Marc McCain Blog

I recently attended a seminar that provided very interesting insight into the minds of lenders and why they continue to press rights against borrowers in certain contexts.  Below is a summary of issues that lenders and their counsel believe are unsettled in Arizona, despite the strong policies behind Arizona’s anti-deficiency statutes as discussed in several reported Arizona [...]

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 [...]

In Arizona, certain loans on residential real property are subject to what are called anti-deficiency laws.  These laws limit a borrower’s liability to its lender if certain requirements are met.  However, there are many misconceptions about Arizona’s anti-deficiency laws, when they apply, and whey they don’t.  Moreover, Arizona’s anti-deficiency laws have been in recent flux, increasing [...]

More and more I am seeing lenders be aggressive and unreasonable in demanding money from borrowers during the short sale approval process.  Lenders are doing this even where AZ law prohibits them from waiving their security and suing on the note (i.e. where the loan is a purchase money loan on qualifying residential property).  As a result, I am stressing the [...]

Investors and second home owners in Arizona should NOT rest easy on the heels of the legislature’s recent repeal of Senate Bill 1271.  Recognizing bad law (SB 1271) and bad policy behind it, not to mention the certain backlash from consumers, one might have thought banks would take their defeat in stride and use their [...]

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 [...]