Faces Of Foreclosure

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.