ShortSaleWealth.com

Hi Everyone!

As many of you know, the debt relief act was orignally in effect until January 2009; however, it looks like they just extended it until January 2012. 

This is excellent news for all of you short sale investors out there! 

Enjoy!       http://www.irs.gov/irs/article/0,,id=179073,00.html

There are a lot of companies out there that are doing this business without ethics.  Unfortunately, this leaves a bad name for people like you and I that are truly trying to help. 

I encourage you to click here to read an article from the Attorney General warning homeowners of mortgage rescue fraud schemes.    This article highlights ethical issues regarding short sales, and how some businesses are taking advantage of those who need our help the most. 

To sum up the article, you should NEVER EVER EVER charge for any services of any kind up front.  As a matter of fact, we never charge for any services whatsoever -  there’s just no need to.  But sadly there are some out there who are fearful of people like us, us who are truly trying to help homeowners who otherwise wouldn’t have many options. 

There’s been a lot of confusion about what this whole debt relief act means for homeowners facing foreclosure. Below is a link to a great article that provides clarification on how may homeowners may be able to claim special tax relief by filling out newly-revised IRS Forms.  Those who may qualify for this relief includes debt reduced through mortgage restructuring, as well as mortgage debt forgiven in connection with a foreclosure.  Take a look at the article to read how the IRS Department of the Treasury explains the mortgage workouts.   

Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007

http://www.irs.gov/irs/article/0,,id=179073,00.html

You have GOT to see this!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,428641,00.html

A couple of days ago I was brainstorming with my good friend Steve Cook about all of the crazy things that are happening in today’s real estate market, and what opportunities that we as real estate investors are seeing becoming available.  The conversation was, to say the least, very interesting.

Hello fellow short salers! 

As most of you doing short sales know by now, some lenders are extremely professional, cooperative and very easy to work with.  And why shouldn’t they be?  We are actually doing them a great service by eliminating pre-foreclosures from their books before they become REO’s.  As you know some loss mitigators/lenders aren’t quite as nice to work with.  In my experience, Countrywide has been one of the not so easy ones.  

 Maybe this will help…

We just got a foreclosure sale postponed an additional 30 days so that we could have enough time to work the short sale.  Why was this such a huge feat you ask?  Well, the foreclosure sale date was set for tomorrow.  After a little arm twisting, Countrywide was willing to postpone the foreclosure sale right at the last minute.  Why you ask?

Arm twisting was a little bit of it, but the bottom line is… We knew the right people to get in touch with.

I’ve put together some of the most important contacts you could ever know at Countrywide, so if you’re not getting answers, you may try the following.

Have the homeowner put together a QWR (Qualified Written Request) letter to their lender, in this case, Countrywide.  In that letter, have the homeowner demand the following:

 -      The Life of Loan History
 -      Copy of Note
 -      Copy of the Deed of Trust
 -      Riders
 -      All Assignments of the Deed of Trust
 -      Right of Rescission (if refi)
 -      Lender Final HUD-1 from closing
 -      Copy of Initial Loan Application and Final Lender Loan Application
 -      All Disclosures and all Loan Documents from their file
 -      Copy of Appraisal

Have the homeowner send this request certified mail and request “return receipt required” to at least 3 addresses below.  If you didn’t get a response from the loss mitigation department before, you certainly will get a response now!

Mailing address: (Send all your certified complaint letters, etc. here.)

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
ATTN: ADRIENNE ELY
400 COUNTRYWIDE WAY
MS SV-314
SIMI VALLEY, CA 93065
1-800-601-2522 ext. 8026

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
RAQUEL ROBINSON
1-800-669-2443 x 4115

SUPERVISOR OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
LINDA TURNER
1-800-405-0078 x 5104
400 Countrywide Way SV-314
Simi Valley, CA 93065-3500

Other Addresses you can mail to:

Countrywide Mortgage
400 Countrywide Way SV-HRD
Simi Valley, CA 93065

450 American St
Simi Valley, CA 93065

7105 Corporate Dr.
Plano, TX 75024

P.O. Box 10211
Van Nuys, CA 91499

P.O. Box 5170
Simi Valley, CA 93062-5170

21 E. Victoria Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93101

35 North Lake Avenue, 35-72B
Pasadena, CA 91101

 Here’s another excellent little resource for you:

Countrywide Legal Dept Direct Line
Mary Archer-paralegal
972-526-3610 

Direct number to Workout Dept. in Lancaster, CA:
661-951-5100
(not toll free but gets you right in)

Countrywide Primary Phone:
(800) 669-6093

Other Phone Numbers:
(818) 874-8779
(818) 225-3000
(972) 526-6330
(805) 650-6566
(805) 520-5100
(800) 686-0145

 Primary Fax:
(800) 658-9364

Other Fax Numbers:
(805) 520-5019 

Primary Contact:
Daniel Whitehead
Executive Relations Coordinator

Other Contacts:
Joe Riggio, Senior Vice President

Angela De Aro, Vice President

Melissa Guerra, 1st Vice President

Patricia Mckenzie

Rina Jariwala, VP, Operations

Also have the homeowner email a hardship letter to each of these email addresses:
pressroom@countrywide.com
david_bigelow@countrywide.com
angelo_mozilo@countrywide.com
chris_oltmann@countrywide.com
OCIP@do.treas.gov
customer_service@countrywide.com
service@naca.com

 Also send to these email versions too using the dot instead of underscore:
david.bigelow@countrywide.com
angelo.mozilo@countrywide.com
chris.oltmann@countrywide.com
customer.service@countrywide.com

Why am I sharing all of this with you?   Do I have some kind of hidden agenda? 

Actually, yes I do…

I’m trying to find out from each of you how valuable you think it would be to have information like this at your fingertips in a private area of our website that gets updated literally every day.   How you ask?  I’m considering building a private back office of the www.shortsalewealth.com website (which by the way, the website is ALL NEW  ~ if you haven’t checked it out yet, take a minute and do that right now…) 

One of the challenges of the short sale business is keeping up with the changes.   It seems like sometimes, just as we find out the exact criteria of what one particular lender will accept for a short sale, they change their guidelines.  

Wouldn’t it be nice if we had an online community where experienced short sale investors from all around the country could go and literally “report” what the latest and greatest information is with each lender based on their own personal experience?   Wouldn’t it also be great if this community of investors from all over the country could log into one place and see a list of contact information like this from every lender in the United States?   Not only that, but each of us could present our own comments for each lender regarding “what’s working now” with each of them accordingly…

Of course this would require that all of us would need to continue to update the information as it becomes available.  But this means that anyone could update this information in a “master lender area” as often as needed!  I believe that a resource like this could make a huge difference in the amount of deals that each of us are closing on a regular basis!

What are your thoughts?   Please share your ideas, comments and suggestions regarding this with me by clicking here.  I really want to know your input!!  There will be a considerable expense to put something like this together, but I’m willing to consider building it and making it available for FREE if there’s enough response.

This means, I WON’T KNOW IF YOU WANT IT UNLESS YOU TELL ME!!!  So please take a minute right now and tell me what you think, as well as share any other ideas that you may have to make this EVEN BETTER!

Just another idea to help us all Give First…  By giving first to each other, we all win!

Freddie Mac Doubles Financial Incentives to Servicers Who Help Borrowers Avoid Foreclosure Report Source: Mortgage News Daily

Freddie Mac today told mortgage servicers it was doubling the amount of money it pays for each workout that keeps a delinquent borrower with a Freddie Mac-owned mortgage out of foreclosure. Freddie Mac also announced it will start reimbursing servicers for the cost of door-to-door outreach programs, give servicers more time to negotiate workouts in states with fast foreclosure processes, and make administrative changes intended to streamline the workout process.

“We are taking these steps because we want to reinforce the tremendous importance of workouts and reward their use,” said Freddie Mac Vice President of Servicing and Asset Management Ingrid Beckles. “Giving our servicers more time and greater compensation to help troubled borrowers is fundamental to preserving homeownership and maximizing our efforts to minimize foreclosures.”

 According to Beckles, starting August 1, 2008, compensation for repayment plans will rise from $250 to $500 while loan modification compensation will increase from $400 to $800. For short sales or pre-foreclosure sales, where Freddie Mac agrees to accept less than the full amount owed on a borrower’s loan, compensation will go from $1,100 to $2,200. (The higher amount recognizes the greater servicer staff time involved when negotiating property sales.) Freddie Mac also said it will now reimburse the cost of leaving a door hanger up to $15 per mortgage and up to $50 per mortgage for a door knocking that results in the borrower contacting their servicer. Freddie Mac will also reimburse servicers up to $200 for additional fees paid to vendors for door knocking that results in successful alternatives to foreclosure. This policy is effective from August 1, 2008, through March 31, 2009.

To qualify for the reimbursement, the servicer must show that the mortgage was at least 90 days delinquent, the servicer had no prior contact with the borrower, and that the outreach was done by an independent third party vendor.

 Freddie Mac also announced it is extending the time for foreclosures so servicers will have more time, if needed, to negotiate workouts with delinquent borrowers in Washington, DC, and 20 states with relatively fast foreclosure processes.

 In addition to Washington, DC, the affected states include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Specifically, starting August 1, 2008, servicers are allowed up to 300 days (10 months) from the due date of the last payment to the foreclosure sale in these states to seek aggressive and sustainable workout solutions for the borrowers and still meet the standards set in Freddie Mac’s Servicer Performance Profiles. The company uses the Servicer Performance Profiles to measure and reward the quality of a servicers’ investor reporting and default management.

Even though the laws in these states permit a lender to foreclose in less than 300 days, this announcement means Freddie Mac will permit its servicers more time to complete foreclosures. The new policy won’t affect borrowers in states where the foreclosure process already exceeds 300 days.

Well???  What do you think?

I, personally, am pretty darn excited about this!!  Post your response below!!!

Well, the day has finally come!!!  Jennie and I have officially brought a little boy (Lucas Joseph McCloskey) into this exciting world!  I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am to be a new Daddy! 

Lucas was born on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 2:28AM.  Coming in at a healthy 8 pounds, 4 ounces and 20.5 inches long.  The labor wasn’t too bad…  Only 27 hours!  I guess I should say that it wasn’t too bad for me… Jennie, on the other hand… that was a different story. 

I’m very thankful today.  I’m thankful that I’ve been blessed with not only a beautiful son, but also a healthy one as well.  I now understand what my parents used to tell me about how much they would worry about me growing up.  I realize that there’s really not much of a need to worry about everything all the time, but there are so many things that can go wrong during delivery, the birth, etc…  I guess I’m just overly thankful that everything went very well and that we all got to come home as a happy healthy family. 

I must say that just a week ago I wasn’t so confident…  I was completely nervous about what it would take to be a father.  To be perfectly honest, I didn’t feel like I was even ready to be a father yet.  Somehow, in the middle of all of the chaos of the delivery room I felt a sense of warmth come over me that I’ve never felt before.  Earlier that morning I prayed about being so nervous and worried, and I asked God to help my wife and I get through the day as a family (and with as little pain for my wife as possible.)  I think it was pretty clear that in the middle of the chaos that was going on, God was listening.  I can hardly describe the feeling that came over me while I was in that delivery room with my wife later that day.  I went from being the most nervous, anxious person that I’ve ever been to as calm and relaxed as I’ve ever been in a matter of seconds.  It’s almost as if I felt a pair of arms reach down from heaven that hugged my entire body.  All of the fear and hesitation that I had about being a father just moments before was completely gone.  I went from being nervous and scared to 100% totally and completely ready to be a Daddy! 

It’s kind of funny… I’ve always heard stories of other men having similar feelings, but I never really thought much of it.  I also heard that the birthday of your first child will be one of the most memorable experiences of your entire life. 

I couldn’t agree more. 

Welcome home Lucas.  I love you more than you will ever understand.  Well… at least until you have your very own first child.

I just came across this article today.  There are a number of “foreclosure consultants” in Missouri that are in the process of being sued by the Attorney General’s office.  There’s a lot to learn from it.   Check it out here and then come back to this page.

Operation Stealing Home - Lawsuits to Stop Mortgage Fraud

So what are the lessons?

First and foremost, you should NEVER EVER EVER promise a homeowner in distress that you’re going to stop the foreclosure.  Our job is not to make false promises.  Our job is present the homeowner with potential options of solutions to their situation, NOT to try to talk anyone in or out of anything.

2nd, you should NEVER EVER allow a homeowner facing foreclosure to stay in the house and rent the property back to them.  If the homeowner isn’t 100% on board with selling, move on to the next deal.  We do this for two reasons.  1.) There’s just too much liability with this type of transaction.  2.) The homeowner wasn’t paying the mortgage to the lender in the first place… what makes you think they’re going to pay YOU when you rent the property back to them.

Last but not least, DO NOT ever charge for a service up front.  I know a lot of people that try to initiate forbearance agreements for homeowners and charge an up front fee for this, all based on the promise that they’ll get the lender to approve the forbearance.  Then, when they’re not able to actually get the forbearance approved, the first thing the homeowner does is call the attorney general’s office because you didn’t perform what you said you would.

All in all, I think the lesson here is abundantly clear.   Don’t do deals with a homeowner that you wouldn’t want someone else to do with your own mother or father.

These are clear examples of what NOT to do that we can all learn from, so I hope you take this to heart.  And don’t use the information to scare you.  Instead, use it to become educated and clear on providing only the best possible service with the most up front approach.

To top it all off, KNOW YOUR STATE REQUIREMENTS!! There’s a lot of money to be made in this business, and you can help a lot of people for the better IF YOU PLAY BY THE RULES!

That’s it for now.  Happy investing.

I just got an email from a student of mine named Shari Peterson.

She got a foreclosure sale date postponed by doing nothing more than taking action!

This is a great, quick little real life story, so I thought I’d share.

Enjoy…

Yay! I got a postponement 30 minutes before the foreclosure sale!

I got a call from a guy who was 6 days out from his foreclosure. Normally I would have told him that I didn’t have enough time but you had said at the bootcamp that maybe a phone call would postpone it, so I gave it a shot.

Countrywide wouldn’t even request a postponement without an offer, hud, and hardship letter. The house was listed so I looked at it online and did a quick check of the comps and put together an offer and sent it on over.

They said they got the approval from the supervisor to request a postponement and sent an email to the team member to do it. It was “escalated” since the sale date was now 2 days out. I kept checking back and kept checking back and the person who was supposed to postpone it hadn’t done it.

Today I found out what the name and direct phone number was of the “foreclosure technician” who was supposed to contact the foreclosure attorney. After repeatedly calling her, I finally got her directly on the phone and she agreed to call the attorney to postpone it for 7 days. She called me back when it was done – at 12:30 today, 30 minutes before the foreclosure. I confirmed with the foreclosure attorney that indeed it was postponed and called the elated homeowner.

I sure hope this was gets approved because it’ll be a great story! Just had to share how one nugget of info learned at the bootcamp (to give postponement a shot if less than 10 days to the sale date) could prove to be worth thousands to me – hopefully!  But this is a great start!  I’ll keep you posted how it goes from here.