mortgage
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Posting Consumer Complaints About Credit Card Companies Increases Consumer Satisfaction With BankAn interesting academic paper out which studies Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB) complaint reporting found the reporting assisted both consumers and the credit card companies. The investigation looked at the results of public reporting of complaints and found...
- Posted June 7, 2017
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How Can I Eliminate My Mortgage But Keep My House? – LaverneQuestion: Dear Steve, Is there away I can get my Mortgage debt relieved? I’m unemployed and six months behind on my mortgage and I would like to keep my house. Laverne Answer: Dear Laverne, Not really. Let’s...
- Posted September 28, 2016
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How Can We Get a Big Enough Mortgage to Pay Everything Off?Question: Dear Steve, We owe $495k on first mortgage, $168 on 2nd. Paying at over 6% on first now. Also unsecured debt of around $100k. And we have a Rex agreement. House worth over $2 million, so...
- Posted June 22, 2016
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How Can I Get My Ex-Wife Off the Deed?Question: Dear Steve, I have been separated legally in the state of New York and I had taken my wife at the time I refinanced a rental property in Florida since at the time we lived down...
- Posted May 23, 2016
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4 Non-Banks Where You Can Get a MortgageGetting a home loan doesn’t require a trip to the bank. In fact, 37.5% of mortgages originated in 2014 came from non-bank lenders, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. That share has grown significantly in the last few...
- Posted April 21, 2015
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Can I Get a Seller to Pay My Closing Costs?Closing costs are one of the most confusing and misunderstood parts of the homebuying journey. About a third of prospective buyers feel “not very” or “not at all” aware of them, according to a recent survey from real...
- Posted March 30, 2015
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Buying a Home? Be Ready for These Closing CostsFor most of us, there’s no bigger purchase than buying a home. And with big purchases, even minor fees can carry a big price tag. Before signing the paperwork and taking on a mortgage, it’s a good...
- Posted March 2, 2015
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4 Big Refinancing Questions AnsweredYou may have heard about it on the news, your neighbors may be bragging about it or you could have even received eligibility notice in the mail — but what is the real deal behind refinancing? Before you...
- Posted March 2, 2015
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4 Reasons You Could Be Denied a MortgageSo, you’ve thought about whether renting or buying your next home is the right decision for you. If you decide to buy a home, you’ll likely have to prepare for financing your purchase with mortgage payments. Here’s where...
- Posted March 2, 2015
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Student Loans Will Kill Your Dreams of Home OwnershipThe vast majority of consumers in America make important financial decisions basically by-the-seat-of-their-pants. I know people mean well but it is commonly bad advice and accepted assumptions that cause a bright financial future to be scuppered. Let’s...
- Posted October 1, 2014
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CFPB Gives Borrowers With Troubled Mortgages a Guide
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has issued a comprehensive guide to help troubled mortgage borrowers. The 104 page guide gives step-by-step directions on what you should expect from your mortgage company if you are struggling. You...
- Posted December 25, 2013
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FHA to Make It Easier for People with Bad Credit to Get a MortgageVery shortly new manual underwriting regulations from FHA will become effective and make it easier for people with low credit scores to qualify for a mortgage. This is good news for people without a lot of debt...
- Posted December 10, 2013
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CFPB Rolls Our New Mortgage Rules to Help ConsumersThe Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has just announced new rules that are aimed at mortgage servicing companies from lessons learned during this most recent mortgage meltdown crisis we are living through. While smaller banks and credit unions...
- Posted January 18, 2013
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Trying to Get Lender to Modify Our Mortgage Again. – Kay
“Dear Steve, My husband and I bought a home in 2006, applied for a payment modification in 08 or 09 it was approved. My husband income has dropped this year and we’re now having a hard time...
- Posted April 2, 2012
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Hells Angel Commits Mortgage Fraud For Marijuana Grow House
In September I covered a story about two leaders of the Hells Angels that had been accused of mortgage fraud. A mortgage broker in the San Francisco bay area was charged with conspiracy to arrange more than...
- Posted January 23, 2012
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Holy Fraud, Batman! Literally…
Yesterday, an Ohio resident was indicted for allegedly engaging in a fraud scheme that promised to fund more than $500 million in mortgage loans to around 20 churches and a dozen small businesses across the country. The...
- Posted January 6, 2012
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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...
- Posted December 27, 2011
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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...
- Posted December 15, 2011
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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...
- Posted November 29, 2011
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Embezzled, Diverted And Stolen Funds Used To Pay For Adult Entertainment
The guilty plea of vice present and co-operater of Coral Mortgage Bankers Corporation’s University City office, Matthew Kent, was announced earlier this month by the United States Attorney’s Office. According to court documents, between May 2007 and...
- Posted November 29, 2011
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Jade Capital & Investments Indicted In Alleged $37 Million Fraud
Jade Capital & Investments and its owners Joon Park (aka Joon Pak / Joon Paik) and his brother Loren Young Park (aka Loren Young Park / Yong Park) have been indicted on charges in connection to a...
- Posted November 18, 2011
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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...
- Posted November 16, 2011
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$78 Million Mortgage Fraud “Dream Home” Scheme Owner Convicted
Andrew Hamilton Williams, Jr., was convicted last week in Maryland of fraud conspiracy, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection to a massive mortgage fraud scheme. The scheme, entitled “Metro Dream Homes” promised to...
- Posted November 14, 2011
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My Wife Gave Away Our House With a Quitclaim Deed. – Patrick
“Dear Steve, My wife just filed bankruptcy recently because a family friend, a mortgage broker, put the house she owned previiously in foreclosure. My wife had a subprime loan and tried before the 2 years were up...
- Posted November 8, 2011
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Mother Daughter Fraud Team Pleads Guilty After Five Days Of Trial
Mid-trial a mother and daughter fraudster team, along with an accomplice from Las Vegas, pleaded guilty to participating in a mortgage fraud scheme that lead to more than $1.9 million in mortgage loan losses to lenders. Mother,...
- Posted November 7, 2011
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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...
- Posted November 7, 2011
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Treasury Reports An 88 Percent Increase In Mortgage-Fraud Since 2010
Banks are re-examining loans that took place during the housing boom and are now finding problems which has resulted in a large jump of reported mortgage-fraud. Reports are showing an 88 percent jump in the second quarter...
- Posted October 11, 2011
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Homeowners In Financial Distress Lose Over $1.2 Million To Mortgage “Rescue” Fraud
To the tune of a MasterCard commercial: $4.7 million in fradulent mortgage loans… $944,224 lost by lenders…. $1.2 million lost in equity to homeowners…. Shameful. Mary Ann Dean and Charles Donaldson pleaded guilty to the charge of...
- Posted October 11, 2011
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Deceitful Debt Relief And Mortgage Operation Shut Down
A United State district court has shut down two related operations who apparently failed to provide promised debt relief services and jeopardized clients’ privacy by at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)’s request. Apparently one firm charged consumers...
- Posted October 7, 2011
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Nevada Bitch Slaps Bank of America Over Mortgage Mess
by Paul Kiel, ProPublica The state of Nevada dramatically expanded its lawsuit against Bank of America today, turning the narrow case it filed late last year into a broadside that targets virtually all aspects of the bank’s...
- Posted August 31, 2011
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I Discharged My Mortgage in Bankruptcy. Can I Really Sell The House Now? – Romy
“Dear Lewis, I filed chp 13 bankruptcy and had agree to let go of my house. No repayment. All debts were discharged. however, the bank is allowing me to stay in the house because i have continued...
- Posted June 6, 2011
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Unemployed and Struggling to Make Your Mortgage Payment? Check Hardest Hit Fund for Help.
Yesterday over the dinner table we had a guest enjoying barbecue with us and she was talking about her work with the Hardest Hit Fund and all the mortgages in North Carolina she was screening to be...
- Posted May 31, 2011
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I Was Building a New House But the Bank Won’t Give Us What it Appraised For So I Put the Rest on My Credit Cards. – John
“Dear Damon, Was building a new house.. Went to close on long term loan.. The bank would not give us what it was appraised for. I had to you all saving to not lose the house.. I...
- Posted May 28, 2011
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I’m Currently in a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and My Attorney Told Me Not to Make My Mortgage Payment. – Ed
“Dear Lewis, I am currently in chapter 7 Bankruptcy. My home is worth 315,000 and the court is getting an appraisal as ordered by the trustee. my home is worth about 380.000 dollars and I have had...
- Posted May 6, 2011
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Should I Hire All State Law Group to Modify My Bank of America Mortgage? – Charles
“Dear Andy, Tried twice to to get a modification with BOA with no success,have ask a law firm to help, but cant find any info on the firm Should I retain this law firm from calif. THEY...
- Posted April 28, 2011
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Collectors Called Constantly Scared of Foreclosure, What Can I Do? – Roy
“Dear Steve, I have recently taken over management of finances and bill paying from my wife. I always knew we had some lingering credit card debt that had been following us since college, but I had no...
- Posted September 28, 2010
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I’ve Been Using My House as an ATM Machine. – Jeannette
Jeanette “Dear Steve, I have used my home as an ATM machine to put 2 kids and myself through college. We have a primary mortgage at 6% and a home equity loan at 8% both at a...
- Posted September 18, 2010
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I Need to Lower My Mortgage Payment. – Josten
Josten “Dear Steve, I need some advice on how to lower my mortgage bill payment. We have to pay too much money, monthly just to keep this house. My family can’t pay this much and we may...
- Posted August 10, 2010
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I Am Getting Married And We Want to Buy a House But My Credit Isn’t Great. – Kelli
“Dear Steve, Hope all is well! My fiance and I are getting married next April and are currently saving to purchase our first home! We are saving around $12,000-$15,000 for the down payment, we are looking to...
- Posted July 8, 2010
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My Children Landed Me in Debt. – Jane
“Dear Steve, My husband and I have inherited many bills from our children over the last year. One son was in a car accident and was sued by the other party for damages to their vehicle. Since...
- Posted June 26, 2010
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What You Need to Know Before You Refinance Your Home to Pay Off Debts
Consolidating your debt with the equity in your home can be a terrific money-saving strategy. The interest rate may be much lower than you’re paying on your other bills and, if you itemize on your tax return,...
- Posted June 7, 2010
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Overextended Borrowers Stop Paying Mortgages and Capitalize on Time to Eviction
In this day and age the amount of people unable to pay their mortgages is on the rise. Be it medical bills, loss of income or a change in circumstances, many people are running into shortages in...
- Posted June 1, 2010
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I Only Want One-Third of the Mortgage to Show on My Credit Report. – Rick
Rick “Dear Steve, I’m considering buying an investment property in a country outside the US. I know that the foreign lender has checked my credit report (which is excellent, by the way). I will buy the property...
- Posted May 14, 2010
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How Can I Get Bank of America to Modify My Countrywide Mortgage? They Keep Refusing. – Clare
Clare “Dear Steve, My husband and I are separated, he is giving me 2100 a month to pay his car, ins, and credit card debt, I net 4330 a month and my house payment is 2850 plus...
- Posted May 6, 2010
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My Mother Was In An Accident And Lost Her Job And Can’t Pay – Paula
“Dear Steve, My mother was in an accident and lost her job, we lost our tenant in our house for about 6 months in which bills got backed up, credit cards and loans were used to pay...
- Posted April 30, 2010
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I Was Wondering if it Would Make Sense to Liquidate Part of our IRA and Pay Off the Mortgage? – Ken
“Dear Steve, I have lost my job due to a so-called “voluntary” early retirement program. I am looking, but have yet to land another job, and at 55 I dont think my chances are great of making...
- Posted April 17, 2010
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American Express is the Least Helpful and Scariest Creditor I Have. – Patricia
Patricia “Dear Steve, For 10 years I was self employeed making very good money on the inernet. Over the past 6 months the sites I got work from began to close, or remain open with little to...
- Posted April 14, 2010
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I’m a Recently Divorced Single Mom and Don’t Want to Lose the House. – Tascha
Tascha “Dear Steve, I’m a 30 year old single mom recently divorced. I was left with $15, 000 in credit card debt on my $14 /hr job. My ex-husband filed bankruptcy only on himself 4yrs ago during...
- Posted April 10, 2010
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Consumers More Likely to Pay Credit Cards Than Mortgage
From the good folks over at US News & World Report is this interesting article, “Forget the Mortgage, I’m Paying My Credit Card Bill” by Luke Mullins. Amid high unemployment and sliding home prices, a growing number...
- Posted March 16, 2010
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I’m Feeling Defeated About My Financial Future. – Nicki
Nicki “Dear Steve, When I left college with credit card debt I had no way of paying, no real job and student loans piled on top, I was struggling to keep from drowning in debt. Top that...
- Posted March 14, 2010
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