Bookmark this site
Many people in the media and our government are trying to figure out why loan modifications are not working and it is really quite simple to figure out. Yet, here we are almost two years into this foreclosure mess and it’s as if we are all stuck on stupid.
One doesn’t have to look further than the mortgage servicing industry to get their answer.
Mortgage servicers left to their own device will do what is best for their bottom line and loan modifications cost money, time and headaches when done right. Especially due to the fact that not one servicer was or is adequately prepared to handle this foreclosure crisis.
Simply put, unsupervised loan modifications that leave loan workout and foreclosure decisions up to mortgage servicers will not work.
According to Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan, a bank regulator, more than half of the mortgages that were modified in the first three months of this year went delinquent again within six months. “After three months, nearly 36 percent of the borrowers had re-defaulted by being more than 30 days past due. After six months, the rate was nearly 53 percent, and after eight months, 58 percent,” Dugan said Monday in a speech.
Excuse Mr. Dugan, but please wake up and smell the loan modification stench on Main Street. It’s as if our government is paralyzed by data, bureaucracy and people in power with ulterior motives and unknown agendas.
I think it is time to for our government to get out of D.C. and take a “real” look at this mortgage crisis to see who is really in charge of cleaning up these mortgages right now. It is not our senate, it is not Sheila Bair and it is not Obama. It is the mortgage servicers who are in 100% control and operate like the mortgage mob in almost complete anonymity and secrecy.
My question to our government and the media is, “How can we expect them to do what is right, when they have been doing what is wrong for so long? Don’t you think that 2009 is the time to tighten the reign on this unregulated industry and force accountability on mortgage servicers who play a HUGE part in this foreclosure crisis?”
It doesn’t take an economist, journalist, private detective or bank regulator to figure out that mortgage servicers ARE the problem and not actual loan modifications. It’s the servicers who are in control of these toxic loans and are dishing the unaffordable terms to struggling homeowners by the boat load.
Further exasperating the crisis and plundering homeowners deeper into their home debt traps.
It really takes the men and woman who are actually on the foreclosure front lines, homeowners and housing counselors to support the loan modification truths.
The Wild Wild West Mortgage Servicing Industry: How can loan modifications work when this is reality?
From no loan modification guidelines, no policies, no procedures, not enough staff, rude staff, missing staff, fired staff, lost faxes, lost emails, no return calls, 6-9 month loan modification process and this complaint list can go on and on.
It’s the damn Wild, Wild Loan Modification West out there and the frontier is ruled by the pioneers of the game, lenders and mortgage servicers. You know those guys right? The dudes (banks and lenders) that had a HUGE part in where our economy is now, yeah them!
Yet, I am sure when you applied for your home mortgage, these lenders had procedures to follow, you had one friendly loan officer, no lost faxes, no lost emails, calls were returned promptly, 10-21 day close and you were treated like a rock star. Hell, you may have even got a fruit basket and some wine when you closed your loan.
And when you’re on time, you’re a king, but when you’re late, you are a peasant.
Excuse me, but something seems terribly wrong with this mortgage picture America. So, let me make it clear for you all. Lenders are liars, mortgage servicers suck and our government and media just doesn’t get it!
Disclaimer: Citi Mortgage seems to be only mortgage servicer that I feel is really trying to get loan modifications right.
