The Wall Street Banks and Shady Subprime Lenders were engaged in a massive, government sponsored ponzi scheme. No-one knows who actually lent the money when the subprime loans were were originated and no-one has any real idea who actually owns those loans today. Rather than admit that the failed business practices of these lenders and the fraud they have been perpetrating among themselves and on the American people is a real problem, too many judges across this country have adopted a view that the only job is to grant foreclosure and throw their neighbors into the street.
The foreclosure mills are more than happy to fulfill these ill-conceived judicial objectives so they concoct the paper that, to the casual observer, would suggest the Plaintiff in a courtroom has the right to foreclose. In the State of Florida, most of the major foreclosure mills are under a variety of investigations, most significantly from the Florida Attorney General’s Office who is examining the whole panoply of bad conduct engaged in by the firms.
At some point in time, society and observers will look back at this period of insanity and wonder why our judiciary allowed this conduct to play out in their courtrooms. The false affidavits, the faulty assignments, the shifty plaintiffs, the foreclosure mill attorneys appearing by telephone, rocket dockets with no time or concern for all these issues. These are dark days indeed for our court systems and for the judges who we elected and who took an oath to protect and defend us and the Constitution and laws that used to mean something in this country. The foreclosure problem is not going away. The bad loans and bad documentation and bad accounting systems won’t just fix themselves. Judges can either send these criminals and their attorneys back to their dens of sin and force them to resolve these issues with borrowers or they can continue to reward the evil conduct that brought us to this place.
Until that happens, and perhaps because it is not happening with any sense of urgency, some advocate a more business savvy approach to the crisis…..
READ THE STORY AND WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.
I assisted a savvy homeowner last month here in Atlanta with his strategic default short sale transaction.
This individual realized that the $590,000 home he bought five years ago wouldn’t bring $400,000 this year if sold in this market. So he went out and bought him and his family a new home for $300,000 previously worth $500,000. then placed his home on the market as a short sale. Applied for the HAFA program. He was denied then it got routed to his first mortgage lenders regular short sale department then after three purchase contracts, the two previously falling apart he finally had approvals from both his first and second mortgage lenders to proceed until he found out that his second mortgage lender was going to require him to execute a deficiency judgment at closing for the remaining $44,000 left short on that settlement.
The specific circumstances of this second lien would not allow for him to apply for the 2009 IRS tax exemption either so he was going to owe an additional $15,000 in income tax to Uncle Sam.
I intervened on his behalf and negotiated a buyout of the deficiency judgment with the second lien holder saving him a trailing debt of $44,000 and he keeps his $15,000 instead of sending it to Uncle Sam.
This cost him only $3,000 in cash brought to the closing.
The first mortgage lender lost approximately $200,000 (40%). The Second lien lender loses $41,000 or (82%)
This is pretty savvy if you ask me.