Or, let's be honest about this... a more accurate way to describe what happened here, would be to say that the Robinsons didn't want to notify MERS, because they wanted the default judgment that was likely to result from only... (Continue reading)
Here are my 12 RULES for Contacting Servicers... Getting your loan modified is easier today than its ever been... that's a fact. But coming to the table with the baggage of whatever happened last time will only increase the... (Continue reading)
Now, I'm not saying that anyone should have known about any of this. The fact is that his article, and others I've written in the recent past, appear to be the first in the country to propose switching to... (Continue reading)
In fact, by doing it with a HECM mortgage, you increase your chances of being able to leave your home to your kids free and clear because you've eliminated the risk that you'll end up in foreclosure because you couldn't... (Continue reading)
I know what sorts of headlines run rampant through the media these days. It's nothing new... it's been going on non-stop since at least 2008. It's also utter and complete nonsense.... (Continue reading)
If a company was misinforming seniors about reverse mortgages with deceptive advertising in order to sell them on reverse mortgages, everyone would be disgusted and demand that it stop. So, why would anyone be any less outraged with U.S.... (Continue reading)
The last thing I wanted to do, however, was write about the decision as being some sort of major victory for homeowners, only to find out that the decision was overturned on appeal next year, because frankly...... (Continue reading)
Okay, so I decided that I would do it... I'd bring up the topic of the ongoing foreclosure crisis. These were my peeps and it's not like I don't know a thing or two about the subject matter... maybe... (Continue reading)
Thank you Martin in helping us to secure a favorable home loan modification with Bank of America by qualifying our intentions, commitment and ability to meet the new loan obligations as well as assist us to elevate our application to... (Continue reading)
Doesn't anyone think it's bad form to misinform senior citizens... to scare older Americans away from a source of money that could easily be a couple hundred thousand dollars or more by feeding them inaccurate and misleading garbage disguised as... (Continue reading)
All they wanted to do was save their home, which seemed to me to be a reasonable thing for them to want since there was no question that they had enough income to make their mortgage payment. They never... (Continue reading)
All we ever wanted was a fixed loan. Between Martin and Nathan Fransen's time and dedication to my family we received a loan modification. The part that to this day will bring tears to my eyes is... (Continue reading)
If you've seen one article about the "risks" or "perils" or "nightmares," associated with reverse mortgages, you've quite literally seen them all. It feels almost like one writer started a chain letter on the subject, and the rest of... (Continue reading)
I'm constantly amazed at the negative press and misconceptions surrounding reverse mortgages, because the bottom-line is they are an absolutely wonderful product that almost everyone over 62 years old should have, and yet in a year of talking to seniors... (Continue reading)
The thing is that no one wants to think that the horror show we've all witnessed these last five years hasn't been part of a nefarious plot to steal homes and take over the world somehow. That would at... (Continue reading)
Steven Gluckstern is the Executive Chairman of Mortgage Resolution Partners ("MRP"), the company that has been advising cities and municipalities all over the country, and most notably Richmond, California, in their use of eminent domain to take over underwater loans... (Continue reading)
It was an honor to help Arlie Matthews get his loan modified with Bank of America. At the times when I sit and wonder why I've done what I've done, and how I can possibly continue doing it for... (Continue reading)
So, here’s how my day went today… It started with Christopher Whalen quoting me in his article on HousingWire. Chris had told me yesterday that he was planning on quoting me in an article, but I didn’t know when... (Continue reading)
Using a Zestimate to determine a home's value is almost like trying to make your mortgage payment using Monopoly money. And yet, homeowners and others involved in loan modifications from around the country have confirmed being told by Chase,... (Continue reading)
The man who wrote the plan to use eminent domain to take over underwater loans and write them down for homeowners that started in Richmond in earnest, but is now being considered in one form or another by something... (Continue reading)
HAMP modifications are about to start seeing rates reset higher, and Treasury says more foreclosures will be the result. ... (Continue reading)
Unfortunately, as so many homeowners have learned the hard way, it's not easy to figure out what's right and what's not about your loan modification application, and so many homeowners fail when they could have succeeded had they known what... (Continue reading)
There should be no question in anyone's mind that because our housing markets have not recovered neither has our economy. It's not that we need jobs to improve the housing markets, it's that we need to fix housing in... (Continue reading)
I see loans get modified every day, and the people I see haven't paid anyone for anything, or if they did, it was hundreds, not thousands of dollars. At the same time, I've seen people who absolutely needed someone... (Continue reading)
During the past 12 months, the rights to service millions of home loans have been shifted from large banks like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Chase to specialty loan servicers like Ocwen Home Loan Servicing, Nationstar and SPS,... (Continue reading)
On any given day, the numbers of contradictory headlines about housing markets and foreclosures are enough to present a serious health risk to anyone reading them. ... (Continue reading)
And I have to admit that when I received the letter below, it brought a few tears to my eyes... and felt really good to know I had been able to help, but the credit really belongs to JPMorgan Chase... (Continue reading)
It's remarkable, if you think about it, how many people are supposedly trying to pay off your underwater mortgage once you've stopped making your mortgage payments. It's like there's a rush to pay off your mortgage once you default on... (Continue reading)
A large part of this protracted recession it said is due to households trying to reduce their debt levels, which in turn leads to less spending in the economy, driving the recession deeper and further.... (Continue reading)
So, if you add it all up, there's only one way that U.S. housing markets are recovering... Magical thinking!... (Continue reading)
Now there are scammers masquerading as banks, offering FAKE LOAN MODIFICATIONS... and if that weren't bad enough, the fake mods require homeowners to pay thousands of dollars for nothing.... (Continue reading)
Once a mortgage is underwater... should you get hit with a life event such as a divorce, illness, injury, job loss or income reduction... you can't sell your home... and you can't borrow against it to help you get through... (Continue reading)
I've seen my government fail at lots of things over the years, but this failure is too important and too costly to allow it to continue. We've lost more than five million homes to-date... and recent forecasts show we're... (Continue reading)
Despite some very nasty threats of retaliation from Wall Street and Washington, something like two dozen new cities are now reportedly joining the efforts to potentially head off home foreclosures by using eminent domain to seize mortgages and write them... (Continue reading)
Maybe the wealthiest retirees can get by without taking out a reverse mortgage as a way to protect their financial futures, but for the rest of us... not having funds from a reverse mortgage available is what's risky. And... (Continue reading)
Martin's blog is the place to go for the hard cold facts surrounding the housing crisis. He does not sugar coat reality, which sometimes make his articles hard to swallow. Even so, his blog is a vast well of... (Continue reading)
Mr. Martin Andelman is providing a much -needed function to humanity with his unfailing actions and skills as a media spokesman and intermediary to the banking/loan-servicing agencies. He needs to be acknowledged and compensated in kind for the work he... (Continue reading)
Is the foreclosure crisis coming to an end... not a chance. RealtyTrac latest report is utter nonsense. The year may be new, but the B.S. is all too familiar.... (Continue reading)
'Twas the Night Before Christmas 2013 is an Annual Political and Economic Year in Review I write every year... I've been doing it since 2007, so this year makes it seven years in a row. If you want to... (Continue reading)
So, there you have it... a solid check mark in the "WIN" column for consumers over the interests of the banking industry. And I don't think Realtors, mortgage brokers, or even the banks themselves have come to fully understand... (Continue reading)
Some are starting to worry about what is likely to happen if they let the Act's tax relief provisions related to foreclosure avoidance expire. I simply don't think there's any real chance they won't extend the Act for at... (Continue reading)
Ahsan Kushkaki discovered Mandelman Matters after Bank of America denied his loan modification. He was desperately seeking someone who might be able to help him explain the situation to the bank and after finding several of the thank you... (Continue reading)
I think the entire country is under the impression that servicers foreclose because it's in the best financial interests of the investors, and perhaps sometimes they do... but data from this trust and others I've looked at, to my way... (Continue reading)
How about if everyone who knows how to postpone a sale date, volunteers to help anyone who needs to postpone a sale date in December or at least for the first two weeks of January... in other words help postponing... (Continue reading)
In addition, spurned on by the Fed's QE and zero-interest-rate policy, Lord knows how many smaller companies and individual investors also jumped on the bandwagon, and as it has the tendency to do, the insanity drove up home prices at... (Continue reading)
Today, Ernie Banks was at the White House being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. It is the highest civilian honor that this country bestows, and this year was the 50th anniversary of the award,... (Continue reading)
It's like we're "Risk Junkies." What could be riskier than betting on the stock market going up and future tax rates staying the same or going down? Are we nuts? The answer is... we've been lied to. ... (Continue reading)
With this report, when your servicer says they can't do something... you'll know whether what they've said is accurate or not. Imagine the power of being able to show a mediator exactly what's been done to modify the other... (Continue reading)
My article was nonsense, according to Michael Pines? Well, that would certainly be disappointing, I wasn't aware that I had ever written an article that was considered nonsense by anyone. I'm not saying that everyone likes what I... (Continue reading)
It's not a matter of the Diunugala case being considered "binding authority," because it's not. But the question is, will other California courts consider the case persuasive... and tend to follow the more established case law. If that's... (Continue reading)
Well, fast forward to today and Glenn Russell is still very much on the attack on behalf of homeowners, in fact, he just finished arguing his latest case, again in front of the Massachusetts' High Court. I don't want... (Continue reading)
By now the term "robo-signing" has practically become a household word. But it wasn't always that way. Just a few years ago no one had ever heard the term before. So, where did it all begin... and... (Continue reading)
President Obama said that all I needed to do to avoid foreclosure was get my loan modified. He said to just call my bank directly so I did. And I had the most interesting cultural experience. That... (Continue reading)
Another SIGTARP report shows Treasury knows nothing about loan modifications. Big surprise. Look, stop bothering Treasury... they don't want to know, so leave them alone. ... (Continue reading)
The SIGTARP is talking about the "Hardest Hit Funds," which were the roughly $8 billion provided by the federal government in the beginning of 2010 to the states hardest hit by foreclosures in order to help their respective housing markets...... (Continue reading)
So, what kind of punishment do you think one gets for doing what Stern did... backdating countless assignments, forging anything that wasn't nailed down, and disregarding just about every single law related to foreclosure in the State of Florida? ... (Continue reading)
The U.S. Public Interest Research Group showed that nearly 80 percent of credit reports contained inaccuracies, and the mistakes in a quarter of those could result in the individual being denied for credit. 60 Minutes reported that a government study... (Continue reading)
Writing about strategic defaults for the LA Times this time out was Lew Sichelman, whose ability to remain oblivious to his interweaving of unrelated facts throughout the article was truly something to behold. ... (Continue reading)
The harm caused by our government's abominable handling of the foreclosure crisis... inconceivably made worse the complete absence of any communication on the subject by the Obama Administration... has barely begun to manifest itself let alone be understood... well, seemingly... (Continue reading)
About 18 months ago, I started looking for a company that helped people improve their FICO scores. Not only was I interested in finding out how such services worked for my own personal reasons, but I also figured that... (Continue reading)
I just received the letter below from Melissa... a homeowner who has been reading Mandelman Matters for five years. She just received her second permanent loan modification from Bank of America and is quite pleased with the terms of... (Continue reading)
Portland Maine attorney Thomas Cox is a national hero of the foreclosure crisis. Frankly, I thought everyone already knew that, but apparently not. So, if you aren't already familiar with what Tom has done and continues to do... (Continue reading)
Here's a Guest Post by Tom Cox in response to a Deadly Clear post, "Is the Promissory Note Even Enforceable?" But the short answer is that the only thing that's deadly clear about the post is that if you try... (Continue reading)
So, now I'm going to attempt the impossible. I'm going to show you how to beat back the obstacles to saving more... by tricking yourself into saving more... painlessly. Without you feeling it at all. Seriously... you... (Continue reading)
Dear Richmond... You're being outright threatened by literally ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD, and I don't think there's any question that they will, if nothing else, attempt to force you to drop the whole thing by tying you up... (Continue reading)
Chase sold the woman's loan to PennyMac. Simple as that. Had her modification already been made permanent, PennyMac would have had to honor the modified payment amount, but because she was only in a trial modification, Chase is... (Continue reading)
That's right, as Tom Cox fights to save his client's home from foreclosure, I ask Max Gardner to help us better understand what's going on and why... the background behind Tom's most penetrating arguments... and why it's such a specialized... (Continue reading)
So, what does the Florida Bar's Rules of Professional Conduct have to say about Szymoniak's representation of Mr. Figueroa, as viewed in light of the emails between the two, over that six month period when Szymoniak was Damian's lawyer... (Continue reading)
The payment advanced to the trust by a servicer when a borrower fails to make his or her mortgage payment is simply a loan made pursuant to the contract between the servicer and the trust. The trust is only... (Continue reading)
HUD's new rules related to reverse mortgages are just a part of those changes made in the wake of the financial crisis and resulting economic meltdown, and in fact, relative to changes made that affect other areas of mortgage finance,... (Continue reading)
Not only will Richard leave listeners with a level of understanding specific to the Glaski decision that would otherwise be unavailable, he'll talk about other recent decisions in California that he says are very important to homeowners... he'll offer guidance... (Continue reading)
Recent estimates are that American consumers owe over $1.1 trillion in such student loan debt, and one look at the cost of college tuition makes it easy to see why. They say the average graduate is coming out of... (Continue reading)
Look, as a business person, I do understand the impetus here. Bank of America's CEO has a fiduciary duty to maximize shareholder value, and let's face it... servicing mortgages these days simply can't be worth the money involved. ... (Continue reading)
Regardless of what happens going forward, perhaps this case and related decisions will lead to an increased willingness by state courts to take more care to examine the issues presented by homeowners and their lawyers, and lessen their tendency to... (Continue reading)
At the end of 2010, the interest rate on a 30-year mortgage was just under 5 percent... 4.97% to be more precise. Over the next 28 months actions taken by the Fed pushed that rate down as low as... (Continue reading)
If you want to learn about what happened to Mr. Glaski... how his case went in the lower court... and how it ended up going his way in the Court of Appeal... get the to get inside scoop from... (Continue reading)
So, as a result of this now published decision by California's Court of Appeal, Mr. Glaski will now be allowed to return to state court to allege that his foreclosure was wrongful based on a challenge to the validity of... (Continue reading)
Long-term interest rates rising means different things to different people, but none of it's good. Higher long-term rates makes it much more expensive for state and local governments to borrow money, and you can probably guess how that would... (Continue reading)
Not surprisingly, the combined effect of the three high-profile reports on borrower performance after having their loans modified, made headlines that have sparked a national debate... yet again. It was a stupid debate back in 2009, and it's an even... (Continue reading)
He did not take advantage of us, he worked with us without charging us any money! He gave us hope and made our dream come true. Home loan modifications do work you just have to have the right... (Continue reading)
Diane and John Bobek, homeowners in Hawaii that I was able to help with their Bank of America mortgage, writes to thank me. ... (Continue reading)
I'm watching a fight for millions in cash that involves banks, pissed off ex-bank employees, and class action lawyers... and I'm supposed to be able to pick out which one is telling the most truth? Isn't that like asking... (Continue reading)
It's far from being the only time I've seen Bank of America do something like this when no one is watching. I truly believe that they made the decision to buy back the Frost's loan from Fannie, because they... (Continue reading)
Ladies and Gentlemen... finally... ... after five years of sheer torture... introducing a "No-Doc" loan mod. The FHFA says modified interest rates will be FIXED... terms will extend to 40 years... and some borrowers won't be required to pay... (Continue reading)
What happened here is not an example of homeowners fighting to keep their homes... it's not an example of foreclosure defense at all. It's only an example of how what's happening on the homeowner's side of this fight, can... (Continue reading)
It's easy to misinterpret something about this crisis. But, it's important that we try to guard against that happening whenever possible for all sorts of reasons, not the least of which is that being wrong means wasting time that... (Continue reading)
Being behind on your mortgage is never any fun, but don't listen to those that would have you believe that the loan modification process hasn't changed at Bank of America over the last few years because they're wrong... it's much... (Continue reading)
No matter, the more important conclusion reached by the report is that, "Nearly four years later, the problem shows no signs of abating." And isn't that just a lovely thought that made me throw up in my mouth a... (Continue reading)
Although I'm still not sure why, one moment we were packing our home into boxes and the next Bank of America had bought back our loan from Freddie Mac and given us the loan modification we had prayed to get... (Continue reading)
One homeowner that I contacted Bank of America about, a disabled vet, ended up with a fixed interest rate of one tenth of one percent for forty years. And on more than one occasion, I saw the bank buy... (Continue reading)
I wrote this to you and other homeowners because I've been a witness to what Martin's help can lead to and what a homeowner can accomplish even when that homeowner has stopped believing that anything can work. Just because... (Continue reading)
I recently saw someone online saying that as a result of multiple insurance payouts a bank could receive millions of dollars on a $200,000 loan that went into default. It's just not true. There are lot's of reasons why... (Continue reading)
My point is that the increasing sales volume of non-performing loans means the unthinkable... that it's going to get even worse for homeowners who are seriously delinquent and need to get their loans modified in order to keep their homes.... (Continue reading)
Reverse mortgages are not going to be an available path for many homeowners facing foreclosure, but for those 62 and older... who have equity in their homes... they can offer an answer and benefits that no other path can provide...... (Continue reading)
It absolutely fascinates me, for example, that the Nevada legislature, in amending the law, took the time to write in a sentence saying: "require an affidavit containing a local or toll-free telephone number at which borrowers can obtain the current... (Continue reading)
I was asked by Janet Reiner to appear on her community access television show about the foreclosure crisis and I agreed. Along with me was John Wright from Piggybank Blog and I think the whole thing is worth... (Continue reading)
So... for California homeowners facing foreclosure... who know the facts and have been unable to get a resolution to their situation... there's the California Homeowner Bill of Rights. Other states are considering adopting the same sort of legislation and... (Continue reading)
So, I know... you want to read about how a homeowner won some major victory in the courts somewhere... or how someone filed and got quiet title to their property... or how a bank couldn't figure out who owned a... (Continue reading)
Understand... I'm not telling you which path you should choose, but I am saying that you should choose one and then do everything in your power to achieve the goals that lie at the end of that path. Just... (Continue reading)
I think Impac has proven that it has the capability and desire to be a meaningful part of the solution to the foreclosure crisis... they successfully modified tens of thousands of loans, and in general, they got loans modified in... (Continue reading)