It appears that the Massachusetts Supreme Court may rule soon on whether transfers of mortgages were properly done in a case called Ibanez. [UPDATE: The Court has ruled; the banks have lost, and we’ve got a problem. More on this later.] The lower court has already ruled (twice) that the foreclosures were invalid because the … Read more
Alex Perriello, the CEO of Realogy Franchise Group (the parent company of Coldwell Banker, Century 21, ERA, Sotheby’s, and Better Homes & Gardens), who used to be my boss’s boss, has an op/ed in yesterday’s New York Times. In it, he proposes a novel solution to the foreclosure crisis: Fortunately, there is a solution. Rather … Read more
Alex Perriello, the CEO of Realogy Franchise Group (the parent company of Coldwell Banker, Century 21, ERA, Sotheby’s, and Better Homes & Gardens), who used to be my boss’s boss, has an op/ed in yesterday’s New York Times. In it, he proposes a novel solution to the foreclosure crisis: Fortunately, there is a solution. Rather … Read more
I continue to try and think through the various issues of foreclosuregate. There are a lot of them. And some of them are petrifying. In my last post, I wondered about title issues. In this one, I wanted to sketch out my understanding of the possible problems to the entire global financial system: systemic risk. … Read more
Were I not driving across this great big nation of ours, I would have been far more productive on blogging about foreclosuregate. As it is, I’m fairly limited to writing at various truck stops in a larger work that hopes to lay out all of the issues and what the real estate industry can and … Read more
Coming off of an awesome, Hall-of-Fame type of year in which I batted .600 in predictions (or, alternatively, a year in which I only got 6 out of 10 predictions even remotely close to right, and hence am a big #FAIL), I thought I would don the Nostradamus hat once again and make foolish predictions … Read more
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that if you have a REO or short sale practice, you want to pay attention to some legal cases going on around the country: Trouble is, MERS might lack legal standing to bring a foreclosure action. At least, that’s what the attorneys for the homeowners who are getting … Read more
NAR has finally gone to the mattresses over Federal policy. Some time ago, I wrote that the mortgage interest deduction may be phased out or limited as part of Obama Administration’s new “sustainable housing” policy. At the time, I’ve heard quite a few people say, “It’ll never happen”. The thought was that the public loves … Read more
Thanks to my friend Jack Miller, I read this post by Drew Burks of Web Real Estate Marketing in which he laments the lack of leadership in the MLS and Realtor Associations: You see the associations are focused on the wrong things! The real estate industry is focused on growing membership and collecting membership dues; … Read more