Over the next three (3) years, the office of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman will spread out $60 million dollars to programs benefiting struggling New York homeowners facing foreclosure. The funds come by way of a settlement reached, as previously mentioned on this blog, between several major banks, the federal government and forty-nine (49) states over foreclosure abuses. The Homeowner Protection Program will use just under half of the $132 million dollar settlement received by New York State to fund housing counseling and legal services offered to distressed homeowners. This measure should ensure that homeowners in need of assistance have additional options available to them for the next three (3) years.

At our last class on Conflicts of Interest, there were many confusions about how to fill-out the NY Agency Disclosure form. Fortunately, the Buffalo Niagara Association of Realtors has a great publication with samples on its last page and the Long Island Education Board strenuously recommends that all agents review this publication before they continue in their practice. Click here to access the publication.

Also, LIEB draws your attention to a NYS Administrative Decision, 675 DOS 09, which states:

"The agency relationship disclosure form which the respondent provided to Mr. Alejandro and Mr. Sanchez was improperly completed. The respondent was acting as a dual agent and so indicated on the disclosure form. However, she also completed sections of the form on which she indicated she was acting as agent of the seller and as agent of the buyer. It does not appear, however, that this error in completing the form could have possibly misled either Mr. Alejandro or Mr. Sanchez into believing that the respondent was representing him alone. Thus, while her conduct was a violation of Real Property Law 443 and a demonstration of incompetency, it does not, by itself, warrant the imposition of a penalty greater than that to be imposed for  her other, much more serious, misconduct."


Clearly, to properly fill-out the Agency Disclosure form, a dual agent should only check Dual agent and not also indicate that they are acting as an agent of the seller or buyer.

An interesting report by the Chicago Tribune and available on Business Insider, click here to read, discusses this peculiarity and attributes this dichotomy to the current jobs data. Fannie Mae, who offers the underlying Monthly National Housing Survey, characterizes consumer sentiment as the "wait and see" attitude in their article, which is available here.

What should real estate agents learn from these articles?
Clearly, the answer is who their target audience is. Consumers in areas and industries with high job security appear to be the best target purchasers. So, the question becomes where to look. Yahoo finance has your answer in a report by US News and World Report on the "Exciting Jobs in the Fastest-Growing Industries", which you can locate by clicking here.

Its postulated that individuals in these industries should be targeted by buyers brokers. Good luck and go make a meeting of the minds and sell that property.

This past week a proposal was made to change the process of foreclosure litigation in NYS. Lets learn about it now:

Currently, the process for a lender / servicer to foreclose a residential mortgage is as follows:

Currently:
Plaintiff's attorney will file the foreclosure action (summons and complaint), get an index number and serve process, but before the matter is assigned to a Judge or put into the mandatory Foreclosure Settlement Conferences where the parties are instructed to work towards a modification, the lender's / servicer's attorney will be required to swear to the truth of the documents submitted by way of an affidavit. Yet, many attorneys first learn at this stage that they have insufficient facts to permit them to swear to these facts and the matter stays in limbo without assignment to a Judge or access to the Foreclosure Settlement Conferences. As a result, many foreclosure actions exist, but are not moving forward towards resolution - this is called the Shadow Docket.

Amendment:
Recently, the Office of Court Administration has proposed the following amendment to the Civil Practice Law and Rules (CPLR) to eliminate this Shadow Docket & expedite the foreclosure process. Under the amendment, if adopted, the residential mortgage foreclosure process will become as follows:

Proposed Process:
A lender's / servicer's attorney will execute a certificate of merit coupled with their summons and complaint at the time that they first get an index number. This certificate of merit will certify that the attorney has reviewed the facts of the case and that, based on consultation with authorized representatives of the plaintiff and the attorney's review of pertinent documents, including the mortgage, security agreement and note or bond underlying the mortgage executed by the residential defendant and all instruments of assignment, if any, or any other instrument of indebtedness, there is a reasonable basis for the commencement of such action.

Analysis:
If approved, this amendment will result in the elimination of the shadow docket and greatly minimize foreclosure defense tactics by attorneys. The entire effect of the amendment is to place the certification requirement earlier in time as opposed to what currently happens - instead of during the action, the certification will occur as an incident of commencement. Yet, this is a good thing for homeowners because they will not be dragged into foreclosures until the lender / servicer has a reasonable basis to commence the action. Moreover, this will result in more homeowners having access to the Foreclosure Settlement Conferences early in the process avoiding the unnecessary accumulation of excess interest & penalties following default while they remain existing in the shadow dockets.

Lieb School and the Long Island Education Board support this proposed amendment.