Foreclosure Nation

1. Complaint filed naming all parties on title search with interest in property (consider any title defects). 2. Summons 3. Lis Pendens 4. Publish notice of foreclosure action twice of not less than 20 days. 5. 20 days to file answer, defesnes, counter claims. 6. No answer = motion for defau...

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Federal TILA, RESPA, RICO, Fraud. State court fraud claim State court action for stay of sale or eviction Emergency petition for temporary injunctions - state and federal court Motion to expedite discovery Interrogatories Requests for admission Notices of depositions duces tecum Baknruptcy p...

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Remember TILA claims survive eviction for recovery of money and possibly recovery of the house from the lender if violations existed. Talk to your lawyer about it....

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....go to the sale and tell people there that the matter is in dispute so that they will not bid. But talk to your lawyer first....

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California, Arizona and Nevada are non-judicial states. Florida is a judicial state. For more on each process see previous entries....

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3/7 House passed Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009 • PSA: Protecting servicers from lawsuits, not have to buy back because of mod. ...

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Prepare for longer time and more complex circumstances Factor in will be distressed Assume won’t be able to refi at maturity Permit change to interest, flexibility, cash flow changes Allow mod without limiting type or magnitude – similar to w...

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US Commercial real estate $6.5 trillion industry • 4 billion SF office • 13 billion SF industrial • 9.5 billion SF shopping • 4.4 million hotel rooms • 33 million SF rental apts Shopping centers are $2.25 trillion in sales and $125 billion in state sales tax 40% of local government taxes come...

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9000 a week. Originally estimated 2 million. Now 5 to 6 million. Nationally 250,000 new filings in March, 1 in ever 10 homes Miami Dade has 600 new foreclosure filings each month. 75% of all new cases are foreclosures, takes 300 days – used to be 150. Original indicator = rate resets. Now also un...

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1900 75% Rented 2006 68% Owned ...

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650K jobs lost in March, 2 million so far. 6.1 million unemployed. Real estate supports 9 million jobs Construction supports 1.6 million self-employed and 6.7 million salaried workers 1 in 7 jobs impacted by tourism ...

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Housing is 19% of GDP Tourism is a $1.9 billion per day industry. 1 in 7 US jobs impacted. Shopping centers are $2.25 trillion in sales and $125 billion in state sales tax 70% local government taxes come from real estate • 30% residential • 40% commercial Over 200 publically traded REITS with ...

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$12 trillion in mortgages. $1 trillion in seconds 70% held by banks Top servicers service 50% and $440 billion in seconds. ...

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2008 20 major areas decreased in price over 18%, $3.3 trillion equity lost – 14 million underwater, another 230K a month. Florida 2nd with 1.3 million underwater – Mod wont help us since more than 5% underwater. ...

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1. Be upfront and honest with your attorney. 2. Bring copies of all relevant documents with you to your meetings. Whenever possible summarize them so you dont have to pay the lawyer for a lot of time to review everything. Organizing them in a binder with a concise index is advisable. 3. Focus...

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Now what about the legal fees? • Retainer The word “retainer” can mean two things. One is a regular sum of money (e.g. $1,000 per month) to keep a lawyer available for any necessary legal service. Some businesses pay attorneys that way. “Retainer” can also mean a deposit or down payment, held...

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The Florida Bar’s Ethics Hotline recently has received numerous calls from lawyers who have been contacted by nonlawyers seeking to set up an arrangement in which the lawyers are involved in loan modifications, short sales, and other foreclosure-related rescue services on behalf of distressed homeow...

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Unfortunately most people begin looking for lawyer at a time when they are under pressure and stress from whatever the circumstance is that has lead them to need a lawyer in the first place. That given there are often unusual time pressures to find someone and emotional influences that make rationa...

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During the first interview, the lawyer should inform you of: > your legal options, > your chances of success, > the alternatives to legal action, > the time and expense involved in a legal action > the approximate cost of the legal services. You should be given an estimate of the total fees or...

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> Does the lawyer have experience with this type of problem? > How long is the case likely to take? > Is the lawyer available to start on your case? > Will others in the office be working on your case? > What is your legal situation? What are your legal options? > Would negotiation or mediation...

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I .What is your experience in this field? 2.Have you handled matters like mine? 3.What are the possible outcomes in cases such as this? 4.How long do you expect this matter to take? 5.How will you keep me informed as the case progresses? 6.Will anyone else be working on my case? 7.How do you h...

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Always be clear with your attorney about what YOUR responsibilities are. And rememeber it is up to YOU not him or her to follow up. If you dont not keep on top of him you have no one to blame but yourself. Ask if there are any tasks you would be involved in, and what your role in decision making w...

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Most state Bar Associations now have lawyers who volunteer to help people with their mortgage modifications and foreclosure defense. See the links on this website for some. And those readers who know of others, by all means let us know and we'll add them. When working with these pro bon lawye...

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Lawyers are are pulling alot of old trick and some new ones out of their hats to delay residential foreclosures for homeowners. Here are a few more for you: 1. Wait until the last day to respond to a default notice before filing an notice of appearance. 2. File a motion to extedn the time all...

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Does it really come as a suprise to anyone that the Feds to Kenny Lewis mums the word on Merrill? First of all most business deals involved confidentiality or non-disclosure agreements for obvious reasons. But in this case, leaking the news would most certainly have panicked the markets (and w...

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China now has over $2 trillion in US reserves and debt. Boy we sure better be nice to them! And we're going to need them to buy eve more in order for us to come up with the money to fund all this bail out spending....

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The Florida Supreme Court has announced a statewide task force to look into uniform mandatory mediation statewide. Ohio has been doing this for about a year and New Jersey, Nevada, Minnesota, Connecticut and other states are looking into it. Last month they received an emergency petition asking th...

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Condo sales remains an especially soft spot in the road to recovery. One reason is the shere number of units built and the fact that they were especially attractive to investors/speculators. But the other reason is the problems faced by associations now as foreclosure units remain deliquent on their...

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Properites in the higher price range are finally seeing bigger hits. Up until now most of the foreclosures were at lower pricepoints. Places like the Hamptons where Wall Streets once elite are hardest hit for obvious reasons. One reason is the continued lack of availability of jumbo mortgage loans...

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NAR released their latest states this AM. First time buyers are about 53% of all sales now. Most agree sales will begin to strengthen but prices continue to drop. About 40% of sales now are foreclosures or distressed which typically sell form about 20% less. It typically takes 1 to 3 m...

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The good news is refinances are up by a whole lot from last year. Its good because we know the underwriting standards are making these new loans safer investments and the lower, predominantly fixed rates are making the homes more affordable for Americans. Hopefully more old fashioned refinances w...

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These things being called "test" are starting to sound more and more like college sorority hazing. Unlike a test would measure skills learned, these are putting banks under a fabricated (we hope) seriies of worst case scenarios and watching to see if they "break." And talk about secracy...it...

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Cases have been popping up where borrower make this claim in the residential context. Wondering if any may successfully argue it in the CMBS situation....

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Was ervice of procees properly effectuated? Are there charges that are not allowe dincluded in what the lender is claiming is due - these might include especially high inspection fees or forced place insurance that costs a lot more than what the homeowner was paying for insurance purchased on hi ow...

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Most lenders and servicers aer using Zillow to value property when underwriting a modification. Since that service does not really accuont for upgrades and improvements you may have done since you;ve owned the home, make sure you lender has a written description and even an opinion from a local real...

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Bad guys trying to wrangle $1000 to $3000 to help coordinate mortgage loan modifications from distressed homeowners are on the Feds radar screen. With free government approved housing counselors available, one may wonder why anyone would pay for someone to help. Well, first alot of peole dont k...

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As of now there are over 900,000 properties currently in foreclosure nationwide, a 71% increase from this time last year. This according to a recent MBA survey. A RealtyTrac report released today tells us what we already know, that the cities with the highest forelcosure rates are concentrated i...

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That fraud, accountability and transparancy have emerged as problems with TRAP should not come as a suprise...the issues are almost hand in hand with government programs. But the issue is much bigger when we're talking about a possible $3 trilion price tag not $700 billion now. A recent report f...

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Converting the governments preferred shares in some of the nation's largest banks to common equity. What do you think? The markets it seemed didnt like the idea - they fell. should we be surprised? Who on Wall Street likes what is essentially the nationalization of banks? The idea seems to hav...

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There are some banks thaty just dont want to govt money anymore. Did they not want it in the first place and simply take it as a favor to make those who actaully needed it look less desparate? Do they not want the strings, including limitation on exec compansation? Do they feel too stgmatized by ...

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With stress test outcomes pending, the question on everyone's mind (OK maybe not everyone) is whcih bankls will pass or fail and how exactly again are the Feds grading this thing. The later question is looking more and mroe like a moving target with synics wondering if the criteria maybe wont be cu...

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$6 to $8 billion in CMBS money is coming due in the not to distant future mostly on hotel CMBS funds. Unless something chnages there is (a) no money out there to refinance these loans and (b) not enough flexiblity under most CMBS structures including REMICS trusts to modifify them in any meaningful ...

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Foreclosure is a legal procedure with roots going back to English common law pursuant to which a lender takes title to a parcel of real estate following a borrower’s failure to comply with the mortgage loan agreement entered into with the lender. The most frequent failure is a default in payment ...

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Pros A mediator helps both sides in a dispute evaluate their positions and goals, and negotiate a solution acceptable to everyone. A mediator does not take sides or make decisions. If you reach an agreement with an opposing party through mediation, you can make it legally binding by enter...

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Many servicers recently resumed foreclosure processes that were temporarily halted when Obama requested a voluntary foreclosure moratorium a few months backin anticipation of the Making Home Affordable program. Some, like J.P. Morgan Chase and Citigroup, already had internal moratoria in place a...

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This information comes to you directly from the horses mouth (the IRS website).... The Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007 generally allows taxpayers to exclude income from the discharge of debt on their principal residence. Debt reduced through mortgage restructuring, as well as mortgage debt forgi...

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JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Countrywdie, WaMu were the biggest holders of mortgages...

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Among the primary documents involved in REMIC Trusts is of course the PSA (Pooling and Servicing Agreement) The parties to the PSA are the depositor (the entity that sells the mortgage loans to the trust), the master servicer, the special servicer and the trustee. The PSA will include a "servicing ...

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We knew all along there wuold be surprises as these vehicles played out their natural and unnatural lives. But even the surprises are surprising some commercial real estate borrowers who ha dno idea what they were egtting themselves into. Most securitized commercial mortgages are owned by a trust...

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101 (51B) Single asset real estate encumbered by secured debt not exceeding $4 million. 362 Automatically stays actions against debtor until court grants relief. 362 (d)(3) secured lender with claim against single asset real estate entitled to relief from stay within 90 days of bankruptcy petition...

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Lenders are running into some of the following issues, much to borrower benefit: The loan assignment documents are impropermeanign the loan was not correctly assigned to the trust. The loan file itself may be incomplete. There may be a conflict of itnerest between the servicer and the trust. A...

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CMBS borrowers are almost always bankruptcy remote. They are entities set up for the sole purpose of owning and operating a certian piece of real estate. They have restrictions in their organizational documents precluding them from engageing in any other kind of business or incurring any other debt...

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The CMBS servicer often has a big impact on workouts. Withint the master servicing organziations there is often a division of servicing functions such as monitoring of payments, escrow analysis, financial statement review, reserve advancement, etc. Once in default the loan is sent to a special s...

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Some of the factors invovled in analyzing a CMBS default from the lender view include: Cause of default, property business aspects, fincial operating statements, management capabilitites, other factors that could be impacting the property. Rights under loan documents, right to replace manageme...

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The PSA may require approval from others such as ratings agencies who play an important role in assumptions and modifications that may impact the flow of payments from the udnerlying real estate. Master servicers may therefore be required by the PSa to consult with the RA and even require that they...

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Some of these are good guys doing a good job. But others are not. The problem of course is you dont always know whos good or who is not until after you've hired them. Some thoughts: 1. Before you hire someone to help you get your mod, ask yourself why it is you feel you can't do it yourself? An...

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Most people spend more time on their hardship letter than anything else. Maybe thats because its somehow cathardic to explain all of the things that have happened that are beyond our control??? Anyway the truth is this letter is not that important to the lender. It's basically something they need f...

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FHA: reinstatement, forbearance, repyament plan, modification, deed in lieu, claim advance, pre foreclosure sale VA: reinstatement, forbearance, repayment plan, modification, deed in lieu, compromise agreement, refund. FNAM or Freddie: reinstatement, forbearance, repayment plan, modification...

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What is the problme that caused me to get into this situation in the first place? Is it a temporary problme or a permenant issue? Can I afford this property in the long run, am I better off with a short term solution until I can sell, or should I consider bankruptcy or just walking away? Hav...

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What do you need me to send you in order to see if I qualify for a modification? What types of modifications are you providing now? Do you expect to be providing any other types of modifications soon/are there any programs pending? Are there any bailout programs that you are offerring or ex...

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I'm getting so many questions for people I have found have not and do not want to call their lenders. Lets face it, calling your lender (or servicer) is still a royal pain in the butt. Many of them are still completely unprepared for this. As a result the guy on the other end of the line does not s...

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