From the category archives:

Loan Workouts

Why Loan Modifications Take So Long and What to Do

by Moe Bedard

Q: I went under contract to buy a house six months ago. This is a short sale, and I understand that multiple lenders are involved. But I have been more than patient. What can I do?
I can’t seem to get anyone to listen to me. Don’t the banks want this to work out?
A: I’m sure [...]

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Barney Frank Going to Bat for Unemployed Homeowners

by Moe Bedard

“These are people who are very responsible, very thoughtful. They got a home, it’s above water, they’ve got equity, but they’re unemployed, and you can’t afford mortgage payments on unemployment,” said Frank, D-Mass.
Rep. Barney Frank said Monday he is pushing a proposal to use some of the interest the government collects from the financial industry [...]

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Nevada Loan Modification Company Files Suit Against Law Makers

by Moe Bedard

A law firm active in Henderson and Las Vegas is suing the state over rules requiring licensing of non-attorney employees working on mortgage loan modifications.
Cogburn Law Offices LLC filed suit last week in Clark County District Court against the Department of Business and Industry, Division of Mortgage Lending.

Court records indicate the law firm won a [...]

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Underwater Homeowners Should Bail in Rental Life Rafts

by Moe Bedard

Homeowners who are significantly underwater with their mortgages should consider walking away from those, according to Brent T. White, an associate professor at the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law.
In a paper titled titled “Underwater and Not Walking Away: Shame, Fear and the Social Management of the Housing Crisis,” White writes most [...]

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Can a lawyer “really” help you with a loan modification?

by Moe Bedard

Should homeowners who want to obtain a loan modification from their lender hire an attorney to help them achieve that goal? Attorneys say their services can be helpful, but lenders counter that such services are an unnecessary expenditure of money that would be better applied to overdue mortgage payments.
“Lawyers can be and have been very [...]

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Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure May be the Way Out

by Moe Bedard

In order to be eligible for a D4L, or Deed for Lease, you must go through a DIL, short for a deed in lieu of foreclosure.
These terms become relevant when your house is underwater — the market value is less than what you owe. You have attempted to sell your home without success, and your [...]

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No Mortgage Help for the Unemployed

by Moe Bedard

There’s no help out there for people who are out of work and are just trying to hold on to their homes,” said John Schmitz, 62, of Thornwood, who has been unemployed from the world of finance for almost a year and has nearly exhausted his pension to keep current on his mortgage. “It’s so [...]

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Are honest loan modification companies being unfairly targeted?

by Moe Bedard

Earlier this year, legislation was passed creating strict regulations for loan modification companies in Nevada. The hope was that the new rules would weed out the companies which have been scamming homeowners.  
But are the rules penalizing honest companies?     
News 3’s Dan Ball spoke with a loan modification company owner who says he’s been trying to follow [...]

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Behind on Mortgage: Texas Attorney General Files Lawsuit

by Moe Bedard

Attorney General Abbott Takes Enforcement Action Against Dallas-area ‘Mortgage Rescue’ Operation Behind on Mortgage’ defendants bilked unwitting homeowners
DALLAS – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today took legal action to obtain restitution for a fraudulent “mortgage rescue” firm’s victims.
Dallas County 134th District Judge James M. Stanton granted an agreed temporary injunction barring Markus and Tyrone Bailey [...]

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Mediation will force banks to be accountable

by Moe Bedard

“The mediation insures a stopgap measure,” Castrataro said. “It insures that the bank will have to listen.”
Castrataro said he’s seen mediation assist clients in obtaining loan modifications, reductions in their principal owed and, in cases where foreclosure cannot be avoided, a significant reduction in the amount of debt they owe long term. He believes mediation [...]

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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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5 reasons why loan modifications are not happening

by Moe Bedard

1. Why servicers foreclose when they should modify: The National Consumer Law Center takes a look into why loan servicers – the people who actually control most mortgages – aren’t helping home owners when they should. The report goes into a fair bit of depth over 60 pages. The report says that “servicers remain largely [...]

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Three sides to every loan modification story

by Moe Bedard

The first article in the WSJ states that on October 8th the federal government said that 500,000 financially troubled homeowners had begun trial loan modifications. It cites Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner as saying that the rate of modifications is rising faster than the rate of the people needing them for the first time since the [...]

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Mountain of modifications

by Moe Bedard

Millions of homeowners are struggling to make their monthly mortgage payments and the continued deterioration in the job market guarantees millions more will be at risk in the coming months.
That is putting a huge burden on mortgage-modification programs, both those run by the government and an increasing number operated by private industry, which are in [...]

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It is too soon to know how many trial loan modifications are failing

by Moe Bedard

But economists said the true test will be how many trial modifications become permanent and how many borrowers default on their new loan arrangements.
“What has surprised us is the numbers that have made three, four, or even five payments, but still haven’t gone to close because the final documents aren’t in place,” Bisenius said. It [...]

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Honorable Judges of Kansas: “MERS had no right to the underlying debt repayment secured by the mortgage”

by Moe Bedard

SYLLABUS BY THE KANSAS SUPREME COURT
1. A party is not contingently necessary in a mortgage-foreclosure lawsuit when that party is called the mortgagee in a mortgage but is not the lender, has no right to the repayment of the underlying debt, and has no role in handling mortgage payments.
2. In a mortgage-foreclosure lawsuit, a district [...]

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As lenders clamp down, credit scores take a hit

by Moe Bedard

Even though some consumers have seen their credit scores improve as they trim their debt, others have seen their scores drop significantly because of late payments on bills, foreclosures and rising credit card debt.
Meanwhile, lenders’ actions during the recession are delivering another blow to borrowers — even some with pristine credit. Lenders are closing credit [...]

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Many mortgage modifications push payments …. higher

by Moe Bedard

Tens of thousands of financially strapped homeowners who have asked lenders to lower their mortgage payments are instead winding up with higher monthly payments and larger debts on their homes.
Homeowners who were hoping for lower payments are discovering to their dismay that lenders roll late fees, back taxes or other costs into the principal, sometimes [...]

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Mortgage modifications make things worse for some

by Moe Bedard

Tens of thousands of financially strapped homeowners who have asked lenders to lower their mortgage payments are instead winding up with higher monthly payments and larger debts on their homes.
Homeowners who were hoping for lower payments are discovering to their dismay that lenders roll late fees, back taxes or other costs into the principal, sometimes [...]

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Proof of bank shadow inventory: Banks take months to market foreclosures

by Moe Bedard

Here is further proof of what I have been writing about for quite sometime. The facts are that banks are delaying placing homes on the market, loan modifications, short sales etc. in order to pump up their books for quarterly earning reports and investors. In addition, the purpose is to stabilize home values by releasing [...]

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Voluntary Foreclosure Prevention: Better, But Still Not Working

by Moe Bedard

WASHINGTON, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The following is a statement by Michael Calhoun, President, Center for Responsible Lending:
The federal report card on the mortgage industry’s voluntary effort to stop foreclosures shows a growing number of families have received a loan modification. That’s good news, but hardly enough. Given the magnitude of serious delinquencies and projected [...]

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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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Attention FED MOD & Federal Loan Modification Center clients

by Moe Bedard

During their hey day, Federal Loan Modification Center (AKA Fed Mod) may have been the largest foreclosure rescue operation on the West Coast. I don’t think there wasn’t a time in 2008 or early 2009 when I would turn on my TV and see thier cheesy loan modification commercials with paid D list actors.
Word on the street was [...]

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Barbara Desoer to take the helm at Bank of America?

by Moe Bedard

Getting rid of Ken Lewis was one of the best PR moves that Bank of America has done lately and it looks like they may make another great move by replacing Lewis with Barbara Desoer, current President of the Mortgage Division at B of A.
Barbara Desoer has made great strides in the loss mitigation departments at B [...]

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Is California Rep. Laura Richardson a house flipper or fraudster?

by Moe Bedard

This story just came out in the LA Times in regards to U.S. Rep. Laura Richardson’s rundown Sacramento house.  The story explains the uncleanliness of the home, yard and that neighbors of the congresswoman were complaining.
The thing that stood out to me in this article is not the messy home, but is the possible mortgage and [...]

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Why Didn’t Lenders Renegotiate More Home Mortgages? Redefaults, Self-Cures, and Securitization

by Moe Bedard

We document the fact that servicers have been reluctant to renegotiate mortgages since the foreclosure crisis started in 2007, having performed payment-reducing modifications on only about 3 percent of seriously delinquent loans.
We show that this reluctance does not result from securitization: servicers renegotiate similarly small fractions of loans that they hold in their portfolios. Our [...]

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So Many Foreclosures, So Little Logic

by Moe Bedard

Mr. White found that mortgage modifications peaked in February and have declined in all but one month since. While servicers modified 23,749 loans in these trusts in February, they changed only 19,041 in May and 18,179 in June. This is exactly when servicers were supposed to be responding to the government’s loan modification urgings.
Foreclosures, meanwhile, [...]

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Number of Hotel Foreclosures, Defaults Increasing

by Moe Bedard

TOURISM: Values Have Declined 50% to 80% in Last 3 Years, Broker Says
The number of California hotels that are in default on their loans or have gone into foreclosure has jumped a whopping 125 percent in the past 60 days.
There were 32 properties in foreclosure and 174 in default, according to a June 28 report [...]

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When the FDIC is away, the new Indymac owners will play

by Moe Bedard

I wrote about this last month and it seems to be picking up steam in the media. Which is great for Indymac borrowers because a loan modification spot light needs to be shined on these new creeps who bought Indymac on the cheap from the FDIC after the bank failed in early 2008.
Here’s an excerpt [...]

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OCC and OTS Release Mortgage Metrics Report for First Quarter 2009

by Moe Bedard

WASHINGTON — Delinquencies and foreclosures on first-lien mortgages continued to increase during the first quarter of this year, but loan modifications also increased and the trend continued toward more sustainable modifications with lower monthly payments, according to a report issued today by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Office of [...]

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White House Impatient with Pace of Loan Modifications

by Moe Bedard

WASHINGTON (KCBS) – The Obama administration is becoming impatient with the slow pace by which mortgage companies are modifying loans for millions of homeowners.
The $75 billion taxpayer-financed program has averted a relatively small number of foreclosures.
As KCBS’ Susan Leigh Taylor reports, there’s a bit of a mystery as to why things are moving so slowly. [...]

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FTC Ammends Complaint Against Federal Loan Modification Law Center or FedMod

by Moe Bedard

The FTC filed an amended complaint adding several new defendants in the action currently pending against Federal Loan Modification Law Center, LLP, and six related defendants. The original complaint, filed on April 3, 2009, charged the defendants with misrepresenting that in exchange for a large up-front fee, they will obtain a mortgage loan modification or [...]

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Tenants’ Rights When the Homeowner Is Foreclosed

by Moe Bedard

Are you renting an apartment, a single-family home, or a condo? Are you worried about the increasing number of foreclosures and that one morning when you wake up, the sheriff is knocking at your door and then informing you that you have to leave because there is a new owner?
It is better to be prepared [...]

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Military Homeowners Assistance Program

by Moe Bedard

If you are a member of the U.S. military, here are some good news for you because President Barack Obama has approved a stimulus package bill that may help you with problems regarding your home. This bill contains a provision known as the Military Homeowners Assistance Program or HAP.
HAP was previously designed to be offered [...]

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Help, I need a foreclosure bankruptcy loan!

by Moe Bedard

The first thing that you need to understand is that there are no foreclosure bankruptcy loans available right now. I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but no lender will  touch you for about 3 years at the least.
But it is definitely not the end of the world because you can get [...]

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Find a foreclosure attorney in California

by Moe Bedard

The facts are that not everyone can get “free” help and MANY homeowners need a good lawyer to help them through the legal maze during the foreclosure process.
If you’re looking for a good foreclosure attorney in California, then I recommend the Law Offices of Fransen & Molinaro. The founding partners, Nathan Fransen and Paul Molinaro [...]

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Freedom Foreclosure Prevention Services, LLC, Sued by the FTC

by Moe Bedard

Freedom Foreclosure Prevention Services and their group of kitchen table home savers look to be in a bit of trouble with the FTC. One thing is for sure, I am not surprised one bit!
I have been following the loan modification industry since early 2007 and this company has been trolling the foreclosure and loan modification [...]

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Now that the FDIC is gone, are the new owners of Indymac abusing homeowners?

by Moe Bedard

When the government leaves and Wall Street takes over, we have Main Street problems. Haven’t we already made this fantastic business discovery America?
The failed Indymac and subsequent takeover by the FDIC has garnished a lot of press, fan fare and accolades for the great Sheila Bair and her agency. They came in, shaped up the [...]

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California Foreclosure Moratorium

by Moe Bedard

Attention homeowners! We have yet, another mortgage assistance bill to supposedly help you out and impose restrictions on mortgage servicers who “do not have” a loan modification program in place. Well, last time I checked (daily), almost every single lender and mortgage servicer has some type of shitty program in place.
Yes, I said shitty.
Meaning their [...]

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The FTC Sues The Rodis Law Group Inc., America’s Law Group Inc., and The Financial Group Inc. for Contempt

by Moe Bedard

This Bryan D’Antonio is a total scum bag that has scammed struggling Americans for years and has already served 4 years in prison for similar offenses. This is the 2ND time he has stole money from mass amounts of people and he should go to prison for a looooooooong time!
According to the FTC, Bryan D’Antonio and [...]

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How do I negotiate a mortgage refinance if I lost my job?

by Moe Bedard

This email just came in my inbox and sometimes I am surprised that not everyone has heard of a loan modification or loan workout. Many homeowners think that a traditional mortgage refinance is the only way to help them out of their current dilemma.
The problem that you are going to have when you lost your [...]

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Loans for People in Foreclosure

by Moe Bedard

Millions of homeowners such as yourself are suffering financially and they are desperatelylooking for mortgage help on the internet. You need to be really careful when searching for lender who offers loans for people in foreclosure because of the many scams that are out there.
What you do need to understand is that there’s no shame in [...]

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SEC Charges Former Countrywide Executives With Fraud

by Moe Bedard

Former CEO Angelo Mozilo Additionally Charged With Insider Trading
Washington, D.C., June 4, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged former Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo and two other former executives with securities fraud for deliberately misleading investors about the significant credit risks being taken in efforts to build and maintain the company’s market [...]

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SEC Charges Countrywide CEO, Angelo With Fraud

by Moe Bedard

Ladies and gentleman, the infamous CEO from Countrywide Home Loans, Angelo Mozilo and three of his partners in financial crime have finally been sued for fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
I think Mr. Mozilo recieved email training from the cast of a dumb and dumber because it looks like Angelo’s poor handling of [...]

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First American Title is Trying to Hijack My Website, LoanSafe.org

by Moe Bedard

This will be the first post in a series chronicling my new fight against another lending industry Goliath, First American Title. They are claiming that I am violating their trademark for LoanSafe for some type of lender software.
They want me to take down my website www.LoanSafe.org by Friday June 5, 2009 or the billion dollar company is going [...]

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