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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?

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

August 25, 2011

Hamp Decides to Foreclose

This is the latest example of how a government acronym (I mean foreclosure prevention program) has failed the American consumer. Kara Johnson reports on how HAMP applicants have been foreclosed on.

Ms. Johnson reports,”

Fannie Mae has been directing mortgage servicers to proceed with foreclosure when mortgages are more than 12 months overdue, even when the homeowners were being considered for loan modification under the federal Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). That’s according to an investigation by the Detroit Free Press, which published the results in a three-part series beginning Sunday.

According to the Free Press investigation, Fannie Mae directed lenders to proceed with foreclosure against homeowners who were actively seeking HAMP loan modifications, contrary to Fannie Mae’s own declared policies and the government’s rules for HAMP. The paper cited confidential records it obtained that detailed correspondence between Fannie Mae and lenders responsible for servicing the mortgages in question.”

No matter how you cut it, the government talks out of both sides of their mouth. On one hand they claim to be saviors. On the other hands they are amp’ing up the foreclosures on people who are trying to play by their rules.

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Matt’s Take on the News
August 4, 2011

Let’s Demolish The Homes

Lindsey Rupp from Bloomberg News reports on yet another brilliant idea that has been hatched by Bank of America. Ms. Rupp writes, “Disposing of repossessed homes is one of the biggest headaches for lenders in the United States, where 1,679,125 houses, or one in every 77, were in some stage of foreclosure as of June, according to research firm RealtyTrac Inc. The prospect of those properties flooding the market has depressed prices and driven off buyers concerned that housing values will keep dropping. “BOA takes bull dozers to the “decrepit” houses!

The move can make sense. Meaning, if the property is in such a state of disrepair, BOA argues that it costs them less to demolish a property that they can’t sell when compared to the cost of upkeep, taxes, insurance etc. This, however, is a very reactive position to take. A more proactive position would be to approve short sales before the houses become blighted and turned into REO’s.

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Matt’s Take on the News
July 5th 2011

Why Foreclosure Filings Have Dropped

Lisa Shapiro from the Huffington Post clarifies why foreclosures have fallen to a 40 month low. Many want you to believe that it is due to the success of this program or that program…or that the economy is making a miraculous recovery. While all of this would be great, it’s just not the case.

“This slowdown continues to be largely the result of massive delays in processing foreclosures rather than the result of a housing recovery that is lifting people out of foreclosure,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, in a press release.” An indicator is the average time to foreclose. Nationwide this number rose from 340 days to 400 days (Q1 2010 vs. Q1 2011). In judicial states this time frame can be higher (In Florida, the average time to foreclose is 619 days.) According to the report, the cause of these delays revolves around delays in paperwork processing.

As the article points out, “With home prices still falling, a slowdown in foreclosures driven by paperwork delays is bad news for the overall housing market recovery. Home prices hit their lowest point in two years in April, falling 0.7 percent below March 2009 levels, according to a recent report by Clear Capital. Housing experts say the data from RealtyTrac’s report does not indicate a reversal of this trend will be quickly forthcoming.

“As the servicers sort out their processing issues and staff up a little that means these homes will end up on the market as a distress sale and that will cause home prices to fall further,” said Celia Chen, a housing market analyst for Moody’s Analytics. “It delays the problem. It extends the recovery in the housing market.”

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Matt’s Take on the News

June 30, 2011

Illinois home foreclosures up 5 percent in May

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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 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.

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Matt’s Take On the News
May 24, 2011

THE REGULATORS ACT

Victoria McGrane, Alan Zibel and Robin Sidel report on on US regulators passed down foreclosure penalties for improper foreclosure processes. The current rulings deal with process change and not penalties. It is said that “civil money penalties” are on the way. Sounds like the check is in the mail!

It’s noted that this has no effect on what the attorney generals are trying to accomplish with penalizing the major banks. To amplify this, note the following from the article, “Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said the agreement appears to require only “modest changes” to banks’ foreclosure process and is unlikely to have a big impact on the housing market or broader economy. Still, Mr. Zandi added, “the foreclosure process will remain bogged down and a true bottom in the housing market elusive” until the banks reach a complete settlement with the state attorneys general.”

The crux of the ruling is, “…….banks have 60 days to establish plans to clean up their mortgage-servicing processes to prevent documentation errors.

The orders also direct banks to take steps to ensure they have enough staff to handle the flood of foreclosures, that foreclosures don’t happen when a borrower is receiving a loan modification and that borrowers have a single point of contact throughout the loan-modification and foreclosure process.

Banks must hire an independent consultant to conduct a “look back” of all foreclosure proceedings from 2009 and 2010 to evaluate whether they improperly foreclosed on any homeowners and require each company to establish its own process to consider whether to compensate borrowers who have been harmed.”