Possibly Some Good News in Arizona

Don't start counting any money yet, but yesterday the Attorney General of Arizona filed suit under Arizona's consumer fraud law against Bank of America. The suit accuses the bank of violations of the law in two areas. First, BofA is accused of misleading consumers in the state by having them continue to make mortgage payments while BofA allegedly claimed it (the bank) was working on loan modifications for the homeowners. Instead, in many cases allegedly, the loan mod never happened, in spite of the borrowers' good faith payments, and the bank foreclosed on the homes anyway. After an absolute flood of complaints by consumers was made to the Attorney General's office, an investigation was initiated over a year ago. This led to a lengthy round of settlement talks between the state and the bank, which commenced in April of 2010. These negotiations continued for months, but finally failed, collapsing on December 10.

According to the Attorney General, Terry Goddard, the bank also allegedly violated the existing terms of a consent agreement arrived at in 2009 that required BofA's subsidiary, Countrywide, to create a loan mod program.
What does this mean for you if you're a homeowner facing foreclosure or already foreclosed upon by BofA/Countrywide? It's difficult to be certain at this stage. First, some result will have to be reached, and, as with anything in legal action, that can take any amount of time from a few months, if settlement can be quickly reached, to years, if it has to go through the whole legal process, including appeals. Also, it will depend on whatever the terms of any final settlement or decision end up being. Does a homeowner receive monetary damages, get their home back, or what? At this stage, there's no way to determine an answer.

So, you ask, what's so good about this? Well, the short answer is that you have the power of a state government, with far more resources than any individual, going up against the bank. At least someone has taken the initiative and gotten a ball rolling. For the ultimate result, we'll have to wait and see.

Good luck to everyone potentially involved. To the more general readership of this blog, here's hoping the Holiday season is a happy one, and the New Year brings you all you seek for you and your family and loved ones.

Fannie's Helping

If you are someone whose mortgage is backed or held by Fannie Mae, I've got a bit of good news for you. Fannie has just launched a website to assist any homeowners currently behind on their payments or facing foreclosure. It's called Knowyouroptions.com and the web address is, obviously, www.knowyouroptions.com . it intends to provide good basic advice on subjects such as how to stay in your home and avoid foreclosure, or, alternatively, sell and avoid foreclosure. It also will list local foreclosure prevention event sin your area,counseling on housing, Fannie Mae resources, information on your credit score, as well as a whole bundle of forms, instructive videos and calculators, to mention just a few things. If that's not sufficient for you, the site also will provide good advice on recognition of and avoidance of the many foreclosure scams currently circulating that all are trying to separate you from your home illegally and NOT provide the claimed help they loudly trumpet they'll provide.
Hopefully, this will help those of you tied to Fannie Mae. Good luck!

This May Help

While it is somewhat dated by subsequent events and new programs, there is a good basic text for creating a program to help avoid foreclosure. Written in late 2008, the book is "Save Your House From Foreclosure!", and is available through many outlets such as Amazon.com, Booksamillion.com and BarnesandNoble.com. It is deliberately short, under 70 pages, but, hey, I figured when I wrote it that someone facing the terrible specter of foreclosure doesn't have either the time or interest in reading War and Peace to possibly find a way to save their home.

Give it a shot--it can't hurt, and may help.

Good luck!

Some Help From The Stagecoach

For those of you with mortgages at Wells Fargo and facing foreclosure, the stagecoach (Wells) has announced a revision of its policies if you're working to avoid foreclosure by doing a short sale. Very specific, these changes stipulate that a foreclosure will be postponed if you meet two conditions:
1.)You must have received and provided to Wells an approved short sale contract with a buyer;
2.) The short sale must close within 30 days of the scheduled foreclosure date.

These rules may help some of you if you and your Realtor can get a contract from a buyer for a short and get Wells to approve it. You and your Realtor should check very closely and without delay with Wells on getting the approval.
Good luck!

Separately, for all of you who find themselves facing possible foreclosure and/or short sale of your home, I extend this Thanksgiving wish. It is that next you can hopefully resolve your present situation successfully, and that next Thanksgiving will find you and yours in a happier more joyful situation. Meanwhile, a sincere heartfelt wish for a happy Thanksgiving.

Good News for D.C.

The DC mayor, Adrian Fenty has just signed an amendment to the District of Columbia Official Code. Among these changes is a requirement that all foreclosure procedures include a very specifically worded 'foreclosure mediation' process. This mediation between bank and homeowner MUST be observed before any foreclosure can proceed. Failure to do so, according to the statute, is grounds for voiding the foreclosure. The steps in this mediation procedure include completing a number of forms to get into the mediation, and payment of a $50 fee. If you have questions, you should contact an attorney and/or your lender. If you cannot afford an attorney, call Legal Aid for advice.

Good luck and a very happy Thanksgiving!
Peter

Hope Down The Road

Today, a brief encouraging note for folks already foreclosed and hoping to someday again qualify for a mortgage to buy a home. The standard wisdom on how long your credit is harmed by going through a foreclosure is a minimum of five years! In other words, get foreclosed, don't even bother trying for a mortgage for at least that long. However, as we move through the current economic crisis, there is some glimmer of light at the tunnel's end--and it's NOT a train coming your way down said tunnel.

If, after three years, all of your credit history EXCEPT said foreclosed mortgage is pristine, and i DO mean pristine--not even a single late on ANY other debt/credit obligation, you may be able to get approval on an FHA loan. Why? Because this type of loan only requires a 3.5% down payment, and thus, you have somewhat easier qualification standards to meet. It won't be easy, but it is a possible slight easing for you. REMEMBER HOWEVER: when I say 'pristine' credit, I REALLY mean exactly that.

Good luck, and a happy thanksgiving to everyone!

A Few Things of Note

This week, the authorities in Florida announced that under Federal programs recently rolled out, they are commencing a program to assist unemployed homeowners keep their homes. Initially available only in Lee County, the Florida Housing Finance Corporation will take the program statewide early next year after reviewing its operation in the Lee County market.The initial Lee County 90 day program will be operated in two formats. One, the Unemployment Mortgage Assistance Program (UMAP) will provide full mortgage payments directly to the lenders in behalf of unemployed homeowners for up to 18 months. The second format, Mortgage Loan Reinstatement Program (MLRP) will help get homeowners already delinquent current on their loans if they have recently gotten employed. For info, check the Florida Housing Finance Corp.
Separately, if your mortgage is with Wells Fargo and you're facing foreclosure, demand a 'sitdown' with someone at Wells. Originally, Wells had commented that it was satisfied with its documentation review methodology and wasn't facing issues similar to those announced recently at Chase and BofA. Wells, consequently, didn't suspend any foreclosures. Now, Wells has issued a statement that while they feel all foreclosures are (and were) done properly, they have found "errors" in some notarizations of foreclosure-related documents and are going to submit new affidavits in all 55,000 cases where this occurred. They specifically said that the foreclosures involved are legitimate and they do not plan to suspend the foreclosures involved. These are in the 23 judicial foreclosure states. Check with your attorney if you have not done so to see if you may be involved.
For everyone facing this issue, as always, hope this helps and Good Luck.