Sunday, April 22, 2012
A Million Dollar Tweet and a Can of Soup
Amazing Story --
Hi Toni,
First of all, I wanted to thank you very much for the support of our Radio Show as well as our LACSS List Assist Negotiation Program. We are extremely grateful for everyone's comments and emails.
Now...I had to share this story with you. A couple days ago, we were brought in to help a homeowner that had a foreclosure set in less than 24 hours with Bank of America. He had a construction loan and ran out of funds before the home was completed. The loan amount is well over $1,000,000.
Although we knew it would be a full team effort, we told them we would do whatever we could to help. We reached out to our contacts and unfortunately couldn't contact any of them because it was almost the end of the business day. For the past few months, we have also been making a strong effort to build our relationships with Bank of America Social Media Support. In case you didn't know, Bank of America is on Twitter and has a team dedicated to helping agents and consumers via Twitter. (I know...I didn't believe it at first either.)
Well...we sent a tweet to Bank of America (I never thought I would say that)...and received a call pretty quickly. We have a contact in that department that helps us pretty often, and they looked into it and helped get the sale postponed so we could be reviewed for a short sale. It is amazing how technology has advanced. Someone owes over $1,000,000 on their loan and has a foreclosure for the next morning, and we send a Tweet on an Iphone and all of the sudden the foreclosure is postponed.........crazy.
I am now calling that the Million Dollar Tweet. :)
Now...what about the can of soup? This Friday 4/27/12 from 11:00-12:30, Jason will be teaching at KW Santa Monica. The class is :
Mastering the Language of Short Sales - Scripts and Dialogues
SPACE IS LIMITED. REGISTER AT: www.TeachMeShortSales.com
Please bring at least 1 canned good to support KW Red Day. We will have bins for your canned goods when you arrive.
We hope you can make it! Once again...register at www.TeachMeShortSales.com
Thank you and have a great weekend!
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Feds Force Recompense from Robo-signers
Federal officials announced this week that they have reached a $25 billion settlement with the five largest mortgage servicers in the country for “loan servicing and foreclosure abuses.” The breakdown is as follows: Ally Financial ($207M), Bank of America ($175.5M), Citigroup ($22M), JPMorgan Chase ($275M), and Wells Fargo ($87M).
Robo-signing refers to the practice of bank employees signing mass amounts of foreclosure documents without verifying the information. There are numerous accounts of these instances. Beth Ann Cottrell, a manager at JP Morgan Chase, stated in a court deposition that she and a team of 8 others signed upwards of 18,000 documents a month without personal review, many of which were foreclosures or critical affidavits of indebtedness. In another instance, Erica Johnson-Seck, an employee of OneWest Bank, estimated she signed about 750 foreclosure-related documents a week, spending about 30 seconds on each one.
Oftentimes, the people who signed these documents were not even properly authorized to do so, resulting in homes that were fraudulently foreclosed on.
Once these practices were brought to light, four major banks, J.P. Morgan Chase, Ally Financial/GMAC, Bank of America and Wells Fargo halted foreclosure actions in 23 states (BOA halted foreclosures in all 50) because some of its employees “might have improperly prepared the necessary documents.”
Now they are paying the price for their actions.
Federal officials announced this week that they have reached a $25 billion settlement with the five largest mortgage servicers in the country. The breakdown is as follows: Ally Financial ($207M), Bank of America ($175.5M), Citigroup ($22M), JPMorgan Chase ($275M), and Wells Fargo ($87M).
The $25 billion will be distributed in two ways: $20 billion is designated for financial relief to borrowers, and $5 billion in cash will go directly to federal and state government agencies.
Have I Been Robo-signed?
Robo-signing is usually difficult to trace. It requires analyzing a paper trail of signatures in order to determine whether or not the signatory has legal authority. But as the courts filter through these documents, even more complex issues have begun to arise.
As Carlin Phillips, a wrongful foreclosure attorney explains, recently there have been instances of homeowners that were foreclosed on receiving notices from the bank giving them their house back. These notices of rescindence, or wrongful foreclosure, come up to a year after the homeowner has moved out, and in many cases cause more harm than good.
These homes, which have been sitting empty for months, often fall victim to vandalism, illegal activity, and disrepair. The homeowner is then abruptly saddled with the damaged property and forced to pay taxes on it.
Hopes are that new standards and regulations will prevent cases like this from happening again. President Obama recently announced the Home Owner’s Bill of Rights, a set of standards that call for increased communication between banks and homeowners, the discontinuation of dual-tracking (when a home is foreclosed on while the owner is in the process of negotiating a loan modification or bankruptcy), and proper documentation procedures for foreclosures.
Robo-signing refers to the practice of bank employees signing mass amounts of foreclosure documents without verifying the information. There are numerous accounts of these instances. Beth Ann Cottrell, a manager at JP Morgan Chase, stated in a court deposition that she and a team of 8 others signed upwards of 18,000 documents a month without personal review, many of which were foreclosures or critical affidavits of indebtedness. In another instance, Erica Johnson-Seck, an employee of OneWest Bank, estimated she signed about 750 foreclosure-related documents a week, spending about 30 seconds on each one.
Oftentimes, the people who signed these documents were not even properly authorized to do so, resulting in homes that were fraudulently foreclosed on.
Once these practices were brought to light, four major banks, J.P. Morgan Chase, Ally Financial/GMAC, Bank of America and Wells Fargo halted foreclosure actions in 23 states (BOA halted foreclosures in all 50) because some of its employees “might have improperly prepared the necessary documents.”
Now they are paying the price for their actions.
Federal officials announced this week that they have reached a $25 billion settlement with the five largest mortgage servicers in the country. The breakdown is as follows: Ally Financial ($207M), Bank of America ($175.5M), Citigroup ($22M), JPMorgan Chase ($275M), and Wells Fargo ($87M).
The $25 billion will be distributed in two ways: $20 billion is designated for financial relief to borrowers, and $5 billion in cash will go directly to federal and state government agencies.
Have I Been Robo-signed?
Robo-signing is usually difficult to trace. It requires analyzing a paper trail of signatures in order to determine whether or not the signatory has legal authority. But as the courts filter through these documents, even more complex issues have begun to arise.
As Carlin Phillips, a wrongful foreclosure attorney explains, recently there have been instances of homeowners that were foreclosed on receiving notices from the bank giving them their house back. These notices of rescindence, or wrongful foreclosure, come up to a year after the homeowner has moved out, and in many cases cause more harm than good.
These homes, which have been sitting empty for months, often fall victim to vandalism, illegal activity, and disrepair. The homeowner is then abruptly saddled with the damaged property and forced to pay taxes on it.
Hopes are that new standards and regulations will prevent cases like this from happening again. President Obama recently announced the Home Owner’s Bill of Rights, a set of standards that call for increased communication between banks and homeowners, the discontinuation of dual-tracking (when a home is foreclosed on while the owner is in the process of negotiating a loan modification or bankruptcy), and proper documentation procedures for foreclosures.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Call Toni Real Estate Show - Starting Feb 4, 2012
I really need your help please. I have some amazing news to share with you.
I recently encountered an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to represent my community, my industry, and all of the good, hard working people in America. The Real Estate Radio Network and I have reached an agreement that I will be representing their Nationally syndicated brand as the new Host of the Call Toni Real Estate Show.
I will co-host the show with Jason Jerzewski, Director of Business Development and Marketing for Toni Patillo & Associates, LA City Short Sales, and LA City Probate.
The show will air every Saturday on Clear Channel’s Radio Network KTLK AM 1150 from 3pm to 4pm PST, and our first show is scheduled to air on February 4, 2012.
How long we are on the radio will be up to you....
Let me explain. Radio is dependent upon ratings, just like television. However, radio is much harder to track. In order to reach the station's quota, we've been asked to build a fan base of at least 1,000 fans within our first 30 days. In order to achieve that number we're asking that you please become a "Fan of the Show" by clicking HERE, and also share the page with as many friends as you can.
We have always had a passion for educating the public, helping people save money, and achieve the dream of home ownership. We are dedicated to bringing true value to the show every week.
The goal of the “Call Toni Real Estate Show” is to challenge, empower, inspire and educate people to take their lives to a higher more meaningful, purposeful level and provide a balanced view of the current real estate and financial market by offering solutions to improve the quality of our listener’s lives.
Each week, we will have Real Estate and Financial experts share new and fresh ideas with our listeners. If you know of someone that you think would be a great guest, please let us know.
We are extremely excited and grateful for the opportunity, and we hope you will join us on facebook
CLICK HERE FOR THE FAN PAGE
Thank you for your help!
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Foreclosure Starts Decline on West Coast
West coast states saw a decline in foreclosure starts in December, according to ForeclosureRadar. In fact four of the five states tracked by ForeclosureRadar’s monthly survey saw double-digit declines.
The exception was Oregon, where foreclosure starts rose by 5 percent.
Foreclosure sales in the West coast states were mixed but “down far less than we expected given lender announcements of holiday moratoriums,” ForeclosureRadar reported.
Foreclosure sales rose in California and Washington and fell in Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona.
Foreclosure timelines declined overall, which was “surprising,” according to California-based ForeclosureRadar.
The greatest drop in foreclosure timeline was seen in California, where the time to foreclose is now 250 days, a 16.9 percent drop from November.
After a 3.2 percent decline, Nevada’s 331 day foreclosure timeline was the greatest, while Washington’s 104-day timeline was the lowest. Washington also posted the lowest rate of change for the month – a 0.9 percent increase.
Arizona’s timeline also increased in December, rising to 145 days after a 2.1 percent increase.
With a 30.6 percent drop, California posted the greatest decline in foreclosure starts in December. Arizona followed with a 24.2 percent decline.
ForeclosureRadar reported a 45.8 percent rise in foreclosure cancellations in December, which it attributes to the closing of a trustee sale location in Norwalk.
Affecting foreclosures in Nevada, which declined 14 percent in December, is a new law requiring lenders to file an additional affidavit.
“Nevada’s new foreclosure rules appear on track to bring a near complete halt to foreclosures in that state.” stated Sean O’Toole, Founder and CEO of ForeclosureRadar.
Source: DSNEWS
The exception was Oregon, where foreclosure starts rose by 5 percent.
Foreclosure sales in the West coast states were mixed but “down far less than we expected given lender announcements of holiday moratoriums,” ForeclosureRadar reported.
Foreclosure sales rose in California and Washington and fell in Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona.
Foreclosure timelines declined overall, which was “surprising,” according to California-based ForeclosureRadar.
The greatest drop in foreclosure timeline was seen in California, where the time to foreclose is now 250 days, a 16.9 percent drop from November.
After a 3.2 percent decline, Nevada’s 331 day foreclosure timeline was the greatest, while Washington’s 104-day timeline was the lowest. Washington also posted the lowest rate of change for the month – a 0.9 percent increase.
Arizona’s timeline also increased in December, rising to 145 days after a 2.1 percent increase.
With a 30.6 percent drop, California posted the greatest decline in foreclosure starts in December. Arizona followed with a 24.2 percent decline.
ForeclosureRadar reported a 45.8 percent rise in foreclosure cancellations in December, which it attributes to the closing of a trustee sale location in Norwalk.
Affecting foreclosures in Nevada, which declined 14 percent in December, is a new law requiring lenders to file an additional affidavit.
“Nevada’s new foreclosure rules appear on track to bring a near complete halt to foreclosures in that state.” stated Sean O’Toole, Founder and CEO of ForeclosureRadar.
Source: DSNEWS
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