Faces Of Foreclosure

I’m sorry if you found us . . . odds are it means that you or someone close to you has been been impacted by America’s ongoing financial nightmare and are incredibly distressed. I started this blog to help maintain my sanity as I tried to save my home from foreclosure.

It was also started with the hope that one or more of my favorite crime shows would pick up stories and air them as a “Queen For A Day” fundraiser for families . . . you know: “Save A Home Today” by voting for the family you think needs/deserves the most help. TV and movies have the power to help people through these messes. Incredible TV episodes and movies HAVE been aired addressing lending fraud, but none, that I know of, have directly helped anyone with their mortgage mess. TV spends far more time playing with bachelors and hoarders.

I’m 2.5 years into working to save my home from foreclosure. After two years of battle, and an 8-inch thick 20 pound binder, I was accidentally given a 5-year loan modification.

“Accidental” meaning that after all paperwork was signed, my lender tried to rescind the offer. I took the paperwork to an attorney; he supported my premise that it was a legal and binding document. The lender wiggled but I do have a modification.

Since I seem to have some breathing room, I thought I would take time to give you some notes on what I did to survive this nightmare of fraudulent forbearance agreements and fear of foreclosure during forbearance periods, which is NOT uncommon.

I wrote my way through cancer, so I am writing my way through this, along with volunteering with Marin Family Action to help others save their homes.

When I was laid off from my real estate marketing job in 2009, my life became an ongoing attempt to control my own thoughts and fear so I would not go crazy; volunteering and trying to help others made a huge difference in maintaining balance; I was not alone by a long shot.

Years ago, during drug experimental days in San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury, a friend suggested I could stay balanced with classes and tapes of Yoga. He was serious. I started classes which kept me fit and out of psychological trouble through renewed strength and a sense of peace. Of course, given that I’m from San Francisco, we also joined Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation crew and practiced Zen meditation for hours on end. All of this stuff works!

Because I could not get work after 40 years of full time employment, I had to retrain myself in something. I happen to like computers and working from home, so I opted for Starting and Operate My Own Home-Based Business by taking online courses. I couldn’t afford to attend school. Because of the Internet, online learning is easier to do now than ever.

For any business, you need to know Marketing on a Shoestring.

If you have a family and can’t leave home, or don’t have the funds to take courses outside of your home, consider online learning. Online learning does work and during these times you may have to reinvent yourself. Dust off your dreams; see if you can put together a future that is appealing rather than frightening.

A note of caution, please consider carefully, especially if your dream career is photography. Yes, it is a seemingly “romantic” career path. It is also an extremely difficult one because everyone with a tiny camera or cell phone is shooting these days. If you don’t need income (and I’m assuming you wouldn’t be on this site if you don’t), this is a rough road.

I was a professional photographer and won a couple of awards; however, my daughter, who is a banker, has an exceptional eye for composition. Shots from her cell phone often equal or exceed what I take with my “professional” cameras. (The photo above right was taken with her cell in a very dark chapel in Greece.) Photography, like Web design, carpentry, database administrator, accountant, etc. takes a great deal of skill. None of those skills are random.

That link up there will also take you to business classes; if you have never taken, say, a financial planning course or never developed a business plan for a start-up, I highly recommend either or both. They will serve you well no matter what you do in life.

No matter what you decide to do, ALWAYS have a Plan B, a way out. For years, my car was stocked with a year’s supply of basics;  in my case that included a tent, sleeping bag, backpacking stove change of clothes, flares, first aid kit, etc. It came in part from being a camper, but beyond camping that stuff came in handy repeatedly. It also gave me a strange sense of freedom, as in “I don’t need these people.” And in the case of America’s lenders, that is how I feel. On a brighter side, if I decided I wanted to stay in a coastal campground at a moment’s notice, I could.

My goal when I bought my home in 2006 was to figure out a way to pay off my home within five years; due to illness and job loss I was thrown off track, but I’m getting back on that track now. This link takes you to 900+ products to help you with your emergency preparedness and I truly hope some of this works for you to give you peace of mind as you Battle the Banks.

I will be writing more about what is helping me and others get through this and, again, I hope this helps you find ways to stay calm and WIN!

No matter what your situation in life, always stay on top of your credit. Poor credit will affect everything you do and everything you buy on time, whether it’s a house, car, refrigerator, computer, will cost you more. If you do not know how to handle this yourself, click through to Lexington Law Firm to Clean Up Your Credit Report. Before I started paying strict attention to my credit reports, I had a home loan at 12% at a time when it should have been 7%. I sold that house thinking the payments were too high when all I had to do was reduce the interest by getting my credit report cleared!

I read everything I could find, including Rich Dad’s Advisors®: The Abc’s Of Getting Out Of Debt: Turn Bad Debt Into Good Debt And Bad Credit Into Good Credit and Perfect Credit: 7 Steps To A Great Credit Rating starting in the year 2000. Each book got me closer to living debt free and I was so good at it prior to our current financial crises that I was able to travel to 24 countries around the world.

Because Wall Street caused our current Mortgage and credit crisis, in part due to our lack of their deep financial machinations, many of us are having to climb out yet again. My earlier reading provided knowledge that I would in fact climb out and I’m against just about there. You can get out of debt and stay out of debt with almost any of these books, including The Everything Improve Your Credit Book

If your finances are crazy now and you’re down to the wire with a non-cooperative lender — which IS probably the case if you are trying for a loan modification – and if you have anything resembling equity in your home, you CAN sell your own home. Pulling out as much money as possible without having a significant percentage going to a real estate agent could save you enough to start over elsewhere.

I have nothing against most real estate agents, but times are rough now and you probably need to realize as much profit as possible so that you can keep your life going.

In 2003 when I wanted to sell my home in Fairfax, California, I called the local real estate agents for consultation. They said I wouldn’t get more than $535,000-$560,000 (out of which they would have taken their 5%, or whatever it was at the time). I said they didn’t know what they were talking about.

The location was splendid. The house — actually a 100-year old building that was once the town barn — was built of old-growth redwood. It was solid, it was a duplex, zoned multiple-use . . . meaning one could live upstairs and run a legal business downstairs or rent one unit out and live in the other. The area was high-traffic during the day, quiet at night and within walking of world-class restaurants, a theater, health food stores, bookshops, etc. It was also at the foot of Mt. Tamalpais with its superior mountain biking trails . . . actually Fairfax was the town where mountain bikes were first designed by Gary Fisher.

I ignored the realtors, priced the house at $625,000, put one ad on craigslist.org (the ads are free). I’m quite good at marketing:  I figured the house would be perfect for a young entrepreneur who wanted to start a business, or mountain bikers — who happen to have some of the highest demographics in the U.S. That is how I positioned the craigslist.org ad.

As it turns out, there was a “for sale” sign board near my driveway. Oddly, the “for sale” sign wasn’t even mine — it was for a cute retail gift shop next door.

Within one week, I had two prospective buyers:

1. A young Scandanivan woman who wanted to own her own knitting studio. This would have been absolutely perfect for her; she could live up and run a knitting shop/studio downstairs.
2. Mountain Bikers! (See, I told you.) A wonderful couple from Scotland (who didn’t think 100 years was old for a building) loved the solidity of it, and knew the value of the location — actually, they were riding their mountain bikes down from Mt. Tam when the saw my neighbor’s “for sale” sign and stopped by to inquire.

With two weeks the mountain bikers bought the home. We paid $1,000 to a local real estate attorney who drew up sale papers. I discounted the sales price a bit because no real estate commissions had to be paid.

They are a wonderful couple. He happens to have some background in building and has done wonderful upgrades to the home. They have since had a child and are still living happily in that splendid town in that great old building; I still miss the duplex and wish I kept it.

Again, if you do have to move on, at least consider taking on the sale yourself. This might help:

If you decide to purchase the book and get stuck, please eMail me. I’ll be happy to guide you along at no cost.

Again, if you are in the middle of America’s current financial nightmares with today’s lenders (and their questionable ethics and sloppy business practices) and if you are thinking of selling, consider doing this yourself.

I’m about to try a trade — my three bedroom home for a condo. I have no idea if this will work, but anything is worth a try. At my age, I cannot recover from just walking away from my home; if I could, I would, but I can’t. I am using a real estate agent for this deal and, of course, I’ll update progress on this site.

I hope this helps and my very best to you.

The FBI is currently investigating crimes in California relating to illegal real estate transactions at foreclosure sales (refer to You Read it Here First, Maybe . . . which follows this entry.

Please include attorney Michael T. Pines in your list of questionable people; while he may not be involved in illegal sales yet, he has taken $5,000 from individuals who then lost their homes because he admittedly does NOT do his job; I’ve seen eMails wherein he said he “forgot” to file papers on time on one case.

In another, a man took out his retirement savings, paid $5,000 to Pines, who then apparently did NOTHING; the 78-year-old-man involved has just left his home of two decades and moved to another county with his cat.

Michael T. Pines advised a 74–year-old women to move back into her already-sold house. She did. Within hours, she was taken to jail in handcuffs which seriously bruised her arms. Michael T. Pines IS a white collar crook. He took $5,000 up front from dozens of families and did nothing! Also because of Michael Pines, one senior man recently left his home of 20+ years and, with his cat, moved to another county.

Pines and others of his ilk belong in jail.

We started wondering about Triple Investments, Charter Properties in Sausalito, Scott Dixon, John Lundy, Joe Giraudo and Peter Kerman in November 2009.

While trying to save a friend’s home through the non-profit Marin Family Action and its workshop for Families Fighting Foreclosure, an associate delivered papers to Charter Properties offices in Sausalito (image right taken November 2009 by D.A. Levy).

Nothing was apparent in viewing their offices through walls of glass, but there seemed to be questionable behind-the-scenes maneuvering by the principals of Triple Investments, Charter Properties and Lecale Investments. We were questioning the sale of a prime piece of Tiburon property . . . and its sale price, which was staggeringly low.

We are digging to resurrect our notes from November 2009 and early 2010 to see if anything makes sense.

Our first post was Triple Investments, Sausalito on November 12, 2009 questioning the activities of various employees of these companies and of Lecale. These companies have just “hosted” the FBI in their offices at 2300 Bridgeway in Sausalito while the FBI burrowed through boxes of files.

Years ago, Lewis Long, an architect who worked for Desmond Muirhead Architects on a sinking barge in Sausalito, repeatedly said: “What goes around comes around,” which was his Southern black translation of “As ye reap so shall ye sow.”

And maybe that is coming about now for the companies mentioned in the top paragraph. Check www.MarinFamilyAction.com. They just might feret out Marin’s white collar thieves in this mortgage mess and have just filed a report with the District Attorney on one questionable group. “Insider trading” seems to have a lot as to who gets what.

From one of our earlier posts: “Want a duplex in Tiburon worth about $2.5 million for less than $1 million? Might be on the market soon due to lies and subterfuge. I’m serious. This all sounds nuts. Actually, it is nuts. But it is also true.”

On January 21, 2011, Carolyn Said of The San Francisco Chronicle reported:

Foreclosure auctions take place every weekday on the steps of courthouses throughout California . Now the FBI is investigating whether some real estate speculators are illegally rigging bids for these sales.

"Last week, the FBI conducted interviews and executed search warrants through the entire Bay Area as part of a long-term investigation of anti-competitive practices at trustee sales of foreclosed homes," said bureau spokeswoman Julie Sohn.

The probe is shaking up the tight-knit world of investors who bid at these auctions. The issue, sources say, is that some participants allegedly pay others to refrain from bidding on certain properties to keep their prices low.

Such bid-rigging violates the federal Sherman Antitrust Act and can carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine. That maximum can be increased to twice the perpetrator’s gain or twice the victim’s loss.

"There have always been rumors of collusion at the courthouse steps," said Sean O’Toole of ForeclosureRadar.com, a Discovery Bay company that provides detailed information on properties sold at the auctions. At a typical auction, many investors clutch clipboards with printouts from his website.

"If you have a small crowd of guys that talk to each other every day, it’s natural for them to say, ‘Why are we bidding each other up? Let’s just buy this and work it out afterward.’ " O’Toole said. But when he speaks to real estate clubs and others, O’Toole said, "I am very clear. I say: ‘This is illegal. Don’t do it.’ "

Most properties revert to lenders at courthouse-step auctions, which are the final step in California’s foreclosure process, but about 20 percent get sold to outside investors.

More on this issue as it affects Marin, Sonoma, Napa counties . . . Faces of Foreclosure and here Families Fighting Foreclosure and here, as these companies have directly affected Marin County families.

The full article: SFGate.com

If you are in California and if you are in a position to get a modification through Wells Fargo/Wachovia, please read the following.

Even if they do agree to work with you, they will likely start with a three-month forbearance period. A word of caution: Even when that starts, you will have to stay on top of them. They will screw up, probably by losing your paperwork. They will blame it on you and, as a result, they will try to deny a modification agreement, thus the importance of keeping copies and sending everything registered/certified.

As soon as you pay your second month forbearance payment, request a copy of the permanent modification offer; they will try to get out of it. You won’t believe it, but I’m not going to let you go into denial of how botched it all is. It is worse than you could possibly imagine. America is in fact in trouble financially and big banks such as Wells Fargo are part of the problem.

When you make your first payment of the forbearance, send a letter confirming that to Wells Fargo, along with a receipt, and copy bank regulatory agencies such as:

• President Obama, WhiteHouse.gov; 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, D.C. 20006
• If you are in California: Governor Edmund G. Brown, State Capitol Building, Sacramento, CA 95814
• Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Response, 600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington, D.C. 20580
• Office of Thrift Supervision, 1700 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20552
• Your local senators 
• Your local Better Business Bureau
• Your local newspapers

My story: After a year of “negotiations,” Wells granted me a forbearance agreement in December 2009. I paid January/February/March and then their records and our conversations were screwed up for months.

If I did not keep accurate records I would not have my home. (That’s my binder on the right — 6 inches thick, 20 pounds, 22 pages of single space types notes indicating who said what to whom during this process.)

AFTER I started paying the forbearance agreement, it took from April 2010 to December 2010 for Wells Fargo to finalize the agreement; I have 10 pages of single-spaced notes during that period alone indicating glitches made by Wells! Excerpts from those notes follow. YOU will need to stay on top of it. The lenders have undertrained staff dealing with processes new to them that they don’t understand and don’t want to follow, and from executives who are larcenous on an international level.

I learned a new concept today from a investment research firm relating to this . . . the average American is in denial about the severity of our nation’s finances because it has never happened to us before. We just can’t believe it so we have tunnel vision.

A sample timeline starting with the 3-month forbearance period:

• April 2010:  Meeting w/Wells Fargo to discuss modification. Five times during that meeting they said they had missing paperwork. Because of that huge binder I had with me, I was able to pull out the appropriate paperwork and give them a copy to duplicate. In addition to showing them the paperwork, I was able to supply either a receipt from Kinko’s indicating when it was FAXed and received or a copy of my FedEx receipt indicating when it was received by Wells Fargo.
• January-March, 2010: Forbearance payments made. They did NOT offer a permanent modification.
• April 26, 2010: Attended meetings Wells Fargo had in Oakland and brow-beat them into signing a modification agreement with me.
• May 2010: Modification Agreement received in the mail from Wells with incorrect amounts — interesting to note tha tthe modification agreement was dated April 22, thereby predating the April 26 meeting with them.
• June 29, 2010: No statements received reflecting new terms.
• July 19, 2010: Notices on front door saying Wells wants to talk with me.
• July 19, 2010: Fed Ex delivered a package from Wells with NEW blank modification agreement. I called Wells to see what is going on. Was told that my loan is an “unconverted brokerage account,” and the modification had not been approved. Bottom line is that they did not want to honor the signed agreement.
• July 23, 2010: Letter from Wells saying I was in default, that the modification agreement they signed was not “approved” on their end. I met with two attorneys who verified that the document I have will hold up in court, so I told Wells to back off.
• July 24, 2010: My calls/issues could only be dealt with by one person — an “executive specialist” in the Office of the President. Works for me.
• July 29, 2010: First payment under this agreement sent w/USPS tracking system. They received in July 31, but had not applied it as of August 1.
• August 13, 2010: They tried telling me again that the modification was “moving through settlement right now.” I again reminded them that I have a modification agreement that will hold up in court.
• Phone calls on August 31, September 6, 13, 17 to straighten them out.
• October 9, 2010: 10:31 a.m., Melissa Slater called. Account is in “escrow analysis.” Seems they did not account for taxes and that is why there are discrepancies in the figures. They made a mistake (another one). Account is showing $2609.65 due instead of $2567.76 due. It is also showing that the October payment is still due – it is not.
• November 17, 2010: Still inaccurate. Executive said that 11/02 payment was not applied, she did not know why. She then said it was applied to the wrong account.
• December 1, 2010: Mortgage statements are finally accurate.

If you are here, you may need to Repair Your Credit. If you do not want to take on yet another battle and you are in Marin County, please contact Marin Family Action, a non profit which has been working with housing, financial literacy and credit issues since 1997. If you are not in their area, consider Lexington Law Credit Repair

I thought I had a 7-year loan modification from Wells Fargo. Well, maybe not . . . I don’t believe this.

VERY IMPORTANT: The very second you start negotiating with your lender regarding a loan modification, get a large binder and put everything in it. You will need it. During the Home Modification workshop with Wells Fargo, they repeatedly said they did not have this or that document. I did AND I had the FAX confirmation that it was sent to them and received. I handed it to them and said, “please make a copy and bring this right back to me.” We did that four or five times. I’m sure they were looking for a reason to NOT modify.

On May 24, 2010, I met with Wells Fargo at a Home Modification workshop they held in Oakland, California. I had been trying to get a loan modification for 18 months. This started out in December 2008 as a projected six months of financial strife, after which time two retirement incomes would kick in and I could get back on track financially. My goal when I purchased my home in 2006 was to pay it off in five years because of the retirement incomes. It was all looking good until cancer (through which I worked), followed by a job layoff in 2008.

Wells Fargo helped stretch my potential six-months of strife into 20 months so far and I don’t see an end to it. (That image is of my 20 pound, 6 inch thick — and growing — binder.)

I came away from the modification workshop quite pleased and thinking I actually had a decent loan modification for five years — time to help me find the money to pay off this loan and get away from Wells Fargo for the rest of my life. And an opportunity to help others figure out their way through this financial maze.

Wells Fargo is either the most crooked corporation I’ve seen in more than 50 years of working in corporate America — including a stint in the corporate finance department at a major bank — or they are the most inept.

In either case, if they have your money, you should be worried. Wells Fargo is featured in various class actions across the nation and are an international financial collaborator with HSBC out of London, which is being investigated on three continents.

At that workshop, I signed an agreement with Wells Fargo, figured I bought a five-year “stay of execution,” and started to work on increasing my income with the prayer of being able to pay them off in the five year period. (The modification is actually for seven years, but it is not good in year six or seven.)

Today I received a statement dated July 5, 2010 (it is July 15 as I write this). It is 9:56 p.m. ’cause I just finished working from 8 a.m. this morning building Websites. (I am DETERMINED to pay off these bankers. There has to be a way.)

The agreement, which I have paid for two months, is roughly $2500/month (or $2,000 a month depending on which document I read); this statement is for $4,074.54 per month, and has tacked onto it $170.36 as late fees, two unapplied payments, the statement that $76,683.40 is due by August 1st.

I have the original agreement; it does NOT escalate to $4,074.54 per month in August of this year and $76,683.40 is NOT due on August 1st. This is insane, and it is NOT me that is insane.

Where is our government and/or our system of justice through this — either local judges or supervisors or governors or anyone? Have they all decided we are “wrong?” Are they married to lenders?

I can barely breathe. For the first time in my life I know what a “battered wife” must feel like. My back between my shoulders aches as though someone were pummeling me. I’m actually not a dramatic person, but I am a fighter. Put me in a corner and I will come out kicking. At this point, I don’t know who I am fighting. Wells Fargo agreed to a modification. This paperwork ignores that agreement. Who runs this company? Dumb question?

An aside. I heard someone at a meeting last week mention that Wells Fargo was going to institute drug testing to its employees — given his level, I assumed he meant middle-level executives. Turns out that 80% of them, per his information, tested positive for cocaine. Given that coke is the middle-level executive drug, and given how Wells Fargo is currently operating, I don’t doubt him.

I contacted Wells Fargo’s executive offices in Des Moines, Iowa. They had no answer as to why this continues, but said they will remedy it. Sure.

Following that conversation, I came home on Sunday, July 18th, 2010 to see a notice stuck in my front door . . . no name, no signature and no envelope. A good breeze would have blown it away . . . so much for “effort to make contact” and confidentiality.

That notice reads:

Please Call: Wells Fargo Home Mortgage
Contact: Loan Administration
At: 800 766 0987
Notice: Our Representatives called on you today while you were out. There is an important matter we would like to discuss with you. This inspection is not in any way an attempt to collect a debt.

I called on July 19, 2010 at 8:27 a.m.: Lolitha (EN5) in Wisconsin couldn’t help. She didn’t know why the notice was on the door. I called and left a voice mail for Teresa Warnock in the offices of the President of their mortgage in Des Moines, Iowa. Teresa called back and sounded as confused as am I. My “case” is being monitored by someone else in their offices as there is an “internal issue” they are trying to resolve.

And, no sooner do we hang up then I get yet another “Loan Modification Agreement” delivered via FedEx from Wells Fargo. This one seems to duplicate the one dated April 22, 2010 and it is, in fact, dated that same date. And it STILL is not per my understanding from the April meeting of a fully amortized PITI.

Dreaming Up America by Russell Banks

“A thoughtful and provocative meditation on our history, with a chilling look at what has happened to the American dream.” –Howard Zinn

Because my background is English literature and I worked for years in media and my operating word is “why,” I couldn’t help it. I looked up the word evil. Wikipedia has it as:

Evil is the intention of causing harm or destruction while threatening or deliberately violating morality. Largely due to the subjectivity of the word morality (which may refer to a society’s moral code, one’s own moral system, relative morality, absolute morality, etc.), there is no agreement about whether evil is a matter of social custom or universally correct principle that overrides custom. Evil, however, is most commonly used to refer to any intention that is socially perceived as the antithesis of a morally right or good intention.

Yes, this is subject to interpretation, and my interpretation — along with millions of Americans — is that these lenders may be evil. And while you are ruminating over whether or not they are evil, please know that they are absolutely inept; if you are not yet worried about who has your money and/or investments, you should be.

This is so sad. Many people, me included, worked 50-60 years for a gracious retirement. What am I doing? Fighting with an institution that I know beyond the shadow of a doubt is inept and crooked if you view their history — they cut a deal with Pancho Villa is the early 1900s — and that was documented by university libraries.

Does anyone have a clue as to what we do? We KNOW what is going on. How are these lenders stopped?

My notes keeping track of this fiasco started in December 2008; they are now 15 pages long.

I told them I am billing them for my time spent on trying to clear up this mess and the repeated FAXing of documents that they repeatedly lose. I now average $100/hour working from home. I have spent easily 2 hours per day keeping track of this. So: $100/hour x 2 hours per day x 5 days per week x 20 months = roughly $80,000 . . . not counting all the money wasted in FAXing documents to them repeatedly.

After 18 months of trying for a loan modification through Wells Fargo Bank, and after 8 months of working with a group fighting lenders, it is painfully clear that we have been duped across the nation.

Sloppy Banking Practices

The image is of the binder I have been keeping since December 2008. Wells Fargo lost one of my payments in 2007; it took weeks to straighten that out. So it seemed prudent to begin keeping a file of all correspondence with that lender. The binder is now six inches thick and weighs 20 pounds. My conclusion is that Wells Fargo is either insanely incompentent or frightenly corrupt — it is definitely one or the other or both, but their actions have nothing to do with good business practices and/or ethics.

Yesterday, during a conversation with a worldly and knowledgable couple, who read the New York Times, Wall St. Journal, San Francisco Chronicle and the Marin Independent Journal, it was clear that they knew little of our national debacle (which has created an international debacle). Because newspapers cater to advertisers — even though they will swear they do NOT — the news you read is couched so as to not overly offend major advertisers and banks ARE major advertisers.

From Living Lies:

THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH: Profits piled up off-shore that are being repatriated on a gradual basis showing incredible gains at the Wall Street Banks that supposedly lost hundreds of billions of dollars. The truth is they never lost a dime. The truth is the loan was sold multiple times through multiple intermediaries each of whom in each “sale” were paid fees and profits vastly exceeding any prior compensation to those who arranged or made loans prior to securitization.

Second Hidden Yield Spread Premium: As I have pointed out before the hidden yield spread premium was jaw-dropping (when the loans were packaged by the aggregator and then sold to the Special Purpose Vehicle that issued and sold the mortgage-backed securities. This second YSP was sent off-shore to the Bahamas or the Caymans to Structured Investment Vehicles with their own trustees, who scattered the actual depository accounts all around the world. The beneficiaries were the 100 Club — the main players in the creation, promotions and protection of the scheme through government contacts, plausible deniability, and simple non-disclosure sometimes achieved through the sheer complexity of the arrangements.

The Penguin Guide To The United States Constitution: A Fully Annotated Declaration Of Independence U.S. Constitution And Amendments And Selections From The Federalist Papers If you are new to the fight to save your home, you are going to think some of us who have been in the midst of this for 2-3 years are nuts. We’re not. We are hard-working responsible citizens who are being trampled on by not only lenders, but sometimes by local officials, some of whom hold stock in the very banks we are up against. Inept Attorneys In an effort to get help, one of my early stops was to Legal Aid in San Rafael, Marin County, California. The director of that agency, Paul Cohen, has received large grants to help people. What did he do when I asked for help in saving my home? He handed me a one-page timeline indicating when I could expect to LOSE my home. He offered NO help. Were it up to Mr. Cohen, I, along with dozens of other people he turned away, would be living under a bridge in a tent with a feral cat or two. Mr. Cohen and his Legal Aid are a disservice to community. Were it up to me, he would be seeking new employment. My surname is Jewish, thus this is not from any type of prejudice; he is simply incompetent, he had my life in his hands, and he did NOTHING. I’m at an age where recovering from losing my home would be impossible.

Nobody wants to acknowledge this fact because it would be admission that the con game is still on and that government is still part of it. They took many trillions of dollars to “bail out” banks that had arranged the bad loans but never underwrote them.

The repercussions of what lenders have done during the past decade is playing out across the nation. People who worked hard to grow and provide for their families are sinking.

Suing Wells Fargo

From the New York Times:

. . . The mayor and former bank loan officers point a finger of blame at large national banks — in particular, Wells Fargo. During the last decade, they say, these banks singled out blacks in Memphis to sell them risky high-cost mortgages and consumer loans.

(Editor’s Note: I don’t think the banks were as picky as stories would have it. It seems to me that people of ALL races have been hurt and wrote about this as Equal Opportunity Prejudice!.) The group I work with — Families Fighting Forelosure is pretty well balanced between Black, Hispanic and White and everywhere from around 30 years of age to 73 years of age. There does not seem to be a common denominator except that, perhaps, we trusted our lenders and did not read every single word of those loan documents. I was just told that I have an interest-only loan. In my opinion, negative-am loans and/or interest-only loans are insane. How does one ever own one’s home. I would not have agreed to an interest-only loan . . . thus my reason for having a forensic audit undertaken.

The City of Memphis and Shelby County sued Wells Fargo late last year, asserting that the bank’s foreclosure rate in predominantly black neighborhoods was nearly seven times that of the foreclosure rate in predominantly white neighborhoods. Other banks, including Citibank and Countrywide, foreclosed in more equal measure.

In a recent regulatory filing, Wells Fargo hinted that its legal troubles could multiply. “Certain government entities are conducting investigations into the mortgage lending practices of various Wells Fargo affiliated entities, including whether borrowers were steered to more costly mortgage products,” the bank stated.

Wells Fargo officials are not backing down in the face of the legal attacks. They say the bank made more prime loans and has foreclosed on fewer homes than most banks, and that the worst offenders — those banks that handed out bushels of no-money-down, negative-amortization loans — have gone out of business.

October 31, 2009: 18.8 Million Vacant Homes in Last Quarter.

We need to dig to get the full story, but there are early indications that some lenders are “donating” money to communities where houses sit after foreclosure so that a new wave of low-income families can purchase them. Many of these homes are the very same houses they threw into foreclosure rather than help the existing homeowners in the first place.

Do you feel crazy yet? No. Well keep reading . . .

Abandoned and vacant foreclosed homes are piling up around the country . . . Repairing the damage from foreclosures is a difficult challenge, because cities, states, community development groups, and even willing banks and servicers have no experience working together on the complicated process of disposing of or reclaiming unwanted properties, said Joseph Schilling, a Virginia Tech urban affairs professor and co-founder of the National Vacant Properties Campaign . . . “We do a pretty good job in this country of recycling cans and plastic bottles,” Schilling said. “But we do an awful job of recycling and reusing vacant properties.”

In some states, even the banks are walking away from homes they threw into foreclosure.

A particular lender — one with a dreadful track record insofar as loan modifications are concerned — is reportedly putting $1 million into Marin County California to help people buy homes, some of which will be the very homes they seized through foreclosure in the past year or two. This is the very same lender that 20-25% of us working with Marin Family Action’s Home Save group have been asking for modifications.

Banks will end up making less from the new loan at the current property value than they would if they modified with the original owners. But they have insurance, don’t they . . . and taxpayers dollars.

What is the guarantee that the new homeowner will be able to keep their jobs and afford the payments down the road? None. Nada.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported on a “shadow inventory” of foreclosed houses—possibly 600,000 nationwide—that have not been placed on the market: “Lenders nationwide are sitting on hundreds of thousands of foreclosed homes that they have not resold or listed for sale, according to numerous data sources. And foreclosures, which banks unload at fire-sale prices, are a major factor driving home values down.”

Does this strike anyone else as insane? Or quite brutal?

This kind of “business” is what has made me feel quite stupid through the years; I keep thinking I’m missing something. There’s something I don’t understand. Obviously. Someone has a few screws lose and I no longer think it is me.

We heard of a wonderful win in Marin County, California which then turned into a nightmare. Were it not for the fact I know the following to be true, I probably would think it was some type of urban myth.

Hamilton Federal Credit Union was about to foreclose on a home and scheduled the sale on the courthouse steps for December 21, 2009. However, on December 20, Marin County Superior Court Judge Adams had granted a stay of the sale. The homeowner, concerned about previous actions of the credit union, showed up at the the courthouse to make sure that Hamilton Federal Credit Union had been informed of the stay. It was obvious that Hamilton was going ahead with their bidding war. The homeowner showed them the order “not to sell” from the Judge. They ignored it and went ahead with the sale anyway.

It gets worse: Mike Lundy from Triple Investment Company in Sausalito was there to bid. Because the homeowner had the court order to “not sell,” other bidders backed off. Not Mike Lundy. His reply, which was overhead by an associate, was “I don’t care. I have attorneys to take care of this.” He bid and bought — at a greatly reduced price, of course.

(Note: I would include Triple Investments and Mike Lundy in the Super Thieves portion of this site; however, after hearing about and observing their actions for the past several months, it seems they are, actually, petty thieves and cowards.)

Now the outcome to the wonderful story below is perched on a precipice.

What kind of people do we have here? The activities of this particular investment company are questionable at best. The person making the comment will be reported to the California Department of Real Estate. The DRE is a fine organization that we assume will look askance at such actions/statements by a investment company working under a broker who is purportedly licensed by the State of California.

If you have an issue with a real estate agent or broker in California, the DRE provides online complaint forms in English, Spanish and Chinese (hard copy only).

The home owner fought back, there is another stay, and she is still in her home after a many harrowing days. All prayers are welcome on her behalf. This, again, shows, the importance of standing up for your rights. In Marin County, F. Manuel Fernandez started a group to help save homes of residents of the North Bay. They are doing a great job. It’s a struggle because the system is against many homeowners, but it helps if you are part of a group. We think more such groups should start . . . or volunteer with a fine organization such as Neighborhood Association of America who is fighting throughout the United States to save homes.

This bears repeating as it is extremely important for all of us: This woman was told by a practicing attorney that she could NOT win. She ignored him. Her condo IS her castle and she wasn’t handing her castle to anyone.

Rather than shrug and walk, this homeowner will have her day in court. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. It’s not over until it’s over. And, as written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Measure not the work until the day’s out and the labor’s done.

Ethics for Executives In the event you are a top level executive with questionable ethics who stumbled across this site, here is a link to a selection of books that we highly recommend you read. Apparently ethics courses are not mandatory in today’s business colleges . . . that is apparent, don’t you think?

It has been an embarrassing and painful several months for the homeowner. In addition to the non-responsive lender, notices have been placed on her home and word leaked about her impending doom. Real estate agents have hovered and called.

(Editor’s note: I am a real estate agent. I consider this agressive outreach despicable. Earlier this year, a Santa Rosa agent was seen leading a crying man from his home so that the agent could show the home that afternoon to a prospective buyer! My recommendation to anyone going through this, get the agent’s card and file a complaint with your local Department of Real Estate.)

LET FREEDOM RING

My country, ’tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims’ pride,
From every mountainside,
Let freedom ring!

My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture thrills,
Like that above.

Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees,
Sweet freedom’s song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.

Our fathers’ God, to Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing;
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light;
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our King.

Through Marin Family Action, a woman’s home was just save from foreclosure proceedings which would have started Monday, December 21, 2009!

THE STORY

My country, ’tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims’ pride,
From every mountainside,
Let freedom ring!

My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture thrills,
Like that above.

Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees,
Sweet freedom’s song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.

Our fathers’ God, to Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing;
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light;
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our King.