Tag Archives: foreclosure
- Billion Dollar Foreclosure Settlement Money Goes Elsewhere
by Paul Kiel and Cora Currier ProPublica States have diverted $974 million from this year’s landmark mortgage settlement to pay down budget deficits or fund programs unrelated to the foreclosure crisis, according to a ProPublica analysis. That’s nearly forty percent of the $2.5 billion in penalties paid to the states under the agreement. The settlement, [...]
- What is the Best Way to Stay in Our Home; Foreclosure or Short Sale? – Marc
“Dear Andy, We (my wife and I) have been in our home for 7 years. We are current on our payments on both our first Loan of +/- $370k (5 year ARM tied to LIBOR) and our Second loan of +/- $75k with Citibank. We paid $499k for our home with only $15k down. Our [...]
- Foreclosure in America. The All Too Common Story of How Dreams Turn to Dirt.
by Paul Kiel ProPublica Sheila Ramos’ grandsons, 10 and 13, started crying. They wanted to know where the house was. There wasn’t one. There was only a tent. They had flown from Florida, after Ramos had fallen hopelessly behind on the mortgage for her three-bedroom home, to this family-owned patch of rural land on Hawaii’s [...]
- Republican Presidential Candidates Not Specific on Help for Struggling Homeowners
by Lois Beckett ProPublica As we’ve detailed, President Obama’s plans to help homeowners have come up short time and again. We recently looked at Obama’s latest proposals, most of which are unlikely to make a major dent in the crisis. So, how about the Republican presidential candidates: What do they say should be done about [...]
- Were You Foreclosed on in 2009 or 2010? Get a Free Independent Foreclosure Review
Did you face foreclosure in 2009 or 2010? If so, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency says you may be eligible for a free independent review of your case. Independent foreclosure reviews let borrowers who faced foreclosure on their primary residences between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2010 request reviews of their [...]
- Filed chapter 13 bankruptcy but mortgage company did not foreclose…house still in my name and is now a public nuisance. – JC
Hello! I filed chapter 13 about 3 years ago, in Las Vegas, NV, which is where I have been living for past 9 years. I owned a home in Toledo, OH during that time as well, which never sold when I moved to Vegas, putting me in further debt to try to pay a mortgage, [...]
- Florida’s Foreclosure Solution Specialists Operators Charged With Fraud
Earlier this month it was announced that Lisa Wright, Cathy Saffer and Carrington Coombs were all charged with fraud in a Florida foreclosure rescure scheme. Wright and Saffer were charged with conspiracy to defraud homeowners and banks in a foreclosure rescue scheme. Coombs, a certified public accountant, was also charged as a participant in the [...]
- We Are Trying to Buy a House With a Short Sale But It’s Going Nowhere. – Joy
“Dear Andy, We are buyers. We have placed more than two offers on a short sale. First time, we were apparently out-bidded. Second, house was taken off market, then placed on active status and our #2 offer was put through with the Sellers paperwork to the bank. It was “accepted”. Offer made in October of [...]
- Heartless Criminal Activity In Foreclosure-Related Scam
Last week a man whom operated a foreclosure-rescue scam agreed to plead guilty after collecting $1.6 million from 1,100 distressed homeowners. The man, Frederic Alan Gladle, of Austin, Texas, ran his scam in Los Angeles and elsewhere where he falsely promised the owners of more than a thousand distressed properties that they could indefinitely postpone [...]
- Home Start America CEO And Founder Sentenced To 50 Months In Prison For Role In $1.5 Million Fraud Conspiracy
CEO and founder of alleged real estate investment firm Home Start America (HSA), Michael Kaufman, was sentenced to 50 months in prison last week for his role in a long-running, large scale wire fraud conspiracy with loan officer David Wynn. According to documents filed and statements made in court: Kaufman founded HSA in Bloomfield, New [...]
- My House Was Foreclosed On But the Bank Wants Money From Me. – Xiomara
“Dear Andy, I owned a single family house in N.Y. First and second mortgage were held by chase. The house was foreclosed almost two years ago. I received a letter from an attorney in August asking me to pay 10% of the debt on the second about $10,000 now I received another letter from same [...]
- Fraudulent Rescue / Equity Skim Scheme Costs Dozens Over $6.2 Million
Between 2006 and 2008 real estate agent, Joanne Seeley, defrauded 34 homeowners and 14 mortgage companies in Pennsylvania out of more than $6.2 million in a fraudulent Foreclosure Rescue/Equity Skim scheme. Seeley was found guilty earlier this month on four counts of wire fraud and four counts of money laundering; each punishable by a maximum [...]
- First Ever Central Florida Law Firm To Be Forced To Resign From BBB
KEL law firm, formally Kaufman, Englett & Lynd, has been forced to resign from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) of Central Florida. The resignation of this Orlando based law firm marks “the first area law firm to be ousted in the business-rating agency’s 27-year history.” Apparently the BBB has complained that over the past year [...]
- Bank of America Was Going to Foreclose and Then Changed Their Mind. – Nancy
“Dear Steve, We own a house in Urbandale,IA. My husband and I lost our jobs and our house was foreclosed on. Due to lack of legal advice (we used vastly case over-loaded IA. Legal Aid and a state funded mediation service) and lack of foreclosure knowledge we moved out of the house after the foreclosure. [...]
- I Got Sick and We Lost the House in Foreclosure. Should We Consider Bankruptcy? – Katlyn
“Dear Lewis, Myself and my husband bought a house very young (I was 19 and he was 21), but I had to have emergency back surgery and was unable to work for 6 months so we fell behind on everything relying only on his income. We had to forclose on our house less then a [...]