Part 3 (Excerpt)

Beware of phishing schemes and bank scams GMACs clients hit hard

As promised just before the break, I told you to, listen in if you know anyone who has a GMAC Mortgage, this is one of those too good to be true things. Heres the thing, I have no issues what-so-ever with GMAC, thats not what Im saying, what Im saying is there is a scam of sorts that is going around. A client of ours received a letter, we did a second mortgage for this person a few years ago, they received a letter from GMAC, it looked like GMAC, it sounded like GMAC, and it said that we are willing to forgive your second mortgage of 200 and some thousand dollars in lieu of a one time payment, payable within the next 30 days, of say 20 thousand dollars.

I dont recall the exact amount or what it was. There is a phone number on there, it says loss mitigation department on it, a person assigned to this case. They called the phone number, they answered the phone as if you were calling into the loss mitigation department, and verified if you just send us this amount they will release the lien. Well it is completely false. It is absolutely not true.

These people are not going to seek you out on their own, now whether it be GMAC, today we have actually seen that one, there may be other ones out there. Folks, if you are getting stuff like this you need to verify it and you need to verify it by sources other than the information on the letter that you have received. If you get an email that says your bank account has been tapped into you need to check, chances are it is some kind of a phishing scam and this is no different.

We have gone back to identity theft through the mail and if you have been a party to this you need to verify and check into it, and you need to contact the authorities immediately for more information, if you need help with this sort of situation you are welcome to give us a call at 480 Velocity.

It is pretty amazing that that kind of thing still exists, and with the announcement by Paulson today that the fact is they are no longer willing to buy bad mortgages off the books of the banks. When you come across a phishing scam such as this one there is not a bank out there, I dont care what kind of trouble they are in, that is going to take $0.10 on the dollar to forgive a loan.

In a situation where things are going well, you are right in a situation where things are going well, and the status quo, they are going to be pursued by an attorney, that is entirely different, they are not just going to volunteer up and give you the money, its not going to happen.

Absolutely not and thats where we get back into what a loan modification is, who it benefits, and how it works and so forth, you are starting to see these wheels in motion amongst all of these banks. One of those wheels is certainly not well forgive $200,000 in debt if you write us a check for $20, 000.

And when we have talked about this Brett you and I have had many conversations in regard to what does it take? Can a person do this on their own, we will get to that a little later, but the answer is Yes. A consumer can actually do it on their own, up until very recently with the new announcements made from some of these major servicers and investors, up until then, a person trying to do it on their own would take days upon days and hours and hours on the phone not getting calls back trying to find time during the day while working to get this done and in many cases they are going to get a temporary fix.

The loss mitigation department for the bank that you have your mortgage with, their job is not to mitigate your loss its to mitigate their loss. They are out to protect the bank, thats why we use the national network of attorneys that we do, that are specialists, that have done thousands of these loan modifications, that go to bat for you. By the way folks, they are not going through the loss mitigation door that you would have to go through they are going right to the legal department, they are going to threaten suit if necessary, they are going to do discovery work, they are going to find out if there was anything that was misrepresented either by the bank or the broker and take that angle…

Duration : 0:5:36

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Part 1 (Excerpt)

Forget the doom and gloom, First Time Home Buyers can buy with FHA

Thanks to my very great friend Brett Fallon for taking the time to be here in studio today. Brett is one of America’s finest financial advisors. And of course the infamous Dan Havey. Now we all love Dan Havey because he was instrumental in getting me into the mortgage industry about 14 years ago. Most importantly, Dan was instrumental in helping us put together the loan modification hotline and he is the author of Real Estates Future.

So today we have a few things we want discussed in regard to the economy, what’s happened, were wrapping up the year. You may have heard about this in the media, of course the media’s job is to scare you. Well our job is to tell you the truth. So Brett you have some data and some information that you wanted to share

Some of the things you hear in the media, you cant escape, its pretty much doom and gloom, sky is falling, this is the next Great Depression. It’s over for all of us and we should all just pack up and go. That kind of stuff is pervasive out there and creates fear and a lot of anxiety amongst people who are either investors, people who are looking to buy a house, looking to refinance a mortgage.

People dont realize there are certain tools that exist that we will talk about during the course of the show today. They should understand that some of the things that we discussed prior to today’s broadcasts were interest rates. Interest rates are at historic lows. Money is cheaper right now than it has ever been. We know the Fed recently reduced the Fed Funds Rate and that is the rate that banks are lending money to one another at.

Right now that rate is zero. Historically, that’s never happened in the United States before. The Fed’s idea is to help to unfreeze this credit market and we keep hearing all this talk about how credit markets are still frozen, that the global recession is deepening, there is evidence to the contrary of that. Some of the moves that the FED is making are working. We’re starting to see, and you and I were talking recently about some clients that were helping in terms of refinancing existing mortgages. Well, if the credit markets are frozen how come we got those loans complete?

Well, that’s a good point, and you got a call I think it was last Monday or maybe the Monday before, someone called you and asked if there was any money to refinance. What can I do? Well the reality of it is there is plenty of money out there for refinances, in some cases there’s issues with property values. That’s why there are different options for those types of people

Well from a buyer’s perspective, todays property valuation is a good thing, if I’m a buyer. Thats a good point too. People are interested in buying and the huge opportunity today. This is an unprecedented opportunity in my opinion, both in terms of the dollar and the real estate market. And for those who understand those dynamics and are willing to entertain the deal, they will be handsomely rewarded. There is no doubt about it.

And as we spoke on the last show, home prices in November for Maricopa County show that the median home price is down as low as $160,000 already. And it reminds me a lot about when I got into the industry, way back in 1989 and the type of financing we had then was FHA and Fannie Mae. And were back to that again now. We’ve got sanity back into the market and home prices have come down. But right now, it’s a perfect time, especially for first-time homebuyers or a move up buyer who can buy under the Fannie Mae limit of $417,000. If you can get into that range, and as we spoke before that 78% of the homes in Maricopa County that sold last month sold for under $250,000. I think that right now is the time just to get out there and find a house to move your family and children into with an FHA loan.

Michael, you don’t have to have exactly perfect credit do you? You can have a couple of dings if need be, right? You’re exactly right, each case has its own merits, every FHA loan is underwritten individually. There are many cases where collections are okay, there needs to be a explanation. You dont have to have the 720 plus credit scores like you do for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to get the best rates…

Duration : 0:6:10

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We feel that REALTOR.com has not been responsive to the needs of REALTORS and that the current relationship between NAR and Move,Inc. (as currently constituted) is not in our interest as REALTORS for the following reasons:

1) Move, Inc. has a long standing pattern of raising fees on REALTORS and charging them exhorbitant fees in comparison with the costs of developing a national real estate listings site. Fees (which yet again are expected to be raised in 2009) are out of line with what other national listing aggregator websites cost their shareholders. Why should we be paying many multiples of what companies like Trulia and Zillow are costing THEIR shareholders for aggregating real estate listings on their sites?

2)After being provided ALL of our listings and photos, they have stripped off all but four, unless REALTORS pay them an annual “enhancement” fee. This effectively takes our clients and holds them hostage until we pay their “fee”. Much of this fee goes right back into “Sales expenses” which are Move,Inc.’s marketing to REALTORS that they MUST have their service. This adds HUGE costs to what is needed for a national website and is NOT acceptable.

3) In a world where many websites offer REALTORS social networking opportunities to connect REALTORS to potential clients, REALTOR.com has been sorely lacking in developing these types of programs.

4) The 2007 10K (released Feb 28, 2008) from Move, Inc. shows STAGGERING General and Administrative Expenses of over Million and Sales expenses of over 8 Million..these expenses are RIDICULOUS given their online properties and a development expense of Million. While we realize that this includes Top Producer and other assets of Move, Inc., that actually makes the ratio of development / Sales, General and Administrative Expense even MORE out of line. We are tired of having NAR tell US to pay for THEIR inefficiency.

We are not against paying for what WE receive. If you want to charge us for “enhancing OUR contact information” then fine. But don’t hold our CLIENTS and CUSTOMERS hostage. That is unconscionable. Many of them don’t know what you are doing to us and if they did, they would find it incredibly offensive.

More importantly, because the National Association of Realtors leased the rights to our web presence to third parties, they put themselves in the position of defending REALTOR.com’s inefficiencies and deficiencies to the general membership for their own financial gain.

We call on NAR to take steps to BUY BACK Realtor.com from Move, Inc. or to buy a controlling interest in Move, Inc. to provide a national listings site for REALTORS at a price that is REASONABLE and RATIONAL. With the current stock price so low, a controlling interest can be purchased at a reasonable price and other assets like TopProducer can be spun off to repay (partially) the investment. This is a strategy that makes SENSE.

Until NAR SERIOUSLY takes up this issue and hears our concerns, we vow to raise awareness, talk to the press, let our clients know what you are up to, and most importantly, we will NOT continue to pay higher and higher fees to cover Move, Inc.s inefficiencies and largess.

We do not do this out of spite. We do this to protect OUR good name and our industry. It only makes sense with Move, Inc’s stock price this low to take these actions. We call on you to address these concerns completely, totally, and immediately.

After you have added your name to this petition an e-mail will be sent to the given address to confirm your signature. Please make sure that your e-mail address is correct or you will not receive this e-mail and your name will not be counted.

http://www.takebackourr.com/the-petition/

Duration : 0:2:50

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