If you're a homeowner who would be interviewed about your specific experience saving your home from foreclosure, or if you have clients you've helped avoid foreclosure and they are okay with me calling to record an interview with them, let... (Continue reading)
It my annual political year-in-review, read to the poem, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. Read it yourself, or click 'PLAY' and I'll read it for you.... (Continue reading)
Over time, I hoped, as people came to understand what had actually happened, they would let themselves off the proverbial hook, and once not bound by shame, they would speak out and when in great enough number, our leaders would... (Continue reading)
Beginning in the fall of 2011, and increasing in speed and ferocity after January 1, 2012, the State Bar begins using its newly concocted interpretation of SB 94 as a hammer to threaten and strong-arm lawyers who have received a... (Continue reading)
New Jersey foreclosure defense attorney Bruce Levitt on this Mandelman Matters Podcast tells you what's working and what's not... and how he thinks you are most likely to save your New Jersey home from foreclosure.... (Continue reading)
I pray for the parents of the children that were senselessly taken away on Friday... I pray that those that have other children at home find some way to go on. For a parent who lost their only child... (Continue reading)
Known as the “statement of qualified holder,” it doesn’t require a lawyer to look at anything that shows the bank holds the original mortgage, but even more stunning is that it also provides lawyers with complete absolution from any wrongdoing... (Continue reading)
In all but a very small number of cases, homeowners have continued to find the courts either unwilling or incapable of dispensing what they would consider fair and just solutions, and while the federal government has remained essentially mute on... (Continue reading)
What’s even harder to understand is that the State Bar’s most recent interpretation of SB 94 completely disagrees with how California Attorney General Harris and Governor Brown interpreted the law in documents filed with the court last year when... (Continue reading)
I’m not the least bit worried that the Republicans and the Democrats won’t come together right before the holidays to forge some ill-conceived, witless, and entirely cowardly compromise that only kicks the proverbial can down the road even further... it... (Continue reading)
The recent decision by the state bar court now effectively prohibits the charging of fees by lawyers even AFTER services have been completed. Yes, you read that correctly... lawyers can’t take advance fees, nor can they be paid after... (Continue reading)
The fact that there are properties at the very bottom that appear to have increased in price by a few points is no indication that housing is recovering. ... (Continue reading)
Is that what I’m to believe? She hid it from LPS. For SIX years. A million documents. And the whole time, LPS must have just thought she was great at getting the signatures she... (Continue reading)
According to Moody’s Analytics, FHA's actions prevented home prices from dropping an additional 25%, which in turn saved 3 million jobs and half a trillion dollars in economic output. But now FHA is broke. Now what?... (Continue reading)
Of course, what Bachus fails to mention is that if our government had done ANYTHING RIGHT in terms of dealing with the economic crisis that started in 2007… if even ONE of the programs that have been implemented over the... (Continue reading)
What's going on inside BOA as of the end of the second quarter of the National Mortgage Settlement? Here's your chance to hear it straight from the source... in advance of the monitor's report. Another Mandelman Matters Exclusive!... (Continue reading)
“This analysis suggests that the country should not focus on the immediate problem of mass unemployment, about which little can be done. Instead we should turn attention to long-term issues, such as tax reform and education.” ... (Continue reading)
"In Spain right now, we have nearly a million empty housing units. In this situation, the government and the economy ministry ... has to take steps so that no family in good faith goes without a home.”... (Continue reading)
They call it a "mass torte," but it can also go by the name "mass joinder," or "multi-plaintif," or whatever other term d'art it might be using tomorrow, but no matter what it's called, the person calling to tell you... (Continue reading)
If you receive a solicitation that looks or says anything like what you see below, DO NOT RESPOND TO IT... IT IS A FRAUD... IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OFFICE. ... (Continue reading)
LPS also reports that as of September, 3.7 million loans were at least 30 days delinquent, but not yet in foreclosure…. and 1.53 million loans were at least 90 days delinquent, but not yet in foreclosure. Almost two million... (Continue reading)
Jon Stewart asked you about why you didn’t spend so much of the money available for HAMP… on HAMP… or on other efforts to mitigate the damage being caused by the foreclosure crisis. And you knew what he had... (Continue reading)
It’s foreign policy night but although each question starts out overseas, it ends up buried in our flaccid economy somewhere near Cleveland. Romney points out that Obama can’t seem to buy jobs let alone create them. ... (Continue reading)
So, if the normal market had 100 buyers, where there used to be 66 repeat buyers, now there will only be 33. Where there were 25 first timers, now there will only be 12. Are you getting the... (Continue reading)
What could Mr. Bernanke and others have done differently? Addressed the real cause of the crisis, the lost trust part... by announcing that the U.S. government would be stepping into the bond market and guaranteeing the investment grade bonds…... (Continue reading)
I know what happened here. A homeowner in Connecticut was denied for a loan modification based on excessive income and her lawyer told her she would have to file bankruptcy to stop the sale of her home. Then... (Continue reading)
Using the combined resources of federal, state and local law enforcement, the initiative targeted perpetrators both criminally and civilly, and led to 285 federal criminal indictments and another 110 federal civil cases, and criminal charges were filed against 530 defendants.... (Continue reading)
I'm not saying it'll be enough, or it'll be fair... but it will be something. No amount of money can truly compensate you for what you lost... but maybe just the acknowledgement by the Settlement Monitor and AG's office... (Continue reading)
What everyone continues to overlook is the impact that foreclosures continue to have on new foreclosures. We’ve got supposed experts yammering about how we’ll have some set number of foreclosures and then we’ll be through this mess. But... (Continue reading)
Okay, so what’s the big deal whether the state uses some of the funds to balance the state’s budget? It’s better than the alternative, which is the legislature cutting much needed assistance programs and raising taxes across the board…... (Continue reading)
By understanding the truth of what happened and why at these two pivotal moments in time, everything else will fall into place, for it was these two moments that set the course for a global economic downturn that, if history... (Continue reading)
Back in April of this year, they were granted 180 days to get their servicing operations ready to comply with the new standards, and as of yesterday, they'll be held to the 304 new rules for addressing the needs of... (Continue reading)
Per the settlement agreement, Smith will be testing the servicers adherence to the new rules using 29 defined metrics to assess such breaches as improper trustee sales, wrongful denial of modification, the use of fraudulent affidavits in the foreclosure process,... (Continue reading)
In Edelstein’s case, MERS assigned the deed of trust to Bank of New York Mellon as trustee for Countrywide. The court ruled that once the trust had both the promissory note and the assignment, it possessed the standing to... (Continue reading)
Once you’re underwater, however, as at least half of homeowners are today, you can’t borrow against your home’s equity, nor can you sell your home, so any of those life events are likely to hit you where you live. ... (Continue reading)
For those in the Seattle area... I'll be speaking to homeowners, lawyers and anyone else interested in the foreclosure crisis at a meeting this evening from 6:00pm - 8:00pm...... (Continue reading)
Recently, there have been three significant developments in Washington, two from the State Supreme Court, and one having to do with the state's mediation program. And all three fell in favor of homeowners, which is a refreshing change.... (Continue reading)
why would Smith publish a report whose only meaningful certainty was to scare even more homeowners away from paying attention to Bank of America's borrower outreach efforts? BOA and its peers were already having a hard time reaching... (Continue reading)
They actually believe that too much regulation is the problem facing our financial institutions… that foreclosures are a good thing for the housing market… that tax cuts for the rich will create prosperity… that people on food stamps won’t get... (Continue reading)
Condensed into 3 powerful days. Less expensive. Last one for year. Coming up October 12-14.... (Continue reading)
There’s no such thing as people who can pay their mortgages no problem but just feel like cleaning out their garage, ruining their credit, and then living in an apartment where the kitchen smells like ass for the next five... (Continue reading)
Neil Barofsky is a name I'll never forget, and it won't be hard for anyone to understand why that's the case when I tell you the reason why. Neil was the Special Inspector General for the Treasury’s Troubled Asset... (Continue reading)
If no one else is going to go to jail having to do with the financial meltdown, then I don’t actually care if Bernie is in there either. I mean, if crime pays… then let’s embrace the change. ... (Continue reading)
According to a story in Mortgage News Daily, California’s Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom took a couple of shots at a Washington D.C. trade group called the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (“SIFMA”) in response to their threatening San Bernardino... (Continue reading)
Everybody says the new law and recent decision are going to provide protections and in general make things better for Oregon's homeowners at risk of foreclosure., and for the people of thee state as a whole. They're wrong.... (Continue reading)
Tom has recently discovered a practice employed by the GSE's... Fannie and Freddie. It has to do with what we're calling "The Decoy Assignment," and it's a matter of policy. He's arguing it successfully in court.... (Continue reading)
So, this year started out depressed, as well it should have, but very quickly, and I do mean within weeks, a six-year downturn was transformed into a robust recovery based on… well… nothing really. None of the fundamentals changed,... (Continue reading)
So, I guess I had this dream. I was watching CNBC... which, by the way, is how I knew it was a dream because I never watch CNBC... anyway, so I was watching CNBC and on comes Sanford "Sandy"... (Continue reading)
The GAO’s report, released earlier this month concluded that the OCC simply made submitting a complaint too difficult for us to understand. We couldn’t figure it out. It was over our collective heads. And so, completely... (Continue reading)
The recent passage of California’s Homeowner Bill of Rights (53-25, 25-13) is the most conclusive example that what I spoke of at that conference in 2010, has come to pass. The financial services industry lobbied heavily against the passage... (Continue reading)
If you want my advice... don't read this post, or watch it... just skip this page and head for the sports section or something. I'm sorry I'm even posting it... seriously... click away... while you still can.... (Continue reading)
Why has no one at the top been investigated or prosecuted for fraud or anything else for that matter as related to the financial meltdown that has destroyed trillions of dollars in consumer wealth? Especially when William K. Black's... (Continue reading)
Killing this bill facilitates lying to the American people. And short of something that’s kept secret in order to protect our national defense, there is never a reason we should tolerate anyone or anything that does that.... (Continue reading)
The biggest change that servicers are feeling is the one that can’t be seen or even written down. I imagine it’s similar to how homeowners felt when they discovered that their government didn’t give a Fudgsicle® whether they lost... (Continue reading)
Washington State consumer attorney Scott Stafne is running for a seat on the State Supreme Court in the State of Washington. Why is he running, and why should you care regardless of where you live... click play and listen... (Continue reading)
Catherine Austin Fitts has perspective on the housing and mortgage meltdown like no other. Under President George Herbert Walker Bush, she was Assistant Secretary of Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner at HUD, where she basically ran the Federal Housing... (Continue reading)
The NYT story also mentioned that Bernanke and other central bankers have been trying to shift some of the burden for fixing the economy to elected officials, but the politicians aren’t having any of that. Do they look stupid?... (Continue reading)
If even ten years ago, someone would have tried to tell me that in 2012, young people in Russia would be doing this, while in the U.S.A. our young people would be drowning, I NEVER would have believed it.... (Continue reading)
But, I'm now posting the speech from last February, at which the president announced the conclusion of the AG investigations/negotiations because I think it was his best speech ever in many ways. It's the only speech he's ever given... (Continue reading)
And I will likely never view the U.S.A. as being a great nation again. For me, that is over. For I have seen our pettiness, our insensitivity, our callous disregard to the plight of our neighbors right up... (Continue reading)
And now I'm supposed to come to terms with the idea that the administration's bored with the topic itself? I could understand it if they were bored with something they'd mastered, although I can't for the life of me... (Continue reading)
Marty said that the SunTrust Bank executive said they should be able to do something to prevent her from losing her home. Marty said it was the first time in four years that she felt like someone was actually... (Continue reading)
It was a bad path to be on, as things turned out, but she didn’t know that for about 18 months. Right up until the day Chase sold her home without any real notice, Chase kept saying that they... (Continue reading)
Don't have time right now? MAKE TIME RIGHT NOW. Read this and DO SOMETHING.... (Continue reading)
Let’s let C.A.R. know that even though many of us may be losing homes today, that doesn’t make us deadbeats… it makes us strong… it makes us focused… and it makes us remember who was and who wasn’t on our... (Continue reading)
The recent collapse of the real estate and financial markets in this country created the need for attorneys to help many of their homeowner clients by negotiating with lenders for a forbearance or modification of loans secured by the clients’... (Continue reading)
Anyway, so that's the deal... $500 to $125,000... PLUS EQUITY! It makes it sound like the worst you can do, assuming you get past the qualifying round, is the $500, right? Five hundred's not bad, I suppose. ... (Continue reading)
It’s hard to describe what I do when I say I help homeowners. I’m not a lawyer and I never offer anything close to legal advice. I'm not a mortgage expert either. I think my value is... (Continue reading)
Your state assembly representative and state senator needs to hear from you on this issue. You should care a great deal that you have access to legal counsel should you decide you want or need it… no matter what...... (Continue reading)
We need growth, or we’re not getting out of this alive. It’s the only way. We can’t borrow and spend our way out of this one, like we have all the past recessions, or at least the ones... (Continue reading)
What the state bar is left with are not the lawyers that SB94 was intended to address but a target nonetheless because of SB 94's overly broad and possibly unconstitutional remedy… lawyers simply caught up in the loan mod dragnet.... (Continue reading)
So, I'm certainly not going to say that the FTC shutting down a forensic loan audit scam in LA is anything but a terrific thing... one less scam is one less scam... regardless of what others are still around. ... (Continue reading)
The real point is that we don't deserve someone like Elizabeth Warren and likely won't get her or anyone like her until we can answer her question about being ready with a resounding YES! and really mean it, as in... (Continue reading)
Overall, the point I’m making is that I don’t really care that the government wants to pay Scrabble-type word games with the word “recession” or “recovery.” I don’t care how they want to screw around with the unemployment rate... (Continue reading)
Wells Fargo denied her application for a loan modification after roughly 18 months of trying. The letter said, “we carefully reviewed your… blah, blah, blah… and the investor has declined to modify your mortgage.” ... (Continue reading)
Tweet Wells Fargo Bank CEO John Stumpf Did you see what happened yesterday? Â It’s hysterical, really. Â I mean, not for Aaron Krowne at ML-Implode, or Michael Nazarinia at Rest Report Matters… you see, Wells Fargo was shooting at me… but... (Continue reading)
I’m not saying that HAMP is the best solution I could come up with, but under the circumstances, I don’t see anything better… or frankly anything close as far as keeping people in homes. I end up helping a... (Continue reading)
Walter Keane is Mandelman Matters' Trusted Attorney for the State of Utah. He's experienced... creative... caring... and just darn good at his job. He's also a pragmatist... meaning he's practical and above all... he's honest and very candid... (Continue reading)
It’s worth noting that in this case, the borrower did not allege that the two Banks had right to enforce the notes, only said the notes had to be shown, and the Court simply ruled that no such requirement was... (Continue reading)
Edward DeMarco of the FHFA is the conservator for the GSEs, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. At this point the president, the Secretary of the Treasury, and many in congress have asked him about participating in anything... HAMP, principal... (Continue reading)
Nancy Pelosi sent a Mandelman Matters reader, Amy Sheaffer, an email. Any wrote back. Brilliant! Lord, I do love my readers.... (Continue reading)
If someone has told you that I am involved in a loan modification law firm or any other type of operation, asking that you pay him or her money to get your loan modified, it is a SCAM. ... (Continue reading)
This newly renovated version of HAMP has been touted as being a major improvement to the HAMP program, and in many ways it is significantly better. ... (Continue reading)
When I saw the very first state make a grab for the settlement cash allegedly headed the state’s way, I laughed and vowed not to let it get to me. Mandelman Matters, after all, only writes about things that... (Continue reading)
What goes on in Jamie Dimon's head? He loses billions in a few weeks and then goes on Sunday morning talk shows looking like he's just written a cookbook or whatever, saying that he's getting tired of people hating... (Continue reading)
Have you found your mortgage servicer to be a tad offensive at times. Well, that's to be expected, after all, they are a bill collector, right? Well, here's some news that will drive you insane... mortgage servicers are... (Continue reading)
Tim Miller, is a singer/songwriter from Dallas, Texas. Here he is performing a song he wrote after reading a news story about a family who lost their home, the victim of predatory lending.... (Continue reading)
So, have you ever wondered what Goldman Sachs CEO is saying when the cameras aren't on, own what goes on under that highly polished dome of his? Well, I sure have. ... (Continue reading)
There's no reason to wait another day to begin building your Whislteblowing Futures Empire. It requires the smallest if investments, and the leverage involved can turn out to be off the charts... I mean, we're talking tens of thousands... (Continue reading)
"While Paulson didn’t want to write down mortgages, the single biggest factor in determining whether the American middle class has any stored wealth, Paulson was willing to do so in response to pressure. Barack Obama... (Continue reading)
Federal Reserve Chief Ben Bernanke communicates more than any of his predecessors, but have you found yourself increasingly wondering what in the world the man is thinking behind that shiny dome and professorial facial hair?... (Continue reading)
Homeowners should take great care when hiring a lawyer for any reason. And I HATE it when anyone gets ripped off for anything, especially when their home is on the line. But this article is a blatant attempt... (Continue reading)
This makes the third year in a row that the banking lobby has said a resounding no to any sort of change that's supposed to protect homeowners from abusive foreclosure practices. Why do we keep doing this? Haven't... (Continue reading)
So, demand is rising while prices are falling… fascinating. Perhaps it’s because of a combination of factors, such as incredibly tight credit markets, an ongoing avalanche of foreclosures coming onto the market, a worsening jobs market, higher unemployment, and... (Continue reading)
As many as 1,000 surprise guests visited the Bethesda home of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Sunday around 5:00 PM. ... (Continue reading)
Fannie Mae hates strategic default. Then you say it’s bad for communities, Terrence, why do you think that’s the case? I mean… bad is a relative term, wouldn’t you agree. And, in terms of doing bad things... (Continue reading)
How to strategic default? There’s just one little, teeny-tiny, almost insignificant smidgeon of a problem with what the Mortgage Bankers Association’s CEO was saying: He was completely full of shit. ... (Continue reading)
Now, as we’re facing a crisis of unprecedented proportion, we’re learning the hard way that our rights as borrowers are almost non-existent. In California and around the country, foreclosure defense lawyers saw that mortgage servicers could far too often... (Continue reading)
Jay Patterson teaches lawyers how to use the SEC Edgar database, among others, in order to find out who owns a loan. How to identify the trust a loan is in and find the Pooling and Servicing Agreement. how... (Continue reading)
RealtyTrac is so entirely full of horsey do-do that the entire organization should be lined up against a wall and shot a dawn for pedaling garbage statistics in a state still being decimated by the foreclosure crisis.... (Continue reading)