if you’re here . . .
Posted by admin on June 14th, 2011
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
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 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. 

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