Mortgage Cops - Something I Have Been Talking About For a Long Time

The housing bubble and its bursting were all planned. The prediction I made back in 2006 was that the housing market would collapse, the stock market were drop and eventually the federal government was going to go after people who walked away from their mortgages. Now, that is exactly what has been announced.

Before I post a link to the article, I need to give a little background. First, I bought my last house with full documentation, it was what we called a full doc loan. My last two years tax returns, verification of income and tons of documentation regarding my expenses. I bought the house before the market really took off at a good price in an excellent neighborhood. In 2007 my wife asked for a divorce, I kept paying all of our debts including the mortgage even as the market was going down. I was paying my wife even though it was not court ordered. Eventually, I couldn't keep making the payments and had to pay my attorney instead. I asked the mortgage company to let me be a couple of months late and they agreed and then the court forced me to pay the ex-wife more than I paid in mortgage when you factored in taxes and insurance, it was about dead even. I even argued to the court that we should have to pay our debts and the response was that I could always stop paying my mortgage, Nice, huh. The court also saddled me with all of our debt, she got none of it. I ended up paying the credit cards she used to take trips with her boyfriend.

Understand that this is not about her, I want you to understand what this says about the banks that process the mortgages for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the people who had my mortgage. I was a perfect candidate for a Deed in Lieu, that means that the mortgage company would accept my house as full payment. Now, I contacted my mortgage processor and told them the situation, sent them all of the documentation and they lost some it, so I sent it again and again and called and sent documents. They took absolutely no steps to take the property back. They never called me to demand money, I had to call them. They would send me documents saying how they would lower my interest rate and all of the programs that they had in place. After over a year of that, with no luck, my loan processing company was changed. I called them, got new copies of all the documents and sent them in again. After a couple of months they sent me a letter saying that they were going to foreclose on me. I called them again and asked why they would want to go to the problem and expense of foreclosing when I had been trying to give them the house back for two years.

Oh, the new company couldn't seem to find my docs and we spent a couple months of me constantly sending them and verifying receipt only to be told that they had been lost again. When I first contacted them after the divorce the house was at about a break even with the mortgage. Because I had bought before the boom really took off. At one point my house was valued at $500,000 and I had paid $280,000. I had a conventional 30 year fixed loan at under 5%). During the divorce I tried and tried to get my wife to let me sell it, she knew I had been saying for years that the market was going to bust; but, she thought she would get the house and I would be forced to pay the mortgage and wouldn't budge. She moved out when it was worth less than the mortgage by pennies. In the end the value dropped to an estimated $230,00, a minimal loss to the bank as I had paid them almost a third of the total mortgage over the almost decade I lived in the home. It took another 7 or 8 months to finally get the deed in lieu.

Now here is a little amusement. When I went to move out, they claimed it wasn't clean enough and sent pictures of the garage from when we were still cleaning it as proof. They did not send the pictures of what it looked like after we had everything moved out. They also locked me out of my house before they had finalized the deed in lieu which was absolutely against the law and I could have sued them for it and had the person who did it arrested. I didn't, I just wanted to get away from the house. I felt terrible living in it and not being able to pay. Prior to the divorce I had a credit score of 780.

So why wouldn't they take my house back in the beginning, clearly I qualified because they took it back three years later and gave me a Deed in Lieu. Why was it so hard to get the processors to process the Deed in Lieu. It is my belief that they got paid for processing the loan whether I paid or not, they didn't own the debt so it did not matter to them, they made more by me living there without paying.

The man that lived next to me worked in construction and sold drugs, he bragged about it one day and he still has his house. We live in a bizarro world that rewards bad behavior; but, lets get back to my story. So, I lost everything and moved on. I love where I live now, it is closer to work and I can afford it. The mortgage cops are not coming for me; but, they do have a target audience.

The mortgage cops are going after people who could have paid their mortgages and chose to walk away when the value dropped. Speculators and "investors". You see there was another group of people, people who lied about their income to get their mortgages and figured they would sell the houses when they had equity and that if the market failed, they would just walk away and they did. I sure hope my readers if they did not do that. They are going after that group in order to intimidate others to refinance.

Here is how it will go down. The worst of the speculators that walked away from their houses will go to jail as an example, they say so in the article. The bigger group is people who bought these houses, lied about their income and have stayed in them making no effort to pay or give the houses back or refinance. They will see how the speculators are treated and be afraid of having the same tactics used on them.

The question the speculators and "investors" will face is simple. The fed will say, here is your tax return for the year you bought the house and the year before. The returns say that you made $50,000; but, your loan application said you made $150,000 which one did you lie on? Either one will get you in jail. For those of you in that position, it is the time to try and refinance and pay at least some of what you promised.

The government and the banks have made every opportunity for people to refinance, some just don't qualify; but, others did and made no effort to refinance. Why hasn't the fed taken back the houses, simple, they never wanted people to lost them and they knew that the housing market was a lie. It was a giant ponzi scheme. Why is the Federal Reserve going to buy $40 billion in bad mortgages a month indefinitely? The government already owns 80% of all mortgages.

Many will be given the choice of renting, that has already been announced. You can rent or you can refinance and avoid jail, if you do those things they won't bother going back and looking at the documents that you submitted when you got your loan and lied about your income. Either way you will be living in government housing for 30 years. You may have to rent out rooms; but, it is better than going to jail.

I have lost everything; but, it was not because of the housing market, it was the divorce. I went from living in a 2,700 square foot, five bedroom house to renting a one bedroom apartment, just a little larger than my master bedroom that was at my house. I couldn't be happier, I never want to own a house again.

I didn't rent out rooms at my house, I let people move in that were homeless. Some of them had promised to pay me; but, I told them to keep the money, they needed it more than me. The ex-wife, after she moved out, wanted me to rent out rooms while working full time and driving 4 hours a day, she also wanted half. Seemed kind of pointless when I knew I would lose the house anyways. I had a rental home and sold it at the top of the market and paid off all my debt, renting out is a pain in the rear and I decided I would never do it again. It is a second job and I could barely do my first job.

How many people are in my position, very few. Very few Deed in Lieu's were granted. Consider it a get out of jail card for telling the truth. The rest will be chained to the houses they bought and had lied about their income. I don't want to be chained to anything, if I could I would not buy a house. I would prefer to be in an old RV in Slab City. I have worked for 40 years, I have done everything that we were told we should, I worked my way through college, got good grades and worked my way up through my career. I am tired and just want to go away, leave the game to others. I am done with all of it.

The bank re-sold my house, I met the new owners, a nice female couple. They got it at a good price and work for NASA, I know they can afford it, they had to verify their income. The last thing I did to separate from my home was to give the people who bought the house the number to the safe. As far as I know only two people ever had it, me and the original owner, I never gave it out to my wife or kids, the only thing that was in it was mine. The original owner had never given the number until after the sale was complete and I didn't either and I didn't keep a copy. Some things are about honesty and respect, I respected the original owners wishes. I feel good about how I left; but, still feel bad that I didn't pay my debt.

I brought my kids up with a couple simple statements, one of them was, "Don't lie, don't cheat and don't steal and nobody will come by and take away everything you worked for." I was wrong; but, still agree with the sentiment or at least the personal statement, don't be a cheater. You might lose everything; but, you won't lose your self-respect.

Life is a morality test, it is about defining yourself and what you really believe. Who and what are you is the question you answer in this life. Just like the show, "Who wants to be a Millionaire", you have to give your final answer, the one you will live by and die by, the one that truly defines you. The game is rigged and the questions are asked of the sheep who have not determined their answers yet. It is your only chance to define yourself anyways, ignorance is not an excuse when the question is about morality.

Nobody is perfect, we all make mistakes, what is your final answer? Mine is to pay off all the debt I was given, mine is to fade away into obscurity and to sleep a lot more. I like sleep.

On a side note, my lead Pastor, the brat, I asked him a question. I am very insecure about preaching, not about public speaking; but, about preaching. He told me that he believed our congregation was going to expand a lot, I told him I was not sure that I would feel comfortable. I told him I was felt better with a just a few members. I told the truth. He reads this but is not listed as a follower. He gave me a funny answer, he said that the way you knew that you were called to preach was simple, he said if you stopped doing it, you felt terrible, he set you felt a need to spread the word. I had to tell him the truth, I thought if I was lucky enough to move to slab city that I would probably preach on Sundays, I figure they don't have too many preachers there. He caught me, I guess I have to preach the word somewhere.

I don't feel I am a very good preacher, I preach like I write. An insane maniac, just trying to make it out the door; but, I have opinions and know what time it is. Sometimes I wish I could talk to Pastor Daniels and ask for her help, she had so much faith and I fear that I am weak and not ready for the task, I feel I am just winging it. I did not prepare to be a preacher, I prepared to be a bad man with a good reason. I prepared for the military. I thank God that he kept me out of it.

I don't care how much the government monitors me, they couldn't get it right if they had to, I grew up in it. I have been monitored my whole life and really, they are not as good at the game as I am. LOL. They learned from my daddy, the one that taught me. Morons. Only a complete and utter failure would fail to understand that he taught me more, I am his son.

The answer to absolute monitoring is absolute confusion, muddy the waters till there is nothing clear. Who wants to play? The government is a joke, the media is a lie, who you are is the question and only you have the answer. There are no shortcuts, who are you? I am me and one young lady knew it, everyone else was confused by who I am, they kept thinking I would take advantage of the system and what I knew, I never did. That is not who I am, let the games begin. That is a joke, the games began before they were ended, that it is how they should be played, the game is over before it has begun.

Okay, you got a long post and one that explained something, something about me and something about the economy, they are the same questions and the same answers. Here is the article you should read.

Chicago Tribune - United Feature Syndicate - Mortgage cops taking tough stance

Redistribution of Wealth

I have said and will continue to say that it does not matter who is elected President. I have no preference between dumb and dumber, they are both liars. Having said that, as between the two, Romney seems much more heartless and concerned only about himself.

I want to look a little deeper at something he recently said. He is reported to have said, "I think a society based upon a government centered nation where government plays a larger and larger role, redistributes money, that's the wrong course for America." The focus of government is not the redistribution of wealth; but, it is a natural consequence of any taxation. When you tax me and spend half of the money on the military, you have redistributed wealth and in favor of military spending. Who gets that money, his friends in the military industrial complex.

Redistribution of resources (wealth) goes on everyday, sometimes by choice (I choose to buy your product) and sometimes by force (I am taxed or threatened with a lack of basic services).

Lets be honest about things. We live in a nation where we are forced to go to school, you are forced to follow laws that you may not agree with, it is illegal to smoke Marijuana even if you are dying of cancer. If the government is going to force people to do certain things then they must give something back, like an assurance of having your basic needs met. He is not in favor of that and says so.

I don't really care about Romney, I am much more concerned about the sentiment because whether or not he wins, almost half of the voters agree with him. One kid is born to a nice middle class family, the parents are hard working and both lose their jobs because of the recession. The house gets foreclosed on and they end up on the street. The kids schooling suffers and his grades begin going down. What did the kid do to deserve that? That is the reality of what we are seeing right now. He talks about how these people feel entitled, is that the issue?

We love to tell the story about how the homeless black girl got into Harvard on a scholarship. It wasn't enough for her to be very good, she had to be the best. The rules are different if you have money, you don't have to be the best, you hire them. The game is rigged, lets at least admit that some people have advantages that they did not earn and others start the game already being penalized for nothing they did. I hope we can at least agree on that.

A pause. I know I haven't been writing a lot lately, I will try and pick up the pace. I also have a new comment that I have not posted or responded to, it is on a very old post regarding DMT, I will get to it; but, not tonight.

This nation is getting poorer and it is about to get worse. The pie is getting smaller, not larger. The question is how we will distribute what is left. That is truly the question and Romney believes that we should continue to take a higher percentage from the poor and a lower or same percentage from the wealthy. He calls the wealthy the job creators, well if that is what we are paying them for, they are doing a pretty bad job and need to be fired and replaced with people that actually create new jobs for this country. I am not saying Obama is that guy, they are all useless, I want to address the issues, not the people.

Should people who are willing to work go hungry when the "job creators" didn't do their job and create jobs? What is the average IQ, it is 100. Not too many businesses are started by people with a High School education and an IQ of 100, that is not the group we expect to create all the jobs and if it is then we are dumber than that. I suspect most people that are successful at creating companies have IQs over 100 and some training or education and an entrepreneurial attitude. Our nation raised people to be good employees not good entrepreneurs. We get what we teach and have no right to blame them for being raised to be good employees.

What is really going on is the change from an industrial economy that required many workers to a post-industrial economy that needs fewer employees. It is like the game you learned as a kid, musical chairs. We all start with a chair and one by one they are taken away by the teacher until there is one chain and one winner. Not quite right, there are two winners. The last one to get a chair and the teacher who gets all the rest. That is how the powers that be want the economy to be.

If you want a truly fair game then you would not allow the wealthy to hire tutors for their children, you would base the schools they go to based on their intelligence, you would make sure that all hires were blind and made with no regard to who you knew, merit only. This is of course never going to happen. That game is rigged and many of believe that is okay.

Is the game fair? It is not, it is not based on merit alone. If we truly wish a nation based on merit then we would not allow people to inherit money. The argument they use is a lie, the rich do not wish a government and society based on merit alone, they want one where the table is tilted and they get a head start, okay, lets just admit that.

If one does not believe in a redistribution of wealth based on merit, then what do they believe in? I think most of us want people to benefit in this world based on merit; but, that is that is not the system we have in place. We have a system that rewards you for who you know, think it doesn't? How is that fair or based on merit? Take a moment and think about this.

I believe we should reward effort and merit. I think we should reward honesty and not guile or who your mama slept with. That is the real issue we are addressing. It is not about the haves and have not's, it is about who should be rewarded and why. The media will not allow that discussion to occur. How poor shall we allow people to be? How much are we willing to give of what we get? Who are we as a nation?

Will you trade your neighbor starving to death for your guns? I am a Christian, I would trade my freedom so that others could eat. If you call yourself a Christian then I ask, would you? Put your money where your mouth is. What do you want this country to look like when we lose 10% of our wealth? How bout 20%? How will we treat one another, will we treat each other as Christian brothers and sisters?

We are looking to change public pensions, we are going to reward people for retiring young. It is not couched in those terms; but, that is the effect. I am good with that, I ready to go now. Why should we have those who actually care be penalized for sticking around? Why should we limit what public servants get for a pension if they choose to stick around, the one's that actually care and will work even when they could make more by retiring?

Here is how stupid we are. A guy does 30 years for the state and then does 30 years for a county. The state pays him his retirement and the county pays much less even after getting 30 years of contribution from him. LOL. I want to hire people that already have retirements from the government, odds are, they would collect any form the next government they work for. This is now being referred to as double dipping and it is a lie.

It is simple math, actuarials say it is cheaper to hire an older employee because he changes the odds of paying him to retire. He will not live as long. It is just math and common sense. Get it?