Community Resolution Assistance Program.”
Crap for short!!!!


This is a new scheme they are trying to pull on the American People and it is in every State....beware pass this on tell everyone about it.....as usual the tax payer will be left holding the bag..





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“The Easter Bunny had no comment”


June 14th, 2013 | Author: Chuck Muth
The following column by Mary Anastasia O’Grady appeared in the Wall Street Journal yesterday explains why CRAP is such a bad idea, especially the fact that proponents are “promoting the destruction of contracts” which could lead to another destructive housing bubble…
More Fed Folly
More than four years of easy money from the Federal Reserve, since the subprime housing debacle, have impoverished Americans who live on fixed income, punished savers, distorted investment decisions and fueled uncertainty. But the central planners at the central bank have been unable to reflate housing.
Now the New York Federal Reserve has another idea. “Paying Paul and Robbing No One: An Eminent Domain Solution for Underwater Mortgage Debt,” by Cornell Law School Professor Robert Hockett, is a new research paper posted on its website. As the title suggests, the idea is a cost-free fix for the housing market that works by using government diktat to wipe out “the mortgage debt overhang.” The Easter Bunny had no comment.
Mr. Hockett notes that prices remain stubbornly below their “peak” levels and that “approximately 11 million homes, or slightly less than a quarter of all homes with mortgages outstanding, are ‘underwater’—meaning that the balance on the mortgage exceeds the current market value of the home.” He keenly observes that “the best way to assist” these homeowners “is to reduce the principal on their home loans.” This won’t only help the homeowner but also the community at large because rather than wasting their money on their oversized mortgage payments, they will spend it on the local economy.
The trouble is that “private-label securitization (PLS) trusts” are not inclined to write down these loans as long as they are performing. So Mr. Hackett wants the government to use eminent domain to step in and take them if they have high default risk.
The idea that the Fed is promoting the destruction of contracts is troubling enough, and all the more so at a time when low business confidence is already fueling subpar growth. But it is Mr. Hockett’s rationale—posted on a Fed website—for why buyers should not be asked to uphold their contractual agreements that is most astounding.
Mr. Hockett writes that it is “doubtful that many homebuyers during the bubble years had much choice when it came to buying overvalued homes. That most homes were overvalued is what rendered the bubble a bubble. It therefore seems mistaken to blame homeowners as a class, or to characterize write-downs as per se unfair or morally hazardous.”
Anyone who sat on the sidelines and kept renting during the housing frenzy because they didn’t have the traditional 20% down payment knows that there was a choice. Some who rolled the dice early enough in the Fed’s easy money cycle did well. The late-comers did not. Mr. Hockett acknowledges the Fed’s error, though not explicitly, by noting that “bubbles inflate only when credit is overabundant.” But his solution, to make write-downs easier when buyers get in over their heads, only makes it more likely that Fed accommodation will give us another bubble.

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California Schemers Urge Eminent Domain Abuse in Nevada


June 13th, 2013 | Author: Chuck Muth
As Nevada citizens are well aware, an awful lot of really bad liberal public policy ideas come out of our neighboring state to the west. Indeed, they don’t call California the “land of fruits and nuts” for nuthin’.
So it will come as no surprise that a really bad scheme to abuse the government’s very limited, very specific powers of eminent domain is seeping across the Golden State border and trying to gain a foothold in the Silver State.
The scheme was initially dubbed the Community Resolution Assistance Program (C.R.A.P.) by Byron Georgiou, a partner in the California company, Mortgage Resolution Partners (MRP), which is currently peddling the scheme to the city of North Las Vegas. And if NLV buys into the program, this C.R.A.P. could spread all across our state…and eventually take over the world!
OK, that last part was thrown in for dramatic effect. But the threat is real; made more so because the scheme just sounds soooo good…as long as you don’t bother to look too deeply into the details or care about the Constitution.
In layman’s terms, the Founding Fathers extended the power of eminent domain – the power to “take” your property for a public purpose, such as building a school or highway – to local governments so long as the property owner was fairly compensated. MRP is selling C.R.A.P. to local governments as a way to alleviate their home foreclosure problems, arguing that’s an acceptable public purpose.
In a nutshell, the government would use its eminent domain power to seize the mortgages of homeowners who are current on their payments but who are “underwater” on the value of their homes. The current mortgage holders would be paid just a fraction of what they’re owed, maybe less than 50 cents on the dollar.
Georgiou’s vulture capitalists would then try to get the homeowners a new loan at current market value, pocketing the difference from the amount the city seized the loan for. If successful, MRP would “earn” a tidy $4,500 fee just for being the middle man…while the city gets a little “vig” on the side for its trouble.
Two problems: First, the lenders who hold the current loans – the actual “property” in question, not the home itself – would get the royal shaft, not fair compensation.” And secondly, there’s no guarantee the home owner will be able to secure a new loan…meaning they’d lose their home and be C.R.A.P. out of luck!
Cities around the country are being told this is a risk-free, no-cost way for local governments to do “something” about their foreclosure problems. But as the sayings go, the devil’s in the details, and if it’s too good to be true…
Nevadans should tell California we’re not gonna to take this C.R.A.P.

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Oakland Tribune says “No” to CRAP, North Las Vegas should, too


June 10th, 2013 | Author: Chuck Muth
The city of Richmond, California is mulling, as is North Las Vegas, Mortgage Resolution Partners’ (MRP) proposal to abuse the government’s eminent domain powers to seize performing mortgages and make a tidy little profit for its investors, with a “taste” for the city on the side.
But in a recent editorial (May 30, 2013), the Oakland Tribune refers to the Community Resolution Assistance Program (CRAP) as “not ready for prime time.” And it raises some important points and concerns North Las Vegas officials should consider.
One of the bigger problems with this scheme is that the seizure would reportedly occur with the homeowner’s consent. However, it’s not the home that’s being seized; it’s the loan…though the homeowner could still very well lose his home in the long run.
Regardless, the homeowner doesn’t own the loan. The lender does. So at the very least, if anyone’s permission is to be secured, it should be the lender, not the homeowner.
That also raises the question of assessing the “market value” of the asset being seized. If it’s not the home, then the value of the home itself, even if dramatically reduced since the time of the origination of the loan, is irrelevant.
Since it’s the loan being seized, it’s the value of the loan itself that needs to be adequately compensated in any eminent domain process. And since the homeowners being targeted by this scheme are current on their payments, how can the government justify paying the current lender only a fraction of the performing loan’s unpaid balance?
That’s not just a rip-off. That’s outright theft.
As the Tribune editorial notes, “This scheme benefits (MRP’s) investors at the expense of the original investors. That’s troubling and legally untested. And it could leave lenders leery of doing business in Richmond.”
Or North Las Vegas, if the city moves forward with this CRAP. At the very least, the city should put this issue off until its newly-elected officials are sworn in this coming July. There is no reason to rush this CRAP through and saddle the new members with implementation of a decision they had no part in making.

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Stop the CRAP!


May 24th, 2013 | Author: Chuck Muth
To: North Las Vegas Mayor & City Council
From: Chuck Muth, President
Date: May 24, 2013
In the May 22, 2013 issue of Las Vegas CityLife, columnist George Knapp relates the story of an interview Channel 8 television reporter Nathan Baca did with politically-connected real estate speculator Byron Georgiou of Mortgage Resolutions Partners (MRP)…
“Georgiou was telling Baca about his plan for an eminent-domain mortgage-relief plan, which he planned to call the Community Resolution Assistance Program.”
Or, as Baca pointed out in the interview, CRAP for short.
I’m guessing Mr. Georgiou has since rethought the name of his scheme, but we think he nailed it on the first try.
The idea of abusing the government’s power of eminent domain to seize the mortgages of homeowners who are current on their payments – while simultaneously screwing the original lender out of potentially tens of thousands of dollars that the homeowner willing and contractually agreed to repay – so that some wealthy vulture capitalists can swoop in and sup on the carcass while sharing a little “vig” with the city is total…
CRAP!
Not only shouldn’t the city consider this risky scheme until at least after the new mayor and city council is sworn in, it shouldn’t consider this CRAP at all.

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Cherry Picking Cream of Underwater Crop


May 22nd, 2013 | Author: Chuck Muth
Open Letter to North Las Vegas Mayor & City Council
I wrote you a week ago to express concern about a proposal North Las Vegas is reportedly considering in which the city would abuse its eminent domain powers to seize homes, sell them to a private investor group and pocket some kind of “finder’s fee” for your services.
The abuse of eminent domain powers alone is enough to warrant opposition to this scheme, but what I’ve learned since is even worse.
Apparently the city won’t be abusing its power to seize homes that have already been foreclosed. And indeed, it won’t even be abused to seize homes in which the homeowner is behind in his or her payments.
Instead, the plan reportedly is to seize homes in which the homeowner is making his or her payments on time and has good credit!
In other words, this proposal isn’t designed to solve the problems caused by vacant homes or to bail out people who are unable to make their monthly payments, but to enrich some property investors at the expense of mortgage holders whose customers are fulfilling their contractual obligations.
Seriously?
And no one sees this as some kind of modern-day “land scam”?

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Sure Smells like a New Land Scam


May 12th, 2013 | Author: Chuck Muth
Open Letter to North Las Vegas Mayor & City Council
I’m writing to voice concern about an issue that may come before the council at your meeting in June.
I just learned of a very controversial proposal to use the government’s eminent domain powers to bail out some “underwater” homeowners in such a way as to “screw” the present mortgage holders out of money they are contractually entitled to while simultaneously enriching a new brand of property investment speculators.
I’ve just begun my due diligence on this issue, but at first blush this scheme sure smells like an unwarranted and unconstitutional abuse of government power combined with a healthy dose of what some might call a new form of “land scam.”
At the very least, I’m writing today to urge the council to postpone taking any action on this proposal until the city’s newly-elected/re-elected officials are sworn in and have an opportunity to review it.

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