Marc McCain Blog

Over the past 18 + months of advising owners of distressed property, several common myths have emerged regarding foreclosures and short sales in Arizona.  Here is a list of common myths. 1.  Only purchase money loans on qualifying residential property get anti-deficiency protection in Arizona.  This is not necessarily true.  If the holder of a mortgage secured by a single 1 [...]

Rarely will a consumer find so much contradicting, confusing and downright incorrect information on a legal topic as they currently do when it comes to short sales and related issues.  Rarely heard of just 2-3 years ago, short sales now make up a significant majority of current MLS listings in the metro Phoenix market and [...]

As most interested parties now know, Governor Brewer signed House Bill 2008 and with it becoming law in late November, 2009, swept away the recent changes to Arizona’s anti-deficiency laws set to go into effect September 30, 2009.  Residential property owners’ collective sigh of relief could be felt throughout the Valley.  However, the victory parade could be short, [...]

Gov. Brewer signed and transmitted House Bill 2008 which includes a repeal of Senate Bill 1271, the recent change to Arizona’s anti-deficiency law contained in ARS Section 33-814(G) governing trustee’s sales.  http://azgovernor.gov/DMS/upload/PR_090409_HB2008-09-12-13TransmittalLetter.pdf. The repeal is set to take effect on approximately November 24, 2009 (90 days after the special legislative session ended), however the repeal was made [...]

Bank lobbyists told Arizona’s legislators that our anti-deficiency statutes needed to be revised because spec builders were “gaming the system” by claiming they lived in their spec homes to get anti-deficiency treatment.  The Senate’s internal memo on the bill stated that investment properties were “NOT” protected by existing anti-deficiency laws.  No one paid attention to the [...]

A recent article in the Phoenix Business Journal titled “Mortgage modifications elusive” wrote of the failure of the Government’s mortgage modification plan given the sharp decline in property values in certain cities such as Phoenix, Arizona.  However, the article failed to distinguish between mortgage re-financings and mortgage modifications in the residential loan market, especially for [...]