Blacklidge

Independent Foreclosure Review-Sample Letter

I just read this letter that I found on Facebook. Since the site suggested I use it if I had a need to write to my congresspeople, I figured it would be okay here. Our country is going through great upheavals now, due to the corrupt and greedy big banks and large companies that have been gradually taking over since Ronald Reagan set this all in motion. If you're not mad you sure as hell aren't paying attention. So far, we have dodged a bullet in the matter of the artificially inflated price we paid for our house, but reading this type of thing breaks my heart. 11 million people are in the same boat and that is just the number left over after several years of foreclosures have already been done. So, if you're a Repugnat, all of those folks and all of the remaining 11 million were just creeps trying to get something for nothing, right? Our country will be healing for a long, long time, once this sticky wicket is resolved, if it ever gets resolved.

Independent Foreclosure Review - PNC Mortgage

The following letter was attached to an independent foreclosure review form received eight months after completing a short-sale on a primary residence. The letter tells the story of an average professional who was forced to relocate in order to support his family. Feel free to use it for educational purposes. If you lost your home in a foreclosure, consider using it as an example to tell your story and  send it to the Senate and House banking committees, and your congressional representatives. There are more than three  million of these stories in America, according to the statistics. If all of us  take the time to present the facts  of our case, and present a virtual mountain  of testimony, perhaps they will take meaningful action.

To: Independent Review Administrator
From: Steven Peterson, Loan #0002009278
2015 Woodsong Way Lane, Belleville, IL, 62220
Date: 01/15/2012
Re: Independent Foreclosure Review

Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you for soliciting information regarding the foreclosure process initiated by PNC Mortgage on Loan #0002009278 for a property located at 103 Goldenrod, Bloomington, Illinois. This loan originated with National City Mortgage when I purchased the home in March of 2003 for $144,000. It was a standard loan (i.e., not a "sub-prime loan"), for a home that became my primary residence. I made all payments on time until September of 2009. National City was purchased by PNC Financial Services in October of 2008, and PNC Mortgage took over my loan following the purchase. Over a period of 6.5 years,
I sent in more than $92,000 in monthly payments on this loan.

As a result of the financial crisis of 2008, I was laid off from my professional position in Bloomington in July of 2009, and immediately applied for unemployment insurance and participation in the HAMP program. I also inquired about a home equity loan at this time, and was told that I had not accrued enough equity to qualify: my outstanding balance in July of 2009 was $133,000.

I accepted a professional position at SRA, Inc. in O�Fallon, Illinois in December of 2010, and immediately placed the house on the market at fair market price ($159,000).
I moved my family to Belleville, Illinois in January of 2010 and signed a rental agreement for the house we currently reside in. Over the next 14 months, we did not receive any offers on the property, despite the best efforts of our real estate agent.

In June of 2010, PNC Mortgage initiated foreclosure proceedings on the loan. The effort was complicated by an attempt to attach another debt collection effort to the proceeding. This additional debt was incurred by a woman in the Bloomington area that happens to have the same name as my wife, Diane Peterson. We notified PNC of the mistake, and their legal representatives re-filed the paperwork after establishing the additional debt was not, in fact, owed by my wife. In the summer of 2010, the attempt to attach this debt to the foreclosure was renewed, and we repeated the effort to remove this collection from the proceeding with PNC legal representatives. The paperwork was re-filed, and a foreclosure date was set for March of 2011.

Approximately two weeks before the expected foreclosure date, we received a short-sale offer of $126,000 from the current owner of the property. It was the only offer of any kind we received in the sale process, and we had little choice but to accept the offer. PNC Mortgage also accepted the offer, and the sale was completed in April of 2011. I received a $750 check following closure, and a negative entry on my credit report.

In the Request for Review form, I am asked to "describe any other way I believe that I may have been financially injured as a result of the mortgage foreclosure process." In addition to $92,000 in monthly mortgage payments, I also invested more than $10,000 in improvements to the property: we replaced the central a/c unit, windows, a sump pump, the dishwasher, and painted the interior of the house after moving. This property was, and remains a desirable home in a good location. Prior to the housing collapse in 2008, it would have sold in a very short period of time at a premium price. When we purchased the home, it was considered a wise move by our peers. It was modestly priced, well within our price range -- my income at the time was $65,000 a year, and my position was very stable until the 2008 crash -- and we had every reason to expect a reasonable return on our investment.

PNC Mortgage realized a return of $202,000 ($92,000 in payments and $110,000 in net proceeds from the sale) on a $144.000 loan over a period of eight years. Their interest, or net profit on the loan totaled $58,000, less administrative costs. The current owner of the property purchased a home valued at $159,000 for $126,000, gaining $33,000 in equity. Given the nature of the market, some or all of that $33,000 in equity may not be realized for some time, however. The $750 I received after the close of the sale represents my entire return on a $102,000 investment. When you ask if I may have been financially injured as a result of the mortgage foreclosure process, it is hard to take the question seriously. My entire life savings, and my credit, were destroyed.

I am confident that the foreclosure process itself was performed in a legal fashion. The HAMP program offered no assistance to those of us forced to relocate -- we were left to the mercy of a free market that is largely deregulated. It is now legal for the mortgage lenders, and those who are able to purchase homes, to strip all equity from another homeowner without any consideration for the material or social cost to our culture.

With the benefit of hindsight, I now understand that I should have taken more time to consider the conditions of the mortgage loan I signed. Before accepting the provisions of the loan, I should have performed the calculations required to identify how long it would take to accrue any equity, and negotiated for better terms. It is hard to accept the fact that the terms of a standard mortgage are defined in such a manner, and the consumer is just expected to live with the inequitable nature of such a common business proposition.

After my experience with PNC Mortgage, it is highly unlikely that I would ever agree to the terms of any "normal" mortgage again. I have accepted the fact that home ownership is no longer an option for anyone outside of the top income brackets in this country, and have learned not to trust any of my fellow citizens to act in a moral or ethical fashion in a deregulated market. It is too much to expect people to show mercy or respect if they are left to their own devices in a virtual shark tank.

I do recognize that PNC Mortgage is not responsible for the collapse of the housing market in 2007, or the economy in 2008. The largest banks in this country, including Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, and a host of others (including AIG and Lehman Bros) acted in a manner that set the stage for the collapse and my personal misfortune. When I placed my house on the market, there were at least twelve other, newer homes valued at over $300,000 that were available for around the same price point as my fifteen year old, modest house. PNC Mortgage did not create this condition, it simply did its best to realize the greatest return on its investment that it could within the letter of the law.

As I raise my three daughters, I will do my best to prepare them for life in our new economic order. I will ask them to read "The Leviathan" by Thomas Hobbes and "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding before I introduce them to the ideas of Mr. Keynes and Milton Friedman. Explaining the reasons for the upheaval in their young lives has given me the greatest challenge of my life as a parent, and it is my goal to send them into the world with an understanding of the social and economic philosophies that are at such odds with the moral and ethical foundation our country was built on.

When I teach my children, the current practices of the lending industry will make it easy to illustrate the difference between the sacred and the profane, to differentiate between the broken promise of a social contract and the reality of a deregulated free market they must live in. While I may have no legal recourse to address my economic loss, I still retain my First Amendment rights to publish my story, to place this letter in the public domain for all to use as an object lesson for their children. I will seek no profit from this story, and any who wish to use it for educational purposes are free to use it in any way they see fit. I also invite our political leaders to introduce this letter as testimony when considering issues of regulatory oversight and legislative action.

 

CC: Tim Johnson, Richard C. Shelby, Mark Kirk
U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
534 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Spencer Bachus, Jeb Hensarling, Barney Frank
Luis Gutierrez, Donald A. Manzullo, Judy Biggert
House Committee on Financial Services
2129 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

James E. Rohr, Joseph C. Guyaux, Robert F. Hoyt, Helen P. Pudlin
PNC Mortgage
249 Fifth Avenue
One PNC Plaza
Pittsburgh, PA 15222

Gary S. Becker
The Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics
c/o The Department of Economics
1126 E. 59th Street
Chicago, IL 60637

 

 

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Cooper Hawk, my new backyard pet

 

 

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Love to look at him, but of course, as a cat owner, he is mighty scary!

Thanksgiving 2011

Had a nice holiday this year. No cooking, no stress. We had a mini vacation to Phoenix, almost a "stay-cation" since it's only a couple of hours from home. First for some grub, we went to the Scottsdale Plaza for their brunch. Nice place, nice spread. Stuffed. Now, on to our final destination for the night, the Arizona Biltmore. No, we didn't find a pot of money somewhere, we had a free nights stay due to a talent contest my husband won last Christmas. Beautiful place, it's been there since the twenties and there are pictures all over of the famous people who have stayed there over the years. When it was built there was absolutely nothing around it for miles in any direction. Now, it is closed in with extravagant homes and fancy places. Anyway, we had a peaceful night and headed out in the morning for the Museum of Musical Instruments. This is a world class museum that has been getting lots of press since it opened and there were lots of visitors there.

Sunset from the Wrigley Mansion, right up the hill from the Biltmore.

Sprites, two of many in the gardens of the hotel.

At the museum, one of many scary details included along with audio and video and actual instruments.

See all of the pictures we took in the album at the right of the screen.

How to Fix the Housing Market Now!

I hate to be a nag, Mr. President. Truth is, I think you're missing the whole point of the housing crisis in America. Your banker friends, the Congress' banker friends and the Senate's banker friends need some direction here. Lowering the interest rate is all fine and good but if a person has half a brain, the interest is as low as it needs to be. It's the principal, stupid. Yes, those nasty, immoral bankers need to find a place to put all those billions,(and billions and billions) that they won't loan out. I suggest they be forced to look at each loan they have on their books and adjust the mortgage to the correct value. In fact, they shouldn't be the ones to analyze these loans, a bunch of regular folks should be in charge of this project. Okay, so now get started . That is the only thing that is going to make a dent in the whole dark shadow of "Mortgage America". If you have a loan for two hundred grand on a house worth 125k, zip! Off the top it goes. If the banks did this outlandish thing, it wouldn't even come close to the stash they have in their coffers. If they did it all day, every day for months there would still be money left for them and their evil spawn to enjoy. So, take my advice and get started on the project. maybe you could hire me to set it all up. Okay, maybe not, but still, you've got people. All this pussy footing around and half ass measures aren't going to do it. Too little, too late.

Occupy Tucson, October 15th, 2011....We are the 99%

So I went downtown today, early, to participate in Tucson's version of Occupy Wallstreet. Lots of folks turned out, not as many as I had hoped. Seems the activities were sort of staggered throughout the day so maybe it'll be better later today. At any rate, I took lots of photos to share. It is not often in America today that we have the opportunity to be part of the process and I really enjoyed the morning. As you look at the photos, note the ages involved. Nowhere did I see one particular age group or particular socio-economic group with large numbers. The variety was amazing.

All of those right wingers who say we're a bunch of hippies needs to visit one of these rallies. 

More pictures here,just click on the little ones.

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Olbermann vs O'Donnell

I've been a big fan of Olbermann for some time but lately, he has started to get on my nerves in a big way. Maybe MSNBC fired him or maybe he quit but one thing for sure, his ego is a bit out of hand. The smirk he wears is almost out of control and he acts like his extreme opinion is the only one that could possible be half way valid. Tonight I flipped back and forth between thetwo, and granted, O'Donnell doesn't have the gravitas, but he seems much more even than Olbermann. Olbermann is on vacation or something, but his hand is in there, you can tell. Another thing is how the polls are slanted. O'Donnell is sure that these polls that come up almost daily are  still running in favor of the president. Olbermann's reports are a lot more pessimistic about the subject and until today, I thought they were against the president because of the reporting on his channel. So, maybe things aren't so dire as I have been thinking. Maybe there is hope left in the world. If Olbermann, a noted lefty, is predicting doom and gloom, he can only hurt the reelection campaign. We can't afford to think we're skating on thin ice. Let Faux news talk bad about our chances, let's try to keep our own side in an upbeat frame of mind. Maybe some folks have jumped ship but, let's just face it, if Obama doesn't win again, we are going to have a weirdo, nutso right winger back in charge of our country.  We've all seen what happens when one of them is in, and the last one of them wasn't even considered a weirdo or even a nutso. Evil, stupid, easily led maybe, but not a weirdo. So, Olbermann, keep your negativity out of it. We need forward movement with an eye toward reelection of Obama not you helping the weirdos with their evil plots.

Reality of "Upside Down" Mortgages

The reality of "upside down" mortgages in America today is one that everyone lives with.  As for the big banks and mortgage companies with their pathetic, too little, too late loan “modifications”. They need get up off their big, fat piles of money and not modify the payments and interest rates, but adjust the values of the homes that they jacked up. I do not say the government should handle this, except to force their friends, the fat cat banks, to actually do it. Why should we pay again for letting our world be screwed up? Make no mistake, the banks, mortgage brokers and wall street people did mess up our economy with the help of our friendly, elected officials.
Maybe some people don’t want to move but they don’t want to pay some huge, over inflated payment on a house that may neverregain the value it was purchased for, especially since they could rent one down the street for a fraction of the monthly amount or buy one just like it next door for $100,000 less.  The next trend will be for more and more people to just walk away, after first pre-qualifying for a nice, new home somewhere else. The new house will priced like it should be and should have been. I have spoken to a dozen people lately who see this as their only option, some after months of trying to get some little, piddly modification.  
People will do what they have to for their families and after this is all over, the norms of our society may just be a bit adjusted to a new reality. The stigmas of financial failures will not be quite what they once were.   
Add this new dynamic of homeowners to the current pile of foreclosures and what are going to have? A whole lot more empty houses. The banks aren’t too worried about that, though. They are bundling their repos into nice packages and selling them to, in some cases overseas (read Chinese) companies to be sold at rock bottom prices. Oh, yeah, the banks win again.

 We had to take Lola down to the vet on Wednesday, for the last time. She was so sweet and trusting, it was a heartbreaking thing. She was 13 1/2 and she wasn't doing well. All good and well to say that you did the best thing, still heartbreaking.

Losing your dog is hard, but the day it happens isn't the only painful day. For a long time afterwards, it's the thoughts that run through your head each day that cause such grief. Stepping wide around a spot in the floor where she always lay, waiting for you. The thought that, when you get the eggs out to make breakfast that you'll make an extra one for her. The way the cats sort of sit around, wondering what is going on. The worry of hurrying home to feed her, then realizing that that isn't really a problem.

Some people can't understand how much a pet affects your life, but those people may find out some day. Or not. I've known people who came into a pet late in life and cared even more for their pets, almost as if making up for years of lost love and affection. This was the fourth dog that I have had to "put to sleep" in my adult life and it just doesn't get any easier. It makes you wonder if it's worth it. For a while. Then some wriggly, little person shows up and steals your heart and makes you feel glad again. (Yes, person).

RIP, Lola. Keep an eye out for Iris and Ozzy. We miss you all.

Friends

 
I received an email today, just your regular, ordinary, generic email from an older relative. It sort of hit me where I live these days. Usually I blow this sort of email off in a hurry but this one really made me think. It said that people come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime and when you know which category they fit into, you will know what to do for that person. An interesting thought and, looking back, I can sort of see where some of the people in my past have fit in. I used to move all over the place when I was little and as a result, I make friends really fast in most situations. When I was younger, knowing that the next move was coming up, I usually broke off my friendships. It didn't do me any good to have a friend a thousand miles away, back in the days of high cost for long distance phone calls and also, I knew I would never go back to see them. As a child, I didn't have any way to get back to the last place. Once I got grown, I seemed to keep to that pattern.

So, now that I am middle aged, how can the philosophy of that email relate to me? Well, I don't move around like I used to but I have moved some. I have accumulated friends here and there. Some I recognize as lifelong friends, some I know immediately that they will not be there as the years roll on. Then there are the few who I thought would be one of the life long ones who for some reason slip away. Those are the ones who stick out in my mind the most but I have learned that they were there when I needed them or when they needed me, and now it is time for them to fall away.

Either this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an
end or I will. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. 
Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand. Sometimes they feel like I have acted up and they must take a stand.

What I must realize is that my need has been met and I need to move on and find some way to reconcile myself to the happy memories, the good times and hope that my friend does not go bitterly or with bad thoughts, either.

I have no fear that I will not make more friends and I have so many wonderful memories of the good times I have had with all of my current friends and ones that have faded away. I think it is true that most people have never had half as many friends as I have had over the years and few have as many "keepers" as I.

To the ones who went away, "Goodbye, Friend, think of me now and again and hopefully the good times we had will overshadow the one parting scene we had." I'm here, I'll be here or somewhere easy to find me, no worries but I won't be expecting your call.

 

 

So Where Is Jimmy Stewart When You Need Him?

On one of my afternoon walks last week, I ran across this guy. He's a big boy, eh? AKA, Black Tailed Jackrabbit. Also, some cactus shots.

 

 

 

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