Tag Archives: Foreclosure

Belvedere Developer also Linked to Failed Bank in CA

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Bijan Madjlessi was/is the owner of the Belvedere Towers condominium project here in Reno and who had neglected to pay his property taxes resulting in the property being seized in a tax foreclosure by Washoe county.

Madjlessi has also been arrested in California for insurance fraud because he filed insurance claims on two separate policies.

Now, it appears that Madjlessi has a very busy man.  He is also linked to the failure of the Sonoma Valley Bank that had three branches in the Sonoma Valley area of CA.

When Sonoma Valley Bank granted him a loan he had already defaulted on a loan from IndyMac bank for the same project.

At the center of the bank’s downfall is a series of large loans made to a small group of North Bay developers who were behind three Sonoma County projects that fell into foreclosure over the past few years.

The bank continued to fund the projects even after it became public in land records and lawsuits that the developers were defaulting on multimillion-dollar loans from other banks and were not paying construction contractors.

At this time I am aware of at least two other failed real estate projects.  He blamed the bad economy.

Read more here.

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A Legal Victory for MERS in California

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A California appeals court granted MERS, (Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems) a legal victory by ruling MERS can launch foreclosure procedures even when it lacks possession of a promissory note.

In its Ferguson v. Avelo Mortgage verdict, the California Second District Court of Appeals refused to accept the plaintiff’s assertion that MERS as nominee of lender lacked possession of the original promissory note. Ferguson argued MERS could not foreclose if it did not hold the note.

Read more on MERS.

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Foreclosure by Facebook

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Consider this: suppose you were delinquent on you mortgage payments.  And suppose the bank was not able to contact you or to find you.  Perhaps you have moved and left no forwarding address or phone number.

So, if they were to serve you foreclosure or other papers, how could it be done?

Would you think Facebook?

Think again.  It has already happened in Australia.

A couple in Canberra defaulted on a six-figure loan. A lawyer acting for the lender could not trace the couple at their home or via email. So he applied and was granted the right to serve legally binding documents on Facebook.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2008/s2447627.htm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2008/dec/16/facebook-repossession-australia

 

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MERS Loses in Oregon, Too

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A federal judge in Oregon ruled against MERS, the Mortgage Electronic Registration System,  in a foreclosure case and delivered a potential setback to the mortgage industry’s electronic lien-registry system.

Theories exist that one purpose for the existence of MERS is to avoid paying the recording fees to the various county recorders.  By Using MERS, banks have avoided millions, and possibly more in recording fees.

The homeowners in this case were clearly in default.  They hadn’t made a payment since 2009.

Oregon law, like that in Nevada, allows for non-judicial foreclosures.   The provisions, however, are that any transfer of ownership of the liens and the documents must be properly recorded in the local county.

The banks and MERS apparently didn’t think the rules were important enough to follow.  Sometimes, I think it is a calculated risk.  They are going to get caught once in a while, but the rest of the time it is worth while.

In this case, the banks and MERS got caught.  There were significant gaps in the chain of title.  Also, three separate documents were recorded, signed by three separate vice presidents of MERS, and each notarized by the same notary.

Read the rest here and here for the original ruling.  (notice that some of the links did not work for me every time even though the url was identical, but I was able to find the documents in question.  My only explanation is that it must be magic???  Iaf you still have problems, contact me and I’ll try to help.)

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Military Foreclosure Cases Settled by B of A and Morgan Stanley

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REReno recently had a story about Coldwell Banker Mortgage getting slapped down by a Federal court jury.

A federal court jury awarded David Brash, a soldier at Fort Benning, GA more than $20 million on Monday in a case against Coldwell Banker Mortgage.

It seems, however, that the banks have not yet learned their lessons.

Units of Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley have agreed to pay more than $22 million to settle charges that they improperly foreclosed on active-duty members of the U.S. military, the Justice Department said Thursday.

The Bank of America unit, which was part of Countrywide Financial, will pay $20 million to resolve allegations it foreclosed on the homes of about 160 service members between January 2006 and May 2009 without court orders, the Justice Department said.

Saxon Mortgage Services Inc., part of Morgan Stanley, will pay $2.35 million to resolve allegations that it did the same to about 17 service members between January 2006 and June 2009, the government said.

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Can You Rent a Home After Foreclosure?

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You’ve been through a foreclosure. So, can you rent another home? Well, it may not be quite so dire as yo have been led to believe.

Because of the massive number of foreclosures, landlords are factoring that into their formulas. Any landlord that refuses to rent to someone that went through foreclosure is merely reducing his available market, and consequently cutting is own throat.

Yes, landlords will rent to people that been through foreclosures.

But, that doesn’t mean that they will rent to otherwise general deadbeats or nuisances.

You still need to demonstrate that you will take care of the landlord’s property and not be a pain-in the-butt.

Read more.

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Peter Padilla and Leslie Henderson on Short Sales

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Here’s a podcast with peter Padilla and Leslie Henderson discussing short sales.

Henderson & Padilla: Ease The Pain of Short Sales & zero down on the VA Mortgage! May 15, 2011 by NevadaRealEstateRadio

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Is High End Real Estate the Next to Fall?

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Real estate has taken a major hit during this economic downturn.  And I don’t expect it to get better very soon.  We may see that high end real estate is the next shoe to drop.

Because Fannie and Freddie have done so much to harm our economy a lot of politicians want to drastically cut their lending limits.  This will likely slow the any impact of the high end real estate market toward our recovery.

The one redeeming factor is that a large percentage of high end real estate is purchased using cash.  But, still expect larger drops in the high end marketplace.

Read more: http://www.zerohedge.com/article/high-end-re-dead-money

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Couple Battles Wells Fargo Bank

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Here’s an interesting story about a couple taking on Wells Fargo.  The accused Wells Fargo of funding a home here in Reno based on a fraudulent appraisal which inflated the value of the home by $200,000.

From my vantage point the story is loaded with too many inconsistencies and sounds much like someone playing the victim card too loud and too often.

According to the Vieiras, the mortgage loan they took out in 2005 with Wells Fargo was based on a fraudulent appraisal that inflated the property’s value by more than $200,000. The appraisal was ordered by the bank and determined the couple’s mortgage, which they were eventually unable to pay, like tens of thousands of other homeowners across the country.

I’m not aware of any cases where appraisals are used to determine anyone’s mortgage.  They are used to determine the value of the property, supposedly to protect the bank’s interest.

The Vieiras said they were first late for their mortgage payment in September, 2009; Wells Fargo foreclosed on the home in June, 2010. Nuno, who is an appraiser himself, said the original home appraisal set him and his wife up for an unwieldy mortgage, and even though it was ruled fraudulent, the couple had no legal recourse.

Notice that even though Nuno is and appraiser himself, he was willing to complete the purchase without disputing the price.  He apparently agreed with the appraisal ath that time.

The Vieiras claim that they have been fighting this battle for the last 6 years.   They purchased a home in Reno, Nevada in 2005.  Coincidentally, that happens to be about 6 years ago.  That would suggest that they had been fighting Wells since the day they closed their escrow.  The home was foreclosed in June of 2010.

I must admit that I’m not always a fan of the banks, but this time I side with Wells.

Read the rest:

http://sanleandro.patch.com/articles/local-couple-takes-on-wells-fargo-bank

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Another Court Rules Against MERS

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Once again a court ruled against MERS, The Mortgage Electronic Registration System, again due to lack of standing.

A California bankruptcy court says Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems cannot help a trustee establish legal standing to foreclose on a securitized mortgage unless the trustee already possesses an actual assignment of interest in the loan.

Read the story here.

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