Archive for June, 2008
The following lenders and mortgage servicers claim to be members of Hope Now: Acqura Loan Services, Assurant Inc., Aurora Loan Services, Avelo Mortgage LLC, Bank of America, Carrington Mortgage Services, Chase, Citigroup Inc., Countrywide Financial Corp., EMC Mortgage Corp., First Horizon Home Loans and First Tennessee Home Loans, GMAC ResCap, Home Loan Services Inc., HomEq Servicing, HSBC Finance, Indymac Bank, LandAmerica Financial Group Inc./LoanCare Servicing Center, Litton Loan Servicing, National City Mortgage Corp., Nationstar Mortgage LLC, Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC, Option One Mortgage Corp., Saxon Mortgage Services, SunTrust Mortgage Inc., Washington Mutual Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., and Wilshire Credit Corp.
My wife an I are retired, and yes – we belong to AARP. We are considered to be ‘baby boomers’ although we are both retired from the military. We know some (perhaps many) people have more money in the bank than do we. We are also realistic about not having the pressures of some families, as we do have our retirement checks. Consider, if you will, those who are not yet retired. Many families have been touched by the mortgage crisis, high gasoline costs, and pressure on the family budget. It is along those lines that AARP permits me to echo what they said:
“Nobody had models for that,” said David E. Zimmer, then one of the executives at People’s Choice, a subprime lender based in Irvine. “Nobody had predicted people going into default in their first three mortgage payments.” Wake up Dave – it is called How to sell your house to the bank with a new loan – and the idea is to get refinanced while intentionally planning to never make a payment. No models for that? Back in 2001 through 2003 my wife and I bought foreclosures, often commenting on how fast some homes went into foreclosure. We joked about people who sold their house to the bank. If the neighborhood was going downhill just sell your house to the bank. White flight? If you can’t sell then do a cash-out refi to start your new life elsewhere, and never make a payment.
U.S. prosecutors are preparing to file criminal charges against managers of two Bear Stearns hedge funds whose collapse helped kick off the credit crisis last year, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, according to Reuters. For those who remember the day to day events of last year the subprime markets was failing before the funds collapsed. Banks specializing in subprime, such as HSBC’s subsidiary HSBC Finance, has already announced major losses. But who cares about the exact timing – this is a major announcement as responsibility may have a high price.
Have you considered a short sale? My brother is a realtor and he said the negotiations can be tricky. Short sales do happen, and they can benefit the homeowner, the mortgage company, and the buyer. There are more short sales in expensive areas such as California, Nevada, Arizona and Virginia. In many cases the mortgage company knows they will have a loss on home equity loans and lines of credit if the home goes to foreclosure, so they will negotiate in good faith. That is, perhaps with the exception of HSBC, HSBC USA, and HSBC Finance. Are we being mean or ugly? Not really. We will let you decide as you read a detailed report from the homeowner, as submitted to Household – HSBC Watch. Here is the report.