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» VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 81 contracts beyond the 45 states already served by the company. "Absolutely no one is better equipped to lead Cityside into the next phase of growth and transformation than Jen Raimer," said Cityside founder and CEO Chris Dolloff, who founded the company in 1998. "She and her team have already accomplished amazing things … her ability to bring more value to our clients is key, especially as we continue to expand territories for complex contracts this year." Based in Manchester, New Hampshire, Cityside has 120 employees and satellite offices nationwide. e company has successfully marketed and managed more than 100,000 properties with its nationwide network of 4,300 contractors, according to the announce- ment. Dolloff said the company recently won two major contracts. In March, Cityside landed a neighborhood stabilization contract that covers the entire state of Rhode Island. Earlier this week, the company won a large marketing contract with the federal government covering more than 3,000 homes in North Carolina and South Carolina. "I'm honored to lead Cityside at this excit- ing time because of the incredible momentum and exciting new projects our national team and vendor network are taking on," Raimer said. "ese expanded partnerships align per- fectly with our strategic plans to serve clients with large real-estate owned volumes across the entire eastern seaboard, stretching toward Texas and beyond." NEW JERSEY Freedom Mortgage Resolves FHA Allegations Freedom Mortgage Corp., is the latest company to resolve claims that it violated the False Claims Act by knowingly originat- ing and underwriting single-family mort- gage loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) that did not meet the mortgage insurer's requirements. e U.S. Justice Department announced Friday that New Jersey-based Freedom Mort- gage will pay $113 million resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act from 2006 to 2011. According to the Justice Depart- ment, today's settlement resolves allegations that Freedom Mortgage "failed to comply with certain FHA origination, underwriting, and quality control requirements." "It is imperative that mortgage lenders that participate in the FHA insurance program follow the rules and requirements set forth by HUD," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer, Head of the Justice Department's Civil Division. "We will continue to work with our partners at HUD, its Office of Inspector General, and U.S. Attorneys around the country to protect homeowners and taxpayers from those who knowingly seek to abuse the FHA program for their own gain." U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman for the Dis- trict of New Jersey added, "Freedom Mortgage did not properly comply with FHA rules for the mortgages it was generating and did not adequately monitor early payment defaults. It also failed to report to HUD the defaults it did discover, as required by its participation in the program. Today's settlement recognizes those failures and imposes an appropriate sanction." Freedom Mortgage was not immediately available to comment at the time of publication of this article. e Department noted that as part of the settlement, Freedom Mortgage Corporation admitted to the following facts: Between Jan. 1, 2006 and Dec. 31, 2011, it certified mortgage loans for FHA insurance that did not meet HUD underwriting require- ments and were therefore not eligible for FHA mortgage insurance. Additionally, Freedom Mortgage Corpora- tion did not adhere to FHA's quality control (QC) requirements. Between 2006 and 2008, Freedom Mortgage Corporation did not share its early payment default (EPD) QC reviews with production and underwriting manage- ment, nor did it require responses to its EPD QC findings from its production or underwrit- ing staff. Due to staffing limitations between 2008 and 2010, Freedom Mortgage Corporation did not always perform timely QC reviews or perform audits of all EPD loans, as required by HUD. An EPD is a loan that becomes 60 days past due within the first six months of the loan. e EPD QC reviews that Freedom Mortgage Corporation did perform revealed high defect rates, exceeding 30 percent be- tween 2008 and 2010. Yet, between 2006 and 2011, Freedom Mortgage Corporation did not report a single improperly originated loan to HUD, despite its obligation to do so. Additionally, in 2012, after identifying hundreds of loans that "possibly should have been self-reported to HUD," it reported only one. As a result of Freedom Mortgage Cor- poration's conduct, HUD insured hundreds of loans that were not eligible for FHA mortgage insurance under the DEL program, and that HUD would not otherwise have insured and subsequently incurred substantial losses when it paid insurance claims on the ineligible loans approved by Freedom Mortgage Corporation. New Jersey Lisa G Lopez Broker of Record Home Alliance Realty 142 E. Bay Ave Manahawkin, NJ 08050 609-978-9009 (o) 609-384-5109 (c) lglopez@verizon.net www.HomeAllianceRealty.com www.LisaLopezProperties.com New York Todd Yovino Broker/Owner Island Advantage Realty, LLC Metropolitan New York and Long Island's Default Specialist for Over 27 Years Todd@iarny.com | 631-820-3400 www.islandadvantage.com The share of residential mortgages in some state of foreclosure in New Jersey during February, even with a year-over-year decline of 19.5 percent in non-current inventory. It was the highest foreclosure inventory arte out of any state during February. Source: Black Knight Financial Services STAT INSIGHT 4.1%