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MATT’S TAKE ON THE NEWS
March 22, 2012
Foreclosures Hit Rich and Famous

Craig Karmin and James Hagerty from the Wall Street Journal report on a trend that is spreading across the countryside. Houses with mortgages of $5M or more have seen a dramatic rise in mortgage defaults. People used to make money and could afford these gargantuan money pits but, with job cuts and a struggling economy these properties are going down the tubes, like their lower cost brethren. The article states, “In February alone, 352 homes nationwide in this category were scheduled for foreclosure auction, the final step before a bank acquisition. That is the largest monthly number of these so-called notices of sale since the financial crisis began. By comparison, in all of 2009, there were 1,312 such notices.” Astonishing numbers!
I think that this is the beginning of a trend. Why? Because wealthy people have the means to pump good money after bad to keep a house out of foreclosure. But, the money will eventually run out. Either that, or the home owner will make a business decision and engage in a strategic foreclosure. Either way, there may be opportunity heading your way.

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Matt’s Take On the News
June 7, 2011

Who Says Politicians Can’t Be Bought!

Massimo Calabresi from Time reports on how Iowa’s Attorney General Tom Miller recently accepted $15,000 in campaign contributions from (2) individuals who have vested interest in the government and the attorney generals NOT coming down on lenders for their bad deeds. You might ask who Miller is. Miller, “…. took the lead on the investigation by all 50 state attorneys general into the “robo-signing” foreclosure scandal, where several big banks allegedly approved taking away people’s homes without adequately verifying the facts in court, as required by law in some states.”

Instead of recognizing the conflict of interest, Miller made excuses justifying the contributions. Why wouldn’t he simply return the money?

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Matt’s Take on the News
October 25, 2011

The Long Sale

I liked the headline so much I had to borrow it from the author of the article, Greta Guest from the Detroit Free Press. While the article points out the obvious that short sales can and do take a tremendous amount of time to complete, the article also points out the role the private mortgage insurance plays in further delaying short sale approvals. Be aware if PMI is included on loans that you are currently involved with. Ms. Guest also points out the need to involve an attorney in this process…why wouldn’t you?

Also, a reputable investor that is involved in a short sale transaction can also minimize the time to close. Call me and ask me how.

The following quote from the article is a bit misleading (no fault of the person quoted), “Klorinda Hibbert, a real estate agent at Michigan brokerage Re/Max in the Hills, spends most of her day working on short sales and has 14 in progress now. She’s noticed changes in the past year — and they aren’t for the better.

She said lenders and servicers are requesting more than one broker’s price opinion. The lender works with real estate brokers who put together a valuation on the property based on what similar properties are selling for. They’re also requesting formal appraisals. They are good for only 90 days.

“The banks are willing to go into foreclosure rather than do a short sale,” Hibbert said. “They want to get paid in full.”

The reason I say it is misleading is due to the use of the word banks. The reality is that 90% (give or take) of mortgage notes are being serviced by the “banks”. What that means is that the longer they can draw out the short sale process, the more they get paid. If the servicers drive the property into foreclosure, guess what? They get paid.

Renowned Short Sale Investor, Coach and Mentor Randy Patrick Shares with you his “Relevant To Real Estate” Video Log for Short Sale Business Investment & the Real Estate World. Learn from the Investors that operate a real short sale business that includes over 100 deals in their pipeline at any given time, multiple closings per month [...]

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Matt’s Take On the News
July 12, 2011

Florida Pulls Funding

Carrie Bay from DSNews reports on funding cuts that will prolong the foreclosure process in Florida. Last year, the state approved $14M to bring in case managers and judges to clear the foreclosure backlog. Some judges were “reviewing” 100 cases per day in an attempt to clear the backlog. Foreclosure defense attorneys saw that this method oftentimes produced questionable results. While the program was designed to expedite the foreclosure, the time to complete a foreclosure rose from 470 days to 619 days (Q12010 compared to Q12011).

The band aid is gone. Only time will tell how this will affect foreclosure delays in Florida.

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Matt’s Take on the News
June 28, 2011

Do You Facebook?

Sam Debord brings us an interesting post that involves one of the most visited websites in the world…Facebook. A couple in Australia defaulted on their mortgage. Presumable they were playing hide and seek with the bank because the bank couldn’t find them … The bank was trying to serve them foreclosure papers. Some industrious little Ninja from the bank took a gander at Facebook…low and behold guess who they found? Yep…the sellers! The sellers were served their papers over Facebook! According to Mr. Debord, Australian courts upheld the process!

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Matt’s Take on the News
June 23, 2011

“No end in sight to foreclosure quagmire”

NBC Channel 11 reports on how we continue down the rabbit hole of foreclosures. The government has introduced program after program that had great intentions but have delivered minimal results. The blame game is always played but never finished. Unemployment continues to rise while our economy plummets. The banks hold back the inventory of houses that they own. Servicing companies stretch out the process for endless periods of time. Some buyers are being ostracized in this market…I could go on and on……..rather than you listening to my rants, read the article and let me know your thoughts.

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Matt’s Take on the News
June 21, 2011

Going to the Well!

Once upon a time, Wells Fargo was a joy to deal with when purchasing short sales. They were responsive, timely and reasonable in their request. As of late, they have caught BOA it is…..or maybe they hired some genius from BOA! Either way, they have become a very cumbersome company.

On a recent short sale, Wells was in second position. They denied the short sale because “they didn’t like the buyer”! WTF! I can’t wait to see how much they like the buyer when the property is sold at auction for a 36% discount to retail versus 9-15%……oh…..I forgot….Wells is servicing the loan so they WAN’T the property to go into foreclosure so they can bilk the investor who owns the note for even more money!

Read the article below. According to Mark Calvey of the San Francisco Business Times; there was a posse at the annual Wells Fargo get together (aka their annual meeting) who expressed their disgust as to how the company is being run. I’d love to know how many buyers of short sale properties with portfolios owned by Wells are turned away. Compare this figure to the same stat involving mortgages that are being serviced by Wells. I’ll bet the numbers are dramatically different.

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Matt’s Take on the News

June 9, 2011

Dual Track Foreclosures

Alejandro Lazo from the Los Angeles Times report on a common practice called dual track foreclosures. To quote the article, “Financial institutions commonly pursue foreclosure even if a borrower has requested a loan modification, a two-track process the lending industry has argued is necessary to protect its investments. But dual tracking is under fire from regulators and lawmakers in the wake of last year’s “robo-signing” scandal, which revealed widespread foreclosure errors.”

What’s interesting is that the proposed law has been in front of state legislators several times before. In my opinion, the reason this bill is not passing (and probably won’t pass) is because of the bank lobby. Bankers enjoy wasting money but they don’t like wasting time. They know that getting a loan mod approved is a small miracle so they don’t want to stall the foreclosure process. Sounds kind of silly but it’s true.

SO my question is, If you can run a foreclosure and a loan mod in parallel, why won’t the banks allow a loan mod and a short sale to run simultaneously? They say that the seller must choose 1 path or the other but not both. Why?

Take the time to read the entire article. It’s quite interesting.

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Matt’s Take On the News
June 2, 2011

Yet Another Scam!

Cynthia Roldan from the Palm Beach Post reports on a growing scam that is becoming more and more prevalent throughout the country. People are renting out abandoned homes as if they owned the home…..the only problem is that they don’t own the home!

The message here is pretty clear. If you or one of your clients is renting (or about to rent) a home, make sure that the person that is renting it to you/them is the rightful owner of the property. I would suggest that you take the extra step of determining whether the house is in pre foreclosure. If it is, the owner is probably not paying the mortgage. The last thing that you or your clients need is to get an eviction notice on the door because the property that they have been renting has been foreclosed upon.