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Home Modification Problems in California (Part 1): Lawyers who Assist Homeowners in Mortgage Modifications Are Now Out of Reach

February 24, 2011 by

Mortgage Modifications Are Now Out Of ReachThe Ridiculous Law in California

The State of California has more active foreclosure cases than any other state in the country. Homeowners in California who seek mortgage modifications have had difficulties for the past few years. Today, they have a new difficulty – they can no longer hire lawyers!

Lawyers throughout the State of California are now being forced to reject clients who come to them for the purpose of obtaining mortgage modification loans. This is because California has passed a unique, unusual and restrictive statute. The new law states that attorneys who work on mortgage modification loans can receive no payment until the loan is approved. Under the new statute, clients cannot even put retainer payments in attorney trust accounts.

This California statute is unlike any other statute in the country. The intent of the California statute is for “fly-by-night” loan modification businesses run by non lawyers to be eliminated from the marketplace. Unfortunately, there has been a fallout from this new statute. The unintended consequence of the new law is that honest, hard-working, well-known, well-established attorneys with excellent credentials can no longer represent individuals in dealing with financial institutions’ complicated and burdensome paperwork related to loan modifications.

avoidNew York Foreclosure Defense Lawyers

In the state of New York, there are no restrictions regarding the hiring of foreclosure defense attorneys. For more than 45 years, the Law Offices of Schlissel DeCorpo has been at the forefront of defending consumers and homeowners regarding litigation with financial institutions. We have developed an expertise in defending foreclosure lawsuits. Upon meeting with our attorneys, we will analyze the paperwork related to your case. We will discuss foreclosure defenses, mortgage modifications and the potential of using bankruptcy filings to assist you. We will provide you with a detailed explanation as to the foreclosure process, the mortgage modification process and how bankruptcies affect homeowners. If you are in trouble with your lender, or behind on your mortgage, call us. We can help you! Our phone numbers are 1-800-344-6431, 516-561-6645 and 718-350-2082.

Filed Under: Current Events, Foreclosure Defense, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Solution to the Mortgage Crisis: Make Home Loan Modifications Mandatory

February 20, 2011 by

Make Home Loan Modifications MandatoryCongress should pass a law forcing financial institutions to make mandatory home modifications to deserving homeowners. Unfortunately, the banking industry has a lot of friends in Congress and it is very unlikely a bill of this nature would be passed by Congress.

Sub Prime Loans

Many of the loans given by financial institutions were called “sub-prime loans”. The sub-prime loans basically duped prospective homeowners into believing that they could afford to buy homes that were, without question, out of their financial reach. Many of the subprime loans had initially interest only payments that increased to include principal over time.

Since the homeowner could barely afford the mortgage-only payment when the mortgage amount increased to include interest or a balloon payment became due, they had no possibility of making these payments.

New Bankruptcy Law in New York

On January 22, 2010, a new bankruptcy statute went into effect in New York State. This allowed individuals filing bankruptcies to keep up to $150,000 of the equity in their home. For a home owned by a couple, up to $300,000 in equity in their home can be kept while the parties file bankruptcy and discharge their debts.

Home ownership and the fair value of real estate provides economic stability to millions of Americans. In the event the economy in the United States were to stabilize, the real estate market also must be stabilized. Homeowners should not be forced to watch the value of their greatest single asset, their home, falling in value each and every month.

Mortgage Modification Assistance

We can help you with mortgage modification issues. Should your home go into foreclosure, the Law Offices of Schlissel DeCorpo can see to it that the foreclosure is stopped in its tracks and you are not thrown of your home. We litigate foreclosure proceedings. We attend court conferences on behalf of our clients. We litigate bad faith loan practices by financial institutions, predatory lending practices, as well as defective foreclosure lawsuits issues. We also maintain this foreclosure blog to help educate the general public. Should you have mortgage modification or foreclosure issues, call us at 1-800-344-6431; 516-561-6645 or 718-350-2802. The Law Offices of Schlissel DeCorpo responds to emails and our phones are monitored 24/7.

Filed Under: Current Events, Foreclosure Defense Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Long Island Foreclosure Crisis

February 18, 2011 by
Long Island Foreclosure CrisisIn 2010, Long Island was a hot bed of foreclosure activity. As a result of the foreclosed homes on the market, there is now an inventory of approximately three years of homes that need to be sold. Simply stated, if no new homes came on to the market to be sold on Long Island for a period of three years, considering the current amount of real estate sales, it would take this period to eliminate the backlog of homes in foreclosure already on the market to be sold.The only place in the United States that has more foreclosed homes on the real estate market is Miami, Florida. In November of 2010 there were 893 new foreclosure cases started in Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island.
The Home Affordable Modification Program (“HAMP”) that was created by the Federal Government to prevent home foreclosures will only assist 800,000 homeowners. When it’s taken into consideration that there are approximately four million foreclosure situations in the United States, less than one in four distressed homeowners will be receiving assistance.

Flawed Mortgage Foreclosure Programs

The current mortgage foreclosure programs rely on the financial institutions to agree to voluntarily reduce the homeowner’s monthly payments to an affordable level. The banks have not been cooperative in this endeavor. Instead of reducing the mortgage payment amount for homeowners, in more than 75% of the cases, the banks put the homes into foreclosure. When the banks take this action, they accelerate the mortgage, refuse to accept future mortgage payments, take the home back and put the house back into an overburdened real estate market.

New York Foreclosure Defense AttorneyNew York Foreclosure Defense Attorney

Our office defends foreclosure cases in New York. We currently have dozens of successful foreclosure cases pending in Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island, as well as in Westchester, Brooklyn and Queens Counties.

Our office represents our clients regarding mortgage modifications. We are experienced with regard to the problems mortgage modification programs have. We maintain a foreclosure blog to help educate our clients regarding the numerous issues concerning the current foreclosure crisis. If our clients are sued, we represent them in the foreclosure litigation. We attend foreclosure conferences on their behalf. We litigate defective foreclosure lawsuits, predatory lending practices, and failed mortgages. If you have a mortgage modification or foreclosure problem, we are the attorneys for you!
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Foreclosure Scam by the Rich and Well Connected

February 18, 2011 by
Filed Under: Foreclosure Defense Tagged With: , , , ,

2010, a Terrible Year for Home Sales

February 14, 2011 by

Posted on February 14th by Elliot S. Schlissel, Esq.

2010 was the worst year for home sales in the United States since 1997. The National Association of Realtors stated that home sales dropped by 4.8% to 4.91 million homes sold in the year 2010. This is the smallest amount of home sales in the United States since 1997.

Foreclosures and High Unemployment Depress the Real Estate Market

The high volume of foreclosures in the United States, coupled with record-high unemployment rates, have depressed the real estate market in the United States. Many potential home purchasers are waiting to buy homes because the prices will continue to decrease. Many economists feel it will take an additional five to six years for the real estate market in the United States to reach a level of equilibrium. It is estimated that 2011 will even be a worse year for home sales in the United States due to increasing foreclosure rates. This should cause the value of homes to continue to decrease in value in 2011. Due to the foreclosure crisis in the United States, there are simply too many homes on the market and not enough prospective purchasers. In addition, it has become much more difficult to obtain mortgages for prospective homeowners.

Banks are carefully underwriting new mortgages. They are looking into the loan-to-debt ratio. They are performing more due diligence, such as to see that the mortgage applications contain correct information. The fact that mortgage rates are extremely low has not been successful in raising the level of home sales in the United States.

The current rates on fixed home-mortgages in the United States are approximately 4.74% for thirty year mortgages and approximately 4.25% for fifteen year mortgages. In November of 2010, rates reached an all time low of 4.17% for a thirty year mortgage and 3.57% for a fifteen year mortgage. The medium home price in the United States in December of 2010 fell to $168,800.00. This was down 1% from December of 2009.

Foreclosure Defense

The Law Offices of Schlissel DeCorpo handles foreclosure defense for homeowners throughout the Metropolitan New York area. We prepare mortgage modification applications. We litigate foreclosure lawsuits and keep our clients in their homes. We attend court foreclosure conferences. We deal with defective foreclosure lawsuits, predatory lending and bad faith on behalf of financial institutions. Should you have a problem call us at 1-800-344-6431, 516-561-6645 or 718-350-2802.

Filed Under: Current Events, Foreclosure Defense Tagged With: , , , , ,

Bank of America Segregates Troubled Mortgage Loans From Performing Mortgage Loans

February 11, 2011 by

Posted by Elliot S. Schlissel, Esq.

Bank of America Segregates Troubled Mortgage Loans From Performing Mortgage LoansBank of America has 1.3 million home mortgage loans in its portfolio that are in default. To deal with these defaulted home mortgage loans, Bank of America created a new entity.  This entity is known as Legacy Asset Servicing.  The defaulted loans, from this point forward, will be serviced by Legacy Asset Servicing.  Many of these defaulted loans were acquired from Bank of America when it purchased Countrywide Financial in 2008.

Performing Mortgage Loans

Bank of America has approximately twelve-million additional home mortgages in its portfolio.  These home mortgage loans are not in default.  Bank of America will continue to service these loans directly.

Countrywide Financial and Improper Mortgage Policies

Countrywide Financial was involved in initiating numerous sub-prime mortgage loans.  Since Bank of America’s acquisition of Countrywide, they have been forced to write off billions of dollars in sub-prime mortgage loans.

Bank of America has decided to remove the non-performing loans from its portfolio for a variety of reasons, including an investigation into foreclosure practices by financial institutions that is currently underway by all fifty state attorney generals’ offices.

Bank of America Changes its Foreclosure Practices

Last year, after Bank of America was criticized by state court judges in a number of states, it established a moratorium on foreclosures.  The bank has since modified its foreclosure practices.  Bank of America has also sharply increased the number of mortgage modifications that have been approved. In the last quarter of 2010, more than 80,000 mortgage modifications were approved by Bank of America.  This is a step in the right direction.

Chase Retail Services, which is a consumer banking unit of JP Morgan Chase, has also indicated that it would separate its non-performing home-equity and mortgage loans from its performing home-equity and mortgage loans.  In January of 2009, Citibank also separated its troubled home mortgage loans from mortgage loans that were up-to-date.

Foreclosure Defense In New York

The Law Offices of Schlissel DeCorpo handles foreclosure defense cases throughout the Metropolitan New York area.  We assist our clients in mortgage modifications.  Should your home go into foreclosure, we attend foreclosure conferences, we litigate these matters and deal with defective foreclosure practices, predatory lending and bad faith proceedings by financial institutions.  We also maintain this foreclosure blog to update the general public regarding a variety of issues concerning mortgage modifications, foreclosures, mortgage modification programs that fail to serve the needs of consumers, as well as other related articles.  Should you need a consultation, fell free to contact us at 1-800-344-6431; 516-561-6645 or 718-350-2802.  Our phones are answered 24/7.

Filed Under: Current Events, Foreclosure Defense Tagged With: , , , , , ,

In 2010, One Million Homes Foreclosed and Repossessed in the United States

February 9, 2011 by

Posted by Elliot S. Schlissel, Esq.

2010 was the worst year in modern history with regard to homes being foreclosed on in the United States. One million American families were forced out of their homes. It is estimated that we will break this horrendous record in the year 2011 and more than a million families will be forced out of their homes due to foreclosures.

It is estimated that more than five million mortgage holders are more than two months behind in their mortgage. Unless more jobs are created by the Obama administration, it is expected that more Americans will lose their jobs in 2011. As foreclosures increase, the home values in the areas with high levels of foreclosures decrease.

2.9 million homeowners received foreclosure filing notices in 2010. This amounts to virtually one in every forty-five homeowners receiving a foreclosure notice. In December alone, more than a quarter of a million homeowners in the United States received a foreclosure notice. As incredible as this sounds, this is good news! This is the lowest amount of foreclosure notices in the past thirty months. The reduction in foreclosure notices was caused by banks reviewing their foreclosure processes after there were numerous instances where it was found that evictions and foreclosure documents were being inappropriately handled by financial institutions. There has also been lawsuits by the Attorney Generals in all fifty states that have put banks under greater scrutiny regarding their practices concerning foreclosing on homes.

Arizona was the leader in 2010 in foreclosures. One in every seventeen households in Arizona received a foreclosure notice. Florida came in second. One out of every eighteen homeowners in Florida received a foreclosure notice. Approximately fifty-percent of the foreclosure notices in the United States were in the five states of California, Illinois, Arizona, Michigan and Florida.

New York Foreclosure Problems

Suffolk County on Long Island had the highest foreclosure rate in New York State in the year 2010. Although the foreclosure rates in New York are lower than many other states, they are still extremely high by traditional standards. The foreclosure crisis in the state of New York is causing real estate values to be depressed.

Foreclosure Defense in NY

Our law firm represents New Yorkers in foreclosure defense proceedings. We litigate foreclosures on behalf of our clients in the five boroughs of the City of New York, Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island, as well as Westchester County. We attend foreclosure conferences on behalf of our clients, we deal with bad faith predatory lending issues, mortgage modification problems, mortgage modification programs and defective foreclosure lawsuits. We are available 24/7 to assist our client. Feel free to call us should you need help to save your home! Our telephone numbers are 1-800-344-6431, 516-561- 6645 or 718-350-2802.

Filed Under: Current Events, Foreclosure Defense Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Banks Close in Florida and Arizona

February 8, 2011 by

Posted by Elliot S. Schlissel, Esq.

Regulatory agencies in Florida and Arizona have recently closed two banks.  These two banks are the first banks that have been closed in the year 2011.  The Federal Deposit Insurance Company was forced to take over the First Commercial Bank of Florida.  This bank was located in Orlando.  The Federal Deposit Insurance Company (FDIC) also took over the Legacy Bank located in Scottsdale Arizona.  These two banks had approximately 275 million dollars in deposits belonging to consumers in their institutions.  It is estimated that these banks will cost the FDIC approximately 110 million dollars.  It should be noted that the FDIC insures each consumer’s account up to $250,000.00. Therefore, the depositors at the aforementioned banks will not lose any money, provided they didn’t have more than $50,000.00 at these banks.

Florida Has the Biggest Banking Crisis in the United States

In 2010, twenty-nine banks in Florida failed.  Florida has had more bank failures than any other state.  California and Illinois came in second and third in the list of states with bank failures.  During the course of 2010, 157 banks failed nationwide.  This is the highest amount of banks that has failed in the United States in recent history.  In 2009, 140 banks failed in the United States.  This had been the previous record year for bank failures.

In 2009, the FDIC paid our 36 billion dollars due to bank failures.  In 2010, the FDIC paid out 21 Billion dollars due to bank failures.  The numerous bank failures have been draining the FDIC of the funds it maintains to secure accounts deposited in the banks of the United States.  It is estimated that there are almost 900 financial institutions with financial difficulties in the United States.  Thank God for the FDIC! Without this Federally backed institution, hundreds of thousands of consumers would lose their life savings.

New York Foreclosure Defense Lawyers

The Law Offices of Schlissel DeCorpo represents homeowners in New York with foreclosure problems and issues involving mortgage modifications.  Our office is adept at keeping our clients in their homes and preventing the banks from putting them on the street.  We attend foreclosure conferences for our clients.  We deal with defective foreclosure lawsuits, predatory lending issues, mortgage modification programs that don’t work as well as bad faith issues.  If you have a problem involving a foreclosure or mortgage modification, we are the solution! Feel free to cal us at 1-800-344-6431, 516-561-6645 or 718-350-2802.

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Blame the Banks, Not the Homeowners, for the Mortgage Crisis (PART 3)

February 4, 2011 by

Posted by Elliot S. Schlissel, Esq.

Modifications Are Superior to Foreclosures

The granting of mortgage modifications to worthy homeowners is a much better policy for the banks, the homeowners and the economy in the United States. However, the banks don’t get this! If the banks were to modify mortgages, in most situations, they would end up making more money, the homeowners would have a place for their family to live, the foreclosure volume in the United States would go down and real estate prices would start to rebound.

Foreclosures Have a Negative Impact on the Real Estate Market

The huge volume in foreclosures is having a crushing impact on the real estate market in the United States. Who is to blame for this mess? The banks and other financial institutions!!! They created the mortgage bubble by improper mortgage lending practices and they made the foreclosure crisis worse by failing to set up reasonable appropriately financed and managed mortgage modification programs. The Federal government bailed out the banks when they had financial problems. The banks were supposed to help the homeowners who were in financial trouble. They have failed miserably in this endeavor!

Foreclosure Defense and Loan Modification Lawyers

If you are involved in the above referenced foreclosure mess or have problems with mortgage modifications, we can help you. The foreclosure defense lawyers at the Law Offices of Schlissel DeCorpo have been assisting our clients for more than 45 years. We have dozens of foreclosure defense cases pending throughout the courts in the Metropolitan New York area. We attend foreclosure conferences for our clients. We help negotiate mortgage modifications. We are familiar with the mortgage modification programs that fail. We are adept at litigating defective foreclosure lawsuits, predatory lending and bad faith of financial institutions. Call us at 1-800-344-6431, 516-561-6645 or 718-350-2802. We can help you!

Filed Under: Foreclosure Defense Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Blame the Banks, Not the Homeowners, for the Mortgage Crisis (PART 2)

February 2, 2011 by

Fraudulent Mortgage Applications

Banks were aware that the applications that had been submitted to them by individuals seeking mortgages were fraudulent.  Instead of operating an appropriate underwriting process that provided due diligence to see to it that the consumer’s requesting mortgage loans could actually make payments on these loans, the banks simply stopped underwriting the loans in any reasonable manner.  The failure of the banks to properly underwrite the loans is one of the principal reasons for the mortgage bubble in America.

Income-to-debt Ratio

The banks have been aware for decades that there is an income-to-debt ratio a perspective homeowner must meet to be able to afford to make mortgage payments.  Loan officers, mortgage brokers, real estate agents and appraisers were involved in the submission of fraudulent documents where the loan-to-debt ratio was of such a nature that the perspective homeowner could never successfully make the mortgage payments.

Servicing Companies Who Would Rather Foreclose than Modify Mortgages

The servicing companies hired by financial institutions to service mortgages were supposed to provide the consumer with a simple, reasonable mortgage modification process.  Instead, incompetent under-financed mortgage modification programs were set up.  The financial institutions continuously ask the consumers to send and resend the same documents.  The communication level between the mortgage servicing companies and the consumer is almost non-existent.  Consumers became more and more frustrated in trying to communicate with individuals at the serving companies who knew nothing about their pending mortgage applications.  Instead of appropriately processing mortgage modifications for creditworthy individuals, these individuals have been turned down for their mortgage modifications.

Twenty Years of Representing New Yorkers in Foreclosure Defense Lawsuits

Our law firm is currently handling dozens of foreclosure defense cases throughout the Metropolitan New York area.  We help our clients obtain mortgage modifications.  We prevent banks from forcing our clients out of their homes.  We attend court foreclosure conferences, litigate defective foreclosure lawsuits, predatory lending, bad faith and other improper practices by financial institutions.

Should you need help, we are the law in the Metropolitan New York area with an extremely high success rate in our foreclosure defense cases.  Call us at 1-800-344-6431, 516-561-6645 or 718-350-2802.

Filed Under: Current Events, Foreclosure Defense Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

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Attorney Elliot S. Schlissel

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Disclaimer: The information you obtain at this website is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice. You should consult an attorney for individual advice regarding your particular legal issue. This is attorney advertising.