Until recently, the Bush administration has focused on getting banks and lenders to restructure or refinance home loans, but critics say it is unclear how many people will be helped.
Bruce Marks, the chief executive of the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, which works with lenders to restructure loans under terms that homeowners can afford, said giving loans to homeowners improperly focused public frustration on borrowers instead of banks and lenders.
“Before you criticize other people, ask your family members, ask your neighbor, ask your co-workers whether their home is at risk of foreclosure, and you will find that the people closest to you are about to lose their homes but they’re too embarrassed to tell you and to reach out for help,” Mr. Marks said. “That’s how pervasive this crisis is.”
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Bruce Marks is correct. I fall into the category of embarrassment about the situation I’ve allowed myself to get into, but not too ashamed to seek help from NACA. I met with a NACA counsel on February 20, 2008. After reading several of your posts, I now believe that there may be RESPA violations in my case too. I believe so be because during my counseling session at NACA, it was revealed to me that I had signed loan documents for 40 year predatory loan. I never give the option to change my mind. At the time of the signing, all I new was that I wanted a home of my own. My realtor had drive out to his home and sign loan documents in his kitchen. He never explained any of the terms of any of the agreements to me, at all. Boy was I set up to fail, but he did say that you will be able to refinance this house is 6 months, with no problems.
Hey guys my post is filled with typos…i’m not perfect, just worried sick about my situation. I hope that you can look past the typos. Thanks.
Pamela, what did NACA do about this? Did they help you and what as the outcome? You can visit our homeowners forum at http://www.LoanSafe.org and get help there.
Moe,
I have not heard anything from NACA. I called for a status update today and remain hopeful. Where should I send my info to at LoanSafe?
Thanks.
Naca is bunch of hype they make promises and do not keep them they took our money for membership. this is in Inglewood california and there no one else to speak with or to complain with other than the website and we do not know if our complain when anywhere. Our lender just led us on..very disappointed they have no integrity, or morals. No communication with them they lead you on thinking they are doing the job. They offered no help just waited and wasted time. I would not recommend them at all.
Let me tell you about CountryWide Home Loans. I have had them since 1997 and they have to be the WORST company in the nation to deal with, you can call them on the phone and end up speaking to five different people who will in turn give you five different answers about your loan and most of what they will tell you is incorrect.
I am just an average person like everyone else, just trying to make it. Got divorced in 1999, filed bankruptcy twice but manage to keep my house. So what you might ask and how does that relate to this? Well, in 2007 CountryWide sent me letters that my house payment was being raised, I had been paying $1400.00 a month, then I was told it was going to $1600.00 then finally $1870.00. When your trying to hold things together and things keep going up you get to point where something has to give and I could not make those payments, in the meantime, I had my attornney try and find out why this was happening, I DID NOT HAVE A VARIABLE RATE MORTGAGE. My attorney contacted CountryWide and they sent him information, my attorney could not figure out what they were doing so he had to take it to an accoutant and he could not figure out how they were keeping there books. In the meantime, the house goes into foreclosure and I tried contacting CountryWide to work something out but they refused to talk to me and there only comment was this is a business decision “Sorry” So I got creative, looked up Mr. Mozilo on the internet, went to a pay site and was able to obtain addresses for his office and homes. I penned up a letter explaining my situation and sent them CERTIFIED MAIL. To there credit I did get a call from his secretary that they would look into my situation but in the end they came back and said “Too bad for you” Just so you know I was not ask for anything odd, like just forget about my loan or just give me the house for free, I wanted to pay whatever was owed.
So, with my house going up for sheriffs sale I went to the county where I live and they directed me to reputable specialists who help to prevent foreclosure. With the help of a group called ESOP (Eastside Organizing Project) THIS IS NOT A PLUG FOR THEM. They helped me get a workout that was signed in January of 2008. This looked a very good deal for me and CountryWide. NOBODY LOST ANYHTING. I signed off on the deal and FedEx’d it back. End of Story? Well….not really. With the signed agreement my first new payment was no due until March of 2008. When we did the agreement I came up with $3000.00 and that took care of the March payment ahead of time. So my first real payment was April 1st. Anticapiting that things might not go well I mailed the payment using a money order not a personal check, this took care of any issues of the funds not being in my account. (i.e. no bounced checks) and I also sent it overnight mail so I would have receipts and nobody could say they did not get the payment, then I made my May payment the exact same way, I thought OK this is working out. How wrong I was, towards the end of May I got this card from CountryWide in the mail saying I was $50000.00 behind and that I needed to take care of this. I did not think too much of it as I have a signed workout agreement contract. June 1st I get a call from my wife saying that my May payment was returned, as in the sent my un-cashed money order back saying thanks for your effort but its not enough. I am like what the hell is this about. I called CountryWide at the number listed on the letter. First I was told I never made an April payment, then I was told we found it but it was put into my escrow account and I am like so what then I was told I was 34 days late with my May payment and they never got it. I told the guy on the phone that they did get it and mailed back to me and I also told hime I sent it overnight mail and I have receipts to prove it. Then I got transferred around to another guy who tells me I have no agreement that it was declined April 18 and I am like hold on here you don’t sign an agreement in January take $3000.00 tell me everything is fine and then in April say oh sorry. I asked the guy if he really had any clue what was going on here and he told me I can only tell you what I see on the screen and I said NO REALLY you have no idea what’s going on and he actually admitted he did not.
The guy ended up transferring me to the Workout Supervisor who of course was not there so I had to leave a voice mail message (June 1st) So I gave them a day to call me back and of course they did not. So on June 2 I called again and got someone in the workout department who then told me I did have an agreement but this time she told me it was declined by an investor on April 28 not the 18th like the other guy told me. I spent 45 minutes on the phone with her while she tried to get in touch with someone else in the workout department and while I was on hold we magically got cut off. I waited about a half hour and called back and I had the womans name that was working with me and asked to speak with her, now I was told I could not be transferred to her and they were in a call center and it did not work that way. I insisted to speak with her and I was told he could send her an e-mail and she might call me back, he did tell me he could assist me and I just told him NO WAY I am not going to explain this all over again. So, where am I at with all this? Don’t know.
I did check the court website that says what is going on with your case because I was in foreclosure and found out my case was dismissed because I entered into an agreement with CountryWide. Case dismissed on 04/29/08. But now CountryWide tells me I have no agreement but they dismissed the original case. CONFUSED YET?
MY ADVICE DON’T EVER GET A LOAN WITH COUNTRYWIDE