Many seniors looking for ways to stretch their dollars and beat inflations consider a reverse mortgage. A reverse mortgage is a loan that allows senior citizens in Texas to liquidate the equity in their homes for cash without selling the home or incurring a monthly loan payment. What makes this type of loan especially [...]

According to an article in the Star Telegram changes are occurring in the mortgage industry that will make it tougher for homebuyers to make a new purchase.

Buyers will no longer have access to down payment assistance from the seller.

No more 100% financing. Buyers must now make a significant [...]

Sunday night congressional leaders and the White House created a new bailout bill to present to Congress today. The bill will offer up to $700 billion dollars to Wall Street’s failing institutions. The bill calls for the government, as a shareholder of a large number of mortgage securities, to “encourage” loan servicers to modify more troubled loans and for servicers of mortgages to do all they can to stem foreclosures.

The major news today is the takeover of Washington Mutual by the FDIC. After hopes were high for a financial bailout of Wall Street on Thursday, reality set in last night as no settlement was reached. Washington Mutual was forced to face the music after an FDIC takeover and forced to sell of some [...]

According to the U.S. Labor Department new unemployment benefits claims jumped last week to their highest levels in seven years. The departments report stated that new requests for jobless benefits for the week of Sept. 20th increased by 32,000, much higher than expectations. Experts claim that the elevated jobless rates are due mostly to [...]

According to an article in the Dallas Morning Newsnearly every Dallas-Fort Worth neighborhood has been hit by the foreclosure crisis. But the largest numbers of foreclosures seen in the first six months of this year were in ZIP codes 75115 – which includes most of DeSoto – and 75052, Grand Prairie. Many of these [...]

According to an article in the Dallas Morning News U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Droney ruled that a provision restricting the advice lawyers can give bankruptcy clients is unconstitutional because it is too broad, prohibiting attorneys from advising their clients to incur any debt, including debts that are legal and desirable in some cases. [...]

Bush, Paulson, Bernanke and Congress May Be Looking Out for Wall Street…
But Who Is Looking Out for Herb and Harriet Homeowner?
Dallas, TX – September 24, 2008 – Attorney Reed Allmand is fuming mad. “Unless this proposed $700 billion bailout contains language that helps people stay in their homes and avoid [...]

If there ever was a time when the average, hard-working American homeowner needed a little help, it’s now. The economy is a complete and total mess. The financial markets are near collapse! Unemployment is at a 5-year high, and foreclosures are at record levels. But right now those that claim to represent the best interests of the average American working stiff, the small mom and pop shops and the senior citizens who depend on the stability of our markets in their golden years, are selling us up the river.

More than 42,000 Dallas-Fort Worth area homes have gone on the foreclosure auction block since January 2008, up more than 35% from 2007, according to the Dallas Morning News.

The Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has a special forbearance initiative known as HUD Special Forbearance Initiative which permits lenders of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insured mortgages to assist creditworthy homeowners who are behind in making mortgage payments because they are temporarily unemployed.

A Loan Modification is a permanent change in one or more of the terms of a homeowner’s loan. It allows the loan to be reinstated, and results in a payment the homeowner can afford.

In every disaster there are those who look for opportunities to take advantage of the vulnerable. Foreclosure brings out scammers looking for opportunities.

In certain states, you can obtain an injunction by filing a complaint in a court. You will need an attorney to do this. The process is made more arduous by a requirement that you give five days’ notice to the lender before seeking to enjoin the foreclosure.

Dallas, TX – September 16, 2008 – “Dallas may have been spared Hurricane Ike’s storm surge and battering winds, but make no mistake, we are about to get pounded pretty hard,” says Attorney Reed Allmand, partner in Allmand & Lee, based in Hurst, Texas.
Just from Friday through Monday, in Dallas, gas prices [...]

National Guard and Reservists Debt Relief Act of 2008 is an Act to amend the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act to exempt for a limited period, from the application of the means-test presumption of abuse under chapter 7, qualifying members of reserve components of the Armed Forces and members of the National Guard [...]

AmeriDebt Inc was the first credit counseling company to have a federal lawsuit filed against it. It was the FTC’s largest case involving deceptive credit counseling and debt management.

The average American family now carries over $8,000 in credit card debt. That figure is likely to increase given the present state of the economy. In many cases, it is unfair practice of the credit card companies that have contributed to the debt of the average American family. Credit card companies have for long hit [...]

Chapter 7 filings are up 50% in California since 2007, according to the California Lawyer Magazine.

Don’t allow the changes in bankruptcy law to stop you from taking actions today that can prevent your financial picture from getting worse.

Under the Texas laws, a creditor with a lien upon personal property may repossess the collateral if the debtor defaults. The creditor need not give any notice of the repossession before they repossess the collateral nor get a court order before repossessing collateral.

If you owe taxes and despite having received Letter 1058 – Final Notice of Intent to Levy and you have not request for a Collection Due Process Hearing with 30 days from the date of Letter 1058, the IRS can levy your bank account, wages and other assets to collect back taxes.

A foreclosure could subject you to tax liability. Never overlook this aspect of foreclosure. The tax rules are complex, and subject to interpretation. The Internal Revenue Service will treat a foreclosure as a sale and you will receive a Form 1099C for the amount your lender or a third party bids at the foreclosure sale.

With millions of Americans facing job losses and mounting debt, many are choosing to ignore calls and letters from debt collectors. Let’s face it, when you’re struggling to pay the basics…food and shelter who has any money or energy left for debts that you can’t pay off any time soon. But be forewarned, if [...]

In today’s volatile market, many are worried about bank failures, the security of their deposits and the handling of mortgages, credit cards accounts and investments by faltering banks. Let’s take a look at some facts.
Fact #1: Your deposit accounts worth up to $100,000 are insured by the FDIC. In a joint account, [...]

An article in the Seattle Times talks about how Sue Ferguson a public health worker survived financial crisis by filing bankruptcy after her divorce. The article talks about how filing for bankruptcy after her divorce freed her from credit card debt and medical bills; but I wonder how her ex-husband is doing now that [...]

Foreclosure is a process that allows a lender to recover the amount owed on a defaulted loan by selling or repossessing the property by which the loan was secured. The foreclosure process begins when the homeowner defaults on the mortgage payments and the lender files the necessary documents to begin the foreclosure proceedings.
To understand the [...]

A chapter 13 bankruptcy is also called a wage earner’s plan. It enables individuals with regular income to develop a plan to repay all or part of their debts. Under this chapter, debtors propose a repayment plan to make installments to creditors over three to five years. Chapter 13 is designed for individuals with regular [...]

Chapter 7 is a common form of bankruptcy case that most debtors have been filing. A filing under chapter 7 is called liquidation. It is a kind of liquidation proceeding in which the debtor is allowed to keep aside exempt property and a trustee appointed by the court takes over the debtor’s non-exempt assets, sells [...]

Did you know that over 79 million Americans struggle to pay medical bills? That’s shocking! I was surfing the net today and ran across an article with the headline from statesman.com, "79 Million Americans Struggling To Pay Medical Bills" . The story features a woman who reconnected with her high school sweetheart during middle [...]

The DesMoines Register has a great column about how payday loans don’t really help the poor manage debt but in fact creates new debt and more stress. I couldn’t agree more!
The Des Moines Register: "A single payday loan is a terrible deal. The $15 fee on a two-week, $100 loan yields an [...]

Payday loans are instant short terms loans. Payday loans are also called cash advance or cash advance loans. They are useful if you need a small loan to get you to your next paycheck. Payday loans are regulated by state laws.
Payday loan laws were enacted in Texas in 2000. A payday loan lender must [...]

Even those born during the depression are finding this economy’s downturn hard to bear. According to an article in the Associated Press the elderly are succumbing to bankruptcies as they face a rapidly rising cost of living.
The AP says: "Older Americans are hit by a one-two punch of jobs and medical problems [...]

Because so many banks are facing massive losses from loan defaults many are desperate to quickly dump delinquent debtors into the foreclosure process. According to an article published in the San Francisco Chronicler some banks are less willing to re-negotiate the terms of loans that are in default or delinquent.
The San Francisco [...]