Loan Modification and Short Sale Tips

There has been a lot of discussion about what is called astrategic default.  First, let us define our terms.  A strategic default is when a home owner can afford the current home payment but decides not to make the payment purposely and goes into foreclosure because the mortgage is greaterthan th...

Barney Frank is at it again.  Once more, in the guise of looking as if Congress is doing something, they are attempting to pass an incredibly anti-consumer piece of legislation.  The proposed  Financial Stability Improvement Act contains a section called Subtitle F.  Under this provision, all len...

Due to job losses and reductions in income, people’s credit scores have been going down.  Of course as scores go down, the less likely they will qualify for a mortgage and be able to purchase a house.  As a result of this, a new type of scam is emerging.  I would call this the quickie credit scor...

National mortgage news has reported on their web site that appraisal evaluation fraud has increased 46% over the past year.  With HVCC and appraisal management companies, how can this be?  Loan officers and realtors cannot order or even speak to appraisers.  Why is appraisal fraud increasing?  Ar...

The Obama administration is fond of appointing czars.  It is in that spirit I volunteer my services as short sale czar.  I think I have the qualifications and ideas for this important post.  First my qualifications.  I am an experienced loan officer and the process  for obtaining a loan approval ...

When doing a short sale, one must be very careful that the entity you are negotiating with has the authority to approve a short sale and can properly provide a satisfaction of mortgage.  Here is a link to an article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/business/economy/25gret.html?_r=1 where a fede...

The civil lawsuit filed by the Federal government against Lend America’s parent company Ideal Mortgage demonstrates all that is wrong with our mortgage lending industry. What is upsetting is that there was a 20 year pattern of fraud and no one did anything about it.  The mastermind behind the fra...

There is increasing concern about the pending expiration of the $8,000 federal tax credit.  Bloomberg News reported that one of the reasons the stock market went down yesterday was due to concerns over the expiration of the tax credit.   There are two proposals in the U.S. Senate concerning the e...

A borrower who is shopping for the best mortgage rate can easily be seduced by low rate offers that are accompanied by low Annual Percentage Rates (APR). Federal Law requires that APR be disclosed along side the actual interest rate.  This is in order to help borrowers make a more informed decisi...

The long national nightmare may be over soon!  The House financial services committee passed a bill which had an amendment eliminating HVCC.  We can only hope this is the beginning of the end.  My experiences with appraisal management companies (AMC) is that they do nothing more than take money f...