Thread: Texas Foreclosure's

The Texas Attorney General's office has halted all foreclosures, all sales of properties previously foreclosed upon, and all evictions of persons residing in previously foreclosed upon properties, until mortgage companies have completed a review of their processes, including whether employees or agents "robosigned” affidavits and other documents recorded in Texas.

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Originally Posted by Rick Hurst

The Texas Attorney General's office has halted all foreclosures, all sales of properties previously foreclosed upon, and all evictions of persons residing in previously foreclosed upon properties, until mortgage companies have completed a review of their processes, including whether employees or agents "robosigned” affidavits and other documents recorded in Texas.

I just finished reading all that and was going to come on here and post it.

I doubt if much is going to come from it at all. Robo signed or not I guarantee that just about every single one were about extremely ripe for foreclosure.

This will reduce the amount of product on the market for a short time and tend to drive prices up during that period. All of these halted forclosures are eventually destined for completion. Not a good thing for anyone except the ones living in the residence currently. Gives them more time to plan and find somewhere else to live. That's all.

A foreclosed home cannot even be sold for 90 after the foreclosure so they should have let them sit in process in case they find (which there will be most of them) that everything went as it should have.


To just take them off the market and start that all over again ? I really wonder if that is what they are going to do. I am sure this is going to turn into a well contested mess. I can see the lawyer adds coming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!

Do you feel you have been wronged ????????????????????????? Call me! 1-800-000-0000

Originally Posted by Ted Menelly

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A foreclosed home cannot even be sold for 90 after the foreclosure

Do you feel you have been wronged ????????????????????????? Call me! 1-800-000-0000

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You mean those Pesky Little Details such as Who Actually Owns The Loan ?
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* and if the lien holder was already paid from the Bailout Funds and wants to Sell the Property Twice !
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Originally Posted by Billy Stephens

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You mean those Pesky Little Details such as Who Actually Owns The Loan ?
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* and if the lien holder was already paid from the Bailout Funds and wants to Sell the Property Twice !
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The only thing that will keep anyone in the home that they cannot afford is if they actually paid on the mortgage that they could not afford and have records of it and the bank is claiming they did not pay. Other than that the home is going by the wayside anyway.

If a home was paid for with bailout funds......and it was not the home owner to be that paid the mortgage....then what....give the home to the folks that could not afford it to begin with.

I guess you are saying that if you had a 300,000.00 mortgage and were struggling to pay for it and floundering badly for several months with no payment on it.......then you should get the home for nothing because it was paid for with bailout money or are you saying that that mortgage should still be paid to the fed so they can have more money to blow. And if they could not pay the fed back for it..........do they get to still stay in the home?

The ramifications of all this are endless and like I said the lawyers are spinning their gears.

Blame it on the TARP bail-out (welfare for Goldman Sachs) and the real under-employment rate of 17%.

No tickee.. no washee!

It is called JOBS... JOBS... JOBS

Excerpt...

http://blogs.reuters.com/deep-pocket...-appreciation/

This tsunami of foreclosures and vacant homes is likely much worse than what most big bankers are willing to admit. Christopher Whalen, a financial analyst with Institutional Risk Analytics in Torrance, California, told the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute on October 6 that “non-payment by borrowers and mounting foreclosure backlogs are creating the conditions for the collapse of some of the largest U.S. banks in 2011.”

In Whalen’s view, the biggest banks should have been broken up in 2008-2009 instead of propped up with TARP and Federal Reserve funds. Ironically, megabanks like Bank of America got bigger during the crisis by absorbing troubled subprime mortgage-gorged firms like Merrill Lynch.

The recent halt to foreclosure processing by major banks, Whalen noted, was an indication that banks are up to their necks in bad debts that are only getting worse. “The use of loan modification to make bad credits appear ‘current’ is an economic fraud perpetrated by Washington that is already becoming apparent via foreclosure moratoria,” Whalen stated.

Banks are being swamped with defaults put on overdrive by massive unemployment. The so-called “underemployment” rate of those still looking for full-time jobs but working part-time or who have abandoned their search is 17 percent. These folks can’t afford mortgage payments.

There is one silver lining to all of this mayhem. It’s likely that mortgage rates will remain low for at least another year, possibly longer. Refinance if you can. If you need to repair or add onto your home, now’s a good time.

On the savings side, your only consolation is that you can find thousands of FDIC-insured institutions that are not having financial problems. Credit unions are another strong option. There’s plenty of no- or low-fee competition for your checking, credit card and savings accounts.

Originally Posted by Ted Menelly;

I guess you are saying that if you had a 300,000.00 mortgage and were struggling to pay for it and floundering badly for several months with no payment on it.......then you should get the home for nothing because it was paid for with bailout money

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Nope.
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or are you saying that that mortgage should still be paid to the fed so they can have more money to blow..

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Nope.

Whoever owns the loan ( if it's the FED then they get paid ) not some Jerk Ase Bank , Mortgage Scam , Big Butt Investment Group or Mega Insurance Company that thinks they Might Own it.
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Texas is not alone in these actions.

Conneticut AG Blumenthal (Sp?) Did the same thing (60 days). Illinois AG Madigan sent demand letters to the top 23 servicers to halt after meeting with the "big three" Ally (GMAC), JP Morgan Chase, and Bank of America.

Ohio has filed suit., The Controller of Currancy (Fed), John Walsh asked the top 7 lenders in the US to halt and review document/affidavit/review proceedures last week according to reports I saw from Reuters, AP and Bloomberg. One such story link (active) follows below.

IIRC there is a "task force" or commission on default and foreclosure prevention of 11 AGs and 2 states banking commissions that act in support, (Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas), seems they've made some reports showing procedures and work-outs not being offered, the big three or seven have admitted to robo-signing, falsified notaries, signatures, reviews, and scores of default foreclosure actions for loans not owned or serviced, and against debtors who were not actually delinquent have been reported/uncovered in the media of late.

If I also recall correctly, Bank of America has halted all their actions in 20 or so states, Ally/GMAC announced halted/suspended foreclosure actions in 23 or so states on/around second to last week of September.

Wells Fargo (fmr Wachovia/Golden West POA portfolios) recently settled with seven or so states on Mtg/Foreclosure/Consumer Fraud/abuse issues (Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Washington, Texas and Nevada), recall news about such settlements last week promising debt forgiveness programs, restructuring, etc. and single-point contact and responsiveness for deeds-in-lieu, short sales, restructuring, etc.

Point being, this isn't just a Texas thing. Seems many AG's sites have press-release areas that include info on similar actions, demand letters, cease-and-desist letters, requests of judiciary to suspend cases, lawsuits filed, etc. in the last week.

Illinois Seeks 23 Loan Servicers’ Foreclosure Data - Bloomberg

Like I said. It is going to be a huge mess

If you want the "short version"...the On Topic Point....scroll down to the bolded and underlined section (emphasis mine, yes I "pulled out the larger type, bolding, underlining and red type) in the middle of the story. I put my comments at the end.

Robo-signers: Mortgage experience not necessary
October 12, 2010

Associated Press

NEW YORK — In an effort to rush through thousands of home foreclosures since 2007, financial institutions and their mortgage servicing departments hired hair stylists, Walmart floor workers and people who had worked on assembly lines and installed them in "foreclosure expert" jobs with no formal training, a Florida lawyer says.

In depositions released Tuesday, many of those workers testified that they barely knew what a mortgage was. Some couldn't define the word "affidavit." Others didn't know what a complaint was, or even what was meant by personal property. Most troubling, several said they knew they were lying when they signed the foreclosure affidavits and that they agreed with the defense lawyers' accusations about document fraud.

"The mortgage servicers hired people who would never question authority," said Peter Ticktin, a Deerfield Beach, Fla., lawyer who is defending 3,000 homeowners in foreclosure cases. As part of his work, Ticktin gathered 150 depositions from bank employees who say they signed foreclosure affidavits without reviewing the documents or ever laying eyes on them — earning them the name "robo-signers."

The deposed employees worked for the mortgage service divisions of banks such as Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase, as well as for mortgage servicers like Litton Loan Servicing, a division of Goldman Sachs.

Ticktin said he would make the testimony available to state and federal agencies that are investigating financial institutions for allegations of possible mortgage fraud. This comes on the eve of an expected announcement Wednesday from 40 state attorneys general that they will launch a collective probe into the mortgage industry.

"This was an industrywide scheme designed to defraud homeowners," Ticktin said.

The depositions paint a surreal picture of foreclosure experts who didn't understand even the most elementary aspects of the mortgage or foreclosure process — even though they were entrusted as the records custodians of homeowners' loans. In one deposition taken in Houston, a foreclosure supervisor with Litton Loan couldn't define basic terms like promissory note, mortgagee, lien, receiver, jurisdiction, circuit court, plaintiff's assignor or defendant. She testified that she didn't know why a spouse might claim interest in a property, what the required conditions were for a bank to foreclose or who the holder of the mortgage note was. "I don't know the ins and outs of the loan, I just sign documents," she said at one point.

Until now, only a handful of depositions from robo-signers have come to light. But the sheer volume of the new depositions will make it more difficult for financial institutions to argue that robo-signing was an aberrant practice in a handful of rogue back offices.

Judges are unlikely to look favorably on a bank that claims paperwork flaws don't matter because the borrower was in default on the loan, said Kendall Coffey, a former Miami U.S. attorney and author of the book "Foreclosures."

"There has to be a cornerstone of integrity to the process," Coffey said.
Bank of America responded to Tiktin's depositions by re-affirming that an internal review has shown that its foreclosures have been accurate. "This review will ensure we have a full understanding of any potential issues and quickly address them," Bank of America spokesman Dan Frahm said. Frahm added that, on average, the bank's foreclosure customers have not made a payment in more than 18 months.

JP Morgan Chase spokesman Thomas Kelly said the bank has requested that courts not enter into any judgments until the bank had reviewed its procedures. But Kelly added that the bank believes that all the underlying facts of the cases involved in the document fraud allegations are true.
Litton Loan Servicing did not respond to a request for comment.

Even before the foreclosure scandal broke, the housing market was in the midst of an ugly detoxification. Now the escalating crisis is likely to prolong the housing depression for at least another few years. The allegations are opening the entire chain of foreclosure proceedings to legal challenge. Some foreclosures could be overturned. Others could be deemed illegal.

For a housing recovery to occur, all the foreclosed properties — which could account for 40 percent of all residential sales by 2012 — need to be re-scrutinized by the banks and resold on the market.Now, with so much inventory under a legal threat, the process will become severely delayed.

"This just adds more uncertainty to the whole mortgage process, so buyers are asking themselves: do I want to buy a home in this environment?" says Cris deRitis, director of credit analytics at Moody's Analytics. "We need to fix these issues before the economy can recover."

Though some have chalked up the foreclosure debacle to an overblown case of paperwork bungling, the underlying legal issues are far more serious. Yes, swearing that you've reviewed documents you've never seen is a legal offense. But at the center of the foreclosure scandal looms something much larger: the question of who actually owns the loans and who has the right to foreclose upon them. The paperwork issues being raised by lawyers and attorneys generals have the potential to blight not just the titles of foreclosed properties but also those belonging to homeowners who have never missed a mortgage payment.


So far, JP Morgan Chase, PNC Financial and Litton Loan Servicing have stopped some foreclosure proceedings in 23 states. Bank of America and GMAC, recently renamed Ally, have extended their moratoriums to all 50 states. Wells Fargo and Citigroup have said they are continuing with foreclosures, adding that they are confident in their documents and processes.

But Citigroup has now backpedaled some on that assertion. The bank sent out a press release Tuesday that it was no longer using the law firm of "foreclosure king" David Stern, now under investigation by the Florida attorney general's office. "Pending the outcome of the AG's investigation, Citi is not referring new matters to this firm," the bank said in an e-mailed statement.

Late last week, in an interview with the Florida attorney general, a former senior paralegal in Stern's firm described a boiler-room atmosphere in which employees were pressured to forge signatures, backdate documents, swap Social Security numbers, inflate billings and pass around notary stamps as if they were salt.

Stern's lawyer, Jeffrey Tew, did not respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, the public outrage continues to mount. In what is perhaps a sign of things to come, a Simi Valley, Calif., couple and their nine children broke into their foreclosed home over the weekend and moved back in, according to television station KABC of Simi Valley. The couple, Jim and Danielle Earl, say they were working with the bank to catch up on payments until they discovered a $25,000 difference between what they owed and what the bank said they owed. The family was evicted from their Spanish-style two-story in July. The home has been sold, and the new owner was due to move in soon.

The Earls and their attorney now allege that they were victims of fraudulent paperwork.

-End-



My note: Some Title Companies are retracting committments/abstracts. States with financial challenges already that support Torrens, with claims potential, may further complicate. Mortgage underwriters are pulling on financing - not only due to questionable positions with purchases of previously foreclosed properties but on appraised property values due to questionable status/value of properties on the same street, block, neighborhood, township, county, etc. Property valuations are extending to credit worthiness of NEIGHBORS...Investor held/rented properties further devalue neighboring properties. Home Insurance premiums will likely rise as credit scores fall, "risk analysis" for neighborhoods further blighted by vacancies and rentals - and a continuing trend of "mysterious" fires, etc.

I fear this may just be the "tip" of the iceberg of the whole CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS, RECOURSE to primary underwriters, brokers, etc.; Mortgage Insurance/FanMae, etc.; Mergers & acqusitions; Failures; Government Bail-outs; too-big-to-fail, etc. "house of cards" (and mirrors), and puffed up stimulus programs, robo-trades, etc. comes crashing down.

This is NOT a market to be paid on closing, under any circumstances - too many are being halted/stalled right now as this unfolds. This is NOT a market event that forcasts improving business (HI) anytime soon.

A developing "trend" in some parts of the country includes (apparently to save every penny) "booking" multiple inspectors for the same property inspection - having the principles conducting a (low) bid-war at the property! This is becoming more common on Banking/State Holiday days (such as Columbus Day), Fridays, Mondays, and especially for those who do Saturday or even Sunday inspections. Taking a CC # alone not being a guarantee, not even running a soft "approval", as more often than not they are using debit cards without overdraft protection - tied to accounts which are emptied or nearly emptied just before the appointment time. Some areas where this is becoming more common, previously burned HIs are requiring SIGNED CONTRACTS PRIOR TO BOOKING, and NON-REFUNDABLE DEPOSITS (equivalent to a cancellation fee) and hard charge them. Pay-pal and other clearing houses delays don't protect from charge-backs/disputes, bounced checks, stop payment orders, and cancelled money orders, "counter checks" and even certified checks - no guarantee.

The last housing stimulus program to artificially promote housing sales (and artificially prop up economy stats in time for the election) are done. Most of the "talk" about "undoing" some of the personal bankruptcy "reform" is just that - puffery for the election.

Friends in the industry, expect this Fall and Winter will be difficult, and it is time to further tighten your belts and take precautions. Without artifical manipulation do not expect an upswing in the Spring regarding home sales/inspecitons, even with more "stimulus" legislation it will take TIME before such could even be put into place. By the time this latest mess/bump/delay is back on track property values will likely be falling yet again, the economic forecasting further downturns, and cause additional complications, as we "adjust" downward towards pre 60s ratios of homeownership vs. rental occupancies.

Legal smeegle

As Bank of America said the average foreclosure was with folks upwards of 18 months with no payments.

This is not some foolish "protect the poor citizens from the evil doers" I is legalities in how the paper work was handled. Handled poorly or not if the average foreclosure for Country Wide....I mean....Bank of America was due to the average of 18 months with out a payment (I do not care if they exaggerated that by 12 months to much) The folks were delinquent even if they had hired some beach bum like Jerry Peck to do the paper work. It is only going to further the decline in the market and hurt the entire industry and countless industries related to the sale of properties.

Just as in the Gulf oil spill. To just shut everything off that had been going just fine for 40 years in the gulf instead of just activating further precautions is absolutely insane.

On the housing end it will be the matter of who the final funds should be or should have been going to.

If someone had not been 3 months or more late or should I say no payment then they would not have been foreclosed on. For that extremely miniscual amount of folks that may have been foreclosed on because they were only 2 and 3/4 months with no payment then it will be found out and the corrections made. I pretty much bet that it amounts to .000001% of the foreclosures that happened like that.

For those that may think I am for the banks only or just want the full blown housing market back no matter what, then think again. I think it is horrifying for any family to have to go thru that. Some folks will say that it is their fault because they did not plan properly for the future. Some will say they deserve it. I say it is all very serious tuff luck for the most of them. I have been on the top of the world and started from the bottom. I have gone from the top back to the bottom and started over once again. I can vouch for many of those folks. What is that saying? No matter how hard you try and how well you seem to be doing...........S H I T happens. You can be making $100,000.00 one day and nothing the next and eat thru your rainy day funds in a heartbeat.

The folks you looked down on one day is the person you see in the mirror the next. One illness....toast!

Ted,

My Daughter and Son-in-Law own their home outright. They didn't owe anybody.

Neither did anyone owe on the "Mortgage" or "Mortgage Note" that was being "foreclosed" for a completely different property - that "Mortgage" had been released, paid in full - it was not delinquent even a day. The same "servicer" who was foreclosing a NON-exsistant mortgage was receiving timely payments for current and valid mortgage on this completely different property.

Nobody was paying a mortgage loan on my Daughter's property - because there WAS NO MORTGAGE or Liens on her property - she owned it free and clear.

Screw-ups with paperwork from one of these "loan servicers" and churners had the wrong property index number (typo transpostion) on ALL of their paperwork from loan origination to foreclosure of an old, since released and paid off mortgage which THEY (the BANK entity) refinanced years prior (NOT my daughter's property or her mortgage).

Sadly, NO ONE with the "servicer" KNEW, or REPRESENTED, WHO ACTUALLY OWNED (assignee) THE alledged "Mortgage", not the servicer, their lawfirm, NOBODY COULD PRODUCE THE ORIGINAL NOTE, nor trace how the original (paid in full) note was pooled, packaged, sold, swapped, etc. between the time it was originally issued and their having filed foreclosure. Making matters worse the alledged "default" note was written by an institution that was acquired prior to when it was paid and the successor (larger) institution is who did the refinance and payoff - so it paid ITSELF OFF. You know why they couldn't produce an original NOTE? because it had been returned to the BORROWER, and a notice of payment had been filed on the correct INDEX number! "Property Inspection" reports were also fraudulent - no actual "drive by" was ever done. Outfit used a "by mail" service which again, used pre-sort first class and no return address on their window envelope "inspeciton" inquiries.

They had the "right" property address, the correct "legal descriptions" just the WRONG INDEX Number. Now you'd think that the "local lawfirm" who would be preparing the foreclosure filings would be picking up on the fact that a property description doesn't match that of the index number, right? wrong. They (the "robo-signers") just "modified" the "legal property description" to MATCH the WRONG INDEX NUMBER (block and lot numbers) on their foreclosure paperwork. Did they bother to include an "image" of the recorded mortgage document, or the NOTE (the I.O.U. that is the basis for the loan) in their court filings? NOPE! (Not that the robo-lawfirm-lawyer, judge, clerk, or anyone would be reading/comparing a legal description, or the filed paperwork in the first place - it was being churned as a default with false representations/affidavits that funds were due, contact, procedures, etc. had been attempted, etc. anyway!)

"Posted" notices on a furnished but winterized, alarmed, and "temporarily" vacant home blocks and streets away meant nothing, neither did newspaper notices - they were for a property ELSEWHERE. Forwardings are in place for MAIL. Guess what - the "robo signers" also lied about having sent first class postage paid notices to the PROPERTY ADDRESS. pre-sort first class wouldn't forward, was RETURNED TO SENDER by the post office. They also couldn't produce EVIDENCE that a single certified mailing was ever SENT. (Tracking numbers were fraudulent and not in the USPS system).

Making maters further complicated - the LOAN on the INTENDED PROPERTY that the servicer's lawfirm was ATTEMPTING to foreclose - HAD BEEN PAID OFF 30 MONTHS EARLIER when it was REFINANCED - BY....THE SAME "branded" ENTITY OF THE SERVICER! The 30-month old re-financed mortgage was CURRENT (and - had the SAME owner's names, being paid to the SAME servicing institution, same property "street address", but THE CORRECT Property Index Number). The "closing" for the refinance took place AT THE LENDER!

Worse yet, the couple who REFINANCED the property "intended" to be foreclosed, refinanced JUST before the Mister was being deployed, and the Mrs. was re-activated 16 months ago. They were CURRENT in all of their payments. (Armed forces notification, searches, etc. requirement paperwork for this "default" foreclosure were BOGUS).

My daughter and Son-in-Law knew nothing about this activity at the time, because, of course THEIR home was paid off and THEY were never served, etc. as all those mailings, visits by process servers, postings, etc. were all referencing and visiting a completely different street and house number.

They discovered the fiasco-in-progress when they decided to take out an equity line-of-credit WITH THE SAME BANK. A "Lis pendens" (suit pending) showed up filed on their property's index number when the Bank's title company did a "search" as part of the origination process for THEIR line-of-credit loan application!!! Order had already been granted to SELL the property! (had to get an injunctive relief or a STAY, QUICK!).

With the help of a good real estate attorney, as they tracked this debacle down, they made contact with the (blocks away property) "intended", active duty owners, who via long-distance channels arranged for an appearance, filings, and got a stay on the action due to their active duty status. This of-course put the brakes on my Daughter and Son-In-Law's ability to proceed in their efforts to get the ERROR addressed as to same having been filed upon THEIR Index number, as the cases were joined/combined in Court, and the whole mess is on HOLD until the "intended targets" of the foreclosure suit are back in the country, and the mess is so interwoven - nothing can be done, no stipulations, releases, agreements, or rulings by the judge until then.

$25,000 in so far in legal fees and costs they've expended to clear THEIR title and file suit against the "Institution" who has "clouded" their title. Their Owner's Title Insurance will NOT defend - since the face value old policy is for what they ORIGINALLY paid for the home - many, many years ago, and the "cloud" or the alledged "mortgage" of others on a completely different property, alledged to be default foreclosed - post-dates their purchase and title policy origination by some 25 years.

What's one of the primary things these Robo-signing-servicers affidavits represents? That they have verified a properly recorded, valid mortgage exists on the subject property, and said mortgage is in default. How do they begin to "verify"? a title report, certified copies of the document, reading said document, that they hold the NOTE (the I.O.U.), and that comparing it to a payment history, etc...... has been represented and accounted for accurately, declaring a dollar amount due and owing, and that it is in DEFAULT of the valid terms of the IOU/NOTE contract, and therefore they are foreclosing the recorded real-property LIEN (mortgage) collateral via the suit. Its the "given" or the basic element to plead a foreclosure in the first place.

Sad thing is, they are NOT ALONE. That's one of the reasons the AG of her state got INVOLVED, a five-letter word that starts with an F and ends with a D.

So carrying on about all those foreclosed upon must not have been paying their due for many months; is NOT the "problem" with Bank of America.

I am quite sure that is in the minuscule %. Those things happen with out the mess that has occurred. Like I said....sad but true....S. H. I .T. Happens.

I just heard on the news in the background that that are not calling for a halt to all foreclosures as it would destroy what is left of the housing market.

I try not to just spout off unless there is something pretty solid behind it.

Sorry to hear of the problems with the legal fees for those folks. Like I said I do not wish that on anyone but the world cannot come to a stop. It can be dealt with in a reasonable manner while things are at the very least still moving. Stop a semi and it's trailer across a highway and the traffic can back up for 30 miles. Let's hope this is not the case here.