itle problems threaten to cause family to lose their South Tampa home

This should be everyone’s nightmare…

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – Kris and Rebecca Kraft face losing their South Tampa Home, even though they’ve never missed a mortgage payment. They never even did business with the bank trying to take their home.

The Krafts bought their house, at 1508 S. Arrawana Ave., in 2013. Everything was fine, but then they started receiving strange mail from real estate professionals. The professionals offered to help the couple fight foreclosure or relocate to another home they could afford.

“It’s mind blowing that something like this could happen,” Kris Kraft told 8 On Your Side.

Then the situation got worse. They came home to find foreclosure notices taped to their front door and garage. Plus, a “relocation specialist,” hired by Nationstar Bank, started calling constantly, wanting to the Krafts to move out.

And then, the unthinkable happened. A friend in the real estate business called them to ask why their house was listed for sale on Zillow.com. The Krafts had no idea and panicked. It was late at night when they got the news.

Read on.

Is Nationstar about to completely rebrand itself?

It’s been a tough year for Nationstar Mortgage.

The company’s financial performance has left investors wanting, the company has seen several of its senior executives leave, and the company’s signature move of 2015, the transformation of Solutionstar, one of Nationstar’s wholly owned subsidiaries, into Xome, which boasted that it was “the world’s first integrated, end-to-end digital platform for real estate, with the promise of connecting every major touch point in the transaction process, from finding a home to closing the deal,” has underwhelmed.

But does the company have big plans to turn its fortunes? It certainly looks that way.

Buried deep on Nationstar’s website in a most unlikely place is a look at what the company could be planning for 2016. And it’s big…as in reshaping the company’s entire public image big.

The look into Nationstar’s plans is actually found on a job posting on the company’s job board. The job? Content writer. And the posting provides a glimpse into Nationstar’s future.

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How Bad Are Foreclosures in Florida? Nationstar Conceals A Mortgage Modification…And Wins Foreclosure!

Things have gotten so very bad in courtrooms these days, that banks are able to waltz right in and saunter right back out with foreclosure judgments in their favor with nearly no effort. And while that’s bad enough, this case illustrates how Nationstar Mortgage failed to disclose a mortgage modification…and just waltzed out of court with a judgment.

5 Q And you testified previously that that
6 modification of mortgage modified the terms of the
7 note and mortgage that have been introduced in this
8 case. Correct?
9 A Yes.
10 Q And your — the exhibits indicates that at
11 some point in time Nationstar had in its possession
12 the original modification of mortgage. Correct?
13 A Yes.
14 Q And so the account history purports to
15 explain to the Court what amounts were due and owing
16 from the Defendant. Correct?
17 A Yes.
18 Q And the Complaint asserts that there was a
19 default in the amount of payments — in the amounts
20 received from the Defendant. Correct?
21 A Yes, it does.
22 Q And the documents that are attached to the
23 Complaint are the note and mortgage, which contain one
24 very specific principal amount and a very specific
25 payment amount. Correct?
Page 59
1 A Yes.
2 Q And we agree that that principal amount,
3 that payment amount, all of the terms of that note and
4 mortgage were changed with this modification.
5 Correct?
6 A No, they were not.
7 Q Well, the principal amount decreased
8 significantly. Correct?
9 A It did. Correct.
10 Q And we agree that modified the note and
11 mortgage. Correct?
12 A Yes, it did.
13 Q But we don’t have that modification here as
14 part of the Complaint, do we? You never alerted the
15 Court or the Defendant or me to that modification.
16 Correct?
17 A I do not know.
18 Q Well, these books and records reflect that
19 the terms of the note and mortgage changed. Correct?
20 A They were reflecting accurate payment
21 history for the account.
22 Q Right. And the books and records reflect
23 that the note and mortgage, attached to the Complaint,
24 were modified. Correct?
25 A There was a modification. Yes.
Page 60
1 Q Okay. And I was going to say you testified
2 about the boarding process. But the fact of the
3 matter is that I said, ‘we all know about the boarding
4 process.’ In some of the discovery I see, your
5 records reflect, that you knew — that Nationstar knew
6 there was a modification. Correct?
7 A Yes.
8 Q Yet Nationstar chose not to produce that
9 modification when they filed the lawsuit. Correct?

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Nationstar to Service Ginnie Mortgages for Banks

Mortgage Daily:

MPF program enables servicing released originations Nov. 9, 2015 By Mortgage Daily staff

Nationstar Mortgage has negotiated a deal to service Government National Mortgage Association loans for banks that don’t want to retain servicing themselves. An announcement Monday indicated that a new servicing-released option on Ginnie Mae mortgages is being offered to members of the Federal Home Loan Bank.

Las Vegas man says mortgage firm, Bank of America defrauded him

Michael Bondi is no stranger to foreclosures. He’s a real estate broker in town and has even appeared on HGTV’s “House Hunters Las Vegas” reality show.

But after about a decade of guiding clients through the home ownership and bank repossession processes, he’s found himself in a foreclosure nightmare of his own that has snowballed into him filing a federal lawsuit against Bank of America and Nationstar Mortgage on claims of fraud and violations of credit and debt laws.

Bondi is seeking $1 million in damages plus attorney fees.

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Nationstar Shells Out $76M To End Collusion Class Action

Law360, New York (November 9, 2015, 10:08 PM ET) — A Florida federal judge Monday approved a $76 million settlement to end a class action accusing Nationstar Mortgage of colluding with force-placed insurance providers to make lucrative profits, a deal that increased by $22 million at a final fairness hearing.

Borrowers who brought the suit asked Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman to finalize a $54 million settlement of their class action in June, but the judge noted in Monday’s order that class counsel explained during the final fairness hearing, held in July that they now view the…

Source: Law360

RESPA Claims Cited by Foreclosure Defendants Fall Flat in Florida

Homeowners using the Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act (RESPA) as a shield to foreclosure saw their claims fall flat in Florida court in recent months.

At least two cases decided by the United States District Court Southern District of Florida ended with the court siding against the homeowners and for the servicers, giving financial firms a bit more room when interpreting a significant part of RESPA.

Essentially, two cases – Russel v. Nationstar and O’Brien v. Seterus – tested the limits of a provision in RESPA, which requires servicers to respond to all written requests from borrowers who ask for information on their loans, including servicing information and payment schedules.

In Russel v. Nationstar, a borrower facing foreclosure claimed that Nationstar failed to provide a complete profile of the homeowner’s loan payment history. This report largely stemmed from the fact that the loan was previously transferred from another servicer. To retrieve the payment history, the borrower filed a series of qualified written requests to the servicer asking multiple times for their complete payment history, which dated back to a previous financial institution.

Because Nationstar did not provide an entire listing of each payment made to the prior servicer, the borrowers claimed their request for information under RESPA had not been met. The court sided with Nationstar, noting that all of the borrower’s responses were met and that the loan had not been delinquent at any time before Nationstar took over the servicing component. Based on the provisions outlined in RESPA, the court sided with the servicer and agreed Nationstar complied with the law by responding to each interrogatory issued by the borrower.

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Common Ground denies ‘quid pro quo’ between $30M Nationstar deal and change in stance on arena

Leaders of Common Ground — the community group most critical of public funding for a new Milwaukee Bucks arena — said Friday they will change their position on arena funding after news that they prevailed in a separate campaign involving a company chaired by Bucks co-owner Wes Edens.

Nationstar Mortgage, a Dallas company chaired by Edens, will contribute $30 million to address residential foreclosure problems in the city.

Common Ground has held protests in recent months with a list of demands for Edens-chaired Nationstar Mortgage to provide addresses of foreclosed and vacant houses to the city of Milwaukee, invest money in a fire-damaged house on the city’s west side and donate other properties to nonprofits.

Common Ground also has made demands for more than a year that if the public is going to help pay for a new downtown arena, then $150 million of public funds should go to repairing or replacing playgrounds and school athletic facilities in Milwaukee County. The campaign is called Fair Play.

……………………

As for whether there was a connection between Common Ground reconsidering its position on public funding for an arena and the Nationstar agreement, Connolly said not really.

“They are linked but we weren’t bought off,” Connolly said. “This wasn’t aquid pro quo arrangement. There are relationships though — we admit that. And the Nationstar relationship with Wes Edens gave the city the leverage to do this ($30 million deal). We know that even if people don’t talk about it.”

Barrett took exception to the suggestion that there might have been a connection.

Barrett said he and Common Council president Ald. Michael Murphy reached out to Nationstar officials in January, resulting in the agreement. Barrett said city staff worked independently of Common Ground but he thanked Common Ground for pushing the issue with Nationstar.

“Common Ground was not part of this conversation,” Barrett said. “That was purposeful. When I called them yesterday to tell them where we were, I was not certain whether they would be pleased or not.”

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Community group Common Ground protests Nationstar, NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks owner Wes Edens

Community group Common Ground gathered in front of a foreclosed Sherman Park house Tuesday to publicly criticize Nationstar Mortgage and Bucks owner Wes Edens.

Common Ground said the deteriorating house, located at 2441-43 N. 44th St., was sold by Nationstar in February to Odell Barnes of South Carolina after the group asked to take ownership and rehabilitate it. Nationstar spokesman John Hoffman said Nationstar tried to donate the house to Common Ground in January but the group rejected the offer after months of negotiations.

After giving a speech, Common Ground picked up trash from inside the house, which endured two fires in the past months, put the trash in boxes and delivered it to Edens’ Schlitz Park office. Common Ground said Edens owns Nationstar, while Hoffman said Edens is chairman of the board of directors.

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And indeed Edens is on the board for Nationstar. Click here. And interesting enough Nationstar is controlled by Fortress Investment Group. And who owns Fortress Investment Group? Wes Edens. Click here and here.

Judge seeks state court input in Nationstar trespass lawsuit

A federal judge has asked the Washington state Supreme Court to weigh in on whether companies working for Nationstar Mortgage committed trespass by locking homeowners out of their homes before foreclosure proceedings were completed.

In an order on Monday, U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice said the state court’s input is needed to help resolve a complaint that Nationstar violated state law by allegedly entering hundreds of homes without consent. The homeowners are represented by lawyers at Jeffers Danielson Sonn & Aylward.

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