Servicing

MountainView Capital Holdings, Denver, on Thursday announced the hiring of Robert Wellerstein as a managing director in the firm's mortgage and fixed income sales and trading units.

An enforcement action against a bank is almost always bad news for the institution involved. But a federal bank regulators' order released Wednesday against the top 14 mortgage servicers was likely to help, not hurt, the banks, providing them with added leverage as they attempt to negotiate a separate settlement with the 50 state attorneys general and several federal agencies.

The banking consent agreements signed by some of the nation's largest residential servicers on Wednesday require the firms to stop the practice of "dual tracking" where at risk homeowners start the loan modification process but also are officially put into a parallel foreclosure pipeline.

Federal banking regulators Wednesday afternoon dropped their regulatory "bomb" on the nation's largest residential servicers — and two of their top outside vendors — accusing the firms of a "pattern of negligence and misconduct" tied to the processing of loans.

The law firm Akerman Senterfitt was victorious in a recent Florida court case ruling which stated that builders and installers cannot be held liable for negligence for installing faulty Chinese drywall during home construction if they did not have actual or implied notice of a defect in the drywall when the repairs took place.

At a time when about 60% of vacant properties are affecting homeowners and business managers in the United States, United Kingdom and France combined, according to independent research done by Vacant Property Specialists, the Chicago-based company has decided to restructure its executive team to enhance overall growth strategy.

The recent wave of foreclosed properties around the country has created opportunities for real estate investors to acquire land, restore it and sell it to a new homeowner. But the biggest challenge in the process is getting enough funding for the investment.

The California Association of Realtors has partnered with Fannie Mae to launch a program designed to help realtors resolve problems after a short sale offer of any Fannie Mae-backed loan.

KDX Ventures plans to sell $142 million in multifamily loans for the Department of Housing and Urban Development on April 27.

Sales of distressed properties could pull home prices down by another 10%, according to CoreLogic chief economist Mark Fleming.