It will also provide homeowners the opportunity to meet up with lenders, housing authorities, housing counselors from the HUD, real estate lawyers and credit counselors and learn all about programs that provide foreclosure assistance. In addition, loss mitigation experts from Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Fifth Third Bank, Sun Trust and Chase will be participants in the workshop.

Attendees of the workshop were asked to bring bank statements and paycheck records and identification cards like Social Security and driver's license. They were also requested to come to the event armed with their W2 Forms, documents on mortgage payments and employment gaps and bills on household expenses.

The workshop is just one of several efforts launched in Florida to address the issue of foreclosures. Another program that has recently come into being is a mediation effort launched by the 10th Judicial Circuit which aims to stop foreclosed homes from increasing in number. Although foreclosure figures in the state has declined by 25% compared with previous year's numbers, Florida remains in the top three states with the highest foreclosure activities.

The project, called Collins Center for Public Policy Foreclosure Mediation Program, offers borrowers and lenders the opportunity to resolve foreclosure concerns outside the courts. It also focuses on trying to keep homeowners in their homes if it is possible at all. The effort is a collaboration between Collins and the Central Florida Mediation Group and offers the mediation services free of charge to homeowners who are facing foreclosures.

Organizers of the program have stated that the mediation effort benefits both lenders and homeowners in such a way that they are given a chance to work out their case with the help of a mediator and come up with an agreement that will prevent both parties from suffering additional pressure and expenses. A reasonable solution that will take into consideration the homeowner's financial status is the primary purpose of the mediation.

The Florida Housing Help workshop and the mediation effort by Collins are part of statewide efforts to stop foreclosed homes from becoming a bigger problem. These efforts are provided for free and aim to benefit both lenders and borrowers.

Workshop on How to Stop Foreclosed Homes Problem in Florida is a post from StopForeclosuresHelp.com - Learn how to stop foreclosures.

The $108 million was the amount declared by the Federal Trade Commission to be paid back by BofA to about 200,000 Countrywide borrowers who paid several thousand dollars in fees when they missed their monthly payments. The fees were collected by Countrywide for the payment of various services such as property inspections over the years from 2005 to 2008.

BofA acquired Countrywide in 2008 after it collapsed due to allegations of fraudulent lending practices and mismanagement.

Advocates said that Countrywide did not help distressed borrowers rescue their homes because they were looking at the profits they will get from the default fees. They did not provide accurate loan information to borrowers, did not provide proper notices, did not keep clear records and they made false representations against borrowers in bankruptcy.

FTC officials pointed out that Countrywide made huge amounts of money when they made risky loans and they made money again when the home loans defaulted.

For its part, BofA said it agreed to refund the money to avoid further costs related to a drawn-out litigation. Aside from the financial settlement, BofA also agreed to notify bankrupt borrowers regularly about their balances and fees.

In related news, BofA also decided to stop home foreclosures in Utah in response to a court-ordered injunction resulting from the lawsuit filed by Utah resident Peni Cox. Since January last year, Cox has stopped making her monthly home loan payments. She and her lawyer was able to stop the repossession of her house after filing a case that claimed BofA had no right to file foreclosure cases in Utah because it is not registered in Utah and it does not have an office in Utah where it can conduct face-to-face meetings with customers.

In its response, BofA argued it does not have to register with every state in the U.S. Nevertheless, it agreed to stop home foreclosures in the state to comply with the Utah court order.

BofA Agrees to Stop Home Foreclosures and to Pay $108M is a post from StopForeclosuresHelp.com - Learn how to stop foreclosures.

Among the loopholes are the obvious hesitation of lenders to work out short sales because of the big gap between the loan amount and the short sale price, the difficulty in pinpointing the short sale price fair to lenders and the problem of second mortgages.

Nevertheless, the Obama administration is pushing through with the short sale program to help solve the foreclosure problem which has not been solved by earlier programs such as the Home Affordable Modification Program and the HARP and the HOPE programs.

Just like the HAMP and HARP, the federal government also gives incentives to the lender or servicer, to the second-mortgage holder and to the homeowner. The primary lender gets $1,000; the second-mortgage lender gets another $1,000; and the homeowner gets $1,500 for relocation expenses.

For troubled borrowers, this short sale scheme to stop home foreclosures has two advantages over foreclosures: less damage to personal credit ratings and the pledge that they will not be pursued for the deficiency between the final sales price and the loan amount.

For mortgage security investors, the advantage over foreclosure is the prospect of receiving a higher amount of money or the likelihood of posting less investment loss.

For lenders, the benefits of short sales are savings in terms of money and time spent for foreclosure proceedings and avoidance of maintenance costs or monthly fees for properties in multifamily buildings.

There are, however, analysts who are doubtful about the effectiveness of the program. Economist Thomas Lawler, for instance, contended that short sales can be easily used to carry out fraud. Lawler, a former top executive at Fannie Mae, questioned how the lenders can determine whether a homeowner is really troubled or only pretending in order to escape financial obligations.

At the start of the housing crisis, short sales were ignored by lenders, but the number of short sales worked out has started to rise, according to realtors. The number, however, is still not significant.

Fannie Mae reported that it has approved 36,968 pre-foreclosure sales in 2009, triple the number it approved in 2008.

Despite the fine-tuning of the short sale program, the major mortgage banks are still largely hesitant about approving short sales to stop home foreclosures. Besides, there are second mortgage holders and mortgage investors that they need to confer with before approving short sales.

Stop Home Foreclosures thru Short Sales despite Loopholes is a post from StopForeclosuresHelp.com - Learn how to stop foreclosures.

Mortgage loan audits, oftentimes marketed as forensic loan audits, are supposedly examination of mortgage loan documents to identify violations of mortgage lending laws by the lenders. Unscrupulous mortgage consultants sell this idea to distressed borrowers, telling them that the lenders will more easily agree to loan modifications if they are presented with their lending law violations.

In reality, however, there has been no data or evidence to back the claim that mortgage loan audits can pressure lenders to speed up their loan modification efforts for borrowers who present possible violations of federal laws in their mortgage origination.

According to the office of California Attorney General Edmund Brown Jr., the for-profit foreclosure prevention industry continues to find creative ways to swindle money from desperate borrowers.

According to legitimate consultants, even if the mortgage loan audits are performed by licensed and trained auditors, lawyers or mortgage professionals, forensic loan audits are not sure-fire or guaranteed tools to stop home foreclosures.

The Mortgage Relief Law Center in California is one of the many foreclosure-relief companies marketing forensic loan audits to homeowners at risk of foreclosure. One mortgage borrower complained that he paid $2,795 to MLRC, which accepted the money but never updated him on the mortgage modification process and never informed him that he was not qualified for modification.

The borrower claimed that he came to know of his modification status only after his lender sent him a notification stating that he was not qualified for loan modification. He also claimed that MLRC refused to refund his money.

Under the law in California, all foreclosure relief consultants and loan modification professionals are required to register with the office of Attorney General Brown and post a bond of $100,000. They are also prohibited from collecting upfront payments.

Last year, California officials have investigated over 2,000 loan modification complaints and have sued almost 350 people involved in fraudulent foreclosure relief activities.

The office of Brown has issued advisories to homeowners looking for consultants to help them stop home foreclosures. Homeowners are advised not to pay upfront fees, not to transfer titles or pay mortgage payments to consultants and not to ignore letters from mortgage servicers and lenders.

Stop Home Foreclosures, Beware of Mortgage Loan Audits is a post from StopForeclosuresHelp.com - Learn how to stop foreclosures.

Wells Fargo has been promoting three schemes by which its troubled borrowers can get help, in addition to carrying out the Home Affordable Modification Program of the federal government.

One of these schemes is its participation in the Project Lifeline, which was designed to help borrowers who are already in default by three months or more and who want to save their homes from foreclosure. Wells Fargo said that it will delay foreclosure filings for up to one month for borrowers who can show that they can work with the bank to find a repayment arrangement viable for both the borrower and the bank.

Wells Fargo explained that the steps for the Project Lifeline begin when the bank sends letters to certain distressed borrowers considered by the bank as qualified for viable loan modification. The next step is for the recipients of the letters to call the toll-free hotline of Wells Fargo at 866-488-2028.

Recipients should tell the responding bank representatives they have in their hands the Wells Fargo letter describing its efforts to stop foreclosure homes, that they want to work with the bank to save their homes and that they will seek financial counseling if required. Recipients will also provide additional financial information so the representatives can look for an appropriate solution that can work for the borrower.

The bank will delay foreclosure filings for up to a month as representatives review the financial situations of borrowers and modify their loans. If loans are modified to craft viable payment plans and if borrowers are able to sustain paying the modified loans for three months, the modified payment plans will be turned into longer-term payment agreements.

Another scheme carried out by Wells Fargo is the adjustable mortgage loan fast-track program, which provides a freeze on teaser rates for 5 years for certain kind of borrowers. The loans must have been made between the first day of January 2005 and the last day of July 2007 and must have been scheduled to reset between January 2008 and July 2010.

According to Wells Fargo, it has been finalizing its list of borrowers eligible for its fast track scheme to stop foreclosure homes and has been making efforts to ensure that notices are sent about 4 months before the reset dates of the ARM loans.

Stop Foreclosure Homes: Help for Wells Fargo Borrowers is a post from StopForeclosuresHelp.com - Learn how to stop foreclosures.

Under the leadership of Judge Shepard, these trained professionals will work with the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority to conduct and mediate foreclosure prevention conferences between lenders and distressed borrowers.

A new law passed through the efforts of Indiana Senator Karen Tallian will also help facilitate the mediation process. The law requires lenders to inform homeowners at risk of foreclosure that they have the right to have settlement meetings with lenders under the court mediation program.

Tallian explained that homeowners can obtain favorable settlements with their lenders if they are guided through the process by trained professionals. Face-to-face negotiations are much better than negotiations over the phone where documents cannot be studied immediately.

The senator also said that since the mediation notification law was implemented in August, over 300 settlement meetings to stop foreclosure process have been requested.

In 2008, more than 45,300 foreclosure actions were filed in Indiana, a sharp increase of 50 percent over 2004 filings.

In the third quarter this year, more than 12,100 housing units were notified of defaults or foreclosures and more than 5,200 units of these were already real estate-owned. Although the pace of foreclosures in the state slowed, Indiana still ranked high among states in foreclosure rate. In the third quarter ranking of foreclosure rates, Indiana was 20th, with one out of every 230 households getting hit with a foreclosure posting.

Judge Shepard said that he planned to train more lawyers, judges and professionals so more troubled homeowners can be helped. During the training sessions, participants are encouraged to provide legal assistance for free to homeowners asking for help.

Among the organizations and agencies that helped conduct more than 30 sessions were the Indiana Foreclosure Prevention Network, Indiana Pro Bono Commission, Indiana Commission on Continuing Legal Education and the Office of the Indiana Attorney General. Law firms and bar associations across the state also helped.

According to Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller, the settlement meetings were designed to stop foreclosure process more effectively. Before the meetings, the logistics are organized so the needed paperwork, the mediator, the homeowner and the authorized lender representative are all present at the scheduled meeting.

Stop Foreclosure Process Stepped Up in Indiana is a post from StopForeclosuresHelp.com - Learn how to stop foreclosures.

In his ruling this October, Long rejected a request from the two banks to reinstate the foreclosures in Springfield which he had invalidated in March due to missing documents.

Long explained that the foreclosures filed by U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo against the properties in Springfield lacked documents required under Massachusetts foreclosure law. The documents involve paperwork that need to be filed by banks and investors every time they sell mortgage assets to other parties. But because of the speed and frequency of changes in ownership of mortgages, some documents often get missed, misplaced and lost.

Judge Long added that although U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo ultimately fixed the missing documents, their efforts did not resolve the fact that they foreclosed without the proper documents as required by law.

Although the court ruling was good news to homeowners and other parties devoted to stopping foreclosure, the decision has triggered concerns in the mortgage sector and the title insurance industry.

Lawrence Scofield, lawyer for the two lenders, said Judge Long has put into uncertainty every foreclosure carried out in Massachusetts over the past 20 years. Scofield explained that only foreclosures after 1989 will be affected by the ruling because of the state law that allows people to challenge land ownership within 20 years of an ownership modification.

Some parties contend that now, any owner of a Massachusetts house that was foreclosed within the past 20 years can be hit with a lawsuit claiming ownership.

After the initial ruling in March, some parties already reacted to the ruling by delaying foreclosure sales in cases where the titles are clouded. Some lenders such as Bank of America cancelled some of their filed foreclosures to ensure first they had the required mortgage transfer documents.

Title insurance companies meanwhile have been taking a long time in performing title searches and issuing title insurance policies because of concerns about the ruling.

In response to the adverse reaction from some parties, Eloise Lawrence, lawyer for Greater Boston Legal Services, said that the lenders are campaigning to win public opinion for matters that they cannot win in court. She added that banks should recognize legal efforts in stopping foreclosure.

Stopping Foreclosure with Help from Massachusetts Judge is a post from StopForeclosuresHelp.com - Learn how to stop foreclosures.

Federal officials said that 500,000 distressed borrowers were put into a three-month trial loan modification program by mortgage lenders and servicers. They also said that lenders had modified the mortgage loans of 16 percent of qualified borrowers who were at least two months in default as of September 30, pushing up the percentage from 12 percent in August.

Housing advocates appreciate the efforts of the Obama administration in pressuring lenders, but they reiterate that the federal government needs to do more for homeowners. Barry Zigas, housing policy director at the Consumer Federation of America, said that the Home Affordable Modification Program is only helping a few compared to the record number of homeowners losing their homes to foreclosure.

Among the mortgage servicers, Saxon Mortgage Services again modified the highest percentage, stopping the foreclosure process for 41 percent of its qualified borrowers.

Citigroup and Aurora Loan Servicers came in second, both with 33-percent of clients. JPMorgan Chase modified 27 percent of qualified loans while Wells Fargo and Bank of America modified 20 percent and 11 percent of qualified mortgages, respectively.

According to the U.S. Treasury, several servicers with low modification percentages in July and August made significant progress in their efforts in September. Wells Fargo modified only 6 percent of qualified borrowers in July. In September, it modified 20 percent, much higher than the modification rate by Bank of America.

Citi Mortgage has modified 33 percent of distressed home loans, a substantial increase from the 23 percent it modified in August.
Similarly, Aurora Loan Services increased its 22-percent performance in August to 33 percent in September. Despite its problems related to its ownership by failed Lehman Brothers, Aurora Loan made efforts to help almost 24,000 distressed borrowers in September.

Wells Fargo modified nearly 63,000 home loans in September, nearly double its reported modification of only around 33,000 in August. Its modification rate has increased from 11 percent in August to 20 percent in September.

Wachovia’s mortgage servicer, which was acquired by Wells Fargo in 2008, had the lowest modification rate. The servicer explained that stopping the foreclosure process for its clients is difficult because most of its borrowers took out option adjustable rate mortgage loans.

Stopping the Foreclosure Process for 500,000 Homeowners is a post from StopForeclosuresHelp.com - Learn how to stop foreclosures.

This short sales program was first considered in May, and the department is now finalizing procedures and the amount of incentives to be given.

The federal government had to look for other ways to stop the continued rise in foreclosures because only 12 percent of qualified homeowners have obtained loan modifications, according to the Treasury.

Based on data from Amherst Securities Group, a flood of foreclosures will again swamp the market if foreclosures in process do not receive intervention. Amherst said that about 7 million housing units are in excess of normal housing supply or about 135 percent of one year’s supply of pre-owned homes.

The Treasury is planning to spend up to $10 billion from the $50-billion loan modification funding in helping homeowners in areas where home prices are still falling.

According to consultants at John Burns Real Estate Consulting, the Treasury will give $1,000 to lenders for each short sale they help facilitate to stop foreclosure process. Under the program, lenders must accept the lower sales proceeds as complete payment of the home loans. Lenders will also be given $1,000 for each deed-in-lieu deal accepted. This deal simply transfers the deed from the homeowner back to the lender.

Under the program, homeowners will also receive $1,500 for their closing costs. Owners of second liens will also be given $1,000 for canceling their claims to their liens so that short sales or deeds-in-lieu transactions can proceed.

The Treasury is hoping that the incentives will encourage lenders and servicers to facilitate short sales and entice homeowners to voluntarily surrender their homes in good condition.

Historically, according to realtors, short sales are not enthusiastically approved by lenders because of what they see as very low sales prices for their properties. But if they see that they will cut their losses if they approve short sales and that the incentives will help them pay for short-sales-associated costs, analysts contend that more lenders will consider short sales.

In addition, according to analysts at John Burns, if lenders consider the high costs of foreclosure and property maintenance costs after foreclosure, they may look at short sales as a better way to stop foreclosure process.

Stop Foreclosure Process through Short Sales, Treasury Says is a post from StopForeclosuresHelp.com - Learn how to stop foreclosures.

One is the reconsideration of the bankruptcy proposal rejected by the Senate in April this year and the other is the creation of the Consumer Financial Products Agency, which has been proposed by the Obama administration.

According to Sovern, these two strategies would prevent the incorrect disclosure procedures that were implemented by lenders during the housing boom. He said that based on a survey he and his assistant Sabihul Alam conducted in July with over 100 brokers in 26 states who were involved in 58,000 home closings, many borrowers during the boom did not understand the final disclosures before they signed the mortgage documents.

Nearly all of the brokers interviewed said that no prospective home buyer ever cancelled their home loans after reading the final disclosures.

The behavior of the borrowers indicated that many of them took out subprime loans even if they could have take out prime loans because they did not understand the final disclosures, according to Sovern.

At the time of loan origination, majority of borrowers also never thought about needing to stop foreclosure process in the near future because they assumed that home prices would never decline.

The disclosures during the boom were also confusing to customers because lenders advertised adjustable-rate mortgage loans as conventional home loans with fixed rates. Borrowers took out ARM loans believing that they could refinance into even lower rates in the future.

They were of course wrong as many of them have already defaulted when their ARM mortgages reset and their lenders refused to refinance or modify their loans because their loan balances have already shot up far higher than the value of their homes.

Sovern believes that lenders need to make up for their failings during the housing boom by reconsidering the proposal to authorize bankruptcy judges to modify the amount of primary home mortgages to reflect the true market value of residential properties.

He argued that if mortgages for vacation homes and commercial properties can be modified, then primary residential mortgages should also get the same treatment under the law.

Additionally, Sovern said that another effective way to stop foreclosure process is the proposed federal agency focused on consumers. He explained that this agency would be able to keep watch over the welfare of American consumers.

Stop Foreclosure Process Based on Consumer Survey is a post from StopForeclosuresHelp.com - Learn how to stop foreclosures.