Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyers Blog

Remember, there are almost always several options available to you to help defend against a foreclosure. One of the best options is to contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Attorney who can help you through the process.

However, you must be cautious. There are people out there who are trying to exploit the current economy, swindling people out of their hard-earned money. In Southern California, for example, a man recently plead guilty to bankruptcy fraud and identity theft after years of "helping" people stall a foreclosure.

The man, Frederic Gladle, operated a foreclosure company and told homeowners he would postpone their foreclosure for a monthly fee. It is evident Gladle knew what he was doing was wrong, as he used numerous aliases in his business. He would have the homeowners who hired him sell a very small fraction of their home to a debtor who was going through bankruptcy. Having the homeowner's name attached to the bankruptcy placed an automatic stay on the foreclosure, meaning the lenders were prohibited from foreclosing until receiving permission from the court.

Using this scheme netted nearly $1.6 million for Mr. Gladle over a 4-year period. Almost all of this money was from homeowners struggling to remain in their homes. Mr. Gladle's actions are abhorrent and it is unfortunate that he was able to swindle even one dollar from anyone. If you are facing foreclosure, do your homework before rushing to make decisions and call a Jacksonville Foreclosure Attorney for help.

Calling a Jacksonville Foreclosure Attorney to guide you through the steps is a good first start. But, there are a few other things you should know.

You do not need to immediately move out of your house. Actually, doing so may cause the bank or mortgage company to consider your home "abandoned," making it more difficult for you to obtain assistance. Instead, you can remain in your home until the bank obtains a foreclosure judgment against you.

You should pay attention to the letters the mortgage company sends you. You should not ignore these, and they will likely be useful when you contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Attorney.

If you speak with the mortgage company about your situation, be honest. If you are not comfortable speaking with the mortgage company, your Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Attorney can do that for you.

These are just a few simple guidelines to follow if you are facing foreclosure. Contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Attorney to discuss the details of your foreclosure. Each situation is different, but a qualified attorney may be able to help.

If you live in Jacksonville and are under water on your mortgage -- i.e., your home is worth less than you owe on your mortgage -- you may be considering the option of stopping payments and allowing the bank to foreclose on your home (often called a strategic default). But not everyone wants a foreclosure; homes are a lifelong investment and often are attached to great memories and heavy sentiment. If you are behind on your payments, you have several options, all of which a qualified Jacksonville Foreclosure Attorney may be able to help you determine your options. Your options may include

Reinstatement. This means paying back everything you owe to the bank in order to become "current" on your payment. Unless you come into a large amount of cash relatively quickly, this option is likely not available to most people.

Workout. Some banks and mortgage companies know that foreclosing on a home means another empty house on their books. That is why they may be willing to negotiate a lower payment. There are several types of workouts: forbearance, loan modification, and partial claims.

Refinance.

Sell the home. Some buyers may wish to purchase a home as a short sale, and your mortgage company may be willing to accept the final funds from the sale in order to satisfy the mortgage.

Deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. This is where you give your home back to the mortgage company and simply walk away.

Bankruptcy. While this is not your first option, it can allow you to remain in your home in certain situations. Contact a Jacksonville Bankruptcy Attorney or Jacksonville Foreclosure Attorney to discuss how this option can benefit you.

Each option has its own benefits and disadvantages. One may be more beneficial to some people than others. Contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Attorney to talk about the options available to you.

One possible upside to the number of foreclosed homes across the country is the rising rate of donated homes to non-profit businesses. According to USA Today, Bank of America donated 150 homes in 2011 with plans to donate many more in 2012. Wells Fargo also donated about four times as many homes in 2011 as it had in the previous year. As for Habitat for Humanity, they nearly doubled the number of homes they rehabilitated.

And donations are not just for big banks. Donating might be an attractive option, especially for low-valued homes, as it allows the owner to be free of the mortgage debt and earn charitable tax breaks. The homes are not always re-sold to a new dweller; instead, they might be torn down or at least heavily modified. Note, however, that many charities turn down offers of donated homes, as the homes are often in prohibitively dangerous shape.

Donating a home is not an option for very many people, as many would rather remain in their homes even if facing foreclosure. The options available to you differ depending on your situation. Contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Attorney to discuss what options you should consider.

Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve Chairman, recently released an opinion outlining his support for a solution to the rising number of vacant foreclosure homes across the nation: converting them to rental units. This would be an interesting issue for Jacksonville Foreclosure Attorneys and their clients.

The trend is clear: the demand for home-ownership is very low, while demand for rental properties is on the rise. But transitioning foreclosed homes into rentals is difficult to do on a large scale. Small entrepreneurs typically may buy several foreclosure homes and rent them out. However, large-scale rental companies have refrained from purchasing foreclosed homes because the homes are often not adjacent to one another but spread throughout a city.

Financing is also a problem. While financing for multi-family rental units is available at a low rate, financing for single-family rentals is significantly higher. This means that those who have the money to purchase single-family homes as rentals do not have much of an incentive to do so. It makes more financial sense to develop multi-family units instead.

But large developers aren't the only ones who could benefit from renting out foreclosure homes. Some people facing foreclosure, or who are underwater on their mortgage, should consider a short sale -- selling their home to an investor who then rents the home. There are numerous options available to those facing foreclosure. If you are unsure of your options or would like to speak with someone who can help you, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Attorney.

There is a single fundamental action that must be done when faced with a foreclosure. Once served with a Summons and Complaint, you must file a response or an Answer to the Summons and Complaint within 20 days. The Complaint will and must state with specificity the nature of the action and what the Plaintiff (bank) is requesting.

Determining what to file and when to File an Answer in a foreclosure lawsuit is probably the most crucial step in a foreclosure lawsuit. There are several major benefits you cannot afford to miss out on. Once a response to your lawsuit is filed you will receive future notices of all future actions in the case. A properly written response can help to even the playing ground between the bank and yourself.

A lender bringing the foreclosure action certainly has multiple attorneys fighting for their interest and you should have an attorney reviewing your case and helping you fight to defend your rights and educate you on your options.

Contact a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer to review your case and see that your foreclosure Summons and Complaint is properly answered and well drafted. A Florida Foreclosure Lawyer will also make sure that all other aspects of your foreclosure case is properly handled, giving you the best chance of coming out of the foreclosure with your head high above water. Complimentary initial consultation.

Unfortunately, Florida has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country! The Banks that hold these mortgages have mountains of paperwork to sort through in order to deal with the large amount of mortgages in and heading towards foreclosure. The amount of paperwork Banks currently have is one of the main reasons why it often takes over a year for a home to be foreclosed upon, and a Florida Foreclosure Defense AttorneyAttorney can help extend the process even further.

Here in Jacksonville, a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Attorney will defend your rights for you, and force the bank to actually prove they have the right to foreclose on your home. It is important to know that by simply receiving a letter from the bank stating they intend to foreclose does not necessarily mean you must vacate your home immediately. The bank has to file a case against you and prove they are entitled to foreclosure. If you are facing a foreclosure, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Attorney to discuss what options are available to you.

It is almost never too late when facing a foreclosure to examine and discuss the options available to you, even if you have already received a Notice of Sale. Although you might not be able to save your home, you may be able to avoid the numerous other consequences of foreclosure. To make full use of a Foreclosure attorney's professional guidance, it is best to have them review your case as soon as possible.

No matter what you decide, it is important to act timely when facing a foreclosure. Some lawyers charge for initial consultations, but it is possible to find a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer that will provide a free initial consultation.

One of the first steps is to determine how you will make your mortgage payments after the case is resolved. If you are unable to make these payments, changes will have to be made with your finances to enable you to be successful with any resolution you reach with the bank. You need to know if you will need additional employment or more hours at work, and start figuring out how you will accomplish it. Cutting back on things that are not necessary can also increase the amount of money you have available to make mortgage payments. Often people make the mistake of treating the increase in cash flow created by not making a mortgage payment as a pay increase instead of putting that money aside.

Consider using a Jacksonville foreclosure defense attorney who will help you re-evaluate your monthly living expenses to make saving your home and being able to begin making your monthly mortgage payments that much easier. Contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today for a complimentary initial consultation

Most likely if you are facing a Foreclosure, it is because of an unforeseen financial hardship. It is also likely that falling behind on your mortgage payments is not the only financial hardship you are facing. It might have also become difficult to pay your other monthly expenses and debts as well.

A Florida bankruptcy may be helpful in defending your foreclosure since there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to every foreclosure defense. Taking into account your personal and family goals, and your overall financial situation is important and key to successful Foreclosure Defense. No matter what course you choose, it is important to put your plan into action quickly.

A Foreclosure lawyer can offer certain options while a Bankruptcy lawyer can offer others. For example, foreclosure defense can offer a loan modification, allow you to walk away from a bad investment, protect you from future liabilities, save you from hours of paperwork, stop harassing collectors from calling you, and protect your credit rating from dropping further. On the other hand, Bankruptcy can allow you to end creditors' reports of delinquency, protect assets, clear away other debt, stall a foreclosure sale, strip away other mortgages, and in some cases help rebuild your credit faster.

Depending on your personal situation, a bankruptcy may be used in conjunction to foreclosure defense. In Florida, Foreclosure Defense and bankruptcy are two tools that can be used to avoid Foreclosure and create a long-term plan for you and your family. Contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer or a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today to determine if one or the other or both of these strategies can help you meet your long-term goals.

Defending your foreclosure can give you more days to find a resolution that is the right fit for you and your family. Despite how much time has already gone by, if you have been served with a foreclosure action, time is running and it does not stop for weekends or holidays. Once you receive that summons, you have 20 days to respond.

You probably do not buy the first pair of shoes you try on, nor are you perfectly satisfied with a new receipt the first time you make it. The same is true with finding the perfect resolution to a foreclosure. There is no one-size-fits-all remedy!

However, time is only secondary to defending your foreclosure. The main purpose of defending a foreclosure is to allow you to seek and accomplish a different way to resolve your foreclosure, such as obtaining a Short Sale, Loan Modification, or deed-in-lieu. The purpose is not to simply postpone the inevitable, you and your family having to leave your home.

Facing a foreclosure can be extremely stressful and difficult to navigate alone. Seek a competent Florida Foreclosure Lawyer or a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today to help guide you through the foreclosure process and help you find the right resolution for you and your family. The initial case review is with out charge.

If you are represented by a lawyer in a foreclosure action, and that lawyer failed to appear at a hearing that resulted in a foreclosure judgment being entered against you and a sale date set, you may be able to file an Emergency Motion to Set Aside the judgement based on your lawyer failing to appear in court. It is best to have an attorney assist you with this Motion and hearing.

The basis for such an emergency motion comes from Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.540, Relief From Judgment, Decrees, or Orders, and states: '

(b) Mistakes; Inadvertence; Excusable Neglect; Newly Discovered Evidence; Fraud; etc. On motion and upon such terms as are just, the court may relieve a party or a party's legal representative from a final judgment, decree, order, or proceeding for the following reasons: (1) mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect;

However, please note that simply filing this type of motion does not affect the judgment or suspend the holder from moving forward. A hearing must be set, held and the motion must be granted before it can have any affect. While these types of things hopefully have extremely rarely, they do sometimes happen.

If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit and you have had a foreclosure judgment entered against you, you may have options. Contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer or a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today for a free case review to determine what options may be available to you.

After about a year of decreased foreclosure filings due to the "robo-signing" scandal, where banks allegedly took property without properly reviewing the loan documents, the number of foreclosure filings are reportedly set to increase after lenders have supposedly taken the time to ensure that all their paperwork is in order. During that time off the number of foreclosures to be filed have mounted.

Over the last year, housing prices have maintained a slight yet steady increase. House prices in 20 U.S. cities rose 0.9% in July, making 4 consecutive months of increases, according to the S&P Case-Shiller index of home values. Nonetheless, that is still 4.1% below where values were a year ago. If foreclosed properties flood the market again, housing prices will most likely decrease again because banks price foreclosed homes towards selling quickly.

An increase in foreclosure filings has already been reported in this year's third quarter. A 0.3% increase was seen which reverses the decrease experienced in the last 3 consecutive quarters. Foreclosure filings reported include default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.

Unfortunately, "increased foreclosure filings will continue to erode house prices....the questions is, at what point do you reach the bottom of the market?" said Ed Delgado, a former Wells Fargo senior vice president and CEO of the Five Star Institute, a mortgage-education provider. Delgado does not see any recovery in the foreseeable future and is concerned bottom may not be until the third quarter of 2012.

If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, you may need help navigating the foreclosure process and today's housing market. Contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today for a free review of your situation.

After about a year of decreased foreclosure filings due to the "robo-signing" scandal, where banks allegedly took property without properly reviewing the loan documents, the number of foreclosure filings are reportedly set to increase after lenders have supposedly taken the time to ensure that all their paperwork is in order. During that time off the number of foreclosures to be filed have mounted.

Over the last year, housing prices have maintained a slight yet steady increase. House prices in 20 U.S. cities rose 0.9% in July, making 4 consecutive months of increases, according to the S&P Case-Shiller index of home values. Nonetheless, that is still 4.1% below where values were a year ago. If foreclosed properties flood the market again, housing prices will most likely decrease again because banks price foreclosed homes towards selling quickly.

An increase in foreclosure filings has already been reported in this year's third quarter. A 0.3% increase was seen which reverses the decrease experienced in the last 3 consecutive quarters. Foreclosure filings reported include default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.

Unfortunately, "increased foreclosure filings will continue to erode house prices....the questions is, at what point do you reach the bottom of the market?" said Ed Delgado, a former Wells Fargo senior vice president and CEO of the Five Star Institute, a mortgage-education provider. Delgado does not see any recovery in the foreseeable future and is concerned bottom may not be until the third quarter of 2012.

If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, you may need help navigating the foreclosure process and today's housing market. Contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today for a free review of your situation.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is part of the seven attorney general primary team consulting with banks concerning a nationwide settlement agreement to redress banks' foreclosure wrongdoings. While Pam Bonding initially rejected allowing principal reductions of mortgage debt, she now appear to be willing to consider it "so long as it remedies harm to consumers and stays consistent with the law enforcement role of the state attorneys general," she announced October 18, 2011. Nonetheless, Bondi's office reported she has not changed her position on reducing overall mortgage balances, which has become a central issue in the overall settlement discussions.

There has been speculation that Bondi is beginning to soften her stance as the crumbling coalition of state attorneys general continue their bargaining with our largest banks. California Attorney General Kamala Harris left the group this month because she believes proposals were not going far enough to help homeowners or punish leaders, and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman was dismissed because he was reportedly undermining settlement efforts.

While the negotiations are largely kept secret, a few details have gotten out. Discussions now include allowing principle reductions and permitting current underwater homeowners to refinance if a bank owns their mortgage. However, allowing underwater homeowners to refinance may be an attempt to entice California Attorney General back into the negotiations. California currently has 2 million mortgages with negative equity. Bondi is reported as saying it is extremely important to get the states that have left back into the negotiations.

If you are one of the thousands of Floridians facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today to determine what foreclosure defense options may be available to you.

A potentially key witness in a Nevada case against two title officers who have been accused of "robo-signing" thousands of documents was found dead in her home earlier in the month. Authorities were altered when the witness missed her scheduled court date on a related misdemeanor charge and the subsequent hearing where she was to testify against the two title officers.

Law Vegas police have stated that they do not suspect foul play and are not treating the death as a homicide. A preliminary investigation has yielded evidence that she took her own life. The witness was facing up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine for her role in the robo-signing scheme where she estimated she had notarized more than 30,000 documents of people not in her presence during the course of her employment with Lender Processing Services Inc. between 2005 and 2008. In November, the witness plead guilty to a single count of notarizing the signature of a person not in her presence.

The developments in Nevada are unfortunate for several reasons, most obviously the loss of life. Hopefully the case against the two title officers and the role Lender Processing Services, Inc. played in subject robo-signing scandal can go forward without this key witness. if you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit and believe you have been a victim of robo-signing, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today.