Newly Launched Clean Up Real Estate Protects Home Buyers and Mortgage Refinancing Customers with Immediate Solution to Mortgage Woes

Consumers don't have to wait for the Senate to pass the "SAFE Mortgage Licensing Act" to be protected from abusive mortgage practices. Clean Up Real Estate (CURE) standards and mortgage monitoring already provides borrower protection on each and every loan.

We applaud Senators Martinez and Feinstein on their efforts

Palm Springs, CA (PRWEB) June 11, 2008 -- Clean Up Real Estate (CURE), a newly launched California consumer advocacy group, has an immediate solution to mortgage woes. While the Government searches for a way to prevent predatory lending practices; CURE actively prevents predatory lending and deceptive loan practices. CURE standards resolve conflicts of interest between borrowers and brokers. CURE monitoring creates an audit trail that ensures that each loan meets these high ethical standards.

The recently proposed Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Mortgage Licensing Act, sponsored by Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Mel Martinez (R-FL) establishes national licensing standards and education for brokers and lenders. It recommends a national database that consumers can use to verify broker credentials. Further, it mandates ethics education for brokers.

CURE is a consumer watchdog group with a private non-governmental solution for preventing mortgage abuses. The CURE Mortgage Protection Standards limits commissions. CURE monitoring validates rate locks and scrutinizes costs. While SAFE seeks to monitor Brokers licensing; CURE monitors Broker's behavior in each individual loan transaction.

"We applaud Senators Martinez and Feinstein on their efforts," says Genene Miller, Executive Director of CURE, "This bill may help consumers in the future, but I fear that any government plan will happen very slowly and be expensive for taxpayers. This kind of legalization usually creates a costly and inefficient bureaucracy. CURE is an immediate solution to this urgent problem and it's free."

"Controlling licensing and educating brokers is important, but is only part of the solution," Miller explains. "Monitoring individual loans, educating consumers and regulating broker commissions represent a holistic approach to this complex problem. SAFE licensing means occasional oversight; CURE individual loan monitoring is constant oversight. Education for Brokers means they will know when they are meeting vague ethical standards; consumer education and loan monitoring means that consumers know that their Broker is meeting concrete ethical standards. CURE regulates Broker commissions stops Brokers from acting against the interest of the borrowers they serve and is a powerful consumer protection."

CURE has established specific standards for loan brokers to follow when making a loan:

• A cap on total loan commissions (rebate and/or origination).
• Fees and costs are monitored to ensure that the Good Faith Estimate is accurate
• Required disclosure of all fees and costs
• Cost in excess of the estimate are paid out of the broker's commission
• Rate locks are monitored
• Broker commissions in excess of the CURE standards are passed back to the consumer
• Broker registration validates licenses and credentials

Consumers, mortgage industry participants and legislators are invited to visit the CURE site at www.CleanUpRealEstate.org to test drive the CURE Registry©, join CURE or simply get more information.

Contact:
Genene Miller
gmiller@cleanuprealestate.org
760-322-3727

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