WSJ article FORECLOSURES RAMPING UP

The Wall Street Journal had a great article about banks ramping up foreclosures today. The foreclosure moratoriums are over (3/31/09) and if you have missed house payments and not been working out a plan with your bank... danger is imminent.

In the recent past, we have seen some homeowners who have missed more than 12 payments and still not even had their sheriff sale. I believe those days are over.

If you're in trouble, if you've missed payments.. get your "house" (the metaphorical house) in order. If you need help understanding the options open to you, email me.

Unfortunately, few people were actually helped by the moratorium. In fact, if you continued to miss payments through the moratorium, long term, your loan will be difficult to catch-up and stay on top of.

Deed-in-Lieu Promised, UNFULFILLED

I recently received an email from someone who has had trouble with a promised deed-i-lieu from Indy Mac.

Here's what she wrote:

"We tried to enter a deed in Lieu of foreclosure but Indymac bank scammed us...
We called Indymac bank in December 2008 about the deed in Lieu was told to
attempt a short sale first , after that didn't work Indymac bank asked we send
them our financials and the proof of our listing for the short-sale along with
change/decrease in income.. We sent everything to them, on 022809.... We
called and called but was repeatedly told they are still working on the Deed in
Lieu to call back... However we still received notices about foreclosures and eventually a sale date of 040709... Finally we got so frustrated and asked to speak with a manager who then tells is 2 days before the foreclosure sale that it's too late and we were never even considered for a Deed in lieu because they never received all the required documents. Indymac bank never notified us they needed any additional documents. And refused to accept it even 2 days prior to the sale date! We feel like Indymac Bank purposely neglected the situation to gain the outcome they wanted all along... Is there anything that can be done?"

The answer is no.. once the sale has happened it is all too late. This is one of the problems with deed-in-lieu, they sound like a great alternative... no inconvenience of a short sale, no credit hassles of a full foreclosure, but the banks don't seem to be doing many deed-in-lieus.

There is no reason the bank would prefer a foreclosure over deed-in-lieu, in fact the full foreclosure costs them more (unless you have a lot of equity left the can take--- yeah right!) in legal fees.

My advice is to always get everything in writing-- never assume that the bank is going to do what you verbally hear on the phone. You may not even be speaking to a decision maker.