I now understand

[chickened]

A lot of people refinanced their homes when the values went up and took money out for boats vacations or other toys.

Not just for toys but they would buy a house and put a down on it then buy another one with a down and I mean a very low down like 5% or less then relist it at a higher price and juggle the payments so one home that was sold was making the payments for the ones that were not sold and so on then when the bottom fell out of the housing market they realized they paid too much for the houses and had no capital pay them off and could not rent them nowhere near what the payments were and then our government regulators let people and banks bail with golden parachutes instead of prosecuting them... Eric Holder to be exact.

 

[Capvin]

I agree that during the time of unrealistic rise in home values a lot of people took advantage of the system (with the help of the banks) and it was those types of situations that caused the bulk of the problems. The people who did that and the banks who encouraged it were pigs and like pigs I would have no problems if they were both slaughtered. However, the banks just got bailed out without any real consequences and the people who got those unrealistic loans just took the money and when it all hit the fan, they just walked away from the house, also without much consequence. The ones who paid are the ones like my clients and mstricer. It is a situation where bad things happen to good people and the banks have become so jaded that they will not even look at the facts in front of them to differentiate between a pig and a good person and they all get treated the same. It was very satisfying to turn the tables and give the bank a taste of a bitter pill. Now I will make them swallow it.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Bravo!

 

[chickened]

Don, are you familiar with the guys that popped up offering a scam of sorts where they tell people to put their home in an irrevocable trust like Pinnacle and another one I cannot think of it is something like The Alpha Foundation and they tell people to pay them rent equal to about half of what their payment was and in return they promise to get the title from the banks free and clear. Only problem is the note does not go away and in about 3 years the banks foreclose and kick the people out. It was started by a lawyer/talkshow host in California.

 

[cassie]

One thing to keep in mind is that while there are some agencies out there that will help you if you are facing foreclosure, there are many more that are scams. One way to differentiate between them is to keep in mind that you have to contact the legitimate ones yourself. The scam artists are the ones that come out of the woodwork and contact you by mail or telephone offering the moon. These guys can be really pursuasive. Don't bite.

 

[chickened]

One thing to keep in mind is that while there are some agencies out there that will help you if you are facing foreclosure, there are many more that are scams. One way to differentiate between them is to keep in mind that you have to contact the legitimate ones yourself. The scam artists are the ones that come out of the woodwork and contact you by mail or telephone offering the moon. These guys can be really pursuasive. Don't bite.

Several people I know locally were taken by the scam I mentioned above, hope can be a usefull tool to scammers.

 

[mom'sfolly]

Two of my neighbors who were foreclosed on did nothing wrong. The banks screwed up their escrow accounts and then demanded that they make up the loss. Both of these families basically saw their mortgage payments double to make up for the "missing" escrow money. They could not afford an extra $1000/ month. Nothing really changed in their insurance or taxes, at least not that significantly, so I can only surmise that the banks did it on purpose. When I lived in New York, banks were required to pay you interest on your escrow accounts, since they were basically holding your money for you. They never screwed up. Here in Texas, they don't have to pay interest on your money, and boy to they mess up. We self escrow for our taxes and insurance for this reason.

One of the homes on my street was definitely an illegal foreclosure. The bank tried to sell the home, and the title search showed they didn't own it...another bank did. So 15 months after the family had been "foreclosed" on and evicted, they were foreclosed on again...it went back on their record. The house is now for sale, more than two years after the eviction. I don't know how it could be in the bank's best interest to have a house sit empty, with no maintainence for two years, when the original owners could have paid the mortgage if they had worked out the escrow situation.

Evidently, one of the newest bad foreclosure things is what happens to widows of a certain age. They have never had their names on the mortgage, and the hubby dies. If the surviving wife has trouble with the mortgage, the banks won't work with her because her name isn't on the paper. By the time this all gets worked out, and her name is on the paperwork, she is so far behind that she can't catch up, and ends up in foreclosure. Nice, isn't it?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/b...-foreclosure-by-mortgage-fine-print.html?_r=0

 

[mstricer]

One thing to keep in mind is that while there are some agencies out there that will help you if you are facing foreclosure, there are many more that are scams. One way to differentiate between them is to keep in mind that you have to contact the legitimate ones yourself. The scam artists are the ones that come out of the woodwork and contact you by mail or telephone offering the moon. These guys can be really pursuasive. Don't bite.

No not facing foreclosure at this time just have to keep in contact and make up the payments, which is what we are doing. Since I am now getting SD, we are now able to catch up on that, hoping they don't shut of the power. Christmas will will not be happening in our house this year, which we don't care all of my kids are grown. I don't even think we are going to put up a tree. We have cut out our Direct TV, not necessary and too expensive, netflicks is only 7.99 a month. SCAMS>>>> Don't think that would be an issue. One, I don't answer my phone unless I know who is calling, Two the mail thing, if it isn't a bill (which most come through my email) I consider junk mail and don't open. Three, I'm smarter than that, and don't care how good the offer sounds, would never bite.
I'm so glad everyone is replying to this thread, because I know I'm not alone and there has to be others in the same boat, and even if they don't reply, it may help them. Thank you all.

 

[cassie]

Two of my neighbors who were foreclosed on did nothing wrong. The banks screwed up their escrow accounts and then demanded that they make up the loss. Both of these families basically saw their mortgage payments double to make up for the "missing" escrow money. They could not afford an extra $1000/ month. Nothing really changed in their insurance or taxes, at least not that significantly, so I can only surmise that the banks did it on purpose. When I lived in New York, banks were required to pay you interest on your escrow accounts, since they were basically holding your money for you. They never screwed up. Here in Texas, they don't have to pay interest on your money, and boy to they mess up. We self escrow for our taxes and insurance for this reason.

One of the homes on my street was definitely an illegal foreclosure. The bank tried to sell the home, and the title search showed they didn't own it...another bank did. So 15 months after the family had been "foreclosed" on and evicted, they were foreclosed on again...it went back on their record. The house is now for sale, more than two years after the eviction. I don't know how it could be in the bank's best interest to have a house sit empty, with no maintainence for two years, when the original owners could have paid the mortgage if they had worked out the escrow situation.

Evidently, one of the newest bad foreclosure things is what happens to widows of a certain age. They have never had their names on the mortgage, and the hubby dies. If the surviving wife has trouble with the mortgage, the banks won't work with her because her name isn't on the paper. By the time this all gets worked out, and her name is on the paperwork, she is so far behind that she can't catch up, and ends up in foreclosure. Nice, isn't it?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/b...-foreclosure-by-mortgage-fine-print.html?_r=0

This is what happened to me when my husband died unexpectedly. When the bank refused to even talk to me, I did some research and found that the $250,000 that was owed on the place was way more than it was now worth. Had they worked with me, I might have stayed and never known that I had an underwater mortgage. In any case, the bank was very eager to get me out and take possession. Very eager indeed. I watched the foreclosure auction held on the courthouse steps. There were no bids. Later they put the place up for sale on an online auction and I was able to watch that. They had a bid of $121,000 but they refused to accept it because they thought the offer was too low. They tried again a few weeks later but it still didn't sell. The man who eventually bought the property paid a whopping $51,000 for it. By then the local scavengers had dismantled and removed two large metal barns, the fencing, the new well pump and pressure tank, and anything else they could carry away. I don't know what the bank gained in this transaction and others like it. Obviously there is something, but I have not been able to find out what it is.

 

[mom'sfolly]

I suspect there is some sort of benefit for the banks to be able to foreclose and write off a loss; otherwise the whole scenario makes no sense. The logical thing is to work with people to come up with a payment plan and keep people in their homes and keep the money coming in. The house on my street that has been empty was probably worth $215,000 -$250,000 when it was occupied. After sitting empty for more than two years, with the pool uncovered for half that time, yard dying, fence rotting, etc, it was listed at $179,000, and I don't think anyone bid that much because it needs $25,000-$50,000 in repairs and updates. And that is two years of interest payments that the bank lost.

I don't understand how it all works...