Stop Foreclosure With Option One – Mariana From Illinois= Sad Story

by Moe Bedard · 16 comments

in Loan Workouts

Just received a call from Mariana from Illinois and she is trying to avoid foreclosure and save her home. She needed help and she has been getting the run around from Option One mortgage since April.

She was concerned because their loss mitigation department had just called after all this time and that they will work with her. They instructed her to send $3800 Western Union and that would bring things current and then she would be eligible for a loan modification. She asked for it in writing but they refused.

I instructed her not to send anything. Do not send money unless they put what they are saying in writing to you. Plan and simple. There are honest loss litigators and there are dishonest ones. Don’t gamble what little money you have on someones word.

Option One said they wouldn’t put it in writing. I say don’t send them a dime. make them put it in writing or ask to speak with a manager.

I then instructed her to call a local non profit to handle the rest of your loan modification. Her ARM  loan is set to adjust in October. She needs to do something quick to avoid foreclosure.

Mariana, let us know what happens and I wish you the best of luck.

Please go to www.LoanModification.org/forum to register and let’s start building our own SAFE community and doing our part to help other people avoid foreclosure.

Safe InvestmentsInvestment Property Recession Stocks and Business,   Work From Home, Make Money Online, Loan Modification, Home Loan, Short Sale, Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure, Mobile Home Loan, predatory lending, loan modification service, loan modification lawyer, countrywide home loans

{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }

1 John Q November 30, 2007 at 2:02 am

Don’t sign the loan docs if you don’t fully understand the program. Maybe counseling should be mandatory on all mortgages instead of only Reverse Mortgages?

2 Moe November 30, 2007 at 9:42 am

That’s what they pay the loan oficer for John. To explain the 2 inch thick documents, right? If not then why use a broker?

3 Po December 16, 2007 at 11:20 am

World Savings was one of the better banks while at the hype, many borrowers not only received the negative amortization explanation verbally, but they also confirmed it by signing yet a second confirmation notice before sending the documents to title. This was done to ensure they fully understood what they were getting into. By the way the World Savings Pick-A-Pay is still today one of the best options. Their Appraisals are realistic and carefully assessed, with risk in mind.

4 Reuben Nieves March 3, 2008 at 7:49 pm

I am a realtor and loan officer. I didn’t do to many loans and all of my people were able to afford it. However, I to have a loan with them. I did it through my company so we didn’t get any rebate. The interest rate was 6.7 to state and 1 month later they jacked it up to 7.4%. I called and complained but it didn’t do any good. They never did send me any disclosures as to how much I would be losing by having the minimum payment. I was told by World Savings that the rate was pretty stable and that it was because it was indexed to the cost of savings. I am currently losing $925 per month in equity. Their lending predatory lending practices in the subprime and pick and pay loans where they used stated income stated assets which led to the housing crisis and massive forclosures because they simply will not address the problems at its source. They really wont negotiate with the owners. They would rather wreck the economy than to work with borrowers. They wanted to charge me $600 for modifying my loan. They were negligent by doing foreclosures which affected the value of everybodies homes. When people tried to refinance they were told that the appraised value was below the mortgage therefore they couldn’t refinance. Some bought cheaper houses and then did a short sale on the home they had lived in. They also ruined my ability to repay them on my mortgage so I have my house up for a short sale. I am now an un-named plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against Wachovia and World Savings on the pick and pay loan. Mandrigues v. World Savings Bank, Wachovia Bank, and does 1-10.

5 Reuben Nieves March 3, 2008 at 7:50 pm

Please update me on any new developments via email. Reuben.nieves@yahoo.com

6 Jane Ferguson March 7, 2008 at 5:43 pm

I have a story very similar to Reuben’s . A broker for World Savings put me in a terrible loan 2 years ago, which she claimed would put me in a better situation than the first and second I had going at the time. This person sent out flyers several times with quotes of $1600-1700 per month for the amount I needed to refinance, and it was on World Savings letterhead. I fully believed that she was an employee of World Savings and would be doing things in my best interest. There was a time during the the loan process where she faxed me a form and asked me to sign it without filling anything in, because “she had all my information and was just making a nice copy for the loan approval dept. After hearing similar stories during this real estate crisis, I recently ordered copies of the original loan application- I was shocked to see that she had filled in my income as $8500 per month! I’m a school teacher who makes roughly half that amount. These documents were not made available to me during the closing escrow process and that whole thing also turned into a race against time which I think was probably another tact this broker used to get me to go with this loan. She was unavailable for several days and then suddenly she was calling me telling me we had to sign within two days or it was going to cost me more $$. The escrow officers could barely speak a word of English and were very hard for me to understand. I know I sound foolish for having gone through with this loan, but I truly thought that World Savings bank (whom I already had my previous loan with) were not in the business of trying to take people for all they had. In addition, the prepayment penalty they included has held me captive in getting another loan or even selling for a lowered price, as the penalty amount is huge even if I sold.
I would think that World Saving should have had to verify my income- I submitted my actual income when applying for the loan. If there are others out there with similar stories, we could have strength in numbers against these things that were done in the name of greed.

7 gatorbait March 7, 2008 at 11:20 pm

Reuben and Jane-world savings niche was the stated income and low-no doc as well as foreign national loans before being bought by wachovia so this is basically the only product they sold.

Jane-Were you placed in the cosi or cofi loan? did you not get a chance to sign a copy of the application at closing? the rate really should not have “blown up” becuase it is based of of what is paid out on savings and in fact banks are paying less on savings that a year ago so you should see some reduction? Also if you pay interest only you will not have neg-am.

Reben and Jane: the pick a pay loan typically has a fixed rate component to it (3-5 years) and you can select to pay the interest only which is close to the min payment option. You should also have a 30-40 year option as well. The max adjustment for the cofi, cosi and MTA loans have historically been approx 2% year over year. If your payment spiked up did you check your escrow balance and make sure there was not a shortgage for insurance or taxes….in a lot of cases this is the culprit in a huge increase in monthly payment.

Check it out also look into the copy closing package for the signatures to make sure it is yours…I have heard of lo’s who will sign the clients name on missing docs….check the TIL your were intially sent and see if this matches the final one you signed at closing.

8 DE March 11, 2008 at 9:41 pm

During a three week span, we received many flyers from World Saving with “too good to be true” loans and additionally many calls from this same loan officer. So we decided to inquire about their 10 year I/O unfortunately they did not offer one. Then we inquired about their 30 year fixed rate jumbo loan to see if they could beat the lender we were currently working with. The World Savings Loan Officer continually pressured us to take the Pick-A-Pay ARM loan saying “you’re making a mistake we have the best loan. Think of all the money you’ll be saving on monthly payments.” He would expound talking elaborately about vacations and such. He ignored our inquiries about the 30 year fixed loan even though we stated the only reason we were interested was because the rates at the time had never been historically lower. He said the WS Pick-A-Pay ARM loan was based on the slow moving COSI index. When I explained we were already working with a different lender he inquired who it was and what kind of loan we were getting. I told him I didn’t feel we could get out of the loan; he asked “have you signed with them?” I replied “no.” He quickly informed we were under no obligation to complete the loan, just tell them you changed your mind. After sharing some information about our other prospective lender he said the WS loan was much better because the Pick-A-Pay month to month offered four payment amount options which give the borrower the flexibility to choose how much they want to pay monthly. I told him we were very leery as we had never had an ARM loan and at this time since the rates were historically low we believed it was better to stick with a fixed rate loan. He finally alluded to emailing us an Excel spreadsheet comparing the WS 30 year fixed jumbo rate side by side with the Pick-A-Pay; during the confirmation call that we received his email he added the promise we could be switched out of the ARM if the rates moved unfavorably while we have our the Pick-A-Pay loan.
Due to what looked like a better bottom line I informed the other loan company we were already in process with that we changed our mind. Needless to say he was shocked as they had already paid for an appraisal ($550) and full title documentation; we were within 5 days of closing with them on a 10 year I/O. Our other loan officer asked why and if we were looking at a different loan, well, we told him about the WS Pick-A-Pay option loan, he immediately said it was a very bad loan. I explained all the fine point our WS Loan Officer was offering us; he maintained the loan was a very dangerous! He advised us to ask WS directly whether or not the loan could accrue negative amortization or deferred interest. He explained in a warning tone how WS Pick-A-Pay option loan was a very dangerous loan and not to take it. He pleaded for us not to do it (we received a loan offer from him a couple months ago December 2007).
Anyway, after ending the call with the other lender I called WS and inquired point blank whether or not the loan could accrue negative amortization or deferred interest. Our WS Loan Officer replied “This loan isn’t negative am.; the other lender just wants your loan to charge you more. Who do you trust WS who has the #1 rating with JD Powers or some other lender you never heard of except off a radio ad? WS has been around for years you have nothing to worry about this loan will never accrue negative amortization or deferred interest. Think of all the money you’ll be saving!”
We began the documentation process via phone and fax. We disclosed the silent third on house, but our WS loan officer said it wasn’t an issue, yet the title Company made us get a subordination sign off from our third party lender thus delaying our closing by 9 business days.
We were promised the loan would close no later than October 17, 2005, but it took much longer to close, November 1st 2005, well beyond promised date.
We received our mailed GFE two days before closing everything else was faxed, emailed, or verbal.
At closing we discovered the World Savings loan officer had lied about our rate, he promised we were safely locked, also if the rates went down before signing he would lower our rate, but at closing/signing our rate was ½% higher than promised. We called him, but he would not return our calls instead relaying messages through the title company that is until the last day we could rescind on the loan.
WS added a pre-payment penalty clause the day AFTER we signed causing the notary to come out the day after we signed for additional documentation. At this point we were backed against the wall and agreed to it just wanting to finally close this loan and move on; yes, we had complete faith in WS.
Due to the delayed closing we were charges over 7k in interest on our loan; in addition our loan cost MORE than quoted per our GFE! Which prevented us from rolling our consumer debt into our 1st mortgage, also we were promised 25k at closing but only received 12k due to their dishonestly and poor loan servicing.
The day we signed, because the payments occurred on fixed dates which were always before our paychecks deposited in our bank account, we called our loan officer and informed him we were ready to rescind. Our WS Loan Officer informed us it wasn’t necessary that all we had to do was request different payment dates from WS Customer Service (yet what we would discover way another lie!). I called WS Customer Service, but because it was a new loan we were told we had to wait. We waited 3 weeks before anyone could look up the loan and discuss the issues regarding the payment dates that we needed changed. At that time we were informed it was a Bi-weekly Payment schedule and therefore the payment dates were fixed; the only option we had was to pay to be removed from the Bi-weekly Payment schedule. I told the WS Customer Service Representative how our WS loan officer promised we could choose the dates to make our mortgage payments. They apologized for the misunderstanding and said there was nothing they could do!
In May of 2007 we paid the necessary fee ($150) to be removed from the Bi-weekly Payment schedule, but WS never processed our request! When we inquired we were told we could only switch to a new payment plan if we went forward with an Equity Loan. To date they never refunded our fees!!!
We had documented income, but months later we discovered our crafty loan broker based the loan amount on income PLUS bonus checks we told him were not guaranteed income. My husbands’ job is in the housing market and we are not receiving bonuses. Now we are stuck with a loan we can not afford. In the last two years we have only been able to make the minimum payment on our Pick-A-Pay loan which we quickly discovered caused us deferred interest to the tune of 30k to date! Sadly, this is the very thing we were promised the loan could never have. We have called WS many times over the past two years to negotiate the refinance or modification of our loan to an affordable payment, but WS is not helping us in the least.
Lastly, our loan officer promised we could refinance our loan for a small $200 fee if the rates went up without any costs out of pocket. He promised he would personally call us and take care of it himself…hmmm, never heard from him again the crook!!!

All I can surmise is these shady predatory lenders do not see the consumer/homeowner as people with lives and families we are hoping to avoid selling our home, but we are in a very poor situation at a cross roads where something has to give. Not sure what to do; “Once bitten twice shy.”

Yes, we too are hoping for a Class Action Suit against World Savings/Wachovia Bank for Predatory Lending practices. We definitely want to stay in the loop as we believe World Savings has shrewdly taken advantage of us and they are not going to get away with it (period!).

9 Jane Ferguson March 12, 2008 at 12:07 pm

DE I left out the details you provided but many of those exact same things happened to me during my loan process with this loan officer or broker, whoever she was. She definitely lied about my stated income- I provided my accurate income and did not lie. This person inflated my income to nearly twice what I make so that she could make her money on the loan.
I was hesitant about this being a better loan than what I had, and this person assured me that I was getting a much better deal- every time I spoke with her, she mentioned the “lower monthly payment” and how much I would be saving every month. That’s the part I remember most about our conversations. I don’t remember anything being clearly brought out about how a negative amount of interest (a huge amount per month)would be added back on to my principal each month. Yes, it was the “Pick a Pay” loan, and she never brought out the incredibly terrible things that happen when you pick the “minimum payment”. That’s the only payment she mentioned when she sold me the loan.
Call me naive, but I pictured this woman sitting in a World’s Savings office at her desk when I talked to her, and that World Savings being a bank, would treat its customers with respect and truth. Now that I am short selling my home, and adding up my losses, I see that I have been taken. I guess I’ve learned a valuable lesson, but still feel that the bank should be held liable for dealing with brokers/loan officers who have preyed on average people who tell the truth, and expect the same in return.

10 Lynn Wells March 18, 2008 at 3:55 pm

I need help. Loan 2002. Same issues. I am on SS Disability
for damage from chemo. I have requested copies of the loan documents by mail and phone and fax numerous times. My attempts to refinance with Wachovia/World in 2006 were refused (I was told) due to a “30 day late” from a previous loan through World that involved a terribly illegal issue. I filed an ignored complaint with FCC(?)FTD(?). My payment has gone up $800 a month. The MINIMUM payment (only payment for that matter)is now
$2713 up from $1900. My loan was by a “Phone Broker” at World Savings in Norther Cal. Me and my home are in Nevada. I have additional medical treatment required. I will lose my home. Can you help?

11 ELIZABETH HOFFMAN April 28, 2008 at 10:04 am

I am a loan holder with World Savings/ Wachovia. Who knows how I can get involved in the class action suit?? Please someone email me with the info… Elizabizzy@hotmail.com

12 Reuben Nieves May 11, 2008 at 9:40 am

Perhaps no one realuzes, but 95% of the foreclosures in California are non-judicial foreclosures. This means that they dont need to take you to court to foreclose on you. You may have defenses to the foreclosures but that wont happen in this type of foreclosure. No right to a jury trial either. You may also not realize that in the loan docvuments you sign for a World Savings, and Wachovia Bank loan their is a provision where you irrevocably assign your interest over to a Trustee for the benefit of the lender with a power of sale. The only time you see this agreement is at close of escrow where the escrow officer races through the explanations and then you sign.
What gets me is that World Savings Bank, and Wachovia Mortgage Bank are national banks under a federal charter and as such instrumentalities of the federal government. The federal government can not take your property without procedural due process which is a violation of the 5th Amendment. Neither should an instrumentality of the federal government. World Savings and Wachovia were complicit with all the other lenders in creating this economic crisis. They should be held accountable. These foreclosures should be stopped and mortgages adjusted to the appraised value. Foreclosures damage everybody negatively even their own properties and the properties of other lenders. This spiral downward in the economy has still a long run to go. Are we going to wait for this to happen. The government is doing nothing to stem this result. The 800 hope number they tout should be called 800 hopless. You call them and tell them your problem and they tell you to call the lender and negotiate with them. They dont negotiate. In my case they give me a loan and then destroy the business that I depend to earn a living and repay them. I have filed a lawsuit against World Savings Bank, and Wachovia in the Sacramento division of the Eastern District of California. I have had to file this action as a pro se plaintiff because I can not afford an attorney and in canvassing some attorney I realize that the one’s I contacted are arrogant and pompous and do not take the time to really analyze the case. They are quick to collect a check. I did legal research for two attorney and wrote the motions for one of them so I know something about doing research. I am 65 years old and this may very well be my last home. I am really mad at these lenders.

13 Linda May 13, 2008 at 7:12 pm

I have taken equity out of my house a number of times. the last several times it has appraised at 600K. Just 6 months ago when I tried to refinance it appraised at 625K. I was unable to refinance as I have lost my job and my credit is now bad. I am forced to sell my house to avoid foreclosure. The house needs major repairs….everyone knew that. Some are saying that anyone purchasing would need to tear it down and build another house. Now I keep lowering the sale price, but no offers at all. I am down to 479K and looking to lower again. I know the market is depressed, but if my house had never been appraised for so much more than it is actually worth, I would have been turned down for the loans and my payment would still be low enough for me to not default. I just started wondering if there is some sort of unlawful practice with the appraisal/mortgage process that got me into this mess and do I have any recourse to hold them liable.

Linda

14 Donna May 19, 2008 at 10:50 pm

I’m a REALTOR and have a client who is buying his first property in the U.S. (he has property abroad). He has been talked into a Wachovia COSI by a loan officer he has done business loans with. After speaking with his loan officer I still don’t see the benefit of this COSI loan over a 30 yr. fixed rate. My client’s goal is to be able to pay off his house in 10-15 years…and have paid the least amount of interest in doing so.
His ’start-up’ COSI is ‘fixed’ for three years at 6.85!! which to me seems very high in this market. The lifetime CAP is 11.95% also high….is the COSI really a good loan in today’s market??

15 chris May 21, 2008 at 6:32 pm

I am slightly upside down in a world savings/wachovia mortgage! I would love to be able to communicate with someone that can hear my situation and possibly pass on some knowledge!
Mail4cpatton@gmail.com
thanks!

16 Alicia Smith August 2, 2009 at 5:13 pm

Im also upside down in my wachovia pick a pay mortgage and I need advice. Id also like to know more about the class action. Thanks! (aliceumana@yahoo.com)

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