ForeclosureInfoCA.org is brought to you by the State Bar of California & the Public Interest Clearinghouse.

The site addresses concerns for both homeowners and renters facing foreclosure. It provides links to helpful government sites and also for free or low-cost legal assistance - there's even a senior's legal hotline. You'll also find informative links to California's foreclosure process & timelines.

Don't miss the link for LawHelpCalifornia.org which helps Californians find legal referrals & self-help resources.

The Center for Responsible Lending estimates that one in 33 U.S. homeowners will be in foreclosure within the next 2 years. Nevada, California, Florida & Georgia are among the states hardest hit by the national foreclosure crisis, California also being among the hardest hit by ARM foreclosure starts.

Among the steps taken by California to help ease this crisis:

• Launched a task force
• Regulates high-risk loans
  
•  Encourages lenders to modify defaulted loans
• Mandates that lenders give borrowers in danger of defaulting early notice about available assistance
  
• Has sought voluntary agreements with loan servicers to offer borrowers steps to prepare for payment adjustments

Read the report and find out what your state is doing to help!

Defaulting on the Dream: States Respond to America’s Foreclosure Crisis

Aiding in the foreclosure crisis is dependent on consumer education. Too many homeowners are still reluctant to seek help...too many don't believe help is available or even for real!

A HUD approved non-profit counseling agency is offering a FREE workshop for homeowners in Ontario on October 4. For more details & to register go to...

Housing counselors, mortgage counselors and attorneys will be on site to share valuable information to assist homeowners in making an informed decisions.

**Please help spread the word**

(This post is a requested follow-up to my post Homeowners Also Responsible for Mortgage Fraud.)

Lenders are finally on to this particular scam & are responding with even further tightening of the lending requirements (The Wall Street Journal). They even have the ability to sue the borrower if fraud can be shown.

How Does a ‘Buy and Bail’ Scheme Work?

A borrower qualifies for a loan on a second home by asserting that the first residence will be rented out to help cover the mortgage payments for the second home. Once they are approved for the new loan they walk away from the previous loan not renting out the home or making any further payments.

Are These Professionals?

Possibly most unsettling are real estate agents who believe this is nothing more than a financial strategy and provide ‘tutoring’ for this practice.

Related Posts: Reverse Mortgage Repair Scams
Don't They Realize Where They'll Be Soon?
No Cost "HOPE NOW" Helps Homeowners Avoid Foreclosure But Cautions...

There are so many mortgage & real estate scams to look out for, and they've probably always existed, but the current housing and mortgage crisis seems to be bringing out the unethical and immoral with new vigor. Each of these scams seems to be more dastardly than the next but to be honest it just depends on which one you have read about most recently.

One of the predatory stings seems to involve someone representing himself as a contractor who is hired to make the necessary repairs required before a reverse mortgage can go through.Reverse mortgages have more built-in borrower safeguards than most types of loans. Still, when unfortunate situations like this occur, it shows that no amount of safeguards or regulations can completely insulate the borrower from predators.

Share these tips with someone you care about:

1: Be wary of ANYONE pushing the “idea” of a reverse mortgage on you. Do your own research and make sure a reverse mortgage makes sense for you. It is your money at stake! Be especially wary of anyone who tells you that they’re your only hope for getting a reverse mortgage.

2: Use reverse mortgage counseling to your advantage. Talk with the counselor about the need for repairs and the best way to get the repairs done.

3: If repairs are needed to qualify for a reverse mortgage, get quotes from several contractors and always check references.

PERHAPS MOST IMPORTANTLY

4: Never sign any document that has blanks to be filled in later.

Refer to the HUD's informational website to find more valuable reverse mortgage information.

For more tips on How to Avoid Getting Scammed by a Contractor check out the post by Irina Natchaev

"To speed up the disposition of the 54,000 foreclosed properties it owns, Fannie Mae is opening offices in California and Florida and is considering selling those properties in bulk to investors. "I do not think this is a time to be holding onto (foreclosed properties) hoping for a better day," CEO Daniel Mudd said last week.

...President Bush last month [July 2008] signed sweeping housing legislation that aims to prevent foreclosures by allowing homeowners to swap their mortgages for more affordable loans, but only if their lender agrees to take a loss on the initial loan"

Keep Reading - Foreclosure Filings Up 55%

Related Post

"borrowers should be wary of sources that offer help but require a fee"

When homeowners find themselves facing foreclosure proceedings reaching out to their lender is vital however, the largest comment by homeowners entails the nonresponsiveness of lenders.

There has been a change in lender attitudes though and with the help of HOPE NOW there is more hope of reaching the right person in the Loss Mitigation department.

Call the Homeowner’s HOPE™ Hotline: 1.888.995.HOPE

Hotline Services Include

• Outreach to Homeowners
• Counseling Homeowners
• Assisting Homeowners

2 Million Troubled Borrowers Avoid Foreclosure

"The Hope Now coalition reports that it completed a record number of mortgage workouts in July - but that was outpaced by the increasing rate of foreclosures"

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Hope Now has helped more than 2 million at-risk borrowers stay in their homes during the past 13 months, according to numbers released by the coalition on Wednesday. The alliance of mortgage servicers, counselors, and investors assembled to combat foreclosures fixed more than 192,000 problem loans during July, a one-month record that represents a 6% increase over June. Despite this progress, foreclosures continue to climb; 91,752 families lost their homes in July. That represents an increase of 14% from June and more than double the number of July 2007, when only 42,043 homes went to foreclosure.

"The treadmill is still going a little faster than [Hope Now] can keep up with," said Nicholas Retsinas, Director of Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. "Foreclosures have outpaced the efforts to combat them."

So, Hope Now is stepping up its efforts to reach out to troubled borrowers to let them know help is available, according to Faith Schwartz, the alliance's executive director. The group has promoted its program through advertising, public announcements, as well as letters to at-risk borrowers and large foreclosure prevention events that it's holding around the country.

Reluctant to seek help...read the rest of the article

Related Article: U.S. Foreclosure Filings Up 55% From Last Year

Desperate to get 'out-from-under' in a declining market some homeowners have decided to walk away from mortgages they can no longer afford creating two rising scams to add to the mortgage crisis - the so called "buy and bail" scam and "phony short sales" scam.

Both scams include lying on your mortgage application which is a prosecuteable offense but in the Inland Empire enforcement is taking low priority because of the belief that it will be more beneficial to prosecute scammers who take advantage of consumers rather than lenders.

Read the article...Homeowner Fraud Exacerbates Mortgage Crisis

I came across this article and wanted to share the info. Included are Home Improvement scams and Mortgage Bait & Switch scams...could be important to some of our clients.

Especially close to mind for me was the one regarding Fake Checks. Our office advertised a listing in Yucaipa for a horse property on CraigsList. We received a response from someone in Nigeria. As his emails regarding the property became more strongly worded when I kept asking for a commitment that agreed with our regulations I finally asked that he wire (not send a check) $10,000 to open an escrow his emails ended!

In Pictures: Americas Top Five Scams and How to Beat Them

Related Post: Don't They Realize Where They'll Soon Be?

A recently issued report by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute (MARI) states that mortgage fraud climbed 42% in the first quarter of 2008. The lender criteria has tightened considerably so that some feel it is necessary to 'tweak' applications. The most common situations cited were General Application Misrepresentation such as debt & asset misstatements, invalid social security numbers, incorrect addresses and Employment & Income falsification.

Loan applications are at an 8 year low according to the Mortgage Bankers Association and this supposedly makes the so-called 'professionals' push for clients. Maybe understandable but is this just another another area where it has consumer education is necessary?

Do these clients know where they may be heading?

The number one & two ranked areas were Miami, Florida and Los Angeles, California. Wanna guess where the next 3 top areas for mortgage fraud were?

CNN: Mortgage Fraud is Still Soaring - Read the Story