From the monthly archives:

August 2009

Is Carrington Mortgage Services misleading investors as they screw homeowners?

by Moe Bedard

It looks like Senator Chris Dodd is going to bat for one of his Connecticut mortgage buddy’s, Bruce Rose (pictured) and one of the worst mortgage servicers in the country, Carrington Mortgage Services. Forbes is reporting that Dodd wrote a letter to the Federal Reserve asking for some leeway and TALF money for the independent servicers like [...]

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Rancho Cucamonga foreclosure center is Chase’s busiest

by Moe Bedard

“The center does double the loan modification submissions than any other in the country,” said Rod Tawasha, home preservation manager.

This month, the foreclosure prevention center moved to a bigger location on Haven Avenue to meet the growing demand. At the center, customers with Chase, WaMu and EMC loans can get help in reducing interest rates, [...]

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Is Angelo Mozilo a villain or just vilified?

by Moe Bedard

From a broader perspective, Mozilo is also awaiting the verdict of history: Was he the No. 1 culprit of the financial crisis, as some (including Time magazine) have suggested? Or was he merely an aggressive executive who made mistakes while trying to keep his “baby,” as he called Countrywide, atop the heap?

“Mozilo’s fingerprints are all [...]

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As I predicted, Alt A and Prime loans swallowing Orange County homeowners

by Moe Bedard

Orange County, California was the capital of mortgage broker lending back in the home loan gold rush days. Some of the nation’s largest brokers set up telemarketing chop shops in the county where there are more BMW’s and fake boobs per capita than anywhere in the world. It was easy pickings for loan officers that used “greed” and [...]

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Lenders, Servicers Fight Anti-Blight and Property Laws

by Moe Bedard

Housing Advocates Say Industry Is Skirting Health and Safety Ordinances, While Taking Taxpayer Money
The end result: Some of the same servicers the Obama Administration is urging to complete more loan modifications still are walking away entirely from vandalized homes, or failing to fix broken windows, get rid of junked cars, clear trash, repair damaged roofs [...]

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Judges want to force lender-borrower mediation in Florida foreclosure cases

by Moe Bedard

They can’t reach anyone at their lender’s office. When they do, they never speak to the same person twice.
“It’s been horrendous,” one man told Gardner about dealing with his bank. Another woman wrote a letter to her lender’s attorney because she could find no other contact information.
Read more from Tampa Bay.com

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Brooklyn judge stands up to the banks, ” I won’t accept their comedy of errors”

by Moe Bedard

This is a great article from the New York Times about a Brooklyn judge who is standing up to the banks by making them follow the law. Imagine that? From the banks making bogus signatures to not proving they own the mortgage, Judge Arthur M. Schack does not let any lender funny business cause homeowners [...]

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Mod by Lawyers – Moe, you saved us a lot of money and grief

by Moe Bedard

I would like to thank Moe and all of you for your posts. I went to Mod By Lawyers (aka The Firm) last week and I have to say they were very convincing. – Leslie the Homeowner
I get chills sometimes when I read these comments and emails. The awesome feeling I get from helping someone [...]

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Family loses home to Fed Mod loan modification scam

by Moe Bedard

Looks like another family will loose their home to the Federal Loan Modification Center/ Fed Mod nation wide scam. There must be thousands of families that are in the exact same position as the family below.
My only advice to victims of the Fed Mod scam is to seek help immediately from a non-profit and cut your [...]

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Mortgage modifers must be licensed under new Florida law

by Moe Bedard

Homeowners will have more protection beginning Jan. 1. That’s when a new law passed by the Legislature this year will require all unlicensed modifiers, loan originators and mortgage lenders to get a broker’s license through the state’s Office of Financial Regulation.
The statute, which brings state laws in line with the 2008 federal mortgage licensing act, [...]

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Loan modification industry insider comments on Green Credit

by Moe Bedard

My clients are calling me like crazy, we as agents have done everything that we could, even at this very moment, while Green credit solutions is gone, and operating under different name. In my opinion that’s unethical, and more close to a scam. – Green Credit Ethnic Agent
I have worked very closely with Green Credit [...]

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One Homeowner’s Tale of Trying to Avoid Foreclosure

by Moe Bedard

VAN SUSTEREN: You are living — if the house cost $3000 to carry the mortgage, you make $4000, you are living on $1000, and your turn to figure out a way to make this more economical and better for your family.
You are now trying to do something with your mortgage. What are you trying to [...]

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Banks on Sick List Top 400 – Are we heading into a Depression?

by Moe Bedard

I suspect that hundreds of banks will fail in the coming months and years. The FDIC’s troubled bank list has doubled since last year. This is inevitable as local economies collapse like domino’s and their loans go bad.
The signs of a coming depression are all around us. Yet the media and Washington claim that our economy is stabilizing. [...]

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Foreclosure guilt haunts home buyers

by Moe Bedard

In most cases, folks who buy foreclosed properties never deal with the previous residents, but Jesse Chase, 30, of Las Vegas came home one day to find his life partner sitting with the woman who owned the house before her. The two were weeping.
“This lady came by just to look around,” says Chase, who bought [...]

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First foreclosure mediations scheduled in NV

by Moe Bedard

CARSON CITY, Nev.—The first two mediations under a new Nevada program designed to help people stay in their homes have been scheduled for next month.
The Sept. 14 sessions involve homes in Las Vegas.
The program established by the 2009 Legislature assigns mediators to meet with struggling homeowners and lenders to try to find alternatives to foreclosure.
Read [...]

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Is Google Entering the Mortgage Quote Business?

by Moe Bedard

“LendingTree recently learned that Google imminently plans to launch a loan aggregation service in late August or early September of this year that would compete with LendingTree,” the complaint says. “Lending Tree has also learned that Mortech intends to make its pricing engine services available for use with Google’s new service and will send information [...]

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Why the scams on Main Street will continue

by Moe Bedard

Let’s face reality America, you have been scammed in every which way. They got you coming, going and now they are beating you while you are down. All the while you sit there depressed, confused and paralyzed because you don’t know what happened or what to do.
And that is just the way “really good” scam [...]

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Subprime Lenders Getting U.S. Subsidies, Report Says

by Moe Bedard

Much “of this money is going directly to the same financial institutions that helped create the sub-prime mortgage mess in the first place,” Bill Buzenberg, executive director of the center, said in a statement.
For example, J.P. Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Countrywide, which has been bought by Bank of America, are eligible to receive billions [...]

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Struggling homeowners left in limbo

by Moe Bedard

Overall, about 15 percent of borrowers across the country who are eligible for the program have been offered help from their lender, according to a recent U.S. Treasury Department report. Of those homeowners, 9 percent have participated in a trial loan modification. President Barack Obama’s administration is calling for lenders to ramp up their efforts [...]

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I am truly grateful for this website. I would have been scammed!

by Moe Bedard

It’s emails and comments like the one below that was just left on my blog that really keep me going. I have been at this for over two years now and it does get tiring sometimes. I do my best to get the information out there to Main Street and if I help one person [...]

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FDIC chief: Banks need to be willing to modify loans

by Moe Bedard

“Banks don’t want to acknowledge losses,” she said. “They need staff. And there’s fear of redefault risk,” since about 40 percent of loans that are modified end up back in default, she said.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle to resolving delinquent mortgages has been persuading investors who purchased the loans to go along, since many of them [...]

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Robert Kiyosaki: “The worst is yet to come.”

by Moe Bedard

2. In my view, this global crisis has been caused by the Federal Reserve Bank, the U.S. Treasury, Wall Street, and the central banks of the world. They caused the problem, profited excessively in doing so, and now profit by being asked to fix the problem.
Every time I hear a politician mention the word stimulus, [...]

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Existing Home Sales Far Worse Than Advertised

by Moe Bedard

In the past, I have gone so far as to imply the Realtors group are spinmeisters. This month, I will be more blunt: Their actual data has become untrustworthy, their spokesmen lie for a living, and their “news releases” is little more than misleading junk.
Investors who rely on the NAR version of the news do [...]

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Dodd & Conrad say “We thought these were just frequent flyer mortgage deals”

by Moe Bedard

Dodd and Conrad knew exactly what they were getting and doing when they received sweetheart mortgage deals from Angelo Mozilo, CEO of Countrywide. It is unfrickenbelievable that our states representatives, who are supposed to be the smartest cats in their respective states, act like OJ Simpson when it comes to their own culpability.
This is exactly what is wrong with [...]

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Citi Reports Second Quarter Foreclosure Prevention Activities Helped 108,000 U.S. Homeowners

by Moe Bedard

Loss Mitigation Successes Outnumbered Foreclosures Completed By More Than 12 to 1
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today Citi announced that the company’s consumer mortgage lending and foreclosure prevention efforts for the second quarter successfully helped 108,000 mortgage holders across the country avoid potential foreclosure and remain in their homes. The total number of homeowners helped by Citi’s initiatives [...]

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Take that kitchen sink, go straight to prison

by Moe Bedard

More and more reports are coming out of homeowners who are stripping their homes before they are foreclosed on. Some are taking a few light fixtures and the water softener. Others are taking everything down to the kitchen sink.
I am warning homeowners out there that the consequences of doing this can land you in jail and [...]

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Feds, 10 States Join to Fight Mortgage Fraud

by Moe Bedard

10 states’ top prosecutors, 4 federal agencies form task force to combat mortgage fraud
Ten state attorneys general and four federal agencies are forming a task force to combat mortgage fraud.
Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna issued a statement Monday saying targets of the enforcement effort include equity skimming, bogus foreclosure rescue, straw purchases and unethical [...]

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JPB Consulting Inc. / Mortgage Modification Solutions sued by Florida Attorney General

by Moe Bedard

Kissimmee Foreclosure Rescue Company Sued for Fraud
~ Company purportedly targeted the Hispanic community with foreclosure rescue scam ~
TALLAHASSEE, FL – Attorney General Bill McCollum today sued a Kissimmee-based company over allegations it targeted Hispanics in a foreclosure rescue fraud scheme. JPB Consulting Inc. and its president, Juan P. Bordali, allegedly charged up front fees of [...]

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US Home Savers – FTC shuts company down

by Moe Bedard

Federal Trade Commission, Plaintiff, v. United Home Savers, LLP, a Florida limited liability partnership, Stephanie Dietschy, individually and as a partner, officer and/or manager of United Home Savers, and Darin Dietschy, individually and as a partner, officer and/or manager of United Home Savers, Defendants
(United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida)Civil Action No.: [...]

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Brown Forces Predatory Lender to End Illegal and Abusive Debt Collection Practices

by Moe Bedard

From the California AG Los Angeles – Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today forced CashCall, Inc., an Anaheim-based fast-money lender, to stop using “loan shark tactics” in collecting debt, including abusive calls at all hours of the day and night and empty threats of law enforcement action.
The court-ordered judgment also forces CashCall to stop misleading [...]

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Complete Q&A with Chase CEO, Jamie Dimon

by Moe Bedard

Q-Are you spending more time in Washington D.C.?
A-It gets written about more than is actual. The only difference now [when I travel there] is that I tend to go visit some senators and congressmen and the Fed.
Q-You’ve modified hundreds of thousands of mortgages. Is the push for mortgage modification a bad deal for banks?
A-No. You’ll [...]

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Brothers, facing foreclosure, sue broker, attorney

by Moe Bedard

Now, the Fusaro sons might lose the homes Umberto worked so hard to buy.
The sons, Carmine, 46, and Biagio, 37, are suing their mortgage broker and the attorney who helped him for what they say were predatory lending practices, practices that led the Fusaros to refinance or take out loans every year from 2001 to [...]

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Mortgage Relief That’s No Help To Homeowners

by Moe Bedard

Billionaire Wilbur Ross clashed with Rose in court in March over Carrington’s conduct. The legendary investor’s subprime servicer, American Home Mortgage, collects payments on the only Carrington securities Rose doesn’t service in-house. Ross says Carrington wrongfully delays the sale of foreclosed homes so Rose can keep collecting interest on zombie properties, injuring other investors in [...]

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California unemployment rate kills hopes for a recovery

by Moe Bedard

The current unemployment crisis will wreak havoc on any hope for a housing recovery. When people have no job, they can’t pay their mortgage or their rent. Just surviving with food and water will be a challenge for many Americans over the next few years.
Soon we will see many more reports of increasing homelessness, crime and food shortages [...]

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A Cul-de-Sac of Lost Dreams, and New Ones

by Moe Bedard

Over the last two years, half of Beth Court has been in foreclosure, and homes whose owners took out thousands of dollars in equity during the bonanza years are now worth less than half the price paid for them.
In one house, the owner took in extended family members as tenants to help make the mortgage [...]

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Green Credit Solutions continues to elude homeowners & questions

by Moe Bedard

The Green Credit Solutions mystery continues as the loan modification rumors continue to fly around online around this shady Orange County, California company.
Are they still in business? Have they changed their name? Did the owners take off to Mexico? Can I get my money back? Why haven’t they been shut down?
So many questions and still [...]

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Loan Modification Program Cries for Help: Are Mortgage Lenders Listening?

by Moe Bedard

But if my inbox (which is stuffed) is any indication, the troubles with loan modifications are multiplying across the country as home prices continue to sink.
Several weeks ago, President Obama called in the top mortgage lenders for a meeting and reportedly told them to get on the stick and do more loan modifications. The lenders [...]

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Wells Fargo Mortgage Promises Better Service

by Moe Bedard

Wells Fargo Executive Vice President Mary Coffin, with the home mortgage servicing division, acknowledged that customer service for Phoenix-area customers wasn’t up to par.
“During the past few months, we know there have been instances where it’s been unfortunate… where we haven’t appropriately communicated at a time when they’re anxious and they’re going through a very [...]

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Souring Prime Loans Compound Mortgage Woes

by Moe Bedard

Prime loans, however, accounted for 58% of foreclosure starts, up from 44% last year. Meanwhile, subprime mortgages accounted for 33% of foreclosure starts, down from 49%. Prime fixed-rate mortgages, usually considered among the safest of all loan types, accounted for one in three foreclosure starts, up from one in five.
More than 235,000 borrowers have begun [...]

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Frustration rises over mortgage relief program

by Moe Bedard

Nearly two years after the federal government’s first program to slow the relentless rise in the pace of home foreclosures, the latest attempt, known as Making Home Affordable, is turning out to be another painful disappointment for millions of Americans at risk of losing their homes.
Dozens of e-mails from msnbc.com readers report months of futile [...]

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Slow going on modifications – Few get help from lenders

by Moe Bedard

Miller has been trying since May to get a mortgage “modification.” But the 55-year-old Texas man’s lender has only agreed – after repeated calls from Miller – to place a three-month moratorium on his bills.
“They have control of my financial life, (but) I can’t talk to a decision-maker,” Miller said. “They literally get to say [...]

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Tenant Protection Act saves this renter

by Moe Bedard

Velquez said that it was about the same time that he discovered the Tenant Protection Act, passed by the Obama administration, which gives tenants whose landlords fall into foreclosure 90 to 120 days to remain on the property even after it is sold.

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ABS Solutions – City of Carson in business with loan modification firm?

by Moe Bedard

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this article below from a local Southern California paper and I don’t think you will either.
Apparently the City of Carson (which is in Los Angeles County, California) has a foreclosure relief program that involves referring Carson city homeowners that are in foreclosure to a private “for profit” mortgage [...]

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ACORN protests Litton Loan Servicing outside foreclosed home in L.A.

by Moe Bedard

The protest took place in front of the foreclosed residence of Jose Rodriguez, who lives in the Huntington Park home with his wife and sons.
Rodriguez has tried unsuccessfully over the last two years to modify his mortgage with lender Litton Loan Servicing, owned by Goldman Sachs & Co., Panarese said. Calls to Litton, based in [...]

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Judge To Question Bank On Loan Modifications

by Moe Bedard

PHOENIX — A federal bankruptcy judge has ordered a top Wells Fargo executive to testify in court about the bank’s loan modification policies.
The order came in response to a Phoenix woman’s complaint that Wells Fargo had ignored her modification request.
“I sent them everything they asked for and then when I called to follow up they [...]

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