Posts tagged as:

Home Loans

Will paying off my mortgage affect my credit score?

by Moe Bedard

Paying off your mortgage may negatively affect your credit score if it happens to be the only loan that you are paying by installment. However, the actual effect is very small and you could ignore it if you want the peace of mind of having no debt to pay.

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Homeowners say OneWest Bank would rather foreclose than offer loan modifications

by Moe Bedard

ELK GROVE, CA – A couple facing foreclosure from OneWest Bank has joined the growing number of homeowners, attorneys and real estate professionals who believe the bank would rather foreclose than modify a loan.

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Mortgage fraud cases swamping South Carolina investigators

by Moe Bedard

“It’s one of those things that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention, but the numbers are staggering right now, and I think they are going nowhere but up,” said Reggie Lloyd, director of the State Law Enforcement Division and a former U.S. attorney for South Carolina.

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Loan modifications are tough to obtain

by Moe Bedard

They got rid of their cell phones, Internet and cable services. They depleted their savings and 401(k) plans. Their van was repossessed. A powerboat that was written off by a bank still sits in their yard.
Her husband is working at a job two hours away in Chesapeake from their home in the Northern Neck.

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Housing recovery is “in a precarious state,” says Robert Shiller

by Moe Bedard

A sharp drop in pending home sales for January is the latest in a string of reports calling into question the nascent rebound in housing.
The housing recovery is “in a precarious state,” says Robert Shiller, Yale professor, author and co-creator of the S&P Case-Shiller Index, taking a much more pessimistic view vs. his comments here [...]

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Loan modifications: When do you seek help and who do you talk to?

by Moe Bedard

“A good candidate for a loan modification is someone who has found that the payments [of a loan] have become overwhelming…due to a loss of a job or a reduction in income that they have become unable to make that payment,” says Chris Gonzalez, president of Compass Home Mortgage in North Bellmore.

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Only the most qualified borrowers with all their ducks in a row get loans these days

by Moe Bedard

“It used to be that we could ‘underwrite’ a loan and use common sense to navigate individual circumstances and actually make a decision that a loan was a good credit risk.  Then DU and LP came along and gave us the laundry list that had to be followed.  We were still able to manually underwrite [...]

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Are lenders stringing along homeowners?

by Moe Bedard

A bad economy has served up hard times for Alice Rivera. She lost her job three months ago. She lost her home this week.
“They’re just, ‘we’re taking your house away and that’s it,’” said Rivera.
 
Rivera tried to get help from Bank of America, who holds the note to her house.

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$1 trillion in adjustable rate mortgages due to reset

by Moe Bedard

“The avoidable scenario is interest rates start to go up over the next couple of years, and all of a sudden, millions of homeowners who are stuck in adjustable rate mortgages and haven’t been able to refinance out of them become sitting ducks for big payment increases,” McBride said. “And then here we go again. [...]

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Jumbo loans = Jumbo Problems

by Moe Bedard

The extent and condition of Jumbo Loans at the States level when comparing Texas and California is instructive.
In 2008 the total number of housing units in the United States was 129.065 million, with 13.7 jumbo loans per 1000 housing units. The New York Federal Reserve Report states that there are 1,764,401 active loans of which

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Special Florida mortgage task force to go after fraudsters

by Moe Bedard

All are members of a South Florida Mortgage task force. Its job: stop mortgage fraud that affects your neighborhood, the value of your home, even if you’re not directly involved.
Those nabbed run scams leading to foreclosed homes and that drives down your properties’ value.
“We see the pain. We feel the desperation that so many families [...]

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Mother Fights Foreclosure

by Moe Bedard

Mandy’s paperwork shows Wells Fargo granted her a temporary modification in July 2009. She says she had a new job by then and paid all the modified payments as agreed. Then, a mix-up happened.
“They told me I called them on December 8th and canceled my modification,” Mandy said.

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Two Oklahoma Mortgage Brokers Guilty of Fraud

by Moe Bedard

MUSKOGEE, OK — Two Oklahoma mortgage brokers pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in what the feds say was a mortgage scam involving 40 area homes and more than $11 million.
Ayo Olaniyan, 33, of Tulsa, and 38-year-old Gaile Cates of Coweta, entered their plea in federal court in Muskogee.
Read more from News [...]

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New Mortgage Rules to Help Borrowers at Closing

by Moe Bedard

The main change is how lenders communicate fee information to borrowers. Under the old system, there was no standardized format. “Fees were communicated in multiple ways, which adds to the confusion when comparing costs,” says Keith Gumbinger, a vice president at HSH Associates, which tracks the mortgage market. Under the new rules, lenders will all [...]

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Woman Loses Everything in Case of Mistaken Foreclosure Identity

by Moe Bedard

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 2 (UPI) — A Las Vegas woman says she needs more than an apology and $5,000 from a real estate company that carted away all her belongings in a mistaken foreclosure.
Nilly Mauck, 31, says she returned to her condominium from a Colorado ski trip to find that in addition to her couch, [...]

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Banks and other lenders are still foreclosing on Americans’ homes

by Moe Bedard

In part, that’s because mortgage service companies generally haven’t been set up to execute wide-scale mortgage modifications. Mortgage servicers historically have been highly automated — more akin to collection agents than to loan officers, and they’ve needed to change their business model, hire staff and rethink how they interact with customers, a process that’s been [...]

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Hope Now Says Mortgage Modifications on the Rise

by Moe Bedard

This year through October, mortgage servicers have provided 2.65 million modifications and repayment plans to homeowners, according to Hope Now. There have been 650,000 trial modifications implemented through the government’s program, but only about 1,700 permanent modifications as of early September, the latest figures made public.

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Bank Loans Down to 25 Year Low

by Moe Bedard

Despite the hundreds of billions of dollars loaned by the federal government to the nation’s largest banks, the financial industry continues to be stingy with loans itself, creating a big drag on economic recovery. Lending fell by 3% ($210.4 billion) in the third quarter of 2009, marking the steepest drop since the Federal Deposit Insurance [...]

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FHA Goes High End on Home Loans

by Moe Bedard

Legislation last year nearly doubled the maximum mortgage the FHA could insure, to $729,750 for single-unit properties and almost $1 million for multi-unit ones. As a result, the FHA is moving into expensive markets, especially on the West Coast, in which it previously had little or no role. Even some fairly fancy condo buildings are [...]

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Free Market Mortgages Return

by Moe Bedard

If and when the Fed program does end, mortgage rates will rise – but not by much. The Fed’s intervention is worth upwards of 75 basis points for a conforming loan, says Keith Gumbinger, a vice president at HSH Associates. Without its purchases, that rate might rise to 5.75% or so.
Borrowers should plan for rates [...]

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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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Linda woman fights bank so she can stay in her home

by Moe Bedard

They don’t have to worry about whether they’ll lose their homes, Linda resident Mary Carter said.
Former executives with the Bank of America and Countrywide, once the largest mortgage lender in the nation, who were involved in the financial crisis that first made national headlines last year, are safe from sharing her status.
Their homes aren’t threatened, [...]

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Despite Housing Slump, Mortgage Lenders Making Record Profits From Fees

by Moe Bedard

Never ones to let an opportunity go unexploited, mortgage lenders are taking advantage of a market fueled by low interest rates and massive government subsidies to turn record profits. Their secret: The return of “junk fees.”
The Mortgage Bankers Association recently announced that independent mortgage lenders made an average profit of about $1,100 per loan originated [...]

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Lack of Legal Help: One More Way the Deck Is Stacked Against Homeowners

by Moe Bedard

Having legal help can be the difference between people keeping their homes and being evicted. A lawyer can stop foreclosure proceedings or put enough pressure on lenders to get them to rework the terms of the loan. A lawyer can also intervene in other ways, such as enforcing consumer protection laws or spotting legal violations [...]

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3 Reasons Mortgage Modifications Are Failing

by Moe Bedard

Here is an article from Motley Fool and I thought it was pretty spot on. The media is finally catching on. Check it out when you get a chance.
1. They called your bluff
Modifications cost banks money.
2. They think you’re a lost cause
As I showed last month, the redefault rate on modifications is ghastly.
3. They’re basking [...]

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Pros and Cons of Home Improvement Loans

by Moe Bedard

Are you planning to make some repairs, adding a room, or simply making your home more attractive for the purpose of increasing its market value?
Performing some repairs is particularly wise if you have a home that is getting old because if you wait too long, major repair work would have to be done and this [...]

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Should I accept my loan modification offer or counter?

by Moe Bedard

For the past few years I have helped thousands of people by teaching them to help themselves through my blogs, forums and emails. I really enjoy assisting my fellow Americans in a time of need and have found a great new career working from home.
Since becoming a full time consumer advocate and blogger in 2007,  I have found that [...]

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What are you allowed to take when you are foreclosed on?

by Moe Bedard

More and more reports are coming out of foreclosed homeowners stripping their properties of anything of value before they bail on the bank.
In my forum over at LoanSafe.org, I am getting a lot of questions in regards to what I can take and what I can’t take. Often, these people used their own money to improve [...]

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Homeowners Not Receiving Promised Help

by Moe Bedard

I am glad to see major media publications starting to report the truth again. The facts are that homeowners  still are not getting the help they deserve from mortgage servicers.
Even with Obama, the US Treasury, OCC, OTC etc up their arses, these lenders and mortgage servicers operate like they don’t give a rat’s arse what anyone says. Where [...]

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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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Bank Failures Have Customers Wondering About FDIC Protection

by Moe Bedard

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) — As U.S. regulators brace for more bank failures, consumers are wondering for the first time since the savings-and-loan crisis of the 1980s about the safety of their money.
Harry Newton, a former publisher who lives in New York City, moved $604,000 in cash to seven different banks last month after the seizure [...]

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Lenders Pledge to Increase Their Anti-Foreclosure & Loan Modification Efforts – LOL

by Moe Bedard

More lender propaganda, more media lip service, and as Jerry Seinfeld would say, “Yada, yada, yada.”
How can these guys do anything without the proper staffing? How can they truly handle all the loan workouts, and loan modifications that are needed to really increase their anti-foreclosure efforts?
The fact is, they CAN’T!
Think about this ladies and gentleman, please??!!!!!!!!!
Over the last few [...]

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Bank of America Buys Countrywide for $4 Billion

by Moe Bedard

This is huge news and it looks like Countrywide borrowers will now be dealing with Bank of America. I will get all the details I can on how this will affect Countrywide borrowers that are in the loan workout and loan modification process.
You need to know ASAP how this will affect you and what B [...]

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