Consumer Alert: Don’t Let Foreclosure Rescue Schemes Sink You
Fees and Practices Trigger Complaints to FBI and State Investigators

In tough financial times it seems plenty of companies are claiming they can save Utah homeowners from foreclosure. There are a growing number of advertisements offering home loan modifications–or foreclosure rescue plans–for up-front fees. In Salt Lake City, [...]

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COPPELL, Texas–(Business Wire)– American Home Mortgage Servicing, Inc. (AHMSI) filed suit today in Franklin County, Ohio, against the Ohio Attorney General to dispute unsupported allegations made in a pre-suit letter from the Ohio Attorney General`s office regarding the company’s mortgage loan servicing practices, including its customer service, loss mitigation, and loan modification activities, under the [...]

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Cordray Files Second Suit Against Mortgage Servicers – 11/5/2009
(CLEVELAND)—Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray today filed a lawsuit against American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc. (AHMSI), a Texas-based company servicing more than 12,000 subprime and prime mortgage loans in Ohio. The lawsuit alleges numerous violations of the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act including but not limited to: [...]

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WASHINGTON, DC — Fannie Mae (FNM/NYSE) is implementing the Deed for Lease™ Program under which qualifying homeowners facing foreclosure will be able to remain in their homes by signing a lease in connection with the voluntary transfer of the property deed back to the lender.
“The Deed for Lease Program provides an additional option for qualifying [...]

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Submitted by a Homeowner Via Email to Me: I will take further action as necessary to keep my home. If they want my home they will get it over my dead body.
Dear Mr. Marks and Mr. Bedard,
Please feel free to use the attached documents and share the information therein as well as this email to [...]

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Submitted by a Ripped Off Homeowner
Dear Moe,
My advice to all who read this would be to beware of anyone claiming that they can do better then you at negotiating with your lender. I paid $3,000 to “Help Modify Now” out of Newport Beach, California last April and am afraid that I have become yet another [...]

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American cities are on the verge of a rat invasion, warns small-mammal biologist and self-described “rat pack” member Dale Kaukeinen (in college “all the good animals were taken,” he says) in a new study. And redemption, it turns out, is both personal and political.
“The problem of rats is just a symptom of a declining and [...]

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By California Assemblymen Pedro Nava – On October 13, 2009, as Chair, I conducted an informational hearing of the Assembly Banking & Finance Committee to examine current efforts aimed at preventing foreclosures. This hearing gave the committee expert information on the scope of the current problems and the potential for establishing a monitored workout program [...]

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Detroit — Tens of thousands of Wayne County foreclosures — and potentially hundreds of thousands across the state — are unlawful because sheriffs did not follow state law when they conducted foreclosure auctions, an attorney said Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Bloomfield Hills attorney Paul Nicoletti filed a proposed class-action suit in federal court seeking to set aside [...]

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A majority on the high court’s Task Force on Residential Mortgage Foreclosures recommended trying mediation on owner-occupied homes before cases go to court, with lenders picking up the tab. Borrowers would be contacted by phone and mail and asked to participate. The high court did not immediately act on the proposal.
“The data that the banks [...]

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Short Sale Delays Prolonging Housing Recovery

by Moe Bedard

Home equity lenders faced with losses from the U.S. property slump are holding out for more money in distressed sales, slowing transactions needed to support a recovery, real estate agents and analysts say.
These secondary lenders are gaining power in negotiating payments from “short sales,” a growing part of the market where homes are sold for [...]

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California DRE Looking Into 1,3000 Loan Modification Scams

by Moe Bedard

“These people were taking advantage of people at the end of their ropes,” said Davi, speaking at the O.C. Coastal Chapter of the Women’s Council of Realtors. “And they are so prevalent.”
Many scam artists see the issuance of a desist-and-refrain order as a cost of doing business, Davi said. Often, they’re able to reopen under [...]

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Dallas Foreclosure Prevention Workshop

by Moe Bedard

Financially stressed homeowners can get help at a free foreclosure prevention workshop from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Dallas Convention Center, 650 S. Griffin St.
The workshop is being held by the Hope Now Alliance, the Obama administration’s Making Home Affordable Program, NeighborWorks America and the city of Dallas.
Read more from Dallas News

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Banks Giving Some Homeowners Cash for Keys to Bail

by Moe Bedard

Despite federal loan modification programs to help struggling homeowners, many lenders are refusing to play ball and are proceeding with foreclosures.
But some of those same lenders are quietly paying people to move out and find another place to live.
It’s known as “Cash For Keys” and banks don’t talk about it publicly but, in some cases, [...]

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Realty Trac Accused of Deceptive Advertising

by Moe Bedard

Realty Trac is Accused of Bait and Switch With Monthly Foreclosure Service
Maria Casanova, an assistant professor of economics at UCLA, toyed with the idea earlier this year of buying a foreclosed property near the Westwood campus. She signed up for a prominent listing service called RealtyTrac.
Casanova, 31, canceled her subscription not long after. Yet a [...]

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Wells Fargo Plays Kick the Can With Pick-A-Pay Mortgages

by Moe Bedard

This isn’t Wells Fargo, this is Hells Fargo!
 
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–Wells Fargo & Co.’s (WFC) strategy for modifying its billions in troubled Pick-A-Pay mortgages looks a lot like a game of kick-the-can-down-the-road.

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Nevada Loan Modification Company Approved List

by Moe Bedard

Here is a list of Nevada firms still eligible to offer loan modifications. This was posted on the Nevada Division of Mortgage Lending’s Web site  site and will continue to be updated. Illegal Loan Mod firms who were announced yesterday here are no longer authorized to conduct foreclosure prevention services and are given 10 days [...]

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Dennis Kucinich: ‘Hey, you took care of Wall. St. Why didn’t you take care of Main St?

by Moe Bedard

Foreclosures are “hurting families, marriages and lives,” McCoy says.
Georgia leads the country in bank failures—a majority being small community banks. Westmoreland says that little banks are getting hit unfairly, with a widespread ripple effect.
Yet, there’s little indication at the moment that Congress will act anytime soon to stem more foreclosures. Kucinich acknowledged that with Congress [...]

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Homeowners Walking Away Becoming More Common

by Moe Bedard

“I’m walking away from my house,” says Sakson, 57, who stopped making payments about six months ago on her home in Pennington, N.J. “The bank can have it.”
What Sakson did is called a strategic default, or a voluntary foreclosure, and it’s fast becoming a major challenge to the government’s $75 billion effort to keep distressed [...]

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30 Nevada Loan Modification Companies Face Closure

by Moe Bedard

Nearly 30 loan modifications companies will be shut down Tuesday for not following a new law.
The Nevada Division of Mortgage Lending is closing the companies because they failed to meet their obligations to get a minimum $75,000 surety bond. The bond is a provision meant to protect consumers who may have been hurt by the [...]

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Panel: Government Foreclosure Plan Failing to Help Homeowners

by Moe Bedard

PHOENIX — Months after President Barack Obama came to Phoenix to announce his plans to fix the foreclosure crisis, some experts and homeowners say a key component of the program is not working.
“From the consumer’s point, it’s a failure,” said Kevin Hardin, Thomson Conant Mortgage Mediation Group Director.
Since the program was announced in February, Hardin’s [...]

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Homeowners: “Hey Congress, Get Off Your A**” – PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION

by Moe Bedard

If you are a homeowner and want to unite with other homeowners fighting to save their homes, please sign the petition below in order to help us help you.
Divided we fall and united we stand!
By Richard Zombeck, the members of LoanSafe.org & Huffington Post:
So, while the banks, servicers, and lenders are waiting for American tenacity to kick [...]

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Bankers Fighting Attempts in Washington for New Regulations

by Moe Bedard

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–Industry lobbyists are raising red flags over a measure that would require mortgage lenders and securitizers to retain a portion of the credit risk of loans for sale to investors.
The proposed requirement is meant to ensure lenders adhere to solid underwriting standards and don’t fraudulently underwrite loans they don’t intend to hold on [...]

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Americans Repeating Great Depression Mistakes

by Moe Bedard

For the past several months, investors have been acting like it’s 1999, the first year when the Dow crossed 10,000, and stocks took off in complete disregard for reality. Yet the atmosphere then and now couldn’t be more different. Back then, stocks were frothier than real businesses, no doubt. But today, American job prospects are [...]

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U.S. Banks to See Sizable Losses on Commercial Property

by Moe Bedard

U.S. banks are at risk of sizable new loan losses, particularly on commercial property, and some banks may not have sufficient capital to fully cushion against losses, a Federal Reserve official said on Monday.
Some large regional and community banks that have built up unusually high concentrations in commercial real estate loans will be “particularly affected” [...]

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Banks & Collection Agencies Go After Foreclosed Homeowners

by Moe Bedard

“I thought this was finally over, but it’s one of these things where there’s no end in sight,” said Lane, a 65-year-old biotech executive who fell on hard times after losing his job and coming down with cancer.
Massachusetts homeowners who’ve lost properties to the state’s foreclosure crisis are finding that their troubles don’t necessarily end [...]

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Florida Regulators React to Loan Modification Complaints

by Moe Bedard

With hundreds of Floridians filing complaints about troubles with their lenders over home mortgages, state and federal officials say they’re ramping up efforts to improve the process for borrowers who need a loan modification.
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum’s office said it is spending $4 million over two years to fund free legal services to homeowners [...]

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US Bank Regulators: “Prudent” Commercial Loan Modifications

by Moe Bedard

* Regulators urge “prudent” commercial loan modifications
* Commercial real estate seen as trouble spot for banks
By Karey Wutkowski WASHINGTON, Oct 30 (Reuters) – U.S regulators on Friday encouraged banks to modify troubled commercial real estate loans, which are seen as a looming danger spot for the banking industry.
The regulators issued guidance to financial institutions and [...]

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Mortgage Crisis to be Investigated by the US Government

by Moe Bedard

Chairman Towns’ Statement on Committee Investigation into Mortgage Crisis
Washington, DC – Chairman Edolphus “Ed” Towns (D-NY) today made the following statement on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s investigation into the role of mortgage lenders in the financial services crisis and the economic recession.
“The actions of mortgage lenders contributing to the foreclosure and financial [...]

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IRS Gives Homeowners With Jumbo Mortgages Some Tax Relief

by Moe Bedard

The Internal Revenue Service has delivered a valuable gift to those with $1 million-plus mortgages on their mansions. In an internal legal memo released publicly last month, the IRS concluded that a taxpayer can deduct interest on the first $1.1 million of a home mortgage–$100,000 more than earlier legal findings allowed.
The ruling is a boon [...]

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“Huge Commercial Real Estate Crash Coming” – Wilbur Ross

by Moe Bedard

This has been mentioned on my blog for the last two years and now it looks like the dominoes are really starting to fall in commercial real estate. I am predicting the crash of 2010-2012 will wipe out 25-40% of all small to large sized US businesses and thus devastating the commercial sector.
The trickle down affect from lost jobs, more [...]

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FICO Says New Loan Modification Reporting Will Not Affect Credit Scores

by Moe Bedard

Jasmine Bendon of Ventura says her FICO scores dropped from the mid-700s to the low-600s after her lender put her on a trial modification and reported it as a partial payment. On the plus side, the trial modification has cut her monthly payment by $1,300.
New reporting plan
Starting today, lenders have a new, more benign way [...]

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California Attorney General Brown’s Letter to Banks & Loan Servicers

by Moe Bedard

The foreclosure crisis continues to plague California homeowners who are trapped in mortgages with exploding monthly payments. While the economy is beginning to improve, homeowners desperate to save their homes have seen little relief. And analysts predict that foreclosures will continue to worsen, particularly as Pay Option ARMs begin to recast.
Economists estimate that about one [...]

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California AG Brown Demands the Banks & Mortgage Servicers Foreclosure Plan

by Moe Bedard

Brown Calls on Banks and Loan Servicers to Detail Plans to Stem New Wave of Foreclosures
Los Angeles – Concerned about a “new wave” of foreclosures, Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today called on ten major banks and loan servicers to detail their plans to assist homeowners facing dramatic monthly payment increases on Pay [...]

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Loan Modification Numbers are Fantasy Land

by Moe Bedard

Mortgage expert and one-time Fannie Mae Chief Credit Officer Edward Pinto says a claim made by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner that 500,000 homeowners have entered the Obama administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) is ridiculous.
In fact, he says, the program is rapidly becoming: “I will pretend to modify your loan if you pretend that you [...]

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Maxine Waters Under Investigation for Husband’s Bank Bailout

by Moe Bedard

WASHINGTON — The House ethics committee said Thursday it’s investigating whether California Rep. Maxine Waters used her influence to help a bank in which her husband owned stock — and whether the couple benefited as a result.
Waters is the No. 3 Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee and chairwoman of its subcommittee on housing. [...]

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Hundreds of Florida Homeowners File Complaints Against Their Mortgage Servicers

by Moe Bedard

The Attorney General’s Office has logged 452 complaints about Bank of America, Florida’s largest mortgage lender, concerning mortgages and loan modifications. With its acquisition of Countrywide Financial last year, Bank of America had almost 82,000 mortgage loans outstanding in Florida worth $15.3 billion in 2008, according to National Mortgage News.
Next largest is JP Morgan Chase, [...]

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Video: A Trip in Loan Modification Hell

by Moe Bedard

Sometimes loan modifications can be a real pain, others believe that trying to get a loan modification is a form of hell on earth. This video shows you why they lose faxes constantly and who is really in charge of the banks.
Watch this video and decide for yourself.

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Bankers File Lawsuit Against Arizona Governor

by Moe Bedard

Remember when we wrote about a bill that could financially devastate homeowners facing foreclosure, and then we wrote about how it was reversed?
Well, the bill might just be back.
The Arizona Bankers Association — which represents more than 70 banks in the state — has filed a lawsuit in the Arizona Supreme Court against Governor Jan [...]

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New Foreclosure Hot Spots Ravage the US

by Moe Bedard

Among those new hot spots were Boise City-Nampa, Idaho which saw a 142 percent increase in foreclosures in the third quarter compared with the same period a year ago. Other new foreclosure hot spots include Provo-Orem (120 percent increase) and Salt Lake City (105 percent increase) metro areas, both of which are in Utah.
 
And in [...]

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Foreclosures Spread to Unemployed Middle Class

by Moe Bedard

What’s this new “wave” in the foreclosure crisis?
The first wave was caused by bad loan products, while the second will be driven by unemployment. Right now, we’re at the beginning of wave two. There are virtually no more foreclosures that are the result of subprime lending. The demographics of the foreclosure crisis are changing and [...]

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Unemployed and Trying to Save the American Dream

by Moe Bedard

SPRINGDALE — Homeowners who lose their jobs and collect unemployment income now have a better chance to modify their mortgages, according to the U.S. Labor Department.
Until recently, unemployment income was not utilized when calculating a loan modification, leaving distressed homeowners with few options.
Because income is the basis for mortgage modification or loan qualification, unless a [...]

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Bank of America CEO Search in Limbo

by Moe Bedard

Apparently Bank of America Corp.’s (NYSE:BAC) search for a new CEO is at a standstill, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The board was hoping to pick a successor for Ken Lewis by Wednesday, but the committee choosing the new CEO needs more time. Lewis actually forewarned that the committee was taking its time during [...]

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Homeowner Told to Stop Making Payments by Mortgage Servicer

by Moe Bedard

When MC lost his second job he had trouble affording his $3,000 mortgage payment. He called his mortgage holder, Flag Star Bank, asking for a break, but the bank told him there was nothing it could do for him unless he skipped payments and submitted a loan modification package.
Can you tell where this is going? [...]

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Desperate Americans Flood Emergency Help Hot Lines

by Moe Bedard

She can feel what the callers on the other end of the line are feeling. Recently it’s been tearing, gripping, throat-tightening.
Giselle Sanchez and 12 other call center operators spend all day answering questions about where to find help. Sometimes it’s help with the rent. Other times it’s help steering away from suicide.
These call-takers are the [...]

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