Foreclosuregate and Systemic Risk

I continue to try and think through the various issues of foreclosuregate. There are a lot of them. And some of them are petrifying. In my last post, I wondered about title issues. In this one, I wanted to sketch out my understanding of the possible problems to the entire global financial system: systemic risk. … Read more

Title Issues in Foreclosuregate

Were I not driving across this great big nation of ours, I would have been far more productive on blogging about foreclosuregate. As it is, I’m fairly limited to writing at various truck stops in a larger work that hopes to lay out all of the issues and what the real estate industry can and … Read more

Seven Predictions for 2011, With Music Videos!

Coming off of an awesome, Hall-of-Fame type of year in which I batted .600 in predictions (or, alternatively, a year in which I only got 6 out of 10 predictions even remotely close to right, and hence am a big #FAIL), I thought I would don the Nostradamus hat once again and make foolish predictions … Read more

Can You Say… Oh $#!^ For REO and Foreclosures?

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that if you have a REO or short sale practice, you want to pay attention to some legal cases going on around the country: Trouble is, MERS might lack legal standing to bring a foreclosure action. At least, that’s what the attorneys for the homeowners who are getting … Read more

Interbroker Compensation and Compliance

As is somewhat normal, Brian Larson has a thought-provoking post on the future of the MLS up on MLS Tesseract. I gather it’s just one part of a series that he wrote a while back on Inman. In this particular post, Brian argues that interbroker compensation (aka, “Offer of Cooperation and Compensation”) is an anachronism … Read more

The Opening Salvo of the Housing War: Mortgage Interest Deduction

NAR has finally gone to the mattresses over Federal policy. Some time ago, I wrote that the mortgage interest deduction may be phased out or limited as part of Obama Administration’s new “sustainable housing” policy. At the time, I’ve heard quite a few people say, “It’ll never happen”. The thought was that the public loves … Read more

Move, Inc. Moves Into Mortgages

Move (NASDAQ: MOVE) has just launched MortgageMatch.com — a consumer-facing application that Move spokespersons say is the most important thing they’ve done since… well, acquiring ListHub. I’m writing this while sitting on the webinar/teleconference where they’re unveiling it, so… my thoughts are likely to be somewhat scattered. Once the announcement is made, and a few … Read more