Your home is safe. If you bought a foreclosed property in good faith, no court or sheriff will take it away, even if the paperwork turns out to be bad.
The scandal of faulty foreclosures is frightening buyers who took advantage of today’s low prices and interest rates. Investors who bought fixer-uppers or [...]
The new, 49-state investigation into foreclosure frauds comes as no surprise to people who follow the mortgage service business. Shoddy, deceptive paperwork has plagued homeowners for years. In the industry’s slimy underside, firms push borrowers into default and foreclosure, even when they’ve been making payments on time.
Their business model makes defaults profitable, [...]
Pssst – here’s a quick personal finance tip for financially troubled people who have a first mortgage plus a home equity loan. If you can’t make the payments on the first debt, don’t pay the second one, either — even if you can afford to. Payments on the second lien are money down the drain.
That [...]
If you walk away from a mortgage you don’t want any more, what are the consequences? I wrote about the moral and credit implications in a previous post. A reader emailed to ask about the federal tax implications. “In my state, the banks send a notice saying that you owe taxes on the unpaid debt,” [...]
Say that your house is way underwater. Say that you can pay your mortgage but are sick of throwing good money after bad. Say that you’ve decided to walk away. Say that your credit rating has always been good. What happens?
That depends on the state you live in and what kind of loan you have—a [...]
