From the monthly archives:

April 2009

A Political Slight of Hand

By Moe Bedard
While the cramdown bill dies, providing evidence of our representative’s willingness to sell us out, some may say that our representatives have already passed legislation to help Main Street like the foreclosure bill and the Hope for Homeowners plan. Whereas it may seem like these two programs are designed to help us, upon [...]

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Who’s Responsible for the Cramdown Bill’s Demise?

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 this bill as proof positive that our representatives have sold us down the river. With increasing [...]

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Homeowners Says, ” Insiders in the government are on the take for favors to the mega-banks!”

This is an actual comment left on my blog yesterday.
I am having a fascinating experience suing the major banks for:
1) racketeering in the creation and servicing of my mortgage;
2) decreasing my property value
3) diminishing my income
I took on my own industry in the 1960’s for the practice of REDLINING, and have done it again for [...]

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FBI Files Criminal Charges Against Metro Dream Homes ‘Dream Homes’ Turns into Nightmare

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’ mortgages in return for an up-front fee that would be invested in profitable business ventures.
But [...]

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Wall Street Stranglehold on the Senate

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 multiple restrictions protecting Wall Street, but that our representatives are all but laying down to the [...]

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Loan Modifications a Bad Deal for Main Street?

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 or more to banks that play ball, that is, provide loan modifications per government guidelines, I’m [...]

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FORECLOSURE CONSULTANT ACT GETS TOUGHER!

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 “foreclosure consultant” is:
California Civil Code Section 2945.1
(a) “Foreclosure consultant” means any person who makes any solicitation, [...]

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Bond Investors to Sue the United States Government?

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 Times ran an article indicating that these bond investors are so serious that they’re beginning to [...]

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Another Ponzi Scheme Uncovered

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. The worst part of all of this is that many of her victims were hurricane Katrina [...]

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Wall Street War Brewing Against Obama Plan

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 changing the terms of 4 million potential loans would do irreparable damage to the bond market, [...]

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In Exchange for Playing Ball B of A to Get $2.66 Billion

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 another nice chunk of change…$2.66 Billion according to the Treasury.
Perhaps this should be another “I’m [...]

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Foreclosure Scams Proliferate: New Standards Near?

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 firms from California to Ohio for misleading lending practices and misleading foreclosure relief services. In [...]

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Cramdown Bill: Stalled until Memorial Day and Term Limits?

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 has been delayed in the senate as major lenders, credit unions and the financial services industry [...]

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Loan Modification Firms Stimulating the Economy?

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, of course they are…the loan modification industry is growing, will continue to grow and will be [...]

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Bank of America Formally Announces Participation in Federal Loan Mod Incentive Program

By Moe Bedard
Last Friday, Bank of America formally announced its inclusion in to President Obama’s Loan Modification Incentive program. The program allocates 75 billion in aid to lenders and services to not only provide loan modifications under federal standards, but also agrees to subsidize payment reductions to 31% of a borrowers monthly income.
From CNN Money:

Mortgage [...]

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Guilt by Association

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 industry and securities dealers that had anything to do with mortgage backed securities.
Guilt by association is [...]

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More Bills to Die on the Senate Floor?

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 senate floor. It seems our esteemed representatives are taking another shot at revamping the lending industry. [...]

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I’M MAD AS HELL AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!

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 help borrowers,” said Faith Schwartz, Hope Now’s executive director. “We are working hard on that capacity issue. [...]

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Federally Subsidized Loan Modification Program Kick Off

By Moe Bedard
While the cramdown bill dies a silent death in the senate the government has guaranteed to pay lenders nearly ten billion more in taxpayer dollars to support loan modification efforts. Federal funds will initially be going to the largest lenders and servicers including Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, GMAC, Saxon and Select Portfolio Servicing.
As [...]

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Residential Burglaries off the Chart

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 homes across the United States anymore. Thieves are turning to open houses across the United States, especially [...]

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Loan Modifications Stalling the Foreclosure Recovery Effort?

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 loan modifications are to blame for elongating the housing crisis. President Obama has sponsored loan modification [...]

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Nevada Attorney General Announces Mortgage Fraud Strike Force

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 choices.
Nevada is number one in the nation for foreclosures, with one filing for every 70 households. [...]

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Commercial Foreclosure Explosion Lurking Around the Corner?

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 escalate, losses in mortgage backed securities run deep. This is a cycle that is difficult to [...]

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The Invisible Hand of the Rental Marketplace Improves Conditions for Renters with Bad Credit

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 secure rent due to bad credit or having to pay exorbitant deposits to secure a home [...]

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Will MERS Finally Come to Justice?

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 to consumers. The purpose, utility and legality of MERS has been called in to question in [...]

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Overpromising and Underdelivering?

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 there ought to be yet another solution to the housing crisis that would magically preserve the [...]

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Analysis of Potential Loan Modification and Refinance Standardization

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% of a home’s value, part of the Home Affordable program. Moreover, Bank of America also indicated [...]

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Court Grants Emergency Request to Halt Jacksonville Foreclosure Rescue Company’s Up-Front Fees

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 Foreclosure Counseling Services Corp. is barred from charging homeowners any fee in advance for providing [...]

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Congresswoman Maxine Waters Hosts HUD Secretary

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 Angeles today for a tour of several foreclosed properties in South Los Angeles.
The purpose of [...]

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You Walk Away & 4 Other Foreclosure Firms Sued By Indiana AG

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller today filed lawsuits in Boone, Clark, Delaware, Grant and Marion counties against five foreclosure consultant companies alleging violations of state laws.
“We recognize there is a foreclosure crisis in the country. Indiana has the tools in place that can help consumers avoid becoming victims of for-profit foreclosure consultants’ bad [...]

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Wells Fargo CFO: Public Private Partnerships “A Good Concept”

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, one of the largest bank buyouts in American history. Just a year later, the financial [...]

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Servicers are Finally Coming Around

By Moe Bedard

It’s no secret that loss mitigation departments are notorious for terrible customer service. They treat people like criminals for having financial problems. Over the years I’ve written numerous articles suggesting how loss mitigation departments can improve their customer service. First and [...]

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Loan Modification Crackdowns and Their Effect on the Public

By Moe Bedard
Following suit with Treasury Secretary Geithner’s warnings, more foreclosure consultants are being sued by Attorneys General throughout the United States. Today, Indiana Attorney General Zoeller indicated he was suing five foreclosure consultants in his state. Personally, I think it’s a good thing that fraudulent foreclosure consultants are being prosecuted. However, I am increasingly [...]

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Keep on Refinancing: Obama’s Newest Solution

This morning I read a news wire from Reuters about Obama’s newest message to the public: take advantage of some of the lowest mortgage rates in history. Over the last decade I’ve grown to be somewhat of a skeptical man regarding solutions put forward by our elected officials. This [...]

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Missouri Attorney General Sues Anaheim, CA. Loan Modification Firm, US Foreclosure Relief

Jefferson City, Mo. – Attorney General Chris Koster today filed suit against a California company that defrauded Missourians looking for help avoiding mortgage foreclosure. Koster said the company, US Foreclosure Relief, took money from victims but did not provide any help.
“Unfortunately, these tough economic times have brought out opportunists who prey on people at some [...]

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No Economic Turn Around in Sight

Last week I featured a blog titled “Two Economies at War.” The subject was about CEO of Bank of America’s positivity regarding economic recovery. He thinks the economy and housing market are on the up and up while Main Street continues to suffer. Anyone or any company getting multi billion dollar bailouts is bound to [...]

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“Bloodsuckers and Bottom Feeders”

By Moe Bedard
Yet another Mortgage Modification Fraud alert was posted on CNBC this morning. Former Department of Housing and Urban Development consultant Howard Glaser warned “The bloodsuckers and bottom feeders are out.” More and more attention is appropriately being placed on mortgage scam artists by the mass media now and I think it’s a good [...]

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Federal Government and State Governments Get Serious About Mortgage Scams

By Moe Bedard
NECN.com featured a video news release this morning making it very clear that the federal and state governments will be taking aggressive action against fraudulent loan modification firms. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner directly addressed the federal government’s position indicating “…we will aggressively pursue individuals involved in mortgage rescue scams.” Both the Massachusetts Attorney [...]

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FTC Sues FedMod AKA Federal Loan Modification Center After Taking Millions From Homeowners

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced five lawsuits againts alleged loan modification and foreclosure scam operators. Today Irvine-based Federal Loan Modification Law Center or Fed Mod was served by the FTC with a lawsuit alleging that the company is charging unsuspecting homeowners upfront fees of $1,000 to $3,000 for a loan modification service, but the [...]

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FEDERAL, STATE PARTNERS ANNOUNCE MULTI-AGENCY CRACKDOWN TARGETING FORECLOSURE RESCUE SCAMS, LOAN MODIFICATION FRAUD

Civil Enforcement Cases, State Enforcement Actions, Alert to Financial Institutions Among New Efforts to Protect American Homeowners Seeking Relief
WASHINGTON – As homeowners and communities throughout the country continue to face devastating consequences from the deep contraction in the economy and the housing market, the Obama Administration today announced a new coordinated effort across federal and [...]

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A Hope Now employee says, “There is no hope for homeowners!”

Hope Now Employee – I would have to agree not to call HOPE. I actually work there. From the day I started I felt so guilty because there is no help. I feel HOPE was set in place for people to leave the banks alone. We are like an escape goat for the banks. I [...]

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National Foreclosure Counseling Services: Attorney General Sues Jacksonville Company for Foreclosure Rescue Fraud

TALLAHASSEE, FL – Attorney General Bill McCollum today sued a Jacksonville company and its directors alleging the company is engaged in foreclosure rescue fraud. According to the lawsuit, National Foreclosure Counseling Services, Corp., operated by Raymond Paulk and Robert Dallavia, targeted homeowners facing foreclosure and charged up-front fees for loan modification services in violation of [...]

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Keep Your Property is a Scam: Attorney General Sues S. Florida Loan Modification Firm

Attorney General Bill McCollum has filed a lawsuit against a South Florida loan modification firm and its affiliated companies, alleging they violated Florida law by charging up-front fees for foreclosure rescue services.
The civil lawsuit, filed in Broward County Circuit Court Thursday, charges several entities — Keep Your Property, its owners William R. Colon and Carlos [...]

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Homeowner-Aid Plan Caught in Second-Loan Spat

The Obama administration’s $75 billion effort to help troubled homeowners avoid foreclosure has hit a stumbling block: a fight over how to aid borrowers who have more than one home loan.
The Treasury Department, scrambling to address the problem, is trying to persuade lenders to forgive or greatly reduce so-called second liens. But that effort has [...]

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Disappointing Statistics of Loan Modifications in 2008

By Moe Bedard
Loan modifications are one of the few instruments borrowers can rely on to save their homes from foreclosure. And while loan modifications have helped a great number of people, it seems banks that offered loan modifications in 2008 failed to seriously improve the lives of borrowers. What does this all mean? To me [...]

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