Lynn Arends's (lynn_arends) Blog

The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act is set to sunset on December 31, 2012 and it may not get extended. The law, first enacted in 2007, allows homeowners who have received principal reductions on their mortgages as the result of loan modifications, short sales or foreclosures to avoid income ...

By now, we all know that federal and state officials have announced a $26 billion foreclosure settlement with five of the largest home lenders (Bank of America, Citigroup, Ally Financial/GMAC, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo).  The deal is supposed to protect consumers from unsound practices in m...

OVERVIEW Buyers pursue short sales to get a good deal. But you might want to think twice about making an offer on a pre-foreclosure, short sale home. It's not as simple as you may believe, and very few can close in 30 (or even 60) days or less. A short sale occurs when a bank agrees to accept les...

Foreclosure Fairness Act: New Law to Help Washington Homeowners Last Thursday Gov. Chris Gregoire signed into law a new bill giving homeowners the statutory right to sit down with their lenders and discuss modifying their loan.  In an effort to protect WA homeowners from foreclosure, under the ne...

Is a Short Sale Really an Alternative to Foreclosure? By: Lynn Arends  Short Sale Basics A short sale occurs when a bank agrees to accept less than what is owed on a mortgage or deed of trust to release its lien. Negotiated correctly, a short sale can be an excellent alternative to foreclosure t...

Attorney's Life on MARS The FTC has issued a final rule that gives federal and state authorities a new tool to combat the increase in deceptive mortgage relief practices. The final rule does not affect attorneys who provide mortgage assistance relief services (MARS) in connection with the practic...

Freddie Mac announced Wednesday it will suspend foreclosure evictions from December 20th through January 3rd. This is the third straight year Freddie Mac has suspended evictions during the holiday season. (This move only applies to those homes that have mortgages backed or guaranteed by Freddie M...

Q: In a short sale, do Listing Brokers have a duty to disclose how far underwater the Seller is? A: If you're in California, the answer may be "yes". In Holmes v. Summer, G041906 (Cal.App.4th, filed October 6, 2010), a recently decided California appellate case, the court ruled that the sellers' ...

Are you applying for a loan?  You'd better know your FICO 8! Question: What happens when you add soaring foreclosures--288,345 homes seized by banks in 2010 Q3, up 22% from a year earlier, according to RealtyTrac--to an unprecedented number of homeowners just walking away ("Strategic Defaulting")...

For now the Foreclosure Crisis means business as usual. This week Wells Fargo, the second largest mortgage servicer, admitted making "mistakes" in 55,000 foreclosures but is not halting the foreclosure process. Wasn't it only two weeks ago that Wells Fargo had stated that the Foreclosure Crisis i...