Thanks to Merrill Lynch. Continue reading »
Foreclosure
Today brings some devastating news for legendary investor Lenny Dykstra. His Thousand Oaks manse, his most prized possession, has been sold in a foreclosure auction. Continue reading »
Haters Won’t Pipe Down And Let Foreclosure King Of Florida Enjoy All The Money He’s Making Off This Mess
By Bess Levin“David’s wealth is a reflection of his acumen and the tremendous volume of foreclosures,” attorney JeffreyTew said of his client, David Stern, whose foreclosure-processing business, currently under scrutiny, has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue preparing documents for the cases that his law firm brings on behalf of lenders seeking to reclaim homes from borrowers who can’t pay their mortgages, and at $1,400 a pop have scored him a $15 million mansion on an island in Fort Lauderdale, a $6 million beachfront condominium in the city, a $6 million home in nearby Hillsboro Beach, three Ferraris, four Porsches, a Rolls-Royce, a Cadillac and a Bugatti. “He had something to do with the acumen part. He had nothing to do with the amount of foreclosures we have.” [Bloomberg via DI]
JPMorgan Chase last night alerted attorneys that employees in its foreclosure operations unit may have signed affidavits without personally reviewing the documents, the same issue that has recently plagued GMAC Mortgage, according to a memo obtained by HousingWire…Chase is requesting that the courts not enter judgments on pending foreclosure cases until it completes the review in the next few weeks. [HW via BI]
I can think of one guy who loves this idea. Continue reading »
So this just happened: Continue reading »
“Let me give you the short business answer. I bought the house in Houston. I have multiple mortgages. Some for me, some for other people. This house was my most expensive mortgage. I decided to let that house go, because the house ended up being worth nothing when the market went down and I decided to just let it go and give it back to the bank. It wasn’t a situation where they came and took it from me. I just didn’t feel like it was a good business investment, to keep paying that much mortgage on a house that I was never at. Don’t try to take this to a point where Chamillionaire has money problems. There was no financial negligence, none of that. I’m still a Chamillionaire. When I’m a Cha-thousandaire, then you’ll have a real story. ”
Chamillionaire: I Chose To Be Foreclosed On [TMZ via Daily Intel]
Megan McArdle throws a wrench in the running gears of foreclosure assistance with her “lunatic proposal for the day.” Specifically:
…why not make it easier to move homeowners out of homes they can’t afford? Set up a streamlined foreclosure proceeding where a current or mildly delinquent homeowner can simply give the house to the bank and walk away. Do this with two legal provisos:
1. No tax on the forgiven loan
2. No black mark on the credit record. The bank marks the loan as fully satisfied.
The homeowner gets a fresh start, and the bank gets the house without the huge administrative costs that are normally associated with foreclosure. Everyone loses something, but no one loses a crippling amount, and there is no net transfer between two parties who are both in financial trouble.
It is sort of novel to target the admittedly burdensome administration costs rather than the losses themselves. Some courts are already adopting similar means by running “rocket dockets” and processing thousands of foreclosures a day- I can smell the lawsuits from over here though. One thing that is appealing about McArdle’s proposal is that it doesn’t attempt to perpetuate any fantasy that:
1. We can inflate asset prices at will with no longer-term consequences.
2. We can stave off foreclosure indefinitely.
Damning with faint praise [Asymmetrical Information]
