Wednesday | April 16, 2008

Foreclosure Defense

  • It's bad enough once you realize there is no way you're going to be able to make the mortgage payment. And then that one time missed payments becomes two or three missed payments and you find yourself facing foreclosure. The first thing to do is take a deep breath. The second thing to do is analyze your options. Ask yourself some specific questions.

    1. Do you want to stay in the home? Do you have equity in the home? Is your equity a greater amount of money than the amount you are in arrears? Be realistic.

    2. Is your mortgage payment going to reset to an amount that you will be unable to pay? Were you hoping when you first entered into that mortgage that you could refinance into a fixed rate? Or were you hoping that you could sell the property before the mortgage reset to the higher rate?

    3. Are you stressed out and embarassed that you are unable to make your mortgage payment? If you are, be a little kinder to yourself. You are not alone. There are plenty of people in the same situation.

    4. Do you want to sell the property and get out from under the debt? There are investor groups that can arrange a short sale for you with your bank. Be sure you will not be subjected to a deficiency judgment.

    5. Are you wary of getting any foreclosure help because you've heard about foreclosure scams? You should be wary, but don't let that prevent you from taking action. Here are a few things to know about foreclosure help:

  • Large upfront fees.
  • They ask you to sign papers which you don't understand.
  • They don't return your phone calls.
  • They act like they are your best friend and return your calls up until the time you hand over the large upfront fee.
  • When you ask what the papers mean, they explain them, but it still doesn't make any sense.
  • They tell you that you'll just be signing over your house temporarily, to get you out of foreclosure.

These are just a few of the things to watch out for. If you are facing foreclosure the last thing you need is to be scammed by someone pretending to help you.

Posted by foreclosure defense network at 17:30:59 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Friday | April 11, 2008

Judge Boyko Rulings

On October 31, 2007 Judge Christoper A. Boyko, U.S. District Court Judge for Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division ruled Deutsche Bank as the Plaintiff in fourteen separate foreclosure actions lacked standing to proceed against the homeowners with the foreclosures. Deutsche Bank was trustee for investors who owned asset backed securities which had been sold on Wall Street as bonds.The outcome of the judge's ruling was that Deutsche Bank didn't own anything. They didn't own the mortgages, therefore they lacked standing to pursue a foreclosure action.

Although not exactly new news, this is great news for those of you that are being sued for foreclosure by some entity that you've never heard of. Check the public records in your county and see whether the mortgage was transferred to this unknown entity. If so you may be able to use that fact as an affirmative defense to the foreclosure action.

I am not an attorney, I'm just another person trying to keep my head above water. 
Posted by foreclosure defense network at 14:48:54 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Saturday | April 05, 2008

Collateral Damage

There was a video story on abcnews.com yesterday about a couple in New York that had successfully fought back against their lender by defending their foreclosure. They and their attorneys had in fact convinced the judge that they had been victimized by a predatory mortgage broker, and had been lied to about the terms of their loan.  They signed the loan documents, went to closing, were in their house, and six months later discovered that the terms of the loan weren't what they thought they were. It was a happy ending for them, they refinanced into a fixed very low rate loan, and I expect are going to live happily ever after. Good for them, I'm glad to hear that people are having some success fighting back against predatory lenders.

I read the comments that people had posted about that story. The comments were mixed. A lot of people wanted to know where they could refinance into a loan like that. Their rate was something like 4.4% fixed. Other people just thought they were dumb to sign the loan documents in the first place. Whatever. One of the postings caught my eye.

This woman from somewhere in the Tampa, Florida area posted that she had given rent money for a house and went to start moving in and discovered that the house didn't belong to the landlord anymore. There was a foreclosure notice on the door, not a notice that it was going to foreclosure, but had actually been sold the day before. So between the time that she gave the landlord the rent, plus deposit, it had gone on the auction block and sold, probably back to the lender. She said she gave this landlord $3,700. So she went to the sheriff. Sheriff told her it was civil, because there may not have been criminal intent.

Apparently she was able to get a partial repayment out of the landlord and a promissory note that she would be paid back next Tuesday. I'll gladly pay you Tuesday ... So that's why the sheriffs maintain that it is a civil matter and not criminal. I always thought that was for a judge to decide, and a tricky business even for the judge. How do you know what's on someone's mind? Since foreclosure auctions are scheduled months in advance, the landlord had to know his house was going on the block.

 
Posted by foreclosure defense network at 11:55:14 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Friday | April 04, 2008

Solutions?

I don't think it is very fair of me to only criticize and whine without at least trying to attempt to come up with some solutions. So, here goes.

If the Federal Government is going to hand out grants to local govs for purchase and refurbishment of foreclosed houses, let's tell our local governments what to do with those homes and that money. What if those homes were rented out to families that had lost their homes to foreclosure? Or instead of doing that sell off those homes that were refurbished to investors, and put the money into a pool to help displaced families, refugees from the foreclosure crisis. Is that already the plan? My experience with local governments has convinced me that they seldom have a real plan. So let's make sure that the plan benefits the community. I know it's a strange concept, but those guys are elected officials. They might listen if enough people told them the same thing.

What if the local governments passed local ordinances that the owners of foreclosed homes (the lenders who foreclosed that is) had to at least attempt, make an honest effort to keep those homes occupied. That way you wouldn't have block after block of empty homes, that wind up being targets for vandals, drugs, crime and all that.

What if assumable fixed rate mortgages became popular again? They used to be the thing to have. And if you actually had a decent interest rate connected with that fixed rate assumable you were in great shape if you wanted to sell. I am old enough to remember the eighties, and remember that I bought a home and was happy to get a mortgage at 14% fixed. Sounds crazy now, doesn't it? That was a VA loan in 1984 I think. And it was a good deal. Conventional loans at that time were around 16%.

There are some assumable mortgages out there now. FHA and VA likely still offer them. But, just follow the money, the mortgage industry in general would much prefer to write a new loan every time somebody buys something.

I would like to hear input on how the foreclosure crisis can be fixed. What are your thoughts? I would also like to hear from people that have successfully worked out mortgage modifications with their lenders. And which lenders are really working with people. Allowing modifications is voluntary on the part of the lenders and many of them say that they have modifications available, but I'm hearing that they are rarely taking place.

I successfully worked out a modification years ago with Chase Manhattan. This was way before the boom bust crisis, though. It worked very well for me. I had been laid off and my ex stopped paying child support in the same month. It was an FHA mortgage and that's probably why I was able to get a modification through. Before the mortgage was modified it was an adjustable rate mortgage, that started out at something like 5% and then could go up no more that 2% a year and no more than 6% over the life of the loan. It was tied to treasury bills as to how much it went up; and it could also go down, but I don't think it ever did. Once the modification was done, I wound up with a 30 year fixed rate mortgage at 6.5% or so. It was a good deal. And they let me finance in the payments that were past due, which were maybe two or three.

If you've requested a modification and been denied. Please write me here. I would like to find out which lenders are actually trying to work with people.
Posted by foreclosure defense network at 16:36:51 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Thursday | April 03, 2008

Gee thanks guys.

Regarding the AP article written by Andrew Taylor, "Senate Leaders Agree on Housing Relief", gee thanks. Nothing like too little too late. The main points of what the Senate agreed upon seem to be that the federal government will make grants amounting to $4 billion to local governments to buy and refurbish foreclosed homes. And that the government will make available a $7,000. tax credit to people for buying homes or properties in foreclosure.

How do these measures help someone that is already in foreclosure? The first one, giving local governments money to buy up foreclosed houses sounds like  version of NIMBY (not in my backyard) to me. It might help a little, by not having a falling down abandoned foreclosed house next door that drives down your property values. But it still does nothing to help the people that already got thrown out or are soon to be thrown out.

And what are the local governments planning to do with these refurbished properties? Sell them? We all know how well that's working right about now. They could rent them out. Look what a great job local governments to with the Section 8 programs. In Daytona Beach Florida there is a two year wait for qualified low income families to be placed into a Section 8 rental. All the while there are empty properties all over town. Go figure. Sounds like a much better deal for the lenders in the scenario than anyone else.

As for offering a tax credit to people that buy foreclosed homes ... who would be those people? Investors? I'd say so. Nothing wrong with investors getting a tax break, but, see, this still doesn't help the homeowner to work himself out of foreclosure. By the time an investor buys a foreclosure, the original homeowner that was foreclosed on is already out of luck. So that one doesn't help too much either. The investors that still have money, by luck or design, are already sitting pretty. Why are they getting a break anyway?

Thank you for all of the e-mailed comments. Now please post comments for me. It's easy, don't be scared.

I wrote an e-mail to Florida AG, Bill McCollum yesterday. He hasn't responded yet. I'm hoping he will, I was going to post it up here.

Posted by foreclosure defense network at 13:42:31 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Wednesday | April 02, 2008

I thought there was something about Elliot Spitzer, Governor of NY's resignation.

It did seem strange at the time, that a successful and popular governor would resign so quickly just because of a little sex scandal. I thought sex scandals were kind of old news by now. Bill Clinton lived through it, and he has remained popular. No one really cared when it came right down to it. His impeachment was completely politically motivated. I may be the last to have read the accounts that Spitzer was busy trying to call out the Bush Administration for its' lack of regulation of the mortgage industry. And right around that time, he was caught with the prostitute and hastily gave his resignation. I'm sure there is much more to the story. I'll find the links and post them.

On another note, I've started doing a study of which mortgage companies are successfully completing the most foreclosures in my area of the country. I'm in southwest Florida. After a quick look through county foreclosures, I can already conclude that it is the same banks, lenders, entities that are plastered all over the court records. The same few law firms are also stamped on the filings.

I also wrote an e-mail to Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum to tell him that people in Florida facing foreclosure need some backup from his office. From what I've heard and seen first hand, a lot of these foreclosure filings are completely out of compliance with due process, civil process, and notification laws. Not to mention legal collection practices.

I know this is a new blog, and it will take people a while to find me. But if you do find me, please post. Add your comments.
Posted by foreclosure defense network at 16:25:49 | Permanent Link | Comments (2) |

Tuesday | April 01, 2008

Things are getting out of hand.

Things are getting very out of hand, out of control. We all know that the rate of foreclosures in the U.S. is staggering. Many people are upside down on their mortgages and are looking at a short sale or a deficiency judgment. The sight can't be pretty. The media bombards us with gloom and doom news daily, that there is no end in sight. No end in sight to the mortgage crisis. I say that we are now embroiled in a foreclosure crisis rather than a mortgage crisis. And we the people need to take action to make it stop.

I am in the middle of my own personal foreclosure crisis. A rental property, not my home, thank goodness. It was not sheer stupidity on my part, only partial stupidity. Gullible, more like. And I may be in a little better shape than many people, since I am not upside down on the equity. That is if I can make the foreclosure go away before the lender sucks all the equity out of it through legal fees, which they seemed to have pulled out of the air.

My personal mess has a few extra wrinkles in it. The property is mine, my ex quitclaimed it to me when we broke up. The note is not in my name, because there was a substantial prepayment penalty and I was trying to wait for it to expire before refinancing. I am named as a defendant in the foreclosure action, along with everyone that ever went near it. Along with me, my ex, the lender is suing two former tenants that were evicted a long time ago; the roofer that was paid in full a long time ago; the former mortgage company that originated the mortgage; and some unknown company. The lender that is suing is not the lender at all. It is a different bank entirely as a trustee for a securities company that I have never heard of.

I have decided to fight back. I am looking for likeminded individuals, business people, attorneys, paralegals, investors, and anyone else that wants to help. I am trying to form a network of people that believe that the situation has spun out of control and it is unreasonable to expect the government to step in before it's too late.

Post your responses here. Or e-mail me at stoptheforeclosurecrisis@yahoo.com
Posted by foreclosure defense network at 12:35:16 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |