corvin: (May 11, 2010 5:02pm)

The Federal Housing Finance Administration (FHFA) Oversight for Fannie Mae,

MicheleBC21: (May 11, 2010 12:43pm)

Never got back to you on the T-shirt.Size Med or Lg Address-Century 21 Alliance, 3012 Township Line Rd., Drexel Hill, PA 19026

5pence: (May 11, 2010 11:08am)

Ron Paul wants to audit the Fed. The Senate vote is most likely tomorrow. Please contact your Senators to get them to support auditing the Fed and bringing transparency to our monetary system. Here is the link. Please do your part. All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing. http://www.chooseliberty.org/vitter1.aspx?pid=rp2

mark: (May 11, 2010 11:04am)

Did you know - that if a seller, who is selling their home via a short sale AND their current financing is FHA, seller concessions are maxed at 1%? BUT Realtors still get their 6%!!

5pence: (May 11, 2010 9:33am)

@SHORTSALE : Crazy isn't it. There's more money to be made avoiding the logical and fiscally responsible solution. Hey, it's only the taxpayers money - why should they care? As long as they keep getting their huge bonuses for miserably failing they're a huge success. There's no money in actually curing cancer, the money is to be made by expensive treatments. That is the way our politicians today think. Perverted imo

BTM: (May 11, 2010 9:31am)

You are quite correct. That said, that amendment, and several of the others, were poorly conceived. However, considering 'republic' in its broader context as a separation of powers, the federal government has been encroaching on the states since the beginning. I'm happy to see the states are starting to push back. We'll see how it goes.

SHORT SALE: (May 11, 2010 9:23am)

Fannie & Freddie have been forcing the servicers to move forward with foreclosure on properties that have good offers on them in a short sale situation. I have had several expierences within the past month where there have been approval letters issued by the mortgage servicer for a short sale and before the approval letter expires the properties have been foreclosed on, all have been Fannie properties two of them had all buyers docs signed and funds at title and were waiting for final HUD approval from the servicer and the trustee sale postponment was denied from Fannie and the trustee sale took place and both properties had minimum bids of more than $50,000 below the net of the short sale. This is criminal on all accounts, they are walking away from $50,000 - Foreclosing on a seller who has a good viable buyer for the property, not to mention leaving the buyer holding a stack of bills for appraisal, home inspection etc... This makes no financial sense to me.

5pence: (May 11, 2010 9:19am)

@BTM - it's good to get differing views of those 3 choices. I had assumed that nearly everyone would prefer Democracy and National Sovereignty (sovereignty of the people and by the people) over global economic integration. We are founded as a Republic, true, but a Democracy with elected representatives is the definition of Republic. "But the main Amendment that tipped the scales from the national government of the United States being a mere republic to being a true representative democracy was the often-overlooked Seventeenth Amendment, which took effect in 1913. Since 1913 the U.S. Senate has been elected directly by the voters, rather than being appointed by the state legislatures. That makes the national government democratic in form, as well as being a republic." A pretty good article : http://www.williampmeyers.org/republic.html... Personally I think we should stay out of other countries affairs. The best we seem to be able to do is screw it up and make enemies.

BTM: (May 11, 2010 8:50am)

@5pence - agree with your sentiments, except, I'm not interested in giving up national sovereignty, I'm not interested in democracy (we are supposed to be a republic - a fine distinction that seems to escape even most conservatives) and while I am in favor of global markets they need to be free and fair markets. I used to work for one of the 3 letter agencies and lived overseas for years where I saw first hand how most of our trading partners, even our good allies, were constantly gaming the system to keep out US goods.

Evil Genius: (May 11, 2010 8:35am)

There is a ton of PRIVATE money on the sidelines. What is needed are mortgage pools that provide cash flow to investors that may then choose to further seuritze these notes into bond issues. Fannie and Freddie are too cumbersome and have too many bad loans on the books already. So it makes more sense to them to buy more? Simply let the entities who made the bad loans go down. Period. There's no magic answer that will make it OK! Its a matter of starting over right now with common sense U/W and funding lower risk loans that provide cash flow. Lord knows -$165 Biliion of taxpayer money isn't cash flow. Anybody wanna know more about how to start over without the GSE's? I have the business plan being presented as we speak. New Generation Lending. Real answers, not crying over all the spilt milk. New mortgage industry architecture! No Government involvement. [email protected]

5pence: (May 11, 2010 8:24am)

Get rid of F & F and if the banks want liquidity they'll have to sell to investors around the world with no quantitative taxpayer backstops. That sound like a market that works instead of the market on crutches we now have. If they want increased liquidity to gamble, do it above board and honestly. We keep feeding the kleptomaniacs below board and opaquely, they'll just want more and more. Global economic integration, democracy and national sovereignty - you can have any 2 but not all 3.

5pence: (May 11, 2010 8:17am)

I'd like to see F & F gone yesterday, then the banks would have to hold on to all their loans. If they had to hold on to them do you think they'd chance using amc appraisers? Not likely. The banks are still using taxpayer funds for their continued scam on the American people and, as we have seen, the world. Did you guys know we were helping to bail out Greece? The IMF is contributing to the bailout and we have at least $6 billion with them. Bailout world. Thanks Bubble Ben.

5pence: (May 11, 2010 8:14am)

Fannie & Freddie are the continued bailout of the banks, with our money. They have $5 trillion in debt before this bailout money! Their total debt is around $8 trillion now. Funny how Congress seems to think our money is their money to do whatever they want with. F & F are selling foreclosures at 39% average loss. Fiscal responsibility?! F & F provide liquidity so the banks can gamble more. They will evolve into something new-probably private. They're quasi-public/private enterprises existing only because of the taxpayers but they're not beholding to the taxpayers-only the banks. Spend baby spend is like drill baby drill-reckless with highly toxic results that spill over into every aspect of life with no ready cure. All possible scenarios should have been planned for & solutions made before the plans were put into action. Who builds a house by the river without blueprints & seeing if the river overflows? Their foresight is blinded by the lack of will to be prudent in a rush for riches.

frankgaray: (May 11, 2010 8:09am)

Godlike - I'm saying they are buying them with your money through the treasury, not with their own money, like a bank would. Not every loan is owned by fannie and freddie. The tax payer is buying them, not fannie and freddie. Fannie and freddie is supposed to be run like a business, hence the government should not be buying any foreclosures, which the are doing by continually handing them billions of dollars.

JUSTFRANK101: (May 11, 2010 8:08am)

Have you watched the Tinna Morlatt Show yet? None too shabby and you may view it right here on the TBWS Video deelie bobber, same log in information required to chat too easy. The Video offers Real Estate Appraisal Association Updates, how cool is that?! Tinna has a co-host though I cannot remember the guy’s name.. Here is her contact information. http://www.reaaca.org/sac/ 916-521-8980 try this link - http://www.thinkbigworksmall.com/mypage/archive/8074/50638

BTM: (May 11, 2010 8:04am)

If we do not put in leadership that will be fiscally responsible then we are headed the way of Greece. Except when we default there will be no one to prop up the system. When that happens you can figure on 20 years of hell while the system resets. And I don't use the word 'hell' lightly.

BTM: (May 11, 2010 7:58am)

Godlike: Fannie and Freddie are not buying anything. You are buying these houses and you are selling them at a loss. You and your children will pay for these losses, in blood or treasure, at some future date.

GODLIKE: (May 11, 2010 7:40am)

I'm not trying to be dense, but that's the system. If you are saying you don't like the system that's one thing, but it sounded as if you were saying they were doing something wrong. If you don't like the system keep in mind it's an election year, you can always vote for a CHANGE! That always works well.

GODLIKE: (May 11, 2010 7:35am)

Frank are you saying Fannie & Freddie are buying loans they aren't OBLIGATED to buy? If they were obligated to buy these loans due to foreclosure then what's the big deal? So the money is coming from the Treasury, it still has to be done.

GODLIKE: (May 11, 2010 7:29am)

Frank and Brian after harping on going ahead a foreclosing so people and the economy can get on with their life rather than waiting are you now saying not to foreclose? I just don't understand why if the people aren't making their payments and there needs to be a foreclosure why that is now evil just because Fannie and Freddie is doing it. Maybe I'm missing a simple little piece of the puzzle like Fannie and Freddie are buying up properties that have already been foreclosed upon that they didn't have to buy and are holding them for nefarious purposes.

frankgaray: (May 11, 2010 7:28am)

The money is coming from the Treasury... they are using fannie and freddie as a conduit to buy the foreclosures... at least that's how it appears. So the taxpayer is the one buying the foreclosures, not fannie and freddie.

GODLIKE: (May 11, 2010 7:20am)

OK, I'm still confused. Yes, the money is coming from Fannie but what's the difference between having to foreclose on someone now vs. a year or 2 ago. They made (backed) the loan and it still has to be done.

frankgaray: (May 11, 2010 7:06am)

Cause the money to buy them is coming from the Treasury... in other words you. The USA is buying all the foreclosed homes through Fannie and Freddie. This is why we're thinking there isn't any regulation for them in the Senate reform bill. Why have it? They are just a conduit to purchase all foreclosures. Once they've live their new purpose, they're gone...

GODLIKE: (May 11, 2010 6:35am)

So isn't Fannie & Freddie buying homes simply foreclosing? Why is that such a bad thing for them but OK for the banks?

Cloudnine: (May 11, 2010 6:32am)

Don't you understand!!! The more things change; the more they stay the same. The people making all the money want it to stay the same, they don't want change. You will never get it under controll.

daveraab: (May 11, 2010 6:26am)

Watch out for this trap. I prepared a GFE prior to receiving the purchase contract. It turns out the buyer is responsible and has to pay for ALL fees. All title, escrow, etc. Of course I had no way of knowing this. But it does not matter, I am responsible for the under-disclosed fees to the tune of about $4000.00. I tried to explain I did not know and relied on information provided by the buyer. They said it is NOT a changed circumstance and either pay it or don't close. So throw the kitchen sink in the estimate and you can't get hurt. If you throw extra money in Block 1, you might even make extra money on the transaction. I believe in the long run, this new RESPA rules will cost the borrower more money. Somebody has to pay for all the extra time and effort it takes to make sure you are in compliance. Did the borrower really win?

Rotgirl: (May 11, 2010 6:13am)

Has anyone else noticed that Congress seems to be having an overabundance of "hearings" lately? Why did they need to have hearings for BP and the oil spill? Isn't that the EPA's job? And shouldn't the SEC be investigating the market "glitch" from last week? Are the Dems just trying to look busy and like they care or is it just another way for them to continue to put a stranglehold on business and get the government's fingers deeper into controling all aspects of our lives? Gosh! I can't wait for mid-terms!

Rotgirl: (May 11, 2010 6:09am)

Hmmmm.....doesn't gov't owned homes = Socialism. How long until the gov't starts using these homes for Section 8 housing? Or starts letting the delinquent borrower stay in the home at a grossly reduced mortgage or ridiculously low "rent back" rate? On your and my dime?

ben: (May 11, 2010 5:08am)

Good or Bad with out a Secoundary market like Freedie or Fannie to sell and buy from- you just have what is happening in the jumbo market. When was the last time you did a Jumbo loan? Shoot we actually need them or an equivelant! Oh Yea Barney sucks!