From the monthly archives:

May 2008

Boiler Room 2.0 – Investors Press Lenders on Bad Loans

Two bad loans go around the outside, around the outside, around the outside……………………
Two fraudulent loans go around the outside, around the outside, around the outside. Now, dosie doe your investor.
Looks like investors have finally got hip to the fact that they bought a bunch of fools gold on Wall Street.
Imagine that? These gigantic investment brokerages [...]

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Real Estate Agents Gone Wild – Homeowners Beware!

No, this isn’t a late night infomercial with the “Worlds Sexiest Realtors” showing off their assets. This is a sick and not so new phenomenon I call “Real estate agents gone wild.”
Take this article I picked up today in my Google Alerts:

Elias Escobedo, 41, lost his house earlier this month when it was foreclosed on, but not because he [...]

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Under Secretary for Domestic Finance Robert K. Steel Remarks Before the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy Subcommittee on the Underserved

Washington- Thank you and good morning. Let me first congratulate you on a timely and important meeting. I especially want to thank the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy and the Subcommittee on the Underserved for organizing this meeting.
In particular I want to thank the subcommittee chair, John Hope Bryant, as well as Council members [...]

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Foreclosure Nation: Squatters or Pioneers?

Mamyrah Prosper steps gingerly over ankle-high grass strewn with plastic bags and empty soda bottles in the yard of a vacant redbrick house in Miami’s Liberty City. She peers through a gap in a boarded-up window. “It looks in good shape,” she says. “I mean, the walls aren’t falling down. This is definitely one of [...]

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Will I go to jail because of my bills? Will I lose my kids because I am homeless?

Submitted by an American Homeowner:
The most crushing thing to me has been the judgement. Every single situation has a story behind it and they are NOT all bad.
Who is the “real” enemy here? Those who were spoon fed the American Dream and wanted a *home*? Who had poor education and were guilty of trusting their [...]

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Lenders are delaying deals that could save everyone – including the lenders themselves – a lot of time and money.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Banks say they want to help troubled homeowners, but they are delaying deals that could save everyone – including the lenders themselves – a lot of time and money.
Lenders are taking much longer than necessary to approve short sales, according to Duane LeGate, of House Buyers Network, a short sale specialist.
In [...]

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New York Fed Announces Formation of the Lawyers’ Foreclosure Intervention Network

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York today announced the formation of the Lawyers’ Foreclosure Intervention Network (LFIN), a pro bono pilot program cosponsored by the City Bar Justice Center, the legal services arm of the New York City Bar. Led by director Lynn Armentrout, LFIN has as its mission marshaling the resources of New [...]

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Fannie Mae boosts mortgage counseling program

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Fannie Mae, the largest provider of funding for U.S. residential loans, is boosting its program that pays counseling fees for delinquent borrowers as it works to curb foreclosures and its own losses.
Fannie Mae (FNM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is extending a temporary program to reimburse mortgage servicers for counseling costs through the [...]

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Obama criticizes John McCain saying that he is “out of touch with the struggles of working people.”

The candidates have been scurrying to obtain support from the American consumer. AKA, The American worker, blue collar folks or Homeowner Joe.
In their attempts to connect, are they just showing how disconnected they really are?
The guy suffering in the street is someone that all presidential candidates are out of touch with. How can any of the candidates [...]

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GUESS THIS MEANS THAT WE HAVE TO BE READY TO LOSE OUR HOME BEFORE WE CAN GET ANY HELP.

Submitted by Reader:
5/22/2008
To whom it may concern:

The letter sent below was responded too by ACCOUNT MANAGER IN THE WORK OUT DEPARTMENT NAMED SARAH, WHO ADVISED ME THAT THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN BE DONE UNTIL I AM DELINQUENT ON OUR PAYMENTS. THE GUIDE LINES THEY ARE GIVEN BY THERE LENDERS ONLY COVER PEOPLE WHO OUR [...]

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Countrywide Buys Homeowner’s Silence Over Angelo Mozilo’s “Disgusting” Email

Welcome to the new way of putting muzzles on homeowners that can shed some light on Countrywide’s widely known practice of customer abuse. Fix their loan in record time, give them a deal they could have never have thought of in their wildest dreams and make them sign a confidentiality agreement.
Such as the case of [...]

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Fight Your Mortgage Servicer With This Knock Out Punch

The facts are that the mortgage servicing arena is fraught with what I call “mortgage disservice.” Fee gouging and borrower abuse seem to be the typical MO’s of many servicing companies and with our current mortgage and housing crisis in full , this is a perfect opportunity for servicing companies to rake in massive fees [...]

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A Real Countrywide Email From the Office of Angelo Mozilo – Email Below Calls Homeowner Disgusting

It isn’t every day that you get to see behind the scenes of the housing and mortgage crisis. Mainstream media usually tells the same homeowner story of pain and suffering and then the “made up” stories from the lenders and servicers who are masters of deception and lip service.
Here is an email that was forwarded [...]

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Your Loan Documents May be the Secret Key to Obtaining a Loan Modification

Homeowners Warning: Beware of new scams using this as a tool to fight lenders by scammers and out of work mortgage brokers everywhere!!! This post is from early 2008 and the times have changed folks. Yes, it can work and help, but when used with a lawyer who can properly represent you.
I have studied and [...]

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BofA CEO sees more consolidation in bank industry

The head of the nation’s largest consumer bank says the ongoing U.S. economic downturn will accelerate consolidation in the banking industry.
Bank of America Corp. (nyse: BAC – news – people ) chief executive Ken Lewis spoke Thursday to business students at New York University. He said the nation’s financial service companies are likely to come [...]

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The issuing power of money should be taken from the bankers and restored to Congress and the people to whom it belongs

Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States (1801–1809), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence :
BANK (NATIONAL) (THREAT TO LIBERTY)
If the American People ever allow the banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will [...]

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Remarks by Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. on the U.S. Economy, Housing and Capital Markets

May 16, 2008
HP-981Before the Washington Post 200 Lunch
Washington – Thank you, Len. Over the last forty years, Washington has transformed into a diverse corporate center. Congratulations to the Post for recognizing this through their annual list of 200. And I am pleased to join you and represent the “old” Washington, the less than ten [...]

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Barney Frank, “If loans were only originated by banks, thrifts and credit unions, we would not have the subprime crisis.”

“We see this in the subprime crisis. If in fact residential mortgage loans were made only by banks or thrifts or credit unions, then we would not have a sub prime crisis. And we would not have the economic problem we now have.”
And with the mess in the real estate markets, sub prime mortgage crisis, [...]

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I feel for you, and I know how difficult dealing with COUTNRYWIDE can be

Submitted by a homeowner, Carrie from Florida:
Hi R. Whelan,
I feel for you, and I know how difficult dealing with COUTNRYWIDE can be. I found this awesome forum:
www.loansafe.org more specifically:
www.loansafe.org/forum/countrywide-home-loans-tell-us-your-countrywide-story/ this forum is dedicated to help homeowners and the specific part of the site only to CountryWide homeowners. This site has been a blessing for me and my [...]

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Foreclosure flood: 1,000 auctions per day in California

California’s foreclosure crisis passed another ominous milestone in April, when more than 1,000 foreclosed homes were auctioned off every weekday at courthouses across the state, the auction tracking firm ForeclosureRadar reported today.The April total of foreclosure sales at auction — 22,838 for the state — represents a jump of 44% over March totals and the [...]

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Are You Being Over Taxed? Proposition 8 Protects Homeowners

Homeowners need all the help they can get and taxes are no exception.
I reside in the Inland Empire in Riverside County California where values have dropped 50% in some areas. Homes that sold for over $1 million, now are being sold on the foreclosure chopping block for 1/2 that price and this is just in [...]

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PMI Streamlines Loan Modification Process and Helps More Americans Save Their Homes

PMI Mortgage Insurance Co., the U.S. subsidiary of The PMI Group, Inc. (NYSE: PMI), today announced that it has issued new guidelines for modification of insured loans that will help more distressed borrowers save their homes. The new guidelines define the criteria for loans insured by PMI that qualify for modifications, and delegates the authority [...]

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HALT Task Force Publishes Progress Report on Subprime Mortgage Crisis

NEW YORK, NY (05/11/2008; 1102)(readMedia)– Superintendent of Banks, Richard H. Neiman, today delivered a report to update Governor David A. Paterson on the progress made by the Governor’s Task Force to Halt Abusive Lending Transactions (HALT). The HALT Task Force is an interagency task force established in March 2007 to address the mortgage crisis and [...]

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GOP criticizes mortgage plan

House Democrats bring to the floor today a plan to stanch the home foreclosure crisis with measures that include government-backed mortgage refinancing and money for states to buy derelict homes, but Republicans say the $2.7 billion bill is nothing more than a “bailout scheme.”
Democrats bristled at the bailout accusation, saying their bill is tailored narrowly [...]

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Lenders Pressed to Hurry Help – Treasury Officials Discuss Difficulties With Mortgage Firms

Treasury officials met with about 10 leading mortgage firms yesterday to figure out why they have not helped more distressed homeowners, pressing the lenders to do better.
At the closed-door session, Treasury staff members reviewed legal and financial issues identified by the industry as difficulties in addressing the foreclosure crisis, including how to modify mortgages when [...]

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Judge rejects Countrywide settlement

PHILADELPHIA – A bankruptcy judge has rejected Countrywide Financial Corp.’s proposal to settle accusations that it fabricated evidence used in a bid to foreclose on a home.
Judge Thomas Agresti of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Pittsburgh on Tuesday dismissed the company’s request to settle a dispute with Sharon Diane Hill, a Pittsburgh area woman who [...]

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Schumer decried the lenders’ tactics as amounting to “death by a thousand fees.”

New York Senator and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts, Charles Schumer has decried ‘Death by A Thousand Fees’; suggests better deterrence, stiffer penalties, and more disclosure to end ‘Vulture Mentality’ of mortgage lenders and servicers.
Can everyone say, “predatory servicing?” Welcome to mortgage servicing 101.
Mortgage Servicing Chapter 1 – [...]

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Litton Loan Servicing, an Affiliate of Goldman Sachs, Closes Deal on Fremont General’s Servicing Rights

The servicing business has been going through some changes lately in the form or mergers and acquisitions. Obscene profits can be made in the servicing arena. Especially in today’s market of delinquencies and defaults.
All this spells is extra fees and income for today’s servicers.
So, it is no surprise that Litton, an affiliate of Wall Street [...]

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HOUSE PASSES BILL INTRODUCED BY CONGRESSWOMAN WATERS TO HELP COMMUNITIES HIT HARDEST BY FORECLOSURE CRISIS

Washington, DC – The U.S. House of Representatives acted today to help communities hit hardest by the housing foreclosure crisis, passing legislation introduced by Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-35), the Chairwoman of the Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee.

By a vote of 239-188, the House passed The Neighborhood Stabilization Act (H.R. 5818), which authorizes a $15 billion [...]

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House Passes Comprehensive Housing Package

Washington, DC – The U.S. House of Representatives today passed the most comprehensive response yet to the American mortgage crisis. The American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act (H.R. 3221) responds directly to the current crisis facing middle class Americans while providing the tools to prevent a repeat of these problems. The legislation combines a [...]

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American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act

Washington, DC – The House this week will consider the American Housing Rescue and Floreclosure Prevention Act. This bill will amend the Senate-passed H.R. 3221 (As amended by the Senate). Click here to view the legislation
Everyone—homeowners, lenders, neighborhoods, indeed our entire economy is worse off when a foreclosure occurs and when significant quantities of homes [...]

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Barney Frank Makes Threats and the Bush Administration Undermines the House

Business as usual in Washington.
I have been ranting on this blog for almost a year now on why our government needs to step in and demand action from lenders and servicers to do more to help clean up the toxic mortgages that are eating up our country one home, one family and one city at a time.
Barney Frank [...]

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Home Retention is just a deceiving name for debt collector

This was submitted by a Loan Safe Forum member
A few days ago I discovered this forum when I had less than 2 weeks before the sale date of my property. Thanks to the advice discussed, I learned some very important things that I wish I would have known 3 months ago when I was 1st given [...]

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House debates foreclosure rescue

Barney Frank: We’re telling people, “We wish you would use this alternative process.” Some of them will say, “Well, I can make more money foreclosing, so the hell with ya.”
Lenders are lobbying furiously against any move to give judges the power to adjust mortgages.
The House is expected to consider a $300 billion housing rescue package [...]

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Foreclosure crisis hits hard in black communities

The mortgage-foreclosure crisis cuts across all races and incomes, but it has an even more profound impact on the black community, where homeownership is lower and home equity serves as the main source of wealth in black families.
Subprime lending has been a mechanism for African-Americans to become homeowners. This was one way for African-Americans to [...]

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Bank of America, Countrywide Announce $35 Million Package to Aid Distressed Homeowners and Communities

Direct grants and investments part of companies’ efforts to preserve
               neighborhoods and help families stay in homes
    CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 1 /PRNewswire/ — Bank of America and Countrywide
Financial Corporation today provided additional details regarding the $35
million neighborhood preservation and foreclosure prevention package
announced last week in Chicago. The commitment includes foreclosure
prevention efforts by both financial institutions.
    [...]

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Will the FHA Housing Stabilization and Homeownership Retention Act Save Homeowners?

Forbes:
Committee Chairman Barney Frank of Massachusetts has said the bill, the Housing Stabilization and Homeownership Retention Act, could be up for a vote by the House as early as next week.
Under the bill approved today, a voluntary program would be created that would allow the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to insure up to 300 bln [...]

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Financial Services Committee Approves FHA Housing and Homeowner Retention Act

Washington, DC – {The House Financial Services Committee today approved H.R. 5830, the FHA Housing and Homeowner Retention Act, by a bipartisan vote of 46 to 21. The legislation, authored by Committee Chairman Barney Frank, will expand the FHA program to help refinance at-risk borrowers into viable mortgages. The bill also requires the Federal Reserve [...]

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New York Governor Paterson Calls for More Action in Mortgage Crisis

Further evidence of the crisis came last week, with the second report published by the State Foreclosure Prevention Working Group, which also found that industry efforts to avoid unnecessary foreclosures are not keeping pace with the rising rate of homeowners in trouble. The report provides analysis of data from October 2007 through January 2008, and [...]

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H&R Block Closes Sale of Option One Mortgage Servicing Business

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – H&R Block Inc. (NYSE: HRB) today announced that it closed the sale of the mortgage loan servicing business of its Option One Mortgage Corporation (“OOMC”) subsidiary effective April 30, 2008. As previously announced, the purchaser was American Home Mortgage Servicing, Inc. (“American Home”), an affiliate of WL Ross & Co. LLC. [...]

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Florida’s Legislature Passes Bill Protecting Distressed Homeowners From Foreclosure Fraud

Smart businessmen, like those in California, have turned the weak market into an entrepreneurial opportunity by buying units about to be foreclosed at rock bottom prices from the lender and repackaging the loan to help the distressed homeowner retain his home.
But the scheme has caught the attention of the state legislature as some companies and [...]

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New Bill Will Let Homeowners Sue Wall Street Over Their Subprime Mortgages

Please watch the MSN Video here

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Congress Calls for the FTC to Step in and Stop Predatory Advertising by Lenders

Watch the MSN video here

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Penny Pritzker Stole My Money

By Fran Sweet
To Elizabeth from April 4:
I’m the Fran Sweet mentioned in the article. Elizabeth apparently you are a very gullible Obamaite. You believe Penny Pritzker? Wow what world do you live in!?
Please see the Chicago Sun Times article dated Aperil 28, 2008, titled: Obama’s Subprime Pal which provides proof (a letter signed by Penny) [...]

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Investors move in to save broken mortgages

Investors — including big fish like former Countrywide Financial Corp. President Stanford Kurland as well as smaller fry like Gentry — are buying loans on the cheap from lenders who want them off their books. By paying less than face value for the mortgages, the new holders can modify loan terms, including shrinking the amount [...]

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