Its now 2010 and the economy hasn’t recovered enough for most people. Over the past few years, the home foreclosure rate has been terrifying. Many people built their dream with a new home for their family in the mid 90’s when getting mortgages became much easier for the blue collar working class.
During a time when families were reaping the benefits of Clinton’s hard work. Then the millennium came full force with a war destroying dreams, families, stability, and security. Then the unthinkable happened to America. 9/11 affected every home in the country; whether it was losing a love one to the tragedy, saying good-bye to a love one that had to go off to war to defend our honor, unemployment, homelessness, or stock market crash. From the beginning it seemed as though the only real help out of this crisis came to the wealthy with huge corporate bail outs. God only knows, they need to be able to continue their “caviar” lifestyle. All the while, the rest of the country is struggling trying not lose their jobs, their homes, and trying to figure out how to keep food on the table for their family. Did I fail to mention having to pay for these corporate bailouts out of the paychecks that we don’t know if we are going to have each week.
Unemployment and Foreclosure is a topic that is still a major issue and is one of controversy for many people. I have heard unnecessary comments from the media putting people down for allowing their home to go into foreclosure, as if everyone just bought a house and didn’t even try to keep up with the payments. I believe, for the most part, people want adequate paying work and pay their way through life. Typically, people like to have the “luxuries” of food, shelter, fuel, and clothes that only money can buy. I would say about 3/4th’s of the people I know have gone through, in, or nearing foreclosure of their home’s. They all have families and have had steady employment up until recently. One of the biggest problems that I noticed from my own personal experiences with my friends is that when things started to take a turn for the worse, before it became really noticeable to the public that there is a major problem starting, they were scammed into mortgages from companies like Ameriquest. From the time Ameriquest opened their doors to the time they were basically forced into closing, they preyed on good, hardworking people. In my friend’s situation with the company was, they lied to them about the terms of the mortgage. They were suppose to have a mortgage that was fixed for 3 years, once the term was up, they were to be called back into the office and as long as they made all of thier payments on time, they were to rewrite the loan to reflect that payment or a lower payment for the rest of the 30 years. They did not have a credit issue when they went with them. They just needed to refinance to rid themselves of a scrupulous company that was being dishonest with the payment postings. Every month, to prevent an issue, they had to send my payments certified to prove the time frame in which they received it. Ameriquest was more than willing to help them out of the situation immediately. What they thought they were signing at the settlement table was not the paperwork that was being submitted for legalities. Once the three years was up, they had no record of the conversation and said they would not refinance them, even though our payments were on time. They learned very quickly through this process, never go with a company that you can’t hire your own lawyer to handle the transaction. They came to the table with one they had on staff and he turned out to be shiester. They quickly tried to find a new mortgage company, but ran into a major issue that prevented us from being able to. Her husband was in an accident. He had to have a major operation, weeks of therapy to gain back the use of his hand, and he lost his job as a result of it. He is a laborer, so if he loses function in his main operating hand, he can’t do his job. He couldn’t even gain new employment as a result of it. He wasn’t able to get unemployment and they had no income coming in to pay for anything. The result of this caused thier mortgage to fall behind. Even though he was able to find employment within a couple of months and they caught up thier mortgage, there was enough damage done that they couldn’t refinance at that time. Thier mortgage with Ameriquest started to inflate. When they started with them, it was $1280, it then went to $1515, then $1750, then $2025, etc… There was no rhyme or reason to their increases, and it was monthly. They would let them know thier new payment amount about 10 days before it was due. By the time they couldn’t do it anymore, it was up to over $3000. This occurred within a year’s time. They sued Ameriquest and won. Yippie, right? Wrong. Millions of people sued them all for the same reason. So they were legally forced into a class action suit instead of a private one. They won $365. For real. No where enough to pay for anything relating to thier mortgage. During the process, they even tried to have thier loan modified with the new FHA program that was suppose to be designed to help people like them who was struggling to pay for a ballooning mortgage. It was suppose to stabilize thier payment so it wouldn’t increase anymore. At first they were approved. Two days before they were suppose to go to settlement, they were informed from FHA that since they fell behind in thier mortgage during that time, that they could not refinance with them. Huh? Wasn’t that what it was designed for? They couldn’t even sell thier home because this went on for so long and they had an older home, the house started going into disrepair. They couldn’t afford to have it all fixed. They did the best they could just to live there. The plumbing went, the doors started breaking, it was terrible. They could never sell it for what we owed. Even “We buy ugly houses” couldn’t afford to buy the mortgage. So when the news reported that people in foreclosure were basically low life’s because there is a way out, didn’t have all the facts. They were so sick to thier stomachs from hearing it everyday, they just started to avoid watching the news. They were left with no options other than losing thier home of 10 years. The only home that their kids ever knew. Now thankfully since they lost thier home and Obama came into office. There have been a lot of changes to the system. Obama has implemented new loan modifications. To qualify for these, you actually have to fall behind in your mortgage, but have a good reason why. Not because you decided to go on vacation. Unfortunately, a lot of people fell for those scam offers that came through the mail promising to take care of the mortgage for a fee. They had a lot of predators after them. Thankfully, the new loan modification program is not a scam. I do know a number of people who are taking advantage of it and its working out well for them. They lost thier home before this plan was in place, but if you are having a hard time making your mortgage payment, follow these steps into seeing if you qualify. What you need to do is, the first sign that you are having problems making your payment, call your mortgage company. Usually, they will tell you that before they can give you a definitive answer of whether or not you qualify, you actually have to fall behind. Now, because this is not a guarantee, to avoid the problems that I have seen other people go through, take the money you would have had to pay the mortgage company and put it aside. (Not in a bank acct because that is verifiable income), but buy up money orders for it or cashiers checks, they are good anywhere from 6 months to a year, then put them aside someplace safe, then when you haven’t paid the required amt of payments, give them a call and request all the information that you need. You will have to fill out a mountain of paperwork on multiple occasions, and you will have to stay on top of your bank to maintain their end because they are getting swamped with people right now doing this. They will give you a tentative amt that you will have to pay for about 4-6 months. This payment is always much lower than the payment you have been dealing with. Example, if you have been paying $800 a month, your new amt (based on the circumstance and your income) may be anywhere’s from $400 to $600 a month. The amt is never more than what you are currently paying. You can’t be one day late on this program, or you will get kicked off the program, and there is no guarantee that once the time frame is up, that you will be approved. This is why I say start on it before you are in hot water. If you have prepared yourself the way I said, you will avoid a lot of complications that I have seen others get themselves into. If you know your job is going to be doing some layoffs or look like they are in trouble, do it whiles you have stable income coming in. That way if after the tentative time frame, you haven’t been fully approved, you won’t go into foreclosure, you have the money to pay the back payments. Now if you get apporved for the program, your payment will reflect being around the amount you were paying during the trial period. This program has saved a lot of homes. It hasn’t saved all of them. Sometimes bankruptcy and foreclosure are the only option.
tammydw1
Straight Talk With Tammy 