Hope for Homeowners: Lawyers, Paralegals and Homeowners Signing Up For Garfield Seminars in San Francisco and LA This Month

Aug 6, 2012

Sign Up For Half Day Homeowners Seminar: GET EDUCATED in Anaheim, CA!

Sign Up for Full Day Seminar in Emeryville (San Francisco)

Sign Up for Full Day Seminar in Anaheim (Los Angeles)

“Lawyers who want real traction (instead of delay) in court will get specific narratives on how to use the DENY and DISCOVER strategy, and the information to know they are right. And just as important, these lawyers are going to learn what I have taught to other lawyers who became millionaires — the right business model” — Neil F Garfield

by Nail F Garfield, Esq.August 6, 2012, Chandler Az

We all know the bad news. The economic collapse caused by the housing crisis, the lack of resources and motivation for regulators and law enforcement to figure how the Banks did it, the bailouts to banks who obviously were not entitled to it, and the fiscal stimulus that would never have been necessary if the banks had been required to foreclose the old-fashioned way.

POLITICAL AND LEGAL VIEWS ARE CHANGING: Time is catching up with the Banks and the facts are catching up with the myths and slogans spun out of Wall Street. People in all branches of government in all the states and the federal government are finally getting their act together.

Lawsuits by County recorders are coming fast and furious and declaring that the title system is being corrupted. Judges are viewing the Banks’ position with far more skepticism than we saw even 6 months ago. Sanctions are being levied upon the Banks and their lawyers for misrepresenting facts about the ownership of the loan. And cities are being destroyed by the foreclosure and abandonment of the same house that was foreclosed — after the homeowner made a reasonable offer of payment.

The questions are changing from why should we let the borrower get out of a legitimate debt to why should we let the Banks get away with foreclosing on property where they are using fabricate, falsified, forged documents because they never funded or purchased the loan? People are starting to ask the right questions. How can a credit bid at auction be accepted from a non-creditor? Why did the trustee accept that bid? How could the deed on the foreclosure be valid if is was based on a false “credit bid.”

Administrative agencies like the OCC have issued cease and desist orders, Judges are issuing temporary restraining Orders and denying motions to lift say in bankruptcy.

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY: Borrowers have been hampered by the feeling deep down that they are in default of their obligation and deserve to get foreclosed. The facts are coming out now that the debt was paid, it was never properly secured with a perfected lien, and the only liability they might have is to the insurance company or counterparty in a credit default swap who paid it. Creditors have already settled on many if not most of the liability or obligations created by the falsified paperwork in the origination of the loan. They want no part of the predatory lending practices and fraudulently inflated appraisals used to justify the loans. And people are starting to ask themselves whether it was really their error in judgment or if in fact they were tricked and deceived into signing papers that named the wrong lender and had different terms than what the lender had agreed to accept. They are still mad at themselves for signing those papers, which eventually got shredded or lost. But they are mad because they listened to the closing agents etc who told them “don’t get a lawyer.”

THERE WERE NO LOSSES ON DEFAULTS BECAUSE CREDITORS RECEIVED PAYMENT: The real creditors, as well now know were the pension funds and other managed retirement and municipal funds that invested in those bogus mortgage bonds that didn’t exist issued by an entity that didn’t exist and in which there was nothing to back up the bonds. The agents of those creditors, the banks, took the money they made by temporarily “owning” the loan, selling it, insuring it and hedging it and now have settled with many investors who were the real lenders in the transactions. As more and more people come to realize this fact, they are coming to realize that they are not asking for amnesty for failing to pay a loan, but rather justice in making sure the creditor doesn’t get paid twice.

It would have been nice if they had grasped the facts back in 2007, before any of the bailouts and other money got printed by the Federal Reserve, debasing our currency. Back then just a few of us were warning that there were several major banks that were going to fail not because of the defaults on mortgage loans but because of bad trades or bets they made based upon layers of paper filled with fraudulent and deceptive facts.

STRATEGIC DEFAULTS INSTEAD OF SURRENDER: Fewer homeowners are leaving their keys on the counter when served with a notice of default because they can’t help noticing the hundreds of people in their area who are living in homes where the payments have not been made sometimes as long as five years. States are passing laws that basically ask whether there is a valid lien or mortgage on the property and who exactly owns that lien?

HUNDREDS OF LAWYERS ARE TAKING FORECLOSURE DEFENSE CASES: In 2007, when I started the blog at www.livinglies.wordpress.com, it was just a little distraction to warn people of the coming wave of foreclosures, bank collapses and the reasons for the problems. Now it has over 7.2 million hits. I never dreamed back then that it would take this long for lawyers and law enforcement to get up to speed. Here I was day after day giving them the information for free on the blog.

Back then, when I was helping people with distressed loans, I couldn’t find a single lawyer that would take a case even where the client was easily able and willing to pay for their services, and only sought to workout the loan, a common practice in the industry when market conditions change.

There is now considerable hope for homeowners coming from many different sources including regulatory agencies, law enforcement, lawyers and the courts. Judges are coming to realize that the allegations made of faked documents were not the ravings of a desperate homeowner but were the truth and the reason for the faked documents is that the loan originations were fundamentally flawed.

INDEPENDENT STUDIES SUPPORT HOMEOWNER AND SHOW THE FORECLOSURES ARE FAKED: Just a few months ago an independent unassailable report was issued by San Francisco County showing that :”Strangers to the transaction” had illegally acquired title through a foreclosure in which they had no right to pursue because they were not the party with whom the borrower had completed a financial transaction, they were not the party who funded the loan and they never purchased the loan. All the loan transfer documents were faked to show a financial transaction where the loan was made and transferred when none of those documents were even close to accurate.

Studies were published in 2007-2008. Law review articles were published describing the problems that were coming and now we have the tools to deal with these problems, as well as the tools, strategies and tactics to level the playing the field with the banks, whether it is a distressed homeowner, a distressed city, county or state government officer, or a legislature seeking to find a way to push the “reset” button.

LEGISLATION REQUIRING MEDIATION AND PROOF OF OWNERSHIP: In states where mediation and proof of ownership of the loan has been passed, foreclosures have dropped like a stone and modifications have been worked out.

HOMEOWNERS REASONABLE DEMANDS FOR MODIFICATION ARE BEING ENFORCED: We all know the drill, you submit the papers for modification, they lose them a few times and then deny the request when in fact they never “considered” them as required under HAMP. Now savvy lawyers and homeowners are challenging the banks and servicers to show proof that they considered the request for modification, with expert analyses showing that any reasonable investor would accept the modification in lieu of getting virtually nothing or actually nothing from the sale of the home at auction.

Homeowners are willing to accept a home that is underwater —but not where the debt is far more than the property will ever be worth. The homeowners, most of them, are honorable people seeking an honorable workout with the banks same as any business does when times change. They are willing to do accept the loans higher than the value of their home even though they know that the original appraisal was faked and they will still be slightly underwater after the modification. The banks, are seeking the foreclosures that have blighted cities and neighborhoods (Cleveland etc.), causing the literal bull-dozing of homes and infrastructure based upon the deceit of Wall Street.

When they used other people’s money, they don’t worry about risk or even legality. The bigger the crime the harder it is for prosecutors to get the resources necessary to prosecute it.

It all comes down to the fact that the people who were pulling the levers of power on Wall Street were pulling the strings in Washington and creating the worst economic crime in the history of the human race. The banks, using the money of investors, went on a trading spree instead of putting those investments to work in properly structured mortgage products.

Later, when it came tumbling down, the banks resorted to false, forged, fabricated paperwork that was fraudulently used to deceive both investor and the homeowner. It turns out the investor never owned the loans until they were in default, and the foreclosure put a state stamp of approval on a non-existent transaction that caused pension funds and other managed funds to lose trillions of dollars.

POLITICIANS AND BANK MONEY COMING UNDER SCRUTINY: Those politicians who align themselves with the banking lobby under the “less regulation” banner are doing so because they are taking money from the banks, who want to let them get away with it. We won’t let them get away with it, and as they are seeing almost daily, the situation is NOT under control for the banks who are carrying assets on their balance sheets that don’t exist. More failures to come on Wall Street but more success and revival on Main Street.