Huff Post

AWESOME!!!  The Huffington Post has picked up our struggle!!!  Check out the article here! 

Homeowners: Hey Congress, “Get Off Your A**” by Richard Zombeck

Servicer Report through September 2009

Sorry that I am late about posting this report.  It’s just me being “cynical sally” in thinking that this report really doesn’t mean much of anything at all. 

This is the Making Home Affordable Servicer Performance Report through September 2009.  PHH Mortgage is not listed on this report and has never been listen on this report.  The tiny writing at the bottom lists all the GSE (Government Sponsored Enterprise, which I believe are loans bought by Fannie or Freddie) servicers and PHH is not listed. 

I am fearful that if you are working with PHH on doing a HAMP modification that you are really not doing a HAMP modification. 

See the servicer report here

States May Go After Banks?

Yes, you read that correctly.  It appears that the Supreme Court paved the way for states to prosecute banks for lending fraud, known as the “Clearinghouse Ruling.”  Yes, the Supreme Court did make this ruling in June and it has taken until now for states to “ponder” these cases.  But, at least the attorney generals are thinking about going after the banks.  Apparently that is all we need in America these days, the ability to think about doing something and then to give a speech about it.  However, doing something would just take ethical and moral responsibility, something that our politicians lack.     

See the NY Times article here

McClatchy Investigates Goldman Sachs

My local paper ran some of these stories about McClatchy Newspaper’s investigation of Goldman Sachs.  I included a video from McClatchy about a couple who fought with Goldman Sachs to save their home.  The couple needed financial help after a natural disaster (fire) and could not get a hold of anyone at their mortgage servicer to help them.  Through bankruptcy court, they were able to figure out that Goldman Sachs owned the loan and the court “threatened to impose ‘significant sanctions’” on Goldman if they did not restructure the couple’s loan.  At the end of the clip, Ms. Fabos-Becker said, “It is outrageous that we can’t even know who our lenders are.” 

Video: Couple takes on Goldman

Read the article here

Mortgage Crisis Shows Why Financial Regulation is Needed

Please look at this site from McClatchy, it lists the percentage of mortgages in foreclosure in each state.  When you click further into the state, you can look at metro areas for their foreclosure stats.  Click here

Sign the new Petition

Sign The Petition To The U.S. Government From American Homeowners.  The Petition has over 1,000 signatures so far.  It could be a winner!

10 Easy Steps to Being a Mortgage Servicer

10 Easy Steps to Being a Mortgage Servicer
with a Money Back Guarantee

1. Become a Business
2. Open a Line of Credit
3. Pay $1 Million for 1,000 Loans Worth $100 Million
4. Use your line of credit to ADVANCE each payment to the investors
5. Accept monthly payments from the borrowers
6. Repay your advances with borrowers’ monthly payments
7. Make Money
8. Pretend to help customers while you delay reporting defaults
9. When you finally have to report a default, Foreclose….FAST
10. Lastly, above all else, play by the CRAs’ Rules so your rating remains high

For more information and details about items 1-10 on being a mortgage servicer, click here

PHH in NY Times Article!

Finally!  Just about an entire article was dedicated to PHH in Sunday’s NY Times!  Click Here to read it

A Federal Bankruptcy Judge in New York State determined that PHH did not have the correct documentation to legally foreclose on a house.  This is another “produce the note” type of situation that we have heard about.  The article also mentions securitizations which I have just read about in the the National Consumer Law Center’s newest report on foreclosures.  Stay tuned to this blog for more about securitizations.  Or read the report here

I am printing this NY Times article for reference later.  We need to make sure our attorneys know about this information.  We can’t assume that they know everything about mortgage servicers.

Update: HR 3126

Surprise, surprise; Barney Frank and his committee cohorts have voted 43 to 26 to approve exemptions for their bill, HR 3126; the Consumer Financial Protection Agency.  “Small” banks will be exempt from federal oversight while large banks will still be under federal oversight.  I guess when our mortgages are repackaged and sold, we should cross our fingers that the buying bank is large enough to be under federal scrutiny so we have someone to complain to when things go south.  Otherwise, we are doomed to be left out of complaining because our mortgage holder is considered “small” by Frank’s committee.

Ed Mierzwinski of the United States Public Interest Research Group summed up HR 3126 and our government perfectly when he told the NY Times that “the legislation had broad exceptions that swallow any rule it creates.” (1)

When I started this blog, I was the hopeful optimist.  Now I am the cynical pessimist.   

Source:
1. Bill Shields Most Banks From Review.  Stephen Labaton. 10/16/2009. NY Times. URL:  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/16/business/16regulate.html

Mortgage Cramdown

If the health care debate in Washington has shown us anything, it is that corporations own our politicians.  I have spent the past month thinking that this little ole blog of mine won’t amount to anything and why waste my time.  To be fair to myself, I still kept reading the papers and watching the news and had not really heard much about mortgage servicers lately.  Luckily I picked up a Business Week Magazine this week and found an article about mortgages!  (I should also add that I don’t believe that any elected official will do anything about mortgage servicers.  Please excuse my bitterness about my foreclosed house!)

Anyway, it seems that Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) has vowed to attach a “cramdown” amendment to every bill until it gets passed.  Cramdown is the Democrats catchy phrase answer to allowing bankruptcy judges to adjust mortgages.  They would also be more inclined to reduce principal and interest.  Recall from previous posts that reducing principal and interest are the best tools for mortgage modifications in HAMP.  Apparently this proposal passed the House and was lost in the Senate on a 45-51 vote¹.   Undeterred, Durbin has promised to fight on.  I suppose he will hang on until a bank lobbyist gives him a big campaign contribution to shut up! 

Business Week did not give any specifics about the cramdown legislation and I was not able to find any information about it on Sen. Durbin’s website.  Business Week did not provide details regarding the cramdown’s passage in the House; like which bill the proposal was imbedded into. 

Obviously letting judges modify mortgages is a good idea.  These days, any good idea that has lobbyists fighting over its demise is good for the American people!

Hopefully I can put my foreclosure bitterness aside and keep fighting the good fight.  I don’t think we will win but I suppose we can keep trying. 

Sources:
 1. Return of the Mortgage Cramdown. Theo Francis. Business Week. 10/19/2009. 
  http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_42/b4151052063508.htm

A Foreclosure Tsunami Part 1

Hi folks, I’m back from vacation!  I just finished reading Ms. Diane E. Thompson’s written testimony to the U.S. Senate regarding HAMP (Home Affordable Modification Program).  HAMP is a program started by the Obama administration as part of their Making Home Affordable program.  THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION: 75% of ALL mortgages in the U.S. are eligible for HAMP!  That said, finding a mortgage servicer who actually participates and handles the program correctly is another story all together.  As usual, the mortgage servicers aren’t really providing the necessary relief for homeowners under HAMP as this testimony highlights and as we already know from our experiences. 

A majority of the issues in this testimony, I have either experienced or read about before.  I will assume the same can be said for you.  What is refreshing and comforting is that at least someone in the U.S. Senate knows it too.  What remains to be seen is whether or not any changes come out of this testimony. 

For the full testimony, Click Here

Here are some excerpts I thought may be of interest to you.  If you are trying to obtain a loan modification using HAMP, please read this testimony in its entirety so that you know what your rights are in this program. 

Foreclosure and Modification Statistics

• 13 million foreclosures are estimated between the years 2008-2014.
• Currently, 12% of mortgages are past due and 7% are delinquent.
• 8% of loans were modified in 2007-2008
• In most cases, modifications reduced payments but increased the principal balance.

Summary of Loan Modifications

• In order to avoid a foreclosure tsunami, loan modifications that lower the principal amount is the only viable option.  Even participating mortgage servicers of HAMP are still unwilling to lower the principal amount. 
• To date, mortgage servicers under HAMP are a) not providing a sufficient number of loan modifications to homeowners, b) modifications offered do not meet the guidelines of HAMP, and c) HAMP still presents serious barriers to mass loan modifications.
• Homeowners are often not offered a loan modification prior to foreclosure sale.  Furthermore, this testimony advocates that foreclosure proceedings be stopped while in the process of modification.    
• The Net Present Value model (a model which determines whether the investor will make more money from a modification or foreclosure) should be made available to the public.  Plus, a second independent review and a place to complain should be available when a servicer rejects a loan modification application. 
• Second liens should be modified with the first lien. 
• Large servicers such as PHH Mortgage are not participating. 

Sources:
1.  Preserving Homeownership: Progress Needed to Prevent Foreclosures.  Written testimony of Diane E. Thompson, National Consumer Law Center and on behalf of National Association of Consumer Advocates.  Before the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.  7/16/09.
2. National Consumer Law Center: www.consumerlaw.org
3. National Association of Consumer Advocates: www.naca.net
4. U.S. Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee: http://banking.senate.gov/public
5. Making Home Affordable: www.makinghomeaffordable.gov