The irresponsibility of banking with Bank of America
I remain convinced that naming specific lenders and servicers that resist legitimate and justified mortgage modification efforts is useless and meaningless. There are at last count 83 of the biggest mortgage lenders enrolled in the Home Affordable Mortgage Plan, or HAMP. Take your pick. But Bank of America is very special.
But after a month of taking applications for a national short sale negotiation program that I signed up for, Bank of America has singled itself out for elevation as the most notorious and treacherous lender I have seen in the ten months I’ve been taking applications for mortgage modification negotiations. A few times a day I see ads for Bank of America services. I’m here to tell you that you do business with them at yoour peril. If you are currently a customer with Bank of America, you are showing blatant disregard for your neighbor, community, family, state, and nation. You may be uninformed as of this moment, but the fact remains.
Linked below, Mandelman writes in detail about Bank of America disregarding a legitimate and justified mortgage modification negotiation, and foreclosing on a family’s home anyway. Never mind they will stall and ignore any mortgage modification application they receive. Never mind that they intentionally ignore and resist any short sale offer they get. They now show that they will foreclose even as a family tries mortgage modification in good faith. Bank of America wants your home. There’s more money in a foreclosure than your good will. You can have no illusions that they have any empathy, sympathy, or human thought for you as a customer.
Those of us in the mortgage modification business watch all 83 of the biggest lenders obfuscate and resist any mortgage modification application. That’s nothing new. Bank of America includes the notorious ‘item 10′ in their short sale documents. Specifically it states that the new buyer must hold title to the new property for at least 30 days. This essentially shuts out any legitimate investor trying to make a legitimate profit and prevent a foreclosure from blighting the neighbor hood and community. Even The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and Freddie Mac have recognized private investors as a key tool and legitimate player in our nation recovering from the mortgage crisis we’re in.
In fact, I’m understanding that Bank of America resists selling any distressed property to anyone other than to another Bank of America customer. Just like any two-year-old you ever saw, “If I can’t have it, you sure can’t. I’m taking my toys and going home.” I can’t say for sure because my investors, who are ready willing and able to rescue a short sale and benefit the distressed homeowners, community and neighborhood; run away from any distressed Bank of America property. We can’t help you.
In the linked article to Mandelman, Bank of America foreclosed on the wrong home. It wasn’t even theirs to foreclose on. And when the true owners tried to tell Bank of America, no one listened.
Think this is a unique situation? I found three other stories just like it on the internet today alone. These 83 lenders do not have a single humane thought about you. It’s just that Bank of America has raised the bar on complete disregard for any personal regard for any customer.
I’ve become accustomed to the realization that it is money and only money to any of these 83 lenders. Bank of America is special, very special. Find another bank that is not so special, for your own good.
The mortgage modification firm I represent is 95% successful at beneficial, affordable mortgage modificatons. (Even Bank of America. We have HAMP behind us.) The short sale investor I represent will offer a cash price to your lender and negotiate the lowest price possible for your short sale. I will get you to the front of the line in either case.
If you have a short sale situation with Bank of America, call your Congressman; all of ‘em. It’s all you got.
Read Mandelman here
Posted on February 1, 2010 at 2:57 am
You need to do more research. They can. B of A may or MAY NOT be the portfolio lender or servicer. Mandelman has been at this a very long time. It has been proved over and over that the servicers are ‘bogarting’ the mod and short sale process. He is so very widely read and not disputed that the nation needs to pay attention.
Mandelman writes regularly about fraudulent foreclosures. Again, more research is called for here.
And the mods I assist in are definitely NOT phony.
The firm I represent is bonded by the US Dept. of Justice.
If you want to forward Mr. Garfield’s website, I’d be tickled to follow it.
How much higher do you want to go?
Mandelman does absolutely no mortgage modifications. He simply comments on the bank’s treachery and obfuscation; as well as the demonstrated failure of HAMP and TARP
Posted on January 31, 2010 at 10:38 am
Of course, they’re NOT modifying anything, they can’t! THEY are NOT the “owners” of the note, only the investors are and the INVESTORS are spread across the world, each own a small bit of a note, because they bought into “mortgage backed securities”. I’m astonished that a former AUSA who worked securities is even tryign to do mods. How come you aren’t actively defending homeowners against fraudulent foreclosures? Check out Niel Garfield’s website! You want o help homeowners, Martin, then dude, stop doing these phony mods and HELP HOMEOWNERS!