If you think Bank of America is curbing their predatory practicies now that they’ve ousted Ken Lewis as chairman, think again. Check out this ad I came across:
SHORT SALE!
Have You Had Difficulty Negotiating A Short Sale With Your Lender?
To approve a Short sale of your primary home, did the Lender make you sign a note or letter stating you must repay the difference between your loan and the sale amount, even if you never refinanced your home?
Did the Lender force you into Foreclosure and Bankruptcy?
We are a group of individuals (not attorneys) concerned with the way certain Banks have treated troubled borrowers and are investigating their practices, especially in light of the billions of dollars banks have received in TARP Monies. Some of these ill-advised business practices may even be illegal under California law, and costing taxpayers millions of dollars.
This is not a solicitation of business. We want to hear from you. Confidentiality assured.
Please call 1-866-981-8781 and leave a confidential message. Thank you.
What prompted this ad is that Bank of America has apparently been screwing over troubled mortgage borrowers who are attempting to negotiate short sales on their homes. Borrowers who can’t afford to keep their homes have to work out a deal with their bank, selling short on their home at whatever the market value is currently in order to avoid foreclosure altogether. Bank of America, however, is forcing these troubled borrowers to sign deficiency letters, meaning the borrower has to repay the difference between the sale price and the remainder of the existing loan on the property, which could easily force borrowers into bankruptcy.
What’s odd is that banks get far less in foreclosure than in short sales, so it would be in their best interest to work something out. What’s more, Bank of America recently announced it was easing its policy on short sales, requiring 5 percent of short sale proceeds instead of 10 percent. But this ad makes it sound like Bank of America is still having it both ways with troubled borrowers.
In California, Bank of America’s predatory behavior might be violating the law, since they are refusing to bless a short sale if the borrower does not sign a deficiency letter, even when the borrower’s home has not been refinanced. If you know anyone, particularly in California, who has had difficulty negotiating a short sale, urge them to call 1-866-981-8781 and leave a confidential message. Bank of America has already taken tens of billions in our taxpayer money through the bailout; we can’t allow them to continue screwing homeowners at every turn.
I am not in California, I live in Idaho. Bank of America would not return our calls to even try to negotiate my short sell. They just sent it to forclosure, even with letters from our Senators they ignored all calls.
My wife and I are going through the short sale process with bank of america. We have not found a buyer yet, but I wonder if bank of america will even consider it? We live in Florida. Do you have any advice? It sounds like we might need a lawyer.
Bank of AMerica offers me a loan mod for $100,000 more than a pending short sale. THey lost two buyers by not responding in time. THey could care less about homeowners. They are squeezing every nickel out of them. THey caused the problem then the govenment gives them BIllions of dollars. You don't give the bully the money. THen the bully becomes an nasty greedy outrageous bully. PLEASE DO SOMETHING. We want to keep our houses. I lost my business and now my house due
to COuntrywide and B of A's actions. WAKE UP GOVERNMENT
We just gave B of A all the info they needed last week. We are waiting for a represntative to get back with us. We call them weekly to keep up with them. Now we just sit and wait. Our buyer knows the situation, and says she will wait it out. I hope it goes through. We stopped paying our mortage in June. With the current economy and our new baby, we our moving back home from Florida to Colorado to live with my parents so we can save on childcare money. If they don't follow through with our short sale, we will have to foreclose. Offering us a loan modification would be pointless. I don't see why they wouldn't accept the appraised rate of the house that the buyer is willing to pay. I would think it would be a better deal for them than making us go through a foreclosure. I will keep you posted.
Hey, great post, very well written. You should blog more about this. I’ll definitely be subscribing.
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Great post. Very informative and well written. Hope to see more similar post from you.
Yup this is ALL true. I'm about to loose my home of three years through Bank of America. They give a damn about helping ANYBODY but themselves! Don't waste your time trying to talk to the home retention committee because they are all a big JOKE!
They are still troubling borrowers, don't they realize that what they are doing is giving more problems to borrowers.
They are still troubling borrowers
Oh!…that's great helpful, it's so right to me! Million thanks for the article,
I recently attended a “Save the Dream” work shop in Daly City CA at the Cow Palace on 10/18/2009. What I saw was appauling. Home owners begging Bank of America and Wells Fargo to modify their home loans that even with the modifications, they will not be able to keep their homes. I believe that the banks are using these forums to use the money to make it look like they are lending money, and they are, however this is just another set up for failure for these home owners. I believe these banks should be closed and the CEO's should have prison terms. These are not modifications that will help home owners. When I called Bank of America and Wells Fargo for modification of my home loan they told me that they would not talk to me until I missed two payments. Now they have raised my interest rates on my credit cards and told me that if I object they will lower my credit scores, just for protesting the change in the APR and terms of the card. This was after the tax payers bailed them out only to find out that they are using the money to pay their executives for “a job well done”. Some of the home owners claimed that they had not paid their mortgages for months. I have kept up my payments and I can not qualify for these modifications because when my house is appraised they, the banks, use the foreclosed homes as recent sales. Most of the foreclosed homes have been stripped of pipes, fixtures, sinks toilets and even the tubs and showers. This practice of setting the middle class and even homes in the million dollar range owners for more failures and foreclosures. They have put the knife in the heart of the middle class and are turning it until we all bleed to death. Our 401k's and the largest group of investors “the baby boomers” are doomed. We will all need health care; and social security will be the next shoe to drop. I hope my comments are
My family and I have arrived in colorado to live with my parents until we can get out of debt. We have been in short sale for 5 months now. We have had a buyer since July. She needed to be out of her house by Oct. 20, so we let her move in and we are starting over in Colorado. 4 months with a buyer and we still cannot get through to a negotiator at B of A. We recently got served with letters of foreclosure in colorado. As usual, we still can't get anything from B of A except that we will have a negotiator in 7-10 business days. They have been stringing us along like this for 4 months. Luckily we can wait them out because our buyer has signed a contract to live in our house in Florida until it sells. We were informed by our realitor to call a lawyer, so we did. He said that the foreclosure process and the short sale process run concurrently and to wait another 7-10 business days to see if we get a negotiator. If not, he will file papers and appear in court for foreclosure and let the judge know our situation. Now we will have to pay legal fees. He said when we do get a negotiator to be firm with them because they tend to dilly dally. We bought our house for 150,000 3 years ago. It is now appraised by the bank at 89,000. Our buyer is offering 85,000. The only reason B of A will foreclose on us is to gain more property. When housing prices go up, they can sell it for more. The government needs to help. Keep posting. I hope this info. will help others. I have been posting as we go along. I will let you know how it turns out. We have a plain and simple case. No refinancing, 2nd mortages, nothing. Go see Capitalism “a love story” and write your congress. The financial institutions will not help the people. Pull your money out of crooked banks, and keep one credit card for emergencys. Hit them where it hurts.
That's the great article! I just pass 'n read it, two thumbs up! ;)
we are going on 2 months of waiting and they had an offer of 190000 and we gave what they wanted and still no answer and this is our secound short sell because we trusted our realtor
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For God's sake, where are our so-called leaders? I would rather fight terrorists in our streets than see this institutional attack on society continue.
Sigh* Do we have to let it linger?
I had been trying to get my mortgage adjusted, I can't even tell you how many times I called B of A!! They put all this information online to former Countrywide customers, to see if you qualified. I MORE then qualified. When I did get a hold of someone, each time they acted as though they never talked to me before!! NOW they are sueing me into foreclosure, and chapter 13, and before all this happened, I had a credit score of 780!!
They lie!! They are taking a home from 5 people and two animals, greedy bastards, and should be brought down!
I have been keeping an update. We have given up on the short sale. We had a buyer strung along for 6 months, and they finally just gave up because bank of america did not get in touch with us. They lost our paperwork which we have been updating every week with a customer service agent. They won't let you through to a negotiator. We recently received another offer that fell through when they found out we were dealing with bank of america. They have a horrible name in the reality industry. People won't even bother with them because they know it will take too long to be approved. It has been 9 months now since our last mortage payment. We will just wait for foreclosure. Who knows when that will be.
Karen, a friend told me about NACA. The website is NACA.com. They are worth a try. I know B of A is a “real” mess. I just try to stay prayed up even though I know it seems like God is not listening at times. However, he must be listening because I feel that I am still in my home for a reason. So you hang in there and don't let the devil win! Try that website and best of luck to you!
Brianhass, try the website I just gave to Karen of NADA.com. It's worth a shot. A friend of mine said they helped her and she has a BAD house with 5 bedrooms. If this company helped her out, certainly they can help you too. I'm giving it a try.
Michelle~
Bank of America is probably trying to make a jackpot over homeowners who are in trouble. I think that’s cruel especially when these people are at their weakest point in life.
Only when people unite togather they have a chance otherwise standing alone in the 'ring' with B of A is useless.
oUR HOME OF FOUR YRS IS ABOUT TO GO ALSO…WE TRIED TO GET HELP AND THEY WOULDN'T HELP UNTILL WE MISSED AT LEAST TWO PAYMENTS. we WERE THEN TOLD WE QUALIFIED FOR THE MODIFICATION BECAUSE OUR HOME IS WORTH 100,000 LESS THAN WE PAID FOR IT 3 YRS AGO. WE SENT IN ALL NEEDED DOCUMENTS AND WAS TOLD TO WAIT. WELL NOW WE HAVE A NOTICE IN OUR MORTGAGE ACCOUNT SAYING THE MODIFICATION WAS CANCELED DUE TO BUYER NOT QUALIFYING. SINCE THIS WE HAVE RECIEVED AN INTENT TO ACCELERATE FROM B.O.A. WE ARE ALSO FORMER COUNTRYWIDE CUSTOMERS. i JUST WISH THEY COULD SEE WHAT THEY ARE DOING TO FAMILIES. I ASKED THEM JUST TO MODIFY THE INTEREST OR THE PRINCIPAL AND WE WOULD NEVER BE LATE AGAIN, BUT THEY WOULD RATHER SHORT SALE TO A COMPLETE STRANGER INSTEAD OF ADJUSTING PRINCIPALS FOR THE FAMILY WHO ALREADY LIVES THERE.
Why did any of you have anything to do with Bank of America in the first place? Did you think they were some charitable institution, that they actually cared for you? I do not live in a home that I “own”, because I can not afford to. I live in a small two bedroom cottage in which we share bedrooms. I'm saving my money in hopes that one day I will have enough to buy a home. But the people that we find here, are making this hard: they want low interest rates that keep housing cost high, they want special deals because quite simply, they where irresponsible in taking out such huge loans that they could not afford to make payments on. What's more, they are helping the big evil banks with all the houses they are taking over, and all the debt they get to make money with. Avoid using big banks –use peer to peer networks you can find on the Internet. Mess with the big banks — and the sob stories here are what you get. Stop thinking big banks can be trusted and actually care about you!!
Are you serious? You better believe, I didn't go looking for Bank of America. They found me like others I'm sure due to the takeover of Countrywide Home Loans. So before you get on your high horse of why we signed on with this HUGE conglomerate, get the facts straight!
We recently tried to make a payment on our mortgage that was 2 months late and BOA denied it. We had “cash in hand” – way more than enough to get up current – and they said they could not accept it and that we would have to wait 3 days for them to determine what the “litigation/lawyer” fees were going to be and then we would have to make our payment PLUS cover any attorney fees. Hello, we didn't have the money to pay our base mortgage, and now they want us to come out of pocket with even more money to pay BOA attorneys???? Banks and attorneys keep getting bigger/more richer. Meanwhile, here we are trying to “make good” and totally getting screwed!
Hi Brian
I just negotiated a short sale with Bank of America that was approved in 30 days is in escrow and closing June 1st 2010. Their new system on Equator is working, some glitches but worth a shot. You need to have your home listed with an agent educated on their system to negotiate it but worth the time to check into regardless how long it's been since you made a payment. If you are in Southern California I would love to help you!
Call the loss mitigation department and ask to speak to a supervisor, don't take no for an answer. Be tough and call back as many times as it takes to get the supervisor. They will try to ut you in someones voicemail or make an excuse but keep calling. You can use the multiple faxes too…keep faxing them until they get sick of it and someone calls you back. It's sad but most banks have robots working the phones with canned responses to just put you off and get you off the phone…it's a numbers game.
Redial as many times as it takes to get them…it works.
Thanks Laura,
I'm in Colorado, but we will look into it with our agent.
Sincerely, Brian
What a JOKE! BOA Home Modification Program. We're here to help! Ya, steel your home and screw you over. Been in this wonderful program and been making 10 months of payments on time and received letters that our final papers were comming.We had qualified.(ON March 30,2010) Was just denied today! June 21,2010)Bank Of America is screwing the american people and families out of there homes.Don't believe what they tell you. That's right and we gave them the money to by all these other companies! Thanks to a change we believe in! Wake up Americans!!! Socialism is on it's way and this is just the start!!! Get out and vote for less government. Lets take America back and our homes as well. We are still going to fight for our home!!!Don't do what we did, don't give them a penny more than you have to. Don't fall for were here to help bullshit!!They are just stringing people along in this program and making it harder for you to get your home back. Selling HOPE!! Keep making your trial payments we were told (getting further in debit to us so we can screw u over and take your home too) Please don't help them take your home. If you pay anything pay your home 1st!! I don't care if you have cc, student loans etc. PAY ONLY YOUR MORTGAGE!!!! Screw all of them look out for u and your family. The american people should boycott BOA!! BOA should be exposed for all of this call FOX news and all the TV stations until your heard! Anyone else have any suggestions?
I was conducting a research for my dissertation on the effects of global financial crisis in the mortgage industry when I came across this post. I can't but feel an indignation to that institution who conned and took advantage of the people's money amidst the fact that the world hasn't financially recuperated fully well. It was really a cash predator. Still not contented with a tax bail out from the government, it strategized a system where it generated large sums of profits by persuading home buyers to avail of a mortgage to be able to get a house/real property. It offered people the illusion that, even without much money, they can still buy houses including high-priced ones, but, actually, just after several months of mortgage payments, the home owners could not afford to pay anymore. That's really ingratiating. If I were a victim of that mortgage shark, I would legally claim for compensation from the damages brought about by the fraud. I would get the best estate lawyer in Ottawa, to recoup my money.
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You are an idiot. Banks do this because of less government, not more.
B of a is the most pathetic bank on the planet ,sad time in the U.S we when give them money to keep them afloat then they turn on the homeowners who have been hit hard by the slow recovering economy,but karma will come back and bite them in the ass
I agree, but where are the Thomas Jefferson's, the Thomas Payne's, or the Benjamin Franklin s (they most be reeling in their graves now, if they haven't been sold at auction by Christie's). Honestly these people don't care how much money they have, it's how much money you have and how can they get it. I just want to know how we can break them in to little pieces, little pieces, little pieces. So I say b o a, adieu, adieu, adieu. To god with you, to god with you, to god with you. And to all others ask not what your country can do for you, for obviously nothing, but what you can do for your country. Hang them high, drag them out into the street. Start with “Dick”, as in he's a, Cheney then W, I find the list is too long. But it should end with Kent Lewis watching all of those going before him. I have know of times when all of the sudden due to illness or mayhem terrible people all die with in a year of each other. Let's all pray collectively. words are spells. I put a spell on you, I put a spell on you, I put a spell on you.
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Thanks for this infomation. I will pass this to my daughter's fiance who is in a financial bind. He has his home and business finances thru BOA and his business is taking all him money to keep it going, his home took loss of 900, 000 dollars and has been trying to rework his finances. THank you so much!
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This sounds exactly like my story!!! Now I'm without a home with three kids. I was willing and able to make my payments but the bank refused to take them. How does this happen???
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That is an awfully astounding column you've posted.Thanks a lot for that a fantastically amazing post!
I owed US Bank 1.8 on a condo development. When the the market went south I was in trouble. I was able to find a standing offer for 6 months for 1.2. US Bank special assets( Peggy Carmical) said she would not consider this or several other generous offers. Five days before Christmas she said if i could close before Christmas she would take it. Her own counsel who was on the phone said they could not act that quickly. Thats the deal take or leave it. I lost the condo project, can't pay for my college students education and am facing personal Bankruptcy. Thanks US Bank. The problem is they have no incentive to negotiate. given the tax payers bail out they do much better by screwing us than honoring the origianl loan.
Yeah, they get more money, they get the money from selling your foreclosed home and then our government (using our money) reimburses them the difference. Why would they want to work it out?
We have buyers for our house, they have been in the house for 8 months renting it. Bank of America keeps changing the rules to sell the damn place and have started foreclosure again! 2 years to sell or foreclose on the place, just get the hell out of our lives Bank of America. I will never buy again after this.
exactly, I have had buyers for my house for 8 months and the house has been for sale for 2 years. To hell with it then Bank of America, take the damn house and you will get nothing from me.
Wow ! I'm so sorry for you and your family, it really angers me when I hear stories like yours', I hope it has worked out for you so far, please let me know if I can help you in any way having to do with MEDIA coverage, I own several NEWS websites with one having everything to do with the Economy Crises @ http://www.EconomicAlert.INFO I would love to slam a story in their face on my front page ! those greedy bastards need to be exposed in the worst way… Name is Vinnie M, vinniemancinelli@yahoo.com my site is for the people NOT the Banks and definately NOT Countrywide…
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