The new update of the Multnomah Foreclosures web site (http://multnomahforeclosures.com/) includes NOD listings dating back to February of 2008. This data was added because we had it and there has been a lot of interest in this data by the visitors of the site.
Multnomah Foreclosures
http://multnomahforeclosures.com/
I thought this information would be beneficial to know, when you are dealing with sellers on a Short Sale basis. Many consumer don’t realize the impact of a short sale on their credit. Read the attached article and commentary from our credit agency below. There are a couple KEY pieces:
1. Foreclosure – lenders won’t do another loan for 4 yrs. (Bankruptcy is now 4yrs also)
2. Short sale – if they keep payments current and their credit is relatively intact, and they do due diligence with the lender to determine how they will report the Short sale on their credit report (ie. “settled” is the best, Deed in Lieu is the same effect as a “foreclosure”) this will result is the least amount of damage to their credit rating. That also goes for a Notice of Default (NOD), even though a foreclosure process was started and the seller is able to sell the home prior to it actually going to foreclosure sale, this will be reported as “foreclosure in process” on their credit, which is treated as a “foreclosure” for credit scoring purposes.
3. Oregon is not a deficiency State. Meaning that Oregon does not pursue the seller for any deficiency. The banks just take the loss, the seller’s credit is damaged, and that’s the end of it.
4. The biggest advantage to sellers in a Short Sale is keeping payments as current as possible and getting the lender to reflect the account as “settled”. That will allow this borrower to secure another home loan sooner (maybe 2yrs), rather than if a foreclosure or NOD (4yrs) is reported on their credit.
I think this is valuable information to share with your sellers.
To Your Success,
Paul Dean
Principal
Evergreen Ohana Group
5331 SW Macadam Ave, Suite 287
Portland, OR 97239
Office: (503) 892-2800 Ext.11
Fax: (503) 892-2803
Email: pauld@evergreenohana.com
Website: http://www.evergreenohana.com
OR ML-21,WA 510-LO-33391, WA:520-CL-50385
The 26 cities with the highest foreclosure rate in the nation are all located in four hard-hit states, with Las Vegas topping the list, according to a report released Wednesday.
Metro areas in California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona topped the foreclosure filing list for the first quarter of 2009 in a report from RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed properties. A foreclosure filing includes default papers, auction sale notices and repossessions.
Las Vegas had the highest rate of foreclosures of any city, with one in every 22 homes subject to a foreclosure filing in the first three months of the year. The rate of foreclosure filings was 4.5%, seven times the national average.
Merced, Calif., had the second highest rate, with Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., Stockton, Calif., and Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif., rounding out the top five.
“The metro areas with the highest levels of foreclosure activity in the first quarter of 2009 paint a picture of concentrated problems in a relatively small number of hard-hit areas,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, in a written statement.
Foreclosure rates have been very high in the 4 key states throughout the bursting of the housing bubble, and so it was to be expected that cities from those states would pepper the top of the list.
However, it was a surprise to see the list so top heavy, according to Rick Sharga, senior vice president at RealtyTrac.
“The concentration of troubled metro areas within the hardest-hit states, candidly, was even more severe than we expected it to be,” Sharga said. “The degree to which those four states dominated the rankings surprised even us.”
New problem cities: Meanwhile, some metropolitan areas had a surge in foreclosures. Boise City-Nampa, Idaho, in 27th place, Provo-Orem, Utah, in 37th, and Charleston-North Charleston, S.C., in 51st were examples Sharga gave of areas that had particular strong gains in filings.
Sharga said the rise of foreclosures in additional regions indicates new factors influencing the housing market as the recession drags on.
“What we believe we are seeing is some of the areas with unemployment problems,” said Sharga. “These are people living paycheck to paycheck and, when the paycheck is gone, suddenly they can’t afford to make their mortgage payments.”
The data for RealtyTrak’s metro area foreclosure report is collected from 2,200 counties across the nation, and those counties represent more than 90% of the U.S. population. Some 203 areas are covered by the report.
Across the nation, foreclosure activity in the first quarter hit a record high, according to another RealtyTrac report issued last week. Total foreclosure filings reached 803,489 in the first three months of the year, the highest monthly and quarterly totals since RealtyTrac began reporting in January 2005.
The national report also found that the worst of the foreclosures were centralized in a handful of worst-hit states. California, Florida, Arizona, Nevada and Illinois accounted for nearly 60% of the total foreclosure activity in the first quarter, with 479,516 properties received foreclosure filings in those states.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Foreclosure-leaders-focused-cnnm-14996946.html
New foreclosure reports listed on the multnomah county foreclosure web site. This week a new addition is the bank owned property lists (REO List) for the month of February 2009. This list consists of properties that were forcloused or deeded back to the lender in lew of foreclosure. Some of these homes are on the market but most are not. These lists will have the name and contact information (address) of the owners (lenders) of the property. Contacting the owners for status might allow an opportunity for you to purchase any of these properties in post foreclosure.
Mulnomah County Foreclosures
http://multnomahforeclosures.com/
Fred Stewart
President
Stewart Group Realty Inc.
fred@sgrealtyinc.com
http://www.sgrealty.us/
503-289-4970 (Phone)
503-296-2336 (Fax)
Multnomah County Forclosures (http://multnomahforeclosures.com) has been updated with the largest foreclosure list to date. There is also a new Mortgage Broker of the week listed. Brian Collins of Sound Mortgage.
The foreclosure list for 10 other Oregon counties are also listed on the site this week.
Multnomah County Foreclosures
http://multnomahforeclosures.com
The financial crisis explained in simple terms ………………………..
Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Berlin. In order to increase sales, she decides to allow her loyal customers – most of whom are unemployed alcoholics – to drink now but pay later. She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans).
Word gets around and as a result increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi’s bar.
Taking advantage of her customers’ freedom from immediate payment constraints, Heidi increases her prices for wine and beer, the most-consumed beverages. Her sales volume increases massively.
A young and dynamic customer service consultant at the local bank recognizes these customer debts as valuable future assets and increases Heidi’s borrowing limit.
He sees no reason for undue concern since he has the debts of the alcoholics as collateral.
At the bank’s corporate headquarters, expert bankers transform these customer assets into DRINKBONDS, ALKBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities are then traded on markets worldwide. No one really understands what these abbreviations mean and how the securities are guaranteed. Nevertheless, as their prices continuously climb, the securities become top-selling items.
One day, although the prices are still climbing, a risk manager of the bank (subsequently of course fired due to his negativity), decides that slowly the time has come to demand payment of the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi’s bar.
However they cannot pay back the debts.
Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations and claims bankruptcy.
DRINKBOND and ALKBOND drop in price by 95 %. PUKEBOND performs better, stabilizing in price after dropping by 80 %.
The suppliers of Heidi’s bar, having granted her generous payment due dates and having invested in the securities are faced with a new situation. Her wine supplier claims bankruptcy; her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor.
The bank is saved by the Government following dramatic round-the-clock consultations by leaders from the governing political parties.
The funds required for this purpose are obtained by a tax levied on the non-drinkers.
Finally, an explanation I understand.
This should clear up any / all questions… Enjoy! J
Melissa Stashin
Sr. Loan Officer / Branch Manager
Pacific Residential Mortgage, LLC
2 CenterPointe Dr. STE 500
Lake Oswego, OR 97035
(503) 670-0525 x113
(971) 221-5656 Cell
(503) 670-0674 Fax
(800) 318-4571 Toll Free
If you fail to make your mortgage payments on time or if you default on your payments, you are in danger of foreclosure. This happens more and more frequently in today’s economic climate. But it is possible to avoid mortgage foreclosure if you know what to do.
Here are a few of the options that are available to you. These are only going to be open to you if you can get the cooperation of your lender.
– See if your lender would be willing to re-arrange your payments based on your current financial situation. This may be referred to as a special forbearance and you may qualify for it if your financial situation has changed. To qualify for this you will probably have to provide information to your mortgage holder to prove that you will be able to meet the payments of the new plan.
– Another option may be a modification of your actual mortgage. This would involve refinancing the amount owed and/or extending the term of the mortgage. The goal is to reduce monthly mortgage payments so they are more affordable for you.
– You may qualify for an interest free loan from HUD to bring your mortgage up to date if you meet certain conditions. This is referred to as a partial claim and your lender can help you with the application process and explain the conditions of this type of loan. You can also contact your local HUD office for more details.
– Another way to avoid mortgage foreclosure is to consider a pre foreclosure sale. The purpose is to sell your home and clear up your debts to avoid foreclosure and damage to your credit. If you know that you will be unable to make mortgage payments even if they are lowered, this may be something to consider. You will have to see if your lender will agree to give you some extra time to sell before foreclosing.
– A final option which should be considered only as a last resort is a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. In this case you are basically turning your house over to your mortgage institution instead of paying off the mortgage.
Even though you will lose your home this may be a better option than losing it to foreclosure. That’s because your chances of obtaining another mortgage loan at some point in the future are better than if your home is lost due to foreclosure.
These are the main alternatives that you have as you try to avoid mortgage foreclosure. Be sure to contact your lender at the first sign of financial difficulty so they can help you find the option that will be best for you.
Learn about 6 practical steps you can take to avoid foreclosure.
If it’s too late for that, find out how to stop a foreclosure by going to getforeclosurefacts.com
Expert Foreclosure Helper
expertforeclosurehelper.com
I pulled preliminary numbers for February real estate activity in Portland, and want to report the following highlights: Pending sales volume is up from January, despite the short month. After all the month-end sales get reported we could end up with a ”nice” month. Preliminary numbers have us down to about 11 months of inventory. Since selling has been heaviest at lower price-points and especially with first time home buyers who are taking advantage of more affordable housing and tax credits, we’re not surprised to see healthier sales inventories in the east-side regions of Portland.
Bank-Owned and Short Sales are Selling in Portland
Over 25% of all the transactions in February were with bank-owned properties and properties requiring third party approval (short sales and relo’s). 18% of the active listings today are either bank owned or require third party approval. Over 1/3 of the closed sales in Beaverton and Tigard areas were on these “distressed” properties. Similarly deal hunters were active in Lake Oswego last month. Half of the current listings are vacant. This is down slightly, which is good. Nonetheless, we have noticed that many of today’s vacant listings become tomorrow’s short sale and/or bank-owned property.
We stand ready to help you understand how to maximize your proceeds if you want or need to sell. Call us for a free consultation, and we’ll show you how we can court our extensive buyer traffic to get your pricing strategy right and connect you with your target audience. If you’re ready to purchase, we can help you find the right home and negotiate great terms.
Sign up here for our Investor Notification for Portland Bank Owned, Short Sales, Fixers & Foreclosures
Portland Real Estate Cafe
http://www.portlandrealestatecafe.com
There are several updates and issues to bring to your attention. As things transpire I may not have time to e-mail pertinent updates to you so I have set up a blog at macplan.blogspot.com where you can go for the information. I will try to e-mail you when there is a new update on the blog. Here is what is happening now and what I am working on:
1) Late last week the largest mortgage insurance company, The PMI Group, instituted a policy that they would no longer insure mortgages that were originated by brokers. By implementing this policy the Mortgage Insurance companies will speed up the consolidation and nationalization of the banks, hasten the downfall of most if not all non-bank lenders that utilize brokers as their main source of business, and force the small mortgage broker to consolidate under a larger bank environment. This policy will also put most appraisers out of business.
The public, once again, is getting the shaft. By not allowing brokers to originate loans with less than 20% down on a purchase or less than 20% equity in the property for a refinance borrowers will have to go to the few remaining banks the exist who will be able to charge what the want because they won’t have competition from the brokers. A client that is over 80% Loan –To- Value that goes to a broker will be limited to an FHA product….which is insured by the government ad has not one but 2 types of mortgage insurance which in many cases makes it more expensive for the borrower than it would under a conventional loans with mortgage insurance. Again, customers wanting high LTV loans will need to go to banks, put up with higher rates, longer lines and bad service.
Yesterday I spoke to the upper management at the PMI Group to get their side of the story as to why they are implementing this policy. They told me, unlike published reports, that it was not due to quality of the loan originations submitted by brokers. Their take was that they do not have the capital necessary to reserve for future losses. They say that their low stock prices make it harder to attract new capital. They say that this a strictly a company survival mode tactic to make sure they don’t take on any more risk until the delinquency issues on the current loans in the market place have run their course. They say if they were able to raise more capital then the policy could change back.
I made clear to them what the ramifications of their policy implementation will do to the average borrower. I made clear that it will cause a domino effect with closing of the remaining non-bank lenders, brokers, appraisers and everybody else in the industry leading to a lot more unemployment while giving borrowers less loan options and higher rates.
The bottom line, there are ways to fight this which I will go into later.
2) Obama’s Foreclosure Rescue Plan – I am currently reviewing this. It seems like a lot of the same old stuff and need a lot of questions to be answered:
a) How are they going to implement the refinancing through FNMA and Freddie Mac for upside down borrowers? Where does mortgage insurance come in….are they going to do it without mortgage insurance. If mortgage insurance is required then San Diego is screwed again…because all mortgage insurance companies have designated us as a Declining Market. How is FNMA and Freddie going to get around that. Also, I understand that they will only allow up to 105% LTV….how is that going to help people that are upside down by 20-50%?
B) The incentives given to servicers…are they going to be enough. The modification plan is still voluntary for the servicers.
C) Throwing $400 billion more into FNMA and Freddie Mac to continue to buy mortgage backed securities that nobody else is buying and nobody can put a value on…is the govt over paying….and what are they paying for those securities. It is almost as if the government thinks that the securitization crisis has been solved. The buying up of the securities may have the effect of temporarily lowering rates but will those rates still be offset by the price and cost adjustments currently being added on by FNMA and Freddie.
And when will the money that is printed to fund the buying of the securities get circulated….the printing of the money will no doubt cause inflation which will increase rates significantly.
D) Currently in this plan there is absolutely no relief for people that have Jumbo Loan for more than the GSE Loan limit of $546250. Are we just going to let that deck of cards fall. One Jumbo default equals 3 or 4 condos…nobody has the guts to take this problem on.
E) There is still no relief for people that own rentals. The Popular thing to say is that we don’t want to bailout speculators an investors. But what about they guy who has owned a rental for 20 years and did some refinancing to better his cash flow…but now his value is down, his payment is up, and it doesn’t cash-flow. He is not a speculator. He is one guy that owns a property that is rented out. He did not buy it recently and try to flip it. Most likely, he isn’t rich either. People like that need relief, as much as it is politically incorrect to say such things.
3) The effect of the Stimulus Plan on mortgages – I am still digesting the 1100 or so pages. However, we do know that the loan limit for San Diego will go back up to $697,500. Once again, the key for this is how the loan limit is implemented and we are getting conflicting messages from the bond traders and the GSE’s. We do no that now there will a $8000 tax credit that does not need to be paid back for homebuyers that buy by the end of November. We do know that 2 Billion Dollars is going to be spent on local foreclosure prevention methods
4) The Mortgage Crisis is an Urgent event that could eventually and pretty quickly cost Americans our Sovereignty. The fact that very little is being done correctly to break up the bank oligarchy, correct our financial problems, and produce solutions that will stabilize our economy is absurd.
THE MACPLAN – An Action Plan For the Financial Crisis
1) Currently, I am assembling plans and ideas from many various sourcesfrom bond traders to securitizers to asset managers to Realtors to come up with an overall, well thought out comprehensive mortgage crisis and foreclosure prevention plan. Most plans are there come from one view or the other….they are not comprehensive and don’t attack all areas. If you have any ideas please e-mail them to me. Once these ideas are collected, I will setup meetings where everybody can show up, voice their opinions, and add ideas to for speak against the plan. Unlike Congress, you will have ample time to read the initial plan before you go to the meeting.
DEADLINE TO SUBMIT IDEAS AND PLANS: Sunday February 22nd
SELF IMPOSED DEADLINE FOR PUBLISHING INITIAL PLAN: March 1st
1st MEETING :tentatively March 1st at a place TBD
2) The final plan will be put together based on the response of the meetings
3) Once this plan is completed, then we will get it to our elected officials via e-mail, fax and regular. We will also post not only on my blog but several others.
4) We will start not only an online petition but a handwritten petition to implement this that will be delivered to our officials
5) SAN DIEGO ECONOMIC AND MORTGAGE REVOLT DAY – APRIL 1st
This is where all of the mortgage and real estate professionals, our families, and our customers take to the streets to promote the plan that we come up with….yes picket the banks, picket intersections, rally at the park, etc.
We will need a committee to put this on and I will be looking from leaders and non-leaders in all parts of the county to step up.
Be looking for the MACPLAN to take form….we will eventually change the name but it’s good for now.
Dave McDonalds Blog
http://www.macplan.blogspot.com/
We’ve all heard the news: the dark storm clouds of the financial meltdown will cost the taxpayer hundreds of billions of dollars, if not several trillion by the time it is all said and done. Unemployment numbers are set to skyrocket. The U.S. automakers need a bailout, following suit after so many others. Retail sales were down substantially during the holiday shopping season. People are keenly aware of the possibility of layoffs. Are we done yet? Probably not.
But amidst the ominous storm clouds lingering on the horizon, if one looks very closely, a platinum lining is visible amongst those clouds. One first reaction might be, “are you kidding?”. However, after a bit of reflection, one can begin to see the sun reflecting off that platinum lining.
Regardless of an individual’s opinion of the bailout, the soon-to-be former administration and the role of the government in residential housing, the opportunities available in the market place today are unprecedented. We all recognize home values have dropped substantially in almost every neighborhood. And if this is coupled with extremely low interest rates (did someone say rivaling the lowest in 40 years?), the buying power of the consumer has not been more keen.
One doesn’t have to look far to find a bargain. And with these interest rates, all factors have aligned in favor of the buyer. Sounds pretty good, huh? Well, it is for those who have put themselves in a good position to purchase a home. History will show them to have been very savvy. It pays to buy low, at the incredible interest rates, and watch one’s equity build substantial wealth over time.
In today’s marketplace, 20% down isn’t the only option. There still exist a limited number of financing options with little to no down payment. In order to better prepare one’s self, a quick check of your credit scores are in order. Freecreditreport.com is a way to find out how your credit history will be analyzed by lenders; credit scores in excess of 740 give access to the best programs and pricing on interest rates. At least 2 years on the job, showing steady income will help on the employment front. Assets are nice to have, but not necessary to have in abundance for all programs. One will want to make sure that checking account statements (2 month’s worth) show no overdrafts. In today’s marketplace, lenders are more cautious than ever when it comes to loaning money to buy a home, but obtaining mortgage financing is still relatively painless when one chooses to work with a seasoned professional mortgage broker.
With a mini refinance boom going on due to these record low interest rates, one issue the mortgage industry will have to face is the potential for a scarcity of funds. Today, due to the federal government’s conservatorship of Fannie and Freddie along with the strategy to have the Federal Reserve purchase mortgages, many fears have been eased regarding the availability of mortgage money. But a new problem may be just ahead. Wall Street, which capitalized about 60% of the mortgage market, has all but disappeared. Banks are publicly being told to lend money, while their regulators are telling them to maintain adequate reserves, which translates into holding onto their cash. Couple this with the mass exodus of foreign investment into the U.S. mortgage market, and one can imagine a market in which there is more demand to borrow than there is money to loan.
Consider this: the Treasury department is issuing T-bills with very low yields that may not be attractive to buyers and the Federal Reserve will, at some point, rely on the funding created by the sale of T-bills to have enough capital to continue to purchase mortgages through Fannie and Freddie. If the appetite for low-yield T-bills drops off substantially, which may be a very real possibility, a liquidity crisis in the mortgage market could manifest itself.
How does this apply to someone today who is considering purchasing a primary residence, a second home or an investment property? My point is this: don’t wait. A scarcity of funds will cause interest rates to skyrocket, overnight. Jumbo funds seem to be disappearing already, although conventional financing to loan amount limits of $417,000 is readily available. Banks don’t seem to be interested in tying up their liquidity in large loan amounts. To me, this is a sign. Not a “doom & gloom” sign, but a warning sign nevertheless. My interpretation here is now is the time to act. The banking system is sound, but mortgage financing is not the banking system. And when capital is being used at the current rate due to the refinance boom, it sets me to wondering how this will impact the availability of funds for mortgage lending throughout the course of this year.
The federal government has a very tenuous road ahead of it this year. The conservatorship of Fannie and Freddie was meant to be a temporary situation and, as it is currently in place, will terminate at the end of 2009. Between now and then, the best and brightest minds in our country will have to reinvent the mortgage market. With many banks still teetering on the edge, one must think these low interest rates will take a toll on the availability of funds. Who will be interested, long term, in 4.5% paper? As the stock market starts to rebound, investors will be looking for higher returns on their money and interest in current mortgage paper yields will wane thereby creating a scarcity of funding for new lending.
Thought the storm clouds continue to linger, and they may even get a bit darker in the near future, It is my opinion that today is perhaps the best opportunity to invest in real estate that has existed in decades. For the money, this seasoned mortgage professional thinks now is the time to get mortgage financing before it becomes a scarce resource. Those that buy houses now will likely look like a genius down the road.
Am I saying this is a sure thing? NO; any investment carries risk and should be carefully evaluated. But I am saying when one peers into the storm clouds above and sees the shiny reflection of the sun off the platinum lining, one should strongly consider that the combination of low home prices and low interest rates is a sign to buy before the clouds all break up and disappear. And everyone knows the opportunity has slipped away once the storm has passed. And so I say, keep wear a raincoat and keep an umbrella handy while shopping for a home out under the storm clouds.
Matt Stashin
President/CEO
Pacific Residential Mortgage, LLC
2 CenterPointe Dr. STE 500
Lake Oswego, OR 97035
(503) 619-0482 Direct
(503) 670-0674 Fax
(800) 318-4571 Toll Free
http://www.pacresmortgage.com
It is amazing that just as we move out of an era of fraudulent loan officers, fake “Mortgage Planners” and Financial Trusted Advisers we are now being over run by a hoard of “Foreclosure Experts”. Could these people be one in the same. Just the times and the opportunities are different?
When in foreclosure there are experts out there that can help you develop a plan of action. These people are beholden in one way or another to the state of Oregon as in they have an ACTIVE Real Estate license, Mortgage Certificate or member of the Oregon Bar. Bottom line, if they rip you off they it is harder for them to hide. Your legal representatives and the state of Oregon can track them down and hold them accountable.
It is never good to be in foreclosure. But remember you only make the situation worse by not seeking the information you need to develop a plan of action. Maybe you can not keep your home. Maybe you should sell and buy another home on seller contract or lease option. Maybe you can work something out with the lenders. You have to treat foreclosure as an problem that can be solved and not the end of the world.
Information is power and with right power anything and everything is possible. Do rot sit in place, do not allow shame to prevent you from doing what you can to resolve the problem for you and your family.
Lastly, do not listen to anyone that does not hold an Oregon License, Mortgage Certificate or member of the bar that promises to save your home or help you make your payments. Those people have nothing to lose and everything to gain by gaining your trust. If it sounds to good to be true….it is. If it sounds like it is not legal….there is a good chance is it not legal. If that little voice in the back of your head says hang up the phone…..hang up. Use your common sence and reach out to people that can help provide you with real solutions.
Well that is enough ranting. Keep an eye on this blog. Will be posting possible solutions to the problems you are facing. If they work for you….great. If they won’t help you in your situation, feel free to send me an email or post the question on this message board.
Fred Stewart
President
Stewart Group Realty Inc.
by War on Error
This info has helped others. Please pass this to anyone facing foreclosure with Mortgage Electronic Systems Registration on their foreclosure papers.
HELP PEOPLE SAVE THEIR HOMES.
To learn how the Ownership Society Scam was choreographed. Read this website:
http://loanworkout.org/…
Read this diary for history, details, and some of people who put together what may be the biggest White Collar Crime in history
http://www.dailykos.com/…
MORTGAGE ELECTRONIC REGISTRATION SYSTEMS (MERS) – Go to your newspaper’s foreclosure listing and look for MERS on the postings. 50,000,000 mortgages list MERS as the Trustee. But MERS doesn’t have any promissory notes. You have to read all this to understand. But do give it to anyone facing foreclosure.
Without MERS, the huge volume of Mortgage Backed Securities and CDOs could not have been created.
HERE IS THE SCARY possibility: Countries, retirement funds, states, counties, etc. invested in these bundled products, based on ratings from the likes of Standard & Poors, Fitch, and Moody’s only to find, when they opened up the bundles, that they were filled with JUNK instead of GOLD. So they lost all of the money they invested. You can watch PBS NOW to learn how junk became traded as gold:
Is it possible that the real money, given to Hedge Funds to purchase MSBs and CDOs, by banks and pension funds throughout the world, left the banks and pension funds virtually empty? Could this explain the rush to Capital Hill for huge infusions of Bailout Money? Did banks and pension funds lose everything on their bad bets? If you watch the PBS NOW program referenced above, it seems that is a strong possibility. They lost their money gambling on products said to be gold that were, in fact, junk. Good grief!
The bundles of MBSs and CDOs couldn’t have been so quickly created without the electronic power of MERS.
….What many people refuse to admit is that because of the so-called MERS paperless “system” many of the so-called mortgage backed security trusts do not actually hold the promissory notes which evidence the debts that are supposed to be backing the bonds purchased by these investors.
The situation is reminiscent of the great Great Olive Oil Scandal in the late 1800’s when banks were duped into investing millions of dollars into Olive Oil only to later discover that the tanks which were supposed to be holding millions of gallons of olive oil backing their investments were mostly empty.
This problem with the missing trust assets/promissory notes manifests itself each time MERS and/or the trustees for the bondholders brings a legal action to collect on a debt through foreclosure. Because neither MERS nor the bondholders trustees are holding the notes, they lack proof of standing to maintain their legal actions and the actions are subject to dismissal.
Many foreclosure actions have been dismissed based upon lack of standing. This a problem that it is a direct result of MERS “system”….
THERE IS HOPE HERE. PASS THIS TO ANYONE FACING FORECLOSURE with MERS on their paperwork, PLEASE.
The details are found in the two sites listed in the INTRO.
Together we may be able to help families avoid so much suffering.
…….One informed lawyer who represents homeowners in Florida, April Charney, had foreclosure proceedings against 300 clients dismissed or postponed in 2007 for lack of standing. She is quoted as saying that “80 percent of them involved lost-note affidavits”. . .
They raise the issue of whether the trusts own the loans at all,” Charney said. “Lost-note affidavits are pattern and practice in the industry. They are not exceptions. They are the rule.” Ms. Charney, started challenging MERS and it members lost note affidavits after becoming skeptical of the a lender could possibly lose hundreds of promissory notes.
At least two Florida judges shared Ms. Charney’s skepticism regarding the copious amounts of MERS lost note affidavits and they issued show cause orders, sua sponte, challenging MERS to show proof that it held and/or lost notes in numerous actions. After evidentiary hearings these two alert judges dismissed twenty nine (29) MERS actions to foreclose for lack of standing. One judge struck MERS pleadings as being sham.
A South Carolina court dismissed a MERS action to foreclose for lack of standing even though MERS filed an affidavit wherein a person claiming to be an officer of MERS claimed that MERS was holding a promissory note. The South Carolina court vetted the MERS affidavit claim that it was the holder of the note after being apprised of the fact that MERS had previously told the Nebraska Court of Appeals that it never held promissory notes.
In late 2007 three Federal Court Judges in Ohio dismissed over fifty law suits brought by trustees of mortgage backed trusts where they could not produce the original promissory notes.
Following these decisions the Bankruptcy Court in Los Angelas, California adopted a rule of practice which requires all foreclosing trustees or other plaintiffs to produce the original promissory note when bring an action to foreclose a debt or face sanctions for not doing so. Several court in New York have been routinely dismissing foreclosure actions brought by MERS or its memebers because they continually fail to produce promisssory notes.
Here is a possible way to fight MERS or any foreclosure if they don’t have the proper, original documentation:
……To make matters worse many of the debts evidenced by these undelivered promissory notes were supposed to be secured by mortgage liens. However in place of mortgages being executed in favor of the original lender many of these mortgages were executed in favor of MERS. Because MERS never holds these notes or owns a debt it is not a creditor. MERS has no legal standing to enforce a debt, or so it told the Nebraska Court of Appeals in 2005. However this lack of standing defense must be raised by property owners who are sued.
The most effective economic way to raise this lack of standing defense is by bringing a motion to dismiss in response to the complaint to foreclose. In many states and in federal court this is called a Rule 12 motion. This motion is brought in place of answering the complaint. An honest attorney in most areas of the country should be willing to prepare and bring such a motion for $500.00 to $1,500.00 for a distressed homeowner. Or you might be able to find a lawyer to do it for you pro bono and perhaps a legal aid attorney. At least five judges around the country have dismissed these actions for lack of standing sua sponte, which means they did it on their own volititia. Perhaps more judges will feel the duty to do the same thing in the future.
Lastly, what might be disconcerting. Who at Fannie and Freddie Mac played along? Democrats? Republicans? Both? If both, now what?
Or did the likes of CountryWide play Fannie and Freddie? Playing within the rules? Could they have succeeded without inside help?
ADDITIONAL WEBSITES OF INTEREST:
1999 MERS plans for future foreclosures, in place at launch.
http://www.mersinc.org/…
MERS list of Shareholders or a list of people getting bailout money:
http://www.mersinc.org/…
How to buy a foreclosed home from HUD for $1.00, yes One Dollar:
http://www.hud.gov/…
A very informative website sharing the methods used to steal homes from HOMEOWNERS:
http://www.msfraud.org/
In conclusion, defenders of MERS says it is just an easy way to pass paper. Fine. However, when MERS took a Trustee position on deeds filed with Registry of Deeds, the problems escalate. Imagine, in the old days, listing your fax number as the Trustee on a deed, just because that is how the paper work was forwarded. How can a homeowner, facing foreclosure, work out a deal with a fax machine or its fax number?
For fun, here is Bush launching the Housing Crisis:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/24/114621/44/351/665802
Announcing the Oregonlandsalescontract.com (http://oregonlandsalescontract.com) web site. The OLSC web site is for the listing of homes in which the seller is offering Owner Carry, Lease Option or Rent to Own terms. The credit crunch has made it hard to impossible for many good buyers to obtain financing. In today’s market sellers have to consider offering terms so they do not miss out on an opportunity to sell their property to qualified buyers. This might seem like the sellers are compromising their position to some. For others, this is an opportunity for sellers to realize the interest income lenders have enjoyed for years.
Please share this link with anyone you feel might consider selling their residential or commercial property with terms or are looking for real estate to buy on terms.
Oregon Land Sales Contract
http://www.oregonlandsalescontract.com
Must a Borrower Stop Paying in Order to Get Help?
“Is it true that mortgage servicers will not help borrowers who are in trouble until they stop making their payments? I am a home retention counselor, and I keep hearing from people referred to me that they have received no response from their servicer because they have not yet missed a payment. I would hate to advise people that they have to stop paying if they expect to get any help if it is not true.”
There is certainly much truth to this because I have heard the same story from numerous people I have counseled, whose stories I have no reason to doubt. The most common thing I hear is that they were told by the servicer to come back when they were two payments behind.
There are understandable reasons why borrowers who are delinquent on their payments receive more prompt consideration than those who are current. To the degree that servicers are faced with more requests for help than they can handle at one time, they have to set priorities. The number of borrowers in trouble has ballooned over the past year, outstripping the efforts of servicers to expand their capacity to deal with them.
Setting Priorities
A plausible way to set priorities is in terms of the degree of urgency of the problem. A borrower 60 days behind in his payment is closer to foreclosure, and if he is going to be saved, he needs faster action than a borrower who is current. So borrowers who are current get placed at the bottom of the list of borrowers requiring special treatment, if they are even placed on the list at all.
This tendency is reinforced by the fear of free-riders. All borrowers would like to get a better deal on their mortgages, whether they have trouble making their current payments or not. If loans are being modified to help borrowers, some borrowers who are not in financial distress will try to take advantage of the situation by pretending that they are. But potential free-riders may not be willing to become delinquent because that would hurt their credit. By only considering modifications for borrowers who are already delinquent, the servicer reduces the number of potential free-riders.
In addition, the practice of dealing only with borrowers who are delinquent keeps loans in good standing for longer periods. Consider the borrower who loses her job but has savings sufficient to cover the payments for some months. Investors would prefer that the borrower make the payment out of savings for as long as possible, since she might find another job during this period, avoiding the need for any modification of the mortgage.
Moving Up on the List
If I were a borrower with reduced income but with good prospects of recovery, I would make the payment out of savings, avoiding the hit to my credit. If I considered the prospects of recovery to be poor, however, I would stop paying and husband my savings. This would move me up on the servicer’s priority list for special treatment. While it also moves up the hit to my credit, that is something that would happen anyway as soon as my savings were exhausted.
If I did not have a problem making the current payment but would have a problem dealing with an anticipated payment increase, I would handle it differently.
First, I would determine exactly how large the payment increase would be. If the increase stemmed from an interest-only loan reaching the end of the interest-only period, the new payment could be found using any monthly payment calculator (including calculator 7a on my Web site) inputting a term equal to the remaining life of the loan. If the increase stemmed from an ARM (adjustable-rate mortgage) adjustment, the new payment wouldn’t be known exactly until a month or two before the adjustment, but an estimate based on the current value of the rate index would provide a good estimate.
A Detailed Budget
Step two is to develop a detailed budget which documents the point that the expected payment is not affordable. Use the form provided by Genworth to show your income, expenses, and assets.
Submit your document to the servicer well in advance of the anticipated payment increase. There is no guarantee that it will lead to a contract modification before the payment increase materializes. However, it gives you a good shot to move up in the servicer’s queue by providing the concrete detailed information that servicers require. It also keeps you out of the hands of the modification hustlers who want to be paid upfront for doing what you can do yourself.
More area homeowners at risk as foreclosure proceedings double
Uncle Sam is bailing out Wall Street wheeler-dealers who invested in home loans, but there’s no relief in sight for the homeowners on Main Street.
On Southeast Main east of 144th Avenue, stretching from outer Southeast Portland into Gresham, 14 homeowners have been hit with foreclosure filings in the past year, plus scores more in nearby blocks.
• Judy Myer pawned her wedding ring and stopped taking prescribed medicines in a futile bid to save her Southeast Main Street home of 18 years, after husband Mark Myer lost his job and his unemployment benefits expired.
• Judy’s son, Steve, who lives down the street, got socked with foreclosure after his 7-year-old daughter required heart surgery. Steve took out a second mortgage to cover the medical bills, then fell behind on house payments after suffering an on-the-job injury.
• Across the street from the Myers, Ron Zitzewitz just got a six-month notice to vacate his mother’s home – one month after she died. Zitzewitz, 51, isn’t old enough to assume his mother’s reversible mortgage, and can’t refinance the loan because he’s permanently disabled.
Portland is no real-estate basket case like Las Vegas or Phoenix. But the national foreclosure crisis that initially spared Portland has arrived here in a big way, bringing more human suffering and dampening housing prices.
Oregon’s presumed next attorney general, John Kroger, along with state lawmakers and community leaders, will host a town hall for people facing foreclosure or who think they were victimized by deceptive lending practices.
The event, called There’s No Place Like Home, takes place 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22, at Portland Community College’s Cascade campus, Moriarty Auditorium, at the corner of North Killingsworth Street and North Albina Avenue.
The number of Multnomah County residents in jeopardy of losing their homes has nearly doubled in the last year, based on the number immersed in foreclosure proceedings. Over the spring and summer, 300 Multnomah County homeowners a month got slapped with foreclosure notices – topping the peak levels reached in the last recession of 2001-02.
In August 2007, the Portland area had an enviable 332nd-highest foreclosure rating among the nation’s 383 metropolitan areas. But by August 2008, Portland jumped to 254th-highest, according to First American CoreLogic, which provides real estate data services.
“There’s a shakeout right now, and we’re failing on all cylinders,” said Portland real estate economist Jerry Johnson.
Portland took longer than most cities to emerge from the last recession and didn’t get as overbuilt as other markets, Johnson said.
But Portland home prices kept rising during the last recession, he noted. If banks and besieged homeowners try to dump too many discounted properties, he said, “you could swamp the market and kill the guys who are OK.”
Home prices are sliding in large swaths of the metro area, especially in overbuilt sectors such as Portland’s condo market and suburban Happy Valley. In early October, in the 97086 ZIP code that includes Happy Valley, there were 247 homeowners facing foreclosure on top of 95 homes seized by banks, according to VisionCore, a division of First American CoreLogic.
Many overburdened homeowners, anxious to avoid foreclosures that soil their credit ratings, are resorting to “short sales,” in which they sell quickly for less than their home loan if the lender agrees to accept the lower amount. Banks also are auctioning off seized homes to investors looking for sweet deals.
Dumping all those distressed properties on the market, sometimes at fire-sale prices, is depressing home values for neighboring residences.
In a half-block stretch of Liebe Street southeast of Holgate Boulevard and 118th Avenue, four homes went into foreclosure in recent months. Investor Mark Bordcosh snapped up one of them, a three-bedroom townhouse appraised at $217,000, and offered it in an auction, with a minimum bid of $137,500.
“I’m basically getting the house at a discount and I’m selling it at a discount,” he said.
All parts of the city are seeing some foreclosures, though they are less common on the west side and close-in east-side neighborhoods, according to VisionCore. Portland working-class neighborhoods, especially in North Portland and the outer east side, are getting more than their share, as residents lose jobs or get burned by escalating interest rates on subprime loans.
Main Street doesn’t necessarily have the highest proportion of foreclosures. But it is representative of the outer east side – meaning it is seeing plenty of angst and misery.
Southeast Main east of 144th Avenue, dotted with modest one-story homes and towering firs, has long been known as an affordable place to buy a home. But it’s no longer affordable to many longtime residents.
Mark Myer, 57, who lost his computer tech job after his company was sold, doesn’t expect any of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout approved by Congress Oct. 3 will trickle down to his end of the food chain.
“The people that are stomping on the individuals are the ones that got bailed out,” Myer said. “If they share and start helping out some people, fine. History shows they’ll just turn around and stomp on us again.”
Myer landed part-time work, but said employers have been reluctant to hire him now that there’s a foreclosure on his record. That’s despite 22 years’ service in the Navy.
Judy Myer stopped taking medicines a year ago for her anxiety attacks, high blood pressure and cholesterol. After two heart attacks, two back surgeries and anxiety problems, she’s not in good shape to work outside the home.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s just scary,” she said. “We’ll never be able to go out and have dinner and a movie.”
Her son, Steve, an automotive technician, was denied workers’ compensation benefits after his 2006 on-the-job injury. The injury was deemed connected to a pre-existing condition. He qualified for short-term disability payments, but that only covered 60 percent of his salary. It wasn’t enough to make full mortgage payments and pay his $10,000 hospital bill.
When his home lender demanded full payments on his mortgage, Steve threw up his hands. “I pretty much said, ‘Come and get it, there’s nothing I can do.’ ” he said.
The lender backed down and offered him a payment plan, Steve said. He was able to save the house for now, but said he’s still tapped financially.
A few doors down from the Myers, Trinidad Monje’s former Main Street home sits vacant, months after going into foreclosure. Judy Myer said it’s been languishing on the market at least two years.
Down Main Street near 148th Avenue, Maxsim “Max” Lysack said he was forced into foreclosure after his roommate died. He wound up doing a short sale – selling the home for less than his mortgage – in a deal worked out with the lender.
“I buy it for $285,000, and I sell it for $250,000,” Lysack said.
Ron Zitzewitz has lived on Main Street off and on since childhood. He doesn’t earn much from disability payments and income from a knife-sharpening business, and moved in with his mother.
Under her reverse mortgage, the lender takes a greater stake in the home’s equity each month, in lieu of mortgage payments. Zitzewitz can’t qualify for a new loan to refinance the $160,000 his mother owed.
The house should be worth about $225,000, he said. But Zitzewitz doubts he can sell it for anything close to that because the market is so sour.
Zitzewitz got married a few months ago, but so far his wife has been unable to find work.
“We’re going to have to find somewhere else to live.”
stevelaw@portlandtribune.com
OREGON REAL ESTATE ROUND TABLE 