The good news is that according to the Wall Street Journal the current temporary spending bill passed by the House of Representatives DOES have a provision to extend the Mortgage Debt Relief Act for another year! Call your Representative and thank them if you completed a Short Sale in 2014. The bad news is that…
In our blog earlier this month we included legislative contact information so that you could let your Senators and Congressmen know how important you feel it is to extend the taxable income exclusion for forgiven debt on your primary residence. That exclusion was originally part of a tax relief package begun in the Bush era…
Since the early days of Perry Mason, and LA Law, and all the many legal shows that followed, I have often lamented the omission from mainstream media of the exciting part of the legal calling that some of us hold dear, that is the practice of Real Estate Law. Dirt Law. An integral…
Often we get emails like this one on our website: “My home was recently foreclosed on 8/6 during my short sale process. At the time I had 3 offers the last coming more than a week before the sale date of which was not given to me until 2 weeks prior. My realtor insist I…
Still no news as of this post on the resurrection and extension of the Mortgage Debt Relief Act passed by President Bush in the final days of his administration. A proposed bill cleared the Senate subcommittee on finance several months ago but it has not made progress through the full Senate or House yet. President…
Attorneys across the country who share the passion to level the playing field between struggling homeowners and mortgage companies often network and discuss market trends, new strategies to defend against foreclosure, and the latest lender tactics. Among the latest chilling experiments by the mortgage industry many stretch the concept of an auction in ways that…
At first this sounds like great news for consumers. In reality, the only good news for consumers is that we live in America where you have the freedom to make risky choices. Only a decade ago you could buy more home than you could afford by paying just a little higher interest rate using a…
We try not to wander too far afield into the political end of things. But sometimes you just have to give credit where credit is due and point out some of the obvious consequences of laws affecting lenders, borrowers, default, and legal ramifications. Dodd-Frank and the ensuing Quality Management or QM regime enforced upon the…
Nationally, we have seen between 2% to 7% rise in home prices over the past year. Big California cities have seen the biggest increases. The latest news is based on the increase in prices and reduction in time on market between February 2013 and February 2014. “Black Knight Financial Services released its Home Price…
No list of lenders who most shamelessly obstruct the short sale process is complete without mention of the reverse mortgage lending industry. (“RMLI”) The RMLI has gotten a pass from heavy consumer scrutiny in part because it is a fairly new phenomenon. But the list of abuses is growing and the honeymoon appears to be…
