The cruelest trick played on homeowners trying to modify their mortgage was dual tracking. One side of the bank assured the borrower that their loan modification application was being considered and they didn’t need to worry. All the while, the other side of the bank was conducting a foreclosure sale. The borrower wakes up […]
Is Home Equity A Substitute For Retirement Savings
My house is my retirement plan. If I had a dollar for every time a client said that, I could retire today. But that approach to funding your old age only works if…. Sell your house to retire The value in your house makes your balance sheet strong, but doesn’t put food on the table […]
Bankruptcy Debtors Entitled To Monthly Mortgage Statements
Years of uncertainty and indifference, rooted in the automatic stay and a homeowner’s ongoing obligation on their mortgage after bankruptcy, has ended with a new rule. Mortgage servicers must now send monthly statements to borrowers in bankruptcy under a new CFPB rule effective April, 2018. The earlier version of the rule, adopted in 2014, […]
Getting Rid Of Junior Home Liens In Bankruptcy
One of Chapter 13’s superpowers is its ability to strip off otherwise valid, voluntary liens on a home. Ordinarily, liens survive a bankruptcy discharge as a charge on the collateral; it’s the borrower’s personal liability that is wiped out. But Chapter 13 allows the elimination of liens when the lien isn’t really secured by any […]
The Worrisome Truth About Silent Second Mortgages
Like a sleeping bear, long-silent second mortgages hibernate in people’s houses these days. They are quiet, a snoozing predator, just waiting for spring. And it can be bloody when those sleeping mortgages awaken hungry and look around for something to fill its pocket. Here in California the coming slaughter is particularly noticeable because the value […]
Know What You Really Owe: Your Mortgage Loan Rights
You’ve got a lot to keep an eye on. You probably regularly check Your blood pressure. Your credit report. Your stock portfolio. Your bank balance. Your team’s standings. Yet chances are, your home is your biggest investment and perhaps even the cornerstone of your retirement plan. But you have no idea what lurks in the […]
Find The Lost Tax Deduction When Lender Misreports Mortgage Interest Paid
How can you pay thousands of dollars in mortgage payments in a year, and get a tax Form 1098 for a fraction of actual mortgage interest paid? That’s what my client wanted to know. His monthly mortgage payment is $2715. The loan is currently interest only. All the payments were made. And yet, the Form 1098 […]
Get Tax Credit For Mortgage Interest Paid In Bankruptcy
Is your Chapter 13 plan paying back mortgage payments that were delinquent when you filed bankruptcy? If so, a tax deduction lurks, unclaimed, in the trustee’s records. Track down that tax deduction, add it to your tax return, and you reduce your federal income tax burden. But it’s difficult because, for reasons I have not […]
So You Keep Your Home Through Bankruptcy- What Then?
What happens to your home after your bankruptcy case is over? Most people who file bankruptcy are terrified that just filing bankruptcy will cost them their home. They won’t let me keep my home, will they? Sure they will. The Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee doesn’t want the house if there’s no value in it, He’s […]
Fix Mortgage Troubles After Chapter 13
The mortgage servicer took less than 30 days to change its story, big time. In three weeks time, the servicer went from telling the bankruptcy court, under penalty of perjury, that the loan was current, to telling the homeowner that she was $50,000 behind. The whole story appears here. Three weeks! And there, in a […]
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