Distressed Properties Sale Articles

Harris County, Texas District Judge Patricia J. Kerrigan has frozen the assets of several Houston firms charged with operating bank forclosed homes rescue scams.

The charge of foreclosure rescue fraud was filed by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott against several companies and their executives for allegedly defrauding their customers with bogus credit repair and debt counseling services.

Kerrigan also granted Abbott’s request to issue a temporary restraining order against the defendants, including United Servicing LLC, Bell Investments and Developments, Excel Loss Mitigation Inc. and directors David Espy and Frank Bell.

A charge of failure to file a bond with Texas Secretary of State has also been filed against the defendants. The posting of the bond is required from all companies that want to legally operate a business in Texas.

United Servicing or Excel, as it was previously known before a deluge of customer complaints forced it to change its business name, contacted distressed homeowners who were having difficulty paying their mortgages. According to a state-conducted investigation, the defendants used telemarketers who made false promises to distressed homeowners that their service could help them avoid foreclosures.

The investigation showed that telemarketers used a script to entice distressed homeowners that Excel and others could help them negotiate arrears, interest and late fees with lenders. The defendants would promise customers that their renegotiation would help them save their properties from foreclosures and even lower monthly payments.

The telemarketers hired by defendants even told homeowners not to contact or initiate a negotiation with their lenders when the truth is, it should be the first thing any homeowner who is facing the threat of foreclosure should have done.

To further convince homeowners to hire their services, telemarketers, on behalf of the defendants, told them that they would be able to cut up to three months worth of mortgage payments. For 45 to 60 days so-called negotiation service offered by defendants, homeowners were charged $1,500.

According to the investigation, the defendants made no attempt to contact and negotiate with lenders on homeowners’ behalf. As a result, many homeowners who availed of the defendants’ services lost their properties to foreclosures.

The Office of the Attorney General wants to impose a maximum of $20,000 in civil penalties for each violated provision under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and Texas Telephone Solicitation Act.

Meanwhile, homeowners are advised to avoid companies that offer bank forclosed homes prevention services that ask for upfront fees.

New programs to help foreclosure-battered areas in the city of Denver have been launched by the city’s Office of Economic Development. Owners of housing units in danger of foreclosed homes for auction can receive help from the program.

One of the programs is called Mortgage Credit Certificate Program, which was designed to help homeowners who took out high-risk subprime mortgage loans and whose houses are in danger of becoming foreclosed homes for auction.

Another program involves the redevelopment of unsold foreclosed homes for auction using funds from the federal government’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program. This program will be carried out in partnership with the Denver Urban Renewal Authority and the Denver Housing Authority.

John Hickenlooper, mayor of Denver, said the programs will rehabilitate neighborhoods devastated by foreclosures and provide relief to families whose houses are in danger of becoming foreclosed homes for auction.

The mayor added that the city will complement these programs with strategies that create more jobs so more families can pay their mortgage loans and launch programs that help sustain the redevelopment of unsold foreclosed homes for auction.

The Mortgage Credit Certificate was designed to help distressed borrowers pay their monthly mortgage payments in the form of tax credits. The certificate will lower a borrower’s federal income tax, providing additional money for the payment of the mortgage loan.

The mortgage credit program is expected to help around 180 families in Denver who took out adjustable-rate mortgage loans on single-family units between January 1, 2002 and December 31, 2007 and who are qualified to refinance their loans.

The program has been backed with $15 million sourced from the city’s Private Activity Bond allocation and another $10 million sourced from Colorado’s Private Activity Bond allocation, which was declared by a state law passed in 2008.

In addition, the Neighborhood Stabilization Program has allocated the city of Denver with around $9.6 million for the purchase, rehabilitation and resale of unsold foreclosed homes for auction.

Denver officials will work with officers of the DURA and the DHA to implement the rehabilitation of unsold foreclosed homes for auction. It will focus on neighborhoods battered by large numbers of foreclosed homes for auction, such as Green Valley Ranch, Elyria Swansea, Northeast Park Hill, Montbello, West Colfax, Barnum, Westwood, Athmar Park and Mar Lee.

Owners of houses in danger of becoming foreclosed homes for auction should contact their mortgage lenders and submit their applications for the Mortgage Credit Certificate program.

Unlike other housing markets, the pace of foreclosed houses in the Philadelphia region, which consists of 13 counties, has slowed down in April, based on RealtyTrac’s foreclosure data.

As inventories of foreclosed homes for sale increase, the median home price for a previously-owned single-family house in metropolitan Atlanta in the first quarter has declined by 25 percent compared to the median last year, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors.

A program to help about 20 to 30 residents in Pacoima and nearby communities in the northeast part of the San Fernando Valley whose homes are in danger of getting forclosed for sale will be discussed by the city council of Los Angeles.

Investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has decided to settle complaints by the state of Massachusetts over its contribution to the subprime crisis that led to the overloading of residential properties into foreclosure lists.

The South Carolina forclosed property ruling issued this week will just be a temporary relief for many distressed homeowners in the state, according to Don Schunk, a research economist at Coastal Carolina University.

Troubled homeowners in Duluth, Minnesota are being helped by realtors to save their houses from becoming forclosed homes through short sales.

Despite the inability of lenders and volunteer lawyers to come out with solutions to some problems presented, the summit held by Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink to reduce foreclosure properties across the state resulted in a major achievement: the lenders agreed to appoint a person to negotiate with troubled homeowners under the Florida Attorneys Saving Homes initiative. The lenders also agreed to appoint an individual who can bargain with the volunteer lawyers.

While foreclosed homes in other states are oftentimes concentrated in certain neighborhoods, Hawaii foreclosures are spread out. Almost always also, they are owned by out-of-state banks.