AZ: Independent Rights Party Seizes Properties from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

While reading up on the Tucson mayoral election yesterday, I happened to come across a most curious story about a would-be third party candidate in the race, Marshall Home.  Home attempted to file for the office as a Democrat, but withdrew after he was challenged on the basis of residency requirements.  As the Arizona Daily Star reported, "He conceded he has been living at a county address for months and voted from that address last year."  Though Home changed his registration from Independent to Democrat before filing to run for mayor, he is also the chairman of a small third party group called the Independent Rights Party.  You might be surprised to learn that you are already a member.  From the Independent Rights Party:

The IRP is a registered political party, beginning March 3, 2004. We support the individual in their right to freely choose for themselves, subscribing to Thomas Jefferson's statement: "Never trust the government. Be ever Vigilant" Marshall E. Home is the Chairman . . . everyone is a member of the Independent Rights Party. There is not now, nor will there ever be a membership fee.

The IRP's primary focus appears to be on foreclosure recovery and Home is quite active in this regard.  He has already seized over twenty foreclosed properties from Fannie Mae!  From AZ Central:

Marshall Home, who claims many foreclosures are illegal, has filed documents in the past two weeks with the Maricopa County Recorder's Office showing he has supposedly taken ownership of at least 21 homes belonging to government-owned mortgage giant Fannie Mae. But none of the documents shows any money has changed hands, and Fannie Mae says it has not sold the houses. Real-estate agents and experts say Home's documents, a type of real-estate form called a special-warranty deed, aren't valid . . .

"Fannie Mae has not authorized the transfer of the properties in question to the organization," spokesman Andrew Wilson said. "We will pursue appropriate legal action and involve law enforcement as necessary."

But for now, Home's Independent Rights Political Party Trust is claiming to own the houses. Several of the homes have people living in them.

"Lenders are gangsters, and they can't prove they own these homes. So they have no right to foreclose," said the 80-year-old self-professed billionaire from his real-estate and political office in Tucson on Tuesday. "I plan to continue to take homes from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I would buy them, but those groups can't produce the notes showing they are the rightful owners to sell or foreclose on them."

The real estate agents that had been hired by Fannie Mae to market and maintain the properties were caught off guard by Home's action.  Another excerpt:

Last week, Phoenix HomeSmart real-estate agents Brett Barry and Roland Cleveland got a call from their brokerage telling them Independent Rights Political Party Trust had sent a letter saying it "acquired all rights" to the house at 6032 E. Skinner Drive in Cave Creek . . .  Cleveland immediately sensed something was wrong.  "We called the people who hired us and work with Fannie Mae, and they didn't know anything about a sale," he said. "It appeared right away the document was fraudulent."  On orders from Fannie Mae, Cleveland broke the new locks, tore down the trespass warning and other fliers and put new locks on the home. He now watches the house closely every day.  "It's crazy," he said. "How does someone just declare they own a home without paying for it or obtaining a clear title?"

It's an interesting question:  "How does someone just declare they own a home without paying for it or obtaining a clear title?" He might consider asking the nation's banks.  From CBS back in April:

Wall Street cut corners when it created those mortgage-backed investments that triggered the financial collapse. Now that banks want to evict people, they're unwinding these exotic investments to find, that often, the legal documents behind the mortgages aren't there. Caught in a jam of their own making, some companies appear to be resorting to forgery and phony paperwork to throw people - down on their luck - out of their homes.

Another excerpt from CBS, via Zero Hedge:

Banks so poorly handled documentation on millions of mortgages that many today cannot prove that they own the homes they want to foreclose on. The resulting rash of lawsuits from people seeking to save their homes has one of the government's top banking regulators worried that the torrent of litigation will delay the real estate market's recovery.

For his part, Marshall Home plans to continue seizing property from Fannie Mae.  From the AZ Central article:

Home said he is running for mayor in part to try to stop fraudulent foreclosures, but he could be kicked out of the Tucson election this week because he hasn't lived in the city for the requisite three years and has a criminal record for assaulting a federal court officer.

He said that won't stop him from taking back foreclosure homes from Fannie Mae and fellow mortgage backer Freddie Mac. "I haven't been contacted by either entity nor has either one done anything to stop me," Home said.