Source: Letters to Leaders – Congress.org
To:
President Barack Obama
January 17, 2010
President Obama, Sir –
This is a very complex issue, but please read it all.
Please disband MERS/Members immediately for collusion, racketeering, tax evasion and antitrust violations. Please return America’s 234-yrs history of local and state tax revenues and our economics will re-stabilize. Original document PAPER, transfers and Chain-of-Title are at issue for $millions in local revenue lost since MERS was formed, to supposedly save them a few dollars and “never pay another transfer or recording fee” per their website. 9/11/01 tragic invasion of our eminent domain didn’t ruin our economy as bad as has MERS and its fraud.
MERS is a StrawMan Shell-Game, as their Members shuffle electronic semantics of lender, servicer and beneficiary, and MERS never is any of these nor ever accepts Title or exchanges moneys (MERS Rule 8 & 9: in WI a mortgage is a money exchange not a credit to be sold and resold 30x behind the scenes. MERS is the true devil behind our USA economic crisis now. Sir, I called you in December and spoke with Ms. Hope of Russ Feingold’s office about this huge issue: she agreed MERS has no legal standing to foreclose and loans aren’t modified because FHA insurance and bailout money has paid delinquencies to ‘servicers’ pretending to be true lenders holding physical original ink-signed NOTES to homes to begin foreclosures.
Local judiciary are too busy to learn individually about MERS and how it costs local counties and states tex revenue of $Millions on transfer and recording fees, and Eminent Domain 1970 Uniform Act law is clear that once these lending institutions accepted federal funding they are now acting as co-condemnors of homeowners properties with the Gov’t thus due process, 2-appraisal, relocation and substitute fair market value/use equivalence at condemnor’s expense ONLY AFTER public need for the project is researched and proven valid (financial institutions precluded this law, accpteding the money first and hiding the PAPER trail! Uniform Act, etc must be enforced on them to stop the foreclosure mess NOW. States never approved this MERS StrawMan Shell-Game, created by former CITI/Countrywide execs to capitalize on ease-of-security sales and hidden investors to then come into our local courts before very busy real-estate-MERS-naive judges and claim they lost these #1 most important 2-page docs and they ask judges to reinstate them so they can foreclose on homes they profitted sometimes 30x property loan value (not current market corrected) then leave Clouded Title which means any party really possessing the ink-signed Original Note can come after the borrower even after they lose their home for that debt!
This issue of Eminent Domain is a very powerful tool in your arsenal vs. abusive lenders, President Obama. I’ve written to Marlin Schneider my State Representative and spoken with Russ Feingold’s case worker Ms. Hope 12-09 re: SunTrust abuse of your MHA and H4H and HAMP programs to assist in this regard. The current questions and answers being proferred on Capital Hill and given to the Thrift and Reserve do not address this at all … they’re missing the boat completely in stopping MERS in its tracks as a pretender lender, or as some Beneficiary when it is an electronic service only, its Rules 8 & 9 prohibit it’s liability on Title or acts of foreclosure on its part and its handles no money nor exchanges no loans, it only serves them to evade local & State tax revenue of transfer and assignment recording fees thus I welcome your call to me and have asked Marlin Schneider to arrange a meeting with Russ Feingold and Gov Doyle to address this matter very soon … at your convenience, Sir. I have applied to DHS and FDIC to get at these issues from a citizen standpoint and 30-yr R/W appraiser and site acquisition specialist working mainly with WisDOT, MnDOT, OR Colan, PacBell, Crown Castle Int’l, ENGlobal. John Mack, Morgan Stanley chaire testified on Wednesday that the documents and availability to them are where we are lacking … so he should have no problem as MERS & Members don’t save $30-$60 recording fees while they’ve made $Billions and collapsed local and State tax revenues from the same, the internally shuffle electronic docs to foreclose on people who worked all their lives for their American Dream … HomeOwnership … and ask for the teacher to replace their ‘lost homework’ of the Original Note. Produce the Note, or no foreclosures, period! For 166-yrs WI has recorded Chain-of-Title, so when we need to build a road or condemn for essential utilities we do not harm the property owner per 1970 Uniform Act. So many TILA, FACTA, RESPA, UCC-3, ADAP, and other violations are being able to continue to defraud our economy. Bill Thomas VP of FCIC (I applied to them, DHS and FDIC) said we need simple language clarity … therein is where MERS is playing semantic games, shuffling the Shell behind the guise of them as StrawMan. MERS has now ordered Wells Fargo to only use it’s pre-approved appraisers … since when does a small $11M/year electronic system tell States and Fed they won’t abide by our regulation and licensing, refusing tax?!
PS – Happy Birthday to your wife.
Wisconsin Rapids , WI
4closureFraud
https://4closurefraud.org/
My own case of “Wrongful Foreclosure ” is against MortgageITthat was owned by Deutsche Bank, IndyMac, which was negoeticaited by FDIC to OneWest, George Soros. All of the upbove is very possible. Iam hopful I can Make George Soros qualified for Obamas foodstamps.
I want to tell you all a little story. The story begins, as all American dreams do, with unfettered hope and belief, but has, over time, become a nightmare from the darkest recesses of our national psyche. This is not a fairy tale, and I beg you to see yourself in our heroine; for you could find yourself in her shoes very soon. And I promise you that that is not a place you want to be. But read on, and judge the veracity of my words for yourself.
I have been in the mortgage industry for almost a decade, and have seen my share of the ugly side of lending: the foreclosures, the forgotten families, and the greedy, heartless, faceless “holder of the note” gone wild. I have experienced all of this more times than I care to admit, and have been ashamed of my industry more times than I care to count, but the borrower I wish to tell you of was the reason I broke into this business in the first place. People like her, hard-working, honest Americans, are the ones a broker like myself looks for day and night, and strives to take care of in whatever capacity we are capable of.
Why you ask? What makes her so special? There are many answers to these questions, and the easy answer would be that she perfectly fit the mold we in the business look for. She had been employed for 22 years with the same corporation, and had managed to pay every liability on time for her entire adult life. No late payments, no missed payments, and nothing at all to indicate that she would ever change. Her credit score was 780, and she had owned a home for 10 years in Miami Beach (an expensive place to buy). This showed unequivocally that she understood liability, and knew how to get things done in the lending market. In short, she was a lender’s dream come true. A loan you approve and forget about because the payments are always in on time, and so, as a lender, you just count money for 30 years. What could be better from our point of view than that? Every lender in the world will tell you the answer to that question is nothing; absolutely nothing.
This lady decided to move to Chicago to be closer to her corporate office, so she sold her home in Miami and took her dreams and possessions north to Chicago. This took place in 2006 while the housing bubble was still growing larger, and no one outside of the industry had any expectation that it may burst at any time. She did her due diligence while looking for a home in the Chicago area, and eventually settled on a brand new property in an area ripe for gentrification. Basically, she bought in an older neighborhood that was undergoing massive urban renewal projects that were projected to raise property values in her area significantly; as long as there was no unforeseen disaster looming. That is the danger of things unforeseen. They eventually come to pass, and no one is prepared to combat them.
She started with an Interest-Only Loan as at that time it made more sense to use her principal money on personal investments rather than giving it to a lender to make decisions with. Even though interest rates were high at the time, IO rates slightly higher than fixed, she was able to get the property for almost $75K less than it initially appraised for, so she was already ahead of the game. She maintained her perfect history, 0x30 on her mortgage, and everything else for that matter, but that was before the wise and powerful bankers in America decided to play 3-Card Monty with America’s future.
As the signs of the encroaching financial apocalypse began to show themselves, she attempted, through her lender, to pursue refinancing, but was told her case called for the loan modification process. The press was making a fuss about how these modifications were the way for borrowers to get the help they needed to stay afloat in the carnage that followed the bubble bursting, and as an intelligent and savvy borrower with a perfect history she expected the process to go smoothly for her. In that assumption, she would have been right if not for the new credit card laws passed that allowed the companies to raise their interest rates and reduce the line of credit available on any given card. These changes have had an enormous, unintended consequence in the lending world since loans are in large part based on debt-to-income (DTI) ratios.
Imagine this borrower has a credit line of $10K on a card with only a $2K balance, but is then targeted by the credit card company for a reduced credit line of say $2500, so her 20% balance has now become 80% without her actually doing anything irresponsible. Yet, when lenders looked at her DTI they would see that she is nearly maxed out on her card, and in this industry that is a major red flag. She understood DTI, and how it could affect her ability to qualify for extra money (even though she did nothing untoward or rash in terms of spending), but why should that hamper her from getting a reduced rate? It is asinine to ask a person to re-qualify for something they already have, or to tell them they must qualify to save money, but this is what is happening in America today. She signed no agreement stating she could not refinance in the future with the help of her lender, so all she is left with are questions. Questions that for her and the millions like her, unfortunately, have no good answers. The American Dream, for this model American, is quickly becoming the American Nightmare.
There are so many questions our borrower wants to ask, but there are no phone lines to call or government offices to visit with any answer other than, “talk to the lender”. This is just endless runaround from the lender, and more and more frustration for her and her family. How is it possible to be locked into a loan, with bankruptcy laws so much tougher, and have absolutely no way to refinance? More transparency in the industry is great, but how can our borrowers appease the credit companies interest hikes while losing equity in their property due to the housing catastrophe and still meet the necessary financial obligations they agreed to prior to this meltdown? This is a recipe for mass bankruptcy and foreclosure; two things that hurt us all in the long run.
It was March of 2009 when our borrower started the conversation about refinancing with her current mortgage company, Indy Mac, from the 7.625% IO-Loan to a 4.5% fixed rate. They explained to her that she would need to print out a new financial packet, and send it, along with all other pertinent information, in to be reviewed before they could proceed; she did just that. After an entire month had passed, she called in to check the status of her application, and was told that the servicing company, Indy Mac, was changing hands, but she would still be taken care of by the new investor, One West.
Just like that, she and thousands of other customers were being sold to the highest bidder, and after some research she discovered that One West actually only paid up to far less than full value for these notes. It gets better. One West actually had the federal government guarantee them anything lost over a certain percentage. What does this mean you ask? All the numbers are there in black and white on the internet for anyone to see; but no one looks. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to see that it would be more profitable to foreclose quickly and collect the guaranteed funds than to refinance the borrower’s note at a current market rate.
The changing of the servicer of her note, as unsettling as it was, would have been fine if not for the dramatic change in guidelines and customer service she experienced. This often happens after a change of this magnitude in any business field, but these differences were downright ridiculous. She was informed that the financial packet she had sent was no longer valid, so she would have to assemble another one before any process could begin. So, once again she followed procedure in hopes of capturing that elusive lower interest rate.
She waited and waited for a call to inform her of the status of her newest application, and finally tried calling herself to enquire; but to no avail. Her calls were treated as a joke. They repetitiously asked for the same documents, and even claimed after three business days that they had never received her fax, and that it took all that time to verify whether or not they had received her documentation. They have done this over 50 times from March of 2009 to the present day! That is preposterous, shameful, and ought to be criminal! But it gets better; or worse for our heroine.
After calling repeatedly for three months she finally got them to look at her application. They told our borrower that the check stubs submitted were out of date according to Fannie Mae guidelines (must be less than 90 days old), but when she remedied that they told our borrower that her check stubs were fraudulent. Check stubs from one of the three largest airlines in the world which she has worked with for more than 20 years by the way. They focused on some minutiae that they knew to be nothing, but she was forced to get a complete employment record from her employer to along with a Letter of Explanation (LOX) from her Human Resources department. This process has stretched into years with no results. She was even told that the best way to get help is to be late on her mortgage payments! Imagine that. It has become so bad that when she follows up on any fax or correspondence they claim she has never talked to anyone about her issue, and when she asked about recording the conversation she was told it was against their policy. I am not making this up. Every word is true and to the point, and the point is that One West and Indy Mac, Fannie Mae and the federal government are fleecing, and failing we the people.
This is dangerous and uncontrolled corporate behavior, and it cannot be allowed to continue. One West has become the poster child for what is wrong with this industry; what is wrong with America in fact. In my humble opinion (and that of thousands of other Americans…not to mention all the honest lenders in the industry), they have pulled out all the stops when it comes to delaying and deceiving their customers in order to get a government handout and make a dishonest buck. This must not be allowed to stand.
Help her. She has asked again and again, and researched every option. She can’t refinance due to not having value. She can’t modify because it’s not profitable to the lender to do so, and she can’t walk away as her state won’t allow this. Why I ask myself? Is it considered walking away if you have no more options? Why is it easier to profit from bad deals than good ones? There is no hope for this borrower that she can see. The only hope I can think of is a Federal Reserve for primary borrowers in America. By that, I mean the feds open the vaults to primary homeowners at a specific rate, and work directly with the borrowers from a federal standpoint. Cut the banks out. Let them focus on commercial deals and second homes where the rates are higher and people know what they are getting into from day one. I do not think these customers’ closing paperwork said anything about having to stay in one rate for thirty years. Do you know anyone on record in today’s environment that can say they stayed in their home for thirty years at the same rate? I don’t think that is even possible. Please share…
Here are some sites that clearly have people in the same situation, read, educate, follow and post, let’s start the revolt against One West/ Indy Mac and Fannie Mae.
Go to Google, You-tube or any engine for that matter and type class action Indy Mac, Type Complaints Indy Mac/ One West; you will see firsthand what we are all up against.
Great article. Keep up the good fight in this war on foreclosure!
Steve Vondran
Arizona and California Foreclosure Defense Lawyer
Phone (877) 276-5084
DEAR OBAMA
THIS YOUR TIME TO SHINE ON THIS TRUTH OF ALL TRUTHS AND IS CRIME FOR ALL THE HARDSHIPS & BREAKING OF FAMILIES, THE NEIGHBORHOODS. I KNOW OF LADY IN WATTS, SHE TRYING TO DEAL THE LENDER & SHE IS OUT OF HER HOME. KIDS ARE EVERYWHERE EXCEPT TOGETHER.
I THANK GOD I’M STILL IN MY HOME BUT NEED HELP MY CASE IS SIMILAR TO CHEN CASE, SAME LENDERS ETC.
OBAMA IF YOU CAN DO ANYTHING PUT A FREEZE ON ALL WHO HAVE REGISTERED COMPLAINTS/COMPLEX/BKS & LET KNOW ONE LOSE THEIR HOME BUT ORDER THE TITLES BACK TO THE PEOPLE, CLEAR & FREE.
THIS NATION NEEDS TO BE FREE OF THIS OPPRESSIVE DRAGON, THIS TERRORISM IN THE FIRST DEGREE. PEOPLE WHO HAVE LOST THEIR HOMES UNDER THIS AB– USE NEED A RECALL.
LET THE TRUTH PREVAIL,
ANGELA SUTTON
I hope he will
if a lot of people write him about it
Good job please keep working on this issue don’t give up
GOOD WORK!!!
Great letter! I wonder if he’ll ever read it.