Fannie Dumps Payment Reduction Plan - 11.01.10 | Vincent K. Mohr : First Priority Financial, Inc. : Fairfield, CA

5pence: (November 01, 2010 6:21pm)

I found it. Ken Harney from the Washington Post. He knows what's going on like no other writer I've seen.

5pence: (November 01, 2010 6:18pm)

That should be forwarded to the Fed consumer affairs division, I was trying to find it on-line so it could be. Do you happen to have a link cg?

cgappraisals: (November 01, 2010 3:29pm)

I was suprised to see it as well. Somebody knows whats going on. Why not the FED's?

5pence: (November 01, 2010 2:22pm)

cgappraisals : thanks for taking the time to post that article. It's a pretty good one, favorable to appraisers for once.

loannetter: (November 01, 2010 1:03pm)

Guys Guys! We need to band together on this thing and find common ground for the sake of our clients and our industry. Only by join our collective voices will we stay a force in lending. Broker/Bankers are like the canary in the coal mine: once we are gone heaven help home owners. We are the Bank's only competition and governor so let's play nice and find ways to support our local organizations and national voices like Brian and Frank. Love 'em or lose it!

cgappraisals: (November 01, 2010 12:57pm)

From LA Times, Sun Fed’s appraisal rules may be faulty. Critics say they won’t lesson the tilt toward cut-rate fees and short turnaround times.You may have missed it, but the Federal Reserve proposed far-reaching new rules Oct. 18 that could affect home real estate appraisals and millions of owners’ equity holdings nationwide. The rules, which are scheduled to take interim effect in December and then be finalized next spring, prohibit outside interference in appraisers’ valuations and require lenders to report evidence of appraiser misconduct to regulatory authorities. They replace the controversial Home Valuation Code of Conduct imposed on the mortgage and real estate industries last year by giant investors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But here’s a key practical question: Fed’s new proposals, are you as a buyer, seller or refinance applicant certain to be protected against inaccurate valuations produced by appraisers working for low fees who are unfamiliar with your local market.

cgappraisals: (November 01, 2010 12:54pm)

Complaints about such problems exploded in many parts of the country after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac adopted their code, and critics streamed to Capitol Hill to get federal appraisal rules changed. That appeared to be accomplished when Congress passed the massive Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in July. The law instructed the Fed to issue replacement rules for home appraisals — eliminating the Fannie- Freddie code — within 90 days after enactment of the legislation. What’s the read on the changes, at least in the proposal’s current form? “It’s just a rehash” of the code, said Pat Turner, a Richmond, Va., area appraiser and critic of the Fannie-Freddie rules. Leslie Sellers, president of the 26,000-member Appraisal Institute, a professional group based in Chicago, says the Fed’s proposals include important core principles of freedom from coercion and outside influence on valuations but don’t lessen the current fees and short turnaround times over appraisal quality

cgappraisals: (November 01, 2010 12:52pm)

Frank Gregoire, past chairman of the Florida Real Estate Appraisal Board and incoming chairman of the National Assn. of Realtors’ appraisal committee, said that “until the federal banking agencies decide to enforce some of the words they’re putting on paper, the public can expect business as usual.” What is business as usual? Most consumers don’t understand the system or where the hundreds of dollars they’re charged for an appraisal at settlement go. Here’s a quick overview: In all likelihood, the money you pay isn’t just going to the person who does the appraisal. It gets split up, and sometimes your lender is getting a sizable chunk of the action. An estimated two-thirds of home appraisals are produced by appraisal management companies, some of them owned in whole or part by big banks.

cgappraisals: (November 01, 2010 12:51pm)

Many of those companies have slashed appraiser fees from traditional norms — $400 or $500 to the appraiser — and now hire only appraisers who agree to work for $175 to $200. They also require fast turnarounds — complete appraisals delivered within 24 to 36 hours of the assignment. Since experienced appraisers generally refuse to work for such low compensation and rushed delivery demands, many appraisals are assigned to newcomers to the field. In some cases, critics charge, the jobs go to inexperienced appraisers who are willing to travel far beyond their home markets to get the assignment. Gregoire and Turner say they routinely hear complaints from realty agents about low-ball valuations turned in by out-of-area appraisers who have minimal knowledge about local market trends and don’t distinguish distressed sales from ordinary sales. Sometimes the bad appraisals undervalue houses by tens of thousands of dollars and kill sales or refinancings.

cgappraisals: (November 01, 2010 12:49pm)

Brian Coester, chief executive of Coester Appraisal Group, an independent management company with a network of 3,000 appraisers in 50 states, agrees that low fees to appraisers “produce low-quality appraisals.” “At $180 to $200,” he said, “you’re not going to get good work.” Pay the appraiser more — say $250 to $350 — “and now you’re going to get a quality product.” His firm averages $275 to $300, Coester said in an interview, but is constrained by the demands of mortgage lenders, some of whom will pay only $300 for the appraisal but later charge consumers $450 at closing. The Fed’s proposal attempts to deal with the issue by requiring lenders to pay “customary and reasonable” fees to appraisers. But will that fix the problem? Maybe not. Independent appraisers say some management companies already are looking for ways to bypass the Fed, such as requiring them to sign statements in advance of their work that the fee they receive is “customary and reasonable” — even though it’s not.

5pence: (November 01, 2010 12:10pm)

If something isn't done soon and the banksters are allowed to roam free, they will perfect their corruptions on us & be above the law in all aspects, or make the laws so they will be. Immorality & unethical behavior will be sanctioned & the wealth & abundance of this nation, for generations, will be owed to the 4th branch of government-the banks. The Federal Reserve & the Income Tax were enacted in the same year-1913. The Income Tax was a vow from Wilson that the debt owed the Fed would always be paid. They were entrusted to keep the value of the dollar at $1. It's now worth less than .03 in 1913 dollars. They are a total scam & have utterly failed at their mandate. The Fed is behind all this mess as they've been behind every bubble & bust. Fed now wants to create inflation?! Make things more expensive for everyone? QE is another excuse to transfer wealth & destroy the value of the $. Why? To pay a continued ransom to the TBTF's that have our economy hostage. Cut out the $ value destroying Fed and make the banks lower rates through any means possible. Save the value of the dollar. IMHO

frankgaray: (November 01, 2010 11:06am)

Sandance. Not only do we see the fraud, we've done shows on it, several of them. Step back a little and don't get too caught up in every little nuance of every little word man. It's all about different views and opinions here on this blog, so we appreciate your input. I think MERS is a POS. I also believe if it were gone and lenders did things the traditional way, it would cost the consumer more money, hence the poll question. You may feel differently. That's cool. That's why the blog is here. Enjoy.

tbwbrian: (November 01, 2010 10:48am)

hi sandance im not ignoring you at all. i just think the blog is a better discussion for you and not me. we read these blogs all day long. we find most of our stories from our tbws viewers and participants. in fact we've gotten to know many of our bloggers. right now we're just trying to work on a show. we gave one opinion or mers and then asked what you thought. i must say, you guys are being a bit tuff on us today. thats ok though thats what this forum is for. your opinions. i appreciate all of them. ~ brian

5pence: (November 01, 2010 10:32am)

@ Swarm The Banks : I'm with Chase bank and I have no doubt they're doing the same thing to me - parallel foreclosure. Frank and Brian, this would be a good topic to cover http://www.parallelforeclosure.com

sandance: (November 01, 2010 9:31am)

I guess you don't read these blogs anymore, or you're just ignoring me...but don't you know it's more than MERS being "kinda messy with the title thing"??? I can't figure out if you really don't know what's happening or if you're in someone's pocket too...I mean, MERS isn't the problem. MERS is a strategy the banks employed to quickly chop up the loans and create credit default swaps or whatever packages they created to "make up" out of thin air an investment product to make more money on. In so doing, Humpty Dumpty can't be put together again (there can be no note) because when we signed the note, we didn't sign it in chopped up pieces...it went to ONE lender. F&B, why are you not seeing the fraud as what it is? The banks themselves destroyed the notes, they didn't lose them in a "kinda messy" thing.

5pence: (November 01, 2010 9:27am)

One more thing. 2 headlines that say it all: 1) Homeowners Get The Boot For Bad Paperwork While Banks Get Millions For Same . 2) Obama: More Aggressive Anti-Foreclosure Efforts Would Help People Who Don't Deserve It

5pence: (November 01, 2010 9:17am)

Obviously, the banksters still have their eyes and mentality tuned to short term profits - like they won't be around for the back end of the trade or they're expecting to be bailed out again. Save a few bucks upfront and and lose millions on the back end. That makes a lot of sense, doesn't it. They need to lose all the homes that they traded illegally to teach them a lesson. Sue the chit out of them and don't pay if they don't have the note. Maybe that might wake their integrity up and they'll claw back all those bonuses to make up for their losses. Some hedge funds were making $900k an hour trading this unrecorded debt??!! Insane. Financial terrorists that we, the taxpayer, are supporting. The thought makes me cringe in disgust. They are being left free to continue and perfect their corruptions on us. OK, OK, I'm talking too much lol. Great show guys - l8r

TXkim: (November 01, 2010 9:15am)

Sorry, but you lost me at "go Giants". GO RANGERS!

5pence: (November 01, 2010 8:58am)

"Were the banks just blinded by greed in saving all those recording fees?" Banks get BPO's from realtors that end up listing the foreclosed property and I'd guess over 90% of the time those BPO's are too low, costing the banks thousands. That is the mentality of the banksters, save a few bucks up front and lose thousands on the back end. They sure get stupid when it comes to money. They feel appraisers charge too much but real appraisers are there to protect their back ends to make sure they get fair market value. But they don't care, they'd rather save a few bucks up front. Yep, money sure does makes the banksters stupid. Fiscally irresponsible

5pence: (November 01, 2010 8:51am)

It was the "make a quick profit and worry about the consequences later" mentality that drove this and unknowing MERS was the perfect foil/conduit for their scam. CEO's that don't care about anything, even their own companies that they bankrupted and decimated only to be rescued by the taxpayer, but quick profits. Same thing with writing no doc liar loans and NINJA loans. They knew they'd fail and bring down the markets, but all that mattered was their own quick profits. Why no perp walks? None

5pence: (November 01, 2010 8:45am)

While MERS may have had good intentions at it's inception, it's worth increased because it stole that wealth from much needed recording fees from the states and it became THE conduit for toxic CDO's. Seriously though, MERS and the banksters never checked to see if their "solution" was legal? Were the banks just blinded by greed in saving all those recording fees?

thenumberone: (November 01, 2010 8:43am)

To all and Anders02. If they can't produce the note, why pay them? I am serious! Start putting your house payment in an escrow account making a whooping 1&1/2% until they prove they own the note. What happens if a year down the road, someone else proves they own your note. You will have to sue the other guy to get all YOUR money back. That sounds lika alot of fun. Morally, ethically I am in favor of repaying the money from the rightful owner of the note but until that is proven to my satisfaction, I will be withholding my payment. Do you think all the scummy mortage and bankers will start paying attention? Of course the MERS court cases have proven that they can't proven standing(ownership) so the case is dismissed. The greed of MERS and all who participated will be their undoing!! Ha,Ha,Ha!!!

5pence: (November 01, 2010 8:30am)

I'm sorry. but rates were lowered because the banksters were able to commit a crime through MERS? Indefensible. Did it really have to take criminal activity to lower rates? No. Also. did you know that the HR 3808 that was rushed through Congress to allow foreclosures without the proper documentation was first passed in the House in April? That means the banksters knew in April that they were wrongly foreclosing. All mortgages written through MERS are a nullity

Realist 1: (November 01, 2010 8:14am)

It's becoming increasingly obvious that the TBTF banks are even more too big to fail than ever before. And despite all of the hoopla over the forged documents and all the other things the bankstas have been doing, they will NOT be permitted to fail. It will all be made OK as a matter of official policy - whatever the banks do.

Chuck@HRC: (November 01, 2010 8:13am)

As has been observed by some respondants, MERS does serve a useful purpose... just not what it has morphed into. It would be a useful resource to have a repository that's open to everyone in the industry, not just the bankers, where someone can look up the ownership of a particular loan (the originally stated purpose for MERS). Unfortunately, some sharp lawyers have pushed MERS as a substitute for recording assignments, etc. Now, some "smarter" bankers are leaving MERS before a much larger shoe drops and the ownership/validity of every performing and/or non-performing loan in a RMBS is questioned. Back to basics, everyone!

kkric: (November 01, 2010 8:04am)

The real problem with MERS is that it encourages the secondary market and formularized lending. Now, we are down to two formulas - Fannie/Freddie (two peas in a pod) and FHA. The secondary market brought down the cost of loans by 0.25% to 0.5% - and now we are seeing the real cost of that paltry savings. I'd rather pay the extra cost and have a market dominated by the "primary" market (portfolio lenders) than dominated by now only two lenders. You'd have hundreds of loan programs - no one would be too big to fail - and no company would think that requiring you to source and TRACE the $181 to close escrow would in any way contribute to better loans.

anders02: (November 01, 2010 7:18am)

MERS is valuable? It takes money out of our local court system. It makes it so our assignments aren't transparent...homeowners are left in the dark AND they did such a good job "tracking my lien" that it was endorsed from the original lender to WMC...but that wasn't tracked...so when they NEEDED to record an assignment they assigned it from the original lender to US BANK...but the original lender had already sold it! Now...since WMC is out of business, and that is who owned it, I may never get a satisfaction of mortgage IF I paid it off? This whole thing is a mess BECAUSE of MERS!! Out them!

Bono Vox: (November 01, 2010 7:17am)

PS, don't tell my parents they spent all of that money on an expensive, high quality college education and I typed "their" instead of "there"

Bono Vox: (November 01, 2010 7:15am)

Ezra - you're right about the money, but don't forget about the power. WSJ had editorials going back to 2004 that detailed the battle between Bush and B. Frank over the containment of Fannie and Freddie. Bush wanted stronger regulator, Frank did not. Now go check out how much money Fannie gave to Frank, raised for Frank, and sent to his district for low income housing projects and the such. If you read your local fishwrap, you'll blame mean old banks. If you do some more research, you'll learn their is enough blame for everyone. As Rep Baird said in is WSJ interview Saturday, Fannie and Freddie had too much political power.

MichaelS: (November 01, 2010 7:13am)

Ezradams- There was an article after the 2008 election concerning demographic / party voting of various news papers. The Wall Street Journal actually voted more heavily for the Democrat party. I suppose that might explain the bailouts. I was not able to quickly find the link to post it for you.

Ezradams: (November 01, 2010 6:26am)

Acorn...Obama? That's a stretch! It was always about the money...Wall Street was the villain. (Oh, yeah...could not have been Wall Street, that's where the Republicans live.)

GaryP: (November 01, 2010 5:50am)

Clouded Title: "surrounding the false myth that every American is entitled to home ownership. This is the banks' fault for catering to that whim." The way that I recall it, the banks didn't have much of a choice in the matter. Congress as well as folks like ACORN and Mr. Obama (as a "community organizer") blackmailed the banks into making a lot of loans that they may not have done otherwise under CRA. Your comments are indicative of a lot of revisionist history that is going on in this country right now. Bashing the banks is just an easy solution for what is a much more complex issue. I'd suggest that you might want to read Paul Moulo's book "Chain of Blame." You can't swing a dead cat without hitting someone that had a hand in helping create the housing crisis that we are all now dealing with.

GaryP: (November 01, 2010 5:43am)

I can remember, back in the day, my first refi loan. The title was not in MERS. What a nightmare! Title transfers had been recorded in 3 counties, in two different states. It took us forever to get a COT. MERS may have flaws, but it does serve a valuable purpose.

John's Texas: (November 01, 2010 5:22am)

Go Rangers We will pull this one out of the toilet. All Good. Back to work.

therealtor: (November 01, 2010 5:12am)

I've made this comment before: both of you are sellouts for a $. That the exact attitude that perpetuates fraud in the banking industry and why US is being destroyed. Sure MERS was created for liquidity and to save people money... schmucks. I think your shortlived popularity has gotten your egos pumped way out of proportion. I just can't believe how popularity subverts some poeples thinking and logic.

davies910: (November 01, 2010 4:39am)

MERS does not save the consumers money. It makes more profits for the bank. That lower prices B.S. is what you have been told by the banks and MERS. Do you think that the money would not be better suited for the county recorders office. The MERS system allows the banks to be sleazy and to mislead this opaque system

davies910: (November 01, 2010 4:38am)

MERS does not save the consumers money. It makes more profits for the bank. That lower prices B.S. is what you have been told by the banks and MERS. Do you think that the money would not be better suited for the county recorders office. The MERS system allows the banks to be sleezy and to mislead this opaque system

Divedude: (November 01, 2010 3:25am)

MERS in it's current form is indicative of the bank's "Take the money and run " attitude that led to this enire crisis. A permanent solution requires a change of attitudes from the top down. And as always, jail time!!

CloudedTitles: (November 01, 2010 3:25am)

You can find out more about this by visiting www.cloudedtitles.com ...

CloudedTitles: (November 01, 2010 3:23am)

If you guys knew the truth about what the MERS system has been doing to the county recordation system ... geez guys! You can't dump MERS. MERS is a privately-held, bankruptcy-remote entity (that means they have no assets, no liabilities, no income and no expenses and NO EMPLOYEES!) This entity is owned by parent MERSCORP, Inc. which has all the goodies. This isn't MERS as you remember it in 1995. This is MERS #3, started in 1999, when Glass-Stegall was repealed and all of the securitization mess started to happen on Wall Street. Fannie and Freddie are founding members! They all deserve to go down after what they did. You will see many suits against MERSCORP, Inc. in the future when more litigants find out that MERS has no money. I think this country has been ripped off enough and you guys put too much faith in banking and not enough in the problems surrounding the false myth that every American is entitled to home ownership. This is the banks' fault for catering to that whim.

Swarm The Banks: (November 01, 2010 2:20am)

Hey Frank and Brian, one of these days would you devote a show to "Parallel Foreclosure" and HAMP. 99.5% of the people absolutely do not believe that the government would actually force homeowners to go into parallel foreclosure before they can even APPLY for HAMP. HAMP for HAMPSTERS. http://www.parallelforeclosure.com

Swarm The Banks: (November 01, 2010 1:47am)

If there are either 15 or 17 revenue streams created every time the Banks initiate a foreclosure, then, as a general rule, homeowners don't have much of a chance at being helped in any way shape or form. Is your issue about Mers saving money really a valid issue if MERS makes it easier to first file fraudulent papers, then makes it easier to foreclose on a home? Just whose side are you on, besides yourself? http://swarmthebanks.blogspot.com/2010/10/why-banks-appear-to-be-so-eager-to.html