Tag Archives: Deed-in-Lieu

The Supreme Court of South Carolina issued an administrative order on Tuesday halting all pending foreclosure actions and foreclosure sales on May 9th, until the lender can demonstrate they have worked with the borrower to pursue a loan modification or other loss mitigation option. Chief Justice Jean Toal says the purpose of the statewide order is to ensure mortgage foreclosures are not inappropriately concluded while an alternative resolution is being negotiated - the practice commonly referred to as dual-tracking.

A new mediation program to help ease those affected by residential mortgage foreclosures will soon be available in Peoria County, Illinois. The program's anticipated start date is June 1. The program, approved by the Illinois Supreme Court, is modeled after one that began last June in Will County. Both programs operate with no expense to taxpayers and are sustained by an increase in filing fees paid by lenders seeking to foreclose.

Bay National Title Company, a Florida-based firm formerly known as Bay Title & Escrow, recently announced the acquisition of Criterion National Real Estate Solutions of Jacksonville, North Carolina. Both firms specialize in providing title insurance and settlement services to the REO and foreclosure industry. The management of Criterion has been retained by Bay National.

Treasury has released updates to the policy guidelines for the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) program. Among the changes is a requirement that servicers provide written confirmation to the borrower within 10 days acknowledging their request for a short sale or deed-in-lieu, and an amendment to the ""arm's length"" restriction that gives servicers discretion to approve short sales to non-profit organizations that plan to rent or resell the property to the borrower.

The California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) expanded eligibility criteria for several of the Keep Your Home California programs to make them available to a larger number of families at risk of losing their homes, including those with home equity loans and recently originated mortgages. Keep Your Home California is a $2 billion federally funded initiative. Implemented statewide in early February, the programs are part of the U.S. Treasury Department's Hardest Hit Fund.

The nation's largest mortgage servicers foreclosed on 95,067 homes during the fourth quarter of 2010, a 49 percent drop from the number of completed foreclosures during the previous quarter, according to a new report from two regulatory agencies. Newly initiated foreclosures also decreased but by a much smaller ratio of 8 percent. Because new foreclosures outpaced completed foreclosures, the inventory of foreclosures in process increased to 1,290,253, representing 3.9 percent of all serviced loans among the largest national firms.

Treasury has released a new report on the government's foreclosure prevention efforts. In addition to the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) numbers that are regularly recounted, new this month are details on short sales and second lien modifications. As of the end of February, 4,488 homeowners completed a short sale or deed-in-lieu under the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) program. Another 10,177 borrowers have HAFA agreements in place. Second-lien modifications have been provided to 16,951 homeowners.

The nation's second largest mortgage company says early workouts are central to its game plan for 2011. This ""nip it in the bud"" mindset can be key to getting in front of delinquencies before they turn into lost-cause foreclosures, and Freddie Mac says it's making changes to the way it evaluates the performance of mortgage servicers in order to ensure problem loans are tackled early on and increase the odds of getting borrowers back to performing status. Namely, the GSE is pushing servicers to make contact with homeowners by the third day of delinquency.

Bank of America said Tuesday that it is stepping up efforts to help distressed homeowners before they fall into foreclosure, with plans to double its borrower outreach staff in 2011, open new regional homeowner assistance centers, and increase collaboration with nonprofit housing counselors. But company officials warned shareholders that same morning that BofA's $1 trillion portfolio of problem assets -- loans that are already delinquent and those risky home lending products that the company has taken off the shelf -- will take three years to work through.

With loan modifications on a steady decline, the analysts at Fitch Ratings say the common thread running through the industry has become when will the servicer foreclose as opposed to how can a distressed borrower stay in their home. Fitch's analysis of loan mod trends shows little improvement in success rates. While alternatives like short sales are modestly improving loss severities, the agency says servicers report borrowers are electing to remain in their property longer by staying on through the extended foreclosure process.