Occupancy fraud risk increased by 25 percent during the first quarter of 2011, wiping out four straight quarters of decline, according to a quarterly report released by Interthinx. Occupancy fraud occurs when investors say they intend to live at a certain property, but maintain their primary residence elsewhere. The goal is the lower downpayment and lower interest rate that comes with living in a home. The Miami and Detroit metro areas are the riskiest in terms of occupancy fraud – and have been for the last five quarters. Reno, NV, Orlando, and Charleston, SC, round out ...

Quicken Loans has rolled out a new mortgage loan program that covers all closing costs if the original loan is refinanced with Quicken within seven years. The program is called “Rate Drop Advantage,” and in order to qualify, a borrower must close a mortgage loan with Quicken Loans by Dec. 31. If the borrower decides to refinance in the next seven years – 90 days after the original loan closes to 84 months after close – the Rate Drop Advantage program will...

The Mortgage Bankers Association has asked the FHA to allow the use of electronic signatures on all FHA loan origination forms to help reduce fraud and other procedural issues in the home buying process. E-signatures are already acceptable under federal law and by the FHA under certain circumstances, the MBA noted in a letter to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The use of e-signatures helps reduce the time required to close a mortgage loan, which may lead to...

In a move that might bring more certainty to the role of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems in the foreclosure process, Fannie Mae is requiring lenders to more clearly identify MERS-registered mortgages. The government-sponsored enterprise already requires lenders to report the MERS Mortgage Identification Number for mortgages originated with MERS as the nominee for the mortgagee or assigned to MERS. Then two weeks ago, Fannie announced several updates to its selling guide having to do with MERS-registered mortgages, one of which is...

Good judicial fortune turned against Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems recently in a foreclosure-related case in Oregon despite previous positive precedence. In Hooker v. Northwest Trustee Services, the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon granted the plaintiff's request for a declaratory judgment that defendants MERS, Bank of America and Northwest Trustee Services as successor trustee violated...

Lenders clamoring for a hand hold around the slippery issue of “strategic defaulters” do have options in the form of technology and legal leverage to tackle the issue even as the problem may not be as pronounced as first thought, say experts. The problem of borrowers who otherwise have the capacity to make their mortgage payments but instead opt to walk away from the loan was once a fringe issue in the industry. But strategic default became a bigger concern as more and more borrowers found they owed more on their home than the house was worth, according to Brent Taggart, senior vice president at Green River Capital, a Utah-based real estate owned management and...

Mortgage lenders that are anxious about complying with the call report requirements of the National Mortgage Licensing System might want to consider a new automated solution developed by LendingSpace, a Fulton, MD-based technology firm. “Lenders who find themselves using a patchwork of their existing technologies to meet these requirements will spend a great deal of time and resources to ensure impeccable compliance,” said Ravi Varma, CEO of LendingSpace. “With a click of a mouse, the Automated Mortgage Call Report function in our ComplianceOne suite gathers the information from the loan origination system, and formats it so that it’s ready for...

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will host workshops for directors of nationally chartered community banks and federal savings associations in New York at the Hilton New York, June 28-29, 2011...

Staff at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and other legal professionals are scrutinizing the fundamental questions the foreclosure crisis has raised about the adequacy of the legal framework for modern mortgage note transactions, especially when it comes to transferring and enforcing notes and mortgages, and how best to resolve them. The role of the Mortgage Electronic Registration System is a part of the discussion. To date, they are relying upon a number of issues that have been identified in a draft discussion document prepared recently by the Permanent Editorial Board of the Uniform Commercial Code, in conjunction with...

Effective July 1, reporting of tax information to investors of Ginnie Mae securities will move from e-Access to the Ginnie Mae Enterprise-Wide Portal (GMEP), which now serves as the single access point for all of the agency's online business applications. The e-Access function for uploading quarterly widely held fixed investment trust (WHFIT) reporting files for investors would no longer ...