office space left and right in Orange County, CA. Well, [...]

By Moe Bedard The economy in America has its citizens demanding answers. Attorney’s General, the Treasury Secretary and even the President have issued nothing less than a legal holy war against any firm associated with the loan modification industry, lending [...]

By Moe Bedard Since 2007 we’ve heard our politicians promise that they would do a complete overhaul of the lending industry indicating we American consumers would benefit from stronger regulation. The first such bill introduced in 2007 died on the [...]

By Moe Bedard Banks are claiming they just can’t deal with the call volume of their borrowers in distress. The Hope Now Executive Director had the nerve to claim the following: “Servicers are working hard to triage those calls and [...]

By Moe Bedard When times are tough some people turn to crime. But when we think of criminals, the typical image in our heads resembles a shadowy criminal figure, socio-economically challenged and, perhaps, drug addicted. That’s not the person robbing [...]

By Moe Bedard It’s getting to be rather old news indicating that notices of default have hit record highs. Most everyone is aware of the fact that we are in a housing crisis. However, few people claim that lenders offering [...]

From the Nevada Attorney General, Press Release April 7, 2009 Carson City Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto warns as the mortgage crisis continues to unfold, record-breaking home foreclosures will be experienced and many homeowners will be forced to make tough [...]

By Moe Bedard A great number of experts have placed the blame on the foreclosure crisis in America on the problems associated with mortgage backed securities. When the real estate markets decline, purchasers of these securities disappear and when foreclosures [...]

By Moe Bedard When faced with foreclosure, many families have two crises to contend with: losing their home and the effects of tarnished credit. Tarnished credit seriously damages a renter’s prospects in the rental marketplace with some families unable to [...]

By Moe Bedard In June of 2008 I ran an article about MERS: Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. MERS is named as a mortgagee on more than 50 million mortgages throughout the United States. Yet, MERS does not lend money [...]

By Moe Bedard Yesterday’s Hartford Courant ran a story about HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan’s efforts to ascertain for himself the state of the housing crisis around the country and what he’s doing to change the status quo. Apparently, Secretary Donovan thinks [...]

By Moe Bedard Over the last month there have been incredible developments in federally subsidized and incentivized loan modifications, refinance programs and the mortgage cramdown bill. Today, Bank of America announced that it will begin refinancing mortgages up to 105% [...]

TALLAHASSEE, FL—Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that his office has obtained a court order temporarily prohibiting a Jacksonville company from charging up-front fees for foreclosure-related rescue services. According to the order issued by the Duval County Circuit Court, National [...]

Washington, DC – Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-35), who chairs the Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee and has been a leader of foreclosure prevention efforts, joined Shaun Donovan, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) during his visit to Los [...]

By Moe Bedard Wells Fargo is posting a 3 billion dollar profit in the first quarter of 2009. How do you like that Main Street? After accepting TARP funds in the high billions, Wells Fargo was able to acquire Wachovia, [...]