With evictions on the rise, deputies make the rounds to clear residents of homes

OMG John, that's horrible. I know they had to do their jobs - maybe she had no resources to get more information. I hope she and everyone else will be okay.

 

I sure hope Suzette doesn't lose her job John. That would be devastating for you guys. And I agree some of the people should have been prepared for it, but maybe some don't have the knowledge or foresight to be as proactive as I had to be to be able to stay in our home. As it is now, since Chris is making half of what he made, we're still catching up on our past mortgage payments, as well as all the other bills we need to pay, but we're digging ourselves out, slowly. But to evict a very pregnant mother with another little one, well, IMO, there's no excuse for that. Stay optimistic and we're still praying for you guys. Sad state of affairs for our country right now, as I've said many times before.

 

Why is their no excuse? It is not the deputies faults that the bills were not paid.

 

I understand that it would suck to be kicked out of a home (but I can't say I know how it would feel), just it is not like these people aren't given notice about what is going on.

And that does suck about the pay, but they know what the market is like, so they can afford to only offer "1/2 pay." I would argue half pay is better than no pay (which is probably their argument).

Another bad thing about SoCal, is that I bet despite the job market, I doubt the cost of living has gone down out there.

 

Yup, that's why I told my fiance to just take what she can right now. Just because she gets a job somewhere, if it isn't her ideal job, it doesn't mean she has to stop looking for a better one elsewhere.

PS: I could not imagine ever living in Cali because of the cost of living. It's probably a full two times higher (if not more) than what it is here.

 

No one is saying that. Look, its one thing if a few people arent paying their bills because of irresponsibility, ect. Its a whole 'nother situation when massive amounts of people are foreclosing on their houses and everyone seems to be losing their jobs especially in certain sectors. Its deeper than just a few bad apples. Something has caused all the apples to go bad and it goes right down to the structure of our economy the past 30 years.

 

So what, the people who aren't paying should get a pass because it is happening to a lot of people?

 

no but a solution to the problem is required before we just start putting massive amounts of people on the street.

 

ya know, you are sometimes a heartless sounding man Pete.. the human side never seems to matter to you or your comments. Perhaps if you actually walked a mile in someone elses shoes your youthful perspective would be a little more empathetic to those dealing with terrible circumstances.

 

There isn't really a "solution" though. The economy has to work itself out, and no one choice is going to make all this stuff go away. The only real solution is time.

 

I am not heartless, as you seem to think I sound. I just want to understand some people's logic at times is all.

Me being empathetic in my posts doesn't change events of the past, but knowing what is going on in someone's mind sure helps me relate to the present and analyze things that happen in the future.

 

I am sure you are not, but sometimes you do little to prevent that perception. I recall some very cold comments about Mary's situation once upon a time, a situation much like this.. and although she had the grace to say nothing, those that love her took note. Inadvertantly you hurt someone who called you friend by your choice of words.. there are consequences sometimes for your cold analizing.. these are people, not numbers.

 

Did I say it was their fault Pete? As a matter of fact, I said it wasn't - I'm talking about the bank - they could have worked something out with someone due to give birth so soon. Do you have any compassion at all?

 

Yes.

I misunderstood where you were talking about the bank though, as I did not see you write that you didn't blame the deputies.


Perhaps the people did not try and work something out with the bank though (if the bank was even willing, which I would hope they were since it would be better than the nothing they get from kicking someone out). I don't know that the bank could possibly know someone was pregnant though without the residents seeking out the bank to inform them, which the story made no mention whether or not efforts had been made by the family to alert the bank to their situation.

However, I should say that I don't think someone should be allowed to stay in a house just because they are pregnant. I think everyone in a situation of losing there house should be given the same opportunity to avoid being evicted.

 

sigh.. I can think of no greater reason for compassion than pregnacy, none. There is no more helpless postion to be in than that.

 

It is a voluntary position though in most instances (pregnancy I mean, not eviction). It is more voluntary than someone who was laid off after they had been working at the same job for 15 years and then was shown the door with no warning whatsoever after they decided to close their doors. I don't get why the first person should be given preferential treatment. Everyone should be treated as equals, right?

I mean I'd argue there are far more programs out there to help a pregnant mother/new mother get by than there are for the person who had his job "taken" out from under him.

 

Thanks for playing, I'm out.

 

Stitches....may the Sun always shine on you my friend...


...it is tough out here in California.I can only hope my beloved State rebounds as greatly as it's been hit.I do Construction estimating,commercial and residential and I can tell you things are SLOW!!!...John,I'm truly sorry to hear that you and Suzette may lose your home(I hope things work out for ya bro).Btw in case you don't recognize the username H.MOODY.. I'm formally PHINATIC13 (Bill)...

 

I hope California rebounds. It is easily one of the 5 most important states IMO, as far as all it does (agriculturally, economically, technologically, etc) for the country and world. I want the whole country to rebound, but as I said I think time is the only real solution. And it sucks, because I know things will continue to get worse for many people, but it is bound to happen just because of the nature of the beast, and there is little one can do to alter the cycle (imo of course). Just like most people's lives get bad at times, eventually things pick back up, the country is the same way. Sadly some people, just like some parts of the country, get hit harder than others. I am trying to understand where people are coming from with their thoughts, since mine obviously differ. I don't mean to antagonize or hurt anyone with what I say, I just want to discuss it and learn more.

Marty is nice enough to reply to me (in thread and out) despite my comments, and John is always great in helping me understand that which I can not immediately relate to. I hope the sun shines on everyone here as well, so I appreciate your sentiment.


I love everyone I get to talk to here, even if I can't help or unintentionally make things worse.

 

FFIC, if you ever want a drink, shoot me a message. I owe you much more than that for what you've put in the last couple years on this site, adn the former site which shall not be named but where we I met everyone at

More could be done with this lady, maybe. I don't know all the facts, but as an attorney, a lot of loan mod/foreclosure materials come my way. I'm actually going to listen to a CLE class (continuing legal education) that is free but ... 6 hours long. I can't even find 6 hours nowadays to put together to sit down and listen to it.

But it's a foreclosure defense course designed to educate and encourage attorneys to provide FREE legal services to foreclosure persons who qualify for legal aid. This lady might have already tried that, or she never knew about it. So spread the good word for those that know anyone personally. They might qualify for legal aid, so check with the local bar.

One pioneer in Florida found that a lot of these banks who are foreclosing on homeowners, yet cannot prove they own the loan/mortgage. What got us into this mess was not only subprime but the constant reselling and repackaging of mortgages. So the mortgage you took out might have changed hands, as a matter of fact most likely has changed hands several times already. So a bank will attempt to foreclose on your home yet not be able to prove they own the loan, an essential requirement. This buys the homeowners a few more months, sometimes indefinitely, until that bank chases down the proper documents proving they own the loan.

Here is the site:
http://www.foreclosureinfoca.org/

And you can even listen to the course meant for attorneys if you have an extra 6 hours and are bored. Really bored.

 

I'm a high School teacher and Football Coach. My wife is a first grade teacher.

My wife has had 2 knee surgeries in this past year, with the last one scheduled for Oct 2009 (to remove metal in leg holding it together). We've lost 4k per month in income with her not working and with cutbacks with overtime teaching opportunities for me. We've been negotiating for 6 months with Wells fargo, but so far they wont budge much. Originally they wanted to hike our mortgage from 2,995 per month (which I view as high) to 4,200 per month for our 1800 ft home. They did come down to 3,595 monthly, but that's not going to happen either as far as I'm concerned. Although it's embarrassing to discuss, I'm not going to make another mistake on a bad mortgage after doing it once already taking an adjustable. Taking a hit now if they refuse to get real is a better option than paying that high on something you'll never see much a profit on.

The Bank has an interesting take on how they want to finance us, they say they base their numbers on when my overtime is back (with state cutbacks how is that reliable?) and for when wifey is back to work bringing in her teacher pay.

We'd be better off letting them take our current house, taking a year and a half paying off the few bills we do have, and then buying the same model house that is down 250k in value.

 

I feel for all of you good folks that are hurting right now. My industry is starting to feel a pinch now and I'm very concerned about the next 8 months or so. We should be in the busiest time of the year right now, and business feels like the dog days of Summer. I know if I lose my job it will be hard for me to me to find something where I can make the same money and maintain my home/life etc. It will turn around, and I hope it does before more good people suffer.

 

Our situation may bring some light. Two years ago, we financed the house and went into an adjustable with the idea that with the budget it would give us a better monthly situation, our credit score would flourish (which it did) and we could refi at a premium loan interest rate in a year or two. Everything went according to plan, until with almost no notice, my wife had to have major knee surgeries. They actually had to break her leg as part of the process to fix her knee. At about the same time, the market took a major hit, and it was time to refinance our loan. We thought that would save us because we knew she'd make less on disability over the next year while rehabing the leg.
To our shock and dismay, the market being upside down and my wife's being on disability, teamed with state cutbacks on overtime opportunities...made doing a refi impossible. The house is now upside down as we owe 424k (Never took any cash when we did the last refi) and now couldnt sell it in this market for more than 225k. Now add in the fact that the adjustable is up and they now want 4,200 for the property. The company wants to base our monthly payment on when she is working fulltime teaching (may not be until 2010 at this point) and on my overtime, which brought us in 20-25 k last year on top of my normal pay.

My mistake was going from the fixed interest only loan into the adjustable loan that was paying on principle. Both loans were bad loans, but our credit scores were down due to owning over 100k in student loans. We rushed to get into a home because we realized when my wife began teaching 4 years ago that with my income we'd be hit very hard by taxes, so that became the motivating factor in taking on the interest only loan in the first place. Unfortunately I made the mistake of listening to some people I respect and doing whatever it took just to get into a home for tax sake.

Lesson learned for me: We will get through this mess best we can, maybe in house and maybe without the house. But I will never, ever committ to a loan again that is anything short of a great interest rate and terms. We were already overpaying back with our original loan was at 2,995 but the hike up to 4,200 or now their counter offer of 3,595 is just another bad move. I'm not going to allow them to put another choke hold on us for the next 20 years. They can offer us a reasonable loan or they can take the home, which would be foolish on their part. Before all this came around, we hadn't been a day late on a payment in our household for 3 1/2 years since we bought the house.

As far as getting a reasonable loan offer, I'm sure at this point that that will be a long way off for us, but nonetheless its where we are at and there's no sense whining about it or worrying about it. We do have the capacity to make an outstanding income and will land on our feet at some point. I'm just not willing to be taken advantage of by loan companies anymore because my wife and I both have a bunch of student loans.

Now I know I am not blameless in this, because I agreed to a bad loan, but on the same hand there comes a point where a man has to look at the 30 year committment and say fix this or I'm done. We arent talking about a 2-3 year deal here.

 

Whats frustrating for me is that I'm personally coming off off my most successful year in terms of coaching (We went 10-0 and placed 16 kids on football schoolarship in last 2 years) and making an income. It was by far my best two years ever this past stretch. I've pretty much been able to almost double my income with overtime oportunities, yet here we are in this mess.

 

This is the very thing that happened to our mortgage. Our bankruptcy attorney couldn't believe how many times our loan had been re-sold (at the very least, 5 times). He just kept shaking his head at all the paperwork I gave him.

 

Boy can I verify this! We have had our loan sold over and over the past 3-4 years. The last year alone its changes hands 3 times. The last one we worked with was ASC and we are now with Wells Fargo supposedly. It's the same story with each of them. They give us a bunch of paperwork to gather for them like bank statements, check stubs, tax stuff, etc. We do it all and then negotiate. Then they sell us off to a new company after giving us the exact same offer the last guys did. All that despite a 4k drop in income monthly.

 

I had a banner year in sales last year, and am still riding the projects that have been in the pipeline for a while. Trouble is my backlog is pretty thin, there aren't too many new places going up anytime soon.

 

When all this started by the way, We were good on payments 100%. I even called them 2-3 months before her surgery just to say "this is what's coming up ahead" and it may effect our income. I also thought they'd refi us at that point because our credit score was up significantly since we did the first refi on the home. They wouldnt even return my calls or letter.

Then the first month that we were supposed to send them 4,200 was the first month my wife's pay took a dump and she was on disability (back in July). We did send them the regular 2,995 payment, but they called me to ask where the rest was and to inform me that they'd still mark us late and still eventually take over the home.

I then informed them that they had just taken away any incentive for me to give them another dollar until we could get it resolved. That was their last payment. We've continued to be perfect on all other bills fortunately.

This process has shown me that they are committed to keeping me down in a bad term loan. I wont make the mistake again. It will be a reasonable loan or none at all. They have pissed off a great costumer!


Ahh, the joys of renting.

 

You sound like a PRIME candidate for an assisted loan mod. If I had more knowledge and experience I would help you, since you are in California. But I'm learning, I really am.

Doesn't sound like Wells Fargo is operating in good faith. They're just giving you a hard time since you don't have an attorney breathing down their necks. California passed several foreclosure specific laws last year, one of them Cal Civil Code Section 2923.6. It's long so I'll just post a link:

http://law.onecle.com/california/civil/2923.6.html

What it says is that it may be their duty to other members of a pooling and service group (which almost all of these loans are I assume) to negotiate with a borrower to lower their loans to at least Fair Market Value if not lower. This is because it may cost the bank a certain amount of money to foreclose, so that factors into the equation. So they almost have a duty to do this. I'll learn more about it later.

This is only in California btw.

The usual disclaimer, this is not legal advice, information only, we have not established any attorney-client relationship until a contract is signed and I GET PAID Yada yada yada

 

Thanks Jay, not much more honorable than helping a brother.