Crystal and Shereen interviewed on Los Angeles KFWB’s Real Estate Life – CBS Radio air date 5-29-10.  Taking calls and giving advice on Real Estate Short Sales, hosted by Michael Harris, CMP, Broker, Radio Host.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=425A3DBB7A093F27

 May 03, 2010 — TRILOGY PROPERTY SOLUTIONS
http://www.trilogypropertysolutions.com / (888)803-0505

One of our homeowners offered to give us an anonymous testimonial. Although going through a short sale is a very private experience, he was generous enough to share with you his experience of working with our team.

Trilogy Property Solutions are the Legal Short Sale Specialists for Luxury Exclusive Properties in California. We specialize in luxury properties because of the experts we have on our team. We put our homeowners first by staying the short sale course, as we work with their lenders to get a settlement on their overleveraged mortgage. Call us at (888) 803-0505 / or email Crystal@TrilogyPropertySolutions.com

Trilogy Property Solutions is a team of experienced real estate negotiators, investors, and title specialists who help property owners solve a variety of real estate situations. Sometimes homeowners have to move when relocated to another state, sometimes they get divorced and its necessary to sell, and sometimes financial hardship befalls them and they just dont have a choice but to short sale their home or allow their lenders to foreclose on their loans, damaging their credit and limiting their future possibilities for housing and job fulfillment.

We listen to what your needs are and then work to find the best solution for your situation.

In the process were helping you, the homeowner avoid foreclosure, the banks from incurring more loss and holding costs, your realtor reach a successful short sale, and in the long run — the economy with win-win solutions done legally and thoroughly. We keep you in touch with the progress of the negotiations on a weekly basis!

With Trilogy Property Solutions guiding the way to the light at the end of the tunnel, you can count on us to do whatever it takes to help you find relief.

No matter what is happening with the economy or how stressed youve been, we all deserve to find our way to peace again, moving forward in life with a chance at a fresh start.

Please contact us anytime if you would like more information on what your possibilities are.

Sincerely,

Your Team at Trilogy Property Solutions
www.TrilogyPropertySolutions.com
(888) 803-0505

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADA51DC81BD517CE

4/23/10 -- California -- TRILOGY PROPERTY SOLUTIONS  met with our attorney, RON BALLARD, (www.californiashortsalelawyer.com/(949)597-9596),

the Top Short Sale Attorney in California, in Orange County to discuss and shed some light on the April 2010 Freddie Mac Newsletter article on “Short Payoff Fraud” regarding the licensing of short sale negotiators, highest and best offers on short sales, realtors fiduciary responsibility, and more. The intention of this discussion is to clarify misstatements, misunderstandings, and fact from fiction. We discuss the impact of this article on legitimate investors and other short sale buyers and their large role in helping to resolve the current housing crisis. We also talk about the advantages on your credit and your future of a short sale over foreclosure, filing bankruptcy, and deed-in-lieu of foreclosure.

From our Attorney, Ron Ballard:

“First, its valuable to note that the author is not named nor is any specific contact information provided for follow up (just generic contact points). This brings the level of authority of the article into immediate question.

Second, the article is entirely inconsistent with Attachment A to Freddie Mac Bulletin 2009-24 of October 2009 which states: Property flips are not inherently illegal and not all transactions involving a rapid purchase and resale are improper. Legitimate property flips are acceptable transactions in connection with loans purchased by Freddie Mac. It goes on to specify, Some indications of property flip transactions that may be legitimate 

include: . . . Sales of properties that the seller acquired at below market value after purchasing as a result of a distress sale (i.e. . . ., short sale, . . . ) where any increase in the sale price over the property sellers acquisition cost can be clearly shown to be result of the difference (if any) in the markets reaction to distress sales and typical arms-length sales. Bulletin 2009-24 came from the division in Freddie Mac which determines the standards for loans it will purchase. The April 12 online article is attributed to a member of Freddie Macs Fraud Investigation Unit 

with respect to the discount Freddie Mac will allow on loans for which it agrees to a short payoff. Apparently these two units are not aware of each others opinions. Freddie Macs general counsels office needs to reconcile these discrepancies.

For reasons explained below, I am confident that the ultimate direction of Freddie Mac will be more consistent with Bulletin 2009-24.”

by Chris Mclaughlin

Sales of new single-family houses in March 2010 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 411,000, 23.8 percent above the March 2009 estimate of 332,000, according to estimates released jointly Friday, April 23, 2010 by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. March new sales are 26.9 percent above the revised February rate of 324,000. The $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit expires Friday, April 30, 2010. There is also a $6,500 credit for repeat buyers. “Undoubtedly, the tax credit is working,” said Bob Jones, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Bloomfield Hills, Mich. “Builders are seeing a growing optimism among consumers.” “The near record-breaking 27 percent increase over February was the result of home buyers taking advantage of the tax credit as well as a carryover of demand that was held back by unusually bad weather in February,” said NAHB Chief Economist David
Crowe. “The increased sales are very welcome news and sales will continue to improve, although we expect them to plateau in late spring and early summer when the credit expires. Following that, the housing momentum will be carried forward by low interest rates, pent up household formations, excellent affordability conditions and a budding employment growth,” Crowe added.

Regionally, sales increased 35.7 percent in the Northeast, 4.3 percent in the Midwest, 43.5 percent in the South and 5.7 percent in the West. The nationwide inventory of new homes on the market dropped a negligible 0.8 percent in March, to 227,000 units as builders continued to maintain small inventories. With the increased sales pace and low inventory level, the month’s supply of new homes for sale dropped from 8.6 in February to 6.7 in March. The median sales price of new houses sold in March 2010 was $214,000; the average sales price was $258,600.

The real news about new home sales

CNBC’s Diana Olick has a contrarian, and perhaps more realistic take on the situation: “It’s big, no question. A 27 percent monthly bump up in sales of newly constructed homes. To me this is real proof of the tax credit boost, because this data series is based on contracts signed, unlike the Existing Home Sales series we got yesterday from the Realtors, which is based on closings (so contracts signed in Jan/Feb). The tax credit expires one week from today, so the March and April numbers should reflect that. That said, I thought it would be useful for you to hear what some of the analysts are saying:

- Dan Oppenheim/Credit Suisse: ‘The improving trend in sales is consistent with our expectations for rising activity through April based on the pull-forward in demand ahead of the tax credit expiration. However, the tax credit does not appear to create incremental buyers, but just shifts the timing of purchases so that the stronger March and April are, the worse May and June will be. We expect the focus to soon shift to the severity of the payback, which is likely to undermine builders’ quest for profitability especially when combined with rising materials costs.’

- Michael Rehaut/J.P. Morgan: ‘We expect the builders to continue to show positive order growth during the spring selling season, as well as order growth in the second half of the year, as community counts stabilize and the builders gain share against a more stable housing backdrop. As a result, we reiterate our positive sector stance based on our outlook for the builders to continue to demonstrate positive order growth, improving margins and less charges, which we believe should serve as positive catalysts for the group.’

- Mark Hanson/Housing/Mortgage Analyst: ‘I am fairly confident that new home sales (counts) are really close to bottoming in here. Note, that is the very first time I have ever said this about NHS. In fact, in Feb sales actually rose month over month on a not-seasonally adjusted basis by 2k units…24k vs 22k in Jan. And unlike existing sales, weather could have held sales down a bit in Feb. I absolutely do not see some sort of building streak on the horizon given foreclosures are back near record highs for the past two months in a row and it looks like in March actual foreclosures will set an all-time record above 90k. But I do think that building has reached such depressed levels that the ‘crash’ has ceased in here and Feb’s 22k NSA sales—down from Feb’s bubble year’s average of 90k and last Feb’s 29k —will be as bad as it gets for a while.’

America underwater?

Bill Gross, a founder of the investment giant Pimco, is a bottom-line kind of guy; he doesn’t seem to care if the debt is the fault of Republicans or Democrats, the Bush tax cuts or the Obama stimulus. He’s simply worried that Washington’s habit of spending today the money it hopes to collect tomorrow is getting worse and worse. According to Gross, it even has elements of a Ponzi scheme. In fact, he’s so concerned about America’s national debt that he has started unloading some of his holdings of U.S. government bonds in favor of bonds from such countries as Germany, Canada and France. “In order to pay the interest and the bill when it comes due, we’ll simply have to issue more IOUs. That, to me, is Ponzi-like,” Gross said. “It’s a game that can never be finished.” The national debt — which totaled $8,370,635,856,604.98 as of a few days ago, not even counting the trillions owed by the government to Social Security and other pilfered trust funds — is rapidly becoming a do
minant political issue in Washington and across the country, and not just among the “tea party” crowd.

President Obama is feeling the pressure, and on Tuesday he will open the first session of a high-level bipartisan commission that will look for ways to reduce deficits and put the country on a sustainable fiscal path. It’s a tough task. The short term looks awful, and the long term looks hideous. Under any likely scenario, the federal debt will continue to balloon in the years to come. The Congressional Budget Office expects it to reach $20 trillion over the next decade — and that assumes no new recessions, no new wars and no new financial crises. In the doomsday scenario, foreign investors get spooked and demand higher interest rates to continue bankrolling American profligacy. As rates shoot up, the United States has to borrow more and more simply to pay the interest on its debt, and soon the economy is in a downward spiral. Of course, at least in theory, this problem can be fixed. Unlike a real Ponzi scheme, which collapses when no new suckers offer money that can be u
sed to pay off earlier investors, the government can restore fiscal sanity whenever our leaders decide to do so. But that premise is what has people like Gross worried. In addition to running a budget deficit, Washington has had a massive deficit of political will.

Stimulus didn’t help

In the latest quarterly survey by the National Association for Business Economics (NABE), the index that measures employment, a majority of respondents felt the fiscal stimulus had no impact. NABE conducted the study by polling 68 of its members who work in economic roles at private-sector firms. About 73% of those surveyed said employment at their company is neither higher nor lower as a result of the $787 billion Recovery Act, which the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers says is on track to create or save 3.5 million jobs by the end of the year. That sentiment is shared for the recently passed $17.7 billion jobs bill that calls for tax breaks for businesses that hire and additional infrastructure spending. More than two-thirds of those polled believe the measure won’t affect payrolls, while 30% expect it to boost hiring “moderately.” But the economists see conditions improving. More than half of respondents — 57% — say industrial demand is rising, while just 6
% see it declining. A growing number also said their firms are increasing spending and profit margins are widening.

Nearly a quarter of those surveyed forecast that gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity, will grow more than 3% in 2010, and 70% of NABE’s respondents expect it to grow more than 2%. Still, the survey suggested that tight lending conditions remain a concern. Almost half of those polled said the credit crunch hurts their business.

Fannie and Freddie get tough on scams

A new coalition, led by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, will launch a national campaign to prevent loan modification scams. The Loan Modification Scam Prevention Network also includes the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and NeighborWorks America, which is a network of community development and affordable housing organizations. The network will work to educate borrowers, take in complaint reports and coordinate with local, state and federal enforcement agencies. A story in the November 2009 issue of HousingWire cited complaints of modification scams in California increasing from 163 in 2008 to 2,000 in 2009. Some companies allegedly charged as much as $3,000 for a guaranteed loan modification and did nothing.

The network website names individuals and companies identified by enforcement agencies to have allegedly committed a loan modification scam. “This effort links homeowners to free, legitimate counseling and helps to put scammers out of business. The goal of this campaign is to educate homeowners and empower those who have fallen victim to scammers to report and prevent future fraud,” said Jeff Hayward, senior vice president at Fannie. Other partners in the network include the Treasury Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Trade Commission.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=33182F90689DAF07

4/23/10 -- TRILOGY PROPERTY SOLUTIONS
www.trilogypropertysolutions.com/ (888) 803-0505
met with our attorney, RON BALLARD, (www.californiashortsalelawyer.com/(949)597-9596),
the Top Short Sale Attorney in California, to discuss the specifics of the March 24, 2010 Department of Real Estate’s (DRE) Newsflash warning homeowners of predators and short sales fraud as it affects our Luxury Homeowners. 

We met in Orange County to take a look at what the newsflash means to homeowners, what to look out for, and what to be informed of to ensure that you’re dealing with legitimate investors and realtors who are negotiating your short sale legally and ethically, and most importantly, in the best interest of the homeowner. We also talk about the advantages on your credit and your future of a short sale over foreclosure, filing bankruptcy, and deed-in-lieu of foreclosure

4/23/10 – TRILOGY PROPERTY SOLUTIONS met with our attorney, RON BALLARD, (www.californiashortsalelawyer.com/(949)597-9596), the Top Short Sale Attorney in California, to discuss the specifics of the March 24, 2010 Department of Real Estate’s (DRE) Newsflash warning homeowners of predators and short sales fraud as it affects our Luxury Homeowners.

We met in Orange County to take a look at what the newsflash means to homeowners, what to look out for, and what to be informed of to ensure that you’re dealing with legitimate investors and realtors who are negotiating your short sale legally and ethically, and most importantly, in the best interest of the homeowner. We also talk about the advantages on your credit and your future of a short sale over foreclosure, filing bankruptcy, and deed-in-lieu of foreclosure

Okay, here they are finally!  Our Trilogy Property Solutions interview ”LEGAL SHORT SALES” with our Attorney, Ron Ballard, The Top Short Sale Attorney in California is up and easy to download and watch.  Watch up-to-the-minute legal information on the current status of foreclosures, short sales, credit impact for homeowners, and government HAFA and HAMP programs and the real affect that will have on homeowners that participate.

You can downloaded the video or audio Podcasts of “Legal Short Sales” on iTunes.  The iTunes “Legal Short Sales” podcasts will be invaluable for people with iPods to watch and share, they’re very informative, educational and are a great representation of Trilogy’s legal standards in our work with homeowners and realtors to avoid foreclosure and stop the damage to people’s credit, and futures. 

(If you don’t have time to listen now, you can download the iTunes audio Podcast “Legal Short Sales” and listen to it in your car.)

iTunes Podcasts:  Go to the iTunes “Store” and click on “Podcast” on the top menu bar.  Then search “trilogy legal short sales”   There are 2 podcasts, one is video with a little picture of a computer monitor next to it, and one is just audio.  You can either play them from iTunes, or download to your computer or iPod for listening to while you drive!

There  are also 12 YouTube videos and a Playlist that plays them all, if you don’t have access to the iTunes video Podcasts or audio Podcasts.  If the interview is relevant to what you do, you can embed the YouTube videos into your blogs and websites, as well.  

 YouTube Videos:   Go to YouTube.com and search:  TrilogyProps3 or Legal Short Sales

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4nFybg1g2E
 
Subscribe to the YouTube videos, and when we upload new ones, you’ll get notified. 

Please comment and let us know what you think!

Trilogy partners Shereen Noon, Julie Falen, and Crystal Gomez meet with Ron Ballard, California top short sale attorney.

Topics Discussed:

Avoid Foreclosure

New Short Sale Laws-Avoid Foreclosure

Staying on Top of Foreclosure laws to protect Homeowners

Foreclosure HAMP HAFA Specifics

Foreclosure-Ballard Law-The RESI

Legal Short Sale-Foreclosure – Do Not Pay Up Front

Avoid Foreclosure – Legitimate Companies

Short Sale-Avoid Foreclosure-Team of Responsive Experts

Avoid Foreclosure-Wells Fargo Policy

Legal Short Sale-Homeowners Avoid Foreclosure by Starting Process Early

Legal Short Sale Negotiator Mistakes-Foreclosure

Avoid Foreclosure

Topics Discussed:

Avoid Foreclosure

New Short Sale Laws-Avoid Foreclosure

Staying on Top of Foreclosure laws to protect Homeowners

Foreclosure HAMP/HAFA Specifics

Foreclosure-Ballard Law-The RESI

Legal Short Sale-Foreclosure-Do Not Pay Up Front

Avoid Foreclosure-Legitimate Companies

Short Sale-Avoid Foreclosure-Team of Responsive Experts

Avoid Foreclosure-Wells Fargo Policy

Legal Short Sale-Homeowners Avoid Foreclosure by Starting Process Early

Legal Short Sale Negotiator Mistakes-Foreclosure

Avoid Foreclosure

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD72F85301870D73

January 24, 2010 — Trilogy Property Solutions, the Legal Short Sale Specialists, interviews Ron Ballard, top short sale attorney on the current state of real estate market to stay on the cutting edge of helping homeowners in foreclosure with doing short sales correctly, legally, and ethically. Its our priority to constantly be aware of new California real estate regulations to make sure that everything we do is moral and abides all foreclosure laws designed to protect homeowners from people who are taking advantage of distressed homeowners. At lunch with Ron Ballard, Esq., and Jeff Watson, Esq. the two top short sales attorneys in the country, we learned even more on how to help home owners legally, correctly, and ethically in this ever changing legal climate on real estate, especially here in California!

These times are definitely exposing the greedy from the helpful. Short sales can be done ethically or unethically, and its crucial that homeowners and realtors screen the parties they get involved with carefully. Legal and ethical short sales are done with complete transparency and full disclosure to all parties; the bank, the homeowner, the realtors. This is created through the right documentation and information provided to the right parties at the right time. If someone does not know what theyre doing, they can possibly create enough chaos to lead the property straight to foreclosure.

Many realtors are not trained well enough in short sales to prevent a foreclosure, but many homeowners are going to them believing that they are the most ethical and protective of their homes. The National Association of Realtors reports that only 10-15% of short sales that realtors are negotiating prevent a foreclosure. The other 85-90% are being foreclosed on. You have to realize that realtors are in the business of finding Buyers and Sellers of homes, not in the buiness of negotiating and processing short sales with lenders. Short sale negotiating is a very specific skill set and constant training and updated legal documents insure a higher chance to avoid a foreclosure.

Trilogy Property Solutions prides themselves on their integrity, ethics, and compassion for what homeowners are going through. If you would like more information on how we can possibly find solutions for you, please call us anytime. (888) 803-0505 or email: ShortSaleCrystal@gmail.com

A lot of our luxury real estate short sale agents have been asking similar questions about the legalities of short sales, so we’ll be putting up some videos and blogs answering those questions coming up soon.  Look for us on YouTube and Facebook, as well as right here. 

If you have any specific questions, please post them here and we’ll try to answer them as best as we can.   As you know we work with the top short sale attorneys and we’ll pass what we know directly to you. 

If calling is easier for you to ask your questions, try us (888) 803-0505.

Talk to you soon!

Julie, Crystal , and Shereen with Trilogy Property Solutions

The Luxury Short Sale Specialists

The Obama administration’s $75 billion program to protect homeowners from foreclosure has been widely pronounced a disappointment, and some economists and real estate experts now contend it has done more harm than good.
Critics increasingly argue that the program, Making Home Affordable, has raised false hopes among people who simply cannot afford their homes. As a result, desperate homeowners have sent payments to banks in often-futile efforts to keep their homes, which some see as wasting dollars they could have saved in preparation for moving to cheaper rental residences. Some borrowers have seen their credit tarnished while falsely assuming that loan modifications involved no negative reports to credit agencies.

Some experts argue the program has impeded economic recovery by delaying a wrenching yet cleansing process through which borrowers give up unaffordable homes and banks fully reckon with their disastrous bets on real estate, enabling money to flow more freely through the financial system.

“The choice we appear to be making is trying to modify our way out of this, which has the effect of lengthening the crisis,” said Kevin Katari, managing member of Watershed Asset Management, a San Francisco-based hedge fund. “We have simply slowed the foreclosure pipeline, with people staying in houses they are ultimately not going to be able to afford anyway.” Mr. Katari contends that banks have been using temporary loan modifications under the Obama plan as justification to avoid an honest accounting of the mortgage losses still on their books.

Only after banks are forced to acknowledge losses and the real estate market absorbs a now pent-up surge of foreclosed properties will housing prices drop to levels at which enough Americans can afford to buy, he argues. “Then the carpenters can go back to work,” Mr. Katari said. “The roofers can go back to work, and we start building housing again. If this drips out over the next few years, that whole sector of the economy isn’t going to recover.”

The Treasury Department publicly maintains that its program is on track. “The program is meeting its intended goal of providing immediate relief to homeowners across the country,” a department spokeswoman, Meg Reilly, wrote in an e-mail message.

But behind the scenes, Treasury officials appear to have concluded that growing numbers of delinquent borrowers simply lack enough income to afford their homes and must be eased out.
In late November, with scant public disclosure, the Treasury Department started the Foreclosure Alternatives Program, through which it will encourage arrangements that result in distressed borrowers surrendering their homes.

The program will pay incentives to mortgage companies that allow homeowners to sell properties for less than they owe on their mortgages — short sales, in real estate parlance. The government will also pay incentives to mortgage companies that allow delinquent borrowers to hand over their deeds in lieu of foreclosing.

Ms. Reilly, the Treasury spokeswoman, said the foreclosure alternatives program did not represent a new policy. “We have said from the start that modifications will not be the solution for all homeowners and will not solve the housing crisis alone,” Ms. Reilly said by e-mail. “This has always been a multi-pronged effort.”

Whatever the merits of its plans, the administration has clearly failed to reverse the foreclosure crisis. In 2008, more than 1.7 million homes were “lost” through foreclosures, short sales or deeds in lieu of foreclosure, according to Moody’s Economy.com.

Last year, more than two million homes were lost, and Economy.com expects that this year’s number will swell to 2.4 million. “I don’t think there’s any way for Treasury to tweak their plan, or to cajole, pressure or entice servicers to do more to address the crisis,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “For some folks, it is doing more harm than good, because ultimately, at the end of the day, they are going back into the foreclosure morass.”

Mr. Zandi argues that the administration needs a new initiative that attacks a primary source of foreclosures: the roughly 15 million American homeowners who are underwater, meaning they owe the bank more than their home is worth. Increasingly, such borrowers are inclined to walk away and accept foreclosure, rather than continuing to make payments on properties in which they own no equity.

A paper by researchers at the Amherst Securities Group suggests that being underwater “is a far more important predictor of defaults than unemployment.” From its inception, the Obama plan has drawn criticism for failing to compel banks to write down the size of outstanding mortgage balances, which would restore equity for underwater borrowers, giving them greater incentive to make payments. A vast majority of modifications merely decrease monthly payments by lowering the interest rate. Mr. Zandi proposes that the Treasury Department push banks to write down some loan balances by reimbursing the companies for their losses.

He pointedly rejects the notion that government ought to get out of the way and let foreclosures work their way through the market, saying that course risks a surge of foreclosures and declining house prices that could pull the economy back into recession.
“We want to overwhelm this problem,” he said. “If we do go back into recession, it will be very difficult to get out.”

Under the current program, the government provides cash incentives to mortgage companies that lower monthly payments for borrowers facing hardships. The Treasury Department set a goal of three to four million permanent loan modifications by 2012. “That’s overly optimistic at this stage,” said Richard H. Neiman, the superintendent of banks for New York State and an appointee to the Congressional Oversight Panel, a body created to keep tabs on taxpayer bailout funds. “There’s a great deal of frustration and disappointment.”

As of mid-December, some 759,000 homeowners had received loan modifications on a trial basis typically lasting three to five months. But only about 31,000 had received permanent modifications — a step that requires borrowers to make timely trial payments and submit paperwork verifying their financial situation. The government has pressured mortgage companies to move faster. Still, it argues that trial modifications are themselves a considerable help.

“Almost three-quarters of a million Americans now are benefiting from modification programs that reduce their monthly payments dramatically, on average $550 a month,” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said last month at a hearing before the Congressional Oversight Panel. “That is a meaningful amount of support.”

But mortgage experts and lawyers who represent borrowers facing foreclosure argue that recipients of trial loan modifications often wind up worse off. In Lakeland, Fla., Jaimie S. Smith, 29, called her mortgage company, then Washington Mutual, in October 2008, when she realized she would get a smaller bonus from her employer, a furniture company, threatening her ability to continue the $1,250 monthly mortgage payments on her three-bedroom house.

In April, Chase, which had taken over Washington Mutual, lowered her payment to $1,033.62 in a trial that was supposed to last three months. Ms. Smith made all three payments on time and submitted required documents, Chase confirms. She called the bank almost weekly to inquire about a permanent loan modification. Each time, she says, Chase told her to continue making trial payments and await word on a permanent modification. Then, in October, a startling legal notice arrived in the mail: Chase had foreclosed on her house and sold it at auction for $100.

The purchaser? Chase.

“I cried,” she said.“I was hysterical. I bawled my eyes out.” Later that week came another letter from Chase: “Congratulations on qualifying for a Making Home Affordable loan modification!”
When Ms. Smith frantically called the bank to try to overturn the sale, she was told that the house was no longer hers. Chase would not tell her how long she could remain there, she says.
She feared the sheriff would show up at her door with eviction papers, or that she would return home to find her belongings piled on the curb. So Ms. Smith anxiously set about looking for a new place to live.

She had been planning to continue an online graduate school program in supply chain management, and she had about $4,000 in borrowed funds to pay tuition. She scrapped her studies and used the money to pay the security deposit and first month’s rent on an apartment.
Later, she hired a lawyer, who is seeking compensation from Chase. A judge later vacated the sale. Chase is still offering to make her loan modification permanent, but Ms. Smith has already moved out and is conflicted about what to do.

“I could have just walked away,” said Ms. Smith. “If they had said, ‘We can’t work with you,’ I’d have said: ‘What are my options? Short sale?’ None of this would have happened. God knows, I never would have wanted to go through this. I’d still be in grad school. I would not have paid all that money to them. I could have saved that money.”

A Chase spokeswoman, Christine Holevas, confirmed that the bank mistakenly foreclosed on Ms. Smith’s house and sold it at the same time it was extending the loan modification offer.
“There was a systems glitch,” Ms. Holevas said. “We are sorry that an error happened. We’re trying very hard to do what we can to keep folks in their homes. We are dealing with many, many individuals.”

Many borrowers complain they were told by mortgage companies their credit would not be damaged by accepting a loan modification, only to discover otherwise. In a telephone conference with reporters, Jack Schakett, Bank of America’s credit loss mitigation executive, confirmed that even borrowers who were current before agreeing to loan modifications and who then made timely payments were reported to credit rating agencies as making only partial payments.

The biggest source of concern remains the growing numbers of underwater borrowers — now about one-third of all American homeowners with mortgages, according to Economy.com.
The Obama administration clearly grasped the threat as it created its program, yet opted not to focus on writing down loan balances. “This is a conscious choice we made, not to start with principal reduction,” Mr. Geithner told the Congressional Oversight Panel. “We thought it would be dramatically more expensive for the American taxpayer, harder to justify, create much greater risk of unfairness.”

Mr. Geithner’s explanation did not satisfy the panel’s chairwoman, Elizabeth Warren. “Are we creating a program in which we’re talking about potentially spending $75 billion to try to modify people into mortgages that will reduce the number of foreclosures in the short term, but just kick the can down the road?” she asked, raising the prospect “that we’ll be looking at an economy with elevated mortgage foreclosures not just for a year or two, but for many years.

How do you deal with that problem, Mr. Secretary?”
A good question, Mr. Geithner conceded.
“What to do about it,” he said. “That’s a hard thing.”

This story originally appeared in the The New York Times
By: Peter S. Goodman/The New York Times

From: http://www.cnbc.com/id/34664997

Homeowners First! We’re here to help Southern California homeowners avoid and stop foreclosure, thereby protecting their credit from further damage and making it easier for them to get a fresh start on a new life.  We’re here to support you in taking power and responsibility over your future!  Your credit is gold! We will help you get good credit, so you can move on with your life.

Crystal Gomez, Jeff Watson, Esq., Shereen Noon at SSR FAF

Keeping up to the minute with Ron Ballard, Esq., on new CA Real Estate regulations & laws

Crystal Gomez and Shereen Noon attended more training in Las Vegas this week to stay on the cutting edge of helping homeowners with doing short sales correctly, legally, and ethically.  It’s our priority to constantly be aware of new California real estate regulations to make sure that everything we do is moral and abides all laws designed to protect homeowners from people who are taking advantage of distressed homeowners.  At lunch with Ron Ballard, Esq., and Jeff Watson, Esq. the two top short sales attorneys in the country, we learned even more on how to help home owners legally, correctly, and ethically in this ever changing legal climate on real estate, especially here in California! 

These times are definitely exposing the greedy from the helpful.  Short sales can be done ethically or unethically, and it’s crucial that homeowners and realtors screen the parties they get involved with carefully.  Legal and ethical short sales are done with complete transparency and full disclosure to all parties; the bank, the homeowner, the realtors.  This is created through the right documentation and information provided to the right parties at the right time.   If someone does not know what they’re doing, they can possibly create enough chaos to lead the property straight to foreclosure. 

Many realtors are not trained well enough in short sales to prevent a foreclosure, but many homeowners are going to them believing that they are the most ethical and protective of their homes.  The National Association of Realtors reports that only 10-15% of short sales that realtors are negotiating prevent a foreclosure.  The other 85-90% are being foreclosed on.  You have to realize that realtors are in the business of finding Buyers and Sellers of homes, not in the buiness of negotiating and processing short sales with lenders.  Short sale negotiating is a very specific skill set and constant training and updated legal documents insure a higher chance to avoid a foreclosure. 

It was fun to be in such a large group of people from all over the country so committed to operating their short sale businesses with integrity.  We’ve been invited to participate with some questionable parties with questionable methodology, and it amazes us to see how blatantly they operate.  We recognize them faster and faster, so we’re having more time to work on helping homeowners get a short sale approved by their lender and get a fresh start without all the pressure and stress. 

Trilogy Property Solutions prides themselves on their integrity, ethics, and compassion for what homeowners are going through.  If you would like more information on how we can possibly find solutions for you, please call us anytime.  (888) 803-0505 or email: ShortSaleCrystal@gmail.com

Keeping You Informed

 
We have access to a lot of information that our homeowners do not have, so we’re always looking for ways to keep them in the loop.  Chris McLaughlin is one of our associates who really stays on top of things and we are proud to share some of his thoughts and information.
Tax credit voted in
  

It’s here! The U.S. House of Representatives has just voted (403-12) to extend and expand the homebuyer tax credit, and it’s on its way to the President for his signature…he’s expected to sign it today. Not only does it extend the tax credit, but it expands it. The items carried over until April 30, 2010 are: Amount of Credit ($8000 or $4000 married, filing separate) and Definition for Eligibility (May not have had an interest in a principal residence for 3 years prior to purchase). The items added to the credit, from December 1 to April 30 are, for current homeowners: Amount of Credit ($6500 or $3250 married, filing separate); Effective Date (Date of Enactment); Definition for Eligibility (Must have used the home sold or being sold as a principal residence consecutively for 5 of the previous 8 years); Termination of Credit (Purchases after April 30, 2010); Binding Contract Rule (So long as a written binding contract to purchase is in effect on April 30, 2010, the p urchaser will have until July 1, 2010 to close); Income Limits ($125,000 – single $225,000 – married Additional $20,000 phase out); Limitation on Cost of Purchased Home ($800,000 Effective Date of Enactment); Purchase by a Dependent (Ineligible Effective Date of Enactment); Antifraud Rule (Purchaser must attach documentation of purchase to tax return).
  

Unemployment over 10%
According to the long-awaited report from the Labor Department, in October unemployment rose to 10.2% for the first time since 1983 – much worse than expected. There was a net loss of 190,000 jobs in October, an improvement from a revised estimate of 219,000 job losses in September, but far worse than the 175,000 jobs forecast by economists surveyed by Briefing.com. This is the 22nd straight month of job losses. The Obama administration estimated last month that 640,000 jobs were created or saved by the federal stimulus package passed earlier this year but, while that makes good politics, it’s nothing compared to the 7.3 million jobs that have been lost by the economy since the start of 2008. Today’s report comes one day after Congress voted to extend unemployment benefits by up to 20 weeks. 

There are now a record 5.6 million people who have been unemployed for six months or longer, as the average time an unemployed person has been out of a job hit 26.9 weeks. According to a survey of top forecasters by the National Association of Business Economics last month, the consensus estimate among economists was that unemployment would hit a high of 10% in the final three months of this year and the first quarter of 2010. But get this – the five economists with the most bearish forecasts had expected unemployment to rise to 10.2% in the fourth quarter of this year before hitting 10.5% in the first half of next year. 

Short sales don’t hurt credit scores 

Sarah Davies, vice president of VantageScore, at the Loan Modifications Conference now underway in Dallas, Texas, says restructuring plans on a mortgage, whether in the form a forbearance, modification or short sale, have a relatively insignificant effect on the consumer’s credit score. VantageScore measures the generic consumer’s credit score and his or her likelihood of slipping into 90-plus day delinquencies on a scale of 501 to 990. If a servicer reduces a consumer’s original loan amount from 10-to-30%, the consumer’s credit score is only increased by three to 18 points, depending upon the consumer’s initial standing. Borrowers in the top-tier of credit scores, averaging an 862, receive only a three-point increase. Lower tier borrowers, in the 625 range, can receive an 18-point jump. The credit score increases because the total amount of debt owed is reduced, and the borrower becomes inherently more reliable, Davies said. However, foreclosure and bankruptcy c an more severely affect the consumer’s credit score. If a borrower, who maintains good credit, is foreclosed, his or her credit score can decrease by as much as 140 points. Bankruptcy for someone in good credit standing results in a reduction of 365 points from the consumer’s credit and a mark on the file for seven to sometimes 10 years, Davies said. 

Mortgages rates drop 

Freddie Mac said the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) was 4.98% with an average 0.7 point, down from an average 5.03% the previous week. One year ago, the average rate for a 30-year FRM was 5.88%. It said the average rate for a 15-year FRM was 4.4% with an average 0.6 point, down from 4.46% the previous week. A year ago, the rate was 5.88%. Freddie said the five-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) was 4.35% this week, with an average 0.6 point, down from last week’s 4.42%. The one-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 4.47% with an average 0.5 point, down from last week when it averaged 4.57%. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 5.25%. Bankrate.com’s survey of major US banks and thrifts put the 30-year FRM 5.35% with a 0.31 point, even with the previous week. A year ago, Bankrate.com’s survey was 6.44%. It says the 15-year FRM is 4.72%, down from $4.74% in the previous week. Bankrate.com put the five-year ARM 4.64% this w eek, even with the previous week. 

Commercial and Multifamily Mortgage Originations Remain Low 

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Quarterly Survey of Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Bankers Originations, commercial and multifamily mortgage loan originations for the third quarter of 2009 were 12 percent lower than during the second quarter of 2009, and 54 percent lower than during the same period last year. The 54 percent overall decrease in commercial/multifamily lending activity during the third quarter was driven by year over year decreases in originations for all property types. When compared to the third quarter of 2008, the decrease included a 62 percent decrease in loans for retail properties, a 59 percent decrease in loans for health care properties, a 58 percent decrease in loans for industrial properties, a 56 percent decrease in loans for office properties, a 46 percent decrease in hotel property loans, and a 40 percent decrease in multifamily property loans. 

Now on to our real estate investing educational arena… 

Friday File – More Real Estate Humor 

Ahhh…Autumn weekends. Chances are you might be out and about with family or friends, visiting fall festivals or simply cruising around the countryside searching for your next short sale. Whatever the weekend has in store, it’s sure to be just a little bit better if you start it with a smile on your face. To help, here’s our newest Friday File to help you make the most of government lingo and double-speak. 

Filibuster = a well known stalling technique that allows government officials to read (at least partially) the bill before voting or, when used as a “sister” to the “dust buster”… a way of collecting (for the record) official sounding statements to eliminate personal responsibility in order to stay on the safe side for the next election. 

Sustainable Communities – once put together, you have no hope of respite. They keep going and going and going… 

War On = We need funding fast so declare a war in order to enact the emergency funding mechanism rather than go through the normal debate and votes…ie, the war on drugs, the war on poverty, etc… 

See you at the top! 

Chris McLaughlin