Three years into the mortgage foreclosure crisis, a major lender has finally announced that it will reduce principal on “underwater” mortgages. Sort of. According to The New York Times, BoA won’t actually write down loans to the value of the property (which is more than it would get in a foreclosure). Rather (and here’s where [...]
Brett Weiss, Maryland Bankruptcy Attorney
Recently, I’ve met with a number of clients with the same situation: In addition to their homes, they also own several pieces of investment property, some without any mortgages on them. As a result of the economy, they have had trouble with their tenants paying rent, and haven’t been able to sell the properties. The [...]
According to statistics released by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, bankruptcy filings increased 31.9% in 2009, increasing from 1,117,641 in 2008 to 1,473,675 in 2009. Business filings for 2009 were up 40%, from 43,533 in 2008 to 60,837. Non-business filings were up 32%, from 1,074,108 in 2008 to 1,412,838. Chapter 7 filings totaled [...]
A number of clients facing foreclosure have asked me whether I could use the “lost note defense” to help them save their homes. They’d read about how successful it had been in states like Ohio and Florida, and wondered about whether it could help them here in Maryland. Sadly, the answer is that normally it [...]
There have been a number of recent news reports about people choosing to “walk away” from their under water homes. One recent example is this CNN story. Former homeowners may still be on the hook if there’s a difference between what they owed on their mortgage and what the bank could sell it for at [...]
I’m often asked by clients about short sales. As I talked about in my blog, Why Short Sales Usually are a Bad Idea, there are a lot of potential problems with short sales. But while they’re usually a bad idea if you won’t be filing, they almost always are bad if you will file. Why? [...]
