The FORECLOSURE Process, Washington

Washington Foreclosure Process

Start of the foreclosure process. While the homeowner must receive a Notice of Default, it is not commonly recorded in Washington and therefore not tracked in ForeclosureRadar.
RCW 61.24.030

Sets auction date. Recorded at least 30 days after the Notice of Default.
RCW 61.24.030(7)

Initial auction date. At least 90 days from service of Notice of Trustee Sale.
RCW 61.24.040(1)(a)

The sale occurs on a Friday.
RCW 61.24.040(5)

Auction may be postponed for up to 120 days.
RCW 61.24.040(6)

 Transfers property to highest bidder. 

Possession granted 20 days after the sale.
RCW 61.24.060(1)

No deficiency judgment.
RCW 61.24.100

SHORT Sale DEADLINE..

Missing This Important Deadline Could Cost You Tens of Thousands of Dollars.

Right now, if you're a homeowner and do a short sale on your home, you may be able to claim special tax relief and exclude up to $2 million of debt forgiven on your principal residence under the federal Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007

Check with your tax advisor to see if your state has a similar mortgage forgiveness debt relief law.  Depending on your specific situation, you could be eligible for up to tens of thousands of dollars of tax savings under these laws.  

But, you better act quickly because both the federal and California laws have an important deadline rapidly approaching.  They are both set to expire on December 31 of this year.  Considering how long it is taking for the average short sale to close (including finding a buyer, getting the short sale approved, and then closing the sale....assuming your buyer has stuck around long enough through the lengthy approval process and you don't have to find another buyer), if you are serious about closing a short sale before December 31, 2012, you should start the processimmediately.  Otherwise, by the time you close, you could find yourself facing a big, unhappy tax surprise.

The author, Jeffrey H. Lerman, Esq., has established a nationwide reputation as "The Real Estate Investor's Lawyer".  He has appeared on TV, radio and in front of numerous real estate investment clubs as an expert.  He has been President of the Marin County Bar Association, Chair of the State Bar Real Estate Litigation Section and Chair of the Marin County Bar Association Real Property Section.  He has lectured at UC Berkeley Fisher Center for Real Estate & Urban Economics and the USC Law Center.  He's Managing Partner of Lerman Law Partners.  Jeff has been practicing law for over 30 years and is the former general counsel for two national real estate syndication companies.  He has published articles nationwide and is a highly sought-after speaker.  He's also a real estate investor and a real estate broker.  You can visit his law firm website at www.RealEstateInvestorLaw.com and his real estate investor education website at www.IEISOnline.com. 

 

Loan Modification HELP

Great information from my friend Steve.

Home Loan Modification Scams Persist

BE CAREFUL !!!


you have to read this excellent article by Robert Aldana.


   http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20120301_mtgscams.htm

Maria Lozano, a Los Banos, CA homeowner, recently struggled to pay her mortgage so she hired who she thought was a real estate broker. The broker charged her more than $2,000 for a loan modification she never received.




We pray & hope for the best for you and your family as you overcome stress and try hard to get back on solid ground.

Larry Tutino,  Blog Author

NO DEFICIENCY JUDGEMENT???

In many cases, the borrower is completely off the hook on making payments during and after a foreclosure since mortgage loans are non-recourse, meaning the lender is only legally entitled to collect the property, and the borrower has no personal financial liability.

Read more: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2012/01/17/Foreclosure-Squatters-Goad-Lenders-and-Stand-Pat.aspx#page1#ixzz1me6vJJ4W

==================================

What is a deficiency judgment: A deficiency judgment is simply the difference between what the lender is owed and what they are paid back. When a lender is not paid back in full via a short sale, they can go to court and get a court order directing the borrower to pay them back the difference. The lender can then take that judgment and attach it to the borrower’s other properties, if they have any, or garnish the wages of the borrower.

So are we safe from deficiency judgments in Washington State? No.

In Washington, the lender gives up the right to a deficiency judgment if they sell the property or take it back in the non-judicial trustee sale process. However, because a negotiated short sale closes in lieu of a trustee sale, the lender preserves their right to get a deficiency judgment.

You can basically tell the lender that the borrower will simply allow the house to go to sale if they don’t remove the deficiency language in the payoff. Simply cross out the deficiency language and send the payoff back to the negotiator.

Another strategy is to always include language in the Purchase Sale Agreement stating that the sale is contingent on the bank approval and each lender’s waiver of any rights to a deficiency.

So if you short sell, be sure your lender gives up their right to collect a deficiency judgment. The lender will then send you a 1099 form notifying you of the deficiency forgiven which in turn needs to be reported to the IRS as “unearned income.” If this is done before 2012, you can be exempt from paying taxes on this 1099 under the Debt Relief Act of 2007.

Read more: http://solidgroundblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/12/short-sale-and-deficiency-judgments-in-washington-state/

WALKING AWAY from your HOME...

Does it pay to walk away from your home if it is just eating up your families CASH ???




"I constantly get the saddest e-mails from people saying, 'I've exhausted all my life savings, my retirement is gone, and now I have to default,'" said Jon Maddux, CEO of YouWalkAway.com,

a foreclosure agency that helps clients with strategic default (and charges a fee for it). "But if they had seen the writing on the wall a couple of years earlier, stopped paying the mortgage and stayed in the home throughout the whole process, they would be in a much better financial position."


Now that we have all seen that a family can continue to live in their home without making payments for a year or two,,,,,


YEAH......it makes sense.


Moral Quandary

There's a moral component to that decision, of course. People naturally feel embarrassed about breaking a contract and not paying their bills; no one wants to be branded a deadbeat. But remember that companies default on their obligations when it makes financial sense for them to do so, via the bankruptcy process. Even the Mortgage Bankers Association itself, in a flourish of irony, arranged for a short sale of its Washington headquarters.


But, you better make a wise choice because of the obvious effects of damaged credit lines.


Today, there are many opportunities to buy a home through lease-options and Rent2Own programs that require very little credit.   
It is all a numbers program.  Which works best for your family and your ability to feed and clothe yourselves.


But,,,,,please take the time to check out how your are going to buy your next home first,,,, before packing up and moving on. 

Foreclosure..FREE RIDE: 3 Years

Great  Story......

Source: CNN MoneyWednesday, December 28th, 2011, 10:58 am

Delinquent borrowers facing foreclosure are learning that they can stay in their homes for years, as long as they're willing to put up a fight.

Among the tactics: Challenging the bank's actions, waiting to file paperwork right up until the deadline, requesting the lender dig up original paperwork or, in some extreme cases, declaring bankruptcy.

Read the full story >>

Just like I've been telling folks for over a year now...

Dig in your feet &  fight.

DON'T FEEL GUILTY....

Short Sale Blog

Guilt ridden thinking about Defaulting on your mortgage?

Wayne Landon: Posted on Thursday, December 22, 2011 1:32 PM

Before you beat yourself up to badly, read the following  news report. Five major mortgage lenders could be facing concessions totaling $19 billion as bank representatives and government officials put finishing touches on a settlement for wrongful mortgage foreclosures, sources have told The Wall Street Journal. Officials have been working with banks for months to determine how they should be held responsible for the mortgage robo-signingscandal  but some states expressed concerns that the deal on the table doesn’t meet their expectations.   The banks involved in the settlement are the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers: Ally Financial Inc., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., J.P.Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co.   While specifics of the settlement have not been disclosed, banks are expected to be responsible for least $19 billion in concessions that could include principal write-downs and interest-rate reductions for homeowners, as well cash penalty payments to the government.   The total amount could jump to as much as $25 billion if California, which accounted for 13.1 percent of all mortgages outstanding and 10.8 percent of all loans in foreclosure, joins in the deal. The state walked away from settlement talks in September.   So how do you feel now, guilty or angry? If you follow mortgage default news like I do, you would note that very reputable news outlets are pointing the finger at the banking community for the mess we have. They are the ones who created the exotic mortgages that few people understood, to fuel the expansion of new mortgages. They want to blame the public for being so stupid, the government for insisting on more mortgages, and Wall Street for bundling mortgages into bond funds to provide liquidity.   They should be brought to their knees like Arthur Anderson for the Enron scandal, but that is not practical, only wishful thinking.   If you want to explore how you deal with your underwater mortgage checkout www.jwlproperties.net for solutions that meet your needs, not those of the banking community

Principal Reduction Will Solve The Housing Crisis ...

Are the geniuses that created this mess at the banks going to keep telling us how impossible this concept is when nothing they do even dents the problem, but actually continues to exacerbate it? Principal reduction will not only help us out of the housing crisis, but will stimulate the economy! 


This is a great article from Realty Times, written by Tanya Marchiol.


See this link for more info.....
   
   http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20111202_principalreduction.htm

                                         


Sorry Readers & Fans (LOL),  I have been very busy working on Multi-Family deals and haven't written a Blog in almost a month.  If you have Apartments you want to SELL or BUY,  please contact me ASAP.


Sincerely,  Larry Tutino

UN-FLIPPIN-BELIEVABLE

The CEO of Freddie Mac, Ed Haldeman, received a $2.3 million bonus, in addition to his $900,000 salary. Fannie Mae's CEO, Michael Williams, received a $2.37 million bonus.

"The executives got the bonuses about two years after the federally backed mortgage giants received nearly $170 billion in taxpayer bailouts…" [my emphasis] In August of this year, Fannie Mae reported a second-quarter loss of$5.2 billion. In November, Freddie Mac reported a third-quarter loss of $4.4billion.

Read the complete story at... http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20111108_occupy.htm

How can this be happening ???

Do YOU have Effective Negative Equity ??

What is ENE ?? (effective negative equity)

 'effective' negative equity,
is  when  borrowers/homeowners  who have so little equity in their homes, they cannot afford to move.


Consider the following from mortgage
analyst Mark Hanson:


On US totals, if you figure average house
prices use conforming loan balances, then a repeat buyer has to
have roughly 10% down to buy in addition to the 6% Realtor fee to
sell. Thus, the effective negative equity target would be 85%.
You also have to factor in secondary financing, which most
measures leave out.  Based on that, over 50% of all mortgaged
households in the US are effectively underwater — unable to
sell for enough to pay a Realtor and put a down payment on a new
purchase without coming out of pocket.
-------------------------


Special thanks to:
 Chris McLaughlin, who is widely known as America’s top
Real Estate Attorney and Investment Consultant.

                         

CHASE BANK RUINED THEIR LIVES !!!

How Chase Ruined Lives of People Who Paid Off Their Mortgages

Matt Taibbi, in giving a well deserved thrashing to the banking industry’s Tokyo Rose, aka New York Fed director Kathryn Wylde, said:

[S]tealing is pretty much the worst thing that a bank can do — and these banks just finished the longest and most orgiastic campaign of stealing in the history of money.

Once you read the allegations in the cases included in this post, I strongly suspect you will agree that the “ruining lives” in the headline is not an exaggeration. And as important, these two cases, with very similar fact sets, also suggest that these abuses are not mere “mistakes”. These are clearly well established practices that Chase can’t be bothered to clean up, since cleaning them up costs money and letting them continue is more profitable.

Both cases took place in Alabama. In both cases, the borrowers had made every mortgage payment on time. One was a couple with three children, the Barnetts. The second is a widow, Besty Barlow, but her husband was still alive when this ugly saga started.

In both cases, the house burned down, The borrowers both had homeowners’ insurance.

Read more at... http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/08/how-chase-ruined-lives-of-people-who-paid-off-their-mortgages.html

In other words, this is the banking version of exploding Pintos. Ford did not fix the defect in its fuel tank design because they figured it would cost less to pay out the damages on claims for death and dismemberment than fix the design flaw. Similarly, Chase evidently figures it can bulldoze people, extract more fees from them by engaging in conduct that is unquestionably against the law (see the cases for details), and maybe once in a while it gets caught and has to write a big check.

Read more at... http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/08/how-chase-ruined-lives-of-people-who-paid-off-their-mortgages.html

UNSATISFIED WITH THE BANKS......

"Many homeowners who are still in home loans that were originated between 2006 and 2008 -- when home values peaked and credit standards were the most lax -- would like to refinance, but can’t because they either don’t have enough equity in their home due to falling home prices or their credit profile doesn’t meet today’s tougher standards," said David Lo, director of financial services at J.D. Power and Associates.

"This has become increasingly frustrating to homeowners and a big contributor to their dissatisfaction," said Lo. "They are unable to take advantage of interest rates that have declined to historic lows. The challenge for legislators and lenders is to find a way to help not only homeowners at risk of default, but also this increasingly frustrated group of homeowners who are caught in loans with unfavorable terms and no ability to change them," Lo said.

"Excellence in mortgage servicing revolves around minimizing problems and addressing them quickly and efficiently when they do occur," said Lo.

This report is from Realty Times online news at......

http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20110818_mortgage.htm

What is Cash 4 Keys ??

Here is an excellent explanation of the CASH FOR KEYS program that you may qualify for and could certainly use. Get some money to move on.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-cash-for-keys.htm

Don't be afraid.......negotiate and be patient.

Larry, Blog Founder

ask us for help if you need it !!!!!! at .... sellorbuyland@gmail.com

ANSWERS on FORECLOSURE QUESTIONS..

This site is LOADED WITH ANSWERS to your questions about the Foreclosure process, Cash 4 Keys, etc.

http://www.loansafe.org/forum/archive/index.php/f-36.html

Defaulted Owners Living Payment Free For…Years (and Years)

June 19, 2011 ·

Millions of homeowners in distress are getting some unexpected breathing room — lots of it in some places.

In New York State, it would take lenders 62 years at their current pace, the longest time frame in the nation, to repossess the 213,000 houses now in severe default or foreclosure, according to calculations by LPS Applied Analytics, a prominent real estate data firm.

Clearing the pipeline in New Jersey, which like New York handles foreclosures through the courts, would take 49 years. In Florida, Massachusetts and Illinois, it would take a decade.

In the 27 states where the courts play no role in foreclosures, the pace is much more brisk — three years in California, two years in Nevada and Colorado — but the dynamic is the same: the foreclosure system is bogged down by the volume of cases, borrowers are fighting to keep their houses and many lenders seem to be in no hurry to add repossessed houses to their books.

“If you were in foreclosure four years ago, you were biting your nails, asking yourself, ‘When is the sheriff going to show up and put me on the street?’ ” said Herb Blecher, an LPS senior vice president. “Now you’re probably not losing any sleep.”

When major banks acknowledged last fall that they had been illegally processing foreclosures by filing false court documents, they said that any pause in repossessions and evictions would be brief. All of the major servicers agreed to institute reforms in their foreclosure procedures. In April, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and other regulators gave the banks 60 days to draw up a plan to do so.

But nothing is happening quickly. When the comptroller’s deadline was reached last week, it was extended another month.

New foreclosure cases and repossessions are down nationally by about a third since last fall, LPS said. In New York, foreclosure filings are down 85 percent since September, according to the New York State Unified Court System.

Mark Stopa, a St. Petersburg, Fla., specialist in foreclosure defense, has 1,275 clients, up from 350 a year ago. About 75 clients have won modifications, dismissals or sold their properties for less than they owed. All the other cases are pending.

“Banks aren’t even trying to win,” said Mr. Stopa, who charges his clients an annual fee of $1,500.

This story originally appeared in The New York Times

I Really Dislike Banks - Now More Than Ever

A brilliant businessman I know wrote to me today. Read what he said about Banks.........

Hey Larry.

If you've been around me a while you know
I've always stayed away from banks for my
house investing business. In fact, with the
exception of the very first house I ever owned,
bought in 1988, I have not used a bank to buy
one SINGLE house. Short term or long term,
none of them. And that's a LOT of houses!

What I don't like about banks is that they are
difficult to deal with, and if you get near them
they get out their scope and give you a full on
"financialoscopy"!

My dislike has grown to include their child
like behavior on short sales and REO's.
Resale restrictions, hoops after hoops... I
say GET REAL. They, and the illustrious
idiots in Congress, created the mess the RE
market is in and now they want to flog us
when we try and help clean it up?

GRRRRR.

Then there's the paperwork, MERS, and
all the problems with

* lending and servicing violations
* predatory lending
* mortgage fraud
* and 10 other issues that will be
discussed in detail on the training
I'm about to tell you about.

So I, and many others, walk around with
teeth clenched in anger towards banks.

B of A (which BTW does NOT stand for Bank
of America) and Wells Fargo are, by far, the 2
biggest offenders.

Well here's the good news. In my travels, and
in the circles I run in, I learned about a couple
of guys who put together a business, that is now
HUGE and that does nothing but help borrowers,
who are in, or about to be in foreclosure, or
who are upside down on their mortgages, get
justice. They actually put a hurting on the banks,
by looking at the situation and determining if
there are legal issues with their loans, and
then come down on the lenders legally.

It's called Foreclosure Justice. It's a smack
down and It's beautiful!


PS.
For the First time in history, Homeowners can now get:
* A big discount on their principal balance.
* Waived deficiency judgments.
* Deleted derogatory trade lines on their credit
* AND they can legally get cash proceeds
from their property even if they have no equity.

PPS.
This is NOT:
* Loan Modification
* Negotiating a Short Sale
* Loan Audit
* Loan Consultation
* Foreclosure Defense
* Foreclosure Rescue
* Credit Counseling/Credit Repair

If your family is in trouble with your home, you have to follow up with us. email ASAP

Sincerely, Larry - Blog Founder

HOMEOWNERS...BANKS STILL MAKING MISTAKES

Mortgage servicers have been using questionable foreclosure procedures for nearly a half decade and twice this year, federal agencies busted mortgage servicers for robo-signing and other foreclosure shenanigans.

After reviewing 14 large mortgage servicers in the fourth quarter of 2010, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) found what regulators described a "pattern of misconduct and negligence related to deficient practices in residential mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure processing."

On June 30, federal regulators said banks that determine problems in their foreclosure processes must take "immediate" corrective action, and then gave them until September 30 to take "immediate" action, regarding:

• The practice of "dual tracking" simultaneously engaging a homeowner in a loan modification, while foreclosing on the property.

• Using robo-signing to finalize foreclosures.

• Losing and misplacing documents, not keeping records of contact with homeowners, and asking homeowners to repeatedly submit the same documents.

In an earlier April 2011 report "Interagency Review of Foreclosure Policies and Practices" regulators also found "unsafe and unsound practices and violations of applicable federal and state laws."

REFIs are Getting Tougher

Refinancing underwater

While hundreds of thousands of mortgage borrowers have been able
to squat in their homes without making a single mortgage payment
in months or even years, many responsible homeowners who have
good credit and consistently meet their monthly obligations
haven't been able to refinance in order to avoid losing their
homes. Many of today's homeowners purchased their homes during a
time of easy credit, when mortgage products, like interest-only
loans and option adjustable-rate mortgages were issued to the
marginally qualified. And many were told that -- if they made
their payments faithfully -- they could easily refinance out of
these products into affordable fixed-rate loans once the payments
started to balloon. But that day has never come for some
borrowers -- no matter how good their payment record or credit
score. Many lenders are refusing to refinance underwater
mortgages -- loans that are higher than the value of the home --
because it would mean big losses for them if the borrower
defaults, said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Analytics.
According to data submitted to federal regulators and analyzed
by the Wall Street Journal, nearly 27% of mortgage applicants
were denied mortgages in 2010, up from 23.5% a year earlier.

About the author:
Chris McLaughlin is widely known as America’s top
Real Estate Attorney and Investment Consultant.

Chris is one of my favorite and accurate Authors on Real Estate.

Thank you, Larry