That was the mantra Amanda Powell, 26, and Justin Cichowski, 28, were chanting when they bought a two-bedroom unit in the Summerside condominium complex in May 2006.

Today, Powell and Cichowski are victims of the Great Recession’s housing slide, starting over as renters with damaged credit.

For the past five years, much of the debate about the housing crisis has pitted caricatures of irresponsible bankers against irresponsible borrowers. But Powell and Cichowski are the more typical victims.

Like so many who came of age during the boom, or were transferred to a new city or faced a life change that led to a home purchase, Powell and Cichowski did what generations before them have done. They got a job, worked hard and bought a home.

SARASOTA TRIBUNE

Short Sale Liability

I’ve been writing about this for a very, very long time now.  If you’ll look at the post below, you’ll see I’ve been blogging about it for more than a year now….but I’ve been warning about it for much, much longer than that.

Consumers all across Florida have entered into short sales and in doing so, they have conceivably subjected themselves to significant liability from the transaction.  The problem is, the short sale contracts signed by most consumers do not protect the seller….

Realtors and consumers alike would be well served to ensure attorneys are involved in every short sale transaction….

2007 Short Sale Addendum

2010 FAR/FARBAR Short Sale Addendum

And a Post I did a long, long time ago…..Florida Realtors Face Massive Short Sale Liability

The two highest universal human needs are food first, then shelter.  From our position on the front lines of the Fraudclosure war, I see first hand how our government, at every level has been totally and completely corrupted, 100%.  This has been going on for decades now, but it is beyond dispute that everyone from the Presidents (both parties), to Congress, to state legislators and even down to the local level have completely surrendered or abdicated their responsibilities to keep Americans safe and secure in their homes.  MERS and the mortgage monster have chewed up our record property ownership, and law enforcement are content to let banks come in, kick down doors and throw your property into the street.  Oftentimes, courts go along with this.

The Jack booted thug cases are just the most dramatic example of how vulnerable we have become, but the breakdown of the entire legal system vis a vis foreclosure is an ongoing testament to just how desecrated our concept of protection from thuggery by an independent court system has become.  Our courts are not funded properly and the dominant player in disputes takes advantage of the void created to lie, cheat, bully and abuse.  Forget about your quaint notions of civil rights, due process and a higher legal power to protect you from this abuse…it’s gone.

I frankly see things as quite hopeless, especially here in Florida.  And as news comes from the legislative session now burbling in Tallahassee, I am confirmed that things are going to get much worse.  The state has a massive budget void and cuts must be made everywhere.  And while the state (that was you and me) are tapped out and busted, the stronger and more powerful forces aligned against us have more money than ever. (2010 was one of Wall Street’s most profitable ever)  While banks cannot fairly process loan modification or short sale paperwork, the big boys have been quite adept at shoving billion dollar profits in their pockets. (financed by you and I)  They are going to use every dollar and every strategy at their disposal to gut what’s left of due process in this state and bulldoze over whatever stands in their way….because we’ve got to GROW THIS ECONOMY!

The legislative bills that attack our courts that have been proposed in this session are TERRIFYING. A proposal to split the Florida Supreme Court , a proposal to limit the Florida Supreme Court’s ability to make rules (primarily because the legislature is furious, furious about the verified complaint rule) and now a proposal to fire, terminate, desecrate thousands of judicial assistants across the state.  And they are not done.  I promise you, there will be major legislation to “fix the foreclosure problem”.  Our courts are broke, busted, shut down.  Our entire state court system has become utterly dependent upon foreclosure filing fees to keep the lights on and to keep judges and staff employed.  The legislature just provided enough funding to keep the lights on for a few more weeks, but this is quite like providing crack to a junkie.  Our courts cannot be funded based on filing fees and our judges certainly should not be paid based on the number of cases they clear. (another extraordinary proposal coming out of this legislative session)

But that’s not what I wanted to start talking about.  I started this post because I wanted to share what I’m learning from farmers and country folks about what’s happening out far away from the cities.  All that prior discussion was the appetizer, just to set the stage for the main course.  The proposition I wanted to present is that our government has become totally corrupted and overtaken by business interests that are exploiting all of us.  If you do not believe or understand this proposition, I want some of whatever you’re taking….in fact, I want double of whatever you’re taking.

So if you understand just how corrupted our entire government has become and see how this is proven out so dramatically in relation to the most basic human need for shelter, then it won’t be too far a stretch for you to believe that the same principles have been allowed to infect the primary human need….food.

Until just a short time ago, I didn’t pay one lick of attention to food.  All I knew or cared about was there is a grocery store down the street and plenty of restaurants nearby.  But from my front row seat where I’m watching profound and absolute corruption first hand, I’ve realized just how vulnerable we really are.  I then started reaching out to the people with the dirt under their fingernails and they confirmed my worst fears….the same corporate thuggery that permeates our housing and economy has infected our food supply.  When you’ve got a little time google, “Monsanto and GMO” just to start.  Before that, think about the following and read the article below:

To the person who wanted to know if anyone commenting was actually a farmer with “on the ground” experience- I raise grass fed beef and pastured poutry and while I do not feed my cattle grain products, I can honestly say I noticed a definite difference in the behaviour of our broiler chickens once gmo soy (and corn) became standard fare at the feed stores (we get our grains custom ground)- the chickens refused to eat the soy component of the feed, and if they did eat it it was eaten last when there was no other choice left. And they took two weeks longer on average to reach the same weight as before the local feed mills became flooded with gmo feedstuffs. Commercial broilers are (sorry if I offend any chicken fanciers) as dumb an animal as you can get, and they had the brains to know something was wrong with the food. What do you think this crap is doing to us- eat anything with soy protiens or corn syrups/soilds not labled as organically certified and you are eating gmo too. They dont want gmo labled because people would be shocked to find out how much they consume on a daily basis.

More Here

Then read this:

• Monsanto monopolizing the seed supply for the US… and the world
• Monsanto’s GMO seeds are designed to maximize use of pesticides, as well, further impacting the environment
• Use of pesticides has already led to super-weeds that acquire resistance
• Bacteria transfer genes directly. This could lead to super-bugs with unknown consequences
• Monocultures – reliance on one crop – is bad agriculture. Reliance on a single strain could be disastrous. Biodiversity is nature’s insurance policy.
• Traditionally, farmers have saved some of their crop as seed to plant the next season. It’s the heart of sustainability. Not with Monsanto – they want you to buy new seed from them every year. Keeping some of your crop to plant next season is a violation of your contract, and farmers get sued for it.
• American farmers with access to credit can buy seed every year. But Monsanto is also pushing their product line in the developing world, destroying a 10,000-year-old system of sustainable agriculture.
• Monsanto has a history of suing farmers for “stealing” their patented genes… when they get contaminated by pollen from nearby GMO fields. And the court system has generally backed Monsanto.
• That same GMO gene contamination has already led to some farmers losing their organic certification.
• Monsanto hired the mercenary company Blackwater (now Xe) to spy on anti-GMO activists.

Full Article Here Monsanto and GMO

An example of a story reported to me…the third similar such in a week.  The previous two involved borrowers sending money their lender to reinstate their mortgages….only their lender didn’t credit them….identity theft from within the lender/servicer.  People on the inside taking information and using it for their own purposes…wouldn’t be hard to create fictitious names that sound similar enough to the real thing to cash those checks right? (Search “fictitious name” on this blog.)  Won’t anyone step up to stop all of this?

I have been contacted on several occasions by a company representing
themselves as representative for Wells Fargo Mortgage. They asked me EXACTLY
the same questions in the same sequence as WF has during my foreclosure. I
recently received a letter from Wells Fargo regarding my inquiry regarding
my account. ( I have not contacted WF regarding a “Short Sale” as the letter
indicated that I had.

I went back to a an old letter from WF and called the number listed to
insure I was indeed calling WF. I explained the situation and they escalated
it to their fraud departement.
There are criminals who are now contacting the folks in foreclosure posing
as the bank, gathering their personal information and then contacting the
bank and psoing as the consumer to negotiate a short sale. Should I contact
the Florida Attorney General about this? I find this extremely alarming. My
home is up for sale on Nov. 4 and I thought that I was negotiating with
Wells Fargo and in fact I was not. WF says they are not contracted with this
company. I have lost a lot of valuable time with this Co. and I am afraid I
be a victim of identiy theft as well. I need some advise. I think that this
may be a new scam that is being pulled on both the homeowner and the bank.
Wells Fargo was extremely interested in my information.

I have the call on my caller ID. The funny thing is that I gave WF my cell
phone and this call came to my land line. Sounded just like a wells Fargo
call.

I can provide my case number if you need it.

What has happened to me is criminal and it needs to be investigated. How
many others have been victims of this NEW approach to scam vulnerable
homeowners and the banks?

“By Dunstan Prial

Published October 14, 2010| FOXBusiness

The last thing most homebuyers want to think about at their closing is title insurance. They’ve already been through the ringer, paying thousands of dollars in often-confusing fees and signing mountains of documents.

Title insurance is almost certainly an afterthought.

But homebuyers may want to think again.

The messy fallout from badly — and, in some cases, perhaps fraudulently — processedforeclosures has cast into sharp focus the need for comprehensive title insurance. As always, homebuyers should make sure they’re getting a policy that covers any costs tied to hidden fees or liens placed against the property that may have not been detected during a title search.

But, now more than ever, homebuyers, especially those purchasing homes through a foreclosure or a short sale, need a policy that covers legal fees if someone challenges the validity of their title.

Lita Epstein, a foreclosure expert and author of several personal finance books, said one of the root causes of the recent financial crisis — a rush by lenders to sell mortgages willy nilly to as many investors as possible — can also be blamed for the current mess.

“These loans were sold so many different times that no one knows who has the original paperwork. That really gets to the core of the financial scandal. The original closing documents for these properties have been lost as those loans were sold and spread out among many investors,” said Epstein.

In recent weeks, many of the major mortgage loan servicers, including Bank of America (BAC: 11.99 ,-0.51 ,-4.08%), Ally Financial’s GMAC Mortgage, and JPMorgan Chase (JPM: 37.17 ,-1.58 ,-4.08%), have suspended foreclosures in the wake of legal challenges charging all manner of improprieties. And as of Wednesday all 50 state attorneys general have said they will investigate how foreclosures were conducted in their states.

The investigations will attempt to determine if loan servicers handling foreclosures processed all the paperwork properly. In affidavits made public since the foreclosure mess gained steam, some loan servicers, dubbed robo-signers, have acknowledged signing off on hundreds of foreclosures each day without ever verifying or even reviewing the documents included in the paperwork crossing their desks.

Thousands of homeowners whose mortgages were foreclosed on are now challenging the loss of their homes, and that number is rapidly climbing. These challenges throw into question the rightful ownership of homes sold through foreclosures.

“There are going to be cases where a homeowner has a right to walk back in that home,” said Matt Weidner, a Florida-based real estate attorney. “The title industry has to decide how they’re going to deal with these cases.”

That’s why comprehensive title insurance has suddenly become so important. So what is title insurance and why is it required by all banks making mortgage loans?

Title insurance is defined as protection against losses stemming from any problems connected to the title of a piece of property. So if there were homeowners’ association fees that went unpaid by a previous owner, or liens against the home placed by local tax assessors that weren’t detected during the title search conducted while the home was being purchased, those costs would be covered by title insurance. The insurance company will also cover all legal fees rising from the dispute.

The problems that have arisen in the wake of the real estate craze early last decade stem from the fact that mortgages and titles changed hands so quickly and so many times that, in many instances, no one knows how to track down all the original paperwork.

In regions hard hit by foreclosures — Florida, for example — much of that paperwork isn’t showing up when title searches are being conducted on sales of foreclosed home. Consequently, lots of potential problems are going undetected.

“There is information that isn’t making it to the proper place quickly enough and it’s making it difficult to be certain that the title has completely cleared,” Epstein explained.

Epstein said there are cases in which mortgages were split up among several investors and those separate investors have foreclosed on the same mortgage at different times, leaving the current title holder in an uneasy state of legal and financial limbo.

That’s the sort of dispute that title insurance is designed to settle.

At least one large title insurer isn’t exactly embracing these issues. On Oct. 1, Old Republic National Title Insurance Co., a unit of Old United International Corp (ORI: 13.93 ,+0.07 ,+0.51%), announced it wouldn’t issue new policies on homes recently foreclosed by GMAC or JPMorgan Chase.

Old Republic did not return calls seeking comment on its new policy.

Weidner said the title insurers should have seen this coming.

“Now they’re looking at all these allegations, and they’re asking how big is the risk and wondering what are we gonna do about it. The magnitude and the proportions are so big, you struggle to find an adjective,” he said.

According to Weidner, Florida alone has more than 500,000 foreclosure cases pending.

“Even if there’s a problem with a small fraction of these, it’s incredibly destabilizing to the real estate industry and financial markets in general,” said Weidner.”

Click to find original Fox Business report…