Faces Of Foreclosure

Treasury Department announces permanent mod plan
November 30, 2009

The Treasury Department and Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced a plan to help borrowers convert to permanent loan modifications. As expected, the announcement emphasized the importance of ushering borrowers currently in trial modifications into permanent modifications.

Phyllis Caldwell, chief of the Treasury Department’s Homeownership Preservation Office, said in a press release that with the success of the trial modification program, agency officials will aim to augment the permanent modification plans. “We now must refocus our efforts on the conversion phase to ensure that borrowers and servicers know what their responsibilities are in converting trial modifications to permanent ones,” Caldwell said.

The plan would involve applying more pressure on banks to convert trial modifications into permanent ones. It’s a task that has proved tricky — while over 650,000 borrowers have qualified for trial modifications under the Treasury’s program Making Home Affordable only 375,000 of those are expected to transition to permanent modifications by the end of 2009.

The Treasury plans to disclose how many permanent modifications each bank implements, according to Michael Barr, assistant secretary for financial institutions, a move intended to call out those banks that aren’t performing adequately. “We’re going to be quite focused and direct on particular institutions that are not doing a good job,” Barr said. “Some firms ought to be embarrassed, and they will be.”

A comment from one of the readers of this article:

It is my hope that Ms. Caldwell takes her role seriously, takes no prisoners with regard to enforcement of mortgage servicer slackers, and facilitates IMMEDIATE REMEDIES and SOLUTIONS for homeowners. This problem is an embarrassment to our country! It doesn’t make sense how banks/mortgage servicers are dragging their feet when slated to receive “incentives of several thousand dollars for each mortgage they agree to modify with lower payments. Those payments aren’t made until the modification is permanent.” In fact, it seems more evident that banks/mortgage servicers are benefitting from foreclosures . . . from what? Insurance and government backing for losses?

In a recent meeting with a local real estate agent, she named Chase as the worst bank in all of the mess, followed closely by Wells Fargo. And I just found this re Chase . . . this is shocking. Can’t charters be pulled from banks? Why are they unregulated and out of control?

I’ve been in an on-going nightmare with Chase since mid-2003, involving them forcing me into bankruptcy then to save my home, and the last year and a half of misfeasance, malfeasance, simple incompetence and outright greed. My “three-month modification trial period” has now stretched to eight months, with no end in sight, and no guarantee of anything resembling an equitable mortgage from this. At one point, Chase attempted to have us falsify our incomes to get a better deal. And reporting this occurance, which is a felony, to several federal agencies got us nowhere. Nothing has been done, and it looks like my only remedy is going to be to sue Chase in federal court to see if I can get a mortgage out of them for something less than the 11 3/4% I’m paying now.

A favorite:

The banks are not honoring the agreement they made with the government. They should be fined $1 millions a day until they start modifying loans. Banks want the program to fail. Our government needs to step it up and make the banks accountable.

And then there is Wells Fargo . . .This from Alex Strobel on December 14, 2009:

Wells Fargo has been participating in the Making Home Affordable Program since April 13, 2009 by providing homeowners with home loan mortgage modifications. The numbers:

Wells Fargo has potentially 334,949 homeowners who qualify for a home loan mortgage modification through the Making Home Affordable Program. There are currently 96,137 homeowners in a home loan modification trail period and Wells Fargo has made 3,537 home loan mortgage modifications permanent.

Responses to this included:

We met all the requirements and applied for the HAMP program with Wells Fargo and were told that our “investor” is not participating in the HAMP program only to find out that Wells Fargo is actually our investor. They approved us for their “in-house” modification program, and put us on a 3 month forbearance. We made our final payment on Dec. 1st. We then received a notice saying we need to come up with $14,000 by January 5, 2010 or risk foreclosure proceedings. I have called and emailed Wells Fargo and am waiting for a call back. They are they are putting homeowners through a vicious obstacle course, many won’t find their way, and their lives will be horribly effected in the process. (Coming from a homeowner that had 800+ credit score, now low 600’s, and still no relief from Wells Fargo, just more panic attacks.) Good luck economy!

A gentleman named “Larry” notes that Wells are “bastards” and “good for nothing scum bags.”

This is amazing. I saw Chase’s new site at Keeping Your Home.

Chase’s complaint record is not good — 282,000 as compared to Wells Fargo’s 300+ thousand and BofA’s numbers. Interesting ’cause Chase is not a top home lending institution and does not hold a comparable number of mortgages, so this indicates that they are in bad shape. Chase’s site HAS to be all PR, but it’s excellent PR, unless, of course, you can read through PR and its purpose. Chase rolled out earlier in 2009 on the West Coast of the Americas with a lame ad. Now they have nicely captured a face of America, albeit they are catering to Hispanics.

In any case, Chase will go on the list I contact re helping in Marin. And here’s a test I will try: “Concerned about paying your loan?” Of course, this refers to Chase, WaMu or EMC, however, I am going to test them. They do hold my second and they were polite when I first freaked about finances in December 2008. I’ll call Chase to see if they will take over the first and the second at 5% for 30 years fixed. What the hell. Chase says they have helped 750,000 foreclosures . . . I absolutely do NOT believe that . . . or perhaps their definition of “help” should needs defining.

I want to write a book entitled “You Can’t Tell Us Apart, Can You?” referring to “white” America. This because I am German Jew and Irish Catholic and do not relate to subjects of the Queen of England or the King of Spain, at certainly not any nation Denmark-north.

And because I often wonder what blacks, Hispanics, Iranians, Indians, etc. know about America and immigration. I decided early on that they most people are caught up in their own strife, don’t know, and don’t care much about anyone else.

A friend/associate, whom I adore, said this morning that it seems like we are fighting the Civil War, but admitted that he does not know what the Civil War was about. I explained that the North (under President Lincoln) wanted to abolish slavery, while the South wanted to maintain the black slaves and cheap labor for their plantations. He said, “Oh.”

What many people do not know is that plantations in the South and various Caribbean islands were also “maintaining” Irish (and probably other) “indentured slaves.” Indentured, of course, meaning once you pay off your debt you were free, however you could never pay off your debt so this was a lifetime commitment.

Bizarre what potentially losing one’s home digs up, don’t you think? My family has been in America since 1704 and here I am fighting for my rights. Absolutely bizarre.

A current favorite racial comment — this from a TV drama: The Iranian man said, “We can’t go anywhere. We can’t travel through airports. We can’t travel on subways. You look at us with suspicion at all turns. You check us for bombs.”

The black New York cop responded, “Yeah, but you can get a cab.”