Boca Raton, Fla. (Vocus/PRWEB ) February 18, 2010 — The results are in.

More than 1,000 current and/or college-bound students nationwide answered the call during the 2009 Foreclosure.com Scholarship Program, submitting essays of 1,000 words or more on ‘How to Solve the Foreclosure Crisis.’

Andrew Dewar, a senior at Kennesaw State University located in Kennesaw, Ga., however, was voted to the head of the class by our panel of judges, winning the $5,000 top prize.
“It’s been thrilling to hear the news — I’m so thankful that Foreclosure.com put this together,” said Andrew, a former business owner and new father of a one-year-old baby girl, Avery. “I have some personal experience with [foreclosure. So this was just a natural extension of trying to solve my own mini housing crisis.

“This is tremendous — it’s so generous,” he continued. “Being an adult student and father, there are a lot of costs that come with going back to school … there is a lot at stake. So the $5,000 will pay for at least an entire semester at Kennesaw State. It’s huge.”

The program, which ran from Sept. 1 to Dec. 31, 2009, also awarded four $1,000 scholarships to the contest semifinalists:

Mark Cantora a law student at Hofstra University School of Law in Hempstead, New York
Kelly Kinkade from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan
Elizabeth Panella from the Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts
Luke Paulsen from Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey

In addition to the five cash prizes in the form of scholarships, totaling $9,000, these plans will be sent to Congress and to President Barack Obama himself as soon as possible.
“The suggestions that were laid out in the essays were well thought out and I would hope that Congress and President Obama will take notice,” said Foreclosure.com Director of Education, Linda Yates. “This crisis will affect the next generation so it is important to get their fresh perspectives on such an important issue.”

To read Andrew’s winning essay, as well as the others from our four semifinalists, please visit the Foreclosure.com scholarship page right here: http://www.foreclosure.com/scholarship

In addition to all the students who responded, Foreclosure.com would like to acknowledge the esteemed panel of judges who selected the five finalists:

Jeanette Francis, Ph.D., Lynn University
Kermit Lind, J.D., Cleveland-Marshall College of Law
Susan Wachter, University of Pennsylvania
Michael Kraten, PH.D., CPA, Sawyer Business School at Suffolk University
Maureen Kraten MBA, CMC, Sacred Heart University

“We were extremely impressed with the variety of ideas and concepts submitted by all the students,” said Luanne Bryant, who coordinated the scholarship effort for Foreclosure.com. “From the far-fetched to the exceptionally insightful, we received the full gamut of solutions to the foreclosure crisis. Based on the success of this program, we will attempt to find other ways to keep it alive in 2010 and beyond for the benefit of college students, and struggling homeowners, throughout the nation.”
About Foreclosure.com Education and Linda Yates:
Linda Yates develops and leads the real estate training division on behalf of Foreclosure.com. From global Web seminars to nationwide onsite workshops and boot camps, she implements the educational programs that help investors and first-time homebuyers thrive in today’s real estate market. She uses basic logic, core principles and years of experience to help others achieve the American dream first and foremost at Foreclosure.com — the largest and most accurate searchable database of foreclosed homes and investment property information in the nation. More than 1.8 million foreclosure, preforeclosure, bankruptcy/Chapter 11, FSBO and tax lien listings are featured in the company’s industry-leading database.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Renting a home that is going through foreclosure? If so, don’t be fooled: Lenders can’t kick you out; they have to honor the terms of your lease.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that some lenders’ representatives aren’t trying to scare people away.

Sandra Pearson has lived in her rented townhouse in Santa Maria, Calif., since July 2007. But last October, the single mom — whose 17-year-old son suffers from epilepsy and autism — was served with a vacate notice.

The owner of the home had lost it to foreclosure and the servicer, First Federal Bank, wanted Pearson out. She showed them her lease, which runs through June 2010, and proof of on-time payments and thought everything was cleared up.

But in December, First Federal failed, and OneWest Bank took over its assets — including the Santa Maria townhouse. When Pearson went to pay her rent, the agency managing the property for OneWest refused to accept the check. They threatened her with court action and claimed her lease was not legitimate.

“They scare the wits out of you,” Pearson said.

OneWest eventually agreed to allow her to finish her lease; however, a bank spokeswoman said they still believe there were problems with the documents.

Under the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act, which Congress passed last May, tenants like Pearson are usually eligible to stay after the property has been foreclosed as long as they have a valid lease and are paying their rent regularly. Even renters on a month-to-month lease get 90 days to leave.

But tenant advocacy groups charge that lender representatives, including some unscrupulous real estate agents, have been preying on tenants’ ignorance. They pressure renters by sending them misleading letters that drive some out.

One letter sent out by a Texas law firm stated, “This letter constitutes formal and final demand that you vacate the premises within three days [emphasis ours] of the date this letter is delivered.”

Worse, the message threatens legal costs if tenants don’t comply. With that facing them, many fold their tents.

“The average person wouldn’t know the law has changed,” said Robert Doggett, an attorney for Texas RioGrande Legal Aid. “People assume they have to leave.”

There is no official data identifying the number of people who have received such letters, but advocates think it could be quite high considering the number of properties bought for investment and rented out during the boom years.

The attorney general of Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, has fielded numerous complaints. “Potentially, it could be affecting thousands of tenants,” he said. “We’re warning banks and real estate interests: foreclosure is not excuse for illegal eviction.”

Early in February, he sent out cease-and-desist letters to 15 lenders, including such big names as Wells Fargo, HSBC and Citibank, nine law firms and six real estate companies, urging them to comply with the act.

The banks all denied any intentional wrongdoing. Some did say they have absorbed huge volumes of foreclosed properties with little, if any, infrastructure in place to handle the extraordinary number of repossessions.

In fact, many often contract with outside companies — law firms and real estate brokers — to handle the workload. And in some cases it may be those contractors who are overstepping the bounds, without the banks’ knowledge, according to Gabe Treves, program director at California advocacy group Tenants Together.

“The realtors see tenants as a roadblock to their commission,” he said, “so they bully and mislead them into signing away their rights to say in their homes.”

That almost happened to taxi driver Owen Casper, who found a note on his door from a real estate agent telling him he had 30 days to get out of his San Diego home.

“It gave me two options,” he said. “Continue in the home on a month-to-month lease or take keys for cash. But the agent told me because I was already month-to-month, my only option was to move.”

The agent represented Fannie Mae, the government sponsored mortgage giant, which has a strict policy of protecting tenants. But, apparently, the agent hadn’t gotten that message.

Casper is thankful he called Tenants Together and fought the eviction. They advised him to speak directly to the mortgage company since the bank might not be aware of the agent’s bad behavior.

After Casper contacted Fannie Mae, it arranged for him to talk over his situation with a new agent. “She made it very easy for me to stay in my home,” he said. “I got a year lease at very affordable rent.”

To Blumenthal, whether or not it’s policy or rogue representatives is not particularly relevant. “One way or the other, the outside contractors act as the lenders’ agents and so [the lenders] are legally responsible,” he said.

The new Appraiser Independence (ML 2009-28) requirements for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans officially took effect February 15, 2010. Originally planned for a January 1, 2010 implementation, the enactment was delayed to provide the FHA and lenders with additional time to adjust systems to accommodate the changes.

Many of the new guidelines are similar to the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC), which has been in place since May 1, 2009 for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae loans. Under FHA’s rules, appraisers are required to receive reasonable and customary compensation and cannot be affiliated with lending agencies. In addition, appraisers are required to have familiarity, experience, and knowledge in the geographic location of the properties being appraised, and higher standards have been adopted for the process of ordering appraisals.
Under FHA’s new guidelines, mortgage brokers are prohibited from directly ordering appraisals for FHA loans. Title/Appraisal Vender Management Association (TAVMA), a Wexford, Pennsylvania-based trade association that represents some of the nation’s largest appraisal management companies (AMCs), said its members are prepared to help lenders comply with the changes in appraisal ordering.

Jeff Schurman, executive director of TAVMA, said the association’s members already have significant panels of FHA-certified appraisers. There are more than 51,000 FHA-approved appraisers nationwide, and TAVMA’s five largest member currently work with over 20,000 of these, he explained.

Based on the vociferous reaction to the HVCC, of which many Appraiser Independence guidelines were mirrored after, Schurman said he expects that mortgage brokers and independent appraisers with strong business ties to brokers and realtors will again protest these changes. He said there will likely be significant pushback and claims from many that the rules will create bottlenecks, shift work to less-experienced appraisers, and delay deals.

More than 60,000 local appraisers currently work with AMCs, which provide approximately 60 percent of all appraisals in the mortgage industry. Schurman said when you consider this, it stands to reason that AMCs will have a presence in virtually every market-including working on FHA transactions.

Information – Knowledge – Security

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Public Law 111-22, Effective Date May 20, 2009
TITLE VII–PROTECTING TENANTS AT FORECLOSURE ACT
SEC. 701. SHORT TITLE.
This title may be cited as the `Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009′.
SEC. 702. EFFECT OF FORECLOSURE ON PREEXISTING TENANCY.
(a) In General- In the case of any foreclosure on a federally-related mortgage loan or on any dwelling or residential real property after the date of enactment of this title, any immediate successor in interest in such property pursuant to the foreclosure shall assume such interest subject to–
(1) the provision, by such successor in interest of a notice to vacate to any bona fide tenant at least 90 days before the effective date of such notice; and
(2) the rights of any bona fide tenant, as of the date of such notice of foreclosure–
(A) under any bona fide lease entered into before the notice of foreclosure to occupy the premises until the end of the remaining term of the lease, except that a successor in interest may terminate a lease effective on the date of sale of the unit to a purchaser who will occupy the unit as a primary residence, subject to the receipt by the tenant of the 90 day notice under paragraph (1); or
(B) without a lease or with a lease terminable at will under State law, subject to the receipt by the tenant of the 90 day notice under subsection (1),
except that nothing under this section shall affect the requirements for termination of any Federal- or State-subsidized tenancy or of any State or local law that provides longer time periods or other additional protections for tenants.
(b) Bona Fide Lease or Tenancy- For purposes of this section, a lease or tenancy shall be considered bona fide only if–
(1) the mortgagor or the child, spouse, or parent of the mortgagor under the contract is not the tenant;
(2) the lease or tenancy was the result of an arms-length transaction; and
(3) the lease or tenancy requires the receipt of rent that is not substantially less than fair market rent for the property or the unit’s rent is reduced or subsidized due to a Federal, State, or local subsidy.
(c) Definition- For purposes of this section, the term `federally-related mortgage loan’ has the same meaning as in section 3 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974 (12 U.S.C. 2602).

SEC. 703. EFFECT OF FORECLOSURE ON SECTION 8 TENANCIES.
Section 8(o)(7) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)(7)) is amended–
(1) by inserting before the semicolon in subparagraph (C) the following: `and in the case of an owner who is an immediate successor in interest pursuant to foreclosure during the term of the lease vacating the property prior to sale shall not constitute other good cause, except that the owner may terminate the tenancy effective on the date of transfer of the unit to the owner if the owner–
(i) will occupy the unit as a primary residence; and
(ii) has provided the tenant a notice to vacate at least 90 days before the effective date of such notice.’; and
(2) by inserting at the end of subparagraph (F) the following: `In the case of any foreclosure on any federally-related mortgage loan (as that term is defined in section 3 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974 (12 U.S.C. 2602)) or on any residential real property in which a recipient of assistance under this subsection resides, the immediate successor in interest in such property pursuant to the foreclosure shall assume such interest subject to the lease between the prior owner and the tenant and to the housing assistance payments contract between the prior owner and the public housing agency for the occupied unit, except that this provision and the provisions related to foreclosure in subparagraph (C) shall not shall not affect any State or local law that provides longer time periods or other additional protections for tenants.
SEC. 704. SUNSET.
This title, and any amendments made by this title are repealed, and the requirements under this title shall terminate, on December 31, 2012.
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ022.111.pdf
123 STAT. 1632, 1660

“What does this decision mean? It means that there are several direct strategic moves that are suggested both by the tactics of the pretender lenders and the Justices in Kansas who are not known for their activist liberal philosophy. Most persuasive about this decision is that it was NOT a case of “Bank” or “Lender” versus Borrower. It is a case of one pretender lender against another. So we don’t have an ideological argument about whether the court was leaning toward the poor borrower/victims of this mess versus the financial institutions.

This decision was based upon simple application of basic black letter law that has been in effect for centuries.

MERS and the other nominee tactics employed in securitization of home loans is properly described as an illegal, improper scheme that causes title problems because it introduces parties into the property records of a county who have no interest in the loan, obligation, note or mortgage, no rights to enforce them, and leaves out the parties who will ultimately claim to possess enforcement rights.

MERS and the whole nominee model serve as the conduit for information about behind the scenes transactions purporting to transfer interests in real property without compliance with local law requiring recordation of those interests. It means that the security interest is not perfected.

BANKRUPTCY LAWYERS BEWARE: Those schedules showing the property encumbered by a secured mortgage and note might be wrong. One day some lawyer is going to put on a commercial asking if people have filed bankruptcy in recent years and lost their house because the house was admitted to be a secured asset when in fact it was not. It is a legal malpractice field day.

TITLE INSURERS BEWARE: Those title policies you issued where the mortgagee or beneficiary was shown as MERS or some other similar nominee might well call upon you to compensate the homeowner for loss of the property to a pretender lender who did not have any interest in the mortgage. The moment the closing was done, with full knowledge by the title company, there was a cloud on title. Either the title carrier is going to fund the correction or they are going to fund the compensation.

TRIAL JUDGES BEWARE: YOUR ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING THESE FORECLOSURES IS WRONG. As appellate courts review the basics of property law and apply those principles to securitized loans on residential real property, there will be no room for affirming your decisions unless the appellant makes procedural errors. You have already validated hundreds if not thousands of illegal, fraudulent and improperly cast foreclosures, both judicial and non-judicial. It is only Judges like Boyco in Ohio, Shack in New York, Burford in California and others who will be heralded as the ones who understood the basics of property law. The rest of the Judges will be castigated for having applied personal bias against the basic requirements of black letter law.

Landmark vs Kesler stands for the following propositions, some of which are missed because people are looking for silver bullets rather than the entire rationale of the decision:

1. MERS is and was a straw man that has no rights, is not a real party, and cannot assert any claims, constitutional or otherwise.
2. Setting Aside a Default: It CAN be done and the court must consider evidence outside the pleadings. “It is appropriate–and probably necessary–for a trial court to consider evidence beyond the bare pleadings to determine whether it should set aside a default judgment.”
3. Failure to record prevents a party from asserting enforcement rights under any document purporting to establish an interest in real estate.
4. A Motion to Distribute Surplus is an effective tool (granted in the Kansas case) by which borrowers can attack a foreclosure even after the judgment has been entered and the sale has occurred. [What most people fail to realize because it is normally absurd to assume it, is that substantial profits were made on every mortgage --- particularly those that were declared in default. If you carefully build your case around the single transaction theory, then all the undisclosed profits, fees, rebates and kickbacks stemming from payments to people who performed no service in originating the loan are recoverable and probable susceptible to the recovery of treble damages. Thus payments under credit default swaps that bought out polls 30 times over are recoverable pro rata to each borrower]

Thank you for stopping by our table at the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB) Conference. We look forward to your feedback regarding our service. We really appreciate your spending a minute or two completing an online questionnaire about your experience. As a member, or vendor of NAREB your comments are very important, and will help us serve you better.

To participate, please visit the following site:

http://propertyowner411.com/survey_thx.htm

Thank you very much for your time, and for your business.

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We will be providing information on how to stop a foreclosure the day before the sale.
All participants must be registered with Foreclosure University to receive this vital
information.

Many realtors, realtist and individuals are unsure of what steps to take to assist a client in the “eleventh hour.”
We will help you develop a system that will work with 90% of distress owners in this situation.