Gantenbein Law Firm, Denver, Colorado is proud to announce its attorney, Keith Gantenbein, was named to 2017 Colorado Super Lawyers, Rising Stars list. Congratulations to owner and managing attorney Keith A. Gantenbein Jr, who was selected, named and included on the “2017 Colorado Super Lawyers Rising Stars” list. Super Lawyers is the Thomson Reuters lawyer rating service. To be selected as a Super Lawyer, attorneys are nominated by their peers and evaluated on 12 indicators

Nationwide, home foreclosures have dropped to their lowest level since November 2005. During April 2017, there were 77,049 filings reported in the U.S. This number includes default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions. The figures reflect the lowest number of foreclosures since the housing crisis began. While the drop is significant, at the same time there was a rise in repeat foreclosures. A repeat foreclosure is noted as any property address with the same owne

The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, known as Freddie Mac, announced last week that it’s selling off non-performing loans to private investors. Freddie Mac is a public government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) headquartered in Virginia. Freddie Mac was created in 1970 to help expand the mortgage market alongside the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae). Previously, from 1938 to 1968 Fannie Mae was the only institution that bought mortgages leading to and enco

Colorado has joined the new age in providing online foreclosure auctions. Last year, Realauction.com was approached by the Denver Public Trustee’s office and asked to provide Denver with its own auction site. That site is up and running and bringing huge cost savings to Denver and making it easier for more people to be able to bid on the foreclosed properties. Realauction.com runs many foreclosure auctions throughout Florida. One by one, counties in Florida put their foreclos

The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) was introduced in 2009 and established to help homeowners recover from the great housing bubble burst. The HAMP was part of the Making Home Affordable program (MHA) along with the Hardest Hit Fund program (HHF) that was under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). These programs were part of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 and put into place to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure. HAMP and the entire

Are the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) really be ending at the end of this year? The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Mel Watt gave a speech last year on both HAMP and HARP programs. He revealed that HAMP would be finished at the end of 2016. Concerning HARP, Watt said ‘we anticipate that this will also be the final extension for HARP.” Originally set to expire at the end of December 2013, the programs w

What is happening with foreclosures? This last quarter, the national average length of time to begin and end a foreclosure was the longest it’s been since before 2007 taking an average of 629 days to complete the process. In Colorado, the average time to complete a foreclosure is 352 days. Part of the reason for the national increase in time can be blamed on the fact that foreclosures had increased last month (July). That increased activity can be blamed on the rapidly risi

In yet another settlement, JPMorgan Chase has admitted to filing tens of thousands of documents that were not reviewed by the people who had signed and authenticated to their accuracy. Many in the banking and legal community are shocked that Chase would admit to such wrongdoing in more than 50,000 fraudulent payment change notices. In court documents, it was stated that Chase “improperly signed, under penalty of perjury, by persons who had not reviewed the accuracy of the not

Ocwen Financial Corp. (OCN) subservices all the mortgage loans for Home Loan Servicing Solutions (HLSS). Mangrove Partners is an investment manager (hedge funds) and one of the largest shareholders of HLSS. HLSS is an affiliate of Ocwen. Mangrove Partners sent HLSS a letter demanding HLSS terminate its business relationship with Ocwen. Mangrove Partners sites a “dereliction of duty” and said it is “imperative” HLSS terminate its servicing relationship with Ocwen “without dela

Ocwen Financial Corp. faced major problems throughout 2014. It seems this year will be more of the same. Announced Friday, January 26th, Ocwen will hire outside accountants and pay $2.5 million to the state of California in exchange for the state to halt their bid to suspend the company’s license. California state regulators previously announced Ocwen failed to comply with providing them with loan information as requested. This latest settlement only covers Ocwen’s failure t

In what some are saying is an innovative lawsuit, a group has filed a lawsuit in Ohio, alleging lenders who failed to take required mitigation steps prior to foreclosing on mortgages guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) under the authority of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have violated the False Claims Act. When a borrower defaults on an FHA-guaranteed mortgage, the FHA reimburses the lending bank for the losses. A condition of e

Excited to announce that Keith Gantenbein, of Gantenbein Law Firm, has been invited to teach at a 2-day National CLE, starting today, sponsored by the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI). Mr. Gantenbein will be speaking about some of his most passionate issues: the Rule 120 Foreclosure Hearing in Colorado, Dual-Tracking, and CFPB (Consumer Finanacial Protection Bureau) Rules and Regulations, as they relate to mortgages. If you have an issue with your loan modification, mortag

Denver tax attorney Tyler Murray, of Gantenbein Law Firm, taught tax case law updates at Colorado Bar Association CLE. The 2014 Annual Case Law Update was sponsored by the Business, Real Estate, Tax & Estate Law Sections of the Colorado Bar Association. Mr. Murray dicussed various legislative updates that pertained to tax law, business law and real estate law- including sales and use tax, property tax, employee classification, and Denver Lodges tax. Mr. Murray is a well-estab

California is accusing Ocwen of defying requests for information by the California Department of Business Oversight, which is the licensing bureau for nonbank mortgage lenders and providers of collection and foreclosure services. The state is now seeking to suspend Ocwen’s mortgage license because Ocwen has failed to turn over documentation showing compliance with California laws protecting homeowners. There have been investigations nationwide into Ocwen and other nonbank ser

The Denver County Public Trustee is sitting on 1 million dollars in overbid funds! If you have lost your home to foreclosure to a third party investor, no matter what county, you may have overbid funds that are rightfully yours. The amounts can range from 50.00 to 250,000.00. We urge you to check the public trustee records for sale results to determine if funds are due to you. In Colorado, the foreclosing lender submits an initial bid to the public trustee two days prior to t

Colorado Attorney General adds two more law firms to his naughty list this Christmas. John Suthers has brought two lawsuits against Robert J Hopp & Associates and the Vaden Law Firm in connection with fees incurred and charged during a public trustee foreclosure process. The suit alleges that the firms charged homeowners excessive or fake fees for foreclosure costs. The firms allegedly padded fees and costs by “charging” for title insurance, from a title company owned by that

A court recently ruled in favor of a Florida couple who were in foreclosure, and awarded them over $1 Million. Bank of America, the foreclosing bank, robo-called the couple more than 700 times over a period of several years. The judge rules BOA's conduct as a pattern of "outrageous, abusive and harrassing conduct." Nelson and Joyce Coniglio fell behind on their mortgage payments in 2009. When BOA acquired the loan from now-defunct Countrywide, they started harrassing phone ca

The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act was passed in 2007, and allowed homeowners the protection of forgiving mortgage debt. Mortgage debt includes: principal balance forgiveness, waiver of debt in a short sale, waiver of debt in a deed-in-lieu, any deficiency waiver, as well as charged-off second mortgages. Prior to the passage of the MFDRA, homeowners would have to declare any forgiven debt as 'income', and would be taxed on that 'income.' MFDRA provided financial relief

Despite being profitable, Fannie Mae is chasing old debt- perhaps to recover losses incurred during the foreclosure boom. Many homeowners have post-foreclosure deficiencies- due to the loss of equity, as a result of a bubble created by lenders Now, they seek to profit further from their risking lending pratices by chasing old deficiency debt. This places homeowners in a significant financial disadvantage. #postforeclosure #deficiencyaction #deficiencyjudgment #coloradoforeclo

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers has filed 3 more lawsuits against foreclosure firms in Colorado; all 3 were settled. This makes 5 foreclosure firms in total that have been sued by the Colorado AG for fraud and fee-padding. We suspect this a systemic problem with foreclosure firms throughout the nation...wonder if other states will follow suit? Read the full story HERE. #janeway #medved #aronowitz #aronowitzmecklenburg #coloradoforeclosurehelp #coloradoforeclosuredefens