Short Sales - Good news for sellers, income tax break extended

For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us. We can help. Located in Fairfield, NJ, we are the title insurance agent that does it all for you.

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Homeowners who had short sales in 2014 can now breathe a giant sigh of relief, as the Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama.

Yes, take a deep breath.  When a home being sold is "underwater," that is the amount of the mortgage is greater than the value of the property, the mortgage holder must reduce the amount it is willing to accept in full payment of the mortgage.  The resulting difference between the actual mortgage balance and the amount the lender is willing to accept is called "forgiven debt" and in most circumstance is considered income to the person who received the reduction.  As a result, a seller who "short sells" is home has to recognize that income. 

The newly signed law extends existing protections to short sellers and exempts the forgiven debt from being calculated as income.

You can read more about it here. 

Good luck!

For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow AT vested.com

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Fake mortgage loan applications on the rise

Fake mortgage loan applications on the rise.

For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us. We can help. Located in Fairfield, NJ, we are the title insurance agent that does it all for you.

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One of the reasons behind the mortgage debacle of 2008 was the many false mortgage loan applications lenders and mortgage loan purchasers relied on when approving the loan.  Whether it was for a home purchase or a mortgage refinance, fraudsters couldn't resist bumping up a borrower's income or otherwise flat out lying on the loan application.

 

Despite the warnings, it appears that fake loan apps are on the rise as told in this report from nytimes.com.

 

Falsified applications are now the most common type of mortgage fraud, their incidence having risen steadily for the last three years, according to LexisNexis Risk Solutions’ annual mortgage fraud report.

The report .... breaks down the composition of verified mortgage fraud activity in 2013 as reported by lenders, insurers and other subscribers to a LexisNexis database known as MIDEX. The database tracks only fraud involving industry professionals, such as loan officers, real estate agents and appraisers.

“Eighty percent of all mortgage fraud involves a professional,” said Tim Coyle, the company’s senior director of financial services and an author of the report. “It almost has to — it’s a very complex game.”

Credit fraud, such as undisclosed debt on a credit history or misrepresentation on the credit report, had a big jump in incidents since 2012 but appraisal fraud is down to 15%, a 5-year low.

 

Read the full report here. 

 

Good luck to us all.

 

For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow AT vested.com

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Robo-signing still haunts borrowers

For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us. We can help. Located in Fairfield, NJ, we are the title insurance agent that does it all for you.  Call us for a title insurance quote.

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Borrowers, Beware: The Robo-Signers Aren’t Finished Yet



The New York Times' Gretchen Morgenstern writes about the lingering effects of the foreclosure mess created by robo-signing.

Remember the robo-signers, those mortgage loan automatons who authenticated thousands of foreclosure documents over the years without verifying the information they were swearing to?

Well, they’re back, in a manner of speaking, at least in Florida. Their dubious documents are being used to hound former borrowers years after their homes went into foreclosure.

 It seems the lenders are now pursuing deficiency judgments for amounts being the difference between the debt foreclosed and the amount realized after foreclosure sale.

“Sending these cases to debt collectors when the underlying foreclosures involved unlawful robo-signing is unfair and potentially even deceptive,” said Kathleen C. Engel, a research professor at Suffolk University Law School in Boston. “Fannie Mae is not entitled to collect on those debts when the foreclosure was unlawful.”

It's a story worth reading.  Which you can do here.

 

For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow AT vested.com

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I am refinancing my mortgage. Do I need a new title insurance policy?

For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us. We can help. Located in Fairfield, NJ, we are the title insurance agent that does it all for you. Call us for a title insurance rate quote or check our website, www.vested.com.

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Why do I have to buy title insurance again when I refinance my mortgage?  After all, I bought a policy when I bought my home and  there is no change in ownership?

The new lender gets a new loan policy to insure the validity of your new mortgage.

For as long as you own the property, your Owner's policy is valid, but it doesn't insure the new mortgage created when you refinance, and it doesn't provide protection against events that may have transpired between the time you purchased the property and when it is refinanced.

For example, you may have taken out a second mortgage on the home that could threaten the priority of the new lender's mortgage. Or, there could be money  judgments against you or a construction lien claim against the property.

In New Jersey, mortgage refinances are insured at a steeply discounted premium.  If you would like a title insurance premium quote for your refinance mortgage or home equity mortgage, call us, or go to our website, www.vested.com.

For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow AT vested.com

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Why do I need title insurance when refinancing a mortgage loan?

For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us. We can help. Located in Fairfield, NJ, we are the title insurance agent that does it all for you.

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A question we are often asked: 

Why do I need title insurance when I refinance my mortgage?

When you refinance your home your old loan is paid off and the lender's title policy expires. Therefore, when you refinance, your lender will require a new loan policy on its mortgage to protect its interest in the property. You do not need a new owner's policy.

 

Have a question?  We'll be glad to answer.

 

For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow AT vested.com

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