Mortgages

Will This HARP Carry A Tune? Obama Revamps Underwater Refinance Program

by Rich Vetstein 10.25.2011 Fannie Mae

Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) Revamped Homeowners who have not been able to refinance because they are “underwater” — their loans are more than the value of their home due to depressed real estate values — are being thrown a lifeline by the Obama Administration’s latest housing market rescue plan, announced yesterday. Regulators are revamping [...]

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What Now? Bevilacqua v. Rodriguez Leaves Toxic Foreclosure Titles Unclear

by Rich Vetstein 10.18.2011 Deeds
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No Easy Fix For Defective Foreclosure Titles After U.S. Bank v. Ibanez Ruling The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued its opinion today in the much anticipated Bevilacqua v. Rodriguez case considering property owners’ rights when they are saddled with defective titles stemming from improper foreclosures in the aftermath of the landmark U.S. Bank v. Ibanez [...]

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SJC Looks At Roles Of Mortgage Servicers and MERS In Eaton v. FNMA Arguments

by Rich Vetstein 10.03.2011 Fannie Mae
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I just finished watching the oral arguments in the SJC case of Eaton v. Federal National Mortgage Ass’n, The webcast should be up soon on the SJC Website. You can read the briefs in the case here. As outlined in my prior post on the case, the Court is considering the very important question of [...]

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SJC To Hear Oral Arguments In Eaton v. FNMA On Monday

by Rich Vetstein 09.30.2011 Fannie Mae

Updated: Click Here For Our Oral Argument Recap Just a reminder to those following the important SJC case of Eaton v. Federal National Mortgage Ass’n — oral arguments will be held on Monday, October 3rd, starting at 9am. You can view the oral argument live via webcast through the SJC Website. You can read the [...]

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The Trilogy: Explaining the Deed, Promissory Note and Mortgage at a Massachusetts Closing

by Marc Canner 09.09.2011 Deeds
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Prospective real estate buyers tend to think of the “mortgage” as the contract they are signing with the bank. This is misleading. The promissory note is the actual contract to loan and borrow money between lender and borrower. The mortgage is the lender’s instrument, or more accurately, its security interest, to enforce that loan contract. [...]

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SJC To Consider “Produce The Note” Foreclosure Defense In MERS Mortgage Case

by Rich Vetstein 09.08.2011 Fannie Mae
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Update: SJC Orders Additional Briefing On Potential Impact of Ruling (1/6/12) Oral Argument Analysis (10/3/11) Do Lenders Need To Hold Both Promissory Note & Mortgage At Foreclosure? In a rare “sua sponte” (on their own) direct appellate review, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has agreed to hear an appeal considering the controversial “produce the note” [...]

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Mass. Bankruptcy Judge Voids Foreclosure Of MERS Mortgage

by Rich Vetstein 08.23.2011 Foreclosure
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Judge Tells Lenders You Can’t Have Your MERS Cake & Eat It Too “The sophisticated financial minds who wrought the MERS regime sought to simplify the process of repeatedly transferring mortgage loans by obviating the need and expense of recording mortgage assignments with each transfer. No doubt they failed to consider the possibility of a [...]

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Mortgage Lending Advisory: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA Conforming Loan Limits Dropping On Sept. 30th!

by Rich Vetstein 08.15.2011 Fannie Mae
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Fannie Mae and FHA Conforming Loan Limits Dropping.  Close by 9/30/2011 or sooner! A guest post by David Gaffin, Senior Mortgage Lender, from Greenpark Mortgage. As Congress lets the temporary increase in conforming loan limits expire October 1st, we have received word that some investors will require that all loans affected by these limits close [...]

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FHA Stays In Condominium Game With Issuance Of Revised Lending Guidelines

by Rich Vetstein 07.05.2011 Condominium Law
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Good News For First Time Condo Buyers FHA loan programs offer low down payment mortgages which are often ideal for first time home buyers who lack cash for a 20% down payment but are otherwise strong borrowers. On June 30, 2011, FHA confirmed its commitment to financing condominiums with the issuance of revised lending guidelines [...]

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The Jedi Master Mortgage Discharge Tracker

by Rich Vetstein 06.27.2011 Massachusetts Real Estate Law
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Don’t Let An Undischarged Mortgage Ruin Your Closing Real estate attorneys are often confronted with difficult and complex title defects which need to be cured. With the refinancing boom of the last 10 years, sloppy, high-volume closing attorneys occasionally failed to obtain discharges of mortgage they were paying off at closing. Likewise, home equity closings [...]

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The Massachusetts Land Court: One Stop Shopping For All Your Real Estate Needs

by Rich Vetstein 06.12.2011 Foreclosure
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The Real Estate Specialty Court Established in 1898 and still staffed with only a handful of judges, the Massachusetts Land Court is the smallest of all the Massachusetts trial courts. But for real estate practitioners, it is the most important court in the Commonwealth. The Land Court is known for its real estate expertise and [...]

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Doomsday For Loan Officers? New Federal Mortgage Compensation Rules Go Into Effect Today

by Rich Vetstein 04.06.2011 Mortgages
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New Rules May Result In Higher Rates & Costs Late yesterday, a federal appeals court cleared the way for the immediate implementation of controversial new Federal Reserve loan officer compensation rules. The new rules were intended to prevent the practice of “steering” where a loan officer improperly steered the consumer into higher interest rate loans [...]

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Truth In Lending Disclosure Statement: How About Confusion In Lending?

by Rich Vetstein 03.28.2011 Closings
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Annual Percentage Rate (APR), Amount Financed, Finance Charge, and Total Payments…the Truth In Lending Disclosure Statement is one of the most challenging disclosure forms to explain to borrowers at a Massachusetts real estate closing. I like to call it the “Confusion In Lending” Statement because the form is what happens when the government attempts to [...]

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Massachusetts Purchase & Sale Agreement Contingencies In A Changed Market

by Rich Vetstein 03.25.2011 Appraisals
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The “Standard Form” In Massachusetts, buyers and sellers typically use the standard form purchase and sale agreement created by the Greater Boston Board of Real Estate. This form has been around since the late 1970′s and last updated in 1999–which might as well be 100 years ago in real estate life. Along with the standard [...]

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Oh My, Oh MERS! NY Bankruptcy Judge Rules That Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) Lacks Right To Assign Mortgages

by Rich Vetstein 02.15.2011 Fannie Mae
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First the robo-signing controversy. Then the U.S. Bank v. Ibanez ruling. Now the next bombshell ruling in the foreclosure mess has just come down from a New York federal bankruptcy judge. The case is In Re Agard (click here to download), and essentially throws a huge monkey wrench into a hugely important cog of the [...]

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Are The Lowest Mortgage Rates In History Now History?

by Rich Vetstein 02.12.2011 Fannie Mae
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A guest post by David Gaffin, Senior Mortgage Lender, from Greenpark Mortgage. Since Nov. 3rd when the Federal Reserve Bank released details of QEII (Quantitative Easing II), we have seen a very rapid rise in mortgage rates. On a national basis, the Freddie Mac 30 year fixed rate has moved from 4.20% to 5.05% this [...]

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More U.S. Bank v. Ibanez Foreclosure Talk: VIDEO

by Rich Vetstein 02.09.2011 Mortgage Crisis

I put together my first YouTube video, and thought a good topic would be the impact of the U.S. Bank v. Ibanez case on the foreclosure and REO market. The case underscores the necessity of obtaining an owner’s policy of title insurance for any REO transaction, and really any conventional transaction for that matter. Appreciate [...]

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Secretary of State Galvin Files Legislation To Resolve Faulty Foreclosures After U.S. Bank v. Ibanez Ruling

by Rich Vetstein 01.27.2011 Foreclosure
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From the Lawrence (Mass.) Eagle Tribune: Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin filed legislation last Friday to give the Land Court authority to create a special master to deal with foreclosures that may have occurred improperly. Anyone seeking to challenge the legitimacy of a foreclosure would have one year to file a lawsuit in the [...]

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Borrower Costs And Interest Rates To Rise For Fannie-Freddie Backed Loans

by Rich Vetstein 01.26.2011 Mortgages
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It’s been awhile since we had one of our mortgage guest bloggers here, and there’s been a number of recent changes and news in the mortgage industry. Today we have David Gaffin from Greenpark Mortgage talking about rising borrower costs for those with less than stellar credit scores (i.e., the vast majority of folks). Tomorrow, [...]

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A Title Insurance Underwriter’s View On Massachusetts Foreclosure Practice After The Ibanez Ruling

by Rich Vetstein 01.12.2011 Foreclosure

Guest Post By Harold Clark, Esq., New England Regional Counsel for Westcor Land Title Insurance Company. On January 7, 2011, the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) rendered its decision in the U.S. Bank v. Ibanez case. Before discussing the Court’s decision, here is a brief review of the procedural history of the case. The Land Court’s [...]

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