Foreclosure and Loan Modification Blog

If you are going through the foreclosure process, or if you are in danger of foreclosure, this can be a very daunting time. The whole process can be confusing and a bit intimidating. It is times like these that you need someone on your side who will really fight for you. The current housing crisis has spawned a number of “foreclosure specialists” who will offer a free foreclosure consultation but little else. 

They have great sales pitches and promise to keep you in your home, but once you sign on the dotted line and hand over your hard-earned money, not much else happens. Most of these companies seem more adept at marketing their services than keeping people in their homes. 

Chances are, there are real vampires in your neighborhood right now, and no silver bullet can stop them.

Vampire foreclosures are a real phenomenon that is sweeping the nation. The term was coined by housing statistics provider RealtyTrac to describe homes that are being lived in by the original homeowners, but have been seized by a bank. According to RealtyTrac, 250,000, or nearly half of all bank-owned homes fall within this category, and this number won't be falling anytime soon, although these homes will eventually have to hit the market.

Zombies and Vampires Are Everywhere 

If you're familiar with housing lingo, you may be wondering if these vampire foreclosures are the same thing as "zombie" foreclosures. They aren't. Zombie foreclosures are foreclosures in which the homeowner abandons the home after a foreclosure sale date has been set, only to find out that the house never was sold or the title was never transferred over. This means that fees such as homeowners association fees, maintenance fees, and property taxes are still piling up on the property, which eventually wrecks the original homeowners' credit. There are tons of zombie foreclosures too: all in all, vampire and zombie foreclosures make up about 67 percent of all foreclosures.

Sunday was a perfect day to spend at Calder Race Course.  Breezy, sunny and a very comfortable 79 degrees. The best part was Amerihope Alliance Legal Services had the opportunity to sponsor a race for the SPCA horse rescue. Our law firm sponsored the 5th race and although none of us bet on the winning horse, Notalotatrouble, we all enjoyed the day and had lots of laughs.

Even Dracula would be embarrassed by the bloodthirst of some attorneys for people's money. Oftentimes these lawyers put money before people, and lives can be destroyed or seriously altered in this process. There are ways to avoid becoming a victim of their thirst, and to make sure that the foreclosure defense attorney of your choice is out for the bank's blood, not yours.

Hire the Right Person for the Job

If your house was flooded, you wouldn't call an electrician. If you had cataracts, you wouldn't call your general practitioner. It's a mystery why so many people hire lawyers who don't specialize in foreclosure defense to defend their homes from foreclosure. While many bloodthirsty "general practitioner" attorneys would have you believe that they have what it takes to save your home from foreclosure, foreclosure defense takes a specialist who is not only experienced in the art of foreclosure defense, but is actively working on current foreclosure defense cases. Don't worry, although the word "specialist" usually brings to mind expensive costs, that is not necessarily the case with these attorneys. Many foreclosure defense attorneys are sensitive to the needs of people in foreclosure, and have alternative fee structures that are designed to help those who are in financial trouble. Some foreclosure defense attorneys even offer loan modification as an ancillary service, which will help concerned homeowners kill two birds with one stone.

No Outcome Is Guaranteed

If a lawyer guarantees a "win" or a certain result on a case, then RUN! Bloodthirsty attorneys will often do this to goad unsuspecting people into signing up. The truth is that foreclosure defense is an involved process that involves plenty of negotiation with the bank's lawyers; no result is guaranteed. The only thing an attorney should guarantee is that they will do their utmost to save you and your home from the ravages of foreclosure.

The only certainty in life is uncertainty. Even in the face of uncertainty, everyone wants to be certain that they'll have their slice of the American Pie, which usually equates to a mortgage. At the peak of the housing market bubble, people were simply being approved for more American pie than their stomach or wallet could afford. The end result has been a staggering number of foreclosures.

If you think that ignoring errors on your credit report falls into the category of 'not worth sweating over,' think again. Mistakes on your credit report, whether they are tiny errors or major mistakes, can damage your credit rating and may indicate possible fradulent activity. If you find information that you believe is inaccurate, you have the right to dispute it free of charge.

Some lenders attempted to circumvent New York’s three-year foreclosure process by robo-signing foreclosure documents. Robo-signing involved lenders having employees sign foreclosures they never read and using fake signatures to attest to the validity of the foreclosure. The latest New York foreclosure law, which went into effect in August 2013, requires read foreclosure documents and put away the fake signatures. Now lenders must have attorneys swear that all foreclosure documents are real and accurate. As a foreclosure defense attorney in New York will tell you, the new foreclosure law can help or hurt you. 

No More “Shadow Dockets”

A lender who intends to foreclose on your property must provide you a letter at least 90 days prior to filing a foreclosure complaint in court. In many cases, a lender sends you the letter. However, it doesn’t file the complaint. This leaves you in legal limbo worse than watching a 16-inning baseball game with every player striking out. It’s not that you want the foreclosure process completed so you lose your home. You want to start fighting to save it.

After the complaint is filed, your foreclosure attorney in New York has 30 days to file a response to the complaint. If the complaint isn’t filed, your case ends up on what’s known as a shadow docket of pending foreclosures. It’s not a real court docket. Instead, it refers to your case being in limbo for months or years. As a result:

Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 5,000 homeowners, here is one of their stories.

Contrary to popular opinion, a lot of the people who lost their homes during the recent foreclosure crisis were under the burden of extenuating circumstances other than losing their job. That was the case with this homeowner. He was disabled and could no longer work full-time. He did his best to scrap by on the income from his disability checks and part-time job, but could not manage to pay his $1,100 mortgage note any longer. By the time this homeowner retained our foreclosure defense law firm, he was already over 3 years behind on paying his Wells Fargo mortgage. He had been working with another law firm to attempt to cancel a sale date that was placed on his home, but now he was looking for a law firm who could actually change his situation, not just delay the foreclosure process.

The big banks have done a lot of wrong, but one of the most shameful things that they've done is deny deserving homeowners loan modifications. Many homeowners have lost their homes because of this. It would be one thing if banks simply denied these loan mods on the spot after accepting the modification applications, but instead, they usually lead homeowners on wild goose chases for months- or years- before denying their loan modification, or will often offer homeowners a loan modification, but with terms that are much worse than what homeowners deserve.