STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 7 March 2012

[Demeter]

61. I would be leery

A lower interest rate is nice. Getting stuck into the fraudulent mortgage securitization/shadow banking system is not.

Do you know where your current mortgage is? Have you checked the county records to see what is recorded?

Are you getting good service?

(It's called churning, when people are offered carrots to generate fees for the brokers, but get little or nothing to show for it in the end).

They don't want to OWN your mortgage, they want to securitize and sell it. Big banks don't own such things--they turn them into cash ASAP by selling it to Fannie. Credit unions might. Small local banks might. The Big Boys churn, for profits and bonuses.

When you sup with the Devil, you need a very long spoon.

Mind you, Fannie and Freddie and all that gang ALSO securitized everything they bought from the banks, and sold it to the Chinese, who then insisted they buy it back when Fannie and Freddie went bust. So you may already be ensnared. the question is: can they straighten it out? Will they straighten it out?

The most worrying news has been that people find they can never get a clear title if it's been in MERS....in which case, they may not be able to refinance without committing more fraud....

If you do refinance, do it for a substantial improvement in cash flow and/or reduction in duration, and buy title insurance!