Given the difficulty that the lenders and servicers have in keeping track of the endless documents they request of homeowners seeking loan modifications, I’ve wondered about what would happen if a loan modification was really granted. How would institutions who can’t keep track of the payments you make or the papers you submit keep [...]

The house is yours until the foreclosure sale is held by the bank.  So when the leaking toilet in the condo damaged  the unit below, my client the homeowner stands to be responsible for the repair.
Only the client cancelled her homeowners insurance after she moved out of the condo.  To make matters worse, she filed [...]

Early this week, the news was an increase in housing prices nationwide:  the end of the slump is near, said the commentary.
They glossed over the bit about nearly 7% of homeowners are behind on their mortgages.  Then yesterday’s announcement that nearly 25% of American homeowners owe more on their home than it’s worth.
I sat [...]

The client’s “plan” for the underwater house with a 10 year interest only loan is to file bankruptcy now, and plan on selling the house in a couple of years.  Sound familiar?  The homeowner has bought the same pitch that was made to folks with adjusting rate mortgages:  “sure, you won’t be able to pay [...]

Funny how legal issues seem to pop up in clusters on my desk:  three different clients sent me their annual escrow analysis howling.  Each of them was looking at an increase in their monthly payment of over $1000.
Each of my clients is currently in a bankruptcy proceeding, so we’re lucky in a way.  We can [...]

I was wrong:  I’ve routinely told clients intrigued by the “lost note” defense to foreclosure that, however the court rules on ownership of the note, they don’t get a free house.  According to Sunday’s New York Times article, If Lenders Say ‘The Dog Ate Your Mortgage, at least one judge has held differently.
After the lender, [...]

I encountered tales of the foreclosing creditor who didn’t foreclose everywhere I looked this week.  My colleague Rachael Foley handed me a decision of one judge who ruled that the delinquent homeowner couldn’t deed the property back to the lender without the lender’s consent.
Then the latest AARP  Bulletin highlighted a woman who moved out of [...]

Opponents of leveling the mortgage modification field by changing bankruptcy law like to demean those who would benefit from the change as those who greedily bought more house than they can afford. That characterization does not begin to encompass the range of clients I’m seeing with houses that, absent a modification, they should walk away [...]

California foreclosure procedures provide that any secured creditor who uses the power of sale in a deed of trust to conduct a foreclosure sale gives up any claim against the borrower for a deficiency.  So, a creditor who chooses a quick and relatively cheap non judicial foreclosure cannot pursue the property owner for more money [...]

The first step in deciding what to do with a monster mortgage is calculating whether the “best case” modification would make the house affordable.
I ran such a calculation for recent clients who were current with their payments but saw a train wreck coming when the loan adjusts in a few months.  Their interest rate was [...]