Hoping to modify your mortgage this year? The last thing this blog is about is killing hope, but good luck with that. Why are mortgage modifications so hard to get, in Massachusetts and elsewhere? Because your mortgage servicer really doesn’t want you to succeed! Amazing, but true. And that proposition now has some academic backing, [...]

Here is a good simple explanation from well – known bankruptcy attorney Cathy Moran on the status of underwater liens after a Chapter 7 case is filed: http://www.bankruptcymastery.com/how-long-can-underwater-lien-hold-its-breathe/ As she explains, the lien itself is still on the books after you file a bankruptcy case. Debtors may need to take additional action to deal with [...]

Its been almost another year that has gone by, and bankruptcy lawyers still have no better clue as to whether Zillow property estimates can be used in bankruptcy court. Zillow.com is an Internet venture that follows the real estate market nationwide. There are property listings on the site, but there are also property valuation estimates [...]

Home values in the Lawrence, Methuen and Haverhill areas have been hit hard. Even Andover and North Andover homeowners have seen big drops in value and lots of negative equity. Many have turned to short sales and deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure to get out of their “problem house” when they need to move. Soon many more [...]

The Boston Globe recently reported that Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is not backing off her invetigation into the practices of the Mortgage Electronic Registration System known as MERS. Recently, a Massachusetts bankruptcy judge found no fault in the use of MERS to record mortages in dummy names at the registry of deeds statewide and [...]

With the increasing advent of electronic banking options, and cards of all kinds, can you really keep up with it all anymore. More importantly, could the proliferation of debit and credit options actually dive comsumers closer to bankruptcy? I think so. In the days when people reconciled their statements, and debited their own accounts with [...]

Most people don’t just wake up one morning and decide to file a bankruptcy case; there is always some particular catalyst that makes bankruptcy a possible option. I talk to a lot of people who are thinking about it, and a common reason for example is “I lost my job.” There’s a couple in Idaho, [...]

Let’s imagine you own a home, but have just filed for bankruptcy because of astronomical credit card or medical debts that got out of control. But you were always sure to pay the mortgage first each month (a smart move, by the way) so you would be sure of a roof over your head. Now [...]

Under the present bankruptcy law, it is very difficult to use a Chapter 13 bankruptcy plan to impose your own mortgage modification on the primary lender for a residential home. There have been near constant efforts to get the Congress to change this, but so far the pleas have fallen mostly on deaf ears. The [...]

If you are not making payments on a mortgage, a second mortgage, or some other type of secured loan, like a car payment, and you file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, how long will it take for the bank to request a chance to do a foreclosure? Like most legal questions, the answer can be [...]