The Mortgage Industry

If you have come to this point because you are facing the foreclosure of your home, please see Consumers Facing Foreclosure.

If you are the holder / benefitiary of a mortgage loan, and the borrower is not making payments to you are agreed, please see this Owners of Non Performing Mortgages.

Definition of Mortgage

On this web site we use the term mortgage generically and broadly to refer to a financial obligation secured by real estate. Technically a Note is the document that evidences the financial obligation, and the Mortgage is a separate document that pledges and encumbers the real estate as security for the repayment of the debt. A Deed of Trust is actually a different type of security, used in trust deed states. A Security Instrument is any document that encumbers an asset, usually real estate but sometimes chattel or other assets. A Security Instrument is another name for a Mortgage, and roughly another name for a Deed of Trust. We acknowledge the distinction between these. However the role of this Internet site is not education to the extent that most people viewing these pages are not concerned with the differences.)

A security instrument is a legal mechanism used to guarantee and secure the performance of obligations, using the payment of debts, by pledging real estate (and sometimes other assets) as collateral. A Mortgage is another name for a security instrument.

If you'd like to learn more about mortgages and real estate lending, Wikipedia offers a simple introduction.

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It is beyond the scope of this web site to delve into the murky ethereal world of structured finance. This is where a lender sells mortgages (whole loans), or the entire marketplace that facilitates mortgage financing. This includes Mortgage Backed Securities, Collateralized Debt Obligations, Credit Default Swaps, Synthetic Collateralized Debt Obligations, and other increasingly exotic financial instruments. However by March 2011 there will be a page on the future web site of Cherokee Equities that will explain and explore this topic in more detail.

If you own or service mortgages, we hope you will contact Cherokee as you consider how to dispose of them. In addition to first mortgages, we have acquired seconds, home equity loans, some mortgage-backed securities (residential and commercial), and some creditor rights vis-à-vis bondholder committees. It's all a Question of price and risk. At some price almost everything becomes an attractive acquisition. Cherokee will structure a relationship that meets your needs, including participations and earn-outs. For more information please call Jay Wolfkind, our Acquisition Director. Jay can be reached at (732) 741-2000, or by our email webform at Contact Cherokee.

As of early 2008, the distress in the entire credit industry became widely publicized. Our coverage has been summarized at: The Subprime Credit Meltdown. To read our coverage of the declining real estate market, please our Real Estate Market . The information on these web pages should not be news to you if you are a professional in the mortgage origination and servicing industry, but perhaps our articles will be especially informative or clear in terms of their general business overview.