Learn about your rights and how the law affects you.  Listen in as host Lee Rodrigues and “The Credit Professor” Regis Sauger give juicy strategies you can use today.  The show will be recorded live on April 15th at 3:00 PST you can go to Blog Radio by clicking on the logo below.  You can listen  to the archived show below.

[podcast]http://getoutofcreditprison.com/wp-content/uploads/credit_professor_show_2.mp3[/podcast]

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Joe Lents has been living in his foreclosed Boca Raton, Florida home since 2002 — without making a single payment to his lender.

Is Joe a criminal? No – he is only following the law.

Get Foreclosure Thrown Out In Court

There is a secret strategy for defending your home that the banks don’t want you to know about.

When Washington Mutual took Joe to court to foreclose on his home, he asked them to produce the original note that he signed. But they had conveniently lost this note, which is his legal promise to pay the mortgage.  Without this original signed document, the lender could not prove the debt, and so the judge threw out the case.

According to LoanWorkout.org,

“If you’re going to take my house away from me, you better own the note,” said Joe Lents. The since-failed lender failed to prove that it owned Lents’ mortgage note and dropped attempts to take his house. Subsequent efforts to foreclose have stalled because no one has produced the paperwork.

More homeowners are becoming aware of this foreclosure defense. This CNN video on Mortgage Squatting shows Ohio Representative Marci Kaptur telling her constituents to stay in their homes by using what she calls the “Produce The Note” strategy.

In October 2007, Ohio Federal Judge Christopher Boykin dismissed a number of foreclosure cases and instructed the attorneys representing the lenders to “come back to my courtroom with the original mortgage note or a certified copy.”

In about 40% of foreclosure cases, the lender simply cannot provide the note.

Photo by Peat Bakke

Why? Because the minute you finalized your mortgage, they sliced, diced and “securitized” it, and in many cases they secretly changed the terms of the loan. Since altering the loan without your knowledge is fraud, they want to hide the evidence — which means conveniently “losing” that little piece of paper with your signature on it.

A University of Iowa study describes how sloppy most foreclosure cases are:

“…of more than 1,700 bankruptcy cases stemming from home foreclosures, the original note was missing more than 40 percent of the time, and other pieces of required documentation also were routinely left out.”

Stay In Your Home

When a bank sues you for foreclosure without the original note, they are committing fraud on the court.

But it happens every day. Most people go into a panic the moment they receive a legal document, and assume that as the little guy, they will automatically lose.

Know your rights! Get more information about the lost note strategy in Chapter 12 of my book, Get Out Of Credit Prison.

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Think again! Signing that paper will not make your problems go away — in fact, it may make things worse.

Don’t Lose Your Home – AND Your Good Credit

In today’s world, many folks are confused about what to do when facing a foreclosure. There are a lot of “opportunists” who claim to have an angle on how to get your money figured out. I have seen it all. The most common scam is telling you that a short sale of your home will save your credit.

Do you honestly think that the bank is NOT going to put your late payments on your credit report? No one tells you the truth — that your credit is already on the rocks and going down. Why? Because, they will tell you anything to get your money.

Photo by miusam-ck

Don’t Trust “Foreclosure Saviors”

Be on the alert when a well-dressed shark tells you he is going to make your payments for you and save your credit if you just sign a deed in lieu of foreclosure. This is total BS. A rip-off. A scam.

Wake up, man! Do you think strangers walk around handing out money to people they don’t know? This is the real world, and everyone has an angle to get your hard-earned money.

Get It In Writing

The only way this short-sale strategy will work is if the lender agrees in writing:

1. to delete your prior mortgage payment history from your credit report, and
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2. that they will NOT proceed with the foreclosure action.

If you get this agreement in writing, you can avoid a “default judgment” and keep the whole thing out of public records.

But be alert, and do not accept personal assurances or promises over the telephone. People lie every day.

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Are you facing a foreclosure on your home?

Are you tired of getting scary legal documents and court summons in the mail?

It can be very tempting to just ignore it all.

Maybe you have said to yourself, “Aw, to hell with it — I am just going to walk away from this mess.”

Read this very carefully.

I’m going to share what you have not been told — not by an attorney, your friendly investor, your mortgage broker, and surely not by your real estate broker.

Do Not Pretend It Will All Go Away

If you play in a baseball league, and you don’t show up for a game, the other team wins by forfeit. It works the same way in the legal system.

If you fail to defend your foreclosure simply because you did not answer the complaint, then the judge will automatically give the plaintiff (lender) a “default judgment”.

Now read this a couple of times over. In most states, if you get a default judgment against you, it is entered into the public record and will remain there for many years. Here in Florida it can remain for twenty years.

What Does A Default Judgment Do To My Credit?

Let’s say it’s five years later, and things have straightened out for you. You have a decent job, and want to buy another house. You have been paying your bills on time.

But when you apply for a loan, the underwriter or title company always checks public records. And there it is, sticking out like a sore thumb — a judgment on your record.

You will not get a mortgage until that judgment goes away.

How Do I Answer A Foreclosure Complaint?

Photo by dbking

How do you protect yourself from what is happening to you?

Summon your courage, and defend yourself against a foreclosure:

1. Answer the complaint even if you don’t have an attorney.

2. Do so before the deadline spelled out on your complaint.

Is it hard to answer a complaint?  Not at all! Just follow the instructions.

If it says to show up in court within twenty days — then show up in court within twenty days!

You may be nervous to appear in front of a judge and an attorney — but ask yourself why you are willing to just roll over and just accept a judgment without a fight.

In Get Out Of Credit Prison, I share several ways that you may actually be able to legally get your case thrown out by a judge.

Before you ignore that forclosure complaint, my friend, think ahead!

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