From the monthly archives:

June 2008

Bank of America Is Firm on Countrywide Buyout

Investing in distressed assets, of course, can be extremely profitable. But Mr. Lewis’s shareholders have a right to be nervous about the deal, analysts say. As the nation’s largest home lender, Countrywide stands at the center of the mortgage storm and is being buffeted not only by woeful financial results but also by intense scrutiny [...]

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Countrywide CEO Steps Down, Cashes In and Leaves a Trail of Destruction

Countrywide CEO, Angelo Mozilo is set to officially step down from his position Tuesday and hand over the keys to Bank of America. Ending a 4 decade long run where Countrywide went from a small fish start up in 1969 to the king of ther lending sea as the nations largest lenders and servicer today.

Angelo Mozilo went [...]

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New York Tackles Reckless Subprime Lending…Will California Be Next?

Recent headlines have been gloomy: housing prices continue to sink, Wall Street executives knowingly pushed bad subprime investments, and mortgages keep failing in droves. As Congress debates how to put the economy back on track, the good news is that the states are moving ahead to prevent another subprime crisis in the future and strengthen [...]

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Brown Sues Countrywide For Mortgage Deception

LOS ANGELES–California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today sued Countrywide Financial, its chief executive Angelo Mozilo, and president David Sambol, for engaging in deceptive advertising and unfair competition by pushing homeowners into mass-produced, risky loans for the sole purpose of reselling the mortgages on the secondary market.
“Countrywide exploited the American dream of homeownership and [...]

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Countrywide Accused of Selling Defective Loans

One of my long standing points of view on the mortgage and housing crisis is that, these creative loans that were invented, sold and sliced and diced over the last 3-5 years were incredibly unfair and deceptive. Defective credit instruments that were made to fail and are essentially “lemon loans.”
It looks like the Illinois Attorney [...]

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Loan Safe Testimonial – 131 Homes Saved to Date With One Website

I am proud to announce that 131 families have received a loan modification, and 131 homes have been saved with our “Not for Profit: forum at LoanSafe.org. 131 people who now have mortgage relief, can focus on living instead of worrying about their loans.

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Attorney generals across the nation take up the cause of housing rescue

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — While Congress has talked for a year about a federal response to the foreclosure crisis, attorney generals have been busy helping troubled homeowners at the state level.
AGs are filing lawsuits, lobbying legislatures for tougher mortgage lender laws, and partnering with mortgage servicers, and community development groups to help rescue homeowners from [...]

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Taxpayer Groups Sign Coalition Letter Opposing Dodd-Countrywide Mortgage Bailout Bill

Proposed Legislation Rewards Risky Borrowers and Banks with Hundreds of Billions of Taxpayer Dollars at Risk, Potentially Bankrupting the Federal Housing Administration

WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–As the Dodd-Countrywide mortgage bailout bill comes to the Senate floor this week for debate, leading taxpayer advocates stand in opposition to the legislation.
The Dodd-Countrywide bill would create $300 billion in new taxpayer [...]

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Marshals Make Millions Serving Foreclosure Papers

To protect and serve or just to serve is the question?
Sometimes I am amazed that millions of Americans are suffering in their homes, and barley have enough money for food and gas. Yet, there are people making millions and billions off the housing crisis.
One would think that investors, Wall Street, and real estate gurus are the only [...]

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Plan to Help Hundreds of Thousands of Homeowners Faces Senate Vote

The mortgage scandal plagued, and Senate will have a test-vote today on housing foreclosure rescue program. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) would provide $300 billion in new, cheaper mortgages for struggling homeowners who otherwise would be considered too financially risky to qualify for government backed, fixed-rate loans.
A plan that will help hundreds of thousands of homeowners avoid foreclosure is drawing support [...]

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White House Says Bush Will Veto Senate Housing Bill

It looks like our president is more worried about saving his boys on Wall Street, like the $35 million dollar bail out of Bear Stearns , then helping millions of suffering homeowners who are losing their homes.
AP:
The White House says President Bush would veto a foreclosure rescue the Senate began debating Thursday.
Administration officials object to [...]

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LONGEST FORECLOSURE CASE IN HISTORY GOES TO THE U.S. SUPREME COURT

The foreclosure story of Richard Davet is one of dedication, persistence, and a never ending will to stand by his convictions and his home.
I wrote about Mr. Davet in December here on LoanWorkout.org.
In 1996, Mr. Davet was served with a foreclosure action in his Cuyahoga County, Ohio 1940’s six bedroom home. Unlike many homeowners that just [...]

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The Mers Fifty Million Mortgage Meltdown

By LoanWorkout.org Reader Kevin Lamson
PART I. The Promissory Note Evidence Ownership of Debt and Standing to Bring Suit.
· The Fundamentals:
In the period beginning in 1999 and ending in March of 2008, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc., a/k/a/ MERS, has been named as a “mortgagee” on over fifty million mortgages. Yet MERS has never originated a [...]

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Lenders Pledge to Increase Their Anti-Foreclosure & Loan Modification Efforts – LOL

More lender propaganda, more media lip service, and as Jerry Seinfeld would say, “Yada, yada, yada.”
How can these guys do anything without the proper staffing? How can they truly handle all the loan workouts, and loan modifications that are needed to really increase their anti-foreclosure efforts?
The fact is, they CAN’T!
Think about this ladies and gentleman, please??!!!!!!!!!
Over the last few [...]

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Mortgage Cancer – Senators, CEO’s and Celebrities, No One is Immune

It appears that the mortgage cancer is starting to really show it’s true reach, and it’s spreading to every continent and almost every human on earth. From America to Ireland and to Japan, the tumors have spread and no one knows just how bad it’s going to get.

Screw global warming! It looks like this mortgage cancer may [...]

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Senators Caught in Mortgage Fallout

When Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota wanted a mortgage for his beach house, he turned to a Washington insider. James A. Johnson, former head of Fannie Mae, the government mortgage giant, who then put the senator in touch with Angelo Mozilo, chief executive of the mortgage lender Countrywide Financial.
The ensuing telephone call between Mr. [...]

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The OCC Wants the Real Loan Modification Numbers

Hope Now and the MBA asked, “So, how many loan modifications did you do Litton?”
“3,235,” the Litton rep said.
The boys at the “round table” pick up the phone and call Angelo, “How many did you do Countrywide?”
“We did 7,978 guys. Never mind that!” Mr. Mozilo said,”We’re going to have martinis later on the golf course!”
Listen here [...]

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Pritzker, Predatory Subprime Pioneer, Still On Obama Team

& Aaron Krowne
Barack Obama:
“Part of the reason we got a current mortgage crisis has to do with the fact that people got suckered in to loans that they could not pay,” he told a crowd in Reading, Pa., last week. “There were a lot of predatory loans that were given out, a lot of teaser [...]

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Foreclosures Hit the Upper Class Right Between the Eyes

The word foreclosure is now one of the most used, and abused words in our English language. Every day, every newspaper, TV show, blog, or even the lady at the nail salon is talking about “foreclosures.”
This media coverage is mainly in lower to middle class towns. It was thought of as only a problem on main street, where Homeowner [...]

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Obama and the Countrywide Scandal Updates

USA Today:
Update at 4:50 p.m. ET: Doug Holtz-Eakin, a domestic policy adviser to McCain, had this to say on a conference call about Obama’s economic speech today in Raleigh: “It was remarkable that Senator Obama could talk about housing, talk about ethics, and fail to mention that he entrusted the single most important decision in [...]

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Angelo and the Countrywide Gang – Their Rules in Their World?

Countrywide just can’t seem to get a PR break. Some of my readers think it is my personal vendetta to think, write, and live on this blog to make their life a living PR hell.
The funny part is that they don’t need any help in that area. They created their own rules, in their own world, and now [...]

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The person asking the questions of the borrower is the first line of defense in a system designed to prevent fraud, period.

Submitted by LoanWorkout.org Reader Rick
You know as well as I do, the majority of people who are now underwater with their loans were all encouraged to go for it by the RE agent AND the Loan Officer. Why??? Because the RE agent and LO would get a commission for loaning out someone else’s money!
The person [...]

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Burned mortgage investors seek “high-touch” healers

After a year of crisis, servicers are increasing the number of “high-touch” loss mitigation staffers. They can underwrite new loans for financially stretched customers and haggle with buyers of homes in foreclosure. But investors say they are still finding deficiencies due to backups of onerous work, skyrocketing costs, and a lack of incentive.
“Some servicers were not [...]

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Section 5 of the FTC Act – Unfair and Deceptive Mortgages?

Section 5 of the FTC Act Facts :
The FTC Act provides a comprehensive framework for carrying out the Commission’s law enforcement initiatives. In executing its consumer protection law enforcement responsibilities, the Commission can rely both upon Section 5 of the FTC Act — which prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or practices — and upon a [...]

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US FTC: ‘Actively Assessing’ Mortgage Firms For Violations

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The Federal Trade Commission is actively examining whether mortgage lenders and servicers have violated federal laws in their dealings with borrowers, according to a letter sent to a U.S. Senate lawmaker.”We are actively assessing whether lenders and servicers are making deceptive claims in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act,” FTC [...]

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Japanese banks are feeling the fallout from the US subprime mortgage crisis

The Financial Services Agency said losses stemming from US sub-prime lending increased by 41% to 850bn yen ($8bn; £4.1bn) at the end of March.
Total losses on investments related to risky mortgages was far bigger, amounting to $23bn.
But it said Japan’s sub-prime hit was not as severe as in Europe and the US.
Losses at Japanese [...]

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Countrywide’s Mozilo Hushes Homeowner With an Unaffordable Loan Modification

Emails, letters, and scandal, seem to be circling Mr. Angelo Mozilo has he scurries to cover up when the light is exposed on his famously tanned hide.
The light flips on and BAM! Out goes the Countrywide Freeze Super Hero’s who are paid by Mozilo to fix PR problems, and put muzzles on homeowers who may expose what [...]

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Homeowners Helping Homeowners

My idea for this blog and my forum from day 1, has always been a vehicle for homeowners to connect, share, and support one another. No one knows what you are going through like YOU all do. No one knows what it’s like to lose their dream, their security, and know one can comprehend the uncertainty of your future, [...]

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Hope Now Reports Record Loan Workouts in April – Moe Says, “It Still is Not Enough!”

Yes, loan modifications and loan workouts are happening and it appears that most lenders and servicers have stepped up to the loss mitigation plate. Or have they?
Hope Now, led by US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, has just reported record loan workouts in April.
It is only common sense, that every month we are going to start to [...]

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President Bush bails out the billionaires at Bear Stearns, but Republicans won’t lift a finger to help out the hundreds of thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure on their homes.

Senator Art Torres (Ret.), Chairman of the California Democratic Party:
“President Bush bailed out the billionaires at Bear Stearns, but Assembly Republicans won’t lift a finger to help out the hundreds of thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure on their homes,” said Sen. Art Torres (Ret.), Chairman of the California Democratic Party. “The Republicans´ votes are a [...]

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GOVERNOR PATRICK CALLS FOR FIRST IN NATION STANDARDS FOR LENDERS RESPONSE TO BORROWERS FACING FORECLOSURE

New Regulation, Monitoring Lender Loan Modification Sets National Standard in Addressing Foreclosure Crisis
BOSTON— Friday, May 30, 2008— In order to increase the pace of lenders responding to homeowners hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis, Governor Deval Patrick has asked the Division of Banks (DOB) to begin evaluating all state licensed mortgage lenders on the basis [...]

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My home is not worth the stress anymore. I am getting a U-Haul and I am loading everything up.

Submitted by JB Lawerence - Soon to be an ex-homeowner
My home is not worth the stress anymore. I am getting a U-Haul and I am loading everything up.
I’m taking all my window coverings and blinds. I’m taking all my appliances and air conditioner. I’m pulling up my grass and my beautiful trees I planted. I am [...]

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