MORTGAGE FORECLOSURES: A Discussion

Had a discussion in the office with Rhonda today about the Mortgage Foreclosure dilema as it appears to be affecting homeowners in America today. I have blogged a bit on this topic in an attempt to clear up the confusion and misinformation in the minds of some of my readers.

Who is Rhonda? She is only the greatest person, with the clearest head for details, you will ever enjoy having a conversation with. Rhonda has been working in the Real Estate Mortgage industry for more than a quarter of a century now, and what she might have forgotten about originating, processing and underwriting Real Estate Mortgage Loans most will never learn (I will not even go into her competence with the Escrow process). For years now Rhonda and I have been using each other as sounding boards; bouncing ideas off each other as we discussed topics as far ranging as the Katrina disaster to the most recent movement of the Fed rate.

This morning Rhonda referred me to a piece by Diane Sawyer of ABCs Good Morning America in which she interviewed Jim Avila, the Law and Justice Correspondent for ABC. In his report Mr. Avila talked of a new development that is giving homeowners facing foreclosure a chance to hold on to their homes. "Produce the Note" is actually a document that homeowners are using to stall the mortgage foreclosure process against their homes. According to the report Lenders (Banks) are having diffilcuty producing the note the homeowner signed at the time they obtained their home loans mortgages. If the Bank cannot produce the note with the homeowners signature, judges will stall the process until the bank can produce the document - this can go on for months as the banks are finding that they now need to track their loans from close of escrow through bundling for sale as mortgage backed securities. This gives the homeowner time to find a new job or an additional job or whatever they may need to accumulate the necessary financing to save their homes from the auction block

According to Jim Avila, "Produce the Note" was started by a Florida lawyer named Chris Hoyer who has the information on a website he has set up for the purpose providing help to homeowners facing foreclosure. Here is the website www.consumerwarningnetwork.com - go check it out.

Thanks Rhondi