Option One is the latest lender to implode, according to ML-Implode.com. Here is the letter to brokers from Option One indicating that they are not accepting any new loan originations.
From ML-Implode;
Fresh news from the Associated Press, and published everywhere is the headline, “Cerberus, H&R Block End Mortgage Deal.”
“Cerberus Capital Management LP and H&R Block Inc. said Tuesday they terminated their agreement for Cerberus to purchase H&R Block’s mortgage subsidiary…”
As one of our readers said “They gave it a good run.” As stated in the Wall Street Journal:
“As a result, Option One has stopped originating new loans and will close that part of its operations. H&R Block also plans to sell the unit’s mortgage-servicing business.”
H&R Block said it will lay off about 620 employees, close three offices and take a $75 million restructuring charge.
This is from the Option One web site:
Dec. 4, 2007
“Today, Option One’s parent company, H&R Block Inc., announced that effective immediately Option One will cease accepting new mortgage loan applications.”
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Another one bites the dust.
“But for now, many homeowners will have to fight the battle with their lenders or servicers one call, one fax, one headache at a time and many, will succumb to the pressure and just give up out of frustration or run out of time and face the inevitable, foreclosure.”
MOE, I think this is true. I think there are two many requirements, less than 3% equity is a joke and no neg. amor. loans is a horrible decision. I don’t like the less than 660 FICO score, and the requirement that the loan be current or less than 30 days. All of this says to me they’ve boxed out many people who NEED the help but will, under this criteria NOT receive it.
How about the many homeowners, like myself, who were defrauded?
I’m “trying” to be positive about what has been accomplished but yes JacMac, there were thousands of borrowers that were defrauded. There will be hundreds of thosuands that will have to do what you are doing and fighting with their lender one day, call, fax, headache etc at a time.
You know how difficult it is to get anywhere and you are a strong woman. You fight daily for what’s right. You are the minority. Imagine the people that are not as strong as you, they are just throwing in the towel by the 3rd or 4th call. Their Done, another foreclosure statistic.
There needs to be infrastructure to handle the case by case loan modifications that need to be done. For the people that do not “fall” into this Hope Now plan.
You know I will keep reporting on what lenders and servicers are really doing and I hope soon, it will be better news than this for borrowers such as yourself. But for now, this is it.
I am doing my best to help homeowners by giving them tools and also a website that gets a lot of traffic to have their voices heard. Hopefully more like you, will do just that.
Hmm… ok so what you are telling me is that I should default on my current mortgage then so i can qualify??? Sounds good to me…
Gosh, how horrible is it that this has come down to me and my huasband taking every dime we make to try to keep paying on our mortgage that we adjusted a fwe months ago and we have done it. And just because our credit score is too high we can’t qualify. FRUSTRATING!!! Also, we are the ones who actually want to make our payment just not like 4200 a month like we’ve been….. really really sucky.. thanks Georgie.
Yes Amanda, not much help for a lot of borrowers. But hang in there, you may get relief. If you can afford the reset, then it will be very hard/ If you can prove that you can’t then you may have a shot. Depending on your lender or servicer of course.
It is very fustrating. My husband and I re-financed our home 3 yrs ago with Wells Fargo, (before 2005), we have been in our home for 10 years. We had hoped we could re-finance our home before our loan adjusted which it did adjust on 11-3-2007. We could never re-finance because somehow our home would not appraise for what we owed. Go figure, how Wells got it to appraise for so much I will never know. We have been in Loss mitigation for 5 months now with no results. Our payment now is more than we can pay and still have living expenses (and I am talking about things like utilities and groceries). The only thing that qualifies us for this plan set forth is our credit score which has been trashed by all this. All we asked Wells to do was give us a fixed rate and add some years to mortgage which they refused to do. We could have kept house and they would still get their money. Mind you we are not stupid people who bit off more than we could chew. We really thought we could re-finance before the adjustment. We had almost perfect credit before all this drama. Maybe we should have just filed bancruptcy 3 years ago instead of re-fincing house to consolidate bills. I think we would be better off today, and that is a shame. Oh yea , our loan also re-sets every six months now. I am about to hand over the keys. I am sick of it.
Why does the government, lender, or servicer have to help all theses people? Sorry folks but if you can not afford a mortgage, sell your home or are foreclosed. I\’e2\’80\’99m tired of hearing about people who can not take responsibility for their own actions. Unaffordable loans don\’e2\’80\’99t cause foreclosures directly. Even as subprime lending became more common, even when people fell behind on mortgage payments – during the economic downturn in 2001, for example – foreclosures were rare because house prices continued to rise. In part, people were able to escape trouble by selling their homes at prices high enough to cover their debts. But the research also suggests that troubled borrowers tried harder to make the necessary payments, in the expectation they would profit eventually. Conversely, when prices started falling, people struggling to make payments had less incentive to find the money. And the value of the home could drop below the outstanding debt, making it impossible to sell. Over the last two years, the number of foreclosures exploded
I bought my house Oct. 2002, for $118,000 first with Republic and they sold to Countrywide, the 1st year was about $680 a month, 2nd year went up to $745 and 3rd year up to $959.00 . April 2005, I refinanced to a rate of 5.3% locked for 2 yrs and then told after 2 yrs the adj rate would kick in and just found it goes up every 6 mo. now I’m at 8.3 and my house payment went up $100 in Dec. to go up again in 6 mo. I was told by New Century who is no longer in busines they would flag my account and in 2 years as long as my credit stayed the same I would change to a fixed rate. They are no longer around. I’m being priced right out of my house. I bought the house on my own as a first time home buyer with Countrywide under the Nehimah program as I had no down. As my loan was creeping up to almost $1,000 I thought I was being smart to refinance with New Century. By the way they appraised my house for $125,000. I bought it for $118,000. Now I have a 2nd mortg. that never goes down $24,000 and owe about $96,000 on the 1st Mortage. I’ve never been late but am barely getting by now, only with my sons help. One Finance company told me my house was only worth $115,000, what a mess when it should be worth $135-140.