“I have been receiving your newsletter via email for some time, and have received some really good information, very informative – Thank you. I was approved for a modification and they’re asking me to sign something agreeing that MERS has all rights to foreclose, etc. I want to ensure I am not signing my life away if I agree to this.”
Answer:
(MERS stands for “Mortgage Electronic Registration System” and is a company that operates an electronic registry to track servicing and ownership of U.S. mortgages.)
Thanks for your email. Yours is a legal question, so I suggest you consult with an attorney. Nevertheless, I’ll offer you my opinion.
MERS is most likely 100% legal, as I believe are foreclosures involving MERS. It is unlikely that the scores of highly-paid attorneys hired by banks and investors would create MERS without being sure it could legally do what they intended.
If somehow they did miss a technicality that invalidated the ability of MERS to collect mortgage payments or to foreclose, the government would surely enact a law to “fix” the technicality. To not do so would allow most homeowners to stop paying their mortgage without penalty. And that would be catastrophic to the financial system and likely cause our economy to collapse.
The bottom line is I believe that MERS foreclosures are or at least will be legal.
So if I were you I’d sign and take the loan modification ASAP.
