Help For The Property Owner After The Mortgage Default – Steps To Take Before You Meet With A Lawyer

If you have defaulted on your mortgage, time is not your friend. Each month that passes puts you deeper in the hole, with accumulating arrears and late charges. Meanwhile, the bank’s lawyers are running up a bill that will be added to your principal balance. You need to stop this soon to give yourself the best chance of success. Here are some immediate steps to take: Read more

Vanishing Subprime Lenders

I have read that more than 210 subprime lenders have closed shop since 2006. For the homeowner in foreclosure this means that refinancing options are very limited. Conventional lenders will usually not refinance a foreclosure “bailout.” Historically, subprime lenders have been the ones to take these riskier loans. There are still hard money private lenders out there but they are all restricting their lending guidelines. If your LTV is more than 65% you will find it hard to find hard money. Not impossible but hard. What does this mean for 2008 as we approach the New Year? I think it means that more and more people will find that Chapter 13 is their best or only option. I have written about this option before – just click on Chapter 13 bankruptcy or search for Chapter 13 in this blog if you want to read more. These options are available in the column to the right. For those who want an experienced guide to help them navigate through the foreclosure mess, please email or call me (New York clients only please).

Have a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Six Indicted In Foreclosure Rescue Scheme

Another foreclosure rescue scam has been exposed. This one involved sale-leaseback concepts and financing fraud. At the heart of this scam was the fact that homeowners were told they could save their homes but were not told that they would actually be deeding over ownership to a third party. Here is a copy of the indictment. Here is an article summarizing what happened . . . Read more

What Can Happen If You Hire The Wrong Bankruptcy Attorney?

If you think that having the wrong bankruptcy attorney does not matter, read this article from moneycentral.msn.com (adobe pdf format).

A Bankruptcy Judge’s Perspective On Chapter 13 Under BAPCPA

I just purchased and started reading US Bankruptcy Judge Keith Lundin’s 7000+ page treatise on Chapter 13 bankruptcy after BAPCPA (the revisions made by Congress on Oct. 17, 2005). His book is extremely well-written and timely. I was astonished at his perfect description of what Chapter 13 has become. While this option is still very much available to help people with debt troubles and foreclosure problems, the entire process has been needlessly complicated by the new law. Judge Lundin’s take on the new law confirms what bankruptcy lawyers already know: a debtor who attempts a pro se Chapter 13 case will almost certainly fail. The law is a minefield with gotchas and pitfalls that await the inexperienced. Having a Chapter 13 attorney is more crucial than ever before.

Here is what I read in Judge Lundin’s intro . . . Read more

Bush Administration Solution To Subprime Mortgage Mess? Don’t Count On It

I have read that the new Bush administration solution to the subprime mortgage mess is to set new guidelines for mortgage lenders to freeze rates on a very small portion of their adjustable rate loans made after 2005, and only for those loans where the payments are current. This is a very small amount of the loans out there and won’t help any of my clients. Oh, and by the way, it’s all voluntary. That’s what I have read!

The solution is to ask the lenders to be nice and make a little less money on their loans for now. This ridiculous “solution” is all talk. What is not being widely reported, but what I suspect is really behind this, is that the administration is trying to deflect bad PR from the current foreclosure crisis. They have to look like they are doing something to help. Especially at this time of year during the holidays. But this is all smoke and mirrors. The emperor’s new clothes. What happens if lenders don’t want to comply – voluntarily? It is also very likely that there is a secret agenda here – it may be that they want to use this latest “solution” as a way to stop the current efforts to revise the Bankrupcy Code to permit modifications of residential home mortgages. After all, if the lenders have already solved the crisis with this voluntary “solution”, we won’t need to modify their rights in Chapter 13. Get the picture?