Loan Modifications: Obama’s Part of Problem, Not Solution
I didn’t want to ever have to write that headline. Like so many millions of Americans, I voted for Barack Obama and truth be told there was one big reason. No, not Sarah Palin. And not because he was the anti-Bush. I voted for Barack Obama for a reason that didn’t show up in the polls: the housing foreclosure crisis; he would do something to stop it.
I know now that I’m far from being alone in this. And I know why it didn’t show up in the polls, after all, during all that joy that was present during the month leading up to the Obama victory, and certainly immediately following it, who was going to talk to pollsters about something as depressing as being at risk of foreclosure? Even today, few people want to make public the fact that they may be losing their home, or even that they’ve already lost a home to foreclosure.
It’s in the press, no question about it, but more in a macro sense. It’s “out there,” as opposed to being “right here”. Even here in Southern California, one of the hardest hit areas of the country in terms of people being at risk of foreclosure, I run my errands, go about my business, and don’t bump into it at all. In fact, as I wait for my car to come up in valet parking, all I see are BMWs, Mercedes, and Lexii… the foreclosure crisis seems very far away, even though I know, and certainly as well as anyone, that it’s not.
I know because of where my writing has taken me. I never intended to write over 150 articles about the foreclosure crisis. And I never thought my writing would touch the lives of so many homeowners that they would call or write to me to tell me their stories and ask my advice. Why would they? I knew nothing about mortgages, and the only way I knew to avoid foreclosure was to pay my mortgage payment each month. Why would anyone call me? But they did and they have and they still do… every single day. And I have no idea how many at this point… hundreds certainly, maybe more. And I talk to them all, sometimes for hours at a time because I care a whole lot about what’s happened to them, and what’s happening throughout our country, and I don’t know if I can really matter, but I have to try.
I started writing about the meltdown in earnest about a year ago, although I did write a few articles beginning maybe a year before that. My first was about what was happening on Wall Street and why. I think the headline read: What’s Happening on Wall Street and Why… I’ve never been a very clever headline writer. I wrote it to help people understand what I knew was a very complex problem, but also one that everyone would soon need to understand.
Then, the government followed by the press, started laying the blame for the crisis on “sub-prime borrowers,” and I felt compelled to get involved. It was never “the borrowers,” who were at fault for causing this crisis, let alone the sub-prime borrowers. People with relatively low credit scores and incomes who wanted houses did not destroy the U.S. and global financial markets, no matter what anyone might think. And it wasn’t stated income loans either.
Of course, I chose sarcasm to express my point. I made a tee shirt that read: “Sub-Prime Borrowers Unite. Be Nice to Me or I’ll Stop Making My Car Payments Too.” And I wrote an article to go along with that sarcastic sentiment: “Coming to Terms With the New Power Elite: Sub-Prime Borrowers.” The article was my attempt to point out the fallacies that had quickly become conventional wisdom… it was the sub-prime borrowers’ fault. It was nonsense then… and of course we now know that 54% of the foreclosures are prime loans, that it wasn’t the borrowers at all… it was and is the banks that have caused this pain.
Borrowers didn’t break the capital markets. Borrowers didn’t fraudulently package mortgage backed securities and stand by as they were improperly rated AAA. Borrowers didn’t slice those securities up into a million derivatives, or leverage them to the hilt, before buying and selling them along with their worthless insurance policies known as credit default swaps. Nope, as all of these things and more went on, there wasn’t a single borrower to be found anywhere.
Most annoyingly, it certainly wasn’t borrowers who, knowing that increasing future defaults were imminent, agreed to lower their bank’s reserves for future losses in order to pay themselves untold billions in bonuses. There’s another way of putting that… it wasn’t borrowers that robbed the banks, it was the bankers that robbed the banks. (Why they all still have jobs is beyond me. How big a bank do you have to rob in this country to go to jail anyway?)
Of what were the borrowers guilty? Every time I ask this question I get a fringe answer. You know, the story: A 19 year-old college student bought an $11 million home on the water in Newport Beach. Or how about: The family with income of only $3600 a month, but whose mortgage payment was $4800. It’s a lot like when people talk about welfare fraud, and they point to some woman with 19 children who hasn’t even looked for a job since 1983, conveniently ignoring the fact that more than 70% of welfare spending is spent on children.
At worst, borrowers were guilty of bad judgment. Of trusting bankers. Of wanting more in life than they had in the past. Mostly, however, borrowers were guilty of not seeing The Great Depression Part 2 coming around the corner, just like… say Henry Paulson, or Ben Bernanke. Bankers, on the other hand, well… many of them were guilty of criminal fraud. Of manipulating securities. Of trading on inside knowledge. Of lying left and right to everyone, if that’s still a crime in this country.
So, I wrote in order to help people who were suffering understand that what was happening in this country, as our economy slid further into the abyss, was not their fault. It was a controversial viewpoint in the beginning, and I’m thankful it is much less so today. One day, and not so far from now, it won’t be controversial in the least. As of September 26, 2009, the Justice Department is working on 570 cases related to the demise of Wall Street’s banks, so it won’t be long before we all see the arrests and criminal charges levied against the mortgage bank robbers who used to think, a’la Enron, that they were the smartest guys in the room. As far as I’m concerned… that day cannot come soon enough. Maybe then we can start the healing process, and maybe we’ll be better for it.
Regardless of all that, here we are in the fall of 2009 and the crisis has only deepened, and deepened significantly. Not only is that the case, but in addition, both our state and federal governments, by virtue of their incredible lack of understanding as to what’s really going on, have only made things worse… and significantly worse. What’s up with these guys? Do they just feel compelled to turn checkers into chess, or are they actually so out of touch that they can’t even see how incredibly stupid they so often appear?
I’m really not sure anymore, but if anyone in government is reading this, and I know that you are, then you might as well hear it from me… you’re embarrassing yourselves… terribly, and although it may not be showing up in today’s poles, it’s there… just under the surface, waiting for the curtain to close in the next election’s voting booth.
Brass Tacks…
Okay, so let’s dispense with the pleasantries and call it like it is. According to our government, here’s all there is to know about getting a loan modification:
1. Call your bank directly. You don’t need anyone to help you with a loan modification. It’s easy, thanks to the President’s Making Home Affordable program.
2. If you feel you need assistance, call a HUD counselor, or other nonprofit. That’s it, and that’s all.
3. Whatever you do, don’t pay anyone in advance, no matter what, because paying in advance always makes someone a scammer.
4. There are zillions of scammers out there ripping off what must be hundreds of thousands of homeowners each day. I’m surprised every time I leave my house these days and return home without getting scammed. Just lucky, I suppose. Oh and by the way, so far the FTC and the Attorney General have shut down… 22 companies. I feel a lot safer.
5. If a private sector company wants to help homeowners, it should be willing to work for months on end with a lender or servicer and then send their bill at the end. What a plan… become an unsecured creditor of someone who is having trouble paying their bills and already has bad credit.
And that’s not even the worst of it…
The irrational thinking has led to some of the most contradictory statements that I’ve ever heard come out of a legitimate government. Try these…
- These people paid this company $3,000 and they didn’t even get a loan modification.
- No company can guarantee you that your loan will be modified.
- If they fail to get your loan modified, they have to refund your money.
- You don’t need help getting a loan modification; it’s easy to do it by yourself.
- For help with a loan modification contact a HUD certified counselor.
- The law firm took the client’s money and failed to deliver anything of value.
- According to the Obama Administration, servicers aren’t doing what they agreed to do.
- Bank of America only modified 4% of the eligible loans.
- Lawyers are using their law licenses to con desperate homeowners out of $3,000.
- August foreclosures came in at 356,000, the sixth straight month over 300,000.
- Another wave of foreclosures expected.
- The recession is over, probably.
Look… I’m not playing around here. Stop treating the country like we can’t put two and two together.
The evidence of servicer nonperformance is now abundant, and coming directly from the U.S. Treasury, but nothing the government says has changed one iota. Hasn’t anyone linked the two things together… the servicers’ refusals to do modifications, with the firms failing to obtain loan modifications? Really? Someone do something about this… this one is too stupid for me to mention ever again.
They attack private sector companies that charge a fee for trying to help someone accomplish something that the government can’t get done either, even after giving away a few hundred million. WTF.
I read stuff like this every day. Just a few weeks ago, a friend who knows how much this stuff annoys me, sent me an article that had appeared in a mid-western newspaper. It was a front-page type of article, showing a nice young couple with a baby in their arms, in front of a foreclosed home, REO sign and all. To sum it all up in a phrase… the story said that the couple had written a supposed law firm a check for $1,000 last March, the company was the now infamous FedMod… and that’s why they lost their home.
Holy macaroni! I had no idea that could even happen to someone as a result of writing a check to a law firm, regardless of whether the law firm was legit or not. I wrote a check to a contractor once for $2500 and got ripped off, but I didn’t lose my home or my car or anything as a result. What the heck happened here?
I wonder what the government brain trust thinks when they see people continuing to write checks to companies up front, even though everyone in America has been told by the President and everyone else on down, not to do that. Why do you suppose they keep doing it, are they stupid? Don’t people watch television?
No, they heard you. They’re doing it because they’ve tried what you suggested and it didn’t work worth a damn. Are you listening, by the way?
There’s another possibility, of course. They could all be in the pocket of the banks, but that’s hard to believe. I’m not talking about Obama, Geithner, and the gang at the Harvard Goldman Club… they are unquestionably in the banker’s pockets. I’m talking about everyone else in state and local government… the bankers can’t have bought them all over to their point of view, can they? All of them?
I can’t be the only one that sees what the banks are doing here, right? I know at least 100 attorneys that know what they’re doing because they’ve seen it first hand on hundreds of occasions.
Banks are telling homeowners that they don’t need a lawyer. Isn’t that giving legal advice? Isn’t that the unauthorized practice of law? Why, yes… I believe it is. But who in the country has the balls to sue or bring charges against a bank? Likely, no one. And besides… why all of a sudden does everyone care so much whether I hire a lawyer? I’ve run my own firm for twenty years… and no one ever cared if I hired a lawyer before. Now it’s seems that even the American Bar Association doesn’t think lawyers should be representing homeowners trying to obtain loan modifications. Why do you supposed that would be?
The Bottom-Line…
President Obama… we haven’t heard from you on the housing and foreclosure crisis since last spring when you gave a speech to adoring and cheering crowds. You set their expectations way above what your program delivers, your administration has spent more time grandstanding over the 22 firms you’ve shut down… you’ve made a mess.
One homeowner who watched your speech in late February recently told NPR that when he heard you describe the program he felt as if you were speaking directly to him. And then he went through hell trying to get one. It wasn’t his fault, Mr. President… it’s yours.
This whole thing… the foreclosure crisis is going to be laid at your feet in 2010. Either you owe quite a few people an apology, or you better get on the stick and fix it… fast.
We didn’t vote for you in order to hear excuses about servicers being overwhelmed. And we certainly didn’t vote for you in order not to hear from you… to have Treasury and the Fed stonewalling Freedom of Information requests. We voted for you because it meant change. And so far, when it comes to the foreclosure crisis, what you consider change is not the kind many people are believing in these days.
Great commentary Mr. Mandelmen! Just by reading your recap of effrorts really does confirm that our government is unquestionably in bed with the banks and that this entire mess has been purposely manufactured for some other agenda these idiots have in mind for their own political gains. What a country we live in... to be slaves to the very government which ironically was in our forefathers design to be "FOR" the people and "BY" the people.
Wow! STAND UP and receive yor applause!.
I have been waiting for SOMEONE to call he servicers out! I work as a negotiator for a small law firm. We handle Mods, BKs and debt negotiation. I was in the mortgage biz for 20 years prior to this job. I can tell you having worked the "front lines" of modification working directly with the servicers that I have NEVER witnessed such blatant misrepresentation and outright lies with zero accountability for servicers and their employees.
The idea behind modification is to HELP someone who is experiencing a HARDSHIP. When the "system" works it works well but when the system fails, it fails miserably. This is especially true when the servicers use lies and deciet against the borrowers.
Bravo Martin This is one of the best of your hundreds of articles on this subject. I wasn't old enough in the sixties to remember the protests but I think if things don't start changing we need to look at some footage and take to the streets like they did. It worked then didn't it?
I agree completely. I wish I had more clever commentary, but I'm just glad to know I'm not the only person who sees what's really going on here. Please keep up the commentary!
This needs to be reposted after President Obama returns from Copenhagen working on getting more sporting events to our great nation. If we just get the Olympics in Chicago, we'll be fine.
- Paul
Borrowers at worst were guilty of bad judgment? Trusting bankers?
You don't really believe that do you?
I guess you must if you believed Obama's campaign promises and voted for him
No one, not any mortgage broker, not any wall street executive, not Henry Paulsen, not Barack Obama, not George Bush , not even Sarah Palin, NO ONE forced any borrower into taking a loan to buy a home.
People borrowing money the never intended on making payments on is what started this whole mess.
Cheap easy money was available, so what, that was the choice of the investors.
Borrowers took advantage of that and as long as prices were going up as you would expect when something becomes easier to purchase, no one got hurt.
Like most things there is a limit and when the price limits were reached borrowers who thought they could flip there home for a nice easy profit before payment 1 was even due suddenly had to make a payment or more payments then they planned, began walking away. That then became the implosion that we are witnessing today.
Wall Street creating crazy derivitives and banks lowering reserves didn’t cause one person to not make there payment. That is merely the result of bankers and investors trying to keep the whole mess a float.
Why should a bank do a loan modification, because the home value went down? What would you say if the bank called and wanted a portion of the increase in equity when home prices go up?
If they think it’s a good business decision to do a loan modification then great, but they don't need the government or you or anyone else telling them they have too.
You do realize that we are now WAY past the original first impact of flippers who walked away and people who lost a job and on to people who now just want the bank to do something. People who make their credit card payments and car payments but don’t have the money for their mortgage payment.
Of course there are people who are truly hurting unfortunately like all other government "Good intentioned" programs the people who really need the help seldom get it.
Even still so what? You lose your home. So you go back to renting, you would have never been able to own anyway. You had a crack at it.
I lost my home back in the early 90's when I was younger. I went back to renting and within a few years was able to get another shot at homeownership thanks to a "Sub Prime" lender. I won’t make those same mistakes again because I learned a lesson.
Who will learn any lessons from this? Not the borrower you want them to get relief from the bank.
Not the bank they are getting help from the government.
Worst of all, who will ever want to lend again, who will be there to give the borrower a second chance like I had?
Sadly while you make some good points and I am sure will find overwhelming support for your position given our current mentality of "Blame someone else". You miss the mark.
Continuing with your article:
"Banks are telling homeowners that they don’t need a lawyer. Isn’t that giving legal advice? Isn’t that the unauthorized practice of law? Why, yes… I believe it is. But who in the country has the balls to sue or bring charges against a bank? Likely, no one. "
Wrong again borrowers are suing banks everyday and coming up with every cockamamie excuse in the world why they can't make there payments, and hmmm no I don't think a bank telling a borrower they don't need an attorney to request a loan modification is giving legal advice, I think its issuing common sense. They are still free as most do to hire an attorney.
Why do you need an ATTORNEY to ask a bank to lower your payments.
How is it that a borrower who can't make their house payment has enough money to hire an attorney to let the bank know they can't make their house payment ?
Why is it that over 40% of all loans modified just last year are already back in default? Is that Wall Streets fault, is that bankers fault or perhaps the mortgage brokers fault?
Maybe is just the borrowers fault!
While I am no fan of Barack Obama's, this has about as much to do with him as I do with the NY Mets winning the 1969 world Series
BMoran
It is unfortunate that you are that naïve. Furthermore, you are so confident in your comments which only indicates the level of cockiness you carry with you. Being cocky does not mean you are correct, rather blinds you from the truth.
Although I understand your logic with respect to borrower’s making their own decision to purchase a home with no intention of paying and “flipping” them upon their quickest opportunity for their greed. It is AMERICA’S fault and especially George W. Bush’s to blame for not educating the American people as to what was is really going on.
Listen coherently and “continuing with your article”
“While I am no fan of Barack Obama's, this has about as much to do with him as I do with the NY Mets winning the 1969 world Series”
Incorrect would be nice. Barrack O’Bama has everything to do with fixing the mortgage meltdown. He is our leader and although this was not directly created by him it is his responsibility to step up and be a President.
It is a shame of what a steady diet of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, and Glenn Beck can do to the uneducated folk in America.
[quote="bmoran"]Borrowers at worst were guilty of bad judgment? Trusting bankers?
You don't really believe that do you?
I guess you must if you believed Obama's campaign promises and voted for him
No one, not any mortgage broker, not any wall street executive, not Henry Paulsen, not Barack Obama, not George Bush , not even Sarah Palin, NO ONE forced any borrower into taking a loan to buy a home.
People borrowing money the never intended on making payments on is what started this whole mess.
Cheap easy money was available, so what, that was the choice of the investors.
Borrowers took advantage of that and as long as prices were going up as you would expect when something becomes easier to purchase, no one got hurt.
Like most things there is a limit and when the price limits were reached borrowers who thought they could flip there home for a nice easy profit before payment 1 was even due suddenly had to make a payment or more payments then they planned, began walking away. That then became the implosion that we are witnessing today.
Wall Street creating crazy derivitives and banks lowering reserves didn’t cause one person to not make there payment. That is merely the result of bankers and investors trying to keep the whole mess a float.
Why should a bank do a loan modification, because the home value went down? What would you say if the bank called and wanted a portion of the increase in equity when home prices go up?
If they think it’s a good business decision to do a loan modification then great, but they don't need the government or you or anyone else telling them they have too.
You do realize that we are now WAY past the original first impact of flippers who walked away and people who lost a job and on to people who now just want the bank to do something. People who make their credit card payments and car payments but don’t have the money for their mortgage payment.
Of course there are people who are truly hurting unfortunately like all other government "Good intentioned" programs the people who really need the help seldom get it.
Even still so what? You lose your home. So you go back to renting, you would have never been able to own anyway. You had a crack at it.
I lost my home back in the early 90's when I was younger. I went back to renting and within a few years was able to get another shot at homeownership thanks to a "Sub Prime" lender. I won’t make those same mistakes again because I learned a lesson.
Who will learn any lessons from this? Not the borrower you want them to get relief from the bank.
Not the bank they are getting help from the government.
Worst of all, who will ever want to lend again, who will be there to give the borrower a second chance like I had?
Sadly while you make some good points and I am sure will find overwhelming support for your position given our current mentality of "Blame someone else". You miss the mark.
Continuing with your article:
"Banks are telling homeowners that they don’t need a lawyer. Isn’t that giving legal advice? Isn’t that the unauthorized practice of law? Why, yes… I believe it is. But who in the country has the balls to sue or bring charges against a bank? Likely, no one. "
Wrong again borrowers are suing banks everyday and coming up with every cockamamie excuse in the world why they can't make there payments, and hmmm no I don't think a bank telling a borrower they don't need an attorney to request a loan modification is giving legal advice, I think its issuing common sense. They are still free as most do to hire an attorney.
Why do you need an ATTORNEY to ask a bank to lower your payments.
How is it that a borrower who can't make their house payment has enough money to hire an attorney to let the bank know they can't make their house payment ?
Why is it that over 40% of all loans modified just last year are already back in default? Is that Wall Streets fault, is that bankers fault or perhaps the mortgage brokers fault?
Maybe is just the borrowers fault!
While I am no fan of Barack Obama's, this has about as much to do with him as I do with the NY Mets winning the 1969 world Series[/quote]
Your article is excellent in many respects. What fool thinks that a borrower went on his own and dreamed up 100% mortgages including subprime. No mortgage lender could sell the product if Wall Street and their convoluded abritrage system of bogus bonds could have been developed to defraud World Wide Investors.It is funny we dont hear about that Fraud at all. How Moodys rated Bonds which allowed the World Wide Investors to be tanked.
Now I agree, it was greed with everyone, Wall Street, World Wide Investors, Mortgage Lenders and Buyers. However, besides the Wall Street fraud, the tragedy now is to the American People and they dont even know.
Property Valuation Devastation: That is the real deal.That is why no modifications are working.. That is why Bof A and all others are delaying for 7 to 9 months modifications which are approved.. Why.. the investor is better off letting the property foreclose..he gets paid 100% and the servicer gets paid more for the foreclosure..
And the goverment knows and wont take care of this huge problem. Today property values in states that are not the big 5 foreclosure states will find their property worth 25 to 60% less than 3 years ago. As the gov knows, that puts over 65% of all mortgages underwater. If the property forecloses the gov has to pay the investor 100%, if it does not, they get to play mental emotional games with the homeowner, who now owns a decling asset which may never be worth what the mortgage is.. THIS IS THE CRISIS..
What was the stimulus money for the banks?? To unclog toxis assets and revalue a correct pricing to allow those to be sold off and free up the ability for banking to continue?? Yes.. then it has already been handled.. not for the consumer.. the game is lets see if we can keep the poor homeowner in his home.. knowing it is upside down potentially forever.. and at least on the books it looks as if the asset is paying with clever repayments terms.. modifications.. and the borrower is just paying twice for a home woth 50 cents on the dollar.
What can be done.. The gov do what the SMP from Bush was doing.. new mods at 90% of current value.. and write off the balance which is upside down. If we dont the majority of homeowners are out of the market for life, leaving only new home buyers.. causing a further economic nightmare.
Why wont they modify loans. they would rather delay, stall, frustrate borrowers until they give up and foreclose..
The problem is their is no governing body over mods, as their is over originating loans..I mean governing the actual underwriting of the loan mods, to ensure lenders are acountable.. which if you were to allow yourself to realize this, it is truly tragic to think the banks could help borrowers and stop foreclosures, however, until the gov changes the terms for investors. the investor is better to foreclose than to modify as they are paid in full. The investor must know the gov is going to handle the principal write down as they would handle the foreclosure.
How would you stop mass chaos.. from everybody wanting the mortgage principal written down.that is the concern.
It is truly amazing the same lenders that take 6 to 9 months to deny loan mods can underwrite and fund a new mortgage in days.
Who is paying the bill for all of the incompetence with banks stalling loan mods???
When the emotional aspect of their personal home is finally set aside, and the homeowner realizes they are upside down $150,000, that could result in a dramatically higher foreclosure rate. Why would a homeowner want to pay $150,000 more for his home. He is caught in an economic devasation and the only asset Americans have had is their equity in their home.
In respects to the buyer being the cause of all the problems is absurd. Yes a small percent, and that is a small percent. Too loose underwriting guidelines allowed it too easy for a buyer to own a home. Our economy is based on continual spending and debt as the Feds say, therefore it was all part of the overall scheme to get Americans to spend more, buy more, build more.. rather than being debt free and paying off all debt.
That does not support the economy.. 1% money, trillions in credit card debt, low interest rates allowing a housing boom. but then there is a reckoning day.. which most of us even those in our 50s and 60s have never seen this before.
Did the gov know this was going to balloon and then bust.. sure.. did they know 1% credit cards would result in trillions of unneeded debt sure.. this big economic wheel unforunately turns with continued spending.
I would rather see property values back to what they actually are regardless of how bottomed out. Americans pay off their debt. Bring back jobs and manufacturing to the US and stop our economy being based on further spending of consumers.
If not.. this will pass. and we will be here again. as the greed and gaff it too deep currently between politics and big business.. yes banks at the top.
The banks lobbyist used this economic devastation as an opporunity to change the mortgage market back to their hands and have won. Their will be few if any brokers soon, few if any wholesale lenders and all will be back in the hands of the banks. Amazing to think 80% of mortgage volume has been diverted back to banks, by the use of an economic devastation to increase market share for the banks
Banks / Government ...they are not listening...see my post on how to control the banks...
Their name should be BEND OVER AMERICA!
I have filed complaints with the BBB, FDIC, and Comptroller of Currency-(Dept.of Treasury)
Anyone have any other ideas?
I have documented info dating back approximately a year ago when Bank of America promised me a loan modification and did not follow through with their promises. They tried to force me into a program that would benefit Bank of America and not myself the consumer. It all started about a year ago. Interest rates were lower than they were when my mortgage originated, and I wanted to refinance my mortgage. At that time I was approximately one month behind on my mortgage payment. Because there were not any local BOA representatives, I had to do this over the phone. I talked to BOA over the phone about refinancing and they told me that they could not simply do a standard refinance of my mortgage. The BOA representative suggested that there was a special program available (later identified as a government funded program called “home affordable modification program” that can be used for situations where the mortgage is behind by two or more monthly payments. The BOA representative told me that because I was barely one monthly payment behind that I did not qualify. My response to their offer was that it did not make any sense to need to be a behind even more than I already was to refinance my mortgage. The BOA representative said the only way that they could help me was for me to miss another mortgage payment, enter into a forbearance agreement, and then they would be able to refinance to lower my mortgage payments.
Thinking that I had no other options available to me at that time, I did exactly what my mortgage lender suggested that I should do. I waited one more month and contacted them again to get the process going. They sent me a forbearance agreement that stated I would receive a workout/refinance within two months time. The two months passed by and I received no such paperwork or any contact whatsoever from BOA. I contacted BOA over the phone to express my concerns and to ask what had happened. I let them know that I had not yet received the workout agreement that I was promised. I also asked the representative when I would be receiving the necessary paperwork, and when I should send my next payment. The BOA representative told me that they were behind on getting the paperwork completed. The BOA representative also assured me that they were working on it and not to worry that I did not have to send any payments or take any action on my part until I received the paperwork from them. I contacted them on several occasions to check on the status of the agreement and was told each time that I did not need to take any action on my part until I received the paperwork from them.
I truly feel that I was forced to use a program that was not right for me in the first place. I later discovered on my own that there was a program that allowed for borrowers that were 30 days or less behind on to use the government funded program called “home affordable refinance program” which would have eliminated the need to purposely miss payment(s) that I could have easily made. BOA advertises all over including on CNN that they are working with people and using a government program to offer help or workouts for their mortgages. My Lawyer and I are prepared to counter sue BOA for false advertising, misleading me, not providing the services that they had promised to me, and attempting to charge me fees and interest for things that are clearly the fault of BOA. Anyone want to join us/class action in sueing them fo the same thing??? They have no scruples; they are not interested in making practical loan modifications. They are interested in tacking on more fees and interest to the loan. The longer they hold off the borrower the more interest and penalties they can try to collect. They got all that bailout money and none of it is going to the consumers. Shame on Bank of America
I need to get out of this bad situation so that I can get my credit back on track where it belongs. I am very reliable and hard working individual that has a guaranteed steady job. We are as busy now (if not more busy) as we were in the past. In hard economic times my pay is not in danger of being effected, as a matter of a fact I recently got a raise compared to the pay cuts and layoffs that some borrowers are experiencing at this time. I make $50,000 per year, and do not have any bad outstanding debt (besides what BOA is trying to do to my credit). I would be a better credit risk than allot of people that are out there getting loans with no problems. I have a guaranteed steady job.
I have hired a lawyer and they are not working with him in this matter anymore than they were with me. There is nothing that I can do to get to get through to someone that has the power to admit that there was major the bottom of this situation with Bank of America.
I FEEL THAT EVEN IF I CAN RESOLVE THE MATTER AFTER OVER A YEAR OF BEING PUSHED AROUND THAT I WILL STILL HAVE TO ANSWER TO THE MOST CROOKED BANK IN THE U.S.
Ideally I would obtain financing from a trusted local financial institution in order to pay off the mortgage with BOA. That is no longer an option any more. I have tried many different local lenders and they will not touch paying off my dysfunctional loan with Bank of America. Mainly because my credit has been severely affected by this matter.
The second best = Reach a Fair Agreement that is favorable for both parties:
1- Bank of America to admit their fault: Remove all interest and fees that were accrued on my account because of their gross negligence – Under no circumstances will I be paying these fees.
2- Agree on a fair Interest rate equivalent to what is being offered on the market. If a fair rate is not established we do not have a deal.
3- Pay my attorneys fees in full. A consumer should not have to resort to hiring an attorney after they have tried everything that they can possibly do on their own in order to straighten out mistakes that were made by Bank of America.
4-Fix my credit – back the way it was (GOOD) before Bank of America ruined it!
5- Wake Up Bank Of America – Do you honestly think I will ever deal with the Bank of America again? No! Will I let everyone I know what a terrible experience I have had with them? Absolutely!
6- An appology letter adressed to me and sent to me in the mail for the troubles they have caused me
Like mentioned above… I have hired a lawyer and neither myself nor my lawyer has been able to reach a FAIR agreement. If they will not work with us we will be forced to let them have the house back.
We are also filing a lawsuit for false advertising. The program they were advertising and pushing me and probably others into was not even a functioning program. They admitted to me that the program was mot functional until recently even though they offered it to me approximately a year ago. It is not a secret that they are not capable of actually modifying loans for people! I am not the only one that knows this!
This is not uncommom but to get it resolved that is another matter. Not sure if the Attorney will even benifit you as that can cost a considerable amount of money with no results. Not clear where things went wrong as being current on a mortgage does not eliminate them from doing a modification...you have to understand their meaning of current. The modification will eliminate all past due and late fees normally but to get them to admit there mess is a far stretch and a big black money pit.. Lots have changed in a year and now qualifying under MHA is completely different than a year ago so without correct submissions the files are denied or updates requested. Forbearance is one thing modification another..Basically, How this concludes depends on how much time you spend on the phone with them and what the current / past hardship problems were. A les pendence may be in order but that may not have any bearing on retaining your home as attorneys fees will be substancial.