Addison, Texas-based law firm Barrett Burke Wilson Castle Daffin & Frappier, L.L.P. and NDEx named Debora T. Kehr director of the firm’s Homeowners’ Assistance and Loss Mitigation Department this week.
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CNBC reported this week that First Franklin, the lending subsidiary of Merrill Lynch, is expected to significantly scale back on its lending operations, which could possibly result in the loss of 300 to 400 jobs.
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The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) issued a statement this week applauding the U.S. Senate’s rejection of The Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008—a bill that, if passed, would allow judges to modify the existing terms on mortgage loans.
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More than a week after Morgan Stanley announced layoffs within its residential mortgage platform, its lending subsidiary Saxon Mortgage Services was mentioned in a warn letter mailed to the Texas Workforce Commission to inform them of 100 job cuts at a Saxon facility in Fort Worth, Texas.
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Creating new efficiencies for the process of managing default files is the latest rage in today’s mortgage marketplace, and Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) has its own solution to meet this demand.
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U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Alphonso Jackson said this week that since its inception, HUD’s FHASecure loan product has aided 100,000 distressed borrowers.
The program allows homeowners to escape foreclosure by refinancing into safer, more stable loan products that are backed by the federal government.
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Integrated Mortgage Solutions (IMS), a firm specializing in collateral protection for the mortgage servicing industry, announced the appointment of Diane Gozza to the position of senior vice president of sales and marketing this week.
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New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo may be close to brokering a deal with the nation’s two largest government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in which the companies would be required to partner only with lenders and brokers who utilize independent appraisal platforms, Reuters news agency reported Tuesday.
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Foreclosure filings in the United States were up 57-percent in the month of January when compared to the same period a year earlier, according to new data from RealtyTrac, an online foreclosure marketplace.
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HEART Financial Services, a division of the LOGS Network, has forged a strategic partnership with the Consumer Credit Counseling Service (CCCS) in an effort to help non-profits develop effective communication plans that will reach more consumers with home retention information.
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Germany’s state-owned banked HSH Nordbank AG has decided to sue UBS AG due to the many losses the company experienced after investing in a portfolio that was linked to U.S. subprime loans, Bloomberg News said in a report Sunday.
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Existing home sales—which include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops—fell 0.4-percent in January when compared to December of 2007 and 23.4-percent when compared to January of last year, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said in a report released Tuesday.
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A controversial Senate Bill that will allow judges to modify the terms on existing mortgage loans could hit the U.S. Senate floor as early as Tuesday, Reuters news agency said late last week.
The Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 is backed by Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada) and other Democrats, but continues to draw criticism from industry associations that believe loan modifications from the bench could prove detrimental to homeowners later on.
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Poway, California-based First Advantage Corp., a risk management and business solutions provider, said last week that the company is pleased with its overall financial performance in 2007.
Last year, First Advantage had a reported income from continuing operations of $77.
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California Assemblymember Ted Lieu (D – Torrance) introduced legislation aimed towards helping residents of his state become more financially knowledgeable this week.
Assembly Bill (AB) 2123 was introduced in response to the growing number of people making devastating financial decisions due to inadequate education, resulting in such financial catastrophes as the mortgage crisis and plummeting credit scores.
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The LOGS Network—a nationwide organization made up of professionals specializing in servicing and consumer credit—announced a joint venture with NRC Realty Advisors, LLC, on Friday.
Through the strategic partnership, NRC—a provider of accelerated real estate sales—will help The LOGS Network bring residential auction services to servicers and financial platforms that are now dealing with an influx of REO properties.
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Scott Kearnan, a principal at Prudential Lenmar in Natick, Massachusetts, says one of his worst REO Horror Stories comes out of Fall River, Massachusetts.
This property was first trashed by the local maniacs, and then the walls were devastated by a sledgehammer and the copper was stolen, he remembers.
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As the number of homes in default and foreclosure increase across the nation, professionals in mortgage field services are expected to find themselves handling more complex issues on the front lines—especially in the areas of property preservation and inspections.
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Anticipating more loan workouts in the mortgage marketplace, iMortgage Services (iMS) is toting the value and availability of its proprietary PropertySmart™ system—a product that allows servicing departments to perform a loss mitigation title search immediately and quickly move forward with the loan modification process.
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Richmond, Virginia-based LandAmerica Financial Group Inc., a company that provides real estate transaction services, said Thursday that it posted a significant loss in the fourth quarter of 2007 and attributes its losses to continued deterioration in the mortgage markets.
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