Foreclosure defense is a legal strategy in which a homeowner retains the services of an attorney to complete a forensic loan audit of all the documents associated with the mortgage. The attorney is looking for fraud and predatory lending violations than can then be used to aggressively counter sue the bank for damages and in return force the bank to negotiate with the homeowner or investor. Remarkably, on average over 80% of all residential loans since 2003 contain such violations. During the housing boom, banks could not push new mortgages through their system fast enough to satisfy the appetite for profits by Wall Street.

Bankruptcy alone does not relinquish ownership of the property. The bank has to legally foreclosure on the investor in order to take back the property. This means the investor could actually keep collecting any rents received until the property is sold at auction assuming the bank does not assume the rents as they are entitled to. The main thing bankruptcy accomplishes is that it eliminates the right of the lender to collect a deficiency judgment from the investor when the property sells for less than its loan amount.

Over the past year, I have talked with several investors down on their luck because of the real estate market crash.  Everyone seems to have the same story, “I didn’t see this coming”.  More accurately put, I would say that most of us had our blinders on and tried to enjoy this gravy train as long as we could.  So what does an investor do to get through this downturn?

Banks are Approving Loan Modifications for Investors

Bank of America (Countrywide), Harris Bank, and local community banks are some of the banks that we have first hand experience with in successfully modifying the loans on rental properties.  Surprisingly, contrary to all the news you here about how difficult this process is, all the loan modifications we have done have been fairly easy!

Here are some of… Read the rest

Put that Positive Cash Flow to Good Use

In the years leading up to the real estate debacle which began in May of 2007, many real estate gurus were touting that even if a property barely breaks even on a monthly cash flow basis, it’s still a good deal because of skyrocketing home values.  The option arm mortgages were also marketed on this same premise, that home values will never go down.  That game is over.  The easy money loan programs are gone and interest rates will most likely rise in the future.  This will keep prices in check and property values will appreciate very slowly over the next 5-7 years.  This makes cash flow king once again; speculation is dead. Fortunately for rehabbers and investors alike, positive cash flow has never been easier to obtain given… Read the rest