Want a house for free? Bank of America is giving away 150 of them in Chicago. It’s a great plan. The bank gets some worthless properties off its books without the cost of trying to hold on and sell them, the city gets some cheap affordable housing, and BofA gets a PR bump. It’s win-win-win, with two of those wins being Bank of America’s. That’s the Chicago way. [More]
foreclosures
White House Wants Mortgage Firms To Help Homeowners Avoid Foreclosure
By 5.12.11 — Updated: 7.25.16
An Obama administration plan calls for the 14 largest mortgage companies to contribute to a federal fund that would help distressed homeowners avoid foreclosures. [More]
Bank Of America Does Something That Makes Sense, But Only Because It Has To
By 5.10.11
Ever since Bank of America got greedy and gobbled up the greasy, calorie-filled platter that was Countrywide, it’s been dealing with the indigestion caused by that company’s oodles of toxic mortgages. Now, after losing the Worst Company In America title by less than 1% to BP, BofA has decided to do something more than pay lip service to its crappy state of affairs. The bank has announced it will open 28 new foreclosure prevention centers in 22 states between now and July. [More]
Should You Walk Away From Your Mortgage?
By 4.26.11
It’s considered a given of home ownership that allowing your home to go into foreclosure is a last resort, something that you only do after you’ve exhausted all other options. However, according to new information from credit-scoring firm Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO), more homeowners are intentionally choosing foreclosure — or “strategic default” — and that those borrowers tend to be pretty savvy consumers. [More]
Regulators Hatch Plan To Pay Back Victims Of Bad And Illegal Foreclosures
By 4.21.11
It’s no secret that foreclosures in America have been a royal mess. Missing paperwork, faked documents, turbo-charged courts that just rubberstamp foreclosure orders, robosigners, the list goes on. Along the way, a number of homeowners have gotten foreclosed on improperly and, in some cases, even illegally. So regulators are putting together a plan for grand-scale recompense. They’ve laid down decrees that servicers have to start following the law, for really reals this time, banks need to hire outside firms to review their foreclosure actions between 2009 and 2010, and then pay back their victims. [More]
Bank Gives Failed Flipper Foreclosed House For Free
By 4.11.11
A guy who deserves no breaks at all, a speculator who jumped onto the house-flipping craze just before the music stopped, just got a huge one. Instead of making the final stroke to finish foreclosing on his house, the bank decided to write off the loan and just give it to him for free instead. [More]
Man Who Torched Car To Save Home Ends Up In Court
By 3.24.11
A Utah man had a bold plan, which we told you about last year. His house was going into foreclosure unless he could come up with $21,638.02 to pay HSBC. So he announced to the world that he would burn his car and post the video online in exchange for donations. He raised about $15,000 and even sold $1,200 worth of advertising on the side of the car. He tried to work with local fire departments to get them to let him burn the car, to no avail. So he did it on public land and now he’s in court and getting fined, reports KSL. [More]
Bank Of America Donating 10 Homes To Detroit To Attract Cops To Live In The City
By 3.23.11
If there’s one thing — aside from general ineptitude — that Bank of America’s mortgage division has a surplus of, it’s abandoned and foreclosed properties. Meanwhile, the city of Detroit has a lack of police officers living within city limits. Now the city will have 10 more houses for cops to live in and BofA will have 10 fewer buildings they can’t unload. [More]
17.45% Of Florida Homes Are Vacant
By 3.21.11
The latest Census Bureau results show that 17.45% of homes in Florida are vacant. That’s 1.558 million houses sitting there soaking up the sun. Florida’s housing bubble was one of the hottest and now their vacancy rate is the highest. [More]
U.S. Investigating Morgan Stanley Subsidiary For Unlawfully Foreclosing On Military Families
By 3.14.11
A Morgan Stanley unit is under investigation by the Justice Department for foreclosing on nearly two dozen military families without a court hearing, a violation of Federal law meant to protect active duty service members. [More]
Couple Spends 7 Months Trying To Buy A Short Sale House, Only To Watch Wells Fargo Foreclose At The Last Moment
By 3.4.11
Nestor and his wife have been working for months to buy a house listed as being a short sale. They even bought new furniture and kitchen appliances for it in expectation, stowing the items in their garage. They had finally gotten approved and were making moving plans. Then at the last moment, Wells Fargo decided they’d rather not take Nestor’s money and would prefer to foreclose instead. [More]
Wells Fargo Negotiates With Homeowner Who "Foreclosed" On Their Branch
By 2.18.11
Wells Fargo had a nice phone call this afternoon with the Goth homeowner who “foreclosed” on one of their local branches. “The sheriff’s sale will not be happening,” the Wells Fargo spokesperson told me with a laugh. “We are working with him towards a resolution that works for everyone.” She acknowledged that it should have never gotten to this point. “We should have called him before this.” UPDATE: Here’s what homeowner Patrick said of the conversation: [More]
Wells Fargo Meeting Today With Philly Homeowner Who "Foreclosed" On Them (Here's How He Did It)
By 2.18.11
Wells Fargo is meeting today at noon with the Philadelphia homeowner who “foreclosed” on them, The Consumerist has exclusively learned. Patrick says he “received a call from upon high” late yesterday and that he now has an appointment, “with a very senior Wells Fargo person.” It will be interesting to see how this plays out. But how did Patrick go from embattled and ignored homeowner to seated across the negotiating table with leverage? I spoke with him to find out more about both how and why he did what he did. His story is an inspiration to anyone who’s dreamed of going toe-to-toe with the big banks and winning. Turns out that armed with persistence, and a little legal know-how, Davids can take down Goliaths. [More]
New York State Guarantees Legal Assistance In Foreclosure Cases
By 2.15.11
While defendants in criminal cases are guaranteed lawyers, folks involved in foreclosure cases either have to go out of pocket for a lawyer or try to fend for themselves. Now the state of New York has become the first state to guarantee legal representation to all residents involved in foreclosures. [More]
Did You Rent A Foreclosure-To-Be?
By 2.3.11
Personal finance blogger Romeo of How We Prevent Wealth recently had a lucky near miss: he put down a deposit on a new rental home, then purely by chance learned that the same home was about to enter foreclosure. He was able to avoid the situation and get his deposit back, but he might not have been so lucky. [More]
The Top 10 Foreclosure Hotspots In The U.S.
By 2.2.11
We already know which states were hit hardest by last year’s foreclosure boom, but today CNN.com has a look at the 10 cities with the fastest-growing foreclosure rates in the country. [More]
A Miserable Life Inside A Foreclosed Apartment
By 2.2.11
Living inside an apartment building that has been foreclosed on can become a living hell when the building crumbles into disrepair around you and there’s no landlord to call. Bursting heat pipes, cockroaches, mice, hunks of ceiling falling on you, and black mold seeping up the walls have become the new neighbors to tenants in one low-income apartment building in the Bronx where the landlord has long since checked out. [More]
