Faces Of Foreclosure

We talked with one senior banker (at a bank that begins with the letter “C”) who advised our clients to walk away from their homes, rent for two years, get credit scores back up and then purchase a new home at current low rates. That was from a loan negotiator at a major bank, one of the banks that received millions/billions of taxpayer dollars to bail them out. He actually said he did just that: walked away from his home. If that is true, and if he worked for me, I would fire him on the spot.

Is such a maneuver considered ethical? If so, how so?

Who Are These People

What kind of people work in these corporate offices? How do they sleep at night? This type of maneuver further undermines the fabric and stability of America.

THIS is a clear example of “Situational Ethics,” and, in my opinion, situational ethics are ruling and ruining this country.

Here’s what one author says of “situational ethics:”

Joseph Fletcher wrote: . . . Whether we ought to follow a moral principle or not would always depend upon the situation. . . . In some situations stealing could be better than respecting private property . . . no action is good or right of itself. It depends on whether it hurts or helps people. . . .There are no normative moral principles whatsoever which are intrinsically valid or universally obliging. Love is the highest good and the first-order value, the primary consideration to which in every act . . . we should be prepared to sidetrack or subordinate other value considerations of right and wrong.

That is nauseous. The underlying problem is that most people are driven by fear and will bend situations to suit themselves without any thought of who will be harmed in the process. “Love?” Is he serious. Few people truly “love” themselves, meaning that others are even further down the totem pole and will be treated with disregard.

The Golden Rule

Fortunately, John C. Maxwell, author of “There’s No Such Thing As “Business” Ethics: There’s Only One Rule For Making Decisions”, disagrees with bending the rules to fit the situation. He proposes that there’s no such thing as business ethics because a single standard applies to both your business and personal life-and it’s one we all know and trust: the Golden Rule. Now bestselling author John C. Maxwell shows you how this revered ideal works everywhere, and how, especially in business, it brings amazing dividends. There’s No Such Thing As Business Ethics offers stories from history, business, government, and sports that illustrate how talented leaders invoked this timeless principle of the Golden Rule rather than compromise dignity.

Editor’s Note: We are neither agreeing or disagreeing with the following message from noted muckraker/filmmaker Michael Moore. This was sent to us by a hard-working family who fought to save their home from foreclosure for four years . . . and lost. They had to vacate their property and it still sits empty one year later. At least one judge presiding over foreclosure-related cases in Marin is a real estate investor in that that person owns multiple properties and rents them out. Who do you think that judge would side with? That is extremely illogical to us and, unfortunately, we have seen it repeated hundreds of times in our small community.

Our elected officials, namely Senators, have NOT done their jobs. Too many are responding to their special interest backers and not working on behalf of the people. You need to be in front of THEIR homes and/or in front of the homes owned by senior bank officials.

The Winter of Our Occupation

A proposal from Michael Moore Tuesday, December 6th, 2011

Friends,
And now it is winter. Wall Street rejoices, hoping that the change of seasons will mean a change in our spirit, our commitment to stop them.

They couldn’t be more wrong. Have they not heard of Washington and the troops at Valley Forge? The Great Flint Sit-Down Strike in the winter of 1936-37? The Michigan Wolverines crushing Ohio State in the 1950 Blizzard Bowl? When it comes to winter, it is the time historically when the people persevere and the forces of evil make their retreat!

And they're crazy if they think that a little climate chaos (otherwise known as winter in the 21st century) that they've helped to bring about is going to stop us.

I would like to propose to my Occupying sisters and brothers that there are many ways to keep Occupy Wall Street going through the winter months. There is perhaps no better time to move the movement indoors for a few months -- and watch it grow even bigger! (For those who have the stamina to maintain the outdoor occupations, by all means, keep it up -- and the rest of us will do our best to help you and keep you warm!)

The winter gives us an amazing opportunity to expand our actions against the captains of capitalism who have occupied our homes with their fraudulent mortgage system which has tossed millions of families out onto the curb; a cruel health care system that has told 50 million Americans "if you can't afford a doctor, go F yourself"; a student loan system that sends 22-year-olds into an immediate "debtors' prison" of working lousy jobs for which they didn't go to school but now have to take because they're in hock for tens of thousands of dollars for the next two decades; and a jobs market that keeps 25 million Americans un- or under-employed -- and much of the rest of the workers forced to accept wage cuts, health care reductions and zero job security.

But we in the Occupy Movement reject this version of the "American Dream." Instead, I suggest we shift our focus for this winter to the following actions:

OCCUPY THE WINTER

A proposal to the General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street from Michael Moore

1. Occupy Our Homes. Sorry, banks, a roof over one’s head is a human right, and you will no longer occupy our homes through foreclosure and eviction because well, you see, they are our homes, not yours. You may hold the mortgage; you don’t hold the right to throw us or our neighbors out into the cold. With almost one in three home mortgages currently in foreclosure, nearing foreclosure or “underwater,” the Occupy Movement must form local “Occupy Strike Forces” to create human shields when the banks come to throw people out of their homes. If the foreclosure has already happened, then we must help families move back into their foreclosed homes — literally (see this clip from my last film to watch how a home re-occupation is accomplished). Beginning today, Take Back the Land, plus many other citizens’ organizations nationwide, are kicking off Occupy Our Homes. Numerous actions throughout the day today have already resulted in many families physically taking back their homes. This will continue every day until the banks are forced to stop their fraudulent practices, until homeowners are allowed to change their mortgage so that it reflects the true value of their homes, and until those who can no longer afford a mortgage are allowed to stay in their homes and pay rent. I beseech the news media to cover these actions — they are happening everywhere. Evictions, though rarely covered (you need a Kardashian in your home as you’re being evicted to qualify for news coverage) are not a new story (see this scene I filmed in 1988). Also, please remember the words of Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur of Toledo (in ‘Capitalism: A Love Story’): Do not leave your homes if the bank forecloses on you! Let them take you to court and then YOU ask the judge to make them produce a copy of your mortgage. They can’t. It was chopped up a hundred different ways, bundled with a hundred other mortgages, and sold off to the Chinese. If they can’t produce the mortgage, they can’t evict you.
2. Occupy Your College. In nearly every other democracy on the planet, students go to college for free or almost free. Why do those countries do that? Because they know that for their society to advance, they must have an educated population. Without that, productivity, innovation and an informed electorate is stunted and everyone suffers as a result. Here’s how we do it in the U.S.A.: make education one of our lowest priorities, graduate students who know little about the world or their own government or the economy, and then force them into crushing debt before they even have their first job. That way has really worked well for us, hasn’t it? It’s made us the world leader in … in … well, ok, we’re like 27th or 34th in everything now (except war). This has to end. Students should spend this winter doing what they are already doing on dozens of campuses — holding sit-ins, occupying the student loan office, nonviolently disrupting the university regents meetings, and pitching their tents on the administration’s lawn. Young people — we, the ’60s generation, promised to create a better world for you. We got halfway there — now you have to complete the job. Do not stop until these wars are ended, the Pentagon budget is cut in half, and the rich are forced to pay their taxes. And demand that that money go to your education. We’ll be there with you on all of this! And when we get this fixed and you graduate, instead of being $40,000 in debt, go see the friggin’ world, or tinker around in your garage a la the two Steves, or start a band. Enjoy life, discover, explore, experiment, find your way. Anything but the assistant manager at Taco Bell.
3. Occupy Your Job. Let’s spend the winter organizing workplaces into unions. OR, if you already have a union, demand that your leaders get off their ass and get aggressive like our grandparents did. For chrissakes, surely you know we would not have a middle class if it weren’t for the strikes of the 1930s-1950s?! In three weeks we will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the workers in my hometown of Flint, Michigan taking over and occupying the General Motors factories for 44 days in the dead of winter. Their actions ignited a labor movement that lifted tens of millions out of poverty and into the middle class. It’s time to do it again. (According to the Census Bureau and the New York Times, 100 million Americans either live in or near poverty. Disgraceful. Greed has destroyed the core fabric of our communities. Enough!) Here are two good unions to get your fellow workers to sign up and join: UE and SEIU. The CWA are also good. Here’s how to get a quick primer in organizing your place of employment (don’t forget to be careful while you do this!). If your company is threatening to close down and move the jobs elsewhere, then it’s time to occupy the workplace (again, you can get a lesson in how to successfully occupy your factory from my movie).
4. Occupy Your Bank. This is an easy one. Just leave them. Move your checking and your credit card to a nonprofit credit union. It’s safe and the decisions made there aren’t based on greed. And if a bank tries to evict your neighbor, occupy the local branch with 20 other people and call the press. Post it on the internet.
5. Occupy the Insurance Man. It’s time to not only stand up for the 50 million without health insurance but to also issue a single, simple demand: The elimination of for-profit, privately-controlled health insurance companies. It is nothing short of barbaric to allow businesses to make a profit off people when they get sick. We don’t allow anyone to make a profit when we need the fire department or the police. Until recently we would never allow a company to make a profit by operating in a public school. The same should be true for when you need to see a doctor or stay in the hospital. So I say it’s long overdue for us to go and Occupy Humana, United Health, Cigna and even the supposed “nonprofit” Blue Crosses. An action on their lawns, in their lobbies, or at the for-profit hospitals — this is what is needed.

So — there are my ideas for the five places we can Occupy this winter. Help the foreclosed-upon to Occupy their homes. Occupy your college campus, especially the student loan office and the regents meetings. Occupy your job by getting everyone to sign a union card — or by refusing to let the CEO ship your job overseas. Occupy your Chase or Citi or Bank of America branch by closing your account and moving it to a credit union. And Occupy the insurance company offices, the pharmaceutical companies’ headquarters and the for-profit hospitals until the White House and Congress pass the true single-payer universal health care bill they failed to pass in 2010.

My friends, the rich are running scared right now. You need no further proof of this than to read this story from last week. The Republicans’ top strategist met privately with them and told them that they had better change their tune or they were going to be crushed by the Occupy Wall Street movement. They didn’t have to change their greedy actions, he assured them — just the way they talk and PR the situation. He told them never to use the word “capitalism” — it has now been made a dirty word by the Occupy movement, he said. Only say “economic freedom” from now on, he cautioned. And don’t criticize the movement — because the majority of Americans either agree with it or are feeling the same way. Just tell the Occupiers and the distressed Americans: “I get it.” Seriously.

Yes, in just 12 short weeks we have killed their most sacred word — Capitalism — and we have them on the run, on the defensive. They should be. Millions are coming after them and our only goal is to remove them from power and replace them with a fair system that is controlled by the 99%. The 1% have been able to get both political parties to do their bidding. Why should only 1% of the population get to have two parties — and the rest of us have none? That, too, is going to change. In my next letter, I will suggest what we can do to Occupy the Electoral Process. But first we must start with those who pull the strings of the puppets in the Congress. That’s why it’s called Occupy Wall Street. Always better to deal with man in charge, don’t you think?

Let’s Occupy the Winter! An #OWS Winter will certainly lead to a very hopeful American Spring.

Yours,

Michael Moore

Chase and Loan Modifications

We wish we could say the following story excerpted from The New York Times is news, or a discovery, or anything other than “Yes we know. And why aren’t these people in prison — general population prison?”

After three years of working to save homes from foreclosure, we are still reading drivel such as the following. Absolutely everything out of the former banker’s mouth has been covered in the news repeatedly during the past few years. The bankers are still smiling and still running free and, probably worse, the former banker in The New York Times’ story is smiling . . . why? Because he got off scott free even though he knew what he was doing was questionable.

A Banker Speaks, With Regret (Yet He’s Still Smiling!)

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, November 30, 2011 (Op-Ed Columnist)

If you want to understand why the Occupy movement has found such traction, it helps to listen to a former banker like James Theckston. He fully acknowledges that he and other bankers are mostly responsible for the country’s housing mess.

As a regional vice president for Chase Home Finance in southern Florida, Theckston shoveled money at home borrowers. In 2007, his team wrote $2 billion in mortgages, he says. Sometimes those were “no documentation” mortgages.

“On the application, you don’t put down a job; you don’t show income; you don’t show assets,” he said. “But you still got a nod.”

Editor’s Note: Try for a loan modification on your mortgage and watch what happens. Real life example: Chase holds a client’s second. The house is upside down $400,000 and $600,000 is owed on the first. If the owner walks away, Chase gets nothing . . . except they have insurance. The client’s income has gone up in a puff of smoke, so there’s nothing they can go after. When the loan was given in 2006, it was on stated income (which was bizarre because the client had an excellent paying job; actual tax returns could have been used). At the time of the original loan (first and second), next to no documentation was given to anyone. Now that a loan modification on a $80k second is being requested, what do they want in return? Glad you asked. Here’s the list — and it all MUST be included in one package:

1. Request for Modification and Affidavit (RMA), fully completed, signed, and dated
2. Signed Dodd-Frank Certification Form
3. Completed 4506T or 4506T-EZ form, signed and dated within the past 90 days
4. Proof of additional income from non-borrower(s)
5. Completed 4506T or 4506T-EZ form for non-borrower, signed and dated within the last 90 days.
6. Completed Authorization to Obtain Consumer Credit Report form (enclosed), for non-borrower(s)
7. Two most recent pay stubs indicating year-to-date earnings
8. Most recent quarterly or year-to-date profit and loss statement (signed and dated), reflecting revenue and expenses, with company name and dates covered
9. Copy of IRS Schedule K-1 (Return of Partnership Income)
10. Most recent W-2
11. Verification of Employment letter on company letterhead, signed and dated, that includes year-to-date paid amount with a paid-through date
12. Benefit statement or letter from all providers of income from Social Security, including Social Security for the support of children, disability, survivor benefits, pension, or public assistance, which states the amount, frequency, and duration of the income, and proof of receipt of payment, such as two most recent bank statements showing deposit amounts
13. Proof of income from 401K distributions, dividends, interest, and/or annuities (copies of two check stubs, two bank statements, or copies of two actual checks, reflecting the income;
14. Legal documentation indicating amount, frequency, and duration of alimony and/or child support payments, if you wish to have this income considered as part of your modification request (this is not required), and proof of receipt of payment, such as two most recent bank statements showing deposit amounts
15. Proof of occupancy (recent utility bill in your name at property address)
16. Copy of recorded Quite Claim Deed or Warranty Deed transferring ownership
17. One of the following documents reflecting rental income: Copy of IRS Schedule E (Supplemental Income and Loss), current rental agreement(s), or handwritten lease agreement(s) or contract(s)
18. One of the following documents reflecting boarder income: Statement from the borrower claiming boarder income, letter from the boarder, copy of IRS Schedule E (Supplemental Income and Loss), current rental agreement(s), or handwritten lease agreements(s) or contract(s)
19. Two canceled (their misspelling) checks or two most recent bank statements reflecting rental and/or boarder income – please note that we are unable to accept hand-written receipts
20. Proof of Flood Insurance – current policy or declaration
21. Current Property Tax bill and proof of payment
22. Proof of payment of Homeowner/Property insurance, including declaration page showing amount due
23. Homeowner’s Association bill and proof of payment, as well as documentation o coverage and premium (master policy)
24. Copy of most recent first mortgage loan statement, showing the status
25. Copy of modification agreement for your first mortgage on the property
26. Written hardship letter, signed and dated
27. Divorce decree, separation agreement, or other legal written agreement that has been filed with the court pertaining to a divorce and/or separation
28. Copy of recorded Death Certificate
29. Cop of the executed Power of Attorney
30. Copies of most recent statement(s) supporting assets — all pages
31. Copies of two most recent bank statements, showing deposit amounts, or copies of two most recent alimony or child support checks
32. Copies of two most recent bank statements, showing deposit amounts (Please note that copies of bank statements must be actual copies from the bank; internet copies or transaction histories cannot be accepted. Include all pages of the statements, including any blank pages.)

Added to this irony is that most of this was sent to Chase more than a month ago through FedEx and by FAX. They have no record of receiving any of it. We were just told that to be sure they get the documents, the client should go to the nearest Chase Bank and ask them to FAX the documents . . . right . . . all 150 pages!

Back to the article

. . . “You’ve got somebody making $20,000 buying a $500,000 home, thinking that she’d flip it,” he said. “That was crazy, but the banks put programs together to make those kinds of loans.”

Especially when mortgages were securitized and sold off to investors, he said, senior bankers turned a blind eye to shortcuts.

Editor’s note: The average person did NOT think they would "flip" their homes and make a profit — most people did not even know what "flipping" was; mortgage brokers and lenders, including mine, were TELLING people that they could wait a few years, sell, make a profit.

“The bigwigs of the corporations knew this, but they figured we’re going to make billions out of it, so who cares? The government is going to bail us out. And the problem loans will be out of here, maybe even overseas.”

One memory particularly troubles Theckston (which makes one wonder why he is smiling in The New York Times’ article). He says that some account executives earned a commission seven times higher from subprime loans, rather than prime mortgages. So they looked for less savvy borrowers — those with less education, without previous mortgage experience, or without fluent English — and nudged them toward subprime loans . . . Senior executives seemed aware of this racial mismatch, he recalled, and frantically tried to cover it up . . . (Chase’s) spokesmen acknowledge that banks had made huge mistakes and noted that Chase no longer writes subprime or no-document mortgages. It also said that it has offered homeowners four times as many mortgage modifications as homes it has foreclosed on.

Editor’s Note: The key word here is "offered." See the list above; they have "offered" to consider a modification, but given their requirements, it will be a cold day in hell before they give the average person a modification. I propose that for modifications, they use the same type of documentation required for the original loan: stated income, and a one-page financial sheet, and my signature!

. . . 28 percent of all American mortgages are “underwater,” according to Zillow . . . and the figure is up from 23 percent a year ago . . . it’s difficult to nurture a broad recovery unless real estate and construction revive.

All this came into sharper focus this week as Bloomberg Markets magazine published an exposé based on lending records it pried out of the Federal Reserve in a lawsuit. It turns out that the Fed provided an astonishing sum to keep banks afloat — $7.8 trillion, equivalent to more than $25,000 per American.

The article estimated that banks earned up to $13 billion in profits by relending that money to businesses and consumers at higher rates.

The Federal Reserve action isn’t a scandal, and arguably it’s a triumph. The Fed did everything imaginable to avert a financial catastrophe — and succeeded. The money was repaid.

Yet what is scandalous is the basic unfairness of what has transpired. The federal government rescued highly paid bankers from their reckless decisions. It protected bank shareholders and creditors. But it mostly turned a cold shoulder to some of the most vulnerable and least sophisticated people in America.

Last year alone, banks seized more than one million homes.

Sure, some programs exist to help borrowers in trouble, but not nearly enough. We still haven’t taken such basic steps as allowing bankruptcy judges to modify the terms of a mortgage on a primary home . . . When the federal government goes all-out to rescue errant bankers, and stiffs homeowners, that’s not just bad economics. It’s also wrong.

The actions of the world’s top banks have

Turned the world upside down

Acts 17:6

I do not understand the following comments from a “think tank friend,” other than to know that nothing happening economically in America is new. History indicates that we have been in these circumstances before. However, the “think tank person” below assures me/us that the entire history of the world (economically) pales with ours of here and now . . . by any measure. 

“There remains an issue with housing that until it is remedied, we are in for an extended period of stagnation and underemployment. It will take many years to remedy and may not be at all if we elect a Republican next year . . . but if we can re-elect Obama, along with the house regaining a democratic majority, there could be some cool stuff in 2013 . . . Like actually legislating the requirements to roll back mortgages to 80% of CURRENT MARKET VALUE.

“The Dem caucus recently hit leadership with its latest demand (Zoe Lofgren of San Jose) that the Congress take such action. Once Obama realizes he has the votes and is no longer concerned about re-election, all bets are off for his support of what we thought were his “issues” like getting troops out of Afghanistan, gay marriage, legalized drugs and other liberal hot buttons . . .”

The comments above and below come from one of the most brilliant people I know in response to my questions and the simplistic ranting “economic view” found on YouTube.

This gentleman’s degrees include Finance, Business, Law (he holds a JD). His career includes real estate (broker and commercial sales), estate analysis/planning, insurance sales, government bond specialist, and he held seven securites licenses. For a NYSE firm, he was responsible for nearly 100 brokers, 10 traders, a real estate syndication department, a public finance department and overall operations for the largest branch office in the company. His “letters to editors” at various publications are always published. He is also a licensed sea captain.

He and his wife are extremely ethical people: They are in a position to shuck and jive people and make lots more money. They do not!

I sent him a comedian’s smart-ass rant from YouTube about America’s current economic state. His knowledgable and thoughtful responses to my questions include:

“The world and especially the US have issues . . . a balanced budget isn’t it. The proliferation of the notion that a sovereign nation’s debt is like a family credit card is DANGEROUS. Economics is more complicated than the jive-ass on YouTube would have you believe.

What OUR nation needs right now is government spending and well in excess of current revenues (which translates to bigger deficits). It doesn’t need higher taxes OR reduced spending. Part of the problem is the law of big numbers–people hear $14+ trillion national debt and that IS a big number . . . so it must be a problem?

As a percent of GDP, it is below average for the world and if we can find growth of even 3%, in a few years, the percent of debt to GDP would be cut in half!!! And contrary to the speaker’s rant, we don’t care who buys the debt, even the Chinese.

Do you remember in early 80′s it was the Japanese who would take over the world, then it was the Saudi’s (or other middle eastern oil sheikdoms). Do you remember too that certain nations, like Germany after WWI and Argentina and Brazil in the early 70′s “monetized” their debt? Sovereign nations can do that. Sure some stuff will cost more (and no, I don’t advocate that we take it to the extreme that either Germany or Argentina did), but guess what? It is almost unanimous among economists that inflation is a good thing- to a certain extent. And currently, the US has NONE!!! You need some inflation for growth and to stimulate job creation!

We need growth in this country and fast and if we manage to explain the reasons to a majority (51% will do), we will avoid a cataclysmic financial disaster. The logic of the comedian has taken over in the EU and the “austerity” measures in Greece and to a lesser extent in Spain, Portugal, Ireland and perhaps to a lesser extent in Britain and France and Italy will lead to slower growth, less government revenues, more unemployment (citizen misery) and what economists call a death cycle. It has happened before and as recently as 1938 in the US.

I am thankful that there are people out there like Obama who do get it. Problem is that we need to somehow prevent those that feel downtrodden to vote and act contrary to their best interests.

I used to hear investment clients say they wanted time to “research” my recommendations to them. After all, Chuck Schwab has been telling them for years, that a few minutes online at the Schwab website and they will be financial geniuses. My response was always the same . . .

Do you really think that you can gain sufficient knowledge of the subject to form a reasonable opinion in a few minutes of research? I have spent 6 years of college studying finance and economics (SDSU finance and GGU MsF) and now almost a lifetime in the financial markets. Are you suggesting that Facebook or Google can answer to that?

I don’t want to be harsh. We will talk more later.

is often cited as the best book ever written about market psychology. This edition includes Charles Mackay’s account of three infamous financial manias – John Law’s Mississipi Scheme, the South Sea Bubble, and Tulipomania. These three historic episodes confirm that greed and fear have always been the driving forces of financial markets, and, furthermore, that being sensible and clever is no defence against the mesmeric allure of a popular craze with the wind filling its sails. Charles Mackay proved himself a master chronicler of social as well as financial history. Blessed with a cast of characters that covered all the vices, gifted a passage of events which was inevitably heading for disaster, and with the benefit of hindsight, he produced a record that is at once a riveting thriller and absorbing historical document. A century and a half later, it is as vibrant and lurid as the day it was written. For modern-day investors, the moral of the popular manias scarcely needs spelling out. When the next bubble comes along — be it stock market, real estate, or tulips — be advised to recall the plight of some of the unfortunates on these pages, and avoid getting dragged under the wheels of the careening career bandwagon yourself.

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 didn’t think anyone could be in worse shape than the U.S., but the crooks that are crippling America will bring Ireland to her knees — Spain is expected to follow on Ireland’s heels. Neither government has sufficient funds to bail out these poor people. Ireland has been bandied about so much during the centuries that this is painful to read, particularly for someone with Irish heritage.

Excerpts from International Living:

In short, the mother of all real estate and banking bubbles has imploded. The Irish government guaranteed the entire financial system’s liabilities. The extent of banking losses is breathtaking. Losses will be in the region of two to three years’ worth of the country’s total tax take.

Official statistics tell us that real estate prices have fallen by 40%. This is misleading. It hides the fact that there is no liquidity . . . no buyers whatsoever in many cases. To find a buyer you may have to drop prices by 70% or more. And if you do find a buyer, chances are the sale will fall through anyway. Financing is almost non-existent.

Let me give you an example of how bad things are. Earlier this year I met an old friend for lunch in a Dublin hotel. He just bought a new home in central Dublin. He paid $1 million. His neighbor paid $2.5 million for the same house a couple of years ago.

To clear unsold inventory of new apartments on the outer reaches of Dublin’s commuter belt, developers now need to cut prices to the $96,000 to $110,000 range. This is a fire sale. The list price on the same units would have been much higher—somewhere in the $274,000 to $356,000 range.

Before taking the plunge you need to understand the foundations that Ireland’s real estate market sits on.

In September 2008, fearing a run on the banks, the government guaranteed all deposits and liabilities of Irish banks. This put Irish taxpayers on the hook for every bad loan made and every bond issued.

After guaranteeing these loans, the government created a “bad bank” called NAMA (National Assets Management Agency). Years—maybe even decades—of inventory are now in NAMA’s hands. We have no idea what NAMA will do with it. Will NAMA offload at fire sale prices? Whatever it decides will have a dramatic impact on the market.

Foreclosures (or repossessions as they’re called in Ireland) are rare. The legal process for foreclosures is difficult. And the banks are worried about the bad publicity. But this situation may not last. This means that even more inventory could come on stream on top of excess supply. If it does, there will likely never be a level of demand that will meet current supply levels.

A major bank is now offering an “associate discount program” to their customers.

Just what is an “associate discount program?”

Well, they basically are on-line retailer shops selling items such as books, shoes, luggage, cruises, vacations, etc., via the internet. They are in direct competition with local businesses and they — in this case Bank of America — gets a percentage of everything you buy from their “associate discount program.” Local retailers will lose business as a result of any purchases you make through Bank of America.

Whomever thought of this should be asked “What ARE you thinking?” Or, “Are you thinking?”

Banks are purportedly taking care of our money; they are not an affiliate marketing program/retail gateway for consumers. This program makes no sense from a banking institution — are you really that hungry/desperate? Oh, don’t answer that — we all are, I suppose.

Why is banking institution allowed to conduct business in such a manner. Affiliate marketing links are consumer gateway, NOT banking products. Again, this puts the bank in direct conflict with various local businesses that are their clients.

Wouldn’t it be more appropriate for today’s banks/lenders to run their business in more professional “bankerly” manners, as in paying attention to the millions of fraudulent real estate loans handed out in the past 4-6 years.

Due to poor lending practices by banks, by the time all is said and done, more than 60 million people will have been displaced in America — that is more forced movement than any time in the recorded history of the world from any source, including war, persecution, hurricanes, floods, fire and earthquakes.

PLEASE get back to what you are supposed to be doing, which is managing money, not selling retail products through affiliate marketing programs.

If this particular lender proceeds with this instead of managing its business, we need to complain to appropriate authorities, i.e. Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Office of Thrift Supervision, etc.

I even like the particular bank “offering” this “service,” but this is way out of line and I was in court just yesterday with a woman trying to save her home from this very bank . . . the court ruled in the woman’s favor due to lack of responsiveness from this lender.

Rather than helping customers, they are setting up affiliate marketing programs to further make money from their clients and to compete with local retailers.

More than 200 families are working with Families Fighting Foreclosure to save their homes in Marin County, California. The sponsoring Group Marin Family Action has just been featured in the beginning of a series from Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper, the Pt. Reyes Light.

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One of the strengths of the group is “The Buddy System.” No one goes to court alone when facing opposition from attorneys, lenders, and courtrooms. The group has been shocked at all turns by how sloppy and/or lazy some judges run their courtrooms.

The latest story is of a woman whose husband took out a second on their house without her knowledge. He died shortly thereafter, leaving her confused and about to lose her home from foreclosure. She tried repeatedly to find out what happened, to no avail.

This writer — who has been battling to save her home for 18 months — was in court during one of these legal proceedings (and thinks “illegal proceedings” might be a more appropriate term). The judge pronounced from the bench that “The file is incomplete. I have not reviewed it.” And “It is what it is.” That judge either opened the door for mis-trial, which happened in a round-about way, or she was performing her civic duties in a sloppy manner. It was an appalling view of justice; in fact no justice was going to happen that day if it stayed in the hands of the judge and opposing counsul.

Earlier during the day, that judge told the distressed homeowner that she should prepare to move. She was ready to throw her out of her home of 17 years without knowing any facts and without caring about the facts.

This is being written two weeks after that dreadful Day in Court, and it looks like it is going to have an amazingly happy ending. We’re not at liberty to say yet and the point of this is that you have to be willing to fight or “They” will run over you.

The story about families fighting foreclosure.

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