False advertising fills the airwaves: “the secret credit card companies don’t want you to know.” The secret? They don’t tell you is, you pay, and get no guarantee of anything. The State of Ohio busted a foreclosure scam outfit operated with attorneys. Check with your state’s Attorney General’s office. Better Business Bureau, not so much….
Category Archives: foreclosure
The Truth About Second Mortgages
Second mortgages were marketed as home equity loans, or home equity lines of credit, partly to conceal that they were liens on your house, just like the first mortgage. I can’t tell you how many times I would ask a client, How many mortgages on your home? To be told, just one, and we have…
The Real Truth About Mortgages (Part One)
This has been the most common question I get for a long time, so I will periodically post on the possible answers. If you are current, and can afford to continue paying, there is really no bankruptcy alternative. You can stop paying, the so-called “strategic default“. Unfortunately, there is no accurate prediction as to what…
More Michigan Bankruptcy And Foreclosure News
The bailout cost for the “too big to fail” banks and mortgage companies has not even peaked. Taxpayers, like Joe Inhoch, our new fictional blog character, are on the hook hundreds of billions more, counting only the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans that go south. Our politicians already already bailed out those companies, with Joe’s…
Foreclosure In Michigan
Foreclosure is the legal process for mortgage companies taking your house. It is much in the news these days, with mortgage companies being questioned on the legal documents they produce in courts, in cases of judicial foreclosure. Mortgage simply means: debt secured by real estate; pledging your home as collateral, or security, for a loan….
Judicial Mortgage Modification Will Work!
Mortgage cramdown, or judicial mortgage modification, will help prevent home foreclosures and will NOT disrupt the residential mortgage lending market. So says a new study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. For a less scholarly explanation of Chapter 13 judicial mortgage modification, see the L. A. Times article by Lew Sichelman. Perhaps my favorite…
Avoid Foreclosure With Non-Bankruptcy Cramdown?
Is your home worth less than what you owe on the mortgage, or mortgages? That is called: underwater. This encourages people to stop paying and let mortgage foreclosure happen, even if they can afford the payments. In Michigan now, for homes that have a mortgage more than half are underwater. Tune I have been singing…
Foreclosure Crisis – The Next Phase
The national foreclosure crisis is deep into the negative equity phase, as reported in the Christian Science Monitor this week. Negative equity, that is, your home is underwater, worth less than you owe on it. As I have been blogging for years, the answer is judicial mortgage modification, Congress amending Chapter 13 to allow the…
Michigan Bankruptcy and Foreclosure News
Countrywide, one of my favorite villains, fessed up to cheating homeowners, in foreclosure, and even including those who had successfully completed Chapter 13 bankruptcy cases, out of tens of millions of dollars. The United States Trustee office, which is part of the Department of Justice, oversees bankruptcy cases throughout the country. Like most government bureaucracies,…
Did Bankruptcy Reform Worsen Foreclosure Crisis?
Bankruptcy laws were significantly changed in 2005, and filings went way down. A new study suggests bankruptcy reform accelerated the foreclosure crisis. The theory is simple enough. People who file bankruptcy and get rid of credit card and other debt, have more money available to pay the mortgage payments, and stay out of foreclosure. So,…
