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Real Estate & Property Law

The Home Equity Theft Reporter

Welcome to The Home Equity Theft Reporter, a blog dedicated to informing the consumer public and the legal profession about Home Equity Theft issues.
By r morris

Post Frequency: 25.7/day

Last Entry: September 06, 2017 at 04:02:00

California Mortgage Lenders Using Short Sales To Seek Deficiency Judgments On "Non-Recourse" Purchase Money Home Loans?

Posted on April 30, 2009
In San Diego County, California, North County Times reports:[B]orrowers can face deficiency judgments at any point on certain types of loans. But California law allows special privileges for what is known as "purchase money" loans, or the original loan used to purchase the home...

Loan Modification Employees Reveal Inner Workings Of One California Outfit Accused Of Ignoring State Cease & Refrain Order From

Posted on April 30, 2009
In Fair Oaks, California, The Huffington Post reports:[S]uperior Properties, formerly 2nd Chance Negotiations, operates by soliciting an upfront fee from homeowners facing foreclosure in return for legal counsel, a lower principal on their mortgage, and a "100% money back guarantee...

Maryland Lawmaker Accused In Equity Stripping Foreclosure Rescue Scam Tells Jury He Was "Doing The Lord's Work"

Posted on April 30, 2009
In Anne Arundel County, Maryland, The Baltimore Sun reports:A state delegate from Anne Arundel County, who is being sued for damages by a Pasadena woman who claims he tricked her into signing over her home, told a jury Wednesday that he was "doing the Lord's work...

Oregon To Sponsor Day-Long Event For Homeowners Facing Foreclosure

Posted on April 30, 2009
In Portland, Oregon, The Register Guard reports:[D]ozens of nonprofit housing counselors, state consumer affairs specialists and lender representatives will gather Saturday at the Portland Memorial Coliseum to help Oregonians in danger of foreclosure...

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Free Foreclosure Self-Defense Seminar For Financially Strapped Homeowners Upcoming In Miami

Posted on April 30, 2009
In Miami, Florida, the South Florida Caribbean News reports:Miami-Dade County Commissioner Audrey M. Edmonson understands the housing crisis our country, state, and county is going through. Therefore, she is co-sponsoring along with the Miami-Dade Housing Finance Authority and Miami-Dade Affordable Housing Foundation Inc a FREE foreclosure legal assistance seminar to help those homeowners who are

Foreclosure Rescue Operator Violated State Consumer Fraud Act By Using Bogus Sale Leasebacks To Strip Equity From Homeowners, Says NJ AG In Civil Suit

Posted on April 29, 2009
From the Office of the New Jersey Attorney General:Attorney General Anne Milgram announced [...] the filing of a lawsuit charging three individuals and two corporate defendants(1) with mortgage fraud. The defendants are charged with promising to help distressed homeowners keep their homes but, instead, acquiring their properties at exorbitant discounts, binding the victims to predatory ?

Mass AG Reaches Settlement With Loan Modification Firm Accused Of Violating State Consumer Protection Act, Illegally Pocketing Upfront Fees

Posted on April 29, 2009
From the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General:[Last week], Attorney General Martha Coakley?s Office entered into a settlement with Express Modifications, Inc., d/b/a ?Loan Mods By Lawyers, Inc.,? and its owner David J. Gotterup, who ran prominent advertisements in a local newspaper earlier this year offering to help homeowners avoid foreclosure...

Washington State AG Brings Civil Rent Skimming Charges Against Previously Convicted Operator

Posted on April 29, 2009
From the Office of the Washington State Attorney General:The Washington Attorney General?s Office is suing a convicted equity skimmer a second time, claiming the Colfax man and his wife ran a real estate investment business that misled distressed homeowners and property investors...

Elderly Woman Faces Loss Of Mortgage-Free Home As Zombie Debt Scavenger Gets Lien On Premises; Failure To Update State Homestead Exemption The Problem

Posted on April 29, 2009
In New Orleans, Louisiana, WWL-TV Channel 4 reports:Imagine someone who has paid off their house and owns it outright, losing that home because of an old credit card debt. Unfortunately for Shirley Simmons, she doesn't have to imagine. It's a real fear she's been living with since the sheriff seized her home two months ago so it could be advertised and sold...

Texas Couple Sues Mortgage Servicer For Alleged Refusal To Fork Over Insurance Proceeds To Repair Hurricane Damage

Posted on April 29, 2009
In Jefferson County, Texas, The Southeast Texas Record reports:A Jefferson County couple is suing their mortgage company for allegedly failing to endorse insurance proceeds for hurricane damage. Paul and Anitra Henson filed a lawsuit April 17 in Jefferson County District Court against Homeq Servicing, a loan services company...

300+ Lawyers Volunteer To Assist In Mandatory Foreclosure Mediations In Nevada Expected To Begin In August

Posted on April 29, 2009
In Carson City, Nevada, the Las Vegas Review Journal reports:About 340 lawyers have volunteered to serve as mediators to work with lenders to keep Nevadans from losing their homes to foreclosure, Nevada Chief Justice Jim Hardesty said [this week]. Hardesty told the Assembly Ways and Means Committee that he expects mediation hearings will begin in August and that as many as 3,000 Nevadans a month

First Defendant Cops Guilty Plea In Alleged $70M Metro Dream Homes Ponzi Scheme

Posted on April 29, 2009
From the Office of the U.S. Attorney (Maryland):Carole Nelson, age 50, of Washington, D.C., pleaded guilty [Tuesday] to money laundering in connection with her participation in a massive mortgage fraud scheme which promised to pay off homeowners? mortgages on their ?Dream Homes,? but left them to fend for themselves, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J.

Crafty Mortgage Lenders Sneaking "Deficiency" Clauses Into Short Sale Contracts?

Posted on April 28, 2009
In San Diego, California, North County Times reports:A "short sale" might not be the end of a homeowner's problems. The practice, which has exploded in popularity as homeowners struggle to pay their mortgages, is supposed to allow a borrower to sell a home for less than the mortgage amount, walk away, and avoid a credit-killing foreclosure...

New Jersey Man Charged With Illegally Pocketing Proceeds From $400K Loan Using Wife's Grandmother's Home As Collateral

Posted on April 28, 2009
In Hoboken, New Jersey, The Jersey Journal reports:A Rutherford man has been charged taking out a $400,000 loan against the home of his wife's grandmother -- and the 83-year-old only learned of the scam when foreclosure notices began arriving, officials said...

Florida Attorney & Loan Modification Firm Join Forces To Provide Services To Financially Distressed Homeowners

Posted on April 28, 2009
In Naples, Florida, the Naples Daily News reports:Marc L. Shapiro, P.A., Attorney at Law, announced his firm?s expansion of distressed real property consumer services with an affiliation with Asset Resolution Services Inc. The combination of services is intended to streamline the loan modification, asset protection, foreclosure defense and short-sale negotiation services of the two entities...

Another San Diego Complex Linked To Condo Conversion Marketer Deluged By Foreclosures; Investors Left With Ruined Credit

Posted on April 28, 2009
In San Diego, California, The San Diego Union Tribune reports:A wave of loan defaults that has swamped a 42-unit Linda Vista condo-conversion project makes it the fourth complex in the county linked to a Bay Area man to be overwhelmed by pending foreclosures...

Florida AG Warns Against Falling For Chinese Drywall Remediation Scams

Posted on April 28, 2009
From the Office of the Florida Attorney General:Attorney General Bill McCollum [last week] issued a consumer advisory to Florida homeowners affected by Chinese drywall, encouraging them to avoid scams related to the situation. At least two types of fraudulent activity involving the defective drywall have been reported to the Attorney General's Office by individuals in the building industry: bogus

"Dream Homes" Program A Ponzi Scheme, Say Maryland Feds As Five Charged In Alleged Theft Of $70M+ From 1000+ People; One Def't Positioned To Cop Plea

Posted on April 28, 2009
In Greenbelt, Maryland, The Washington Post reports:It was a mortgage fraud and a Ponzi scheme, and it was, prosecutors say, a moneymaker. In just a couple of years, the Dream Homes Program stole at least $70 million from more than 1,000 people, many of them in Prince George's County, by promising to pay off their mortgages in exchange for investments of at least $50,000, prosecutors said...

Hawaii Feds Bag Five Suspects In Another Alleged Sale Leaseback, Foreclosure Rescue Scam

Posted on April 27, 2009
In Hawaii, the Honolulu Advertiser reports:Five people(1) were arrested by the FBI yesterday in connection with an alleged foreclosure bailout scheme that took hundreds of thousands of dollars from local lenders and residents and cost some their homes...

MERS: "A Corporate Cloak" To Obscure Identity Of Predatory Lenders, Cushioning Them From Fallout From Their Reckless Practices?

Posted on April 27, 2009
The New York Times reports:[A]lthough the average person has never heard of it, MERS ? short for Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems ? holds 60 million mortgages on American homes, through a legal maneuver that has saved banks more than $1 billion over the last decade but made life maddeningly difficult for some troubled homeowners...

Florida Appeals Court Reinstates Lawsuit By Miami Widow Alleging Conspiracy To Defraud, Fraud, Negligence In Foreclosure Rescue, Home Equity Ripoff

Posted on April 27, 2009
A Florida appellate court reversed a lower court ruling that dismissed a case with prejudice brought by a 72-year old widow facing foreclosure who complained that she was tricked into signing away the title to her home by an alleged equity stripping, foreclosure rescue operator, Florida Foreclosure Placement Center ("FFPC")...

Foreclosure Auction Buyer: "Object Is To Get Cheapest Price We Can, Not To Bid Each Other Up" As Intimidation Accusations Flare Up At Courthouse Sales

Posted on April 27, 2009
In Lee County, Florida, The News Press reports:[T]om Bruzzesi, an animated reality show hopeful, met with John Carney, a short, dark-haired slave to the Bluetooth in his left ear. Bruzzesi, Carney and a third man, Mike Kopyta, are the most prolific foreclosure auction buyers in Lee County, nabbing more than half of the approximately 500 properties not taken back by the banks since Jan...

Foreclosure Halted As Questions Surround Court Filings; Brooklyn Judge Calls Multiple Corporate Hat-Wearing Bank Exec "A Milliner's Delight"

Posted on April 26, 2009
In a February, 2009 ruling, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Arthur M. Schack refused to allow a foreclosure action to continue, raising questions as to the propriety of a certain bank executive, one Keri Selman, signing mortgage assignments and affidavits in a number of his cases in which she identified herself as an Assistant Vice President for Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS),

Wikipedia Entry Invalid As Proof In Establishing Creditor's Standing To Sue In Credit Card Collection Litigation, Says New Jersey Appeals Court

Posted on April 26, 2009
The New Jersey Law Journal reports:A New Jersey judge who allowed a lawyer to plug an evidentiary gap with a Wikipedia page has been reversed on the ground that the online encyclopedia that "anyone can edit" is not a reliable source of information. "[I]t is entirely possible for a party in litigation to alter a Wikipedia article, print the article and thereafter offer it in support of any given

Idaho AG Files Suit Against Local Loan Modification Firm

Posted on April 26, 2009
In Kootenai County, Idaho, The Spokesman Review reports:Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden wants to shut down Apply 2 Save Inc., the Coeur d?Alene-based mortgage modification company. His office Tuesday filed suit against the company in Kootenai County District Court, alleging violations of state consumer protection laws...

Southern California Priest Joins Forces With Community Group To Keep Flock From Losing Homes To Foreclosure

Posted on April 26, 2009
In Pacoima, California, CNN reports:Father John Lasseigne has never owned a home, but he's become one of the key saviors for those who face losing their house. As banks move in to take over homes in foreclosure, this priest is stepping in to stop them...

Woman Cops Plea To $30K Theft From Elderly Uncle; Also Suspected Of Pocketing Cash Intended To Pay Mortgage, Allowing Uncle's Home To Be Foreclosed On

Posted on April 26, 2009
In West Chester, Pennsylvania, The Phoenix reports:A Phoenixville woman pleaded guilty [last week] to stealing the $30,000 death benefit paid to her uncle following the death of his wife. While friends and co-workers of the victim have suspicions that much more money was stolen by the niece over the years, police say they were only able to prove she took the $30,000...

St. Paul Legal Non-Profit To Close Monday; Victim Of Economy

Posted on April 26, 2009
In St. Paul, Minnesota, the Star Tribune reports:[M]onday will be the last day for Centro Legal, a St. Paul nonprofit that has provided low-cost legal services to Minnesota's Hispanic community since 1981. The agency is in debt and out of resources, hit by a "perfect storm" of circumstances, not the least of which is a teetering economy that is hampering or threatening pretty much every nonprofit

State Banking Lobbyists Seek To Sneak Law Exempting Banks From Maintaining Abandoned Homes In Foreclosure Past Florida Legislature

Posted on April 25, 2009
The Mike Thomas Blog in the Orlando Sentinel opines:First came tarp. Then camp the compensation packages. And just when you thought banks had maxed out on the gag meter, we learned [Thursday] about their latest screw-you to taxpayers. The banks want to let their growing plague of foreclosed homes become overgrown, rotting eyesores that attract crime and drag down communities...

Premature Foreclosure Eviction Leaves Family's Belongings Missing, Out On Street Before Lender Obtained Title To Home

Posted on April 25, 2009
In Waldron Acres, Illinois, The Daily Journal reports:Richard Ball is among hundreds of thousands of Americans who have been caught in the current foreclosure crisis. However, his situation has drawn individual attention, and he called The Daily Journal to tell his side of the story...

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