R E A L  E S T A T E   A L E R T
/ M O R T G A G E  L O A N S

Warning: A significant segment of the firm's clients have suffered bad experiences with mortgage lenders during the past year. The common thread in this collective experience has been that the mortgage lenders promise the world and deliver something far less. The core areas of suffering have been: 1) poor responsiveness or execution of the loan application process, and 2) the charging of undisclosed fees or costs.

    For those firm clients who own property through a Living Trust, a common experience with mortgage brokers has been a request at or just prior to closing of: a) changing the ownership of property from the Living Trust to direct individual ownership, b) signing the loan documentation at the closing while the property is in individual ownership, and c) changing the ownership of property from the direct individual ownership to Living Trust ownership upon completion of the closing

    For the prospective of the ability to confer an absolute mortgage lien on a property, this process of ownership is completely unnecessary. However the request by mortgage companies or small regional banks is commonly due to a "simplistic, check box mentality" under which the thought process is: "if a individual directly owns property and that individual signs the loan documents, then the grant of a mortgage lien interest to the bank by the individual is without question." In short, this thought avoidance process eliminates the bank's need to access (i.e. - review the trust) whether the Trustee of the Living Trust has the authority to confer a mortgage lien to the bank (a properly drafted Living Trust always has this capability).

    The usual result of this "simplistic, check box mentality" is that the bank's closing attorney, that is processing the loan on what is commonly a last minute basis, will "surprise" a client with Living Trust owned property with: 1) the transfer documentation for the process outlined above, and 2) the completely unnecessary charge for the transfer documentation, normally ranging from a low of $150.00 to a high of $400.00. Since it is often easier to accommodate the request of the lender rather than expending the time to get the lender to think beyond their "simplistic, check box mentality," though legally unnecessary, it is the firm's policy to gratuitously (i.e. completely free) provide such transfer documentation to all clients for which M&A Counselors & Fiduciaries has assisted in transferring the ownership of their property into a Living Trust. The firm, of course, requests as much advance notice as is reasonably possible to permit the preparation of such transfer documentation. However, the firm's common, maximum preparation and delivery time by fax or email of such documentation in under 60 minutes! Consequently, please be on your guard for; being fleeced by what is tantamount to a scam.

P R E F E R R E D /
R E C O M M E N D E D  L E N D I N G
S O U R C E S:

Based upon the depth of client and firm experience with following lending sources and the excellence in service execution by the lending institutions, a strong recommendation is made to secure all mortgage financing needs nationwide from the following lending institutions:

Conventional Loans:
American Mortgage Services, Inc.
Contact Information:
Pat Bickford
American Mortgage Services, Inc.
824 Main Street
Melrose, MA 02176
Tel 781 662-2552
Fax 781 665-0931
Web Site www.allcreditloans.com

Interest Only Loans:
Boston Company
Contact Information:
Janice Sturchio
The Boston Company
One Boston Place
Boston, MA 02108-4402
Tel 617 248-3108
Tel 800 354-2487
Fax 617 722-7306
Email Sturchio.JC@Melon.com