palm beach real estate attorney: MORTGAGE FORBEARANCE AND YOUR CREDIT REPORT UNDER COVID-19
- 04/10/20 10:34 AM
We have been getting a lot of questions about the Forbearance program under Covid-19, and more than one question about credit reporting apparently picking up on the granted forbearance, resulting in supposedly a negative impact on the borrower. Unfortunately, not all the facts behind these questions is known, but there are definitive guidelines required by legislated regulations. On the credit reporting issue - the rule is simple: IF YOU GET A COVID-19 FORBEARANCE AND AT THE TIME YOU GET THE FORBEARANCE YOU ARE NOT CURRENT ON YOUR MORTGAGE, YOU WILL CONTINUE TO SHOW UP AS A LATE PAYMENT STATUS ON YOUR CREDIT REPORT. The … (2 comments)
palm beach real estate attorney: COVID-19 - BANKS OFFER MONTHLY PAYMENT DEFERMENT
- 03/22/20 06:34 PM
Bank of America, Chase Bank, Ally Bank, Wells Fargo, and other mortgage lenders are falling in line - to allow deferment of monthly mortgage payments for 90 or 120 days. This is in response to the huge impact Covid-19 is having and will continue to have on everyone with mortgages in the United States. See my previous related article at CORONA VIRUS - SUSPENSION OF FORECLOSURES The concept appears well thought out - the deferred payments get added on to the end of the mortgage (ie: added to the remaining principal) That means you will be paying interest on the full amount of unpaid principal, … (1 comments)
palm beach real estate attorney: COVID-19 - UPDATE - FORCE MAJEURE REAL LIFE EXAMPLE
- 03/19/20 08:38 PM
We can't seem to even rest for 2 hours without a major escalation in the COVID-19 Pandemic affecting our lives! No sooner did I write my latest article on Force Majeure (ACT of GOD), that I got an email from an attorney that we work with inquiring about the following facts which the email essentially states: I had a conversation today with a buyer who is my client for a transaction that is scheduled for the end of this month. The issue we discussed was that the condo building next store has now put in restrictions for guests coming in and out of … (7 comments)
palm beach real estate attorney: IS YOUR TITLE AGENCY REALLY REVIEWING TITLE? ASSUMPTIONS MEAN TROUBLE!
- 08/13/19 03:16 PM
Most real estate agents and attorneys work on the assumption that going back one or two deeds in the title history is sufficient to establish the title to the property. But we don’t always think about the “quality of title”. A recent Appellate Court decision in Florida is making title insurers and real estate attorneys scratching their heads on how just how careful they need to be! Another issue is that we usually look to see who is in title but we don’t necessarily go over the deed that created their title – much less the previous deeds that created title, … (9 comments)
palm beach real estate attorney: FRAUD ALERT - PROPERTY AND STOLEN IDENTITY - RENTER FORGES DEED
- 02/13/19 04:15 AM
Fraud - Losing your home - Identity Theft - these are all scary words and for good reason. It has been 12 years since I wrote my first blog on fraudulent deeds and what I wrote then still is true today. It was my most read article over the past 12 years. Today, technology and services offered by the various public recording offices can be used to "push" notices to you if your name has appeared in any new filing in the Public Records of a county in which you own property. I urge everyone to sign up for this service. It … (19 comments)
palm beach real estate attorney: Non-Performing Loans - Lender Goals For Your Mortgage
- 02/11/19 04:59 PM
As a defaulted borrower, how your proceed is not an easy decision to make. The biggest area of new foreclosures are the forgotten defaults from 2007 - 2012 that are now "waking up". Most of these mortgages are now held by investors and not the banks that made the loans. Because of this, new economic reality rules must be recognized so that a defaulted borrower has knowlege of what lies ahead. The Market for Non-Performing Loans - I just got back from a two day national conference of lenders and investors that deal in non-performing loans. Hearing what lenders do to make money … (0 comments)
palm beach real estate attorney: BUYERS ARE GETTING THEIR CLOSING FUNDS STOLEN
- 09/03/18 07:35 PM
Its only getting worse - Buyers are literally handing over billions in closing funds to theives. The warning bells have been ringing for years. Are you protected? I wrote about this in my article YOUR EMAIL IS BEING WATCHED = YOUR CLIENTS VICTIMIZED : THE HACK STORY over two years ago. But still the problem is getting worse. The mechanics are explained in the previous article. In that hack, the real estate agent was to blame as her computer had been unwittingly turned into a clone for the thief. This weekend CNBC published an article Scammers Are Tricking People..... . In the story, almost identical … (2 comments)
palm beach real estate attorney: Water Damage Affecting Condominium Homeowners – Who Is Responsible?
- 04/12/18 06:56 AM
Here in South Florida a common Condominium water damage issue is who is responsible for water damage to a unit if the leak occurred in another unit or in a wall. If one of the units touched by such misfortune is not covered by insurance, a huge nightmare can be the result for the owners or the Association. There are two main factors at work in determining who is responsible for the damage. First you determine where the leak originated. What is the source of the leak and where it is located? Second you look to the Condominium (or Homeowner) documents. Typically this is the declaration … (31 comments)
palm beach real estate attorney: The Anti-Relationship App
- 10/03/17 07:42 PM
Technology is trying to create an entirely anti-relationship smartphone / iPhone app that picks real estate agents like hailing an Uber ride. If being at the right place at the right time had any meaning, this App is going to prove it out. Inman reported this development recently, being deployed in the Colorado MLS area. What troubles me is that hailing a taxi or Uber requires nothing but being “at the right place at the right time”. No one really cares on the skill of the driver except to drive carefully and the car to be clean. Shouting out for a very local real … (5 comments)
palm beach real estate attorney: DEFICIENCY JUDGMENT FROM A SHORT SALE IN FLORIDA - IT IS 5 YEARS NOT 1
- 08/14/17 08:24 PM
Last year I wrote about a confusing law that went into effect in Florida saying that a deficiency judgment could not be sought by the lender if more than one year had elapsed from a foreclosure sale or deed in lieu of foreclosure. A sister statute also discussed how a short sale was analogous to a deed in lieu or foreclosure sale. The problem was the statute saying the time limit to seek a deficiency was one year stated it applied to foreclosure judgments and deed in lieu arrangements but it did not include short sales - but it also did … (2 comments)
palm beach real estate attorney: FORECLOSURE BIDDING CAN CREATE FINANCIAL DISASTER
- 07/06/17 09:54 AM
We are constantly getting asked about foreclosure purchasing. About half the calls are from persons that already bought the property at foreclosure and now find out that there is a bank foreclosing against the house they just bought. They want to know what to do. THIS IS A COMPLICATED BUSINESS Simply put, foreclosure purchasing is not simple. It is very complex with a lot of information to be obtained about the property, the owners being foreclosed, and the parties to the foreclosure. All that information has to be not only obtained, but understood. EXAMPLE – ASSOCATION FORECLOSURE OF LIEN For example, a case in our … (0 comments)
palm beach real estate attorney: ASSOCIATION CLAIM FOR LATE FEES & COSTS AFTER FORECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE
- 09/04/16 06:56 AM
Several association boards of directors have problems understanding the homeowner association lien rights and how the Florida “safe harbor” exemption to payment works. This article applies to when the investor makes a loan and then forecloses it and gets title at the foreclosure sale. An important Florida case came out this past Spring that gives a good example. Here there were two associations – the homeowner association and the community association. There was a foreclosure sale which was going to wipe out the liens of the associations. The foreclosure action was filed by the lender (who was not the original lender that made the loan) … (33 comments)
palm beach real estate attorney: YOUR EMAIL IS BEING WATCHED = YOUR CLIENTS VICTIMIZED : THE HACK STORY
- 02/28/16 10:40 PM
There are people out there that are looking for your email address but they are neither buyers nor sellers. Their goal is for YOU to help them steal money from YOUR client. They are thieves, crooks, scoundrels, terrorists, and intentioned with the worst of motives. Why do I know about this - I just saw it happen!!
YOU ARE THE WEAK LINK - Let’s say you are a real estate agent and you publish your email address on your website. Everyone knows your email address – essentially when I say everyone, I mean anyone looking for a real estate agent could find you and your email address. We all love for … (67 comments)
palm beach real estate attorney: SHORT SALE DEFICIENCY BARRED AFTER ONE YEAR IN FLORIDA
- 12/04/15 10:04 PM
One of the prominent questions regarding mortgage deficiencies and the new law on Florida's statute of limitations for enforcement of a mortgage deficiency is whether it applies to a Florida short sale. There has been uncertainty as to its application to short sales because the new law, which went into effect July 1, 2013, does not specifically mention "short sales" as one of the types of "deficiencies" subject to the one-year statute of limitations. UPDATE!!!! - In an appellate court decision in mid August 2017 an appellate court in Florida reversed a trial court judge that had agreed with the findings in this article. … (8 comments)
palm beach real estate attorney: QUIET TITLE TO ELIMINATE YOUR MORTGAGE - FLORIDA STATUS
- 07/15/15 01:02 PM
The magic wand of quieting the title to eliminate your mortgage on your Florida property has had a wild if not consistent ride – downhill. Whether being free of your mortgage is fact or fantasy, reality or hype, or just plain magic will soon be decided by the Florida Supreme Court. In the early days of the concept of quieting title and eliminating the mortgage, most Florida state judges were not aware of the laws regarding the five year statute of limitations as applied to mortgage promissory notes, and uniquely the statute of repose that applies to mortgage liens. They also did … (4 comments)
palm beach real estate attorney: SUPREME COURT GAY MARRIAGE OPINION CHANGES REAL ESTATE OWNERS RIGHTS
- 06/27/15 01:58 AM
The monumental Supreme Court decision in Obergefell vs Ohio changes the landscape of gay rights regarding real estate, marriage, immigration and torts (damages for personal injury). Here is the nutshell version of how it will affect most gay unions and soon to be marriages as well as those already married in the State of Florida. TENANTS BY THE ENTIRETY OWNERSHIP Tenancy by the entirety provides one of the best asset protection methods in Florida. Under the law, any property, both real estate and personal property (like cars and bank accounts), if owned as husband and wife, and now by same sex partners joined … (74 comments)
palm beach real estate attorney: TITLE INSURANCE REFERRAL KICKBACK SCHEME COSTS $200,000
- 10/21/14 01:10 PM
On September 30th the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau - created under the sweeping Dodd Frank Act - showed it is continuing its campaign to penalize violations of kickback schemes in the real estate industry. Citing illegal quid pro quo referral agreements as being a violation of RESPA, it sanctioned Lighthouse Title in Michigan for providing something of value to a person with an agreement or understanding that the person will refer real estate settlement services to the agency. The CFPB stated in its news release that: Lighthouse Title entered into marketing services agreements (MSAs) with various companies, including, for example, real … (48 comments)
palm beach real estate attorney: Quiet Title Of A Mortgage - Another Nail In The Coffin
- 09/27/14 01:14 PM
In another development in Florida effecting potentially thousands of borrowers hoping to get rid of their mortgage because of a dismissed foreclosure case, an influential appellate court has put another nail in that coffin. Relying on a long line of recent cases, it reiterated that a mortgage that is accelerated after default but then that foreclosure is defeated, can be defaulted and accelerated again - and again. I have written on the issue of Quiet Title and mortgage foreclosure several times, with the first articles speaking to successful cases and as time went on and the Florida courts developed concepts adverse to borrowers, of … (18 comments)
palm beach real estate attorney: Deficiency Lawsuits In Florida Accelerate To Meet Deadline
- 06/01/14 07:04 AM
July 1, 2014 is coming! With the new Florida law limiting the collection of deficiency judgments on short sales and foreclosures, that is the deadline deficiency claim for any foreclosure or deed in lieu that occurred before July 1, 2013 to be filed! Almost 4 years ago I was talking about the coming wave of deficiency collection activity that would be the result of people having walked away from properties resulting in foreclosures, or short sales without full resolution of the unpaid balances on the proprety’s mortgage(s). The discussion was reviewed in CNN/MONEY in an article You Lost Your House – … (3 comments)
palm beach real estate attorney: WHAT IF - THE MORTGAGE DEBT RELIEF ACT DOES NOT GET RENEWED?
- 03/02/14 01:44 AM
The Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007 has saved countless taxpayers from devastating IRS tax bills for "forgiven debt" resulting from lenders forgiveness of deficiencies from foreclosures, deeds in lieu of foreclosure and short sales. But the Act has expired for any transactions that closed (or occurred) beginning January 1, 2014. So now what can a financially distressed taxpayer do when addressing a foreclosure, deed in lieu of foreclosure or short sale? Will the Act get a third breath of renewal? The Act was to have expired December 31, 2012. In the omnibus tax bill passed in mid January 2013 it … (4 comments)
Legal true life experiences, general observations and commentaries for Realtors, Lawyers and Mortgage Brokers - also see our Palm Beach County Short Sales group blog.
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We have been getting a lot of questions about the Forbearance program under Covid-19, and more than one question about credit reporting apparently picking up on the granted forbearance, resulting in supposedly a negative impact on the borrower.
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