Lead Story
Making Sure Wrong Home Isn't Seized
By Sara Lepro
Reports of lenders repossessing the wrong home are further tarnishing the banking industry's image, already bruised by bailouts and bonuses.
The mix-ups have been perpetuated by the sheer number of foreclosures being processed today as well as the various layers of communication involved. Addresses and other information passed from one department to another, or from a contractor to a subcontractor, can get garbled along the way.
"It's what you call a new weakness," said Joe Bada, chief executive of Five Brothers Mortgage Co. Services and Securing Inc., a Warren, Mich., company that inspects and manages foreclosed properties for lenders. "There's just so much happening at the same time. The means of communicating haven't been refined. Information is not moving fast enough from one department to the other."
Daily Mortgage News Briefing
Last updated: March 9, 2010
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Two top officers in charge of the fast growing MetLife Home Loans, Memphis, have departed the bank-owned residential lender/servicer, National Mortgage News has learned.
Click here for more...Commercial banks will be big buyers of agency MBS this year and help keep mortgage rates in check after the Federal Reserve withdraws from the market, according to the head of securitization strategy at Barclays Capital.
Click here for more...Bill Petersohn, director of bulk acquisitions and capital market sales for Residential Capital Corp., Horsham, Pa., has resigned from the mortgage banker to take a job with an analytics firm.
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Appraisers are raising alarms that the Treasury Department's decision to use broker price opinions (BPOs) for its new short sales program will exacerbate mortgage fraud and property "flopping."
Click here for more...The Government National Mortgage Association should be given its independence from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, its former president said.
Click here for more...The homebuyer tax credit has been a dud so far this year, but the National Association of Realtors is hoping it will kick in this spring and drive home sales higher before it expires at midyear.
Click here for more...Phoenix Capital, Denver, is working on bringing an $800 million package of servicing rights to the auction market, according to one advisor familiar with the transaction.
Click here for more...Defunct FHA lender Lend America and its "chief business strategist," Michael Ashley -- who controlled the company -- have effectively been barred from the mortgage industry, according to newly released court documents.
Click here for more...The creation of an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency would not impair safety and soundness regulation of banks, according to a majority of business economists.
Click here for more...Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp., Sun Prairie, Wisc., funded $720 million in residential loans in the New England area last year, a 244% jump from 2009.
Click here for more...The entrance of a new firm, Essent Guaranty, into the mortgage insurance space is a positive for the sector as a whole, but could spell bad news for some existing players, according to a report from Moody's Investor Service.
Click here for more...More than 1 million U.S. consumers have lost their homes to foreclosure since the end of 2008, according to new figures compiled by RealtyTrac, Irvine, Calif.
Click here for more...Video of the Day
| Ann Lee, a professor of finance at New York University, and Dan Alpert, managing director at Westwood Capital LLC, talk with Bloomberg's Pimm Fox about the outlook for a recovery in the U.S. housing market. (This report is an excerpt of the full interview. Source: Bloomberg) |
Mortgage Video Library
National Mortgage News presents Mortgage Focus, a video library of hot topics addressed by mortgage industry experts. Topics include servicing, government mortgage plans, refis, loan mods, technology, REO and more.
Click here for more...Editor's Choice
Third Parties Push for Blind Appraisals
The National Association of Mortgage Brokers believes it has found a way to ensure the independence of the appraisal process and still allow brokers to order appraisals.
Click here to read the details.
Other Voices
This story is from our sister publication, American Banker
Thrift Charter-Flipping Just One More Strain for OTS
A growing number of institutions worried about the Office of Thrift Supervision's future may switch to a national bank charter, putting even greater pressure on the agency's budget.
Hudson City Savings Bank, a $60 billion-asset thrift in Paramus, N.J., last week became the latest to announce a charter change amid concern about its regulator. Hudson City said rapid growth and asset size also factored into the decision to switch regulators, as most banks of similar size are regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
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Do not file your FHA/HUD audit too soon or it may be wrong warns Herman Thordsen in his latest Legal Corner blog post.


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Joseph Murin, managing director, The Collingwood Group, Washington, and former president and CEO of Ginnie Mae


