When people aren’t wealthy or part of the elite, you must follow the rules

The New Yorker-

Paying your debts is, as a rule, a good thing. But the double standard here is obvious and offensive. Homeowners are getting lambasted for doing what companies do on a regular basis. Walking away from real-estate obligations in particular is common in the corporate world, and real-estate developers are notorious for abandoning properties that no longer make economic sense. Sometimes the hypocrisy is staggering: last winter, the Mortgage Bankers Association—the very body whose president attacked defaulters for betraying their families and their communities—got its creditors to let it do a short sale of its headquarters, dumping it for thirty-four million dollars less than the value of the building’s mortgage.

When it comes to debt, then, the corporate attitude is do as I say, not as I do. And …

[THE NEW YORKER]

© 2010-19 FORECLOSURE FRAUD | by DinSFLA. All rights reserved.

Nothing has changed…

“And they’re trying to keep folks from walking away” Listen to this interview and his answers…Like he makes any sense…blame the fax system for lost documents and negotiators…and welcome EQUATOR.

THE TRUTH is while they were developing this “EQUATION” you were put on the burner. Simple as 123.

Who trusts loading up very personal information into a system to where it ends up?? eg: social security numbers?

Posted: Jul 01, 2010 4:32 PM EDT Updated: Jul 02, 2010 5:14 AM EDT

Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) – Weeks after our Contact 13 investigation into Bank of America we have uncovered a new wave of problems hitting Valley homeowners.

“It’s just frustrating and I don’t think they’re doing anything,” says homeowner Todd Lanquist.

“And when they would get rude with me I’d say, look, put yourself in my shoes. I said don’t think for one minute because you’re on the other end of the phone that it can’t happen to you,” adds homeowner Sherry Eggler. “I want it over with! And I want us to be left alone and get on with our lives.”

Todd and Sherry are both Bank of America homeowners who’ve tried to short sell their homes.

For Todd, “It’s probably the most stressful thing that I’ve dealt with in my lifetime.”

A short sale is when your home is worth less than the remaining value of your mortgage. It’s what you do to avoid foreclosure when even a loan modification won’t keep you in your home.

“Short sales are probably 70% of the listings out there right now,” explains realtor James Allen.

And with Bank of America holding one in three Nevada mortgages, the servicing giant is at the center of a firestorm of criticism over the short sale process.

We read some of your e-mails to Bank of America’s senior vice president in charge of short sales.

“And this person says “Bank of America acts with reckless abandon and extraordinary incompetence when it comes to short sales.” What do you say to that customer,” asked Contact 13 Chief Investigator Darcy Spears.

“I would refute that to the degree that we’re very proud of the work that our team does on behalf of Bank of America and our customers and ultimately the investors,” answered Bank of America’s Matt Vernon. “Certainly there have been some challenges in the past. But with that said, we’re very focused on an efficient process.”

Sherry Eggler says the process is anything but efficient. She and her husband, Freddie, moved here from Georgia to build the home they intended to retire in. But when the economy tanked and their retirement savings went with it, they knew they’d have to give up their dream.

“It hurt. It hurt,” says Sherry, trying hard to hold back tears.

When the loan modification Bank of America offered wouldn’t save them enough money, Sherry says the bank advised a short sale.

But all that did, she says, was put their lives on hold.

“The realtor would call and say, oh Sherry, they need copies of your W-2s again, they need bank copies again, they need this again. I must have done that 10 times and finally I said you know what? No more!”

So what is the root of the problem?

“There’s too many hands in the pot,” says Sherry. “Too many chefs in the kitchen.”

Bogging down the process for so long that she says they lost a buyer willing to pay the set price.

“They must have waited three-four months, five months, and they kept assigning new negotiators. And that is so stupid because they shot their own self in the foot.”

And through it all, there was the constant threat of foreclosure.

“They keep telling me, making threats that our house is gonna be sold on the court doorstep.”

We took her concerns to Bank of America.

“There is a mountain of frustration among our Las Vegas viewing population with what’s going on with B of A short sales,” Spears told Matt Vernon.

And when we asked why there are so many hands in the cookie jar, he said there were too many homes in the short sale process.

“And because of that growth in the business, it often required multiple hand-offs. We recognize that that’s not beneficial to the transaction and are committed to limiting those hand-offs so there is continuity throughout the process.”

All of it too late for Sherry Eggler.

“One time I think I did say that well, if this keeps up I think we just need to get an attorney.”

That’s what Todd Lanquist did after he says the bank’s foot-dragging cost him several potential buyers.

“It’s my fear. Losing my house.”

He says he’s having to sue for the right to sell.

“And that’s just absurd. Absolutely absurd. If it’s a fair sale at a fair price, the bank should be held to it,” says Matthew Callister, Todd’s lawyer.

Realtor James Allen calls B of A the worst of corporate America coming to the surface.

“It’s a red flag. Some agents will not write an offer on a B of A short sale, which is basically hurting us all across the board.”

“And if they don’t learn from this,” Sherry says, “then I don’t know what it would take. They just have some serious, serious inside issues.”

“In no way shape or form are we in that optimal state, but we have vastly improved and we expect to continue to improve,” Vernon says.

We’ll be watching to see if Bank of America does improve. Remember, if you have a problem with a short sale, loan modification or any housing-related matter, Bank of America has opened two resource centers: one in Las Vegas and one in Henderson.

Bank of America resource centers
Henderson resource center
2285 Corporate Circle Suite 100
Call 1 – 877 – 345 – 6416

Las Vegas resource center
6900 Westcliff
Second floor
Appointments:
10 am – 7pm M – F
10am – 2pm Sat
Here is what you need to bring to the appointment:
-Copy of most recently filed tax return for each borrower.
– Copy of two most recent pay stubs covering 30 days or documentation of other income (e.g., Social Security, Disability, Unemployment, public assistance).
– Copy of most recent profit/loss statement (if self-employed).
– Alimony, child support or separation maintenance supporting documentation.
– For rental income, most recent two years’ filed federal tax returns, including schedule E.
– Copy of homeowner’s insurance bill and most recent property tax bill (if not paid through Bank of America).

We should also note that Bank of America says they completed 10,000 short sales nationwide in the month of June the most in their history.

They remind homeowners that the short sale process is primarily investor driven and Bank of America approves a short sale subject to investor approval.

Source: C13 News Las Vegas

© 2010-19 FORECLOSURE FRAUD | by DinSFLA. All rights reserved.

Lets not act surprise…by now we all know ANYTHING the US GOVERNMENT touches turns to ___________!

Because these lying banksters get away with ________________! We should foreclose on their _____________and kick them to the curb! Get your stress out and fill in the blank!

WE are not fools and we do not believe one thing they say!

Potentially “thousands” of troubled homeowners were denied opportunities to lower their monthly mortgage payments under the Obama administration’s signature foreclosure-prevention plan due to servicer errors and inadequate oversight by the Treasury Department, a government audit has found.

Mortgage servicers failed to comply with basic guidelines, used different criteria to evaluate borrowers, recorded error rates up to six times their established thresholds, and couldn’t provide evidence that potentially eligible homeowners had been solicited for the administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program, also known as HAMP.

The errors are partly due to Treasury’s failure to issue specific guidelines for servicers to follow, and the administration’s lack of quality-control standards. Because servicers aren’t required to adhere to the same set of standards, there’s a risk that firms aren’t identifying practices “that may lead to inequitable treatment of borrowers or harm taxpayers through greater potential for fraud or waste,” according to a Thursday report by the Government Accountability Office.

But even if servicers were fraudulently modifying loans or improperly denying modifications to distressed homeowners, Treasury “has yet to establish specific consequences or penalties for noncompliance,” the GAO notes. The department has yet to fine any servicers for noncompliance, according to the report.

Already, “Treasury specifically allows some differences in how servicers evaluate borrowers… that could result in inconsistent outcomes for borrowers,” the report found.

The end result could be the “inequitable treatment” of struggling homeowners who were looking to an administration for help during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. HAMP is the centerpiece of the administration’s $75 billion effort to stem the rising tide of foreclosures.

“I find it saddening and frustrating that none of these problems, which we among other people identified to Treasury over a year ago, have been meaningfully addressed,” said Diane E. Thompson, a lawyer with the National Consumer Law Center. “And as a result, we lost a major opportunity to stem the foreclosure crisis.”

Continue reading….here

© 2010-19 FORECLOSURE FRAUD | by DinSFLA. All rights reserved.

House Targets Underwater Homeowners

The House GOP launched an assault Thursday on homeowners who walk away from underwater mortgages, arguing that such foreclosed-on former homeowners are using the money they save to dine out and go on cruises.

“The Wall Street Journal has reported on families that have chosen to stop paying their mortgage and instead use the extra money they are saving each month to ‘buy season tickets to Disneyland…take a Carnival cruise to Mexico…’ and go out to dinner more often,” says House Republican leadership in an e-mail to colleagues explaining the anti-strategic-default effort.

In other words, consumers with more money tend to spend it, spurring demand — exactly what the economy needs. More than a few economists argue that the ongoing jobless crisis is a direct result of a lack of consumer demand. A homeowner stuck in an underwater mortgage is, each month, paying off a mortgage that is worth more than their home. The increased cost of housing means that money that could otherwise could be circulated through the economy – at restaurants, Disneyland, or on cruises, for instance – is sent off to Wall Street, whose profits have been soaring despite the economic downturn.

The GOP offered its provision as “motion to recommit,” which is one of the minority party’s few ways to amend a bill on the floor. Known as an MTR, the motion is generally stripped out in the Senate if it is adopted in the House. Such measures are put forward more to score political points than to craft policy, but the mood of the House can sometimes be gleaned from the vote’s outcome. In this case, Democrats chose not to fight, and accepted the motion with a simple voice vote.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com and an adviser to John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, says that strategically defaulting is “a form of stimulus, a little tax cut.” Estimates of the number of homeowners are underwater range from 10 to 15 million.

Dean Baker, an economist with the progressive-leaning Center for Economic Policy and Research, agreed that strategic defaults are good for the economy, but also noted the irony that the GOP effort interferes with the market.

When Democrats were pushing to enact “cram down,” which would allow judges to rewrite mortgage contracts in bankruptcy court, conservative Democrats and the GOP argued that it would violate the “sanctity of the contract.”

There is only sanctity, however, for one side of that contract. “It also disgusts me that the Republicans would use Big Government to interfere with the sanctity of contract,” said Baker in an e-mail. “Those who do a strategic default are complying with their contract. The deal was that the banks get back the house if the homeowner doesn’t pay the mortgage. Now, the Republicans are arguing that the nanny state has to look out for the little boys and girls at the big banks who are too dumb to understand contracts. They are going to use the power of the government to punish people because they acted on the terms of the contract to the disadvantage of the banks.”

Baker said that the GOP position should put to a rest the assumption that liberals favor big government while conservatives favor free markets. He doubted that it would, however.

“It’s kind of an overreach by the federal government, isn’t it?” teased Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the Education & Labor Committee, when told of the GOP motion. He said he hadn’t been aware of the voice vote, but said he was sure it wouldn’t become law. The motion, he said, is indicative of GOP priorities.

“They’re back to punishing the poor guy that got stuck with the subprime mortgage and we haven’t yet figured out what to do with the people who gave them the mortgage,” said Miller.

This story has been updated to include the Democratic acceptance of the MTR.

Read the GOP memo on their motion to recommit:

From: Vieson, Chris Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2010 10:15 AM Subject: WHIP LD Alert: Republican Motion to Recommit FHA Reform
The Republican Motion to Recommit H.R. 5072, the FHA Reform Act, would amend the bill to prohibit individuals who strategically default on their mortgage from accessing the FHA program and protect taxpayers from financing a bailout of FHA programs.

Strategic Defaults

A strategic default occurs when a borrower decides to stop paying their mortgage even though they can still afford their payments. It is usually undertaken by those who owe more on their mortgage than their home is currently worth.

The Wall Street Journal has reported on families that have chosen to stop paying their mortgage and instead use the extra money they are saving each month to “buy season tickets to Disneyland…take a Carnival cruise to Mexico…” and go out to dinner more often.

Companies have even sprung up to capitalize on the new trend with websites advising people (for a fee) on how to go about a strategic default. These companies actually advertise that after a few years an individual who chooses to default on their mortgage should be able to buy a home again, including through government loan agencies.

60 Minutes reported on individuals who defend their decision to strategically default saying, “…with the money savings that I will have in four to six years, I’m confident I’ll have money to buy my way into a house if I want to.”

Strategic defaults raise costs for responsible borrowers, many of whom may currently be struggling to make their mortgage payment themselves, but who take their obligations to pay their debts seriously. The MTR would ensure that no one who chooses to simply stop paying their mortgage, even though they can afford to do so, is able to benefit in the future from the government’s FHA program.

Future Bail-Outs

The Republican motion also protects American taxpayers from possible future bailouts of FHA programs. Washington currently has a bailout culture at the expense of hard-working Americans and this MTR puts into place protections against FHA receiving a taxpayer-backed bailout.

The Republican MTR is a vote to expose and prevent fraud and abuse from FHA and protect the American taxpayer from another Washington bailout.

© 2010-19 FORECLOSURE FRAUD | by DinSFLA. All rights reserved.